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That was the first thing South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg cleared up for the Washington Blade in response to questions about his 2020 presidential run in a Jan. 31 interview.
Buttigieg, a Rhodes scholar and Afghanistan veteran, beefed up his national profile in his 2017 run to become Democratic National Committee chair.
The 2020 White House hopeful announced his exploratory committee last month. If successful, the long shot Buttigieg would be the first openly gay person to win the Democratic presidential nomination and the White House.
LGBT priorities for Buttigieg, who said he’d run a campaign based on the themes of freedom, democracy and security, include passage of the Equality Act and greater visibility for transgender people.
Distinguishing himself from other 2020 hopefuls, Buttigieg said he supports transgender people having access to transition-related care, even when they’re in prison. Other candidates, including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, have different records on that issue.
Washington Blade: You’re running in a field of Democratic candidates, many of whom have been longtime LGBT allies. What do you bring to the table that’s different?
Pete Buttigieg: First of all, I’m very mindful of the possibility of being the first out nominee in American history, and you know, I think it’s safe to say for many reasons, I’m not like the others.
I also just have a different outlook: I am from the industrial Midwest, I’m in local government and I come from a generation that I think really needs to be stepping forward right now. I think our generation has so much at stake in the future and the decisions that are being made today, and I think it really shows the people in charge, like the current president and administration, don’t care very much about the future because they don’t plan to be here.
2054 is the year when I will reach the current age of the current president, and I think you just take some of these decisions about climate, about the economy much more seriously if you’re hoping to be here in 2054.
What we have here right now is a sequence of decisions that have been made that are very short term, very destructive and it’s time for voices from a generation that has a personal stake in that future to step forward and talk about how we can make that future different.
Blade: But what makes you think you can win the White House if you get the nomination?
Buttigieg: I think the message needs to revolve around three themes: freedom, democracy and security. I think that you have a very strong, progressive foundation for those issues, but I also think we’ve not done a very good job of communicating them across the aisle.
Freedom is something that I think has been monopolized by conservatives in terms of political rhetoric, but when I think about everything from the freedom to marry to the freedom to start a new business knowing you can still get health care, it’s really progressive and Democrats have delivered the kinds of freedom that are most important for our daily lived experience.
When it comes to democracy, I think we’ve demonstrated that we are the party that is more interested in making sure that more people can vote, and I think this needs to be part of a national conversation as well. We need to shore up our democracy through a number of reforms, including D.C. statehood, that just make our democratic republic a little more democratic.
And then on security, we’ve got to understand 21st century security means a lot more than just border security and traditional military issues. I was in the military. I certainly spent a lot of time thinking about traditional military issues, but we have to be talking about cybersecurity, election security, climate security, digital security. And I think people are ready for a message that’s just different from what we’ve had before.
We have a profoundly, almost historically, unpopular president, but that doesn’t mean he gets defeated on his own if we don’t have a compelling message that’s different and better.
Blade: Let’s bring this closer to our LGBT readers. How does support for the LGBT community figure into your run for the presidency?
Buttigieg: I think that it will be vital. I think it will be a spruce of lifeblood because we are perhaps the only minority in more or less equal proportion across every racial, ethnic, economic and geographic group in the country, so one thing that will be very important for the success of this project, especially early on when people take your measure based on fundraising is to be able to demonstrate grassroots support from people in the community who believe that representation at the highest levels, actually having someone from the LGBTQ community on the ballot is important, that it will make things better for the next person who comes along and that America needs to be given a chance to demonstrate that it’s ready for this.
Blade: In terms of LGBT rights issues, where do you want to go with that?
Buttigieg: I think one of the big things that we’re looking at, of course, is the Equality Act. I live in a state where it is still — not in South Bend because we took local action, but in most parts of my state it’s still perfectly legal to be fired for who you are, and I think we need better legislation, civil rights legislation that takes care of that.
Obviously, we have a lot of issues with hate crimes now in Indiana. At the state level, we’ve been pursuing hate crimes legislation. We have federal hate crimes legislation, but we have to do a lot more, including, not just at the policy level, but at the cultural level. There’s several reasons why hate crimes have gone up by most measures in recent years, and I think, a lot of that starts at the top. It has to do with leadership, it has to do with the tone that it set by those in charge and it has to change.
Blade: What concerns you most about how President Trump is handling LGBT issues?
Buttigieg: Obviously the attack on trans rights and the trans military ban is extremely disturbing. When I was in the military, the people I served with could not have cared less whether I was going home to a girlfriend or boyfriend. They just wanted to know that I was going to be someone they could trust with their lives and vice-versa.
Trans members of the military who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to defend this country deserve to be supported by their commander in chief, and it’s extremely disturbing, especially for someone who, let’s face it, kind of pink-washed his campaign early on and portrayed himself as somebody who might change the way the Republican Party related to the LGBT community to turn around and do this demonstrates that he was never serious about that, not to mention the elevation of Mike Pence to one heartbeat away from the presidency.
Blade: What kind of place will transgender people have in your campaign and your presidency?
Buttigieg: A very prominent place. I’ve been really heartened to see more people, especially in my generation, stepping forward. I think Danica Roem opened a lot of doors in terms of elected leadership, and I think we will be looking to make sure that our campaign as well as a future administration reflects the diversity of this country. Obviously, that includes making sure there are visible roles for trans people.
Blade: One question I want to pose to you because it has been a point of differentiation among the Democratic candidates: Should transgender people, even if they’re in prison, have access to gender reassignment surgery?
Buttigieg: Yeah. I believe that’s part of health care. We provide health care to people who are serving the country, we provide health care to people who are incarcerated. I think the bigger issue is that too many people are incarcerated, but if you are, we need to treat everybody the same, and if you regard this, as I do, as part of health care.
Look, people try to turn others against this around the issue of cost, but the spectacular costs of incarceration have very little to do with things like gender reassignment.
Blade: Are you aware Kamala Harris as California attorney general defended the California Department of Corrections in seeking to deny surgery to transgender inmates and what do you make of that?
Buttigieg: I was not aware of that. I do know that California, if I understand correctly, is one of the few places that has been able to provide that, and I think that the rationale for it is based on it being — not only that it can be medically necessary for many inmates, but also there are shockingly high rates of sexual assaults or sexual abuse for transgender people who are incarcerated, so I think that moving in that direction was the right thing to do and I hope that more states take a look at that, especially the ones that want to ensure that we’re preventing sexual abuse.
Blade: What kind of endorsements has your potential candidacy obtained so far and how do you expect them to grow?
Buttigieg: Obviously, this is a very early phase. We just announced the exploratory committee last Wednesday, but we are going to seek endorsements from organizations and individuals. We’ve already reached out to the Victory Fund, to the Human Rights Campaign and to a lot of the people I respect and talked about.
Rightly, they are taking their time and they’re being very deliberate about this, but I do hope that we will earn that and demonstrate somebody like me belongs in this conversation at the highest level. Hopefully, we will continue to mobilize the support we need in order to be taken seriously.
This first quarter is critical because this is where we establish that we belong at the table, then it becomes a matter, once we’ve shown enough early organizational support at the end of the quarter, then we no longer have to answer questions about whether we belong in the conversation and start really focusing on making sure that what we have to say in the conversation justifies more and more support.
Blade: What will it take for you to move from an exploratory committee to a candidacy in the legal sense?
Buttigieg: I want us to be in a position to have a very strong launch coming out of the gate both in terms of the sort of event we are launching and in terms of the organizational support we have on Day One of that phase, that we’re right where we want to be.
Blade: I’ve had experts tell me you face challenges because you don’t have the name recognition of other candidates and you should run for governor and not president. What would you say to that?
I just don’t believe that you run for office because you would love to have it or because you think it’s the right step along the way because these offices are too important. You run for office because you think what you have meets the moment, and every time I’ve decided to run for office and every time I’ve decided not to run for an office has been the outcome of that same process of discernment.
Blade: Has anyone told you a gay person cannot be elected president in the year 2020?
Buttigieg: Yes. Some believe that’s the case, and I think there is only one way to demonstrate conclusively that that’s not true.
Blade: If there are LGBT people or people anywhere who want to support you, what is the biggest way to help out?
Buttigieg: So, peteforamerica.com is the place where you can add your name to the list, if you want to be on the list so we know you’re a supporter, if you want to make a financial contribution, which again, right now, in terms of showing we belong at the table, part of how they take your measure is that grassroots financial support.
Over time, especially in early states, we will need help on the ground getting known, making introductions, winning people over and then hopefully as that grows, more and more of a field organization that will have all kinds of roles for people, but you can start by going to peteforamerica.com and adding your name so we know who’s out there to support us.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length.


In 2014, TIME's commitment to photojournalism remained as strong as ever, as the magazine assigned photographers to stories all across the U.S. and in Afghanistan, Brazil, Burma, Central African Republic, Finland, Gaza, Hong Kong, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, the Phillipines, Syria and Ukraine among many other countries.
From the gruesome civil war in Central African Republic to the geopolitical conflict in Ukraine, the devastation in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis in Syria, TIME's photographers were on the front lines of a particularly violent year, bringing back some of the most compelling images produced over the past 12 months.
There were lighter moments, though, when TIME sent Magnum photographer Alex Majoli on the set of Mad Men, or when Christopher Morris documented this year's U.S. mid-term elections. And there were moments of hope, as well, when Elinor Carucci of Institute followed the difficult and emotional first days of a premature infant.
2014 also marked James Nachtwey's 30th anniversary as a contract photographer for TIME. This year, the celebrated photographer recorded the plight of Syrian refugees in Jordan and of Rohingya Muslims in Burma. He also witnessed the incredible resilience of protesters in Hong Kong, and the unwavering strength of injured U.S. soldiers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland -- proving once more that he remains one of today's best photojournalists.
No one knows what 2015 will bring -- many of this year's conflicts remain unresolved -- but there's no doubt that these talented photographers and many others like them, will be reporting back.


Health Minister Jim Reiter says increased funding for mental health is coming.
Currently, five per cent of Saskatchewan’s health budget goes to mental health services. Health Minister Jim Reiter has said that will increase to seven per cent when the finances allow. Now, it appears the first steps to that increase will come in the April 10 provincial budget.
“You’ll see increased spending in mental health, absolutely,” Reiter said when asked about the upcoming budget.
The two per cent increase equals roughly an extra $100 million in mental health spending. Reiter says this is something that will have to be done incrementally over an undetermined amount of time.
“We need to take advantage of every federal grant dollar for this and supplement it with provincial money as well,” Reiter said.
This year’s federal grant money from the federal government was $3.1 million. The province chose to defer roughly half of it to future budget years.
The opposition NDP have long been calling on increased mental health resources, particularly in northern Saskatchewan where youth suicide is a major issue.
“It’s a bit concerning that these funds, what had been spent, had just gone to backfill existing programs, which really wouldn’t be the intent,” Opposition Leader Ryan Meili said.
When asked to explain why the government calls mental health a priority, and why the federal funding was deferred, Minister Reiter says it’s about making sure there’s an area to spend the money they were allocated midway through the fiscal year.
“It’s not like you get dollars today can instantly spend it next week. There’s a recruitment process. If we expand programs, typically there’ll be recruiting new people,” Reiter said.
As for where that funding should go, the University of Saskatchewan Medical Student Society was at the Legislative Building on March 20, lobbying both sides of government with ideas.
Alison White said they are urging the government to act on the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, implementing the Children’s Advocate recommendations regarding the youth suicide crisis in the north, which includes new funds.
White said that all aspects of mental healthcare are underfunded, but there is an immediate priority for greater funding in youth care.
“We know this is the age where a lot of mental health disorders have their onset, so the best opportunity to reduce the number of mental health and addictions issues is to target children and youth,” she said.
This targeted approach includes focusing resources in areas children and youth can most likely be reached, such as schools.
The province has spent $1.68 million of their 2017/18 federal grant allotment of $3.1 million for mental health initiaitves.
$400,000 for the University of Regina’s Online Therapy Unit.
$200,000 to pilot an online module for parents of children with anxiety.
$150,000 to increase training opportunities for physicians to target youth mental health.
$640,000 to establish multi-disciplinary teams and peer supports for client centered services for individuals with complex, persistent needs.
$50,000 to expand suicide prevention efforts.
$140,000 to enhance additions services in Prince Albert and northern Saskatchewan.
$100,000 to expand the Police and Crisis Team initiative to Prince Albert.


When Theodore Sizer, known to friends and admirers as Ted, died of colon cancer at 77 in 2009, we lost the nation’s leading scholar on high schools and one of the best education writers ever.
So I was glad to get his just-published book, “The New American High School,” which explains his vision for the future of educating our teenagers.
The school reform organization he founded, the Coalition of Essential Schools, has only three listed members in this region: Arlington County public schools, the New School of Northern Virginia and the National Education Association. But many area parents and educators have read Sizer’s works, including his 1984 masterpiece, “Horace’s Compromise.” Because this area has some of the most ambitious high schools in the country, I looked for ideas in Sizer’s new book that might help us.
Sizer taught high school after leaving the Army, then got a doctorate in education and eventually became dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. That big job was followed by nine years as headmaster of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and many years as a professor and chairman of the education department at Brown University.
My recollection is that he was always temperate in his views. But it is still startling to see him display in his book so little of the hostility toward one side or another that is common in our national education debates.
Sizer has long preferred smaller schools and less standardized testing, which would seem to put him at odds with current moves toward more testing, teacher assessment, charter schools and pressure for results. But in the new book, he welcomes charters as one part of expanding choices he thinks are good for families and for reform.
One suggestion relevant to our local schools comes from his experience at the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Mass. The school, which Sizer and his wife, Nancy Faust Sizer, helped found, uses oral exams, and he makes a persuasive case for using orals throughout high school.
Orals are part of the assessment process for International Baccalaureate public and private schools in this area. A few other high schools here use that graduate school approach as part of their grading of projects required of seniors.
Smaller schools have tried this in limited ways. Some of the IB schools are very large, but relatively few students get to the oral stage of that process. It might be hard to schedule oral exams for everyone, but not impossible. If confined to just a few subjects, such as history and science, it might be worth a try.
Sizer also has ideas about better use of time and about teaching morality. I am sorry we won’t be hearing from him again; he has left a lot to think about.


Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the extreme northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, many of whom live in El Aaiún (also spelled Laâyoune), the largest city in Western Sahara.


A photo shows hundreds of houses part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project on December 15, 2018 close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu northwestern region. - The project to build 732 villas and a shopping centre -- which began in 2014 -- encountered difficulties as Sarot Group applied for bankruptcy protection. Sarot Group made the decision to apply for bankruptcy protection after some of their Gulf customers could not pay for the villas they had bought as part of the $200 million (175 million euros) project, Sarot's deputy chairman, Mezher Yerdelen, said. The villas are worth between $400,000 to 500,000 each.
When the project first began in 2014, its developer, the Sarot Group, hoped the luxury aesthetic would appeal to wealthy foreign buyers. Now its homes sit empty at the base of Turkey's northwestern mountains.
The villas are located near the small town of Mudurnu in Turkey's northwestern region. Buyers can purchase the homes for $400,000 to $500,000 each — a price tag that catered to a wealthier Middle Eastern clientele. Of the more than 732 villas, about 350 were sold to Arab investors. Many of the sales have since fallen through.
The Chinese scientist who claims to have edited baby DNA is downplaying reports that he is under house arrest. Here's a timeline of the controversy.


Further complicating the One Washington Place project, lead contamination has been found under this city-owned parking deck on North River Street in downtown Batavia. The deck is to be demolished to help make way for a $50 million mixed-use development.
BATAVIA – Soil under the One Washington Place site in Batavia is contaminated with lead. The revelation may not be a deal-breaker for the massive downtown redevelopment project, but it creates an expensive complication.
Batavia Public Works Director Gary Holm said soil borings have discovered that lead concentrations exceeding acceptable limits are present on the north side of the site along State Street, under the existing city parking garage and up the hill to the east.
A report from Oak Brook-based Huff & Huff, an environmental engineering firm, dated May 14, shows that about 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil will need to be removed from the site if the project is to move forward.
“We know it’s a significant issue,” Holm said.
City Administrator Laura Newman announced the findings to city aldermen at a committee meeting May 15.
Geneva-based Shodeen Construction President Dave Patzelt told aldermen that the news does not necessarily sink the project.
However, Patzelt said Shodeen will not be willing to shoulder any of the cost associated with environmental remediation of the site.
“There’s no room in the budget,” Patzelt said.
The cost of removing the contaminated soil is uncertain, but could well approach $1 million. Newman cited a clause in the city’s agreement with Shodeen calling for the two parties to discuss any unanticipated costs exceeding $350,000.
Even as aldermen and Patzelt contemplated a new problem to overcome, they resolved another issue that had been festering for months.
It was agreed that the two-level parking garage will be heated and fitted with doors and windows, with Shodeen responsible for all the costs, including construction and ongoing maintenance, repair and utilities.
Shodeen wants the garage to be heated because exposed water and sewer lines serving the apartment units will run along the ceiling of the upper level of the parking deck.
The city staff was opposed to heating the garage, contending that to do so would be unnecessary while creating never-ending maintenance problems with the doors and windows along with the heating costs.
However, the staff was willing to accede to Shodeen’s demand for a heated garage if the developer agreed to pay for all the associated costs.
The committee approved the deal, along with the zoning overlay for the entire project, on a 7-6 vote. Aldermen are expected to vote again on the deal at the May 21 Batavia City Council meeting.
One Washington Place is a $50 million public-private partnership between the city and Shodeen to redevelop most of a downtown city block.
Plans call for a six-level building on the sloping site, with 190 apartments, 376 parking spaces and 5,725 square feet of commercial space at ground level on North River Street.
Last year, the plan nearly fell apart when construction bids came in $6 million to $8 million higher than expected, because Shodeen had underestimated the cost of building the parking garage. The development agreement had to be renegotiated, with the city increasing its commitment to $16 million, up $2 million from the previous one.
The renegotiated deal also eliminated commercial space along the East Wilson Street frontage, which reduced aldermanic support for the project, as reflected in the May 15 vote.
When the project is complete, the city will own and operate the parking garage, for which it is issuing bonds to be repaid from tax-increment financing district revenues.


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March 17, 2011 - The U.S Travel Association and a panel of travel and security experts on Wednesday unveiled a groundbreaking plan to improve security at America's airports and reduce the burden on travelers.
Among the most notable recommendations are the creation of a trusted traveler program and a requirement that travelers be allowed to check at least one bag at no additional cost to the ticket price as a means to reduce the amount of luggage going through the security checkpoint.
The need for reform was made especially clear by recent research revealing that travelers are avoiding two to three trips per year due to unnecessary hassles associated with the security screening process. These avoided trips come at a cost of $85 billion and 900,000 jobs to the American economy.
3. Restructure America's national approach to aviation security by developing and using risk management methods and tools.
?While our government and passengers deserve credit for preventing another terrorist attack like what happened nearly 10 years ago on 9/11, each day in the United States roughly two million air travelers are advised to arrive upwards of two hours before a flight in order to be processed through a one-size-fits-all security screening system,? said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.
?The country that put a man on the moon, invented the Internet and creates daily innovations in manufacturing can and must do better in screening passengers and improving our air travel experience. Air travel is the gateway to commerce and an improved experience is directly tied to job creation and a stronger economy.?
The blue ribbon panel created by U.S. Travel was chaired by former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former Congressman Jim Turner and Sam Gilliland, president and chief executive officer of Sabre Holdings.
The panel consisted of former top officials from DHS and TSA; representatives from the airline, airport, logistics and security technology sectors; and leaders who represent the destinations and other businesses reliant on a functional air travel system. In helping U.S. Travel introduce the report, former Secretary Ridge said: ?A strong aviation security screening system must feature several characteristics, including efficient methods of deterring and interdicting terrorists and criminals; tailored security based upon risk assessment; frequent, clear communication with the traveling public; and cost-effective use of resources.?
Dow acknowledged the complexity of addressing the current challenges, noting solutions will require cooperation, and possibly sacrifices by airlines, airports, the broader travel industry, the traveling public, federal agencies and the Congress, which he said must take responsibility for leading change.
?Dramatic policy shifts undermine the ability of our nation to create a secure and efficient aviation system, and demonstrate a lack of a long-term vision for aviation security,? Dow said. ?TSA and its officers often bear unjustified public criticism for simply carrying out the ever-changing policies set by Congress and an unwillingness to date to embrace risk management. If this pattern is to change, Congress must set the tone and take on the responsibility of improving the current system."
- Implement well-defined risk management processes. The Administration should convene an external panel of experts with appropriate security clearances to review TSA aviation security programs, assess the risk each is designed to mitigate and develop metrics for measuring progress to lessen that risk.
Dow urged Congress and the Administration to seriously considering implementing the panel?s recommendations as quickly as possible, pointing out the current aviation security system is discouraging Americans from flying and contributing to a decline in productivity among those who choose to fly. According to a 2010 survey conducted by Consensus Research, American travelers would take an additional two to three flights per year if the hassles in security screening system were eliminated. These additional flights would add nearly $85 billion in consumer spending and 900,000 jobs to the American economy.
According to the same research, a large majority of Americans consider today's security screening system to be "inconsistent," "stressful" and "embarrassing." Dow concluded, ?when combining the staggering economic consequences of the current system with the widely held views of the traveling public and with the American way of life hanging in the balance ? the picture becomes clear. We must find a better way and build a new traveler-focused system for aviation security.?


The partnership of the Yankees and Manchester City joins two of the world’s richest teams, buying an MLS expansion team called New York City FC. There is no doubt the Bombers know the city and Manchester City knows the game, but the marriage leaves a host of questions unanswered, both athletic and ethical.
* Will Manchester City and the big-spending Bombers be able to build a winner in the salary-cap MLS?
* Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour is a member of the royal family in Abu Dhabi — an emirate with a notoriously poor human rights record. Will the league be judged by the company it keeps?
* And where will this team play if community backlash — much of it against Sheikh Mansour — nixes its proposed stadium in Queens?
While part of the backlash is against New York City FC building on 13 acres of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, part is due to the United Arab Emirates outlawing gays.
But it is no coincidence the MLS sees its deals with ESPN, NBC Sports and Univision which all expire after next year, and will welcome NYCFC in 2015. And after the Yanks and Manchester City forked over a $100 million franchise fee, MLS handed over the responsibility of finding a home.
Levine, Yankee managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner and MLS commissioner Don Garber all told The Post they had not spoken to Mansour. Now Levine, Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano and NYCFC director of football Claudio Reyna must either close the deal in Queens or look elsewhere.
Mayor Bloomberg confirmed the plan would require use of the Mets’ parking lot at Citi Field, and Garber said New York City FC plans to spend $50 million to improve the park. But if they can’t get the go-ahead, Pier 40 could be back in play.
Reyna, who played at Manchester City and St. Benedict’s in Newark, said in the interim NYCFC could play at Yankee Stadium or even Citi Field.
“We need to find a home, and that possibly could be either Yankee Stadium or Citi Field. We still haven’t figured that out,’’ Reyna said.


One of the features on the White House website that didn’t vanish when President Trump took the oath of office on Friday is the “We the People” page, which allows ordinary Americans to petition their government to address an issue of importance to them. The Obama White House, which created the feature, responded to petitions that received at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days.
It should come as no surprise that that threshold was easily reached over the weekend after someone created a petition calling on Mr. Trump to release his tax returns. “The unprecedented economic conflicts of this administration need to be visible to the American people, including any pertinent documentation which can reveal the foreign influences and financial interests which may put Donald Trump in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution,” the petitioner, identified as A.D., wrote. The emoluments clause bars the president from receiving gifts and payments from foreign governments. The petition had garnered more than 310,000 signatures by late Tuesday afternoon.
The administration dismisses these pleas for honesty, arguing that only journalists care about Mr. Trump’s tax returns and conflicts of interest — a claim that a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll disproved. It found that 74 percent of Americans, including 53 percent of Republicans, believe that Mr. Trump’s tax returns should be made public.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Mr. Trump and his chief obfuscator, told ABC News on Sunday that “he’s not going to release his tax returns,” adding that the election showed that “people didn’t care.” On Monday, she pulled back a tad, tweeting that “POTUS is under audit and will not release until that is completed.” Of course, even that comment is a ruse. The Internal Revenue Service has made clear that being under audit wouldn’t preclude Mr. Trump from making his returns public.
Yet, the Trump campaign used that excuse over and over, and now Mr. Trump has carried it into the White House. White House officials are probably hoping that the longer they stonewall, the more likely that public demands on this matter will be pushed aside as torrents of controversial policies and statements from Mr. Trump dominate the news cycle. Even so, voters and members of Congress who care about ethics in the nation’s highest office should not let up.
Releasing the returns would provide important insight into Mr. Trump’s finances and businesses. They would reveal if he is as wealthy as he claims to be, what his effective income tax rate is (he said during the campaign that not paying taxes meant he was smart) and how much he gives to charity. The documents would also identify the sources of his income and debt, helping to answer questions about his links to businessmen, banks and governments in places like Russia and the Middle East, and putting a spotlight on potential conflicts of interest.
Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his returns was deeply suspicious during the campaign, and it’s indefensible now that he’s in power. The only logical conclusion is that the candidate who pledged to clean up Washington is hiding damaging information about his past.


Over 10 days, 20 young Slovenian artists transformed 20 beat up bikes into works of art. The idea was to bring a fresh start to spring. Called "Making of Orto Bikes" the event resulted in some pretty cool rides. Click the thumbs to check out some of the finished products.


Journey 2019, the signature annual event of The Hospice of Chattanooga Foundation, is the primary funding source for Kangaroo Kidz - the region’s only hospice and palliative care program for families of infants, children and teens with life-threatening illnesses.
The event till be held at 6:30 p.m. March 9 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The evening will include cocktails, silent and live auctions, dinner, dancing to The Downtown Band and entertainment at the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
"Join us for Journey 2019: A Night at the Great Pyramids as we travel to this exhilarating Egyptian destination in support of our mission," organizers said.
All proceeds directly fund the Kangaroo Kidz program and services for infants, children and teens in Chattanooga and the surrounding 22 county area of southeast Tennessee and north Georgia.
For ticket information, call 423-805-7119 or visit JourneyHOC.org.


News items related to attorney Debra Schiff as issued by the Send2Press Newswire service on behalf of the noted news source.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 5, 2018 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — VLP Law Group LLP is pleased to announce that Debra Schiff has joined the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group as a partner based in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Schiff is the second Los Angeles based attorney to join the firm’s growing Real Estate Practice Group in recent weeks. Los Angeles attorney Craig P. Wood joined the firm as a Partner in December.


St. Paul runner Ariel Melendez during the Camino Del Rey Association Cross Country Meet at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, in Irwindale.
IRWINDALE – A combination of heat, sand and fatigue made Wednesday afternoon’s Camino Del Rey Association cross country cluster meet challenging and rewarding.
While the individual times were a bit down for Santa Fe Dam’s fast course, that didn’t stop a few locals from putting up solid performances in the combo meet that joined the Camino Real and Del Rey leagues.
Don Bosco Tech’s JJ Dominguez and Bishop Amat’s Iliana Velazquez led the way locally in the boys and girls varsity races, respectively. Domin- guez was visibly upset, though, despite taking third with a mark of 16 minutes flat.
“There was a desert part in the middle of the race with a lot of sand that felt like you were actually running in the desert,” said Dominguez, who posted a 15:29 two weeks go on the same course at the Bosco Tech Invitational.
Dominguez finished behind Bishop Montgomery’s Andrew Cannata (15:51) and Cathedral’s Moises Venegas (15:31).
Dominguez’s teammate, junior Jimmy Granados, also finished in the top 10, earning ninth (16:44).
The first six runners in the boys race all hailed from the DRL.
Cantwell Sacred Heart senior Jason Pang finished seventh (16:26) in the same event, but more importantly was the CRL’s top placer.
Interestingly enough, Pang beat out his younger brother, freshman Mark Pang (15th, 17:28), who competes for Cathedral.
La Salle sophomore Taft Hulsey (16th, 17:54) finished right behind Mark Pang with the CRL’s second-fastest time.
Bishop Amat’s Kyle Kearney (23rd, 18:54) and St. Paul’s Xavier Bode (25th, 19:19) were their respective teams’ highest finishers.
Amat had a stronger showing in the girls race, where Velazquez, a Whittier native, was the area’s top finisher as she claimed third in 20:04.
Velazquez finished behind the Bishop Montgomery tandem of Danielle Shanahan (19:47) and Annie Grove (19:55).
Velazquez’s running partner, Amat senior Jennifer Roth, took fourth in 20:34.
Cantwell senior Jennifer Herrera wasn’t far behind Roth, finishing fifth overall (20:47).
“I felt like there was some good competition out there,” Herrera said.
Herrera’s teammate Alexis Perez also turned in a good effort for 13th place (22:06).
The surprise of the race may have been St. Paul’s Ariel Melendez.
The freshman, who began running a couple months ago, claimed the CRL’s top spot as she finished eighth (21:28) and ahead of team captain Jasmine Barron (11th, 21:48).
La Salle’s Kelsey McAlister was the Lancers’ top girls runner, finishing 14th in 22:19.
Each team will get one more crack at Santa Fe Dam at the association finals on Oct. 31.


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Felt hat with leather hatband and metal logo badge.


Microsoft opened the new year with marketing push designed to wean small-to-medium (SMB) organizations off its older Windows and Office products.
The company is offering a 50 percent discount on the first year's subscription price of Windows 7 Professional and Office 2007 Professional software licensing to SMBs. The deal applies to a specific volume licensing program called "open value subscription," or OVS. Organizations have to be upgrading from older Professional versions of the operating system and productivity suite to take advantage of the deal.
The offer, which was described in a blog post by Microsoft Worldwide Partner official Eric Ligman, is available until June 30, 2010.
Microsoft describes the deal as a "50 percent Up-to-Date discount," based on "estimated retail prices." However, pricing under the Up-to-Date (UTD) program is typically less than the box price found in retail stores, according to Paul DeGroot, research vice president and channel licensing strategies analyst at Directions on Microsoft.
"Microsoft uses the term, 'estimated retail price,' in volume licensing programs to mean what I would call 'estimated volume price,' which is discounted from the box purchased from Best Buy et al.," DeGroot explained by e-mail.
Microsoft sweetened the Up-to-Date deal by allowing organizations to upgrade from products that are two generations removed. Microsoft describes this deal as "N-2," meaning that the discount is available to users upgrading from products that are two generations older than the current release. That's the big change in this latest offer, according to DeGroot.
"What's new is the N-2 bit," DeGroot explained. "In the past, you only got the discount for a relatively recent copy of the software. Since all of Microsoft's subscription licensing programs include SA [software assurance], subscriptions give the right to the current (N) version of the software. The UTD applied previously to N and N-1. Now it applies to N-2."
So organizations using Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional can upgrade to Windows 7 Professional at half the estimated volume price of the software.
Likewise, the deal allows SMB volume licensees of Office 2003 Professional or Office XP Professional to upgrade to Office 2007 Professional at the discounted price. The OVS licensing includes the software assurance option, which means that there will be no additional cost associated with upgrading to Office 2010. However, Office XP users have to act before the release of Office 2010 -- which is expected to happen midyear -- to make the leap to Office 2010 at no additional charge.
In a separate blog post, Ligman suggested that OVS represents a less expensive licensing option for SMBs compared with other Microsoft licensing schemes, although he doesn't show the data for his assumptions. SMBs have to have more than five PCs, but less than 250 PCs, to use OVS licensing. Microsoft provides a table showing the differences between its open license, open value and OVS options for SMBs.
DeGroot explained that in contrast to some Microsoft licensing, OVS allows "true downs" in calculating annual licensing costs. So, licensing costs can go down as the number of PCs running the software declines in an organization. Small companies forced to downsize presumably have benefited from such an arrangement, he added.
In general, DeGroot views Microsoft's promo and OVS in a positive light.
"OVS is a good option for small companies that want to stay reasonably current, to keep costs low, and plan to stay with Microsoft OSes and applications for some time," DeGroot stated. "It isn't the best solution for everyone but it's now a slightly better solution for customers who were looking at it."


Percentage of students from each school in the Ontario School District who met or exceeded state standards in each test. Click on a school name for past test scores and other data. Percentages in red denote test participation levels below 94.5 percent.


Rochelle Garza, a lawyer based in Brownsville, Texas, has filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking for Ingrid and a dozen others in similar situations to be allowed to cross international bridges to seek asylum. The migrants have a right to leave Mexico and the right to seek asylum in the United States, she said, and neither country is cooperating.
It's even riskier for migrants who — unlike Ingrid — are in Mexico illegally and could be deported at any time. Rodriguez, the Reynosa lawyer, said while migrants can theoretically appear before a Mexican judge to ask for an "amparo," a kind of temporary reprieve from deportation, costly legal fees prevent them from doing it.
Immigrant families seeking asylum in the United States wait on the Mexican side of the international bridge connecting Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.


President Trump Donald John TrumpGrassroots America shows the people support Donald Trump Trump speaks to rebel Libyan general attacking Tripoli Dem lawmaker: Mueller report shows 'substantial body of evidence' on obstruction MORE will soon have a chance to make up for some lost time in supporting Iraqi religious minorities that ISIS threatened with extinction. Rep. Chris Smith Christopher (Chris) Henry SmithMain Street businesses need permanent tax relief to grow Overnight Health Care: Lawmakers get deal to advance long-stalled drug pricing bill | House votes to condemn Trump's anti-ObamaCare push | Eight House Republicans join with Dems | Trump officials approve Medicaid expansion in Maine The 8 Republicans who voted against Trump's anti-ObamaCare push MORE (R-N.J.) and his colleagues in Congress want to make sure our concern for the victims of genocide has the force of law. On Tuesday they unanimously passed the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018, which would ensure humanitarian and recovery assistance for nationals of Iraq and Syria, including those communities that are at risk of persecution or war crimes.
Trump’s prompt signature of this important legislation would guarantee that we never forget our promise to the persecuted.
A little more than a year ago, Vice President Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PencePence: Mueller report confirms 'no collusion, no obstruction' Melania Trump, Karen Pence say they're ready to serve four more years in White House The Turkish rupture could cause a fissure in NATO MORE pledged direct support to Christians, Yazidis and other minorities forced out of their Iraq homelands by ISIS. One of Iraq’s leading Christian prelates, Chaldean Cardinal Louis Sako, publicly criticized the United States in October for failing to meet its promise to aid persecuted religious minorities in Iraq. This prompted Mark Green Mark GreenRepublicans call for ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to be referred to DOJ Finally united, House Republicans refer ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for perjury prosecution Overnight Defense: Trump labels elite Iranian military unit a terrorist group | Iran hits back with terrorist label for US Central Command | US troops, contractor killed in Afghanistan blast MORE, administrator of USAID, the federal agency tasked with our relief effort there, to defend the work done to date.
While most everyone agrees that the money did not come fast enough, things seem to be changing.
In July, the Trump administration established a special office within USAID — the Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Group — to direct money to individuals and households re-establishing themselves. The group’s initial focus is Iraq. The agency also deployed a special representative for minority assistance, Max Primorac, to Erbil. His job: administer programs on the ground and fix the problems that delayed the funding earlier this year. These officials are committed to using their authority and know-how to advance America’s promise to the persecuted.
USAID and the Knights of Columbus recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to better coordinate their recovery efforts. Partnering with the Knights — a group that has established connections and the trust of effective on-the-ground relief agencies and community groups — guarantees U.S. aid reaches victims instead of benefiting a growing “relief industry” headquartered in Washington.
And USAID’s inspector general has recently identified serious wrongdoing in prior grants intended for Syria’s needy. USAID follow-through in addressing its IG’s findings, coupled with the oversight that the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act mandates, is exactly the kind of accountability that American taxpayers expect and that victims of genocide need.
Again, the U.S. response to the plight of Iraq’s persecuted religious minorities has been genuine, and the aid now appears to be moving more quickly. But it cannot come soon enough for Yohanna Towaya.
Yohanna Towaya has returned to his Christian town of Qaraqosh on Iraqu’s Ninevah Plains. Gone are the ISIS forces that terrorized religious minorities there in 2014 in their larger campaign of genocide. The Iraqi Army drove out ISIS in October 2016 as part of the Battle of Mosul. So Yohanna Towaya is back home, home to memories, good and ghastly, home to the challenge of rebuilding.
Yohanna, his wife and his sons are among the Christian Iraqi who have returned to Qaraqosh. Despite the challenges they face — Yohanna’s parents’ home was significantly damaged; ISIS left behind an undetonated bomb as a parting gift — they are committed to rebuilding. And they haven’t lost hope that they will receive support from the United States.
Yes, those Iraqi refugees returning to rebuild their homes — Iraqi refugees like Yohanna Towaya and his family — deserve our unwavering and swift support so they can once again be safe, secure and prosperous in their own homeland.
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is the legal adviser for The Catholic Association Foundation.


GDPR was one of the biggest moments in tech this year.
CES 2018 promised us robot dogs, air taxis and laundry-folding robots. Nearly a year later, these products remain out of reach for most of us, but it was still a productive year in tech—and one that will likely be remembered for being jam-packed with as much drama as a Shonda Rhimes script.
Here’s a look back at 2018’s tech highlight reel.
If there was an official tech buzzword of 2018, it was probably blockchain—that distributed ledger you’ve definitely heard of and can maybe sort of explain, even though you still might not understand it completely.
From Walmart to AB InBev, plenty of companies got in on the action, testing the technology to track products and ad campaigns. The name of the game: enhanced transparency.
Data and privacy was a huge theme in 2018—from potentially sneaky and misleading opt-ins trying to sucker users into always-on location tracking to a Google app that convinced millions of users to willingly share their faces. However, a barrage of news stories has inspired at least some consumers to more carefully consider personal data in their digital lives, as privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo reported record traffic for 2018.
Speaking of privacy, the European Union enacted its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law on May 25 to give its citizens more control over how businesses collect and use their personal information. The stakes are high: Companies that don’t comply face penalties of 20 million euros or 4 percent of their global revenue. Complaints were filed against Google and Facebook the very first day and, as similar laws are being drafted in California and Vermont, U.S. agencies and tech companies alike are hoping to learn from their European counterparts.
2018 was arguably the year work began in earnest to replace the web with a more user-friendly version eliminating intermediaries like Google and Facebook, along with their practices of collecting and selling user data. There are many startups working to this end—including one from computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee—but, despite seemingly countless breaches, the new web isn’t necessarily a slam dunk. That’s because these platforms have to attract developers who, in turn, will have to create new apps—and apps consumers want to use, no less. And users will have to become much more proactive in the management of personal data.
From the continued saga of Russian meddling in the 2016 election to Cambridge Analytica, secret-dating sharing agreements, a damning New York Times report and bugs and breaches aplenty, it was a very bad year for Facebook.
Another prominent 2018 storyline was the growth of Amazon—and as a DSP specifically. It’s still a distant third behind Google and Facebook, but it’s inspired many agencies to create Amazon-focused divisions to help clients optimize for the algorithm and execute paid strategies, much like they’ve done with Google since circa 2000.
Net neutrality was officially repealed in June, paving the way for internet service providers to charge more for faster speeds, which Burger King (of all brands) brilliantly illustrated in a spot in which customers could pay more to get their Whoppers quickly.
Remember when the Winklevoss twins became the first bitcoin billionaires in 2017? This year has been less kind as bitcoin’s value plummeted 77 percent and the twins lost a cool $1.6 billion by June. To add insult to injury, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected their bid to allow an exchange to list shares of their crypto ETF for the second time as the SEC remains concerned about fraud.
It wasn’t all bad cryptocurrency news, though—look no further than Oscar Mayer’s Bacoin, which debuted in April.
Another oft-cited topic this year was 5G, the fifth-generation wireless network that will be 10 to 100 times faster than what we have today. That means downloads will be more or less instantaneous, and we’ll have the ability to power smart homes, cars and cities on an unprecedented scale. It’s also inspired new competition between media companies AT&T and Verizon as they jockey for position.
While voice certainly evolved throughout 2018, it’s visual search that really went from 0 to 60. Buoyed perhaps by the debut of voice-enabled devices with screens like Google Home Hub and Facebook Portal (not to mention continued sales of Amazon’s Echo Show and Echo Look), brands like Good Housekeeping and Sephora were looking to capitalize, while players like Pinterest and Snapchat are hoping consumers will use their platforms to discover new products via visual search.
Last but not least, 2018 was the year we really started to see lines blur between people and machines. Not only were there more robots delivering room service at hotels, the Barbarian Group’s new receptionist is an Echo Show named Barb, while virtual influencers like Shudu Gram and Lil Miquela were courted by beauty and fashion brands.


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Acquisitions Drive Strong Revenue Growth for Stericycle Inc.
Its recent purchase of secure document destruction firm Shred-it is already paying off for the medical waste disposal specialist.
Stericycle's (NASDAQ:SRCL) $2.3 billion acquisition of Shred-it started to pay dividends during the fourth quarter. The company saw a significant bump in revenue and profitability, though on a per-share basis, profitability was a bit flat. That said, the company sees its per-share profits increasing by double-digits in 2016 as it starts to capture the full benefits of the transaction.
Acquisitions were the story this quarter at Stericycle.
Revenue increased by $211.4 million, due primarily to the contributions of acquisitions -- with 10 closing during the quarter, including Shred-it -- which combined to add $200 million to the company's top line. Revenue growth would have been even stronger if it wasn't for foreign currency fluctuations, which dampened revenue by $26.9 million.
On an absolute basis, earnings followed revenue higher, with non-GAAP gross profit rising pretty much in lock-step with revenue. However, on a per-share basis, earnings were roughly flat because the company's share count is higher due in part to the equity the company issued to complete its acquisition of Shred-it.
Margins were a bit better this quarter, with non-GAAP gross profit as a percent of revenue increasing to 42.9%, up from 42.2% during Q4 2014.
We are pleased to report our fourth quarter results. Overall, our business performed very well in the quarter and remains on track despite foreign exchange headwinds and lower hazardous waste volume from our industrial customers. In the quarter, we've made good progress on the Shred-it integration and our team members are working together to help realize the many synergies from this acquisition.
Stericycle continues to be affected by lower hazardous-waste volumes, which was a big problem for the company last quarter. However, it was able to overcome that weakness, as well as problems with foreign exchange rates and lower fuel surcharges, to turn in a pretty decent quarter. A big driver of that was its strong early progress on integrating Shred-it, which remains the company's top priority going forward. The company sees very strong cross-selling opportunities, because less then 20% of its existing customers use Shred-it for secure information destruction. This represents a tremendous growth opportunity for the company.
Speaking of growth, Stericycle expects earnings to grow strongly in 2016, with guidance for non-GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $5.26 to $5.33. At the midpoint, that represents 20.3% earnings growth from last year. That said, this round's guidance is a bit lower than the $5.28 to $5.35 range it initially offered last quarter.
Revenue, meanwhile, is also expected to grow sharply, with the company forecasting it to land in the range of $3.6 billion to $3.67 billion, which at the midpoint would be 21.6% higher year-over-year. Though, again, its new guidance is slightly below than the range of $3.65 billion to $3.72 billion it offered on last quarter's conference call. Still, it represents an outlook for strong growth that could be even stronger if the company can cross-sell more of its existing customers on doing business with Shred-it.


The national teams will soon start trainings to get prepared for various international tournaments, the main target being the World Championships scheduled for September 12-18 in Istanbul.
Sports lovers were attentively following the development at the European Wrestling Championships in Dortmund, Germany, which brought together 686 wrestlers from 43 countries. Armenia was represented in all of 7 weight categories.
The team has young and hungry for victory players, a talented coach and support of thousands of fans.
The long-awaited Armenia-Russia UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier ended 0-0 on March 26 in Yerevan.
Review of March 10-17 football events.
UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier: Tickets for the UEFA EURO 2012 Group B qualifier between Armenia and Russia have been sold out. The tickets cost from AMD 3000 to 7000, going on sale March 7. The Republican Stadium in Yerevan will host the match on March 26, at 7 p.m. local time. Prior to this match, fans of the two national teams will also compete on the same day. Besides, Armenia's and Russia's veterans will pay on March 25 in Mika stadium.
Review of February 24 – March 3 sports events.
Chess: Armenia’s Elina Danileyan and Lilit Mkrtchyan won their 7th round games at FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series in Doha, Qatar. Danielyan continues dominating the tournament with 6.5 points. She is followed by Marie Sebag of France (5 points) and Humpy Koneru of India (4.5 points). Mkrtchyan climbed to the 7th place with 3 points.
Review of main February 17-24 sports events.
Wrestling: Olympic Games bronze winner, World Championship silver winner and European Champion Roman Amoyan (55kg) won gold medal and became the best wrestler of the tournament at the Grand Prix in Slovenia. Arthur Shahinyan (84kg) is also among the tournament winners. Chief Coach of the Armenian Greco-Roman wrestling team, Olympic Games champion Levon Julfalakyan said that Armenian wrestlers participated successfully “Amoyan is among Armenia’s experienced sportsmen and displayed his best qualities at the tournament. The result of Vahan Juharyan (66kg), who won bronze, was good as well,” Julfalakyan said. European champion and World Championship silver winner Arsen Julfalakyan (74kg) also won bronze. According to the Chief Coach, Julfalakyan did not manage to qualify for the finals due to judges’ mistake.
Review of February 3-10 sport events.
Football: Armenia dropped 2 places in FIFA world ranking, appearing 62nd in the list with 512 points. Armenia’s rivals in European Championship Group stage are listed as follows: Russia climbed to 12th position, Slovakia retained 20th position; Ireland came 35th; Andorra - 202nd. Top three are Spain, Netherlands and Germany with 1887, 1723 and 1485 points respectively.
Review of January 27 – February 3 sports events.
Chess: Levon Aronian finished 3rd at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee. Hikaru Nakamura of the United States won the tournament with 9 points, followed by Viswanathan Anand of India. Gabriel Sargissian came 5th in tournament B, which was won by Luke McShane (England).
Review of January 20-27 sports events.
Chess: Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian tied his 10th round game vs. Anish Giri (Netherlands) and is now third in the standings of Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Gabriel Sargissian is currently 5th in tournament B, after defeat by Le Quanq Liem (Vietnam).
Review of January 13-20 sports events.
Chess Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian defeated Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi to climb to the 3rd place in the standings with 2.5 points at the 73rd Tata SteelChess tournament on Wijk-aan-Zee. In the next round he will play v. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia). Gabriel Sargissian scored 2.5 points in tournament B, beating Wouter Spoelman of the Netherlands. In round 5, he will rival Li Chao (China).
Review of sports January 10-13 events.
Football: FIFA published the rankings of national teams, with Armenia retaining 60th place with 515 points. The standings of Armenia’s rivals in group stage of European Championship are as follows: Russia - 13th, Slovakia - 20th, Ireland - 35th, Macedonia - 81st, Andorra - 202nd. Spain top the ranking list, followed by Netherlands and Germany (1887, 1723 and 1485 points respectively).
On July 6, 2016, Manchester United officially declared acquisition of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the midfielder of the Armenian national team and Borussia Dortmund. Mkhitaryan joins the club on a four-year deal, with the option of a further year. Borussia sold the 27-year-old for a record $42 million, thus making him the most expensive player from the post-Soviet area.


This installment of the Caster Prestige Archetype-series clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1.5 pages SRD, 1 page blank, leaving us with 5.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
That out of the way, let us take a look at the class herein, with is built on the chassis of wizard and the Mage of the Third Eye PrC, with d6 HD, 2 + Int skills per level, with d6 HD, 2 + Int skills per level, full spellcasting progression, good Will-saves and 1/2 BAB-progression. Proficiency-wise, they only get club, dagger, dart and quarterstaff. They inherit the wizard’s Scribe Scroll feat at 1st level. 4th level yields access to wizard school powers of any school of magic – he may choose a single arcane school SP with daily uses equal 3 + Int-mod uses; however, instead of this cap, use costs one hand pool point – more on that below. 8th and 12th level yield new school SPs that adhere to aforementioned paradigms.
Now, what’s this hand pool? This pool refreshes upon preparing spells and nets 3 + 1/2 class level + Intelligence modifier pool points. Expending one point from this pool as a standard action makes a melee weapon fly instantly to a target within 30 ft. and attacks it, before returning to the mage. The attack is treated as a ranged attack, but is not governed by Dexterity, but by Intelligence. Combat maneuvers may not be performed at range.
2nd level yields +1/2 class level to Spellcraft, with 3rd providing Craft Wondrous Item and 5th yielding Craft Construct as bonus feats. Starting at 6th level, the class gains access to the option to expend a hand point to open the third eye for a minute. This provides +1 CL for divinations, darkvision 60 ft. constant detect magic, +8 to Perception to notice invisible creatures and the option to use aid another to provide a +1 bonus to CL or +2 bonus to concentration to another arcane caster.
At 7th level, the prestige archetype gains mending at will and may also use it offensively. This is a problem when you allow construct PCs, providing unlimited healing for them, so be aware of that potentially serious issue.
Starting at 9th level, the mage of the third eye halves the time it takes to craft constructs and may use Extend Spell and Widen Spell with conjuration (creation) spells. If the character has the feats, Extend Spell’s level-increase is eliminated and Widen Spell’s increase is reduced to 2. Starting at 10th level, the third eye may be activated as a move action and 2 hand pool points may be expended to add either arcane eye or see invisibility to the benefits of the respective use. Both effects may be added at once for an expenditure of 4 points.
Interesting: Starting at 14th level, any spell that creates an extradimensional space or demiplane or that moves creatures and objects through the Ethereal Plane, is doubled as though affected by Extend and Enlarge Spell sans affecting the spell’s level. At 16th level, the third eye may also be activated as a swift action, with the option to expend 4 points to gain greater arcane sight or true seeing‘s benefits. Once again, both may be used at once for a total cost of eight uses.
18th level yields the option to, as a standard action, sacrifice a prepared spell of 2nd level or higher to call a bound creature like an animal companion, eidolon, familiar, etc. to the mage – including dominated creatures, created constructs, etc. The range of this effect is governed by the spell sacrificed. Very cool. As a capstone, the mage may extend the power of the third eye for free and may also turn it off for free.
As per the tradition of this new series, we receive information on using arcanist, cleric, oracle, psychic, and witch as alternate chassis-bases, so if you wanted to play a mage of the third eye based on one of those classes, you’re in luck – the modifications generally make sense to me and allow for interesting tweaks of the engine. The prestige archetype does include a significant array of class-specific favored class options for core races and unusual races and the benefits are decent.
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no glaring glitches apart from minor, non-rules-relevant inconsistencies. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color standard with PDG’s signature purple highlights and is pretty printer-friendly. Huge kudos: The pdf comes, in spite of its brevity, with full, nested bookmarks, making navigation extremely user-friendly!
Carl Cramér’s mage of the third eye is definitely a cool, evocative prestige archetype. The class is versatile and works smoother than the base PrC. The respective abilities are well-dispersed as well…but the potential for infinite construct PC healing is a gross oversight that drags down the class a notch – which is why I will settle on a final verdict of 4 stars. If construct races are no thing in your game, you may consider the verdict to be 0.5 stars higher.
You can get this nice prestige archetype here on OBS!


I always get mixed message from the IT industry about skills availability. One side says there is a skills shortage while another says there is not. Some say there are good opportunities in Computer Science and some say there are not.
The offshoring of IT work is always seen as a major hinderance to the UK IT profession. I could porobably do an entire blog or two dedicated to this subject alone.
I recently wrote a blog about how UK IT professionals are themsleves migrating for pastures new.
The figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that Computer Science graduates are the largest group of unemployed graduates in the UK.
These figures are from July and show that 17% of 2009 computer science graduates were unemployed. This is the highest and the average graduate unemployment is 10%.
The continued offshoring of IT work and the use of Intra Company Transfers (ICTs) to bring in workers from overseas is a major cause according to Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch.
His comments were made in a Home Affairs Select Committee which discussed immigration yesterday – see it here.
Here is a blog post I did earlier with the statistics on the number of immigrant workers in the UK and how many are using the ICT route.
Also thanks to Argiebee for you contribution.
Here is the full unemployment rate for 2009 graduates in different professions.
It is not just 2009 computer graduates. HESA have been producing the report on graduate employment after 6 months of graduation for the last 4 years and, for 2006, 2007 and 2008 graduates, computer science graduates topped the unemployment figures. Even media studies graduates are better off, and philosophy and history graduates are significantly less likely to be unemployed.
Behind these figures, a third of computer science graduates that do get jobs are not in professional, associate professional or technical jobs I.e. probably not in IT.
Thanks ArgieBee. I think I will do a follow up with more detailed information.
I graduated in 2007 with a CS degree and I've never had an issue trying to find work starting as a Java developer. I think the hardest part was getting onto the ladder and once I was there moving around has not been much of an issue. And yes I do a proper job having worked at major IT firms (fortune 500) since my graduation. The figures would have you believe differently so who knows.
One thing that this article does not tell is what is the skil level of the IT workers who are unemployed. It's not like the countries doing the offshore work has 0% unemployment rates!
I definitely wouldn't have hired 17% of the people in my final year project group.
How many on your courses got IT/computer related Jobs?
The figures suggest that last year it was about 40% of those that graduated. About 20% were still studying/post grads.
My employer used to run an IT graduate scheme, which took on approx 25 grads each year. Then they started offshoring all the technical work to India, so they reduced the numbers by half.
In the past 3 years they've started to use Tata Consulting Services for resources to work on projects in the UK and they reduced the graduate intake to approx 5 - 6. And last year they closed down the graduate scheme because their new model meant everything was either done in India or by 3rd party vendors in the UK who secured resources from India and brought them to the UK.
I think computer science graduates have had the highest unemployment rate since 2001. In 2000 the unemployed rose. I think the IT industry is ruined, engineering is ruined as well.
The title should have been: "Is offshoring making BAD Computer Science graduates the largest unemployed group?"
You imply CS is a superset of coding, but I don't think it is - at least not in the sense of what you learn getting a CS degree, whether BS, MS, or PhD. Software development, especially as it relates to teams and large-scale apps is not something learned while getting a CS degree. So, while CS is indeed much, much more than coding, it does not encompass all that is involved with coding professionally.
If there are 65,000 H1-B holders being employed (and they're probably clustered in a few urban areas) how does that lower expectations for programmer salaries in general in those areas?
Every company I've interviewed with in the last few months has an outsource component to their IT business. Between outsourcing and H1-B abuse, it is hurting employment here.
"People who have written a few small programs in college sometimes think that writing large, professional programs is the same kind of work-only on a larger scale. It is not the same kind of work. I can build a beautiful doghouse in my backyard in a few hours. It might even take first prize at the county fair's doghouse competition. But that does not imply that I have the expertise to build a skyscraper. The skyscraper project requires an entirely more sophisticated kind of expertise. The difference in complexity between student programs and professional programs can be just as great, and non-professional programmers -underestimate the difference in required expertise at their own peril."
"When workers educated as computer scientists begin working on production systems, they often design and build software that is too frail for production use, or that’s unsafe. They focus narrowly and deeply on minor considerations to the exclusion of other factors that are more important. They might spend two days hand-tuning a sorting algorithm instead of two hours using a code library or copying a suitable algorithm from a book. The typical computer science graduate typically needs several years of on-the-job training to accumulate enough practical knowledge to build minimally satisfactory production software without supervision. Without appropriate formal education, some software developers work their entire careers without acquiring this knowledge."
Predictably, the UK industry has responded to this problem by eliminating most entry level jobs, shipping the rest offshore or filling them with equally inexperienced - but much cheaper - imported computing trainees, and firing all the more experienced staff who might be able to impart the necessary skills to the next generation.
But when they've trashed the IT industry, which industry will they go for next in this ever-accelerating global slash-and-burn war on working people? Perhaps if they start outsourcing journalism, somebody might actually pay attention.
First they came for the steelworkers, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a steelworker.
Then they came for the miners and I did not speak out -- because I was not a miner.
Then they came for the IT workers and I did not speak out -- because I was not an IT worker.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
We appreciate you giving us your time and views.
By the way journalism is already outsourced. The web has brought about citizen journalism. Anybody with a smartphone and a camera can call themselves a journalist these days. They can make more money than us poor hacks.
There is even a writing pool being created in India to offer websites quick news at low cost.
Nobody is safe. Even those well protected workers on the continent will see offshoring hit them soon.
Where are you based Matt? We should meet up.
email me on karl.flinders@rbi.co.uk if you fancy lunch.
Indian should first strive for equality and fair treatment of its own citizens with in country rather than crowing about american protectionism.
Protectionism is openly practiced in informal way in states like maharashtra and Gujarat, Tamilnadu, non locals are not expected to stay in any IT company for more than two years and non local will be sacked after 2 years of working (if they dont leave voluntarily) so that they dont grow up the mangement ladder.
This phenomenon is very marked in the city of Pune where non maharashtrians are strictly forbidden from management roles in pune companies.
Pune has a few hundreds of Management institutes which charge about a million rupees(capitation fee) for the poor quality 18 month MBA course and provide placement (in collusion with HR department of companies in Pune).
The current working conditions in Indian IT sectors are already bordering on slave labour with people made to put in 12-14 hours of work daily an being expected to work on weekends voluntarily (without compensation). Each cycle of recession brought its dose of deteoration in working conditions. Many IT firms in India openly flout labour laws and indulge in exploitative employment. IBM india job portal seeks confirmation from applicants that they will work extended hours and weekends for indefinite period without compensation of time, and log only 8 hours in the time sheet.
One element that is rarely discussed is risk. Like many others the bank I work for is off-shoring the bulk of it's IT work. This leaves no one on shore with the necessary skills to a) Check systems for fraud and b) Fix urgent issues. With no new people there is no pipe-line feeding the on-shore IT community. Since the banks nearly brought the country to it's knees I would have expected better regulation to ensure someone was left "watching the shop".
After all would you put the defence of the country in the hands of a third party.


WASHINGTON—James Webb Baker Jr., 58, of Seattle, pleaded guilty today to one count of voter intimidation and one count of identification fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Prior to the 2012 federal elections, Baker created and sent 200 fake voter eligibility letters to Republican Party donors across Florida that questioned the recipients’ citizenship status. During the plea hearing, Baker admitted that he intended the letters to look as if they were written by county elections officials and that his purpose in sending the letters was to intimidate the recipients and interfere with their right to vote.
According to the evidence presented in court proceedings and documents, in October 2012, Baker read about the efforts of the Florida governor and the Florida secretary of state to remove the names of voters from the official Florida county lists of eligible voters. Angered by what he believed to be an attempt to suppress voter turnout, specifically of Hispanic voters who would vote for candidates of the Democratic Party, Baker created “false” or “copycat” voter eligibility letters of the actual letters sent by county officials. Baker sent his letters, which questioned the recipient’s eligibility to vote, to 200 Republican Party donors. The letters required the recipients to complete a voter eligibility form within 15 days or else their name would be removed from the voter registration rolls. Baker inserted a line of text in bold stating that a non-registered voter who casts a vote may be subject to criminal sanctions.
The letters looked almost identical to official county Supervisor of Elections letters and included the county official’s name, letterhead, address, and contact information. During the plea proceedings, Baker admitted to making several changes to the original official letters in order to stress the threats that the recipients would lose their right to vote and/or be imprisoned if they did not first document their citizenship and right to vote in person to the registrar.
“This joint investigative effort is yet another example of the fortitude and commitment of our collective agencies to protect our citizen’s individual and constitutional rights,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Wysopal for the FBI Tampa Field Office.
This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Mark Blumburg and Trial Attorney William E. Nolan of the Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Mosakowski of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.


LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - The battle to become the mobile partner of BT intensified on Thursday as the chairman of O2’s Spanish owner, Telefonica, flew to London and rival suitor EE’s owners indicated they were willing to offer more attractive terms to seal a deal.
BT has been in talks with Telefonica and EE’s owners, Orange and Deutsche Telekom for nearly a month about a deal to buy one of the mobile operators, putting the British telecom firm in an unusually strong position to negotiate a deal.
People familiar with the situation have said Telefonica is willing to agree a deal which includes taking some shares in BT and other sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday Orange and Deutsche are also now open to accepting BT stock.
Three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said BT was expected to choose between the two firms by early next week, with an announcement possibly coming earlier than that. Telefonica’s chairman, Cesar Alierta, was flying to London on Thursday afternoon to help lobby for his side.
A deal with Telefonica would return O2 to its original owner, as it was demerged from a heavily indebted BT via a share flotation in 2001 and subsequently bought by Telefonica in early 2006.
A return to the mobile market now would give BT a strong position as the UK consumer telecoms market converges with single operators offering “multi-play” packages of fixed and mobile broadband, telephony and pay-TV services.
But among the issues the BT board has to weigh up is whether it would rather have Telefonica, or France’s Orange and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom on its shareholder register.
Telefonica has had a famously difficult relationship with a previous partner, Telecom Italia, where it has been its largest shareholder but is now in a gradual process of selling out.
Telefonica is also seen as the most aggressive among the three companies and its ambition to consolidate the markets where it operates could in the long run lead them to eye more control over BT, said one of the sources.
Orange and Deutsche have also had a sometimes strained relationship in running EE.
Symptomatic of the heightened state of merger activity in the telecoms industry as services converge, Hutchison’s 3 Group is expected to shortly line up a bid for whichever mobile group misses out on a deal with BT, two other sources said.
BT, Telefonica, Orange and Deutsche Telekom all declined to comment.


Age: Approximately 45,000 years old, dating to the period when Homo sapiens and Neanderthals first started hanging out.
What are ugly friends for? They make you look good.
How do they do that? Through the “ugly-friend effect”, wherein the proximity of your less attractive chum makes you more attractive to strangers by comparison.
I’ve never heard of this phenomenon. It’s nothing new, although the idea gained a certain prominence with the 2015 release of teen film The Duff (pictured above) – Duff being an acronym for “designated ugly fat friend”.
I find the whole notion callous, superficial and unscientific. It may well be the first two, but not the third. According to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science, the ugly-friend effect is real.
They sent scientists out on the pull? No. Study participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of faces in photographs. When they were later reshown those pictures flanked by photos of plainer folk, their original ratings went up.
I suppose there’s a brutal logic to that. In addition, the less attractive photo seemed to sharpen critical faculties all round. “We found that the presence of a distractor face makes differences between attractive people more obvious and that observers start to pull apart these differences, making them even more particular in their judgment,” said Dr Nicholas Furl, who ran the study.
So, in short, the company of an unsightly wingman – or wingwoman – is the key to dating success. That was, I believe, the study’s official finding.
What if all your mates are better looking than you? And asking for an ugly friend. Everybody is somebody’s ugly friend, but some of us have more ugly friends than others.
Do you mean I might have been deployed as an ugly friend without even knowing? That possibility cannot be ruled out.
I can’t help thinking there might be something vaguely unethical about the whole strategy. We can talk about that later. You just keep standing right where you are, and I’ll order us two more drinks.
OK. How does my hair look? For our purposes, it’s perfect.


When I first encountered iTunes, the wildly popular music app that allows fans to compile their own collections and digital library, I was agog. After 20 years of amassing music, I had more than 4,000 albums, most of them stacked precariously in my basement.
The more I used iTunes, the more slavish my devotion grew. If I wanted to play a particular song, I no longer had to go hunting through those stacks. I just clicked a button. If I wanted to make a mixed CD -- a process that had taken me hours, particularly in the cassette era -- I had only to create a new playlist. And if I heard a killer song at a party or on the radio, there was a handy online store where I could instantly download that track for a buck.
But for all the joys of such wizardry, I've been experiencing a creeping sense of dread recently when it comes to iTunes, a dark hunch that technology has impoverished the actual experience of listening to music.
See, back when I was a kid in the '70s, the way I listened to music was pretty simple. I put an LP on the turntable, dropped the needle, then sat on the living room rug and listened to every single note. If I liked the record a lot, I would listen to it two or three times in a row, usually with the album cover on my lap, so I could study the lyrics and artwork.
In other words, I considered listening to an album an activity in and of itself. It was not something I did while working on homework, let alone while checking e-mail or thumbing out text messages.
If I listened carefully enough, in fact, the songs allowed me to tap into certain volatile emotions that felt otherwise out of reach. When I closed my eyes and immersed myself in Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke," for instance, I was overcome by a rare and all-encompassing optimism. AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" filled me with the intoxicating power of my own aggression. "Can't Stand Losing You" by the Police allowed me to accept my own romantic woe as entirely justified and maybe even somewhat comic.
I really miss the fact that listening to music used to be a concerted sonic and emotional event, rather than the backing track to some flashing screen. It was more inconvenient, to be sure. But for me, this inconvenience was part of the whole point.
I liked that I could only listen to my albums on a turntable in the living room. I liked yearning for my favorite records. I can still remember spending the entire day at school counting the minutes until I could get home to listen to the transcendent power chords of Styx's "Paradise Theater."
I even liked that there was a whole process involved before you got to the songs. You had to thumb through your collection, put the record on the turntable and then set the needle down with the utmost care.
Listening to the opening notes of my favorite songs sent shivers down my spine. I felt the same way about listening to them on the radio. I used to lie in bed for hours, waiting for KFRC in the Bay Area to play Alan O'Day's wonderfully cheesy single, "Undercover Angel." The song, when the DJ finally played it, felt like a gift fate had bestowed specifically on me.
Look, there's no question that technology has made music cheaper and more accessible. But I wonder if it hasn't been made less sacred. The ease with which we can hear any song at any moment we want no matter where we are (and often for free) has diluted the very act of listening, rendering it just another channel on our ever-expanding dial of distractions.
I'm sure if I tried to explain this line of reasoning to a teenager, it would sound like a lame and predictable celebration of the olden days. Then again, chances are today's teenagers will look back on iTunes with the same misty nostalgia I reserve for my LPs and CDs.
Steve Almond is the author of "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life," to be published in April.


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Dozens of countries signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons on Wednesday amid tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, although the United States, Britain, France and others boycotted the event at the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons will enter into force 90 days after 50 countries have ratified it. Only a few states were due to deposit their ratification on Wednesday.
“There remain some fifteen thousand nuclear weapons in existence. We cannot allow these doomsday weapons to endanger our world and our children’s future,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said as he opened the treaty for signing.
The treaty was adopted in July by two-thirds of the 193 U.N. member states after months of talks, which the United States, Britain, France and others skipped. They instead pledged commitment to a decades-old Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.
The United States, Britain and France are among nine countries believed to have nuclear weapons.


At UN, US Susan Rice Confirms Stealth Myanmar Briefing, Speaks on Sudan Sit-Reps, Darfur Mission "Impediments"
UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- While military ruled Myanmar was on the November agenda of the UN Security Council, albeit in a footnote, it was removed from the agenda for December, during which the United States has the Council Presidency.
Early on December 2, Inner City Press was told that China had opposed the inclusion of Myanmar in the Program of Work, even as a footnote. It was agreed that, without giving the session a name, UN envoy Vijay Nambiar will brief the Council on his Thanksgiving weekend visit to the country on the afternoon of December 6, under “Any Other Business,” the Council's catch-all phrase.
But on December 6, the Program listed only the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Inner City Press asked Ambassador Rice along with questions on Sudan to confirm that there would in fact be a briefing on December 6, and whether the obviously deleted footnote had been Myanmar.
Ambassador Rice said that yes, Mister Nambiar will brief on December 6, and said that her copy of the Program of Work reflected that. She did not explain the missing footnote. Q&A here, from Minute 16:04.
Still she was more responsive than many in the press corps had expected. When her briefing was scheduled for 11:30, some UN correspondents speculated that it was so that no or few questions could be taken before the UN noon briefing.
As it turned out, Rice and the rest of the Council remained in session until 12:30, meeting “in real time” as one of them put it to Inner City Press on the crisis in Ivory Coast.
In Rice's briefing, Inner City Press asked about recent incidents in Sudan: the killing of students by the Sudanese authorities in South Darfur in connection with a meeting with joint UN mediator Bassole, and Khartoum's bombing of Northern Bahr al Ghazal state in South Sudan, which even UNMIS confirmed.
Rice said that all Council members get “sit-reps” from the UN, and can ask for more information. Inner City Press followed up, does UNAMID in Darfur under Ibrahim Gambari do enough to verify reports of attacks?
Rice answered diplomatically that since UNAMID is one of the largest UN missions and has protection of civilians in its mandate, she has to assume that when UNAMID doesn't go and check, there is some other impediment.
But would such impediments be Sudanese government prohibitions, or Gambari's proclivities?
Footnote: The Wikileaks scandals had to be asked about, and were. But they were initially asked about in a way that certainly pleased, if not was negotiated by, some surmised, the US Mission: did the leak hurt Ambassador Rice's work? To the same questioner, she said that she will go to the correspondents' association's dinner and fundraiser, but there better be good music. We'll see.


Norman Witmer has graduated from the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Leader Development and Assessment Course, also known as "Operation Warrior Forge," at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash.
The 32 days of training provide professional training and evaluation for all cadets in the aspects of military life, administration and logistical support. The primary focus of the course is to develop and evaluate each cadet's officer potential as a leader by exercising the cadet's intelligence, common sense, ingenuity and physical stamina. The cadet command assesses each cadet's performance and progress in officer traits, qualities and professionalism while attending the course.
Cadets in their junior and senior year of college must complete the leadership development course. Upon successful completion of the course, the ROTC program, and graduation from college, cadets are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army, National Guard or Reserve.
He is the son of Norman Witmer and Rose Cowart of Beaufort and a 2007 graduate of Beaufort Academy.


A new enemy lures Oliver Queen back to Starling City and forces him to put on the hood once more.
Oliver calls in a favor from old friend John Constantine when things with Sara take a turn for the worse.
Arrow returns from its midseason break as Oliver seeks revenge for Felicity.
Oliver and Diggle learn that Malcolm is planning to break Darhk out of prison.
Oliver teams up with a surprising force in an attempt to stop Damien Darhk and his magic once and for all.


Business journalists will be watching closely when a federal rule meant to prompt broader disclosure of information by publicly traded companies takes effect Oct. 23.
Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) bars companies from selectively releasing information. It’s meant to stop insider whispering that can move stock prices.
The rule won’t affect old-fashioned enterprise reporting about companies, but it could squelch the hand-delivered mergers scoop, said Jonathan Lansner, a financial columnist for The Orange County Register in California. Lansner said implications will become more clear over several months, as federal authorities decide how to interpret and enforce the rule.


A good recipe for laughter could be the blend of three Tri-City actors -- Steve Montgomery, Tim Harris and Katrina Carlson -- getting together for a bit of Murder at the Howard Johnson's.
The dinner theater makes its debut Oct. 3 at the Red Lion Hotel in Kennewick.
Murder at the Howard Johnson's follows the foibles of a husband and his philandering wife who bumble a murder plot against each other.
And if that isn't bad enough, the wife's lover suddenly switches sides and makes a feeble attempt to help the husband murder his wife.


Rock star wine label: When Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell climbed the sheer face of Yosemite”s El Capitan in January, they celebrated by popping the cork on a bottle of Iron Horse sparkling wine. Now the historic climb by these “rock stars” will be featured on the label of a bottle of bubbly. The bottle will be unveiled at the Earth Day festivities at Iron Horse Vineyards in Sonoma”s Russian River Valley.
The April 19 festivities will include an alfresco wine and food tasting, with bites from local chefs and sips from neighboring Green Valley wineries including Marimar Torres, MacPhail Family Wines and Dutton-Goldfield Winery. Jorgeson will speak about his El Capitan climb, which was seven years in the making. It took 19 days to ascend and summit the 3,000-foot Dawn Wall. Photos and video of the summit by photographer Jerry Dodrill will be on view. And the winery will honor Jorgeson and Caldwell”s heroic climb by releasing the 2010 Summit Cuve, a one-time only commemorative wine ($58), which guests can taste and purchase at the event.
Tickets for the Earth Day celebration are $65. There is a VIP reception ($250) with Jorgeson and Iron Horse founders Audrey and Barry Sterling. Details: www.bit.ly/FindYourSummit.