If past years are any indication, losing weight is probably the most popular New Year's resolution. To improve our (collective) chances of success this time around, we can utilize the power of technology to make our goals a reality. Two popular apps aim to help, but which is the better-designed product?
The first app to consider is the aptly named Lose It! It's available for both iPhones and Androids.
You can even use this app when you are not internet connected, a major advantage if you are relying on WiFi. Lose It! got an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars from Amazon reviewers and it is super easy to use. You can also add new foods and new exercises to their database, as well as set up new recipes for complicated foods. Logged it, you can back up your data, share your data with friends and tie in with your Fitbit.
A similar product, the MyFitnessPal app, received 4.8 out of 5 stars from Amazon reviewers.
Both apps allow you to scan the barcodes of packaged foods to input calories, and both have a database of other foods you can search to get approximate calorie counts. According to Salon.com writer Andrew Leonard, who tried both apps, the MyFitnessPal database is more extensive and flexible. It has more extensive set of features and functionality. However, the app does require internet connection to work.
If internet connection is an issue, Lose It! is the clear winner for working around this problem, but for users with consistent internet access, MyFitnessPal looks like a slighly better choice. The more extensive food database is an advantage, and the budget sheets on this app are easier on the eyes.
Both products are well-reviewed, so download your favorite and start calorie budgeting. You have nothing to lose but unwanted pounds!
Originally published January 2013 and updated January 2015.
DUO: Vehicle Name Stands for Doesn't Use Oil, but Does It Exist?


PHILADELPHIA — The Rev. Al Sharpton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich don’t agree on much, but a meeting with a group of inner-city charter school students on Tuesday left them with the same impression: There is hope for improving the U.S. education system.
Sharpton, a liberal Democrat, and Gingrich, a conservative Republican, joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the first stop of a “listening and learning” tour to find out which school strategies are working and why.
The odd couple of Gingrich and Sharpton found common ground in the concept that education is the new frontier on civil rights. President Barack Obama has a goal of turning around 5,000 failing schools across the U.S. in the next five years.
At Mastery, the trio met with about a dozen 11th graders who attended the school four years earlier when it was under district management. At that time, students said, kids ran wild, expectations were low and teachers didn’t care about the students — or even about teaching.
“It was horrible,” 17-year-old Donnell Clark said.
But since 2006, the school has been run by Mastery Charter Schools, a nonprofit that now has four campuses in Philadelphia serving 2,100 students. The Shoemaker campus visited Tuesday has outperformed some of its more affluent suburban counterparts on state standardized tests.
Clark and others told the education advocates that new teachers and staff made the difference by raising the academic bar, accepting no excuses and simply caring about their students.
“Teachers actually invest their time,” Clark said.
Public education in Philadelphia is a mixture of district-run schools, schools operated by private management companies and charter schools, which are public but operate independently from the district.
It is a high-poverty system where only about half the students can read and write at grade level. But bright spots like Mastery make Superintendent Arlene Ackerman optimistic that the district is “in a breakthrough mode,” and that a combination of reforms may be the best way to help students.
Ackerman, who sat in on the tour, plans to pursue a “renaissance” strategy similar to one Duncan did when he was schools chief in Chicago. Philadelphia’s first cohort of “renaissance schools,” to be identified later this fall, will be essentially shut down in June and reopened next fall with new staffs and new academic focus.
Gingrich, Sharpton and Duncan also visited Delaplaine McDaniel Elementary School in Philadelphia, a high-poverty school run by the district that met federal education standards for several consecutive years.
Gingrich said both schools give him “a sense of great hope” for bettering the U.S. education system, which lags many of its international counterparts.
When Mastery students talked about teachers not caring, Sharpton said he was reminded of his own school days. And hearing that achievement changed when expectations did “tells me a lot about what we have to do nationally on education reform,” he said.
Besides visiting classrooms, the group also had closed meetings with teachers, administrators and parents, where they were expected to discuss Obama’s education reform initiatives.
Future tour stops include New Orleans on Nov. 3 and Baltimore on Nov. 13.


The government was making baseless accusations against the UNP, after assuring the United Nations Human Rights Commission that war crimes allegations against the security forces would be investigated and those found guilty punished, General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake said yesterday.
He told a news conference in Colombo that when President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ministers go abroad, they play a completely different tune to the one they are used to while in Sri Lanka.
It was the External Affairs Minister G. L. Pieris and former Attorney General Mohan Pieris, who had requested time from the UNHRC to probe the actions of the security forces during the last stages of the war against the LTTE, while assuring it of instituting legal action against those who had violated the law, Attanayake said.
He said that the UNP was not interested in protecting the Rajapaksa regime, but was deeply concerned about the repercussions on the Sri Lankan people due to the inability of the "clique that calls the shots" to stomach their pride and behave in a manner that would not attract further international pressure and possible sanctions.
Commenting on the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee on the National Question, Attanayake said that without the participation of the Tamil National Alliance the entire process would become meaningless.
The government, should present a reasonable devolution package and then seek the views of all political parties, he said adding that the problems have been discussed for decades and it would be a meaningless exercise to go through the whole process once again.
The ethnic issue had dragged on for decades and it was high time the Rajapaksa regime stopped playing politics and took a sincere approach to devolving power within a unitary state, Attanayake observed.


Rediff.com » Getahead » Men, this is how you can fight infertility!
Men, this is how you can fight infertility!
Here are a few essential tips for men to fight infertility.
Infertility, for long has been primarily considered as a problem faced by only women.
But, many researches have been conducted to prove that men are equally responsible for being infertile.
In the contemporary society, one's profession and lifestyle plays a vital role in determining how fertile one is.
If one sits on a chair for longer duration, it can overheat their testicles.
Keeping a laptop on the lap for a prolonged period can result in a low sperm count.
Wearing tight pants can damage one's testicles and also cause infertility.
Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can also result in infertility.
Stress and anxiety also affects one's sperm count.
The harmful ingredients in tobacco smoking can kill sperm cells. On the other hand, alcohol does no good either.
Excessive alcohol consumption can reduce libido and also destroy the quality and structure of the sperm.
To combat stress, one can try mind relaxing exercises such as yoga, deep breathing, or even listen to soothing music. These activities shall help one in coping with everyday stress.
Lifting heavy weights can help one improve sperm concentration, but in case one is overdoing it, then it can be a cause of worry. Exercise in moderation for a healthy sperm count.
Consume healthy food such as nutritious vegetables, nuts and fresh fruits to improve sperm quality.
Vitamin C and E are very important for men.
Moreover, drinking four glasses of fresh orange juice a day can help the defective sperm count drop from 20 per cent to 11 per cent.
Sleep for at least seven to eight hours every day as it will help restore the reproductive system and reduces stress. Lack of sleep can disrupt one's cycle of sperm production.
One can also seek help to understand whether he needs to undergo any infertility treatment. However, sometimes basic lifestyle changes are enough to increase one's chances of conception.
Quit smoking. Your sperm is at risk!
VOTE: Are condom ads aired in India indecent?


Rupert Murdoch has never been a man to let details get in the way of a good headline. This week he accepted the accolade of being the most influential Australian of all time, even though by his own admission there were others on the shortlist who'd done a lot more to make the world a better place.
Surely he should be stripped of his title without further ceremony - and not because of the inconvenient little fact that he's been an American citizen for the past 21 years. His editors insist that he never influences the way they produce their papers. The politicians maintain that, for their part, they act in the best interests of the country, not those of Rupert Murdoch.
He may carry some clout in the boardroom, but in the cabinet room? Mr Murdoch should throw up his hands, give back the award and admit that he has no more influence over government policy than you or me. Less, in fact. At least we have a vote in this country.
In my spin-doctoring days I might have tried an argument like that, although not without that tell-tale flicker of a smile. It's true that Rupert Murdoch doesn't leave a paper trail that could ever prove his influence over policy, but the trail of politicians beating their way to him and his papers tells a different story.
There is no small irony in the fact that Tony Blair flew halfway round the world to address Mr Murdoch and his News International executives in the first year of his leadership of the Labour party and that he's doing so again next month in what may prove to be his last.
I have never met Mr Murdoch, but at times when I worked at Downing Street he seemed like the 24th member of the cabinet. His voice was rarely heard (but, then, the same could have been said of many of the other 23) but his presence was always felt.
No big decision could ever be made inside No 10 without taking account of the likely reaction of three men - Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Rupert Murdoch. On all the really big decisions, anybody else could safely be ignored.
I was reminded just how touchy Downing Street is about Mr Murdoch when I submitted the manuscript of my book, The Spin Doctor's Diary, to the Cabinet Office. The government requested some changes, as is its right. When the first batch came through, it was no surprise that Tony Blair's staff were deeply unhappy. The real surprise was that no fewer than a third of their objections related to one man - not Tony Blair or even Gordon Brown, as I might have expected, but Rupert Murdoch.
In my first few weeks as Alastair Campbell's deputy, I was told by somebody who would know that we had assured Mr Murdoch we wouldn't change policy on Europe without talking to him first. The Cabinet Office insisted that I couldn't say in my book that such a promise had been made because I did not know it for a fact. With some reluctance I turned the sentence around so that it read: "Apparently News International are under the impression we won't make any changes without asking them." Every other request relating to Murdoch was rejected. It seemed to me that the government was simply trying to avoid political embarrassment on a subject of wholly legitimate public interest.
All discussions - and let us hope the word "negotiations" isn't more appropriate - with Rupert Murdoch and with Irwin Stelzer, his representative on earth, were handled at the very highest level. For the rest of us, the continued support of the News International titles was supposed to be self-evident proof of the value of this special relationship. The Sun and the Times, in particular, received innumerable "scoops" and favours. In return, New Labour got very sympathetic coverage from newspapers that are bought and read by classic swing voters - on the face of it, too good a deal to pass up.
In fact, New Labour gave away too much and received too little that it couldn't have expected to get anyway.
Rupert Murdoch loves power and loves the feeling that he has the ear of other powerful men. Who else was going to give him that feeling? Would he get it from William Hague? Iain Duncan Smith? Michael Howard?
It may be that Rupert Murdoch has never once vetoed a government decision, nor tried to do so. I just don't know. What I do know is that, as the entries in my book show, I spent far too much time trying to stop ministers saying anything positive about the euro. When two prominent Conservatives, furious at Tory policy on gay rights and Section 28, decided to defect to Labour, I made them say that it was over our management of the economy. I attended many crisis meetings at the Home Office - the influence of the Murdoch press on immigration and asylum policy would make a fascinating PhD thesis.
Now Mr Murdoch tells us he might support David Cameron, and his papers take regular potshots at Gordon Brown. Do Messrs Cameron and Brown take notice? You bet they do. In a close election the support of News International will be courted as never before. They know that Rupert Murdoch likes to back a winner and that it is support in the country that separates the winners from the losers, but they won't dare risk leaving it to the voters. So in the meantime, Rupert, much as it pains me to say so, you can keep the award.


neighborhood restaurant & gathering place. That vision became a reality when the first McAlister’s opened its doors in 1989. The menu then would still feel familiar today packed with the craveable sandwiches, spuds and salads we’re known for – and of course our famous McAlister’s Sweet Tea. Not only has our menu remained true to its roots, so have our values. Today, with more than 400 restaurants in 28 states, we’re still dedicated to serving great food with genuine hospitality. We invite you to come for the food and stay for the experience. Bring your family, meet your neighbors, celebrate that big win with your teammates or make new friends that share the same love for sweet tea and sandwiches as you – we mean it when we say that our table is your table.


Former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy Monday termed as 'unreasonable' opposition parties' demand to verify at least 50 per cent of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
He reiterated that EVMs are credible even without VVPAT.
"And this has been confirmed not by me, but by technical experts, and nobody has still been able to find out any fault; there can be human errors in operating machines," Krishnamurthy, who oversaw the 2004 general elections, told PTI.
Demanding 50 per cent paper trail verification, particularly in the light of the Supreme Court judgement, is unreasonable, according to him.
Krishnamurthy was referring to the SC earlier this month directing the Election Commission to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one polling booth to five booths in every Assembly segment.
"As far as VVPAT is concerned, the opposition, particularly if they lose elections, will say even 50 per cent is not adequate, and say 100 per cent is required", he said.
"This is unending game; it's unfortunate, and I think the opposition parties should learn to respect the rule of law", Krishnamurthy said.
"Even after 100 per cent VVPAT (verification), they will say VVPAT is not good".
He also warned against returning to paper ballot voting, saying it has been the most misused system.
"I think political parties do not realise the dangerous consequences of paper ballot in a country like India where violence, hatred and hooliganism prevail during election time," Krishnamurthy said.
Several opposition parties, including the Congress, TDP, SP, CPI and CPI(M), said Sunday they will move the Supreme Court again to seek verification of at least 50 per cent of the polled votes against VVAPT slips.
The demand by the parties comes days before the 2nd phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on April 18, when a total of 97 constituencies across 13 states go to polls.
The first of the seven-phase polls was held on April 11.
A VVPAT is an auxiliary, independent device linked to an EVM to allow voters to see if the votes cast by them have gone to the right candidate. The VVPATs are also meant to help detect any possible "election fraud" or malfunction of EVMs.
The Election Commission of India has decided to use VVAPTs with all the EVMs in the ongoing elections.


More than 700 homes lying empty for more than six months were brought back into use across Scotland last year.
The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership helped local authorities and others bring 742 long-term empty private homes back into use – more than two every day.
Since 2010/11, 3,216 of these properties have been brought back into use through the partnership, with an average total market value of around £500 million.
However, 37,135 private homes in Scotland are still empty and have been so for more than six months.
In its annual report, the partnership, funded by the Scottish Government and hosted by housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland, praised the progress so far, but said much more needs to be done.
The report makes a series of recommendations, including calling for a compulsory sale order power for vacant and derelict land and buildings, and a £3m, three-year empty homes feasibility fund to help owners assess project feasibility.
Other recommendations include all councils having an empty homes strategy and local authorities earmarking part of the Vacant Dwelling Council Tax Levy to fund an empty homes service.
The report found of the long-term empty private homes brought back into use last year, selling privately was the most popular option followed by the owners moving in and by renting out privately.
It found 20 councils now have an active empty homes officer and 26 local authorities are applying the Vacant Council Tax Dwelling Levy, which doubles council tax on empty homes.
Shaheena Din, national project manager of the partnership, said: “Our latest annual report shows that Scotland continues to make good progress on reducing the number of privately-owned empty homes across Scotland, but there is a long way to go.
Housing minister Kevin Stewart said: “Long-term empty homes can be a blight on communities and are a wasted resource at a time when we need more homes, bringing them back into use is a cost-effective way to increase supply and support community regeneration.
“The work of empty homes officers across Scotland has proven invaluable, and local authorities across the country are embracing its work.


A US judge last week denied police a warrant to unlock a number of devices using biometrics identifiers like fingerprints and faces, extending more privacy to device owners than previous recent cases.
The order comes from Northern California Federal District Judge Kandis Westmore in response to a request by the government to search and seize the devices found at a premises in Oakland, California, connected to two suspects.
The suspects are believed to be involved an attempt to extort payment from a victim through Facebook Messenger by threatening to release an embarrassing video.
Judge Westmore in her order found authorities did have probable cause to apply for search warrant but denied the request because it was overly broad for not being restricted to the two individuals under investigation.
Instead, the warrant would have allowed authorities to seize and search any device found at the location in question, and to force the unlocking of said devices – no matter who they belonged to – by compelled use of biometric controls. In this case applying the owner's finger to a fingerprint sensor if present or holding the device up to owner's face if it relies on a system like Apple's Face ID or Samsung's iris scanner.
The government, the judge said, is free to submit a more narrow search warrant application, but she made clear that she believes device owners should not have to testify against themselves, in accordance with US Fifth Amendment protection.
"Even if probable cause exists to seize devices located during a lawful search based on a reasonable belief that they belong to a suspect, probable cause does not permit the Government to compel a suspect to waive rights otherwise afforded by the Constitution, including the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination," she wrote in her order.
Last June, the US Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. US that the government violated the Fourth Amendment – which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures – by collecting cell phone location records without a warrant. It was an major privacy victory and a sign that the Supreme Court is willing to address issues raised by changing technology.
Privacy advocates have also argued that authorities should not be able to force people to unlock their devices because compelled production of passwords is testimonial.
Courts have accepted that where the evidence being sought was not already known to authorities and other exceptions don't apply. But they've not extended protection to biometric identifiers; authorities have been allowed, for example, to apply people's fingerprints to device fingerprint sensors to open seized devices.
Where in the past judges have drawn a distinction between forcing a person to reveal a known password and the act of applying a person's finger to a sensor, Judge Westmore sees no difference in this instance. "In this context, biometric features serve the same purpose of a passcode, which is to secure the owner's content, pragmatically rendering them functionally equivalent," she wrote.
In a phone interview with The Register, Greg Nojeim, director of the Freedom, Security and Technology Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the courts disagree about whether faceprints and fingerprints can be considered testimonial.
"It is a significant ruling because the other cases in which judges held that fingerprints or faceprints were not testimonial came before the Supreme Court's decision in Carpenter case," he said. "Now you've got a magistrate judge relying in the reasoning of the Supreme Court that digital is different."
Legal scholars have suggested the ruling could be challenged. Last year, when an Ohio man was forced to provide access to his Face ID-protected iPhone (US v. Grant Michalski), USC Gould law professor Orin Kerr, said at the time via Twitter that he saw no Fifth Amendment issues. He showed similar skepticism in a tweet on Monday by questioning the judge's Fifth Amendment reasoning.
Nojeim suggests the Supreme Court may have to clarify the situation.


Proceeds from the 2016 edition of ETV's annual charity telethon "Jõulutunnel" will go to support the improvement of fitness opportunities for persons with mobility impairments, for whom two dedicated fitness centers outfitted with specialized equipment will be built in Tallinn and Tartu.
"Opportunities for movement and fitness are very important for all of us," said Estonian Union of Persons with Mobility Impairment (ELIL) rehabilitation center director Piret Vahula. "That is true for people with mobility impairments as well. Unfortunately their fitness opportunities are limited. It isn't possible to use regular gym equipment in a wheelchair, and there is no way to train with very small loads, as these people often need."
All of the equipment to be purchased with the money raised is specially developed and constructed with the particular needs of special needs and rehabilitation in mind, including those of wheelchair users.
The fitness centers will be available for use by people of all ages who may need it — whether they have suffered from a heart attack, stroke, neurological disorder, multiple sclerosis, back or brain injury or work or domestic accident, physical exercise under the guidance of an experienced therapist goes a long way in improving movement among these patients.
By Sunday night, over 200,000 euros had been raised, which will allow for the opening of the fitness center in Tallinn as welll as support the purchase of some of the equipment for the fitness center planned for Tartu. While the total amount needed to fully equip both fitness centers is 230,000, ELIL director Auli Lõoke confirmed that while the total raised on Christmas Day came up short, the Tartu center would still be built.
"Jõulutunnel" kicked off at 10 a.m. on Christmas Day and included a total of five hours of live broadcasts, including two held at Tallinn's St. Nicholas' Church.
The "Jõulutunnel" donation lines are open from Nov. 21 through midnight on Dec. 26. To donate 5 euros, call 900 771; to donate 10, call 900 7702; to donate 25, call 900 7703.
Donations can also be made by bank transfer to the "Eesti Liikumispuudega Inimeste Liit," IBAN EE512200221030393016; be sure to note "Jõulutunnel" in the details line.
Previous partner organizations include the Estonian Cancer Society, the Estonian Union for Child Welfare, the Estonian Food Bank and the Foundation Maarja Päikesekodu.


It is Friday night. I’m 30 years old, alone on a fake-fur blanket in the back of a cold Transit van. Most of my generation are out there in pubs, or indoors by the telly, canoodling, arguing or cooking, or going across to the thermostat to turn the heating up. I’m parked on a Cornish industrial estate with no warmth except the tiny, wavering plume of heat that rises out of my lantern. This place is so lonesome that even the doggers, boy-racers and stoners have spurned it. I curse myself silently. You’re not a Traveller, my mate, you’re a div. What sort of Traveller would come and sleep here on their own? I have covered thousands of miles in my van in a bid to uncover the history of Gypsy Britain. But the road is proving tough.
Gypsy reality is partly composed of fairgrounds and showgrounds, picturesque lakeside halts, sheltered commons, bright heaths. But it also comprised frozen copses and hilltops. Old maintenance roads with potholes and bad light. Scrapyards. Council waste ground. Lay-bys near the edges of tips. Slag-heaps and drained marshes. Fen ends. Chalk pits, yards and quarries. These are the stopping places, these fringes and in-between places. They are the places that nobody lives except Travellers – or nobody but those who share ancient connections with them: gamekeepers and poachers, scrap-metal men, horsewomen, rangers and shepherds. They are the old nomads’ haunts of the island. Many are smashed and built over; some – magically – are still more or less just as they were in centuries long past. They form the hidden Gypsy and Traveller map of the country we live in: they are the bedrock of our reality and, perhaps, the antidote to the unending cycles of romanticisation and demonisation.
There is more to this Gypsy geography than a list of physical places. The stopping places themselves are an outgrowth of something non-physical, something that is ancient, unseen yet important, precious and reviled, envied and feared. This thing is the Gypsy belief – the core belief of the culture – that it is possible to live in a different way: in your own way, part of the world, but not imprisoned by the rules. That you can know the ropes and yet not be hemmed in by them. That you can dwell alongside the mainstream, while not being part of it. Otter-like, you can live in the bank of the river and swim and hunt there when you need to, and then climb back out with equal ease and alacrity. There is no better symbol of this belief than the network of atchin tans (stopping places) laced across Britain; they are historical, topographical proof that the Gypsy philosophy has existed here, that it still does, that it still can. By staying at the traditional stopping places, I hoped to answer the questions that had been following me, on and off, all my life. What is left of these places? What might we learn from them? What redemption might lie there, in a country that still passes new legislation aimed at ending the Traveller way of life? Is it still possible to live on the road? Was the end of the old Gypsy life a tragedy, or was it a case of good riddance to an irredeemably hard and pitiless life on the edge? Above all, I hoped to resolve the biggest question: the question of myself, whether I could make my peace with Gypsy culture. My conflict seemed to echo the wider tension between nomads and settled people that endures in modern Britain.
On the way to our regular pitch selling flowers in the marketplace in Petersfield, my elders would point and nod at empty spaces by the sides of the road, flat areas on verges and slightly raised banks, vacant pull-ins and lay-bys, and make comments as if there was something there, something I couldn’t see. They were glimmers of another world, but it felt as distant as the stars. I knew the places had something to do with the time they were “on the road” – most of my family were settled now, living in houses or caravans and mobile homes on private bits of land.
Travellers I knew from the east of England had lived rough deep into the recent past, still working the farms into the 1990s. By then, it had been the best part of 50 years since anyone in my family had depended on that kind of work. So it came as a shock to meet Travellers younger than me who had grown up picking turnips in January. They described reaching down with a gloved hand and grabbing hold of the big, leafy tops, how it would sometimes send a plug of ice shooting upwards.
Alongside selling flowers, my family had roofing and car-breaking businesses. We had a big field and a yard, a word that seemed to mean a place where all things might, and did, happen. Terriers, geese and perturbed-looking cockerels roamed in between the legs of cantankerous horses. Stables were stacked full of the musty paraphernalia of horsemanship, flower-selling, roofing and car respraying. Bits of cars lay everywhere, named as if they were the parts or clothes of people or animals: bonnets, boots, seats, wings, belts. There were brass-handled horsewhips, jangling harnesses, buckets of molasses-sprayed chaff and milled sugar-beet, bales of sweet-smelling fresh hay. But all of this old rustic stuff was stacked and wedged in among the hard and greasy gear of the family economy: gas bottles, blowtorches, leaky old engines, spray paint, rolls of lead, felt, and seemingly infinite stacks of every conceivable type of roof tile. A heavy boxing bag swung with barely perceptible creaks, keeping time in the half-light of the dusty old garage.
There were caravans there that we sometimes lived in and out of, especially in the summer. We never considered this odd, even though we also had a big house on the land that my grandad had built with his men. And there always seemed to be heavy and dangerous things lying close to hand. The hard stuff of motion was everywhere, although we were settled: cars, tractors and trucks, some brand-new, others eaten by weather and time; horses, ponies, traps, sulkies and carts; scattered wheels and bolts from Ford and Bedford lorries. And, hung from a barn door like a pair of swords and scabbing to ochre with rust, there were two axles rescued from the ashes of the last wagon owned by our family.
We had a name for ourselves: Travellers. In our case, it didn’t just mean anyone who travelled around, regardless of their race: to us it meant our people specifically, the Romanies of Britain. The first Romanies probably arrived on the British mainland towards the end of the 15th century, and had been a contentious presence ever since.
Wherever the Gypsies went, they took with them their strange tongue, Romani, and it was through this that the mystery of their origins was solved. An 18th-century German linguist called Johann Rüdiger overheard Gypsies talking, and was struck by the similarity of their speech to Indian languages. Later linguists, including the so-called “Romany Ryes” – rye being the Romani word for a gentleman – such as the English writer George Borrow and the Irish academic John Sampson, would identify layers of borrowings from Persian, Slavic and Romance languages in the Gypsies’ speech, using these to trace a philological map of their long road into the West. English Romani had German-derived words in it, like nixis, meaning “nothing”, and fogel for “smell”.
As for the name of the Romanies, it was derived from their own word for “man” or “husband”, rom, and it had nothing to do with Romania, which got its name from the Roman military camps which once filled its territory. The Gypsies called their language Romanes, an adverb meaning “like a rom”. To rokker Romanes meant, simply, to talk like a Gypsy and not like a gorjer – a non-Gypsy. The word gorjies comes from the old Romany word gadje or gadzhe, and though its form has mutated with time, its meaning is the same: the non-Gypsies, outsiders, the people-who-aren’t-us.
Almost everyone who has studied Romani in Britain has remarked on how adept its speakers are at coming up with names for things. In some ways, talking Romanes means having to be constantly inventive and alert, both in terms of creating words and also interpreting the new ones that get spun off the cuff and thrown into daily Traveller conversation. There is no stigma attached to inventing words, as there so often is in English; nor are new words looked down upon as annoying neologisms that we’d be better off without. Invented words are more likely to be smiled upon or chuckled at as evidence of a witty, intelligent mind; one with a good and flexible grasp of the ancient Travellers’ tongue.
Besides, if Romani is to retain one of the functions which has kept it alive thus far – and which it has in common with almost all minority languages – namely, to stop outsiders knowing what you are talking about, then it will always be necessary to invent new ways of saying things. According to a Belarusian Romany man I once met, a word is no longer a truly Romani word once its meaning becomes known amongst the gadzhe – it is useless, dead, and best left where it is. This is an extreme opinion, but it points to a common anxiety: that the language will lose its power if it becomes too widely known. Yet words come and go as they please, like mood and temper; traded by friends, explained by lovers, and hurled across the fray. Every Gypsy who “gives away” the Romani language risks the accusation of treason.
In the old Romany tradition, you can only call yourself a true Romany Gypsy – one of the kaulo ratti, the black blood – if all your ancestors, as far as you know, are of the tribe. I can trace my Romany ancestry back at least six generations; I was brought up to know the Romani language; to learn the old tales and to keep the Romanipen – the cleanliness taboos of the old-fashioned Gypsies. I was raised, and still live, in a Romany psychological realm; a mental Gypsyland.
I have both Gypsy and non-Gypsy blood and so, in many Travellers’ eyes, I do not have the right to call myself a true-bred Romany. It does not matter that there is no such thing as a racially pure Gypsy: over a 1,000-year migration it is virtually impossible that there will have been no mingling in the line. The mixing in my family had happened within living memory, and this meant I was at best a poshrat – a mixed-blood Gypsy – and at worst a “half-chat gorjie” or, as a friend once memorably put it, a “fucked-up half-breed”.
I do not look like most people’s idea of a typical Gypsy, my blue eyes and fair hair belying my origins, my picture of myself. My identity was inside me and the outside didn’t match up. It imbued me with a tetchy defensiveness, and a resentment of people whom I then believed had simpler ethnicities: Scottish, Nigerian, Han.
I felt so close to my roots, and especially to the Romany women who had brought me up – my mum; her mother, Gran; and Gran’s mother, Nan. But this seemed to count for little in a world which, for all its modernity, still believed in labels such as “half-caste”, “full-blood” and “mixed race”. Later, as a teenager, I started carrying photographs of darker-haired family members in my wallet, to challenge the disbelief of those who thought I was lying about my Romany background. I lived in a world that wasn’t sure if I really belonged in it, and so I wasn’t sure, either. Regardless, it was where I was. Our family were the mistrusted local Gypsies, the bane of the decent, upstanding parish council. We were “gyppos”, “pikeys”, “diddakois”, “them lot”. Locally, we were infamous. The divide was crystal clear.
Compared with the insults and slurs, the words Romanies, Gypsies, and Travellers were dignified, and we used all of them interchangeably. The greater part of our family owned their own yards and bungalows, but the name Travellers still seemed to make sense. There were wheels everywhere, and we were always on hair-trigger alert to hook up trailers and go when the need arose: we drove miles for a living, and had family who lived on the road. Some places with links to the Travellers were not easily romanticised. The sides of the M1, the A1, the A303 and the M25 are peppered with modern-day atchin tans. They are sites with access to opportunities to earn money, and – being less desirable to non-Gypsies – also the sorts of locales where less cash is needed to set up a camp.
Such places symbolise the misunderstood truth of many Traveller lives, which is that they are neither permanently nomadic, nor ever truly static. Howbeit, these yards provide a base, the highway is right beside them, ready for the times when family ties, work, a wedding, a funeral, the fair season, beckon. Councils refer to them as “sites close to the key regional transport corridors, favoured by Gypsies and Travellers”. Travellers call them :“Handy, being right by that main road”. Handy, yes, but still handcuffed to tragedy. Every family is haunted by stories of relatives, too often toddlers, who have been knocked down and killed by their literal closeness to roads.
The word “Gypsy” wasn’t often heard back when I was a teenager. When it was, it was usually as part of a story about the old days, where someone had shouted out, “Dirty Gypsies!” and nine times out of 10 a fight had ensued, which the dirty Gypsies – who, in my grandad’s words, were “rough, tough and made out of the right stuff” – almost always won.
In our world, arguments are often resolved by somebody leaving and the relationship being severed. If this doesn’t happen, then there will almost always be a fight. In the best-case scenario, it’ll just be a fair fist fight, nice and clean, one-on-one, with a referee to see fair play and as few spectators as possible to get sucked into the row. It can be between two men or two women: it’s usually men, but not always. These things are often organised quickly in a place right out of the way, so the law is unlikely to be an issue; plus, some police officers I’ve spoken to even seem to have a laissez-faire stance on it, possibly because they have seen worse ways of ending a row than a bare-knuckle fight. Worst-case scenario, it will not be clean and it will not be fair, and the more people that get involved, the more likely that is. If weapons come into it, then the police are especially likely to show an interest.
The proceedings of the Old Bailey from 1674-1913 are speckled with references to London’s Gypsies and Travellers. There is a website that explains why they were “over-represented in the proceedings”: they formed part of “what many contemporaries considered a dangerous and crime-prone “residuum”’, which seeped back into the city at autumn following the end of the temporary farm work. It goes on, telling how “in a working-class mirror to the elite’s “London Season”, October and November saw hundreds and thousands of men, women and children returning to the capital from hop-picking and market gardening, from touring the fairs and tramping in search of work”. It was a yearly migration from the city to the countryside and back that continued, for some, right up to the 1950s.
Nan talks of the old paradox that we have heard about all of our lives. The hardship of old times, versus the sense of togetherness that Travellers have lost. The gratitude for comforts that not long ago were undreamed of and unheard of, set against the moral corruption, unhappiness and constant malaise that have come from an overfast integration into the gorjies’ consumerist world.
For centuries, politicians had guessed that if Gypsies could be settled in regular housing, then within a few short generations they would be just like everyone else. There would be no need for a word for outsiders, because we would be just like them. But that isn’t what has happened. Many Gypsies now live either in housing, or on permanent caravan sites, not in meadows or lanes or lay-bys or by the sides of old tips. And yet they are still what they are, changed in some ways, but different enough to draw the old line between themselves and the gorjies.
I sometimes wonder what Nan thinks I am. Of course, I am her great-grandson, born from her line, flesh and blood. But I’m not what she calls a “true Traveller”. Aside from my mixed roots, I wasn’t born to that life: I arrived into a changed era, one of stability, stasis, hot running water, and Christmases stacked with teetering piles of presents. The Romany bloodline never dies out. But the life of the Traveller changes, sometimes so much so that you could forgive the outside world for thinking the people themselves have vanished.
When I was small, Horsmonden in Kent was a typical Travellers’ horse fair. This meant that most people weren’t actually there for the horses. It’s true that a core of those who came, mostly men but quite a few women as well, were proper horse people. They came towing their boxes with strong cobs standing inside, tethered in the half-light; their two-wheeled sulkies – light trotting carts with a seat big enough for one or two people – and their harness, head collars and whips. But people came from far and near to the fair, and most of them weren’t interested in any equine displays. If they were, then it was simply because they provided an authentic backdrop. What they were interested in depended on the individual: but mostly, they were interested in each other. It is a quirk of our scatteredness: a few hundred thousand people at most, flecked across Britain’s damp islands, and we meet mostly at weddings, funerals and fairs. The horse trade has its ups and downs – as I write this, it’s down, the worst in my lifetime. But the horse fairs will persist, because their purpose goes beyond trade.
When the days are hot and tanned skins gleam with sweat in the sun, it is clear once again that horse fairs are shop windows for young brides and husbands. They always have been. This much, at least, is gospel, and proudly announced to journalists and inquisitive souls who come asking questions about the culture. But not every dalliance ends in a marriage, and rumours occasionally flare of unauthorised, ultra-brief flings at the fringes of fairs: dangerous liaisons that lead to bad names, fights, or worse, feuds that run on and on.
For the not so young, what they seek from each other is something subtler, less clear to outsiders, but an equally powerful draw. I suspect few would want to explain what it was, for fear of sapping its power by giving it voice. What the fairs offer is a chance to track the progress of our lives: to reminisce about previous years when we trod the same field, but equally to remark on how far we have come.
We polish and dress up our lives for the day and compare them to the lives of others, affirming their context, confirming their meaning. The fairs are where we remind ourselves who we are. It’s not that we don’t keep being who we are in between – of course we do. But the fairs provide a special concentration of Traveller experience, a tincture of what it is to be a Gypsy. At a horse fair we get to see, just for one day, what life would be like if the world shared our Gypsy priorities.
Traveller culture, preoccupied though it can be with bygone times, has always preferred the tangible: today’s bread, the here and the now. As Nan says, “You can only eat one meal at a time.” In the past, writers took this as evidence that Gypsies inhabited a “heroic present”, lacking a sense of history and living so sharply in the moment that concepts such as deferred gratification were lost on them. I have always dismissed such ideas as inherently dangerous: they are liable to slide into essentialism, and the belief that races have irreconcilable differences. But maybe in turning so sharply away from a lie, I lost sight of a truth: that the present holds a finer promise than the past with its shadows and dust. In an inversion of the obvious, perhaps even the Traveller obsession with cemetery maintenance itself supports this view. After all, isn’t the act of placing flowers on a tomb a gesture of bringing a little life back to the dead?
After the fair at Horsmonden, I largely avoided gatherings of people, spending time in empty stopping places, visiting forlorn churches and well-kept graves. It is dawning on me that there is only so much I can learn from this. Another of Nan’s catchphrases comes to me: “There are no pockets in shrouds.” Perhaps this saying, a caution against overzealous pursuit of riches, masks a second meaning as well. There is a poverty to death; a limit to how much a skeleton can teach you about a life it no longer knows.
I realised how sparsely furnished my van was. Its naked pale blue surfaces stared at me like sheets of ice. For eight months, I had been travelling with what I thought were the bare essentials – bed, stove, wash gear, clothes and so forth. But there were other trappings of Romany life, when it was lived most richly: beautiful furnishings, gilded surfaces, portable pictures, talismans and silks. I’ve been missing a trick: the means by which a difficult life was rendered livable and even, at times, enviable.
When I asked Mum for help, she looked happy, as if pleased that I’d finally grasped the meaning of life. She gave me armfuls of folded materials. There was an Islamic purple velvet hanging, edged with golden stitching and arranged in a pattern of teardrops; matching Bedouin horse-cloths, constructed out of navy blue and orange-coloured diamond shapes of fabric; brightly coloured Indian tapestry cloths: two square ones, and one in the shape of an arch. They shouted in bright yellows and blues and greens and pinks, with tiny mirrors stitched into them alongside little embroidered birds, stars, flowers, chakra wheels and Hindu swastikas. I decorated the van, clipping the cloths to the plywood lining with bulldog clips and larger, stronger, rubber-tipped market grips.
The van was completely transformed. Its contents came together into a nomadic aesthetic all of its own; ramshackle, yet somehow making happy sense as a whole. My gran and grandad – Mum’s parents – wandered over to see what I’d been doing. They seemed stunned, but in a good way: “Looks like an old vardo,” Grandad said, using the Traveller word for caravan. Gran remarked that the way I had hung the cloths reminded her of the inside of the Travellers’ square tents back when she was a little girl. Their approval came as a relief. I slammed the doors and smiled as I thought of the road ahead.


Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is set to miss Sunday's match at Hull after sustaining a sprained ankle.
The 24-year-old, who has scored nine goals already this season, limped out of training with the problem.
Press Association Sport understand Liverpool's medical team are still assessing the extent of the problem but the England international will not be fit for the trip to the KC Stadium.
Sturridge's injury could not have been more unfortunately timed after manager Brendan Rodgers praised his attitude in training over the last week after dropping the forward for last weekend's Merseyside derby.
The Reds boss felt the player, who had been affected by a dead leg for a couple of weeks, was not fully fit after 90 minutes for England in the friendly against Germany.
However, he was pleased with the reaction Sturridge's omission against Everton had provoked.
"Players will react differently. You will find some players, if they are not in the team, they just shrivel and die and have no fight," he said.
"The top players when they don't play they show you every single day what they can do and that has been the case this week.
"He has certainly trained very hard this week. He has been really determined, strong and aggressive and he looks ready for the weekend.
"He has worked exceptionally well and when he does that his quality is there for all to see."
The club later confirmed Sturridge's injury.
"Daniel Sturridge will be assessed by the club's medical staff today after the striker rolled his ankle in training," said a statement on liverpoolfc.com.
"Sturridge returned to training at Melwood this week; however, he sustained an ankle sprain which will require further assessment."


In the face of newer, bigger, more efficient, and more modern competition from the likes of Ford, Ram, Nissan, and Mercedes, Chevrolet is content to soldier on with its tried-and-true Express line of passenger and cargo vans, which boast impressive hauling specifications and time-tested reliability.
Still, as more buyers switch to European-style vans for better space and fuel efficiency, there’s something to be said for going old school.
Almost every other van in its class is newer, bigger, and more capable, but for those who can’t live without an old school V8 powertrain and lots of hauling capability, not to mention endless modularity, Chevrolet would be happy to put you behind the wheel of an Express. You might as well buy it used at that point, though.


As you may know, through the work of the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Cabinet Office, the UK Government is hoping to save money for taxpayers and make services clearer by moving them online.
GOV.UK was launched out of beta last month to replace Businesslink and Direct.gov to consolidate the services and information that people in the UK need to find. The push has been in the pipelines for some time and the process means refreshing published material for users, fixing citizen’s online transactions and aligning legacy systems along the way.
Today the idea of the government being digital by default has taken another step with the publication of the Government Digital Strategy and Digital Efficiency reports by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude. The Cabinet office says that the Digital Strategy fulfils a commitment outlined in June’s Civil Service Reform Plan.
The Digital Strategy sets out how the Government can make up to £1.2 billion worth of savings by 2015 simply by making everyday transactions digital.
According to the BBC, a study of local councils showed that face-to-face transactions cost £8.62, by phone this comes down to £2.83 and online transactions via a website cost only 15 pence.
The GDS says that making it easier for people to do things like pay their car tax, book driving tests, complete tax returns, or apply for their state pension online, the Cabinet Office estimates that it could deliver £1.7 to £1.8 billion a year in savings beyond 2015. Naturally though, this would depend on more people being able to get online to use those services.
The latest publication is part of ongoing work to create more digital services. The UK government handles over a billion different transactions through around 650 different services. It will take time to get all of these up and running online, so expect a little confusion as the difference between old services and new continues to evolve.
The GDS is not only creating online options for services which have none, it will also be redesigning existing sites to help improve user experience and draw services together so they are easier to find. How this will all work is further explained in the Digital Strategy, there is hope that the improvements will be such that users will prefer to go online, however, we do hope that this doesn’t leave people behind through the digital divide.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, is naturally pleased with the progress and released this statement.
“Britain is in a global race and that’s why we need to have modern, efficient, digital-by-default public services that are fit for the 21st century.
“Building world-class government digital services will take time but the publication of this strategy just a fortnight after the launch of gov.uk is an important milestone. I’d like to pay tribute to the work of civil servants in the Government Digital Service and beyond who have shown how Whitehall can improve and adapt by embracing new ways of working.
The Whitehall departments that handle most of the central government service transactions for citizens will be the first to be redesigned. The GDS says that by the end of 2012, each of these departments will choose three significant services, with over 100,000 transactions a year that will be tidied up.
Additionally, all new or redesigned transactional services that go live after April 2014 will have to meet a new Digital-by-Default service standard.
The strategy also coincides with the publication of the latest figures on reducing the number of Government websites. Since June, 27 more redundant websites have closed, with a reduction of 74 overall over the last year.
“This is a further example of the Civil Service Reform programme in action, where officials are embracing the best of what the web has to offer and radically changing their working practices to meet the challenges and opportunities inherent in digital by default.
The Government Digital Strategy itself has been developed using digital tools, with civil servants working side by side with software developers, content editors and designers using open source digital version control systems.
The improvements are a good thing broadly; nobody likes having to pay more taxes if they don’t have to. The other sides of the process include training Whitehall staff to deal with working digitally and ensuring that everyone who needs to access the services is able to.
The digital divide in the UK is considerable. The 21st Century Challenges site,states that the majority of people in the UK have access to the Internet but around 10 million people still do not. According to the site, 4 million of those who do not have access are the most socially and economically disadvantaged.
39% of people in the UK without Internet access are over 65. These are people who could do with knowing how to find the quickest and easiest ways to access information about pensions and other services.
Finding a solution that suits every individual is never going to be easy, and getting all of those people without access involved is a different problem. At least the process of bringing the UK government up to speed is making some headway.


To avoid fees tied to 'contamination' of loads, residents will have to drop off and sort materials at a Waterville site.
WINSLOW — Changes to the town’s recycling system are afoot. Starting Dec. 1, Winslow residents and businesses will no longer bring their recycling to the library, but to I Recycle in Waterville.
The Town Council unanimously approved the decision at its meeting last week.
Town Manager Mike Heavener said that mixed-use loads had been contaminated with nonrecyclable materials “very frequently” and that the system was no longer cost-effective.
“We’re paying more in an effort to try to recycle, but we can’t recycle because of what’s being thrown into the bins,” Heavener said.
The town’s recycling is ultimately transported to ecomaine in Portland for processing. Ecomaine charges extra fees if deliveries contain over 5 percent of nonrecyclable material or contamination. Global buyers of ecomaine’s recyclables – mostly China – once accepted contamination rates of up to 40 percent, but raised the market standards this year, which necessitated the fees.
Central Maine Disposal maintains and empties the recycling containers at the town’s library. Heavener said that if trash is spotted in the recycling bin, the entire bin gets hauled to the landfill instead of to ecomaine.
The town pays $4,040 a month to offer its current zero-sort recycling program. Using the I Recycle facilities will cost $1,200 a month, saving Winslow an estimated $34,080 annually.
At I Recycle, individuals must sort their recyclable materials by type and an attendant will be present to help advise and prevent trash from getting mixed in. I Recycle is located on Armory Road. Winslow residents will not need a sticker to use the facility.
“I had my wife do some undercover work. She took some stuff over just to see if it was user-friendly, and she liked it,” Heavener told a small audience at the council meeting.
I Recycle is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Councilor Jerry Quirion voiced concern that individuals with traditional work hours might have difficulty making it to the facility during operational hours.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t use it. I’m just saying that’s one thing that’s going to be hard,” he said.
The dumpsters will be removed from the library lot by Nov. 30.


Technology Tips for photography, Face ID, memojis and augmented reality.
News The man is now bedridden for life after his remaining organ failed.
Politics Donald Trump loves a good Twitter rant but this one kinda backfired.


Update November 14, 2018: Updated information from Cal Fire indicates there are now at least 48 people confirmed killed in the Camp Fire, with over 100 still missing.
Photo, left: U.S. Forest Service has 250 firefighters helping to battle the Camp Fire.
November 11, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A red flag warning for San Diego County and much of Southern California has been extended through Tuesday as three major wildfires continue to scorch the state. Terrified evacuees posted videos such as this one, shot by a woman escaping through tunnels of fire along a freeway north of Los Angeles: https://twitter.com/i/status/1061430443134734339.
October 13, 2018 (San Diego) – Santa Ana winds gusting into our region, along with falling humidty, have prompted the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for high fire danger from 3 a.m. Monday to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
December 13, 2017 (San Diego's East County) - A red flag warning for high fire danger is in effect today through Thursday. In addition, the National Weather Service is forecasting strong Santa Ana winds this weekend over the mountains, foothills and passes in San Diego County. Wind gusts could reach 50 to 60 miles and hour with sustained easterly or northeasterly winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
September 1, 2016 (San Diego's East County) --The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning from 11 a.m. Friday to 8 p.m.Saturday for the San Diego County mountains and deserts. The Red Flag Warning has been issued due to strong gusty winds and low humidity.
Winds will be west to southwest 15 to 25 miles per hour with gusts to 40 mph. Strongest winds will be in the afternoon and evening with afternoon humidity forecasted at 5 to 10 percent.
August 16, 2016 (San Diego) -- The National Weather Service has extended the Red Flag Warning until 9 p.m. Thursday for the San Diego County mountains and deserts. The Red Flag Warning has been issued due to strong gusty winds and low. Gusty winds west to southwest along the ridges and desert slopes of the mountains will be accompanied by very low relative humidity, resulting in critical wildfire conditions.
April 15, 2015 (San Diego's East County) -- A red flag warning is in effect from Wed. at 11 p.m. through Friday at 5 p.m. due to fire danger from high winds, low humidity and high temperatures, per the National Weather Service. This means a fire that starts can spread rapidly, so use extra caution and report any signs of smoke.
A red flag warning for fire danger is now in effect through Wednesday at 6 p.m. in San Diego’s mountain and inland region. Santa Ana winds with gusts up to 80 miles per hour are forecast.
SDG&E shut off power proactively due to the high winds and fire danger Monday night, leaving about 90 residents in Descanso, Cuyamaca and Boulder Creek without power, ABC 10 News reports. Restoration is expected this morning.
FROM THE CHIEF'S CORNER: RED FLAG WARNING...PREPARE NOW!
October 3, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Homeowners in hillside communities, you can help your firefighters by creating defensible space around your home as we experience our first Santa Ana Wind event of the season. There are currently Red Flag Warnings in effect and more to come as we head into dry, warm and windy weather over the next few days.
Read more about FROM THE CHIEF'S CORNER: RED FLAG WARNING...PREPARE NOW!
September 27, 2013 (San Diego's East County)--The National Weather Service today issued a Red Flag Warning due to high winds, dry brush and increased fire danger in San Diego County. The Red Flag Warning will be in effect from 12 p.m. Friday, September 27 through 6 p.m. Saturday, September 28 for the following communities: Ramona, Valley Center, Fallbrook, Escondido, El Cajon, Alpine, Potrero, Campo, Santa Ysabel, Descanso, Julian, Ranchita, and Warner Springs.
May 2, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- A red flag warning is in effect today and tomorrow through 6 p.m. due to high fire danger from excessive heat, low humidity and high winds.
Cal-Fire has provided an update on fire activitity across the state, including a nearly 3,000-acre fire in RIverside County, as well as increased increased steps that Cal Fire is taking to ensure our region is prepared.
November 1, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service has issued a red flag alert from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2 for San Diego’s mountain areas.
Warm temperatures, high winds and low humidity will create “explosive fire growth potential,” the NWS warns.
Moderate to strong Santa Ana winds of 40-50 mph are forecast, with gusts up to 60 mph in some areas.
November 14, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service has issued a red flag alert for high fire danger area Sunday and Monday in San Diego County’s mountain areas, due to low humidity and gusty winds. In addition, a high wind warning has been issued for San Diego County mountains and valleys from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon.
September 30, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service in San Diego has upgraded its fire weather watch to a red flag warning. The red flag warning will be in effect from 3 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 1st throughout most of the County, includingi nland valleys and mountains.
Weak to moderate Santa Ana winds are predicted, with gusts of 25-35 and up to 50 mph in wind-prone areas. Relative humidity is projected to drop below 10% Thursday at most locations in the County, including coastal plains. Increased humidity is expected Friday as winds shift to the southwest.


Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green was carted to the locker room and quickly ruled out with a right foot injury during the first half of Sunday’s home game against the Denver Broncos.
The Bengals entered the day on a three-game losing streak without Green, who has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first seven NFL seasons. They are already without quarterback Andy Dalton (thumb) for the season, with Jeff Driskel making his first NFL start on Sunday.


An elderly man is fighting for his life following a road accident in Northern Ireland.
The collision happened in the Bishop Street area of Londonderry on Saturday, March 17.
The victim, believed to be in his Eighties, was struck by a vehicle and suffered serious injuries, including an injury to his head. He was taken to hospital for what is believed to be life threatening injuries.
Police arrested a 53-year-old man on suspicion of driving without due care and attention. He was interviewed and subsequently released on police bail pending further enquiries.


Pakistan's independent-minded Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, reinstated after a nationwide anti-government protest, is set to resume duties from Sunday as incumbent Abdul Hamid Dogar retired on Saturday.
Dogar, who was installed as Chief Justice by former President Pervez Musharraf after he sacked Chaudhry and other judges during the 2007 emergency rule, retired from the post that can be held till the age of 65 which he attains tomorrow.
President Asif Ali Zardari hosted a farewell dinner for Dogar last night.


If there’s a teaching equivalent to bungee jumping off a cliff, the educators in this special section have done it. They’ve walked away from locker-lined schools, classrooms of their own, and departmental meetings. They’ve left behind 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedules, playground duty, teachers’ editions of textbooks—in some cases, textbooks themselves. Their common tether: a belief that learning can occur any time, any place—and that it should. Then they’ve leapt into the unknown.
Polar Attraction: Science teacher Kevin Lavigne experiences professional development in Antarctica.
The Idealist: In a dusty Dominican village, Peace Corps volunteer David Smith is on a mission to undo the digital divide.
The Healer: Responsible for educating kids who are battling cancer, Dennis Medford actually goes one step further—he offers comfort.
The Advocate: While many would like to lock her students up and throw away the keys, Julie Campoverde is working hard to provide second chances.
The Roadie: One-night stays, noisy crews, hysterical crowds—that's life for the teacher of the kids in the travelling Barney show.
The “extreme” teachers featured in these stories (see box at right) have willingly placed themselves in situations that many would consider dangerous or, at the very least, uncomfortable. First up is a high school teacher who, this past winter, spent five weeks in Antarctica, where a National Science Foundation program enabled him to conduct research in the most unforgiving of landscapes. He then returned to his classroom and shared with his students what he’d learned.
His story is followed by profiles of four teachers whose “classrooms” are located in far-from-conventional places—in a village in the Dominican Republic, in the cancer ward of a hospital, on the road with performing kids, and behind bars with juvenile offenders. Yet each teacher—to a person—confesses that he or she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Why? Allow us to indulge in a sports analogy. For all their motion, extreme athletes—surfers, snow-boarders, and freestyle skiers among them—are chasing that one moment when time seems to stop—when they’re hanging 10, frozen above a half-pipe, or airborne over a mogul. Likewise, extreme teachers angle for the clarity of purpose that emerges when they parachute into complicated, unpredictable environments.
Of course, anyone who enters into teaching is signing up for adventure. We know that teachers experience enough professional thrills and spills in school settings to satisfy the most intense cravings for excitement. During a recent conversation, Bill Ayers, a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told us: “Teaching is always and everywhere potentially an extreme calling. Because there are internal and ethical dilemmas that are hard to pin down in a finite way. Because it’s always dynamic. Because the human experience is more various, complex, and idiosyncratic than uniform teaching could allow for.
Still, the people in this issue just can’t resist pushing the envelope in ways not possible in traditional schools. We invite you to read their stories and consider the similarities between teaching on the edge and teaching where you work.


Nearly seven months after its much-heralded relaunch, The New York Times Magazine is changing yet again. Ana Marie Cox has been named its new Talk interviewer, conducting weekly question-and-answers in the back of the book, and Kwame Anthony Appiah, a professor of philosophy and law at New York University, will take over as the magazine’s sole Ethicist.
Mr. Appiah had been doing the Ethicists feature, a sort of glorified philosophical-advice column, with two others: the constitutional lawyer Kenji Yoshino and the novelist Amy Bloom. (Mr. Appiah replaced Jack Shafer, a senior media writer at Politico, in April.) Their conversation, an edited version of which was published in print, also went out as a podcast. But according to Jake Silverstein, the magazine’s editor, the podcast didn’t attract a large enough audience.
“Trying out a new format for a long-running column was a bit of an experiment,” Mr. Silverstein said in a statement. And so the column, which was introduced by former editor Adam Moss in 1999 and first written by Randy Cohen, will return to its original form. The Sept. 19 issue of the magazine will feature the last Ethicists column, after which Mr. Appiah, whom Mr. Silverstein described as “an exceptional thinker and writer,” will strike out on his own.
Ms. Cox, who writes a weekly political column for the Daily Beast, has been doing interviews for the magazine on and off since July—with Ice Cube, Tyra Banks and Bill Bryson, to name a few. For the past year or so, the column has been manned by a rotating cast of interviewers. Ms. Cox takes over officially on October 4.
“Ana Marie is a tough and funny interviewer who has a rare ability to get people to drop their talking points and speak frankly,” Mr. Silverstein said.


Editor’s Note: This post was published on August 11, 2016, shortly before the Drug Enforcement Administration published its announcement regarding marijuana policy in the federal register.
Today the Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to announce its decision on a five-year-old marijuana rescheduling petition. After a long wait and amid wild speculation about the agency’s intentions, DEA has decided to keep marijuana as a Schedule I substance, but to take the unexpected step of ending the monopoly on the production of research grade marijuana.
This move will certainly disappoint many in the marijuana reform community who hoped that DEA would change marijuana’s status. Under current policy—and now continuing policy—marijuana is categorized along with heroin and LSD as a substance that has no medical value and that has a high potential for abuse. Reformers hoped that the administration would accept the claim that marijuana has medical benefit and can be used safely in treatment. Today, it is opting not to do so.
However, DEA, in a clear sign of the growing political complexity around cannabis policy in the United States, will strike a balance. Rather than wholly maintaining the current policy, the administration nixed a different stumbling block to the study of marijuana and its efficacy as a medical product: the DEA mandated monopoly on the growth of marijuana for research (administered through the National Institutes on Drug Abuse). The DEA-mandated NIDA monopoly was cited as a significant barrier to research by observers like myself, Mark Kleiman and many others, as well as clinical researchers themselves.
Despite reformers’ discontent, this decision may be more meaningful than the ultimate goal of rescheduling for both policy and political reasons. It’s important to walk through the context of this policy.
As my colleague Grace Wallack and I wrote last year, marijuana rescheduling is among the most misunderstood concepts in the drug policy arena. Rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedules II, III, IV, or V would not have legalized marijuana. Nor would it have legalized medical marijuana. It would not even legitimize the systems in 25 states and DC that have approved medical marijuana.
Instead, rescheduling to the category most widely expected, Schedule II, would have made marginal changes to the certification and security rules governing researchers seeking to conduct federally-approved studies using marijuana. Schedule II status would have very little, if any, impact for the broader cannabis community.
Despite the misinformed doomsday naysayers in the marijuana reform community who argued that rescheduling would have released the hounds to shut down the industry, rescheduling would not have done that either. As I argued (with Grace Wallack) earlier this year, the idea that the federal government would shutter the marijuana industry by using a civil/administrative tool—preemption—was misplaced; those fearing preemption believed that only under a different schedule would FDA have the authority to enjoin existing marijuana programs by claiming that marijuana was not medicine, despite being labeled as such in the states. That belief failed to acknowledge FDA’s existing power to do so under Schedule I and failed to place the legal power of the US government in the context of the politics of the day and the administrative structure of the executive branch.
All those who believed rescheduling would be manna from Heaven, or the devil incarnate tossing the cannabis industry into eternal flames, exaggerated a minor administrative action. That said, rescheduling would not be meaningless. If approved, it would have made an important statement about cannabis: that it has medical value. Although this change would have been largely symbolic, it would have been a dramatic shift in the government’s perception of cannabis that has held firm for decades.
Would rescheduling have mattered had DEA gone in a different direction today? Absolutely.
Would rescheduling have had a significant effect on the day-to-day lives of cannabis business owners, consumers, patients, regulators, state officials, etc.? No.
While both rescheduling and ending the NIDA monopoly would impact the clinical marijuana research community most directly, addressing the NIDA monopoly may well deserve greater applause from drug policy reformers for three key reasons.
Under the NIDA monopoly, researchers complained for decades about numerous aspects of the supply of research-grade marijuana. Slow delivery, product that included plant components other than flower, a lack of diversity of strains and potency, an inability to custom order product with specific cannabinoids profiles, and a difficulty accessing alternative products like extracts have hindered research for some time. Instead of having access to the marijuana researchers were interested in employing in experiments—because of theory and prior research, they were forced to tailor studies to the product available from the University of Mississippi monopoly.
This situation presented a serious threat to the legitimacy of research and put the government between scientists and the answers they sought. The government was complicit in holding science back and the monopoly was largely to blame. While the result was not a malicious effort from the grower(s) charged with administering the monopoly, the results of the policy were dangerous for the empirical study of cannabis, nonetheless.
Expanding the number of federally-approved growers will offer researchers diversity in terms of how to access study drugs and, most likely, the diversity of the product itself. Like a monopoly in any setting, supply is restricted as the forces of competition are limited. As the number of firms expand, product becomes more readily available and diversity, innovation, and market forces allow consumers greater choice. Ending the NIDA monopoly allows such basic forces of supply and demand to seep into an important area of scientific inquiry. What’s more, many of those who have sought over the years to open additional grow operations—like the University of Massachusetts’ Lyle Craker—understand the impact the monopoly has had on the marijuana research community. As a result, additional grows will be particularly sensitive to the challenging history behind this policy and work closely with researchers to meet their scientific needs. That is a win for science and a good day for anyone who wants questions about medical value to be answered by science and not government.
Under current policy, marijuana is stuck in what I like to call the cannabis catch-22. It remains a Schedule I substance because it is designated as having no medical value, and its Schedule I status (and related policies like the NIDA monopoly) make it difficult to research whether it has medical value. Thus, a vicious cycle ensues in which cannabis is trapped in Schedule I, regardless of its potential medical value.
Ending the DEA-mandated NIDA monopoly will mean that better, more careful, more precise, more theoretically-driven research can be conducted. That means better, more convincing answers to one of the central questions in this policy space: does marijuana have medical value. If the expansion of federal grow sites leads to better research, the scientific community will be equipped with greater evidence to answer that question, and if those studies show medical value, marijuana rescheduling will be more likely.
Although for some, marijuana rescheduling seems like a no-brainer, there is skepticism within the medical community about the value of the drug as a medicine. Surely part of that is cultural, but part of it, too, stems from limitations on research. Any effort to improve and expand research will help convince the broader medical community of the right answer to this central question. And while some medical associations have called for rescheduling, many large groups have simply asked for more research. Ending the NIDA monopoly meets that demand and may ultimately push the nation’s largest medical associations to call for rescheduling.
It is common knowledge that while agencies operate according to bureaucratic processes, they are also very aware and very sensitive to politics, present and future. There are a few realities that DEA must be explicitly aware of. First, public opinion about marijuana has changed dramatically in the past 25 years and continues to shift in the direction of reform. Nearly 60 percent of Americans support reforming policies around adult-use marijuana and more than 75 percent support reforms around medical marijuana.
The days of prohibition, the days of public fear of marijuana, and the days of a public agreeing that marijuana is as dangerous as heroin or LSD have come to an end. In the process, policies like marijuana’s Schedule I status have adopted a very short shelf-life. During the Obama Administration, we have seen such movement. Between the Cole Memos creating a legal space in which cannabis enterprises can operate, the removal of the Public Health Service’s duplicative review of marijuana research proposals, and the Treasury Department’s efforts to encourage banking access for the cannabis industry or the numerous proposals in Congress seeking reform, the times for marijuana are a-changin’.
DEA is hyper-aware of these societal changes, and it has also seen policy change in the current administration as a signal of what is to come. Such changes and political realities may well have pushed the agency to end the NIDA monopoly in an effort to find a middle ground on the issue of rescheduling, particularly as DEA reasserted the NIDA monopoly just last year.
What’s more, both presidential candidates—Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—have indicated they have no interest in shutting down the marijuana industry come January 20th. In fact, Hillary Clinton, the candidate heavily favored to win the presidency at the time of this announcement, has called for marijuana rescheduling and expanded research. If elected, Clinton and her team may well push for rescheduling, making the current decision by DEA a temporary one.
For marijuana reform supporters, DEA’s decision to continue marijuana’s Schedule I status may well present a political opportunity for the next administration. If marijuana had been rescheduled, a new administration could have been sworn in next January with the idea that the problems facing the marijuana industry and community were “fixed” and that no further action need be taken. The reality is that America’s marijuana policy is schizophrenic and sclerotic. Changes are necessary to solve the numerous problems that have been created by a pseudo-legal, contradictory policy system.
The worst thing the next president can do when it comes to marijuana policy is to do nothing, and allow policy challenges and shortcomings to fester and grow. (Though reformers would surely argue the worst thing would be to shut the system down.) DEA’s decision today may sting for the reform community and will fall far short of their expectations and desires. However, if come January a new president is sworn in who looks at the drug policy landscape and sees both a system in need of repair and a policy with reforms that can garner bipartisan, bicameral support in Congress, DEA’s stubbornness on rescheduling may ultimately become reformers’ blessing in disguise.


People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at this week's annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.
"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity," Fowler tells WebMD. "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."
In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.
"There was a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.
Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.
47.2 percent for more than 2 cans each day.
57.1 percent for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person's risk of obesity went up 41 percent.
Fowler is quick to note that a study of this kind does not prove that diet soda causes obesity. More likely, she says, it shows that something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity.
"One possible part of the explanation is that people who see they are beginning to gain weight may be more likely to switch from regular to diet soda," Fowler suggests. "But despite their switching, their weight may continue to grow for other reasons. So diet soft-drink use is a marker for overweight and obesity."
Why? Nutrition expert Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, puts it in a nutshell.
"You have to look at what's on your plate, not just what's in your glass," Bonci tells WebMD.
People often mistake diet drinks for diets, says Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and nutrition consultant to college and professional sports teams and to the Pittsburgh Ballet.
"A lot of people say, 'I am drinking a diet soft drink because that is better for me. But soft drinks by themselves are not the root of America's obesity problem," she says. "You can't go into a fast-food restaurant and say, 'Oh, it's OK because I had diet soda.' If you don't do anything else but switch to a diet soft drink, you are not going to lose weight."
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "It's very easy to take more than nothing."
There is actually a way that diet drinks could contribute to weight gain, Fowler suggests.
She remembers being struck by the scene in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in which Alice is offended because she is offered tea but is given none — even though she hadn't asked for tea in the first place. So she helps herself to tea and bread and butter.
That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.
"If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered," Fowler says.
Perhaps, Bonci says, our bodies are smarter than we think.
"People think they can just fool the body. But maybe the body isn't fooled," she says. "If you are not giving your body those calories you promised it, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Some soft drink studies do suggest that diet drinks stimulate appetite."
Sources: Fowler, S.P. 65th Annual Scientific Sessions, American Diabetes Association, San Diego, June 10-14, 2005; Abstract 1058-P. Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine, San Antonio. Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director, sports nutrition, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. WebMD News: "Artificial Sweeteners May Damage Diet Efforts." Davidson, T.L. International Journal of Obesity, July 2004; vol 28: pp 933-955.


The women of Kountze, Texas, have been fighting for four years to put Bible verses on their banners. Their case is a look at what's ahead for religious-liberty conflicts in America.
Keke Moffett, a former cheerleader at Kountze High School in Texas, poses in front of the stands at her old school in March 2016.Michael Starghill Jr.
Ever since, they have been embroiled in the high-profile legal battle those banners sparked. Early in the 2012 season, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Kountze Independent School District’s superintendent alleging that the district was violating the Constitution by allowing a student group to hold up religious messages at a school-sponsored event. After consulting counsel, the superintendent told the town’s high-school principal to shut down the Bible-verse banners. Some of the girls and their parents decided to sue the district and won a temporary injunction. Since then, the case has been bouncing around the Texas state-court system, mostly on a series of procedural claims. The Texas Supreme Court heard the case and sent it back to the Court of Appeals in January; that court is set to consider the case again any day now.
Meanwhile, almost all of the cheerleaders involved in the case have graduated; only one is still on the high-school squad. The girls are no longer girls; they’re women, many of whom are working near Kountze or going to school in nearby Beaumont or Houston. The case isn’t much a part of their lives anymore, aside from periodic updates on its status and the occasional reporter who calls them up. Some of them still hang out on breaks, getting together in Kountze to commiserate about professors and gossip about who’s getting married.
As typical as their lives may be now, as teens, these girls faced a significant choice: whether or not to take a public stand in defense of their faith and what they saw as their free speech. The irony is that Kountze, Texas, is possibly the least practical place in America to wage a court battle over the boundaries of religious freedom. It’s a small town of roughly 2,100 people, about two-thirds white and almost uniformly Christian. As the cheerleaders and their moms tell it, this community loves its football team; coincidentally, that first fall when the case started, it had one of its best seasons in recent memory. The cheerleaders certainly didn’t face an opposition movement in town. Even the superintendent who stopped the the cheerleaders said he supported the banners’ messages. When the Texas courts finally get around to resolving this case, they’ll mostly be figuring out how to apply legal theory to a narrow set of facts, rather than resolving a dispute between two parties.
Meanwhile, in one sense, the cheerleaders have already won: They believe God is working through them to spread the gospel, and because of this case, a lot of people outside their small town have seen the messages on their banners. Their story is a preview of the culture wars to come in America. More religious diversity means more fights about how one group’s rights should stack up against another’s. Confronted with a challenge to their faith, at least a couple of the cheerleaders seem to have ended up in a place of deeper conviction than before; even as their peers slowly drift away from religion, this experience has helped these young women rearticulate and reaffirm what they believe. If there was ever an idyllic, small-town America where everyone lived in harmony and shared the same values, it doesn’t exist any longer; even places like Kountze aren’t shielded from the conflicts created by the country’s religious shifts. That doesn’t mean, however, that these changes will go uncontested. If anything, conflicts will become more intense, and the various sides more entrenched. After all, the Kountze cheerleaders believe God chose them to take on this challenge. Others who follow in similar conflicts will likely feel the same way.
“Just because the way I grew up, I didn’t know that people really believed that there wasn’t a God.” Kieara Moffett, who goes by Keke, was raised going to Greater Mt. Corinth Missionary Baptist Church in Kountze, although she can’t attend much anymore because she works Sunday shifts at a Mexican restaurant in Silsbee. She lives at home with her mom, Tonya, a special-ed teacher’s aide at Kountze Middle School, and her dad, Craig, a trucker. Moffett drives the half hour into Beaumont most weekdays to go to nursing classes at Lamar University. She described herself as the goof of the cheer squad, which she was part of until her graduation in 2014.
From the very first hearing in the Hardin County courthouse, reporters were all over the case, wanting to interview the girls and their classmates after school, at games, and during practice. National print, television, and radio outlets were eager to cover Kountze, the little town in East Texas where teenaged cheerleaders were taking on a challenge from an atheist organization in the name of faith.
Over the course of the legal proceedings, many of the girls and their moms gave depositions, and a few testified in court. Moffett said she got emotional on the stand; she said she saw some mean comments online about her testimony afterward, but she never personally met anyone who was opposed to putting Bible verses on the banners. The town rallied in support of its girls, and so did the Internet writ large: The “Support Kountze Kids Faith” group on Facebook currently has more than 36,000 members.
Even though Richardson said she loves her town, she has sometimes felt relieved to be out of Kountze. “I’m so blessed by the community. I really am. But sometimes it can be really old when people tell you how good you are all the time,” she said. “I’m just like everybody else, and I was just in the right place at the right time.” She has told a few of her friends at college about the court case but generally avoids explaining it all, she said. As she pointed out, there’s a lot to tell.
Texas’s campaign-trail culture warriors weren’t the only ones to get involved, though. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation kicked off the case, but the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have also submitted amici briefs in support of the school district. And, on the other side of the case, the Plano, Texas-based Liberty Institute stepped in to support David Starnes, the cheerleaders’ local lawyer out of Beaumont. There’s no money at stake—the cheerleaders aren’t seeking any monetary damages from the school district, only control over the messages on their banners and reasonable legal fees, should they win. What everyone is after—besides press, and presumably the carriage of justice—is precedent.
“I can never have anticipated a violation this absurd and this overt, and that we would have this kind of fight on our hands,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the head of the FFRF. “The cheerleaders are trying to say this is free speech, but it ain’t, because they’re selected by the school, and they represent the school.” So far, the organization has been unable to find a person in the community who is willing to bring a countersuit against the cheerleaders, which they’d need in order to have standing, or the right to bring a case. She said FFRF would have preferred to try to the case in federal court under the Establishment Clause. In a somewhat bizarre turn of events—and no doubt a frustrating one for Gaylor—the school district conceded at trial court that although it sees the banners as government speech, it doesn’t maintain that putting Bible verses on those banners necessarily violates the separation of church and state.
Taking on a case like this doesn’t come without costs. Gaylor claimed that this case, along with another one they pursued in a town a few hours north, prompted so many protesting phone calls that the organization had to change its phone system and block all unknown numbers. “Complaining in Texas is not for sissies,” she said.
The girls I talked to in Kountze didn’t really see themselves as part of a culture war—“No, I don’t think Jesus is a Republican,” Richardson quipped. But a few of the moms saw things differently.
In Kountze, the American culture war was an import—initiated by an out-of-state organization, picked up by politicians with national ambitions, and at least partially funded by advocacy organizations. Small towns like Kountze are the micro-fronts of cultural change, where long-standing ideological battles over free speech and religious exercise are fought over years-long back-and-forths in an excruciatingly slow court system. The Kountze cheerleaders never went one football game without their Bible-verse banners; the original injunction against the school district carried them through junior year, senior year, and off into graduation.
When the Texas Supreme Court handed down its decision on a procedural issue in the case in January, one of the justices wrote about The Lion King in a concurring opinion, describing “the shadowy place” Mufasa warns Simba never to enter. “My concern is that this case may return to the trial court for a final decision only to reappear on our docket with no clarity as to what this order achieves and what claims are actually live,” the judge wrote. “If that situation arises, the parties and trial court would do well to confront the shadowy place in this litigation and clarify with precision the status of this order and the cheerleaders’ claims.” The school board has lawyers from Dallas pushing them forward, giving advice the board members can’t easily ignore, lest they lose their legal-fees coverage from the Texas Association of School Boards Risk Management Fund. So the district will keep going. As for the cheerleaders, with the money and resources of the Liberty Institute at their backs and faith on their side, they, too, will keep going.
Life in Kountze is mostly back to normal; the girls and their moms might talk about the case every so often, but as far as they’re concerned, they won the case the day the original trial-court judge ruled that they could keep the Bible verses on their banners. The actual people involved in the case seem to care less about the abstract legal precedents at stake than about their ability to go about their lives. And besides, the cheerleaders were never really out for a political victory, even if that’s what their hangers-on wanted. Confronted with a legal challenge to their faith, the cheerleaders saw an opportunity to be part of a conflict that’s bigger than any Texas courtroom.


The ‘pocket’ comment was reported on Thursday by The Intercept, which claimed that in an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia in October, Kushner disclosed the names of Saudi royal family members believed to be disloyal to Mohammed. Kushner had access to the names from the daily intelligence briefings prepared for President Donald Trump and his top advisers — access he lost in February when his security clearance was downgraded.
Mohammed, however, denied he received the information from Kushner. He claims the round up was in the works for over a year. He said it would be “really insane” for him to trade classified information with Kushner and that while “we work together as friends, more than partners,” there was nothing unusual or inappropriate about their relationship. Mohammed noted that he also had good relations with others in the White House, including Vice President Pence.
This story "Saudi Prince Says Kushner Is Not ‘In His Pocket’" was written by Avichai Scher.