NEW YORK – With crude oil prices already near record levels, Hurricane Katrina (search) targeted the heart of America's oil and refinery operations Sunday, shutting down an estimated 1 million barrels of refining capacity and sharply curbing offshore production in the region.
It is an area crucial to the nation's energy infrastructure — offshore oil and gas production, import terminals, pipeline networks and numerous refining operations throughout southern Louisiana and Mississippi.
The impact was immediate Sunday night when electronic trading resumed on the New York Mercantile Exchange (search), as crude oil futures spiked $4.50 per barrel, putting the cost above $70 for the first time since oil began trading there in 1983.
The Category 5 storm was still churning in the Gulf of Mexico but was on a path to hit New Orleans early Monday.
Last September, Hurricane Ivan (search) also swept across the region causing heavy damage and reducing the region's output for months.
Oil companies evacuated workers and shut down more than 600,000 barrels of daily production in the Gulf. Refiners closed down more than 1 million barrels of refining output by Sunday, but that amount could be higher because not every producer reports data, said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst with Cameron Hanover.
"This is the big one," he said. "This is unmitigated, bad news for consumers."
Gasoline futures soared more than 20 cents per gallon, above $2.12 per gallon, and natural gas was up $2.20 per 1,000 cubic feet in the opening minutes of trade. The "out of control" buying is spurred by the prospect that the region's numerous refineries could be idled for weeks by flooding, power outages, or both, Beutel said.
The U.S. has ample crude oil supplies, even if major hurricane destruction trims Gulf oil output and foreign imports, but refining capacity is extraordinarily tight. As a result, prices for gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel and other products have flirted with records and could go even higher this week.
"If this thing knocks out significant quantities of refining capacity ... we're going to be in deep, dark trouble," said Ed Silliere, vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York.
The market has been on edge for months, with traders and speculators buying on the slightest fear. With Katrina, all those fears could be realized, Beutel said.
"Basically I could spill a can of oil at my local gas station and you'd see the price of crude go up by $1 per barrel," he said.
Crude settled at $66.13 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.36 after hitting $68 last week.
On Friday, Katrina had been expected to be inconsequential to the energy industry, with many traders selling. That all changed Saturday, when the system gained power and charged west, directly toward areas of offshore oil production.
ChevronTexaco Corp. completed evacuations of all workers in the eastern and central Gulf of Mexico and nonessential workers in the western Gulf late Saturday, company spokesman Matt Carmichael said.
Chevron has about 2,100 employees and contractors working in the Gulf, Carmichael said. Chevron will continue to produce 90 percent of its normal production by remote as long as weather cooperates, he said.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which processes loads from tankers too large for mainland ports, evacuated all workers and stopped unloading ships on Saturday morning said Mark Bugg, the terminal's manager of scheduling. The LOOP, 20 miles offshore, is the nation's largest oil import terminal and handles 11 percent of U.S. oil imports.
Royal Dutch-Shell Group evacuated more than 1,000 offshore workers by Saturday. Only those in the far west remained, the company said on its Web site. BP PLC and ExxonMobil Corp. also brought workers ashore Saturday.
Shell estimated 420,000 barrels of oil and 1.35 million cubic feet of gas per day will be shut in at its central and eastern Gulf facilities. Exxon Mobil said it has ceased daily production of 3,000 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of gas.
Valero Energy Corp. evacuated all but a few workers at its 260,000-barrel-a-day St. Charles refinery on Saturday. Murphy Oil Corp. also shut down its 120,000-barrel-a-day Meraux, La., refinery, and Exxon Mobil Corp. planned to shut down its 183,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Chalmette, La.
Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., began implementing hurricane contingency plans at its 225,000-barrel-a-day Norco refinery on Saturday. Motiva also was exploring contingencies for its 235,000-barrel-a-day Convent refinery, about 45 miles west of New Orleans, Dow Jones Newswires reported.


Beyonce Soap Opera with Meg Ryan and Adam Scott on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
James Corden has made it perfectly clear that he loves Beyoncé. But on Monday night (Sept. 12) he proved it once again by asking guests Meg Ryan and Adam Scott to indulge his Bey jones by performing in a Late Late Show sketch he dubbed "The Bold and the Lyrical." Spoiler alert: all the dialogue came from Beyoncé (and Destiny's Child) lyrics. It sounds weird and wonderful, and that's exactly what it was.


BATON ROUGE, La. – Across this city, shocked residents have gathered in churches and at community vigils to pray for the law enforcement community and the three officers who were slain in an ambush by a gunman.
Arrangements for 45-year-old Brad Garafola, an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy and a father of four, have not been made public.
The officers lived in the area of Denham Springs, a quiet bedroom community across the Amite River from Baton Rouge, which has been in turmoil for two weeks. Tensions rose sharply after the death of Alton Sterling, 37, a black man killed by white Baton Rouge officers after a scuffle at a convenience store. The killing was captured on cellphone video.
As the nation debates race and policing, this community of about 10,000 is mourning three of its sons — all husbands and fathers described by friends as being committed to protecting and serving the public.
Garafola and Gerald were white. Jackson was black, as was the gunman. Three other officers were wounded. One of them, Deputy Nicholas Tullier, was in critical condition. The gunman was killed at the scene.
Gerald was a Marine from 1994 to 1998. He later joined the Army and served as a decorated soldier from 2002 to 2009, including three tours in Iraq. He will be buried at the Louisiana National Cemetery for veterans.
Ryan Cabral served with Gerald on a helicopter crew in Iraq.
"Like most other police officers, they go where they're needed," said Cabral, an Army veteran and police officer in Temple, Texas. "They know what the dangers are, but that's how they're made. They're made to serve."
Jackson's father-in-law, Lonnie Jordan, called him a "gentle giant" — tall and stout and formidable looking, but with a peaceful disposition. Jordan said his son-in-law had been working long hours since Sterling was killed.
Sgt. Gerald Parker, a close friend, described him as a "jack of all trades" who enjoyed helping people in his neighborhood, like mending their fences or mowing their lawns.
"All these officers are heroes. Some people would run. But these gentlemen leave their families knowing something can happen," Parker said.


Handlers of the national Under 17 soccer team, the Black Starlets are reeling under intense pressure from all manner of scouts, guardians, parents as well as football agents seeking places in the team for their wards and players.
The lobbying for places, now almost a daily affair, has so overwhelmed the handlers that head coach David Duncan yesterday instituted measures to stem the heckling, and as he put it, "enable the technical team build a strong team."
He told the Soccer Express yesterday that henceforth, his team would not entertain any advances from any quarters seeking to foist any player on the Starlets. Duncan said even though major exercises to recruit the best of talents into the Starlets have been completed, there could be other equally good potentials yet to be spotted and as such would keep the doors to the Starlets camp open to accommodate them.
However, he said the only way such players would be observed for consideration would be by a standard procedure where videotapes of those players featuring in competitive matches would be forwarded to the Starlets camp and lodged with Mr. Richard Asare, the Welfare Officer.
The tape must be accompanied by a sticker indicating the player's name and date of birth as well as a contact number or address to facilitate communication should technical hands recommend the player's recruitment or find need to get in touch with him.
The coach advised that anyone who flouts this simple procedure and leads any player into the Starlets camp without any invitation whatsoever, risks being embarrassed since "the player would be sent packing home with the next available means of transport and without hesitation."
He said the team would begin camping on June 15, and appealed to all who feel strongly that a player yet to be invited or spotted deserves a place in the team to avoid physically leading the players to the handlers but rather submit the tape recording to the Welfare Officer for immediate attention.


Veronica Burton attacks the basket. The freshman guard struggled in NU’s loss Thursday.
With just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter, junior forward Abi Scheid hit her first basket of the game. Unfortunately for Northwestern, the shot was its first basket of the game as well.
Scheid’s basket cut No. 10 Maryland’s lead to 15-5 but, before that, the Wildcats (14-9, 7-5 Big Ten) were 0-for-12 from the field and their only points came from three free throws from senior center Pallas Kuniayi-Akpanah.
Following the titanic struggles of the offense, NU lost 72-57 to the Terrapins (21-2, 10-2) on Thursday.
By the end of the first half, the team had shot 6-for-30 from the field and had as many made free throws as field goals. The second half was a different story offensively for the Cats, but Maryland and its steady offensive attack pulled away for the decisive victory.
The Terrapins and NU are statistically two of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten. Heading into the game, the Cats were the top-ranked scoring defense in the Big Ten, giving up just 57.5 points per game. Maryland, on the other hand, was fifth in the Big Ten with 65 points per game.
Both teams played tough defense in the first few minutes of the game in different ways, with Maryland playing man-to-man while NU came out in a 2-3 zone. With 5:46 remaining in the first quarter, the Cats and Maryland had combined to score just seven points. But then the opposition started to find its rhythm, jumping out to a 14-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, NU continued to struggle from the field and the Terrapins extended their lead to 21 by halftime. NU’s leading scorers this season, Kuniayi-Akpanah and sophomore guard Lindsey Pulliam both couldn’t buy a basket early on, despite the fact that they combined to score 12 of the Cats’ 20 first half points. Pulliam, a Maryland native, led all scorers with 18 points on 8-for-22 shooting from the field.
Scheid added 16 points, but aside from her and Pulliam, no one on NU else scored in double digits. Kuniayi-Akpanah failed to make a field goal, scoring all five of her points from the free throw line.
The Cats team of the second half looked like a completely different one from the first. NU was much more effective, outscoring the Terrapins 37-31. As a team, the Cats shot 54 percent from the field in the third and fourth quarters, but it wasn’t enough. NU is now at the back end of its conference schedule, with six games left to play before the Big Ten Tournament.


Alvin Vitug scores to lead NHA to a huge win over Judiciary, 73-68, in the UNTV Cup held Sunday at the Pasig City Sports Center.
Renzo Subido has always been told to keep on shooting.
And shoot, he did. Even when the 22-year-old couldn’t find the bottom of the net, UST mentor Aldin Ayo wouldn’t bat an eyelash knowing that when his young gun’s shots finally drop, only good things could happen for the Growling Tigers.
Those are the kinds of risks you make when you look at this UAAP Season 81 as a rebuilding year.
It wouldn’t hurt, too, if that gamble nets UST victories, just like how it did this past week in a 76-74 shocker over playoff hopeful FEU for its first win in the tourney.
And in the middle of that conquest? No one else but Subido, who went on a 4-of-9 shooting from downtown to lead the Growling Tigers with 18 points, two rebounds, and an assist in the upset.
What a way for him to bounce back from his horror opening day showing against NU, where he shot 2-of-10 from beyond the arc and 5-of-24 from the field.
For his efforts, Subido was hailed as the Chooks-to-Go/UAAP Press Corps Player of the Week.
He edged out Ateneo’s Thirdy Ravena, UP’s Juan Gomez de Liano, and FEU’s Prince Orizu for the award given out by writers from print and online portals covering the beat.


The Tampa Bay Rays chose not to tender outfielder Sam Fuld and reliever Wesley Wright before Monday’s deadline, making them free agents. The team also announced it signed catcher Jose Molina to a two-year, $4.5 million deal.
In addition, the Rays tendered contracts to their other arbitration-eligible players: left-hander David Price, right-hander Jeremy Hellickson, catcher Jose Lobaton, outfielder Matt Joyce, infielder/outfielder Sean Rodriguez and relievers Jake McGee and Cesar Ramos.
Fuld, 32, joined the Rays before the 2011 campaign after spending three seasons with the Chicago Cubs. He hit .230 with five home runs and 49 RBI during the regular season in his time with Tampa Bay.
Affectionately known as “Super Sam” Fuld, he was known for his versatility and quality clubhouse presence. He hit .199 with two home runs and 17 RBI in 176 at-bats last season.
Wright, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Houston Astros on Aug. 12 to bolster the Rays’ bullpen. A six-year veteran, he has a career 4.37 ERA in 251 1/3 innings. He had a 3.69 ERA in 53 2/3 innings last season in time split between Houston and Tampa Bay.
Because they were not tendered, Fuld and Wright are free to sign with any team.
Molina, meanwhile, is a 14-year major-league veteran who started a career-high 87 games at catcher last season. He batted .233 with two home runs and 18 RBI. He had declared free agency before he was re-signed, and his return means he will continue to serve a mentor role of sorts for Lobaton, who emerged last season while hitting a career-best .249 with seven home runs and 32 RBI.


The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentence passed on a farmer and father of five, James Afolabi.
Afolabi, who hails from Kogi State, was earlier convicted and sentenced to death by a High Court in the state capital, Lokoja, in 2012 for the murder of a Fulani man, Abubakar Mohammed.
The court relied on Afolabi’s confessional statement to the police, where he claimed to have shot Mohammed on the chest for straying into his yam and cassava plantation on February 27, 2009.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja on March 22, 2012, dismissed Afolabi’s appeal and upheld the High Court judgement.
On Friday, a five-man bench of the apex court unanimously dismissed a further appeal by the convict, holding that there was no basis to disturb the concurrent findings of the trial and appeal court.
He added, “And in any case, this court held in Mohammed v State (2007) 11 NWLR (pt 1045) 303 at 230 paragraph F that where an accused person confesses to a crime, in the absence of an eyewitness of the killing, he can be convicted on his confession alone.
“For all I have said, I hold a strong view that the court below was on a strong wicket when it upheld the conviction and sentencing of the appellant upon reliance on his confessional statements,” he said.
Justice Okoro also sided with the lower court in concluding that the intention of the appellant was to kill the victim.
“In the instant case, the appellant states emphatically, in Exhibit D (confessional statement), adjudged to have been freely and voluntarily made, that he aimed his gun at the chest of the deceased at close range and shot him.
“It was his further evidence that the deceased fell down and could not move again. At that point, he ran to the village head and reported that he had killed a man.
“In the circumstance, did he intend to kill the man? I had earlier stated in this judgement that a person is taken to intend that natural and probable consequences of his act.
“So, when the appellant aimed his gun at the chest of the deceased and shot it, did he intend to keep him alive? I do not think so. At least he intended to cause him grievous bodily harm.
“And, in view of the force of a gunshot aimed at the heart, the engine room of a man’s life, it can safely be concluded that the appellant intends to kill the deceased on his action, the report he made to the village head notwithstanding.
“Had the appellant shot the deceased on the leg, maybe, one would have thought otherwise. At the age of the appellant, he ought to have known that the part of the body of the deceased he aimed at (the heart) was the last that could have entered his mind if he had intended the man to stay alive.


Did he speak up at all against the shameful posthumous baptism of Holocaust victims?
Ah yes. Those dirty Mormons are daring to make Dead Jews Mormons, so let’s get insulted.
Now, as a “Gentile” ( the Mormons use this for those not a member of their church) it’s not exactly my place to argue either way.
Yet as a doctor who has worked with people of many religions (and none) I’m wondering if Rosenbaum understands why this is being done.
Early Christians worried that those good pagans who died before Christ would go to hell, so started ceremonies to baptise their dead ancestors. Paul sort of frowned on this, and later Catholics just decided they had “Baptism of desire” and would make the cut if they lived a good life, but later reformers went back to those literal passages implying no baptism, no heaven, even for babies.
In 1840, the LDS church reestablished the practice.
The LDS Church teaches that performing baptisms for the dead allows this saving ordinance to be offered to those who have died without accepting or knowing Jesus Christ or his teachings during their mortal lives. It is taught that this is the method by which all who have lived upon the earth will have the opportunity to receive baptism and to thereby enter the Kingdom of God.
Â Baptism on behalf of a deceased individual is not binding if that individual chooses to reject it in the afterlife.
So the LDS church is not insulting Jews by baptising them (the “insult” is implying that non baptised won’t get into heaven, but that insult is not limited to Jews).
What they are doing is a mitzvah: A good deed, trying to enable their ancestors and other good gentiles, the ability to be in the highest heaven with the rest of the latter day saints. One side effect of this practics are the large geneological records collected by the church (many collected from the baptismal records of European Catholic churchs).
It would be the equivalent of a Catholic offering a mass for the dead for a dead Jewish relative, or placing a convent of Nuns at Auschwitz to pray in reparation for the horrors committed there: Not as an insult but a way to show solidarity with the Jewish religion, and try in a small way to make up for the wrongs done to them by others, some of whom claimed to be Christian.
Perhaps the best way to put this into perspective is to relate the legend (probably not true) of Brigham Young and the nuns who ran the hospital in Salt Lake City.
Like many small towns in the Midwest and Mountain states, some Catholic nuns were invited to start a hospital to care for the sick in Salt Lake City. One of their patients was Morman patriarch Brigham Young, who was given such good care that he later related to the nuns that he had married them in spirit, so that in the next life he could resurrect them and they could live in heaven as part of his extended family.
The nuns smiled and accepted the act in the spirit in which it was performed: As an act of charity, not as an insult to Catholicism.
When the rabbis should be busy worrying about the loss of faith, active proselytizing byÂ cults,Â and the large intermarriage rate among their members, worrying about insults where none is meant doesn’t help matters. Indeed, if the LDS church is right, it gets them a free choice after death, and if the LDS church is wrong, it’s merely nonsense and should be ignored.
But if one is Jewish, it brings up the history of forced conversions/baptisms under pain of torture and death, a rememberence of a thousand years of Christian hostility.
Placed into this context, the baptisms are not only an insult but seen as forcing conversion after death (which it is not, since LDS theology allows the soul to refuse the baptism).
So the LDS elders have backed away from and discouraged those who were performing the baptisms, but cannot stop the practice.
After all, both religions see God as merciful and see living in harmony with their brothers as something more important than religious rituals.
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For over a decade, claims have been made that vitamin and mineral supplements may improve the symptoms of autism in a natural way. While not all researchers agree about whether these therapies are scientifically proven, many parents and an increasing number of physicians report improvement in people with ASD when using individual or combined nutritional supplements.
Malabsorption problems and nutritional deficiencies have been addressed in several as-of-yet unreplicated studies. A few studies suggest that intestinal disorders and chronic gastrointestinal inflammation may reduce the absorption of essential nutrients and cause disruptions in immune and general metabolic functions that are dependent upon these essential vitamins.
Other studies have shown that some children on the autism spectrum may have low levels of vitamins A, B1, B3, and B5, as well as biotin, selenium, zinc, and magnesium; while others may have an elevated serum copper to plasma zinc ratio, suggesting that they may benefit by avoiding copper and taking extra zinc to boost their immune system. Other studies have indicated a need for more calcium. There are several laboratories that test for nutritional deficiencies, but many insurance companies will not pay for these tests.
Perhaps the most common vitamin supplement used for individuals with ASD is vitamin B, which plays an important role in creating enzymes needed by the brain. In several studies on the use of vitamin B and magnesium (which is needed to make vitamin B effective), almost half of the individuals with autism showed improvement. The benefits include decreased behavioral problems, improved eye contact, better attention span, and improvements in learning.
Other research studies have shown that other supplements may help symptoms as well. Cod liver oil supplements (rich in vitamins A and D) have resulted in improved eye contact and behavior of children with autism. Vitamin C helps in brain function and deficiency symptoms like depression and confusion. Increasing vitamin C has been shown in a clinical trial to improve symptom severity in children with ASD.
If you are considering the addition of vitamins or minerals to your child's diet, a laboratory and clinical assessment of nutritional status is highly recommended. The most accurate method for measuring vitamin and mineral levels is through a blood test. It is also important to work with someone knowledgeable in nutritional therapy. While large doses of some vitamins and minerals may not be harmful, others can be toxic. Once supplements are chosen, they should be phased in slowly (over several weeks) and then the effects should be observed for one to two months.


When historians write the political obituary for the Republican Party, they will surely include the $1.5 trillion tax bill, which was railroaded through Congress this week, as a sign of everything anathema to what conservatives once stood for.
With the bill’s passage, as Frank Bruni brilliantly noted in a Times column, the Democrats have become the party that stands for fiscal austerity, family values, safety nets, fairness, decency, modesty, and the rule of law — as opposed to the greed, corruption, plunder, racism and sexism the Republicans are now known for. The GOP’s pillars are falling. They’re up for grabs, or so it would seem.
But between now and the time the GOP is ousted, what role will political landmarks, such as its only legislative victory under President Trump, a tax-based upward transfer of wealth, play in the governing and electoral arena heading into 2018’s midterms and 2020’s presidential election? Will it become a rallying cry for Democrats to regain federal power in 2018, just as the passage of Obamacare in 2010 fueled the Tea Party’s rise and GOP takeover of the House that continues today? Or is the tax law another impression, a large dot in a growing and increasingly clear picture of life in America under Trump and a red-run Congress.
Academic pollsters say it’s too early to tell.
While Trump and Republicans celebrated at the White House, Enten poked holes in their tax cut rhetoric. He noted that every boast about the bill — the GOP will be rewarded for passing something unpopular; voters will like it once they understand it; it will rally the base — was not supported by many national surveys. Essentially, healthcare — not taxes — is what worries most voters, and the law’s anti-Obamacare and anti-Medicare elements will increase out-of-pocket healthcare costs as early as next year.
But on the question of whether the tax bill will drive the dynamics of 2018 like Obamacare did in 2010, an insightful take came from Walter Shapiro, who has covered politics for four decades and now is a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School.
Many history-minded writers have said the obvious: there’s an old pattern of the president’s party losing seats in midterm elections. That’s because the day-to-day realities of what they do in office never lives up to the campaign trail’s promises. In 2014, Shapiro wrote a piece saying that wave elections in midterm years were becoming the new normal. The dynamics around how the GOP trashed Obamacare seem poised to recur in 2018 — but to their detriment. (As he talks about Obamacare, swap in the tax law).
“The lesson here for future presidents is simple: Despite temptation, never pass controversial legislation on party-line votes,” Shapiro said, warning against exactly what the GOP just did.
No other single piece of legislation — until, perhaps, the GOP's tax bill.
The Quinnipiac Poll’s Brown warned against drawing parallels when each era’s specifics vary. After the two tax cuts during the Ronald Reagan presidency, the nation elected Republican George H. W. Bush, he said, as a counterpoint suggesting tax cuts sometimes are popular. But back then, in the 1980s, both parties were talking and making compromises. No more.
Today’s tax bill is the latest big injury inflicted by the GOP on a party line. As Bloomberg’s Kapur tweeted after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told him it wasn’t even his biggest achievement: hijacking the federal courts was.
“Didn’t make it into the piece, but @SenMajLdr told me the tax bill is only his second-greatest achievement. ‘For me personally, it would be [confirming Supreme Court Justice] Neil Gorsuch and the changes we’re making [creating right-wing control] in the circuit courts,’ McConnell said,” he tweeted.
Whether the tax bill will do for Democrats in 2018 what Obamacare did for Republicans in 2010 is an open question. But Americans are seeing what a GOP monopoly on federal power is bringing, and in poll after poll this month, growing numbers are rejecting it and supporting generic Democrats by double digits.


WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) The Kansas Organization of State Employees is demanding active shooter training for all state employees following the shooting of Cortney Holloway at the Wichita Department of Revenue office.
The letter, written by KOSE President Lisa Ochs, demands a security review of all state government buildings, public or privately owned, to ensure all employees are protected.
"Sadly, all indications are that the private building that houses the Department of Revenue offices where Cortney Holloway was shot lacked security measures that might have prevented this incident," the letter reads.
KOSE recommends metal detectors or armed guards as options for the buildings.
KDOR Secretary Sam Williams told Eyewitness News after the shooting, he ordered a top to bottom review of those safety procedures.
Now, KOSE is also asking for active shooter training, which doesn't read as a suggestion.
"We believe any solution must include on-site active shooter training for all public employees," the letter reads.
Though the shooting at the Department of Revenue office happened less than a month ago, the KOSE Union writes, "Long before this incident, state employees have felt vulnerable and KOSE members have complained to management that they fear for their safety. Nothing was done. Something must be done now."
The union writes it is willing and ready to assist with any of the changes. It is also requesting a meeting with KDOR Secretary Williams to discuss the security review and what measures will be in place to ensure the safety of employees.


Dubai: Aster DM Healthcare, a Dubai-based health care company, has bought an additional 57 per cent stake in a hospital in Riyadh for Dh900 million ($245 million), it said on Sunday.
The investment in Sanad Hospital, which brings Aster DM Healthcare’s total ownership stake to 97 per cent, means it now has six hospitals in the Gulf Arab region, the statement said.
In addition to Aster DM Healthcare’s footprint in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), it also has operations in India, Jordan and Philippines. It has five greenfield projects underway in the GCC including a new hospital in Qatar and three in the UAE, the statement added.


Drake has released the video for ‘In My Feelings’ – the song that sparked the #InMyFeelingsChallenge which saw fans jump out of moving cars.
Shiggy now appears in the new video, along with footage of other stars completing the challenge – DJ Khaled, Will Smith and the cast of Stranger Things to name a few. Watch the ‘In My Feelings’ video below.
The National Transportation Safety Board is the US issued an official statement last week (July 28) urging people to stop jumping out of moving cars to complete the ‘In My Feelings’ challenge.
The committee investigates transportation accidents and raises awareness for road safety. They took to Facebook to warn people about the dangers of the ‘In My Feelings’ challenge while around moving cars.
Drake’s album, ‘Scorpion’, has broken a number of records since its release, including being the first album to surpass 1 billion streams in a week. The previous record-holder on that front was Post Malone, who clocked up 700 million streams.


Even before Red Bulls fans revolted over the firing of coach Mike Petke, their oldest gripe was the club’s supposed disinterest in the US Open Cup. When the team accepted an invite to the International Champions Cup – creating a conflict with a potential US Open quarterfinal – the angst got even angrier.
At Tuesday’s ICC press conference, his Red Bulls were drawn to host English Premier League leader Chelsea on July 22. According to US Soccer, the quarterfinals of the Open Cup — a tournament open to American teams at all levels, from MLS down to semi-pro — are set for July 21 and 22.
But Red Bulls sporting director Ali Curtis claimed whatever that narrative was in the past, it couldn’t be further from the truth at present. He insisted the Red Bulls, from the top on down, want to win the US Open Cup.
Curtis has to understand, with the Red Bulls and their supporters, there are no forgone conclusions. Well, other than drama. But despite their supporters’ heartache, this is a particularly raw wound with this fan base.
They remember then-Red Bulls coach Hans Backe not even traveling to Chicago for a 2011 quarterfinal that his shorthanded 14-man team lost, 4-0. Many were in the stands for last year’s 3-0 loss to the Cosmos of the second-tier NASL, watching the team play without Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill, Dax McCarty, Jamison Olave or Roy Miller.
The Red Bulls have a busy slate around the potential conflict in late July, with scheduled dates against Orlando City on July 18 and Porto in the ICC on July 26.
US Soccer told The Post changes can be made, but they’re not guaranteed and Curtis never said one had even been requested. If the change is as simple as adjusting the time, the team would just have to inform US Soccer.
But any date changes would require the consent of the opponent, and both teams must submit something in writing. Ideally, that would occur at least two days prior to the previous round, in this case the Round of 16 being slated for June 30 and July 1.


STOCKTON - A gas station worker was hospitalized with a gunshot wound early Friday morning after a woman shot him during an apparent robbery attempt, police reported.
The woman walked into the store, at 701 E. Charter Way, at around 5:45 a.m. and asked for Lunchables. She left after the clerk told her the store didn't carry them, but she returned a moment later armed with a pistol.
She first demanded money, then shot the clerk in the chest before running away.
The clerk was taken to San Joaquin General Hospital and was listed in stable condition.
The woman, who police said frequently went to the store to ask for food, was described as a black woman about 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a thin build, short black hair and wearing a black jacket.


While information technology has come to play a crucial role inside firms, we look at whether IT leaders' stock has risen in turn.
In today's internet-centric world, IT is fundamental to the success of business.
But while information technology has come to play a central role inside firms, that doesn't mean the CIO is equally indispensable.
Rather than necessarily elevating the importance of the CIO, the rising relevance of IT has resulted in some technology spending decisions being taken by a broader range of people within organisations.
Today the CIO is expected to play more of a collaborative role on many IT spending decisions, helping guide projects where technology is key to improving customer service, getting products to market quicker and launching new services.
"Under that much broader and inclusive IT perspective, it is difficult to talk about an exclusive IT budget, and it makes more sense to talk about IT-related expenditures in each and every business initiatives and respective budgets," says the Gartner report How CIOs influence decisions when every budget is an IT budget.
Despite these changes, across most firms there is still a broad pattern for how most technology projects are funded, said Spencer Izard, chief analyst for Enterprise ICT at Ovum.
"What I typically see from an IT organization, from a budgeting perspective, hasn't actually changed since I started my career 20 years ago," he said.
"The most common model is where new technology investment is funded out of line of business and, at a point where it's about to go live and be switched over to operational cost and long-term running, it switches over to an IT budget."
Izard described the relationship between business and the IT department when it came to priorities and spending as being less like 'us' versus 'them' and more like 'contentious siblings'.
"Both love each other, both know they need each other to be around, but that doesn't mean they always agree."
Fundamentally, the role of the CIO when deciding on IT spending is both to advise business leaders on viable technologies for realising a project's goals, but to also explain how any new investments would fit with a firm's existing infrastructure.
"In a modern organization, most IT functions should be there to be that trusted adviser," said Izard.
"To say 'Actually, you know what, you might have found a piece of good technology we don't have within an organization, that does 100 percent of what you need, but we've already invested in XYZ technologies in our organization for other groups and departments and that will do 80 percent of what you need."
Marc Cecere, principal analyst at Forrester serving CIOs, said that while an IT leader may only be one of many execs deciding which new technologies to invest in, their expert oversight remains crucial.
"For things such as apps or devices...the CIO is often one of several leaders making the decision," he said.
"Recently, because of the push to have greater consistency of systems, processes and technologies across the organization, the CIO is required to facilitate these decisions.
"In this case, they may or may not be decision makers, but they pull together the information and decision-making vehicle -- a steering committee, for example -- to have others make the decision."
The introduction of Chief Digital Officers (CDO) may have initially marginalized the CIO, said Izard, with the CIO "bypassed a little bit", but companies today generally understand the need for someone with a greater understanding of technology to work alongside the CDO.
"The CIO's function is that delta between where we are right now as an organization and where we could potentially be. Whereas a lot of the chief digital officer's role is ask the question 'Where do we need to be with digital?'," he added.
"Digital has been, I would say, for all of its hype and its buzzwords, the best marriage therapy for IT and business for many years," said Izard, citing how the emphasis on digital transformation had forged a closer working relationship between the business and IT.
In a today's world, where every company is a software company, IT budgets will generally be set in one of four different ways, depending on the type of organisation, according to Gartner. The analyst house sets out these approaches in the report, How CIOs influence decisions when every budget is an IT budget.
The first approach is controlled independence, typically found in mature companies -- diversified conglomerates, according to Gartner -- with multiple units that effectively function as separate businesses with individual IT budgets and systems. In this scenario, individual business units will have control over IT budgets and the role of the CIO is to act like a broker, highlighting to business leaders in each unit which internal and corporately-sanctioned external services fit the bill for the current project. Just as important will be flagging up which of the technologies under consideration would be a poor fit the company, perhaps because they're incompatible with existing systems.
Given their cross-department perspective, CIOs can also attempt to steer units towards choosing technologies that complement those used in neighbouring units.
The structured consensus approach again applies to large, mature companies, but this time where business units depend on each other to deliver a product or service and where the company may be responsible for every stage between turning a raw a material into a finished product -- manufacturing and assembly companies, for example.
IT budgets are typically allocated centrally, perhaps by a committee made up of managers from across the business, to suit current corporate objectives.
These are the types of organizations in which CIOs will play the greatest role in determining IT spending, says Gartner, and will help support initiatives that further the organization's goals. The extent of their decision-making powers could extend to deciding which services should be present in the IT services portfolio. In this way, the CIO will exert a strong influence over the enterprise's use of IT.
The dynamic collaboration approach is suited to companies operating in fast-changing industries where there's a need for business units to collaborate and rapidly iterate on ideas and get products to market -- consumer electronics companies, for example. In these companies, budgets are often assigned to individual initiatives and projects, often in an ad-hoc manner.
These firms operate in a business environment where the fast pace of change needs rapid response. As such, firms will often form what Gartner refers to as a "SWAT team", composed of managers from across the business to spearhead initiatives to achieve corporate goals.
Here the IT leader's role will be more collaborative, consisting of advising the team on what technologies are available and how any new tech will fit with existing enterprise applications, and what additional spending might be necessary to integrate with backend systems.
The opportunistic action approach is again suited to companies operating in a fast-changing environment, but this time where departments operate more independently, with each unit focusing on a different business scenarios and allocating funds from their own budgets. For example, fashion and high-tech retail.
IT spending in this area often falls under specific initiatives, this time led by an individual business unit and headed by an individual senior manager, according to Gartner. The budget for these initiatives will usually be funded by that individual unit. While the CIO will have a role in advising on the best available technologies for a rapid project turnaround and how they fit with the organization's core tech, the driving force behind spending decisions will be initiative's leader, whose primary focus will be realizing specific business outcomes.
CIOs also need to remind their organizations of why they and the IT department matters, said Izard, to avoid the risk of CIO being charged with nothing more than keeping the services running -- something he described as a "misuse of the role".
"I think a lot of CIOs have fallen into being comfortable with the role as it's currently understood, but they need to do a better job of demonstrating their value in a business outcome context, rather than talking about the value of technology," he said.
It is a sentiment echoed in the Forrester report, Design The Tech Organization for the BT Agenda.
"In the age of the customer, firms must accelerate the BT [Business Transformation] agenda -- the technologies, systems, and processes to win, serve, and retain customers," says the report.
"Many CIOs have been balancing customer-facing requirements with operating the company. But too few CIOs have met the BT agenda's need for fast-cycle times, continuous change, and a focus on the customer experience. Those CIOs that optimize for the BT agenda will find themselves as business partners, leading their firms' success," the report adds.
If CIOs want to ensure they have a meaningful input into technology-led, business transformation discussions, there are several steps they can follow, says Forrester's Cecere.
"There are a lot of obvious things, such as speak the language of business, stay physically close to decision makers, aligning your recommendations and spending with the business direction," he said.
"All that is pretty well known. Less obvious are things like establishing relationship managers who act as proxies for the CIO to the business and act as proxies for the business to IT."
Cecere says these proxies can help anticipate business needs, guide business leaders and keep IT investments in sync with the firm's goals. Another useful approach can be to set up groups within IT as internal consultants to the business.
Another key skill for CIOs, according to Ovum's Izard, is to master the art of promotion.
"It's all about that marketing and positioning, and I've known a few CIOs in the past year or so who have actually got independent advice from a marketing/PR expert on how to better position their message inside their own organization to maintain business relevancy," he said.
"They've now got into a position where their line-of-business peers realize that IT functions are there to support the business journey."


A memorial gift is a meaningful way to remember someone important to you. These gifts help keep the memory of your loved one alive and have lasting impact on the broader community.
It can be printed on programs, shared in online tribute sites, or shared by email.
An honorary gift is a powerful way to express your appreciation for someone and make a difference. These gifts can be in honor of a birthday, anniversary, or graduation—or just to thank a special friend. You also can honor your physician, nurse, or caregiver to show your gratitude for the care you, or someone you love, received at Stanford.
If you are arranging a funeral or a memorial service, you may want to ask people to donate to Stanford instead of giving flowers. We can provide ‘in memory’ donation envelopes that can be placed at the funeral or memorial service. Those who would like to make a gift can then send any donations to our office at their convenience.
Please make out your check to Stanford University, and write on the memo line of the check the desired fund allocation. You may also indicate on the memo line whether the gift is in honor of or in memory of and the full name of a friend or loved one. You are welcome to include any notes on additional sheets of paper along with your gift to further specify your intentions. Please indicate the mailing address of where you would like any acknowledgments of your gift sent, if desired.
Please also provide the name and address of the individual you would like to receive a notification from us of your special ‘in memory of’ or ‘in honor of’ gift. Stanford will not share the amount of the donation.


HBO subscribers who catch the Bill Simmons-produced “Andre the Giant” documentary tonight are in for a lot of tall tales (and hey, here are two bonus stories that didn’t make the final cut!).
With so many incredible anecdotes about the professional wrestling icon, it is hard to know which ones to believe and what to dismiss — even for doc director Jason Hehir.
For example, most people — Hehir included — will tell you that Andre probably wasn’t very close to his billed height and weight of 7’4” and 500 lbs.
But, “I do believe that he was far more powerful and far more intimidating and daunting than anybody else in wrestling in that time,” he added.
We agree. Hogan was so well-spoken and invested, Hehir nearly opened the whole film on Terry Bollea talking about the time he saw Andre the Giant wrestle live, which pushed the eventual “Rocky III” star into pro wrestling.
Though that original edit of “Andre” was scrapped, Hogan’s contribution to the film remained huge. Hehir actually got the Hulkamania hero to personally rewrite the pages he presented to WWF/WWE boss Vince McMahon ahead of the WrestleMania III main event, outlining how the biggest match in professional wrestling history should go.
It’s a really cool scene.
“André the Giant” premieres on HBO Tuesday, April, 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.


The Monroe Pain Center, which was raided by federal agents last week, is allowed to remain open, officials said, because the target of the investigation is Dr. Oscar Linares ? not clinic.
The Monroe Pain Center, which was raided by federal agents last week, is allowed to remain open, officials said, because the target of the investigation is Dr. Oscar Linares — not clinic.
On Wednesday, people could be seen entering the building at the LaPlaisance Rd. strip mall, but the number of patients was dramatically diminished. The windows and doors remain covered with white blinds and the clinic's name has been removed from the building front.
Richard Isaacson, a spokesman with the Drug Enforcement Agency, said Dr. Linares was targeted in the raid last week, not the clinic.
"We did not shut them down," Mr. Isaacson said. "We never closed them down."
Mr. Isaacson would not comment on whether the clinic is under investigation at this time. Dr. Linares, under terms of his bond conditions, is not allowed to prescribe narcotics. He told The Evening News last week that he plans to pursue treatments involving natural herbs and spices, as well as acupuncture.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Drug Enforcement Agency say that Dr. Linares wrote prescriptions for more than 5 million doses of narcotics during a two-year period and reportedly fraudulently billing Medicare for more than $5.7 million.
In addition to closing down the clinic, authorities seized four bank accounts, seven luxury vehicles and two boats.


A Soviet-era craft that took a dog into orbit could fetch $10 million.
A SOVIET space capsule stands ready for launch in the lobby of Sotheby's New York headquarters.
The Vostok 3KA-2, a giant rusty ball, orbited the Earth on March 25, 1961. It carried a life-size cosmonaut mannequin and a live dog, and landed two hours after launch in a snow-blanketed field about 1100 kilometres from Moscow.
Three weeks later, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin climbed into an identical vehicle and became the first human to travel into outer space.
The test capsule could fetch as much as $US10 million when auctioned on April 12, the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's voyage.
Scorched and scratched on the outside, the ball looks cramped on the inside. Most of the interior is taken up by an ejection seat.
The architect of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, tested five Vostok capsules before sending Gagarin. The four-legged cosmonaut on 3KA-2 was named Zvezdochka and fared better than some of her canine predecessors just by surviving. Footage played at Sotheby's shows the dog looking alert, if slightly out of breath, when taken from the capsule.
Her dummy companion, nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, wore the same spacesuit Gagarin would wear, and was ejected from the capsule before landing, hitting the ground with a parachute.
The National Air and Space Museum has displayed Ivan Ivanovich as part of its Space Race exhibition since 1997. The item is on loan from businessman Ross Perot's foundation, which bought it at Sotheby's in 1993, Ms Lewis said. It fetched $US189,500.
The auction house offered the test capsule in 1996, with an estimate of $US800,000 to $US1 million. It didn't sell and was later acquired privately by an anonymous US businessman directly from the Russians, Mr Redden said.


Is 'red' the same to all creatures?
(CNN) -- Violets are blue and roses are red, but maybe those colors are all in your head.
What does it mean for an object to be "red"? Is the way you perceive blueness the same as your neighbor? Your cousin? What about your dog?
Many scientists believe that humans have color vision that is generally consistent across populations and cultures, and that there are evolutionary reasons behind that constancy.
"Color vision is all about emotions and moods, and it has much deeper and richer connections to the rest of our perceptual worlds," said Mark Changizi, a cognitive scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
But some people really don't see the color red in the way that most do. About 8 percent of men have trouble differentiating between certain colors; less than 0.5 percent of women have this problem, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Color vision is based on photoreceptors in the eye called cones, of which there are about 6 million to 7 million in the human retina. Humans normally have three types of cones, corresponding to short, medium and long wavelengths of light. Purplish blues are at the short end, and reds are at the long end. They eye also has about 120 million rods, which detect light but not color.
According to some estimates, the human eye can distinguish about 1 million to 10 million different colors. A small minority of women actually have four kinds of cones in their eyes -- meaning they could theoretically see even more colors -- but only a genetic test can determine who has extra cones, and it's unclear exactly how differently they may see.
In most cases of colorblindness, the cone systems for either medium or long wavelengths do not work properly, resulting in reds, greens and perhaps yellows appearing very similar. But different people experience this to varying degrees. In rarer cases, people have trouble telling blue and yellow apart; the rarest of all make people see the world in grayscale.
Dogs and cats are generally colorblind, somewhat like humans who have trouble with reds and greens, but only see pale shades of color. On the other hand, they see better at night and have better peripheral vision. Insects see through photoreceptor units numbering in the hundreds or the thousands, almost like viewing the world as a mosaic. Some animals actually have better color vision than humans. Pigeons and goldfish, for example, can see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to people.
"We're great for mammals but pretty mediocre by broader standards," said David Hilbert, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Biologists believe that animals' visual systems have evolved over millions of years and that the particular structures around today have persisted because they carried some survival benefit to the animals.
Why, then, do humans see in color?
One idea about the origin of the color vision of humans is that it helped early human ancestors spot red berries among green foliage in the wild.
More generally, color vision helps distinguish objects and their spatial structures from one another, said Stephen Palmer, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Changizi has a different idea. According to his research, the cones in our eyes are optimized to detect changes in hemoglobin as blood varies in oxygenation. In other words, what happens physiologically when you blush with embarrassment or turn pale with fear, we can better see with the full human color spectrum.
Across primates, those with furry faces tend to have more primitive visual systems -- with blue-yellow and grayscale perception -- and those with human-like visual systems, such as gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons and macaques, have bare faces. This is because, Changizi argues, the color vision allows bare-faced primates to detect changes in emotion and health according to very subtle changes in reds, yellows, greens and blues in the face.
To take advantage of that ability to detect health signals through skin color changes, Changizi recommends that hospitals adopt gowns that would approximate a variety of natural human skin tones. That would allow doctors to better perceive color changes in the skin than the currently available blue and white gowns, he said. More practically, perhaps, hospitals could have a catalog of hundreds of different skin tone tabs, to help the doctor's eye detect subtle tone changes.
So do most people have the same "red"?
For Changizi, this research on primates and color vision suggests that people's perception of colors must be consistent, given the way the eye's cones detect these specific subtle shifts in skin tone.
But other research suggests that seeing color can be something like tasting foods -- a pleasant flavor for one person may be too bitter or salty for another, just like a single shade of yellow could be seen as pretty or putrid by different people. This argument about color preferences is what Palmer studies in the Berkeley Color Project.
Generally, people naturally dislike tastes of foods that are molding or contain toxic substances. This aversion is evolutionarily beneficial because they are less likely to eat them and get sick.
"The idea is that the same thing is true for colors, that there are certain kinds of colors that are characteristic of stuff that's good for us as a species -- clear sky, clear water -- and stuff that's bad for us, like rotting foods, biological waste products," he said.
Blue may be a common favorite color because it signals such positive things as clear skies, he says. Yellow-green tends to be generally disliked, perhaps because it signals toxicity. A recent study from Palmer's lab that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that participants' color preferences nearly perfectly corresponded with how much they liked objects of the same color.
Feelings about colors can change dramatically in response to a person's environment, and over the course of a lifetime, Palmer said. Institutional affiliation is also a factor -- a study from his lab found that Berkeley students tended to like their school colors, blue and gold, more than their rival school Stanford's colors, red and white.
"I don't think that we have a pure sensory experience of the color. I think it's overlaid with how much we like things," he said.
But most scientists still maintain that your "red" is probably the same as "red" for everyone else (who's not colorblind) in terms of what you see, the University of Illinois' Hilbert said.
"I think colors are out there in the world, and we see them more or less accurately, just like we do shapes and sizes," he said. "I don't think that makes them any less interesting or cool. In fact, I think it makes them more interesting."


SANTA FE — New Mexico colleges and universities will get their state money next year.
But Gov. Susana Martinez and the Legislature remain deadlocked over how to stabilize state finances in the long run.
That much was clear in a flurry of activity late Friday as Martinez signed legislation that ensures continued state funding for higher education — after a previous veto had put colleges and universities in limbo — while vetoing a variety of tax increases passed by lawmakers.
Martinez, a Republican, praised the spending plan as a “bipartisan agreement.” But she reacted with scorn to the proposed tax hikes endorsed by the Legislature, where Democrats hold majorities in each chamber.
“The ability of the Legislature to in one breath decry the financial inequities in our state and in the next seek to take more from the pockets of New Mexicans is remarkable,” Martinez said in a veto message to lawmakers.
Democratic legislative leaders, in turn, said the governor’s vetoes will leave the state without the sustained revenue needed to ensure it can continue paying bills and protect its credit rating from further damage.
They expressed serious reservations about the one revenue measure the governor did sign — a complex bond transaction that’s expected to generate some “one-time” money to help shore up reserves.
Lawmakers crafted the spending and tax proposals in a special session that began Wednesday. They’re expected to resume the session next Tuesday, when they could try overriding the governor’s vetoes, or just vote to adjourn.
It’s been 15 years since the last successful override approved by both chambers. Just this week, in fact, attempts to override some of the governor’s line-item vetoes — part of the original budget bill adopted this year — failed.
Friday’s bill action appears to leave the state’s $6.1 billion budget balanced for the fiscal year starting July 1, but with little margin for error. State reserves were expected to total 1 percent or less of the general fund, lawmakers said, if the governor rejected all tax increases.
The Legislature had voted to increase taxes on gas and vehicle sales and nonprofit hospitals as part of a package of proposals to generate at least $215 million in new annual revenue, or enough to push state reserves closer to 4 percent.
Martinez, however, repeatedly warned lawmakers that she would reject stand-alone tax increases. Instead, she said, she would be willing to raise revenue by closing loopholes in the tax code, if the changes were part of a broader effort to overhaul New Mexico’s system of gross receipts taxes.
But the tax overhaul supported by Martinez failed in a House committee. Opponents said they wanted more time to evaluate the 430-page bill.
Lawmakers instead approved $400,000 to conduct a tax study to help guide their consideration of future proposals to reshape the tax code.
Martinez left that appropriation intact and said she was optimistic, based on talks with legislative leaders, about the possibility of action later this year.
The governor also signed off on a proposal to create a “rainy day” fund that will set aside money from oil and natural gas taxes in cash-flush years. Backers say the change will help the state, in future years, weather steep revenue downturns.
As for the complex bond transaction, the Martinez administration disputes the argument by lawmakers that it amounts to “borrowing” to pay bills now. The governor instead characterizes it as a way for lawmakers to give up their “pork projects” to help address the budget crisis.
For now, in any case, a state budget is in place.
Marc Saavedra, executive director of the New Mexico Council of University Presidents, said he was thankful that the governor and legislators worked quickly once the special session started.
“This will help ease a lot of anxiety,” he said.
House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said he was pleased with approval of the spending plan but dismayed by the rejection of the tax proposals.


With the iPhone 7 at $649, along with the price of the wireless AirPods, new buyers will be looking at about $810 plus tax just for the package.
As it does every September prior to holiday season, Apple introduced the latest versions of its already highly popular products at a major media event. This time it was Sept. 7 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco.
As expected, the world's richest and most successful consumer IT company showed off its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, an updated and completely waterproof version of the Apple watch, wireless ear buds called AirPods and several other items.
For the second consecutive year, no totally new products were unveiled. The last time Apple showcased an entirely new product was in 2014, when it introduced the Apple Watch. Before that, the new product was the iPad in 2010.
Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller spent an inordinate amount of time describing the new iPhone's new colors and exterior finish, dubbed jet black and just plain black. But the main reasons for someone wanting to upgrade to the new phone would have to be its slam-bang new telephoto-lens, 12-megapixel, 1.8 aperture camera and its 7-megapixel HD camera; a speedy new A10 Fusion processor; stereo speakers; and waterproof protection.
The new iPhones also are missing something all the others have had all along: an earphone jack.
Music lovers who buy the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will have the option to buy Apple's new AirPods. These small earphones (not trivially priced at $159 and available in October) are designed similarly to regular Apple earbuds, only they have a five-hour battery and an antenna that hangs down a few inches below the user's ears, making it appear as if white tubes of some kind are protruding from the listener's head.
With the $649 price for the iPhone 7 in addition to the price of the AirPods, new buyers will be looking at about $810 plus tax just for the new wireless earbuds. The first day people can order the new phones is Friday, Sept. 9.
For those who may not want to shell out quite so much for the AirPods and an iPhone 7, the standard Apple earbuds will be included with an adaptor in the phone package and will use Apple's Lightning plug-in port.
"From the start, we designed Lightning to be a great audio connector," Schiller said onstage. "We are taking the headphones in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to Lightning, and including them in the box with the device."
Apple also showed its new Beats 3 and Beats X wireless headphones for those who don't prefer the AirPods.
On the outside, the iPhone 7 itself is physically similar to the two aluminum-body iPhones that preceded it. There are no different screen-size options this time. Outside the two new black exterior options, the main difference is in a more useful home button.
The updated Apple Watch Series 2's main new feature is its own GPS, which enables users to gather fitness data during an outdoor workout without the need to take along a smartphone.
"We started shipping Apple Watch just 18 months ago, and already people all over the world are using it in many aspects of their daily lives," CEO Tim Cook said from the stage. "But we are just getting started."
Apple also announced jointly with Japan's Nintendo a new partnership that enables "Super Mario Run" specifically for the iPhone 7. The game, featuring the well-known mustachioed runner, is developed specifically for mobile and will become available in the App Store later this year.
Apple, Nintendo and game maker Niantic also announced that the popular Pokémon Go game would be available for Apple Watch users later this month.


Chris Van Vliet joined WSVN in January 2015 as Deco Drive’s entertainment reporter. A 3-time Emmy Award winner, Chris will also serve as fill in host for Deco Drive and cover entertainment stories for 7 NEWS.
Prior to joining WSVN, Chris was the entertainment reporter at WOIO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, a radio personality on WDOK and also a writer for Cleveland Magazine. He is a voting member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and has reported from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2011, Chris was named Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Bachelor of the Year and donated the $10,000 prize money to The Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland. He was also awarded the “Personality of the Year” honor from the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2012.
Chris got his feet wet in the world of broadcasting working behind the scenes at Rogers Community Television and AM570-News in Kitchener, Ontario before landing his first on-air job as a news reporter and videographer for CHEX-TV in Peterborough just days after graduating from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario with a Communication Studies degree.
Chris then made the move to Vancouver where he worked as a host and producer on the award-winning entertainment magazine show “969” which aired nationwide on Citytv and the Much Music owned station, Razer (now MTV2). Chris returned to Ontario to become a host and producer for SUN TV’s entertainment show “Inside Jam” and a weekly addition to Toronto’s #1 radio station, 99.9 Virgin Radio.


My husband sat in his usual chair, interrogating the contents of his whisky glass with his old, tired nose. In 20 years’ time that sentence may seem normal. To me it seems at best whimsical, perhaps arch.
There’s a lot of interrogating at the moment, quite apart from the traditional kind by unpleasant policemen. Jay Rayner, in the Observer, said that he saw some people in a restaurant interrogate their plates. In the Guardian someone suggested we should ‘interrogate the things that make us want to drink too much’. In the Guardian again someone else declared: ‘It’s important to challenge and interrogate sexist beauty ideals, of course.’ Of course.
These examples take up different aspects of the normal meaning of interrogate and use them metaphorically. The plates are not so much questioned as examined. The things that make us want to drink are examined too, and perhaps analysed. Sexist ideals may be questioned.
The metaphor can drift into cliché. In the Guardian, someone wrote about the need to ‘interrogate the question of beauty in the built environment’. It’s hard to interrogate a question.
Interrogate developed its current meaning slowly from radio technology. In the 1890s, Sir Oliver Lodge gave the name coherer to a glass cylinder containing metal filings that detected electromagnetic waves. A few years later, a similar device using a liquid electrolyte was called a responder. By the end of the second world war, transponders received pulses or challenges and automatically sent out a reply to the interrogator. In 1945, the way that radio pulses interrogated the responder was explained in Nature by Sir Robert Watson-Watt. This quizzical Scottish pioneer of radar described himself memorably in 1948 as ‘56, five foot six, an unlucky 13 stone, tubby if you want to be unkind, chubby if you want to be a little kind, fresh complexioned, organically sound and functionally fortunate, if fat, after a 30-years’ war of resistance to taking exercise’.
Once computing got going, interrogation was used for a similar process of prompting computer memories so they give out signals revealing information stored in them. That is not quite what one does to a plate of salt beef.


Enjoy the natural lighting throughout this open concept home. The large family room is a great place to come together. The landscaped yard comes with a beautiful, mature flower garden. This home is in a great subdivision on the west side, minutes from downtown Traverse City.


Lizzie Armanto is the first female skater to complete the gravity-defying stunt.
Twenty years ago legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk completed a gravity-defying 360-degree ramp – The Loop.
The Loop is infamous for its difficulty and the 50-year-old has praised it as a “badge of honour in the skate world”.
Now that badge has just been earned for the first time by a female skater, Lizzie Armanto – take a look.
If that spectacular trick wasn’t impressive enough, in the next video posted by Hawk he explains some of the history behind The Loop, which he first came across from pictures of failed attempts in a magazine.
Hawk himself hasn’t completed The Loop for 15 years, last doing so on tour in 2003, and has injured himself many times trying it, once breaking his pelvis.
“It’s hard to explain it,” Hawk said. “If you’ve done it, you’ve checked it off the list. I’m not going to get the same gratification.
Hawk’s latest adventure with The Loop was part of a live virtual reality broadcast in San Diego with NextVR, which allowed viewers to watch the skaters in 3D.
None of the skaters Hawk invited to try The Loop had completed it before, and included in the group was Felipe Nunes, a teenage double-amuptee – seen here practising with stunt pads.
Hawk said they use pads “so people can start to get used to the timing and feel of doing it in its natural state”.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing and you go at it without ever trying it and there are no pads in place, it can be very dangerous,” he said.


The medical device and services company is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday, July 20.
Natus Medical (NASDAQ:BABY) will report second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Beyond the usual revenue, margins, and earnings numbers, here are three things investors should be watching as the healthcare company gives its mid-year update.
Last quarter, Natus Medical adjusted its 2016 guidance to remove revenue from the large contract to sell medical supplies to the government of Venezuela that was announced late last year.
"While the agreement remains in place, the Ministry of Health has not made the required pre-payments. Given the uncertainty resulting from the current political and economic situation in Venezuela, the Company will no longer include revenue or earnings from the agreement in its guidance until there is more clarity as to the expected performance under the agreement."
While the announcement caused a strong decline in the stock price in April, Natus Medical has fully recovered, making it somewhat difficult to gauge investors' expectations on when -- or if -- sales to Venezuela will materialize. It should be noted that the stock still trades off the price before the announcement was made, so the recovery may be due more to a realization that the stock was a good value at the knocked down price than an expectation that sales to Venezuela will eventually occur.
Earlier this month, Natus Medical announced the acquisition of RetCam from Clarity Medical Systems for $10.6 million. The imaging systems are used to diagnose and monitor eye problems in premature infants, which fits well with Natus' other offerings for newborns.
Hopefully, we'll get more detail about the acquisition during the earnings call (the press release announcing the acquisition was a little terse). Natus Medical did note that it expects annual revenue from RetCam of about $14 million and for the purchase to add to earnings this year.
By comparison, Natus Medical trades at about 3.5 times its revenue over the last four quarters, but it purchased RetCam for less than 1 times expected revenue. Unless gross margin on the system is really horrible, it looks like Natus Medical got a pretty good deal.
3. Buybacks or buy more?
Natus Medical ended the first quarter with $81 million in the bank, so it still has some cash to work with even after the RetCam acquisition. In June, the board approved a $20 million addition to its stock buyback plan, so some of the cash may be spent there.
But investors should equally be interested in what Natus will buy next. The company has historically grown through acquisitions, so it seems likely the pattern will continue. The big question is whether we'll continue to see small tuck-in acquisitions like RetCam, where Natus can use its established sales force to sell the new product, or whether Natus will do a larger bolt-on acquisition that might help it grow faster but without the synergies to add to earnings quickly.


Just because a town is off the beaten path, that doesn’t mean that it lacks unique qualities perfect for new adventures and fun. Solana Beach is one of those places. A beach town that is often overlooked in the shadows of La Jolla and Pacific Beach, Solana Beach is full of golden beaches and tons of exciting things to explore. A stunning four square miles by the sea, Solana Beach is a strikingly beautiful area. Most residents who live there live the coastal lifestyle where time goes slow.
As the day goes on in Solana Beach, you can find all kinds of activity going on at Fletcher Cove. A popular place for picnics and pickup games, it’s also a great place to bring the kids to enjoy a day in the sun. When the sun gets low, people gather cliffside to enjoy one of the signature San Diego sunsets as surfers make their final attempts to catch the last rides of the day.
Tide Beach Park sits on the northern end of Solana Beach and requires you to hike down a long set of stairs. While the trek there can be a little tough, it’s all worth it when you get down to the shore. At high tide, the beach is confined to the cove, but during low tide, you can explore tide pools at the north end of the cove.
Heading over to Main Street in the Cedros Design District, you’ll find 85 one-of-a-kind boutiques, cafes, and galleries. Solana Beach is known for its thriving art scene, and it’s certainly evident while taking a stroll down the design district. Check out the David Alan Collection for a wide selection of one-of-a-kind antiques and artwork.
Don’t forget to check out the hiking in Solana Beach. Head to Annie’s Canyon Trail, which was just recently restored and reopened in 2016. Named in honor of Annie, a 30-year resident of Solana Beach and conservationist, this trail features grand views of the ocean and lagoon, and the coastal weather makes for a relatively cool hike.
After a long day in the sun, Solana Beach has a ton of eateries, cafes, brew pubs and wineries. Restaurants in Solana Beach place a high importance on farm-to-table dishes, making for a deliciously fresh meal. Check out Solana Beach Fish House, a local favorite spot since 1994. With a large Mediterranean influence in the recipes, you’ll be hard-pressed to find fresher seafood in San Diego.


Few people would want to relive tragedy, but that’s exactly what some Torontonians did to mark the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking.
A hundred years after the doomed ocean liner hit an iceberg and sank into frigid waters off the coast of Newfoundland, venues across the city recreated that fateful night on April 15, 1912.
With its chandeliers and high ceilings, the opulent Windsor Arms Hotel commemorated the anniversary by offering afternoon tea similar to what the Titanic’s first class guests would have had, including full-service dining and a selection of scones and éclairs for 100 people.
For Heather Graham, whose grandfather’s uncle, Hudson Allison, perished on the Titanic, the tribute is personal.
First-class passenger Allison, his wife Bess and daughter Lorraine died, while son Hudson Trevor survived.
From stateroom to steerage, The Ceili Cottage in Leslieville created a special third-class menu, available only on Friday and Saturday, featuring barley broth and beef and kidney pie.
“You can tell it’s more of a poor man’s menu,” said head chef Chris Mentier. Mentier and owner Patrick McMurray, whose granduncle helped build the Titanic in Belfast, developed it based on recipes from a Titanic-themed cookbook.
The Irish pub’s more upscale sister restaurant, Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill, offered a first-class menu.
It’s a way to capitalize on the anniversary, while commemorating the disaster, says Eoghan Banks, manager of The Ceili Cottage.
Over at Captain John’s Harbour Boat Restaurant at Queens Quay E. and Yonge St., where Kerry Brown and Lesley Garratt threw a Titanic-themed party, the mood felt celebratory. Around 90 of the couple’s friends, family and acquaintances attended the event, which included dinner and dancing, to mark the ship’s demise.
From first-class ball gowns to third-class flat caps and suspenders, guests wore period costumes, while sipping glasses of wine.


Monique Kilkenny and Associate Professor Dominique Cadilhac of Monash University’s Stroke and Ageing Research Centre (STARC), and staff from the National Stroke Foundation examined data from the 2009 National Stroke Audit of acute services. Hospitals treating Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients were included in the analysis.
The results, published in the International Journal of Stroke indicated that, within the same hospitals, there was less adherence to most evidence-based, recommended processes for treatment of stroke for Indigenous compared to non-Indigenous patients.
Specialist treatment administered in stroke units has been shown to be associated with a 22 per cent reduction in death or disability for stroke patients. The study showed that Indigenous Australians were less likely to receive this and other forms of care, including timely assessments in hospital.
Ms Kilkenny said that although further research was needed to ascertain what led to the disparity in care, the implications of the study were clear.
“Our previous research has shown that care quality in hospitals influences the likelihood of recovery after stroke. The most important thing is that all patients get access to a stroke unit which specialises in providing the best health care for all stroke sufferers,” Ms Kilkenny said.
The authors called for initiatives to address the disparity of care.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Australia and previous studies have indicated that Indigenous Australians are disproportionately affected by it. Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people are 50 per cent more likely to be admitted to hospital and nearly twice as likely die from stroke as non-Indigenous Australians.
The difference was especially pronounced in younger age brackets, with Indigenous patients aged 18 to 64 years being three times more likely to die or suffer loss of independence following a stroke than their non-Indigenous counterparts.


Sainsbury’s has changed the name of their tiger bread to giraffe bread after a suggestion from a three-year-old girl.
Lily Robinson wrote a letter to the supermarket chain telling bosses their patterned loaf should be renamed giraffe bread.
The letter, sent in May 2011, was received by Sainsbury’s customer manager Chris King, who loved Lily’s ideas.
He replied: ‘Renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it?
Mr King also enclosed a £3 voucher ‘to buy some tiger bread (and maybe if mum and dad say it is OK you can get some sweeties too!)’, signing his letter ‘Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)’.
Lily’s mother posted the letters on her blog and this week the exchange went viral after being posted on a number of social networks.
Sainsbury’s was then bombarded with messages from customers telling them how much they liked Lily’s idea.
Yesterday, the supermarket chain decided to trial the name change, implementing it in stores across the country.


Tara brings a copy editor's eye to her role as a digital producer. She started as an editing intern at The Dallas Morning News in 2015. Now, she curates dallasnews.com, posts on DMN social media and writes daily newsletters. Tara has a degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.
Like the rest of Dallas, we went straight to Twitter for information on the cause of the malfunction. Along with some valuable updates from officials, we found some priceless reactions.
The only way to beat Golden State? It's to be Golden State.
Jan. 1 is National Bloody Mary Day — fitting, right, considering all the hangovers that New Year's Eve revelers will be nursing. Here are five places in North Texas you can find a rejuvenating cocktail that will provide both your buzz and daily dose of vegetables.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The commandant of the Marine Corps has recommended that women be excluded from competing for certain front-line combat jobs, U. S. officials said Friday, as the Corps distanced itself from the other military services that are expected to allow women to serve in battlefield posts.
While Democrats crowed over the latest criminal allegations against a Republican state official, legal experts said it may be at least a year before Paxton goes to trial, and any outcome to the case could be much further off. “It’s an unusual indictment,” said Sam Bassett, an Austin lawyer and president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. “It’s not a run-of-the-mill case.


OFF to Primrose Hill this week for lunch at Odette’s, setting our diners back £1,344.
They began with gin martinis, cocktails and Dom Perignon champagne, before moving onto the food – scallops, pigeon and terrine to start, followed by salt lamb, turbot, halibut and braised pork, then decadent cheeses, chocolate fondant, cheesecake and lemon curd for pud.
Accompanying their gastronomic delights were a couple of bottles of Corton Charlemagne and another of Chateau Talbot Grand Cru Classe, as well as two bottles of Royal Tokaji Blue Label dessert wine, originating from north eastern Hungary, and some Welsh Penderyn whiskies.


Lincolnshire County Council’s Chief Executive, Tony McArdle, will be stepping down after over twelve years in the role.
He will hand over his formal Chief Executive responsibilities following February’s council meeting, but will continue work on some key projects while a new Chief Executive is appointed. He will then depart in the summer.
Councillor Martin Hill, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said: “Tony joined the council in difficult times, and has been a key part of its transformation which has resulted in Lincolnshire being a high performing, innovative council recognised at a national level.
Tony said: “It’s been a terrific experience for me throughout the time that I have been here, but the time is right for a change and I want to make that change this year.


After disclosing that bankruptcy was on the table, shares of the offshore driller have fallen to penny-stock territory. The question investors must answer is whether they're willing to lose everything on the chance that doesn't happen.
Discussions with the banks, potential new money investors, the advisors to the ad hoc committee of bondholders and Hemen Holdings Ltd. continue. Given timing, however, it will be challenging for the Company to finalize a fully consensual agreement before 30 April 2017 ... In the event a consensual restructuring agreement is not concluded or an agreement to an extension is not reached, we are also preparing various contingency plans, including potential schemes of arrangement or chapter 11 proceedings.
That's what Seadrill LTD (NYSE:SDRL) did on February 28, sending its stock price down by one-third within days, and putting it on the cusp of falling below $1 per share as recently as March 7. And the reality is, shareholders who have sold in the past 10 days have exited for good reason. There's significant risk of permanent capital losses for anyone who continues to hold Seadrill stock.
Owning Seadrill feels a lot like this today. Image source: Getty Images.
But that doesn't mean there's zero chance of this stock recovering. If Seadrill's management can work out a deal with debtholders to refinance some debt, pay off some with stock, and extend the maturities on the rest out a few years, today's stock price could be an absolute steal of a deal. Let's take a closer look at the situation, the upside, and the very real risks to holding Seadrill stock right now.
For more than a year, Seadrill's management has done an incredible job of managing an ugly balance sheet. The company has used a combination of getting creditors to extend debt maturities, paying off other debt, and negotiating with shipbuilders to delay delivery of newbuild vessels to avoid further capital spending.
While these efforts have improved the balance sheet and bought the company time, it could prove to have been too little, too late.
As you can see in the table above, current debt -- that is, debt due within 12 months -- is a staggering $3.2 billion. The company also has another $1.5 billion in other current liabilities. Combined, that's nearly $5 billion in cash outlays Seadrill is obligated to pay in the next year, while its order backlog is only $2.5 billion, most of which is contracted over the next 14 months.
That's a massive shortfall of projected cash inflows to deal with its short-term obligations. And it's compounded by an offshore drilling environment that has shown very little sign that producers are ready to start spending before the end of 2017.
Data source: Seadrill SEC filing.
The company has $1.3 billion in cash, but it must retain much of that cash to simply ride out the rest of 2017, with much of its vessel fleet off-contract, and zero appetite for new work from producers.
In other words, the company could default on its debt as soon as April, and it could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection if its noteholders don't agree to further extensions.
Seadrill management has touted the young age and high specifications of its vessel fleet as competitive advantages for years. And while this should prove to be true over the long term, it has little value today, with offshore oil and gas producers showing little interest in ramping up drilling activity. This is why Seadrill's massive debt has proven to be a bigger short-term risk than its high-quality fleet has proved to be a strength.
SDRL Price to Book Value data by YCharts.
In short, the market expects common shareholders will be completely wiped out. And while it is a distinct possibility, it's not a definite. It's also not a definite (though it would be far more likely) that, even if the company files for Chapter 11 restructuring, common shareholders would be wiped out.
And there are some real similarities between Ultra's and Seadrill's situation, too. Both companies own wonderful assets with very real long-term value -- Seadrill in its vessel fleet and Ultra in its wonderful natural gas holdings -- and both companies were caught with very significant debt maturities at the absolutely worst possible time in the market cycle.
Put it all together, and you have a company with industry-leading assets, facing the worst-case scenario with debt maturities at the bottom of its industry's cycle. If its debt holders come to recognize the opportunity this creates to keep the company intact and exchange that debt for an equity stake, shareholders at this price would likely do incredibly well.
Still, I wouldn't bet on it with a single dollar I wasn't ready to lose. At this point, it's too close to call what will happen.


The Left government, in power in the state for 25 years, was routed by the BJP that earlier had less than a 2 per cent vote share in Tripura.
New Delhi: An internal debate in the CPI(M) on the political line the party has to follow has become even more shrill after its crushing defeat in Tripura, with the camp supporting general secretary Sitaram Yechury blaming the former party boss Prakash Karat for not adapting to changing scenarios in the country.
The incumbent Left government, in power in the state for 25 years, was routed by the BJP that earlier had less than a 2 per cent vote share in Tripura.
"The issue will now be debated in our party congress (to be held in April). I will not be able to say anything now as the final decision will be taken there," Mr Yechury told news agency PTI.
Though the general secretary was tight-lipped, it has become amply clear that party leaders supporting his line will now strongly push for having an understanding with all anti-BJP forces as against Mr Karat's policy of keeping a distance from other such parties.
"The Tripura results clearly show that the Left should have tried to bring all the anti-BJP forces together to defeat the BJP. The Congress had its voters in the state. But we could not give them an alternative. We should have given them the confidence that we could take the BJP on," a senior leader from Bengal said.
The leader from the Bengal unit -- which has mostly been with Mr Yechury on alliances -- hoped for a change in the party line.
The Karat camp did not agree, with some members holding that along with anti-incumbency, the erosion of the Congress helped the BJP.
"There is no anti-BJP force other than the Left in Tripura. The Congress vote share has come down to 2 per cent from 36 per cent in the state. We have got 46 per cent votes in Tripura. The entire Congress leadership crossed over to the BJP," CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat told PTI.
The defeat is also being seen in Left circles as a breakdown in the CPI(M)'s electoral and political strategy and the party's disconnect with the masses and ground reality.
The CPI, another Left party, believed the CPI(M) had failed to adapt to changing times and the results reflected not just the coming apart of its electoral and political strategy but also a massive disconnect with reality.
"As Communists we must understand changing times and challenges. We must understand the BJP is coming to power. It is no ordinary change of power. We have to change our strategy accordingly to defeat the BJP-RSS combine. That's why we need a broader anti-BJP front," said CPI leader D Raja.
Some Left insiders rued that while the Left was losing its bastions such as West Bengal earlier and Tripura now, the CPI(M) was still grappling with internal differences.
The difference of opinion between party general secretary Mr Yechury and his predecessor Prakash Karat over the use of the phrase "understanding with the Congress" in its draft political resolution to be discussed at the party congress in April has become the talk of Left political circles.
Mr Karat s line against electoral alliance or understanding with the Congress prevailed over Mr Yechury's, who did not want to rule out an understanding with the Congress.
A senior party member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the result of the Tripura Assembly election was likely to change equations within the party.
"After Tripura, many leaders within the party who had earlier backed the Karat line are now slowly realising that in today's political situation, the Left needs to bring all anti-BJP forces together to fight against the BJP," the leader said.
The debate is going to become sharper in the days to come, in the run-up to and at the party congress in Hyderabad. The daggers would be out, and the voices -- although behind closed doors -- loud and shrill.


Drivetime's Della Kilroy reports from the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition taking place this week in Dublin's RDS.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin President, speaks to Philip after meeting with the EU's Chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier in Brussels.
Rory Hearne, Lecturer in social housing policy at Maynooth University, and Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, discuss the suggestion made by Brendan Kenny, the Deputy Chief Executive of Dublin City Council, that the government should incentivise private developers to build residential properties again.
Drivetime's John Cooke reports from Ballinrobe, Co.Mayo, on the government's new pilot project to rejuvenate rural town centres.
Cathy Davey, singer songwriter and co-founder of My Lovely Horse Rescue charity, speaks to Colette Kinsella about the positive impact that animals and nature have on her own mental health.
Síle Nic Chonaonaigh, presenter of 'An Balla', new TG4 series on walls and borders around the world, talks to Philip about the iconic walls they visited, the USA-Mexico border, the now demolished Berlin Wall, the Korean DMZ and the Israel-Palestine Separation Barrier.
Professor Emma Teeling, School Of Biology & Environment Science, UCD, discusses the new drug slow down the ageing process.
Olivia O'Leary asks will he stay or will he go?


The classic characters of the Peanuts comic strip will come to life on the stage of Irving A. Robbins Middle School in Farmington.
The students will present their take on You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, with three shows on March 29 and March 30. The shows are directed by Penelope Sanborn, produced by Leslie Flowers, and musically directed by Karla McClain.
The students are looking forward to taking the iconic characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang and reintroducing them to the audience through what they think is a story with a message that remains relevant to this day.
Some of the actors are finding a way to relate to their own characters and are using that in their performances.
It all comes with a lot of humor and fun moments, they said, but the classic characters they’re playing are the best part of the show because of the way the on-stage performance brings forth the feeling of a comic strip.
The student actors give a lot of credit to the students who are working hard behind the scenes. The school uses a completely student-run group to work as the crew.
“There are so many kids who love to do theater work who don’t want to be on stage,” Sanborn said. “I’ve really tried to instill that every aspect of the production is important, on stage and off. We have a crew of students who move all the set pieces on and off, help with makeup, running the lighting board and sound board. It builds a sense of community. We call it the theater family."
The students are also not trying to just imitate the classic characters of the cartoons. That can be a challenge when your character is so different from your own personality, as Stella Reitich, a seventh grade student who is playing Lucy, found out.
“Certain characters have these distinct personalities,” Reitich said. "Lucy is either too happy or really bad. There’s no in the middle. Her personality is very distinct, so when you walk on stage I have to be a completely different person.
Maddy Flagg, an eight grade student who is playing Sally, said another big challenge for the cast is memorizing the longer speaking parts.
“I had a difficulty on a monologue,” Flagg said.
Szczepanski said it’s amazing to think how months of work will culminate in a quick weekend of three shows.
And after all that work, the cast just hopes the audience appreciates the effort that was put in.
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown will debut at the middle school on March 29 at 7 p.m., with following shows on March 30 at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are available online now, at showtix4u.com/events/15271.


Verizon Communications—responding to consumers who are giving up their landlines and using wireless as their primary voice service—rolled out a new double-play offer that combines broadband Internet and wireless on one bill.
The telco’s Flex Double Play bundle consists of any national Verizon Wireless calling plan of 450 minutes or greater and a FiOS Internet or DSL Internet service at 3 Megabits per second.
FiOS TV service, if available, can also be added to create a triple-play bundle. Verizon offers DSL in 26 states and Washington, D.C. FiOS Internet is available in 17 states, and FiOS TV is available in 13.
Verizon's One Bill system must be used with all Flex bundles, and consumers must commit to a one- or two-year contract depending on the package. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone.
According to Verizon, customers can save money with the bundles.
For example, a 450-minute Verizon Wireless nationwide calling plan can be combined with a mid-tier FiOS Internet plan for a Flex double play starting at $84.99 monthly—about $13 per month less than unbundled prices. If FiOS TV is added to those two services, the triple-play bundle pricing starts at $124.99 per month ($15 off standalone pricing).
“This comprehensive bundle provides us greater flexibility to meet the evolving communication preferences of customers," Verizon Telecom president Virginia Ruesterholz said, in a statement. "Consumers who have chosen to use a wireless phone as their sole voice connection, or who are thinking about that, can now marry the industry's best networks for wireless, broadband Internet and television in one high-value Verizon bundle."