The House Oversight Committee will subpoena Trump's financial records. Ways and Means wants his tax returns.
As Washington awaits special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report — which President Donald Trump and his allies claim fully exonerates him of any wrongdoing, though it’s still unclear exactly what evidence Mueller compiled — House Democrats are moving full steam ahead on investigations unrelated to the special counsel’s office.
Top Democrats on the Hill have expanded their probe into Trump’s finances, looking for evidence about whether the president and his businesses may have committed financial crimes.
On Friday, a memo revealed that House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) plans to subpoena accounting firm Mazars USA LLP, seeking 10 years of the president’s personal and business-related financial records.
And on Saturday, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) sent a new letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, re-upping his request for six years of Trump’s tax returns, and giving the agency until April 23 to comply.
The investigations by the two committees are among many congressional probes into possible crimes involving the president and his campaign, inauguration, business practices, and inner-circle. Those investigations are separate from the nearly two-year investigation conducted by the special counsel that looked into whether Trump’s campaign played a role in Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
Last month, Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller’s report, which relayed that Mueller’s team did not find evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to influence the election. On Tuesday, Barr said he planned to publicly release a redacted version of the full report within the next week.
Cummings said his committee needs Trump’s financial records to corroborate claims made by Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who testified before Congress in February that Trump inflated his net worth to lenders, inflated property values to insurers, and deflated property values for tax dodging purposes. Cohen’s testimony implicated his former boss in several potential federal crimes.
The subpoena seeks all Trump-related records prepared by Mazars, including the president’s revocable trust and the Trump Organization.
Neal sent his letter to the IRS after the Treasury Department informed the Ways and Means chair that it would not meet its previous one-week deadline to turn over Trump’s tax records because it needed to consult with the Justice Department before responding further. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also told Neal that he would would handle the request and consult with DOJ, rather than Rettig.
The Mueller report is done. What now?
Congressional Democrats demand the report be made public as they investigate further.
After Republican lawmakers spent two years failing to scrutinize the scandals plaguing the president and his inner circle, Democrats have been quick to wield their renewed power as the majority in the House following the 2018 midterm elections.
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have launched their own investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election. And aside from Trump’s taxes and business dealings, several committees are investigating his hush-money payments during the campaign apparently designed to suppress negative coverage, his taxes, his inauguration contributions and expenditures, and his transition.
In March, the House Judiciary Committee launched Congress’ most wide-ranging investigation into the president’s alleged crimes by requesting documents from 81 companies, federal agencies, U.S. and foreign individuals, Republican organizations, and people within Trump’s inner circle, including several members of his family.


Upside in Red Rock Resorts Inc (NASDAQ: RRR) is limited in the near term, according to one analyst.
Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski downgraded Red Rock Resorts from Buy to Hold but raised his price target from $29 to $37.
A robust local economy is likely to continue support outsized growth in the Las Vegas Locals gaming market, while Red Rock Resort is increasingly likely to deliver mid-teens or higher returns on the Palace Station and Palms redevelopment projects, Wieczynski said in a note. However, these positives are already reflected in the stock's valuation.
With shares trading at about 11 times Stifel's 2020 forecast, the firm sees asymmetric risk to the downside, driven by any unforeseen delays in the Palms overhaul, a longer-than-anticipated Palms margin ramp or changes in prevailing LVL market conditions over the next several years.
Given the lack of any transformational catalyst that's not already priced into shares, Stifel sees the stock, at best, trading in a relatively narrowly defined range around the share price in the foreseeable future.
"Although we are confident in the Palms acquisition over the longer term, we would prefer to have a bigger buffer built into the valuation to dampen the impact of any unforeseen deviations from plan, were they to occur," the firm said.
Red Rock Resorts shares are up about 47 percent over the past year.
Is Bitcoin Significant For Stock Market Sentiment?


(Reuters) - A California toy company has sued Louis Vuitton to stop the French luxury goods maker from interfering with its sales of a slime-filled, poop-shaped toy purse for children, Pooey Puitton.
MGA called Pooey Puitton protected parody “designed to mock, criticize, and make fun of that wealth and celebrity” associated with Louis Vuitton products and rejected what it called Louis Vuitton’s claim of trademark infringement to an MGA customer.
“The use of the Pooey name and Pooey product in association with a product line of ‘magical unicorn poop’ is intended to criticize or comment upon the rich and famous, the Louis Vuitton name, the LV marks, and on their conspicuous consumption,” the complaint said.
MGA is seeking a court declaration that Pooey Puitton does not infringe Louis Vuitton’s intellectual property rights, and is protected parody and fair use.
The Van Nuys, California-based company said Pooey Puitton, whose contents include “slime powder” for making a “rainbow of poop” when water is added, is part of its Poopsie Slime Surprise line launched in 2018 and among its more successful new toys.


A US hacker's homemade program to pinpoint origins of Wikipedia edits indicates that alterations to the popular online encyclopedia have come from the US CIA and the Vatican.
Virgil Griffith's "Wikiscanner" points to CIA computers as the sources of nearly 300 edits to subjects including Iran's president, the Argentine navy and China's nuclear arsenal.
A CIA computer was the source of a whiny "Wahhhhh" inserted in a paragraph about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plans for the office.
"While I cannot confirm whether any changes were made from CIA computers, the agency always expects its computer systems to be used responsibly," CIA spokesman George Little said in response to an inquiry.
Anyone can make changes to the Internet encyclopedia. Wikipedia's founders believe people who know better will quickly correct inaccurate or misleading data.
Griffith says his software matches unique "IP" addresses of computers with Wikipedia records regarding which machines are used to make online edits.
"I came up with the idea when I heard about congressmen getting caught for whitewashing their Wikipedia pages," the graduate student and self-described hacker explains on his Web site.
Most edits listed at Wikiscanner involve minor changes such as spelling. Some alterations involve removing unflattering information, adding facts or inserting insults.
Wikiscanner's roster indicates that a Vatican computer was used to remove references to evidence linking Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to a decades-old double murder.
Someone at the US Democratic Party's congressional campaign committee changed a description of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to replace "comedian" with "bigot" and dub his listeners "legally retarded."
"We don't condone these sorts of activities and we take every precaution to insure our network is used in a responsible manner," committee spokesman Doug Thornell said.
A Republican Party computer purportedly was used after the US invasion of Iraq to change "occupying forces" to "liberating forces" in a Baath Party entry.
A UN computer is identified as the source of an edit that calls a respected Italian journalist a promiscuous racist, while someone using a US Senate computer altered a profile of veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas to complain she "interrupts" and is annoying.
An edit traced by Wikiscanner to the BBC changes causes of former UK prime minister Tony Blair's heart palpitations from strong coffee and vigorous gym workouts to vodka and exertion in the bedroom.
Wikiscanner also identified a BBC computer as being used to change US President George W. Bush's middle name from "Walker" to "Wanker." A computer belonging to Reuters news service is listed as adding "mass murderer" to a Wikipedia description of Bush.
Griffith said it appears common for political figures to "whitewash" entries by replacing negative adjectives with flattering ones and that corporations seem inclined to insert criticism of competitors and both show similar tendencies to remove critical information. He still considers the collaborative open Wikipedia model reliable.
"Overall -- especially for non-controversial topics -- Wikipedia already works," he said. "For controversial topics, Wikipedia can be made more reliable through techniques like this one ... to counteract vandalism and disinformation."
This story has been viewed 11890 times.


Hippo that escaped from flooded zoo in Tbilisi, Georgia.
TBILISI, Georgia — Tigers, lions, a hippopotamus and other animals have escaped from the zoo in Georgia's capital after heavy flooding destroyed their enclosures, prompting authorities to warn residents in Tbilisi to say inside Sunday. At least 12 people have been killed in the disaster, including three zoo workers.
An escaped hippo was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun, the zoo said. Some other animals also have been seized, but it remained unclear how many are on the loose. Bears and wolves are also among the animals who fled from their enclosures amid the flooding from heavy rains and high winds.
Municipal worker examines carcass of lion that died after flood destroyed zoo enclosures in Tbilisi, Georgia.
There were no immediate reports that any of the fatalities were due to animal attacks. The zoo said one of the dead was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month.
As of mid-afternoon Sunday, it was unclear how many animals remained on the loose or what species they are.
Mayor Narmania told journalists that 10 people were known to have died.
Helicopters are circling the city and residents have been told to stay indoors except in an emergency. About 1.1 million people live in the former Soviet republic's capital.
Flash floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, damaged this road near zoo where animals escaped.
The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as telling a Sunday Mass that Georgia's former Communist rulers could be seen as involved in the disaster.


CAPE TOWN – The dark, foreboding presence of shadow IT inspires fear in most IT departments, sneaking in to businesses undetected as people download their own, unapproved applications, software and even devices.
However, is shadow IT as ominous as it sounds? And, if so, what can businesses do to avoid the spread of darkness?
Shadow IT originated as a means for personnel to bypass IT rules by implementing and using their own applications, software or devices for work purposes. Often, this is because an employee finds their chosen technology works better than the one prescribed by the company’s IT division, whether because it’s familiar, easier to use or – they believe – it achieves better results.
A more common reason for the spread of shadow IT is the length of time it takes for a technology to be approved and rolled out by IT, often exceeding the completion date on the challenge it was intended to solve. Employees, frustrated by waiting for useable tech to be approved, decide to adopt their own instead.
The proliferation of cloud applications (many of them, free) has made it easy for anyone to access and use their own Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, without having to obtain approval from their IT department or management. While this certainly provides an immediate fix for users, it does pose a potentially huge security risk for businesses.
IT has become central to businesses and drives the success of business operations. The prevalence of cybercrime threatens the success of business, as cybercriminals seek and find weaknesses in increasingly complex IT environments. As businesses become more connected, adding more points of access to their networks, they’ve had to increase their cyber security efforts to ensure the protection of their data, critical business systems and plans.
When users adopt their own technology for business purposes, using company data on unmanaged software and applications, IT is unable to include these within their security net. They cannot protect what they don’t know about, and this provides easy access for cybercriminals to not only steal company data, but to infiltrate the business’s IT environment.
Shadow IT increases the risk of data loss not just due to cybercrime, but also the inability to backup data which is outside of IT’s control. In the event of a system failure on an unsanctioned application, valuable company data can be lost, and there is no recourse.
It can also be inefficient, despite efficiency being a primary reason for users to adopt shadow IT. Not all technologies are able to integrate with existing systems, which can make it harder for users to complete their tasks.
Shadow IT becomes more than just an IT concern. Due to the security risks to the company as well as the inefficiencies created, it becomes a business concern - one which management needs to address.
For many businesses, shadow IT is forbidden. However, it’s not always possible to enforce this, as it’s impossible to control what you don’t know about.
In order to enforce a ban on shadow IT, businesses need to understand the risks and have a complete birds eye view of their environment. Full understanding of the risks requires knowing precisely what is contained within the business IT environment, how it is accessed and whether or not it is fully functional and efficient.
Businesses need to conduct an audit to gain full visibility of their environment, documenting every system, application and tool, whether authorised or not. They can then decide which technologies to adopt and which to eliminate, ensuring all are properly secured and protected.
An accurate audit, however, requires full disclosure, and employees will need to own up to any and all unauthorised technologies they could be using. If the technology offers an improvement on existing technology, it may well be adopted and incorporated into the environment. However, those that pose more risks than rewards will need to be banned.
Once they know what they have, businesses will need to enforce governance. They will need to determine a framework to adopt, communicate this to all employees, fully explaining the risks and consequences of failure to adhere, and ensure this is maintained. Regular checks and audits will be required to constantly ensure no unauthorised technology is added to the environment at any time.
Some businesses enjoy the agility and freedom of choice offered by adopting shadow IT. Even so, to avoid risk to the business, there still needs to be proper controls in place.
In these cases, the businesses need to outline the risks and define a policy for the quick approval and incorporation of user-chosen technologies. The policy needs to be regularly updated and communicated to all staff. Employees will also need to ensure they keep the business informed of any technology they have adopted or wish to adopt, so that IT can put the necessary security measures in place, as well as enable integration with existing technologies.
There are many APIs available for cloud technologies, today, which help to enable integration with existing environments, and speeds up the process of adoption. However, there are some technologies which will prove unsuitable. In these cases, it opens up the door for communication between IT and the business, enabling a collaboration on choosing the right alternative technology to meet the business’s needs.
Security policies will need to be strict, however, and employees will need to have a clear understanding of the risks and their role in preventing risk.
Shadow IT seems set to stay, in some form or another and depending on how businesses adopt it. However, the market will need a strategy around shadow IT that CIOs and CEOs will need to address, in one way or the other.
Rohit Andani is senior cybersecurity consultant at In2IT.
The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media.
OPINION: Is World War III happening online?


Forty-three years after it began, We Care will celebrate a milestone year of fundraising. The organization announced Wednesday morning – on Hit Country 100.5 KI, Indiana – We Care raised a total of $411,820.16 for 2015 for the Kokomo, Indiana, community. The final figure is tallied from money raised during numerous fundraisers held throughout the year, including a 48-hour telethon, Trim-A-Tree Festival, We Care Store, and a Wrap-Up auction.


Taiwanese chip-maker UMC, under legal siege from the US Department of Justice, has reportedly pared down its DRAM project team by nearly one half, signalling victory for rival Micron.
There were some 300 or so engineers working on UMC's DRAM project, but the Nikkei Asian Review reported that 140 are to be reassigned, presaging the eventual shuttering of the project.
UMC had accepted a contract from China's Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company to develop technology for a DRAM chip product. The US DoJ alleged in early November that UMC had stolen intellectual property from a Micron subsidiary in Taiwan and was going to supply this to Fujian.
The alleged theft was supposedly accomplished by hiring engineers from the Micron subsidiary and having them bring confidential Micron documents to UMC.
Micron sued Fujian, which countersued Micron and the Chinese government, claiming Micron was a DRAM and NAND price-fixer along with Samsung and SK Hynix.
US companies are barred from exporting DRAM technology to Fujian, which has a $5.6bn DRAM development project.


For many, comic books are a form of escapism from the tumultuous real world. When I worked in a comic store, I heard complaints from the occasional older male customer who believed that comic creators needed “to keep politics out of their stories.” This always confused me, because heroes have always fought the injustices they see in the world. Superman stands for truth, justice, and the American way, while Captain America represents patriotism. Ms. Marvel is a young Muslim woman from New Jersey and there’s a Chinese-American Hulk defending the world.
Now, when the real world needs heroes to turn to under the uncertainty and outright danger of the new Trump administration, comic book writers and artists are using their powers for good and to make an impact for those in need. Writers have been helping to recirculate the phone numbers of congressional representatives while artists have been taking charity commissions, with the proceeds going to organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. Through acts of resistance and awareness, these writers and artists have been spreading hope, raising civic engagement, and embodying the values of bravery and kindness that many comic books express, not just through superhero stories.
I spoke with Christina “Steenz” Stewart, social media and community manager at Lion Forge Comics, about a recent zine distribution project she created called Take Comfort Take Care. “We distributed them at a peaceful demonstration that I organized,” she explained of the zines, which were easy to make and easy to hand out. They consisted of one sheet of printer paper and were pocket-sized for ease of carrying, with imagery and words of advice on each of the folded pages.
Stewart managed to create this project while completing artwork for her comic book “Archival Quality” with Ivy Noelle Weir, which will be out in 2018 from publisher Oni Press.
Independent cartoonist and creator of “The Rascals,” her personal web series project, Tess Fowler has begun a collection of “Resistance” art pieces, which she has given permission to protestors and other organizations to print and use for peaceful demonstrations and for raising awareness at protests. For many comic creators, fair distribution and compensation for their art is what keeps their careers viable, but she believes the best use for this particular art is to freely inspire and support others’ activism and awareness.
These pieces are available through Fowler’s Twitter and Deviantart accounts, and she plans to regularly update them for as long as this resistance to hate and bigotry is needed.
Others use their art to spread awareness through humor and highlighting absurdities in the staggering presidential administration. Mike Norton, creator of the Eisner-winning digital comic “Battlepug,” has begun a series of cartoon strips called “Lil Donnie” which poke fun at such baffling and frightening recent occurrences such as the naming of “alternative facts” and Kellyanne Conway’s bizarre statements to the press over fictional events.
To those who have said politics need to stay out of comics, I say that comic books provide us not an escape from responsibility, but a new world in which we can see how to grapple with real problems. Artists and writers lead the charge in teaching us through their books and show us how to be better people and heroes in our own reality. We have examples of heroism in their stories, and now we have examples of activism and political awareness in real life.
It is important to see that creativity doesn’t have to diminish when life gets hard — it just takes a new form and reminds us to take comfort, take care, be aware, and resist becoming apathetic when there are people in need of help. That’s heroism more real than any caped crusader in a comic book.


Inventor of the original "it" bag, Hermès puts a new spin on an icon with the Kelly "Relax" bag.
The Kelly Relax does just that to the venerable status symbol named after Grace Kelly, taking the tote from its classic, prim and structured structure to slouchy and just-as-rich day bag. High Snobette says it's even slouchier in person.
So, good news for those with $11,000 to burn but felt that the high-society boxiness of the original Kelly just wasn't them. Perhaps Hermès will christen the new piece with a "Complimentary Kelly Relax Bag for Gals Named Kelly" promotion (wink, wink).


In one year, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office leaders say they’ve reduced by nearly half the number of juveniles prosecutors have charged as adults for non-violent felonies.
The announcement from Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg comes nearly two months after Florida Gov. Rick Scott cited a Florida Department of Juvenile Justice placing the number of juvenile arrests statewide at a 40-year low.
The last of nine men arrested in a probe of animal cruelty at three Loxahatchee farms pleaded guilty to five charges on Wednesday and was handed a 90-day jail sentence.


Recruiting great technical talent is a challenge for small startups, later stage companies and even public tech companies. SV Angel and one of the firm’s new startup, People.co, is launching a new initiative to try to disrupt the technical hiring world. Taking the model of the NFL Combine, Draft.me is a training ground for technical talent and hackers where employers can scout for engineers and designers.
For background, The NFL Combine is a week-long training ground where college football players basically try out for the league and undergo physical and mental tests like measuring the 40-yard dash, bench press and more. Coaches from the NFL, general managers and scouts all look at this to determine interest for the NFL Draft, which takes place shortly after.
Draft.me will basically do the same thing for technical talent with testing ranging from hackathons to coding quizzes and competitions and more. Stay tuned for dates and more info.


No illnesses have been reported in connection to slaughter of "diseased" animals in California.
Minnesota has been added to a long list of states — now numbering 45 — affected by an unusual beef recall stemming from the slaughter of "diseased and unsound" animals, according to federal regulators.
The recall of nearly 9 million pounds of beef products began in mid-February after the Rancho Feeding Corp. slaughterhouse in Northern California was closed. On Friday, 55 Minnesota retailers, many of them convenience stores or small supermarkets, were added to a list of affected outlets that nationally number over 5,000.
The stores sold "various beef products" connected to the Rancho recall, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website. Twin Cities-based Target and Supervalu have also been affected by the recall, which has not been connected to any reported illnesses nationwide.
The USDA's public declaration on the matter has been particularly blunt. Rancho Feeding carried out slaughtering activity without full federal inspection, which is required of all meat plants. Thus, affected products are "adulterated," because they are "unwholesome or otherwise unfit for human food," according to USDA.
"It's a little bizarre," said Ryan Osterholm, a food safety attorney at Pritzker Olsen in Minneapolis. " 'Diseased and unsound animals' isn't common language in recalls," he said. "The USDA is saying 'this is not OK,' and they are throwing the book at them."
Circumstances surrounding the recall are reportedly under criminal investigation. Also, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times have reported that Rancho slaughtered some cows with eye cancer, a development not necessarily linked to any criminal or regulatory investigation.
The recall involved beef produced from Jan. 1, 2013, through Jan. 7, 2014, meat likely used in a multitude of processed foods. But by now, most of those products have likely been removed from store shelves or consumed, Osterholm said.
Because the beef was distributed to packaged-food companies, who used it in their products, there is no precise list at this point of items that might have included the recalled meat.
Last month, packaged food giant Nestlé recalled certain Hot Pockets brand sandwiches that had been made with Rancho products. Nestlé said it received a small quantity of Rancho's meat at its Chatsworth, Calif., plant that was ultimately used in some Hot Pockets Philly Cheese Steak items.
Hot Pockets affected by the recall were not distributed in Minnesota, said Hannah Coan, a Nestlé spokeswoman.
However, Target stores across much of the country were affected by the Hot Pockets recall. Target outlets were instructed to remove the products from store shelves, the company said in a statement.
Supervalu, too, was hit by the Hot Pocket recall, said company spokesman Jeff Swanson. Also, due to the Rancho beef recall, Supervalu recalled to its own distributors Wilmar brand ground beef patties, Farmer John's franks and El Monterey taquitos. Recalled products have been pulled from stores.
According to the USDA's website, Supervalu's Save-A-Lot stores in California and Cub Foods outlets in Illinois — but not Minnesota — were affected by the recall.
SuperAmerica convenience stores in Minnesota were also hit by the Rancho recall. Northern Tier Energy, the corporation that owns SuperAmerica, didn't return calls for comment Tuesday.


Eight former players are receiving full total and permanent disability benefits of $4,000 a month from the NFL. To qualify, the condition must be a direct result of a football injury, and the player must be disabled to the extent he cannot work in any other occupation.
- Otis Armstrong, RB, Denver 1973-80 (back injury).
- Ray Jamieson, RB, Oakland 1972 (spinal cord injury).
- Edward Thomas, DE, San Diego 1971-72, Buffalo 1973-75 (blood infection in both legs as a result of severe ulcerations due to being cleated).
- Charley Warner, DB, Kansas City 1963-64, Buffalo 1964-66 (back injury).
- Darryl Stingley, WR, New England 1973-77 (quadriplegia).
- Buddy Dial, SE, Pittsburgh 1959-63, Dallas 1964-66 (back injury).
- Steve Little, K, St. Louis 1978-80 (quadriplegia). Injury was sustained in a car accident on the way home after being cut by the Cardinals.
- William Wayne Frazier, C, San Diego 1962, Houston 1965, Kansas City 1966-67, Buffalo 1967 (severe knee injuries).
Thirty-nine players are receiving non-football benefits of $750 minimum per month for conditions including degenerative injuries and psychiatric problems. These players include Jim Otto, who played center for Oakland durin 1960-74 and now is disabled by a severe degenerative arthritis in both knees; E.J. Holub, a center and linebacker for Dallas in 1961-62 and Kansas City in 1963-70 also with debilitating arthritis; and Sherrill Hendrick, a linebacker for Kansas City during 1960-67, who had a degenerative back condition.
Miki Yaras, director of benefits for the NFL Players Association, called it ''ludicrous'' that, under the current system, it is nearly impossible to prove that degenerative conditions are football-related even if they stem from football injuries. Cases are voted on by the six-member retirement board made up of three owners and three players, which traditionally splits its vote and sends the case to arbitration.
''The whole process is inadequate at best,'' Yaras said. ''It`s just becoming more and more a case of players being thought of as having disposable parts.


Time and change will surely show, how firm thy friendship O-HI-O.
If you’ve ever watched the end of an Ohio State football game you may have seen the team players gather near the marching band, swaying arm in arm as they sing their alma mater. These lyrics have always kept their relevance for me though it’s been many years since I first sung them at OSU. Time certainly brings change.
A recent exciting change for me is taking a new position within OSU Extension here in Coshocton County. As the Family and Consumer Sciences educator I am thrilled to bring programming to our communities encouraging healthy people, healthy relationships and healthy finances.
As a result of this change, the focus for my column will begin to shift from agriculture topics to food, family and finances. Though honestly over the years those topic have already been weaving their way into my columns, because they are a part of agricultural life too. A new Agriculture and Natural Resources educator will be starting here in the county soon and we hope to contribute to this column together.
Over the past few weeks, I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with colleagues in surrounding counties who have outstanding Family and Consumer Sciences programs. I’m gleaning ideas from them about programs to bring here to Coshocton based on the needs assessment and program review that so many of you contributed to last fall. It’s also been a pleasure to meet with professionals in our communities who are sharing their insights and expertise about how OSU Extension can add value to some already great programs here in our county. In the coming months I look forward to teaching programs at the Coshocton Public Library, the Coshocton Community Center, the Coshocton Senior Center, and more.
Another change in the past couple of weeks is that my garden has been just exploding with vegetables. I’ve been giving zucchini and summer squash away to anyone who doesn’t say no fast enough. This is prime time for many people to consider preserving the harvest. Whether it’s canning, freezing or dehydrating, there are many ways to extend the time that we have to enjoy all that hard work spent in the garden.
There are some great resources from OSU Extension, including instructional YouTube videos, which can be found on our website coshocton.osu.edu. In our office we also offer the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, a very thorough resource for anyone interested in canning a variety of products. I’m already looking forward to next year when I’ll be able to teach some hands-on training. Feel free to call me at the office any time though with questions related to food preservation at 740-622-2265.
The best part of my job that will not change is getting to work with the amazing citizens of Coshocton County. It’s been a great honor to serve as the County Ag Agent, and now I’m looking forward to many more years of service as the Home Ec Agent. Very few people have probably ever been able to say this. And for that I am completely grateful.


The board that governs Iowa’s three state universities met Friday and voted to make Benjamin Allen the new president of the University of Northern Iowa. Allen’s been a transportation professor and academic vice-president at Iowa State University. On Friday just after his confirmation, Allen spoke to a gathering on the Cedar Falls campus and talked about his previous visit to U-N-I.
Allen says he and his wife were impressed during their visit to the community earlier this month. He says they wanted to come back, not just because the campus was beautiful and the academic programs outstanding, but because of the people they met.
Allen says “Students First” is not just a slogan at UNI. He says people live it and there’s a passion for the school. Allen says he hopes to make it even better, a process he jokingly calls “purple passion.” Allen was among three finalists to replace Robert Koob who announced his retirement after 11 years as president of U-N-I. Allen, who is 59, has been at Iowa State since 1979.
As the university’s Provost and V.P. for academic affairs, Allen was in charge of all academic programs and he was the immediate boss to all the college deans. He earned a degree in business economics from Indiana then his masters and doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois. His academic specialty, before he entered administration, was transportation logistics.


We Can Learn a Lot From Truman the Bigot Peter J. Kuznick, Peter J. Kuznick is an associate professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington.
Celebrity Gets Arnold Only So Far Frank Luntz, Pollster and communications consultant Frank Luntz's clients have included New York City mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.
When It's Time to Take the Keys Don Barrett, Don Barrett is publisher of a Web site about Los Angeles radio.
They've Paid Their Debt; Let Them Vote Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza, Christopher Uggen, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, and Jeff Manza, an associate professor of sociology and political science at Northwestern University, are coauthors of the forthcoming "Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy" (Oxford University Press).


By recruiting thousands of social media influencers, an LA fashion label has boomed to more than 600 staff in just three years.
The photos are all over Instagram: Uniformly curvaceous women squeezed into tight, strategically ripped jeans, body-conscious velvet dresses, and lace-up bodysuits.
But the women — despite their resemblance to reality TV stars like Kylie Jenner — aren't celebrities, for the most part. They're influencers for Fashion Nova, a brand you've heard of, maybe even shopped, whose ground game is almost entirely focused on social media, rather than spreads in magazines or shelf space in boutiques.
The campaign seems to be working. In just three years, Fashion Nova has grown to a staff more than 600 people, who churn out up to 500 new clothing designs every week. Along the way the company has picked up 6.9 million Instagram followers and a stable of celebrity endorsers like Jenner and Amber Rose.
Or, put another way, as rapper and reality star Cardi B wrote in an Instagram post: "My shoes Balenciaga but my fit @fashionnova THOOO Duuuuhhhhhh."
Fashion Nova says its bodycon brand has been built by obsessing over what people are wearing on social media, turning out affordable pieces inspired by the Instagram feeds of reality TV stars — often within days of the photos being posted.
"The concept is that the runways are dying," Richard Saghian, its founder and CEO, told BuzzFeed News. "If you think about it, why did they have runways before? Because there was no internet. People are now looking at their feed for fashion inspiration more than they are the runways."
A key part of Fashion Nova’s saturation of Instagram feeds across the country lies in its network of about 3,000 social media influencers — a constellation of fashion and lifestyle bloggers with tens of thousands of followers each, and sometimes hundreds of thousands.
Ivette Saucedo, a fashion blogger with more than 329,000 Instagram followers, has worked with Fashion Nova for two years. She told BuzzFeed News she was a fan of the brand before a representative reached out to her to model their clothes on her own profile.
Saucedo, along with four other social media influencers reached by BuzzFeed News, described her agreement with them as simple — a representative emails her about once a month to get her clothing order, she picks out anywhere from 10 to 15 items and then posts a picture to Instagram wearing the product. She said no money changes hands — just free clothes.
Each post includes a note encouraging followers to use the influencer’s discount code, which tracks their individual sales.
Rose Siard, a fashion blogger with more than 338,000 followers on Instagram, told BuzzFeed News that while she doesn’t make a commission on sales from her Fashion Nova code, she’s happy just getting a steady supply of free new clothes.
Saghian says his company, based in Vernon, California, has grown its sales “exponentially” every year since it launched online in 2014 — although he declined to give specific financial or sales figures. While the brand doesn’t invest its time wooing elite tastemakers in the fashion media, it has its eyes squarely on the social web, updating its Instagram feeds every half hour and producing new designs at the pace of a scrolling mobile newsfeed.
“We launch 500 new styles a week,” said Saghian. “A lot of the big brands may bring 500 fresh styles in a year. But people don’t get tired of us."
The numbers, at least on social, seem to bear that out. Fashion Nova is adding 500,000 new Instagram followers every month, and its "Curve" page, dedicated to plus sizes, has more than 217,000 followers. Its fans include celebrities like Blac Chyna, Cardi B and Lala Anthony, who have all been spotted wearing the brand's jeans, which typically cost no more than $40.
The company works with about 500 sewing factories across Los Angeles. About 80% of its products are made in LA, Saghian said, and those local factories help maintain a warp-speed pace of new releases — blazing fast even by the standards of the fast fashion industry, where giants like H&M now move styles from catwalks to store shelves in a matter of weeks, rather than months.
How fast? Fashion Nova's social media team monitors what’s being worn online, sending trending styles to a design team that can produce sample products in less than 24 hours. Then those LA factories get involved, and depending on the quantities involved, the company can start selling the design within a week or two.
And it sells them cheap. Shoes are priced anywhere between $30 for a pair of ankle boots or heels to $55 for a pair of thigh-high boots. Dresses are as low as $28, and no more than $40. "We’re trying to make the fashion industry play by the rules," said Saghian. "I don't think it’s fair for a brand to sell an item for $100 that they made for $20."
For people living online in 2017, it’s a familiar kind of business. In the same way that a viral tweet now ricochets across the internet, inspiring news articles, videos, memes, and reaction posts in a matter of hours, Fashion Nova has built an operation capable of turning a viral celebrity photo into clothing ready for shipping, all at a truly frantic speed.
"We don't even really have a strategy," said Saghian. "We grew so fast. We are just grabbing the tiger by the tail."


Struggling homeowners are meeting Friday and Saturday with lenders at Cashman Center, hoping to find solutions for people in the nation's hardest-hit state when it comes to housing.
Representatives from some of the largest mortgage companies and banks are at the event. Homeowners havea chance to meet face-to-face with their mortgage company and a counseling agency approved by HUD. HOPE NOW is a group created by major mortgage lenders to bring together homeowners and banks to find solutions to the foreclosure crisis.


Harvard is world's top university!
Britain's prestigious Cambridge University and Oxford University ranked three and six respectively, with University of Tokyo in Japan securing eighth place in 'The Times Higher Education' world reputation rankings.
In total, the US had a massive 45 universities in the top 100, while the UK had 12 and Japan had five. Australia, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands each had four universities in the top 100 rankings based on a survey of 13,388 academics from 131 countries, the 'Daily Mail' online reported.
"In an ever more competitive global market for students, academics and university administrators, and at a time when the answers to the world's most pressing problems will come from putting together the best brains wherever in the world they may be based, a university's reputation for academic excellence is crucial," Phil Baty, editor of 'The Times Higher Education' world university rankings, said.


Over decades of travelling to Europe in search of culture, ambience and novelty, I admit I’ve softened a bit. One does, as one gets older. From cheerfully roughing it with a backpack to more indulgent city breaks, I’ve accustomed myself to a certain level of. . . not extravagance, exactly, but ease.
But now I’ve been on a river cruise, and I think I may be spoiled for life.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. My impression of a cruise holiday was that of a giant resort afloat on the ocean. Noise, booziness, overindulgence – all jolly enough, if you fancy it, but liable to be intense and exhausting.
Listening to my fellow passengers on the Avalon Visionary, a low-slung craft with about as many passengers as metres in its length – a little over 100 – it seemed this was about right. Experienced cruise-goers, many of them, they enthused over the contrast between your average cruise and what Avalon offers, luxuriating in the placid, leisurely, small-scale nature of the venture, where one is always in sight of land. The Avalon Visionary is more of a gently mobile boutique hotel.
It took a little while to adjust to its unanticipated pleasures; it must have been a good four or five minutes before I completely sank back into the blissful realisation that for the next few days I had not a single thing to plan or worry about other than choices of menus and excursions.
I sank back, too, upon the double bed in my stateroom, which might sound a grand term for a berth on so compact a craft, but in this case it is certainly appropriate. The ship is a Tardis-like marvel of design, its sense of space ingeniously expanded by what is justly branded the Panorama Suite. The outer wall of one’s cabin is fully taken up by its window, which in fine weather (or indeed any weather, if you’re so minded) slides open to transform the entire room into a private open-air balcony.
It’s great fun to go up on the Sky Deck when the sun’s out, and watch the Rhine or the Mosel slide by in the laid-back, convivial company of the other guests, every so often instinctively ducking as the vessel clears another low bridge. But if it rains, or a chill settles, or you simply fancy a spell of seclusion, then settling down into your own personal viewing station (protected from the elements, if preferred, by double-glazing), with north-western Europe stretching before, behind and above you, a widescreen vision of the Old World, is quite extraordinarily relaxing.
Time itself seems to become fluid, passing in soft, lapping ripples like the river below.
The ship is replete with comforts – the cooking is modern and inventive, the menus extensive; there’s a lounge bar fore and a coffee lounge aft, and nowhere is ever overcrowded. But it’s over the course of the whole cruise that the single most luxurious aspect becomes apparent: the combination of variety and languor.
Sailing on the Avalon Visionary, I saw some fascinating places I had never before heard of, and saw new sides of others I had visited often. Yet not once on the cruise itself does one need to repack a case, nor catch a train or a flight to the next destination. It all simply swims up before you, serenely – sometimes it’s already there when you open your eyes in the morning.
To find out more about Avalon river cruises, call one of their travel experts on 0330 058 8285, visit avaloncruises.co.uk or speak to your travel agent.


From an ideological point of view, you may not agree with everything that Governor Hopeful/Mayor Gillum is proposing such as a $50,000 yearly salary for teachers or a $15 an hour minimum wage for everyone that works, and legalizing marijuana. But you cannot stop believing in his integrity, and he is a Black man with a progressive agenda for change. You also may disagree with his location for a kickoff in the heart of the ghetto in Parramore, but it was beautiful, and many left with a hoarse voice because they never stopped screaming and hollering for the brother. Bring it home, bring it home.
The Gillum/King ticket for governor and lieutenant governor is the most unprecedented campaign in the history of the state, and the support is growing and catching fire from Florida residents who are tired of the same old okey-dokey. They are tired of the current governor not telling the truth, and giving major corporation’s income tax cuts while they destroy the environment, and his friends are given business deals where they make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.
It is time for a change and on September 8th, we discovered that Gillum’s vision is larger than a Democratic platform. It is a vision to eliminate corruption, and for a state government that works for all the people. He started his speech with an African proverb from the Maasai Tribe. When the Maasai greet each other, they always say “How are the Children,” and as governor of the great state of Florida, he will always want to know how the children are being treated because he cares deeply.
The Gillum/King campaign is a ticket which cares for all Floridians from the youngest to the oldest, and this is what is missing in Florida. As I looked around at the Gillum volunteers, there was a large diversity of ages, races, physical appearances, backgrounds, and gender. But there was unity and the organization was a display of a spiritual movement which replicates the Obama campaigns.
It is estimated that there were over 1,200 supporters that attended this Gillum/King kickoff event. At the event there were other Democrats who spoke starting with Commissioner Regina Hill who had the immense pleasure of having the kickoff event in her district, and welcoming everyone to Orlando. Senator Bill Nelson spoke and was ecstatic about the ticket and talked about the challenges in his race with Governor Rick Scott. Representative Val Demings spoke and State Rep. Carlos Genillermos Smith talked about the need to vote.
The members running for the Florida cabinet, Commissioner of Agriculture, Nikki Fried, Chief Financial Officer, Jeremy Ring, also spoke, but Attorney General Sean Shaw was not able to attend. Finally Chris King articulated his reason for being on the Gillum/King ticket. Chris King is a passionate progressive who respects Gillum, and has been impressed since the very first time he met this powerful individual. Their mutual respect and their friendship for each other have grown over the past eighteen months, and now they are on the same team.
“Andrew never ever gives up. He never quits – and he’ll never quit on you,” says Chris King.
“The politics of hope and aspiration and opportunity still lives right here. Let’s bring it home,” says Governor/Mayor Gillum at his kickoff in Orlando.
For forty minutes, Mayor Gillum excited and mesmerized his supporters with stories, knowledge, and information on why he has the right ticket to improve and make Florida a great state for everyone. He believes that in the state, there is an absence of common sense, and his polices will change that reality.


Remember Ibrahim Ferrer, the personable, 77-year-old singer who became famous in the United States after appearing in The Buena Vista Social Club? Ferrer and four other Cuban musicians were denied visas to enter the United States in order to attend the Grammy awards. Although no specific reason was given, an American diplomat in Havana said people deemed "detrimental to the interest of the United States" could be denied entry. More to the point, the Bush administration has stepped up its anti-Cuba rhetoric and cultural contact between the two countries has dropped off.


Report on Business Canada appeals WTO finding in lumber dispute with U.S.
Canada appeals WTO finding in lumber dispute with U.S.
Canada will appeal last week’s decision by a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel to allow the United States to use “zeroing” to calculate lumber anti-dumping tariffs, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
Trade tensions between the United States and Canada are heating up again after the two countries together with Mexico agreed on a free-trade deal to replace the North American free-trade agreement last year.
The U.S. Commerce Department had accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing and dumping softwood lumber, which is commonly used in home construction. Its duties affected about $5.66-billion worth of imports annually, based on data from 2016.
In response, Canada imposed tariffs on $16.6-billion worth of U.S. exports. The initial Canadian list included orange juice, maple syrup, whisky, toilet paper and a wide variety of other products.


NORWALK – Glenn High senior Juan Arceo won his third Suburban League title upon pinning Norwalk’s Jose Garcia at 1:11 to capture the 135-pound championship on Saturday afternoon.
Arceo (35-4) was named the lower-weight MVP after pinning each of his opponents, and headlining a group of 13 Eagles who qualified for the CIF Individual Meet on Feb. 21.
“I am really happy with where I’m at right now, but our team looks good too and we hope to continue on as a unit,” Arceo said.
Glenn heavyweight Jose Lopez remained undefeated after winning a match and the tournament as La Mirada forfeited against the area’s best wrestler for the second time this season.
Leonel Ayala (140) won, pinning La Mirada’s Chris Trujillo in 20 seconds. And 112-pound Alex Camacho won the fourth title of the day for Glenn.
Steven Joyce (103) won the first of five titles for Norwalk High, pinning Vincent Montelongo (La Mirada) at the end of the first period.
“I felt good today, but I need to get much better if I am to get where I want to be,” Joyce said.
Daniel Llamas (130), Louis Gonzalez (140), Justin Burrowes (171) and 215-pound Ryan Martinez all won titles for Norwalk.
Cerritos’ Jordan Holkey (152) and Sais Mansaur (160) won their weight brackets, while Kevin Cummins (189) and Anthony Kaouri (125) captured titles for Mayfair.
Art Garcia (119) of La Mirada won an 18-9 decision over Norwalk’s Sergio Perez in the title match.
Nick Martinez led a Lakewood squad with nine titles into the Moore League finals on Saturday at Millikan High.
Martinez (152) had lost the in the finals each by one point each of the previous two years, and wasn’t going to allow that to happen again. He pinned Elliot Nunez of Millikan at 3:13.
Other Lakewood title winners include Ryan Bautista (112), Kimo Napohaku (125), Steven Araujo (130), Ryne Griswold (162), Chase Mirassou (171), John Barrera (189), Oscar Rivera (215) and heavyweight Carlos Rivera.
Millikan’s Abel Moran (140) pinned Alexis Jaime (Lakewood) to win his second Moore League title, while teammate Nick Pena picked up his 30th pin of the season to win the 145-pound division. James Kuwata (103) pinned Poly’s Jimmy Sammon.
Sergio Preciado (119) and his brother, Jesus (135), won titles for the Jackrabbits.
Ivan Garibay (112) highlighted an eight-title day for Downey at the San Gabriel Valley League finals.
Other winners for Downey included David Andrade (103), Aaron Esquer (130), Brandon Pineda (135), Chris Saldana (145), Brian Aguinada (152), Brandon McDonald (171) and Eric Leon (189).
Paramount’s Joey Garcia (119), Antonio Lopez (215) and Ian Dockrell (heavyweight) all won titles.
George Mariscal (125), Arturo Flores (140) and Aaron Fausto (160) were first for Warren.


Real estate industry expert and Miami Beach agent Arno de Vos recaps the most recent top headlines.
Skyrocketing home prices in China are leading even more Chinese buyers to look overseas for good investments — including the United States. In some Chinese cities, home prices have risen as much as 50 percent year-over-year. Read the full story.
In Calgary, Alberta, Sarah Johnston’s 6,000-follower strong Instagram account is helping the Canadian real estate professional with her business. Read the full story.


Civil society organizations (CSOs) all over the world are under significant pressure. Armed with smart phones and connected like never before, civil society actors have found new ways to organize, demand greater government accountability, and inject their voices into policy debates. As citizens’ voices have grown louder and more influential, many governments have responded by cracking down on civil society. According to CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, in 2014, there were serious threats to civic freedoms in at least 96 countries around the world.
India has attempted to discredit environmental organizations that have opposed mining, nuclear and power projects, suggesting that these organizations are undermining the “national interest and security” by creating obstacles to economic development.
CSOs need to approach messaging with the same degree of sophistication and rigor that marketing or advertising firms apply to selling products. As such narratives have gained traction, donors and civil society leaders have come to realize that they cannot take public support for granted. There is a growing consensus that developing positive narratives and conducting strategic communications campaigns are crucial elements of the pushback against closing space. Yet, CSOs (and the donors who support them) need to approach messaging with the same degree of sophistication and rigor that marketing or advertising firms apply to selling products and services.
First, the message must come from a credible messenger. Social science research has shown that if the messenger is not viewed as trustworthy or authentic, attempts to provide corrective information that counters strongly held views will likely be ignored, or worse, harden those views. Second, the message must be compelling and framed in a way that will resonate with the target audience. It is not enough for a message to appeal to someone’s values and emotions—it must also emphasize opportunities for action or other solutions in order to be effective. Finally, the message must be crafted with a specific audience in mind and disseminated on platforms that will maximize the likelihood that target groups consume the message.
Public opinion polling and focus groups are essential to crafting narratives that will enable human rights organizations to more effectively accomplish their goals, which, in turn, strengthens their credibility and demonstrates their contribution to society. Organizations like Equally Ours in the United Kingdom have conducted detailed research, including surveys, to understand how people understand and react to different messages. Based on their findings, they generated guidance for how organizations should talk about human rights in order to build support for human rights principles and prevent the further deterioration of human rights protections.
However, surveys are not a panacea to improving the public’s perception and support for human rights and human rights organizations. According to Nat Kendall-Taylor, CEO of the Frameworks Institute, “While polls help researchers formulate hypotheses, without controlled experimental components, they do not tell us how messages will work to shift, change or channel public opinion and increase support.” Additional research is required to test the impact of strategic communications campaigns on individuals’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. There, too, public opinion surveys and focus groups, social network mapping, and other innovative monitoring and evaluation techniques that have been applied to other disciplines, like public health, could help enhance the effectiveness of messages.
There are a number of challenges to developing empirically-based approaches to messaging. For one, surveys, focus groups and experiments are expensive, time consuming, and require technical expertise that most donors and civil society groups do not possess. At a time when funding for democracy, human rights, and governance programs is declining, donors are reluctant to channel resources into research instead of concrete projects with more certain impacts and beneficiaries. Conducting surveys can also be politically fraught and attract unwanted opposition from partner governments. Donors are sensitive to the perception that they are collecting intelligence or meddling in the internal affairs of other countries. Finally, there are cultural barriers to adopting data-driven approaches to communications. CSOs, particularly with a longstanding presence in society, often assume that they know what the public and their constituencies are thinking and what they want. A lot more work needs to be done to persuade civil society actors about the value of using public opinion surveys to better understand their constituents’ views, needs and priorities.
As restrictions on foreign funding, barriers to registration, intervention in CSOs’ internal affairs, and other forms of harassment become the new normal, donors and civil society are going to have to adapt to survive. A key component of building the resilience and sustainability of the sector must be to help CSOs build public support for their work and for the freedoms of association, assembly, and expression that underpin their operations. Evidence-based and data-driven strategic communications campaigns are not a silver bullet and will not, alone, turn the tide of closing space. However, investing in such efforts can help improve the efficacy and overall image of civil society, making it harder for governments to crack down on CSOs without provoking a public backlash.


Christina Roshay and Minister Blessed.
While visiting with family in the US, Minister Blessed was pulled into an uncomfortable situation.
He found himself going along with his cousins to celebrate a birthday. Unbeknown to him, the festivities would lead him to a nightclub.
"I was misled and stuck in a club. You know when friends say you're going to a birthday link-up, but it was a club overseas; I couldn't do anything about it. They were trying to influence me to do the things they do in the club. But having left that experience, people who were there said it reinforced for them my Christianity," the deejay told The WEEKEND STAR.
Despite being surrounded by secular behaviour and temptations, Minister Blessed stood strong as one line played over and over again in his mind: "Jesus, I just want to be like you".
"That one little line was born in my head. This is a relevant message I want people to gravitate towards. All I had was the one line, but I got home and started to expound," he said.
That one line has developed into a high-spirited gospel song called Be Like You, featuring powerhouse songstress Christina Roshay.
"I'm not a singer, I'm a deejay. But I prayed about it and put some names before God. I was led to collaborate with Christina. I had already written most of it, but I wanted her voice as the singer to add her own unique story in her verse. If I wrote it, it would have been more deejay, so it's also from her perspective," he said.
Minister Blessed said the aim of the song is to encourage persons to emulate Christ and challenge believers to be in the world but not conform to it.
"That was my personal challenge and testimony, where even being tricked or misled to be in a club, I maintained my purity by not partaking in the activities, but instead, could be a light among the darkness," Minister Blessed told The WEEKEND STAR.
Be Like You was produced by Jerian Lewis of Shabach records, and the music video was directed by APS Columbian Films.
"The video is really pumped up. We're approaching the third week of its release," the gospel deejay said happily. The clip is nearing 6,000 views.


OMAHA, Neb. - Canadian Pacific (CP) said Monday that it is ending its nearly $30 billion takeover bid for Norfolk Southern (NSC), less than six months after it offered to buy the rival railroad.
Norfolk Southern had rejected Canadian Pacific's bids, saying that the Calgary, Canada-based railroad needed to raise its offer and convince a rail regulator that the structure of the deal could be approved.
Canadian Pacific is dropping the deal before the federal Surface Transportation Board could rule on its proposed structure and before Norfolk Southern shareholders vote whether to support merger talks.
Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison said Monday that there was "no clear path to a friendly merger at this time."
A deal would have expanded Canadian Pacific's rail network across the U.S., and many observers believed it would have triggered a wave of railroad mergers.
Canadian Pacific officials had previously said that they would consider repurchasing stock or paying additional dividends if this deal fell apart.
Throughout the merger conversations, Norfolk Southern executives had argued that its shareholders and customers would be better off if the railroad remained independent.
Now Norfolk Southern will have chance to deliver on its own improvement plan that includes cutting $130 million in costs this year and creating more than $650 million in annual cost savings by 2020 while improving service.
Canadian Pacific officials had said they planned to cut roughly $1.8 billion in annual costs from the combined railroad to create a more efficient operation.
Shares of Norfolk Southern Corp. slipped $1.28, or 1.6 percent, to $80.21 in Monday morning trading. Shares of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. gained $5.33 or 4 percent, to $140.12 in morning trading.


EVO 4G to have Android 2.2 "soon"
An announcement on the Sprint blog this morning had a "good news, bad news" kind of feel to it. Sprint officially stated that Android 2.2, known as Froyo, will be coming to their flagship phone the EVO 4G "in the near future." Not all was joyous though as two of their more popular models, the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment, will be left out of the Froyo goodness. This most likely means Android 2.1 will be the last update for these phones.
The blog states that "With the Android 2.2 upgrade, customers can expect improvements to include the following benefits: updates to user interface, improved EAS Support, improved browser performance, including Flash 10x Support, voice dialing over Bluetooth and application storage on external memory." Also stated is that any future devices launched with Android 2.1 will get updates to Froyo.


Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are working to change that equation for the most common type of breast cancer. The Case Western team is targeting estrogen-receptor positive cancer (ER-positive), which accounts forآ 70 percent of all breast cancer cases, according to the National Cancer Institute. In ER-positive cancer, the cancer cells, like normal breast cells, receive signals from estrogen that promote their growth. To determineآ the cancer’s aggressiveness, doctors use the Oncotype DX test. It determines whether a patient needs chemotherapy آ– with the hair loss, nausea, fatigue and other side effects that come with it آ– or hormone therapy, which has milder side effects. The test can easily distinguish high-risk and low-risk patients, but others fall in a sort of intermediate-risk limbo, said Madabhushi. And at $4,000, the test is out of reach for many people, including most in the developing world. To replace the costly test, heآ and his team are using GPU-accelerated deep learning to develop an automated test that could speed diagnosis and improve accuracy without destroying the tissue specimen.آ The estimated cost: $200.


KELECHI NWAKALI looks set to become Arsenal’s fourth signing of the summer this week.
The Nigeria Under-20 international has been heavily linked with a move to the Gunners and according to AllNigeriaSoccer, he has already agreed a deal in principle to move to north London.
And Diamond Football Academy’s chief executive Amajiriaku has confirmed the midfielder will be flying to London in the coming days.
“He is in high spirits because he is joining Arsenal, he is one hundred percent fit.
The reason behind the delay in Nwakali’s unveiling has been down to his participation in the U20 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Nwakali’s arrival would be the fourth purchase made by Arsene Wenger this summer with Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Takuma Asano already signing deals.


When was the last time you heard a teacher exclaim "You don't know how much I needed this?"
Is newer always better, when it comes to education? Might some values and practices be timeless?
High school sports get more space than national news, most days. And high school athletes get more mentions in the local press than National Merit Scholars.
What happens when you confuse "quality teacher" with actual teaching quality?


A central Queensland real estate agent says the recent success of the industry event Beef Australia 2015 is a good sign for the property market.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland Rockhampton zone chairman Noel Livingston says despite economic uncertainty for some sectors, the market is showing signs of improvement with favourable buying conditions.
He says Beef Australia highlighted interest in the region.
"The beef market going as well as it is, is a very positive sign for our real estate market with high prices," he said.
"A bit of rain wouldn't go astray but the beef industry is looking better than it has for some time."
McGrath Estate Agents chief operating officer Geoff Lucas says his business is looking to expand in the region next month.
He says while the central Queensland market has been flat to down recently, he is optimistic about its future.
"I think that was probably echoed with the attention and the increased attendance at Beef Week," he said.
"It was quite obvious to us that there was an increased number of delegates and increased offshore interest in the region, and certainly in agriculture and particularly beef.
"We see that as an interesting [cycle] that is starting to develop and Rockhampton having a mix of both that and the coastal retreat area of Yeppoon, we think that will become more attractive to people as they become more familiar with it."
Mr Lucas says despite a downturn in the market, they have trained 25 new employees for their business.
"We think in the mid-term there will be a turn-around in that market place, we don't expect that there will be anything in the immediate term," he said.
"When we come to a region however, we're quite keen to invest in the long-term and we certainly see in the mid to the long-term there are some exciting opportunities."
Mr Livingston says while Rockhampton is still behind markets in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns, the region is outperforming neighbours Gladstone and Mackay.
"What we've had in the last quarter is we've had improvement on our vacancy rate in our rental markets, which is a sign that there's some investment back in the market place," he said.
"We've had strong interest from first home buyers because of the price structure where we are now and because of that, you've got those people who own those homes that first home buyers are buying, they're upgrading."


THE Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital has been given the government go-ahead and £7million to build a new emergency medical unit.
The 31-bed extension should cut waiting times at the adjoining casualty unit and enable the quick and easy admission of injured and sick patients for medical care.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has approved the government contribution for a £10m 'Emergency Care Village' at the front of the Royal Blackburn.
It will enable swifter patient transfers from its Accident and Emergency Department by merging existing two acute medical units to complement new short-stay emergency care provision for casualties still able to walk.
The new unit will cater for patients who having attended A and E need to be admitted to the hospital for a longer stay.
As well as freeing up slots in the casualty department, the new 'express treatment' unit will free up beds and space in the main hospital to allow ward refurbishments and more patient admissions.
With the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust finding the rest of the cash, construction on an existing car park will start in the summer for completion in winter next year.
ELHT chief executive Kevin Magee said: “The announcement of this further significant investment into purpose-built emergency care facilities at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital is fantastic news for patients, staff and everyone in East Lancashire.
“We are delighted to receive approval for our business case which releases the funding necessary to improve delivery of emergency and urgent care services which are fully integrated within the local health and care system."
Th new unit, in the final stages of design, will provide 31 beds and further improvements, including a higher-support bedded area, staff teaching facilities and a dedicated inpatient pharmacy.
Hospital bosses believe the new unit will lead to reduced length of stay in A and E and fewer unnecessary transfers of care while preparing its emergency services for a future when people live longer.
Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale and Darwen, said: "I've met with many local people who have said that waiting times at Blackburn A&E are a concern. I'm pleased Mr Hancock has confirmed the £7 million for the hospital to expand and improve these facilities."


A jury convicted a Whittier man on Tuesday, Nov. 13, for fatally shooting his girlfriend in the head last year.
In addition to finding 57-year-old Rafael Ayala Castillo guilty of first-degree murder, jurors also found true the special allegation that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, which caused great bodily injury and death to Sandra Polanco.
Ayala Castillo faces 50 years to life in prison at his Jan. 15 sentencing at Norwalk Superior Court, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Rafael Ayala Castillo, 57, of Whittier was found guilty on Nov. 13, 2018 of the first degree murder of his girlfriend, Sandra Polanco.
Witness testimony revealed Ayala Castillo and Polanco were having relationship problems before the murder, the statement said.
The prosecution said the couple was in a relationship for nearly 10 years and lived together in the 11700 block of Floral Drive in Whittier.
A relative of Polanco dropped by the apartment on Sept. 12, 2017 and discovered the 54-year-old Whittier woman had been shot in the head. Firefighters pronounced Polanco dead at the scene.
Whittier police made a plea for the public’s help in finding Ayala Castillo and released his photo. Los Angeles police officers pulled him over the same day in the 7300 block of Lindley Avenue in Reseda.
Ayala Castillo is being held at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic.


A Justice Department lawyer urged a judge Thursday to find that Apple Inc. conspired with publishers in 2010 to raise electronic book prices, while an attorney for the computer giant warned that such a finding in the civil antitrust case would set a "dangerous precedent" for businesses.
Justice Department lawyer Mark Ryan said the government had proven overwhelmingly through testimony and evidence offered at a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Apple conspired with publishers to boost e-book prices above the $9.99 bargain price that the Seattle-based Amazon.com had established for the most popular electronic books.
He said publishers were eager to force Amazon to raise prices when Apple approached them in December 2009, beginning talks to boost prices of many books to $12.99 and $14.99 over the next year.
"The publishers were unwilling to take Amazon on alone," Ryan told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote.
Ryan said the plan "succeeded quite well," with substantial price increases for e-books.
But Apple attorney Orin Snyder told Cote earlier that she would set a "dangerous precedent" if she concluded Apple manipulated e-book prices as it entered a market new to the company. He said Steve Jobs, the late founder of the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation, had no interest in the e-books industry in mid-2009, when one of his top executives convinced him it would be worthwhile.
"Apple did not conspire with a single publisher to fix prices in the e-book industry," Snyder said. "Apple acted lawfully and did not violate the antitrust laws."
He asked Cote -- who had urged Apple before trial to settle -- to "take a fresh and open look" at the evidence, which included testimony from executives for Apple, publishers and Amazon.com.
"The government has overreached and now is asking this court to draw inferences and make factual findings that cannot be supported," Snyder said.
Snyder said e-book competitor Barnes & Noble was acting in 2010 in a similar fashion as Apple to compete with Amazon because competitive forces in the industry required it.
After Snyder and Ryan finished their closing arguments, the judge asked Ryan how he would react to Snyder's characterization of Barnes & Noble's dealings with publishers.
The trial stemmed from an antitrust lawsuit that the government brought last year against Apple and major publishers. The government has reached settlements with five publishers.
Cote is expected to rule this year.


Students participating in Pacific Gas and Electric's (PG&E) PowerPathway Pole Climbing Capstone course climb utility poles at the PG&E pole climbing training facility on June 8, 2012 in Oakland, California. The free three-week course teaches skills to better prepare individuals to compete for jobs such as pre-apprentice lineworker within the utility industry.
May 15, 2014, 7:20 a.m.
More than 3 million teenagers are expected to graduate from high school over the next six weeks. For most of them, their choices are stark: Either find a job or enter college.
But there’s no reason for students to view their career paths in such extremes as working at McDonald’s or attending Harvard, says Anthony Carnevale, director and research professor at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Every year, the U.S. economy offers roughly 29 million “middle jobs,” as Carnevale calls them: positions that demand some additional schooling or certification beyond the 12th grade, but not the time or financial commitment of a bachelor’s degree.
More apprenticeships. Currently just 0.3 percent of employment in the U.S. comes from apprenticeships. Yet programs in states such as Wisconsin have demonstrated the benefits of this type of learning, particularly for students interested in high-skilled jobs in manufacturing, transportation, or construction.
Employer-based training. This essentially means that workers learn skills on the job, with training that lasts anywhere from three months to a year. It does not cost the federal government any extra money, because the financial burden falls on employers. One-third of all blue-collar jobs and one-quarter of science, technology, engineering, and math jobs require more than one year of this type of training.
Industry-based certifications. Want to become an EMT, licensed nurse practitioner, or certified nursing assistant? All of these jobs in the growing field of health care require industry-based certificates. And demand for these certifications comes from the private sector and the labor market instead of lawmakers; this means that employers see the need in the coming years for workers with these skills.
Post-high school certifications. These certificates prepare students for a specific career niche without taking as much time to complete as a college degree. Jobs that require this certification include auto mechanics, computer and information services, certain health care positions, or cosmetology. The best-case scenario is that men with these certificates can earn as much as $72,000 annually, provided they work in computer or information services.
Associate’s degrees. These degrees offer a nice boost in earnings for high-school diploma holders and usually take half the time of a bachelor’s degree. Men with associate degrees, who specialize in a specific occupation earn $49,000 annually, compared with male high school grads (who earn $41,000), according to the Georgetown researchers’ analysis of census data. Registered nurses, police officers, and managers get the biggest salary boosts from these associate’s degrees.
The big takeaway: The main message from U.S. policymakers and leaders continues to be that college education is the key to a middle-class lifestyle. Yet many workers could find decent jobs that can support a family, with less schooling and less student debt. They could benefit from these other means of training after high school — and from increased attention to and promotion of this alternate career track.


Cary Elwes is writing a memoir about the filming of The Princess Bride, to be titled As You Wish.
Cary Elwes is writing a memoir about the filming of The Princess Bride, to be titled As You Wish. It's due out late next year, and will feature interview with the rest of the film's cast. Honestly, I'll never get tired of reading about the time during the movie André the Giant racked up a $40,000 hotel bar bill.


New social network called Toyota Friend will provide Toyota owners with a platform to interact.
Like pretty much every company in the universe these days, Toyota (NYSE: TM) is planning to get friendlier with its customers by setting up a new social network for Toyota cars and their drivers called Toyota Friend.
The network, which is meant to connect cars, owners, dealerships, and the company, creating a pool of online resources where valuable information like maintenance and customer services can be found, adds momentum to a strong trend growing among auto manufacturers. Toyota is definitely looking to make a mark in dashboard telematics.
Toyota's new venture on the social networking front will be in partnership with salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), a major player in the cloud computing business. The network, which will debut next year, will be available on Toyota electric vehicles and hybrid plug-ins. This network will enable users to post messages in real time. This could mean easy accessibility of information such as engine diagnostics and energy usage for everyone who drives a Toyota hybrid or electric vehicle. Or, it could just mean a bunch of annoying, relatively meaningless notes for someone at Toyota's headquarters to sift through.
Toyota's strategic alliance with salesforce comes at a time when the company is gearing up to face stronger, more technologically savvy competition. It's been doing so for a while now.
In fact, this announcement comes in the wake of a similar announcement that Toyota is partnering with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in the field of dashboard telematics to provide in-car advanced digital communication systems for Toyota vehicles. The project relies on hardware and software systems that are built into the cars and will work on Microsoft's cloud computing platform, Azure.
Among Toyota's rivals in the business, one of the earlier adopters of telematics include General Motors' (NYSE: GM) OnStar that allows the user to unlock doors remotely and make calls from the car itself. There is also the Sync, which was manufactured by Microsoft for Ford (NYSE: F).
The dashboard telematics that will be offered at Toyota showrooms next year are allegedly different because Toyota's telematics allow cars to connect with each other, share information remotely, and allow for optimum usage of power from their in-car batteries.
Apart from all this, Toyota's goodie bag contains more telematic-based in-car services such as access to the Bing search engine and other information services such as restaurant reservations.
Overall, Toyota looks poised to push up sales of its eco-friendly vehicles by using in-car technology as a selling point. While sales of electric vehicles and hybrids have been suffering due to high costs, additional technological features such as dashboard telematics could give some boost to the lagging sales figures. But then again, if consumers don't have the capacity to pony up $35k+ for a new shiny ride, what difference does an intelligent dashboard or an arm-chair microwave make? A deep-fryer built into the sun-visor still isn't going to help me make monthly payments on the car.
If you have the money and are in the market, these new technologies help make a new Toyota look appealing. As an investor, I think it's reasonable to suggest that these technologies should spur a whole new wave of innovation within the industry.
But, as with all new technologies, getting traction in the market takes time. In the initial phases, several new players enter the game, but only a few live long enough to stabilize their situations. While early entrants have the first-mover advantage, there is no telling who will emerge as the market leader in the auto/technology industry. So, investments on these fronts will require closer scrutiny but could pay real dividends later.


MADISON, Wis.—A University of Wisconsin student with a nickname of “Silo” is eating his way through school—competitively.
Computer engineering student Eric Dahl now ranks third in the world of competitive eating as determined by All Pro Eating rankings, though he once held the top spot. Dahl has earned more than $18,000 in prize money or merchandise to help pay for his education.
Dahl was drawn to competitive eating in 2011, at the former Big Red’s Steakhouse in Madison. Dahl didn’t want to pay for his meal so he signed up for a challenge: eat a three-pound cheesesteak sandwich in less than 10 minutes and skip the bill. He finished in 5 minutes, 50 seconds.
“It just started rolling from there,” he said.
Dahl’s first paycheck came from Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in suburban Minneapolis, where he earned $250 for inhaling nine pulled-pork sandwiches in six minutes. The former high school athlete found the competition and its over-the-top atmosphere reminiscent of professional wrestling.
The 6-foot-3 Dahl said he walks a few miles a day, lifts weights twice a week and plays intramural soccer and hockey to maintain his 220-pound weight. The State Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/1dvsVlj) that he eats no more than 3,100 calories a day, mostly vegetables to avoid increasing his waistline, and stretches his stomach by eating 10 pounds of cabbage or broccoli in a single sitting followed by a lot of water.
His next bout is scheduled for Saturday. “Silo” will try to win $1,000 at a national pizza-eating contest on Library Mall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Southeast Missouri bumped its lead to 16 points midway through the second quarter behind Tesia Thompson, who scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the first half.
SIUE would score the final eight points of the second quarter, bolstered by another buzzer beater. The Cougars were down 33-26 at halftime after a 30-foot, banked three-pointer by Nakiah Bell.
It was all about second chances for the Cougars, as they turned 21 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.
Micah Jones, who led the Cougars in scoring off the bench with 16 points, grabbed five offensive rebounds. Sydney Bauman and Allie Troeckler grabbed four off the offensive boards for SIUE.
The Cougars out-rebounded the Redhawks 40-32.
“It was a toughness mentality that you had to go get the ball,” Buscher said.
SIUE made a complete comeback midway through the fourth quarter. Jay’nee Alston’s two free throws with 4:28 left gave the Cougars their first lead since early in the opening period.
Southeast Missouri answered just six seconds later with a three-pointer by Carrie Shephard, who scored three treys and all 10 of her points in the fourth period. SIUE tied the game on a layup by Bauman with 3:28 left, but another Shephard three-pointers gave the Redhawks the lead for the rest of the contest.
Two free throws with six seconds left by Alston, who joined Jones in double digits with 10 points, made it a one-possession game, but SEMO’s Thompson put the contest out of reach with a pair of free throws of her own with 3.5 seconds left.
SIUE next heads to Tennessee-Martin Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest.


Edward G. Mascolo, The Role of Abandonment in the Law of Search and Seizure: An Application of Misdirected Emphasis, 20 Buff. L. Rev. 399 (1971).


Captain Awesome wrote: If somebody wants to kill 20 children, they can do in a number of ways - they can do it with a handgun, they can do it with a shotgun, they can set the school on fire, they can swing machete, they can poison the water, they can put an explosive charge, and many other ways. You can't blame the tool they're using for the end result because taking away his gun wouldn't stop him from doing it - in fact it could have made it worse. While the thought of everybody around me carrying a gun is somewhat scary (I own a number of them myself but don't carry them around and feel no need to), you can't blame guns for this heinous crime, you have to look at the sick person who did it. You want to ban guns? Sure, but you won't get rid of mass murdering, you'll just shift the way they happen.
I didn't say guns should be banned. If society wants their children put at risk by making it relatively easy to acquire guns, then so be it. The easier guns are to acquire the more rampage killings there are.
Rampage killers don't poison water or start fires. They want to do the killing themselves. I'm fairly certain that if he had a knife or machete he would have been stopped long before he killed 30 people.
The blame lies with him with help from the guns. If he had a knife I guarantee you he would not have killed 30 people. How easy was it for him to use the guns? Poisoning the water or blowing up the school is far more difficult and will stop some people form committing the act. Some still will, you're correct, but a lot won't .
tgm929 wrote: If society wants their children put at risk by making it relatively easy to acquire guns, then so be it. The easier guns are to acquire the more rampage killings there are.
You're incorrect. Rampage killings are not the product of easy access to guns. Here in Canada you can acquire guns somewhat easy. How many mass murders do we see? Many countries' citizens have much easier access to firearms, yet no pattern of mass murder. If you think easy access to guns is what makes these murders possible, look at other countries says otherwise.
Rampage killers don't poison water or start fires. They want to do the killing themselves.
I was simply saying there are many ways to kill people. If you want to ban guns in hopes of stopping these murders, you won't succeed. If you were to ask me (and I'm just some *bleep* online, not a professor), I'd say you have to go after the root cause of this mass murders, not the tools.
Mama wrote: Take the money everyone wants to add to gun control and put it where it belongs. Mental health!! Guns dont kill, sick people do.
Captain Awesome wrote: You can't blame the tool they're using for the end result because taking away his gun wouldn't stop him from doing it - in fact it could have made it worse. While the thought of everybody around me carrying a gun is somewhat scary (I own a number of them myself but don't carry them around and feel no need to), you can't blame guns for this heinous crime, you have to look at the sick person who did it. You want to ban guns? Sure, but you won't get rid of mass murdering, you'll just shift the way they happen.
Glacier wrote: The problem with the quick emotional responses to shootings (like we saw in Quebec many years ago) is that the only people who suffer are the legal law abiding gun owners. Criminals can still easily obtain guns either with gun control.
It's just utterly heartbreaking. I feel gutted watching this unfold. I'll be holding my kids extra close tonight.
This is so sad. Guns or no gun policy, these things also happen in Canada, one of the latest was Dawson college in Montreal, fall 2007, then I think École Polytechnique back in 1989... there was also the Quebec City parliament shooting a couple years ago, and back in September, the attempted murder against Quebec PM Pauline Marois.
I'm guessing this guy wasn't "a criminal" until he started shooting.
I'm guessing he was mentally ill long before he started thinking about shooting.
A poster said that gun control doesn't take guns away from criminals.
The majority of murders in Canada happen when a husband decides to stop being a law abiding citizen and grabs his (legal) long gun and shoots his wife for whatever reason.
The fact he might be mentally ill has little do do with the fact that guns are accessible to any law abiding citizen.
Every murderer in Canada was a "peaceful duck hunter" (to borrow a big C talking point) until they became murderers in a blink of a eye.
SurplusElect wrote: A poster said that gun control doesn't take guns away from criminals.
Peaceful duck hunters who are mentally stable are not the kind of people who go off the deep end and become criminals in a blink of an eye. Mental illness is the issue here.
grammafreddy wrote: Peaceful duck hunters who are mentally stable are not the kind of people who go off the deep end and become criminals in a blink of an eye. Mental illness is the issue here.
Incorrect. You are saying only mentally unstable people are capable of murder.
How many murderers in Canada are currently serving jail time because they were criminally responsible for murder and therefore not mentally ill? Better question - how many get off because of mental illness?
You're a peaceful duck hunter until you find out your wife was sleeping with your brother. Then it's fight or flight.
If is turns out to be fight and you have a gun in the closet at the ready...then you see why the majority of murders in Canada happen exactly like I just described.
Then factor in humans natural resistance to kill. It is VERY difficult to stab or choke someone out. Shooting someone is exponentially easier - as shown by countless studies by various military organizations across the globe.
SurplusElect wrote: If is turns out to be fight and you have a gun in the closet at the ready...then you see why the majority of murders in Canada happen exactly like I just described.
No, it doesn't. Firearms are only responsible for 27% of homicides in Canada.
SurplusElect wrote: Incorrect. You are saying only mentally unstable people are capable of murder.
If is turns out to be fight and you have a gun in the closet...then you see why the majority of murders in Canada happen exactly like I just described.
Actually, that's NOT what I am saying - but you are interpreting it that way because that's how you WANT to interpret it.
Are you saying every person who has a gun would shoot the person who gets caught with their spouse?
See how ridiculous you sound?
grammafreddy wrote: Are you saying every person who has a gun would shoot the person who gets caught with their spouse?
I am saying that "normal law abiding citizens" are just that until something happens that makes them become criminals.
And when there is a gun at the ready, the percentages are much higher that someone is going to die.


Heading into the Thursday night game against the Philadelphia Eagles we really hadn\’t seen any of the Pittsburgh Steelers young wide receivers emerge head and shoulders above one another at the bottom of the depth chart, but wide receivers Scottie Montgomery let be known in a recent interview with David Todd for ESPN 970 Radio, that both Tyler Beiler and Derrick Williams caught his eye in the Steelers first preseason game.
While Montgomery would go on to give an obligatory mention to both Toney Clemons and Marquis Maze, it was clear that both Beiler and Williams have a leg up right now in his eyes. Montgomery also mentioned that they were disappointed that they didn\’t get a chance to see David Gilreath play Thursday night as he evidently was not able to go because of a small bunion on one of his feet. Gilreath is now back practicing, so we can likely expect him to get some looks Sunday night in the Steelers second preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.
As far as how the wide receivers rotation went this past Thursday, Williams entered the game at the same time that Clemons did and Maze was used in the slot when three receivers were used. After that group exited it was Beiler and Juamorris Stewart that entered with Maze remaining the third receiver of the group. Both Jimmy Young and the newly signed Paul Cox did not see any action in the game on offense, so they figure to be on the bottom of the totem pole entering the second preseason game.
The participation rotation in the upcoming game could shed a little more light on how the depth chart is shaking out and it will be interesting to see if Beiler gets playing time earlier, perhaps in the place of Clemons. With only one preseason game in the books, and with Beiler being the only one of the group with a reception thus far, it is still hard to draw any hard conclusions right now other than what Montgomery noted in his interview with Todd.


Are you a devout gym-goer or just starting out on your fitness journey?
Either way; getting (or staying) fit and healthy is about to get a whole lot more fun.
Say hello to the New3Fit Box– Ireland's first health & fitness subscription box.
Launching only weeks ago, the New3Fit is the brainchild of Deborah O'Reilly, an emergency medical paramedic who, for the past ten years, has been a competitive athlete, competing in boxing on an international level, as well as competing in various strength & conditioning events both in Ireland and abroad.
Following retirement from her amateur career, O'Reilly decided she wanted to help others learn more about nutrition, fitness and how to ensure their bodies perform to their best ability, and set up New3Fit for athletes and 'hobby exercisers' to be able to access tailored advanced sports performance nutritional programming – no matter where in the country they live.
"Like so many others, I initially began exercising for fat loss soon finding love for competitive sports rising to the top in boxing in Ireland & competing at international level," Deborah explains.
"I wish often that I had the knowledge I have now on sports nutrition when I first began my fitness journey, I now want to share both my experience and advance sports nutrition tailored programming with like-minded people to help them reach their maximum potential."
The idea behind New3Fit, she explains, is to be able to create nutrition plans for individuals from elite level competitors to beginner exercisers starting their fitness journey.
"All our advice and programming comes from highly-qualified advance sports nutritional experts with backgrounds in elite level sports along with our own access to a team of advisors we feel we need to ask more. Nutrition is constantly evolving we want you to benefit the most.
"We use only evidence based proven scientific research along with mathematic fine tuning to ensure you are adequately fed and fuelled for your training and everyday life."
There is no “universal” diet plan that is right for absolutely everyone, according to O'Reilly, which is why her goal is to help customers find an approach to nutrition that works for them individually – to achieve whatever fitness and performance goals they might have.
With the New3Fit Box, you will rreceivea monthly gift box of full-sized (no sample sizes) items, from gym clothes to nutrition supplements, not to mention loads of goodies to use and eat along the way, the perfect way to experience new products.
"Our New3Fit box is unique," Deborah explains. "You will never find what's in the box under one roof as products are carefully selected, supporting leading Irish health fitness and nutrition businesses with opportunities to be the first to try new products before they launch anywhere else.
"Oh, and they are the perfect gift too!"
And as for value for money – last month's box was worth over €85, so you are getting way more than you pay for, basically.
A one off box is €39.99, or 3-month subscription is €35.99 per box. The July box is available to order now.


Archives|PROTEST RAIL VALUATION.; Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Prepares for Court Fight.
PROTEST RAIL VALUATION.; Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Prepares for Court Fight.