Co-Dependents Anonymous meeting. | Turning Point Center | Bennington, Vt.
Bingo, for ages 14 and up. | Bennington American Legion | Bennington, Vt.


As worldwide cases of swine flu multiply and travel bans expand, South Shore residents appear to be going ahead with their own travel plans.
Donnelly said her agency hasn�t gotten a single cancellation from customers who booked trips to Mexico before the flu epidemic emerged there last week.
Scituate Harbor Travel had a near-miss with the epidemic. Owner Nancy Monahan said a large group from the South Shore vacationed in the Rivera Maya tourist area on the Yucatan Peninsula during last week�s school recess.
That area is near Cozumel and Cancun, about 600 miles from Mexico City, where the flu outbreak began and most cases have been concentrated.


Tomorrow, moments before Sheffield United Women contest their first FA Championship game, Carla Ward will gather her players together and remind them exactly what it means.
The match, against a powerful Durham side expected to push for a top three finish, is deeply significant occasion not only for those wearing red and white but Bramall Lane as a whole.
"It's something we're going to talk about," Ward admitted. "I want the girls to know what an important and historic moment this is and then put that into their game.
"I think that's crucial and something we want to get across. We're playing for Sheffield United and Sheffield United is no ordinary club."
Ward's squad has been on a remarkable journey since plans were devised to reach the highest level of the game. The fixture with Durham, which takes place at Stocksbridge Park Steels (kick-off 5pm), also marks the culmination of over six month's hard work after United, who previously competed in the fourth tier, campaigned successfully to be awarded a place in the revamped division.
"It's been a case of rolling up your sleeves and having to get your hands dirty," Ward continued, reflecting on the vetting process at Wembley earlier this year. "There's been so much to take care of and get ready for. But that just makes you buy into it even more. We've still got work to do but everything will be put in place. That will, that desire to do it, is there"
With a flurry of new faces arriving at United in recent weeks, including captain Ellie Gilliat, the meeting with Durham represents a difficult baptism for Ward and her team. Although the resignations of Doncaster Belles and Sheffield FC, Gilliat's former club, have robbed United of four derby fixtures, they did provide two fresh sources of second tier talent. And, so it transpires, supporters too.
"Because we've got quite a few in from the Belles, I know some of their fans are coming to cheer on their favourites," Ward explained. "We're looking forward to a good gate and a good atmosphere as well. One of the things that's really delighted us is how people who go to watch them men have got behind us as well. That's great because we're out there representing Sheffield United. We're a part, officially, of Sheffield United and that's important."
United warmed-up for Durham's visit with Continental League Cup fixtures against Aston Villa and Bristol City, triumphing 2-1 in the Midlands thanks to goals from Danielle Cox and Tania Marsden. Despite tasting defeat in the south-west, Jade Pennock's early strike ensured they were competitive against top-flight opposition.
"There's a few nerves and butterflies," Ward admitted. "I was telling that to someone the other day. But, do you know what, I reckon that's a good thing. You can use them and feed off them. I'd be more worried if they weren't there to be honest."


PALMER — The Palmer Police Department has settled a lawsuit that contended officers made a false arrest by holding a Peruvian man in jail over his immigration status.
The settlement includes $50,000 in compensation, an apology and several policy changes, according to a release the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska issued Tuesday morning.
The case began in August 2017 when 38-year-old Alex Caceda was working security at Klondike Mike's Saloon in downtown Palmer the night of the big Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor fight. He intervened after a bartender finishing her shift was attacked by three men, the ACLU says.
Caceda, who is from Peru and whose real name is Andres Alexander Caceda-Mantilla, was living in the United States illegally because he overstayed a non-immigrant visa by several years, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said at the time.
The men beat him, injuring his face and head, when he tried to get them outside, Caceda said. His wounds are visible in a video obtained by the ACLU.
Police arrived, learned of a U.S. immigration detainer warrant filed against Caceda by federal officials, and handcuffed him.
Caceda was treated for his injuries and spent four days in custody before he was released to pursue a green card application already underway, authorities said at the time.
He was the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the City of Palmer, as well as three police officers and a dispatcher the ACLU calls the "instigator" in encouraging the officers to arrest Caceda.
The 12-page settlement agreement was filed in early August. In it, the city denies all of the allegations in the lawsuit, and any liability based on them.
Along with the monetary compensation, the settlement includes a written apology from the City of Palmer for the "inconvenience, embarrassment, or personal hardship" this incident caused Caceda, according to ACLU.
–Recognition that four types of ICE detainer and hold requests are never criminal.
The settlement signals Alaska's local law enforcement agencies that they need to believe a crime has been committed before they arrest someone, ACLU spokesman Casey Reynolds said Tuesday.
"If they try to arrest immigrants just for being undocumented even if ICE directs them to then they'll be held accountable because that's an unlawful act," he said.
Palmer police Chief Lance Ketterling said Tuesday that the city "doesn't have anything to add to the settlement agreement."
Immigration officials said after Caceda was detained that the type of warrant he was held on is intended to help law enforcement agencies hold unauthorized immigrants who are already in police custody.
The lawsuit argued that the arrest violated the searches and seizures clause of the Alaska Constitution. The complaint called for a Superior Court judge to declare that Palmer police have no authority to make arrests and detain people for civil immigration violations even when requested to do so by federal immigration officers.
It also called for monetary damages "for his assault, false arrest and false imprisonment."
Caceda is working through the process of getting U.S. citizenship and still lives in Mat-Su, though Reynolds declined to say where.
"He has received some threats, but we also want to make sure he's not targeted by state and federal law enforcement for federal action," he said.


CHICAGO, April 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago) announced the second recipient of its 2019 Community First Awards yesterday at its member meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The awards recognize outstanding achievements of the FHLBank Chicago's member institutions and their local partners as they work together to strengthen their communities through affordable housing and economic development initiatives. Award winners select a nonprofit organization to receive up to $10,000. At its Green Bay, Wisconsin meeting, the FHLBank Chicago presented an award in the category of pioneer.
Mary Pavek, executive director of the Antigo Housing Authority, is the recipient of the pioneer award. The Antigo Housing Authority develops and maintains affordable housing opportunities for individuals and families to improve their quality of life and self-sufficiency. Ms. Pavek dedicates herself to this mission every day and does so with the highest level of professionalism, compassion, and respect for the community she serves. Her colleagues describe her as committed, progressive, humble, hard-working, compassionate, ethical, intelligent, and focused. The Boys and Girls Club of Langlade County accepted the $10,000 award on behalf of Ms. Pavek.
Ms. Pavek successfully completed the first Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) project in Wisconsin, recapitalized and rehabilitated two rural development projects owned by the housing authority, and rehabilitated two public housing projects – both of which received FHLBank Chicago competitive Affordable Housing Program (AHP) funds. A proud supporter of Ms. Pavek and her work with the Antigo Housing Authority, CoVantage Credit Union sponsored the AHP application for one of the public housing rehabilitation projects, the Antigo Depot Apartments, which received $510,000 in funding. CoVantage Credit Union also provided permanent financing to the project.
"Ms. Pavek puts her community first; her ongoing perseverance to improve the Antigo community is what makes her a true pioneer," said Suzi Thackston, FHLBank Chicago Community Investment Officer. "We are honored to celebrate the lasting impact Mary, the Antigo Housing Authority, and CoVantage Credit Union have made in Wisconsin."
"One of the most rewarding aspects of working with Mary was knowing that by helping her obtain funding to improve the Antigo Depot Apartment, we were helping her positively impact the lives of people living in our small community – and in particular a group who may otherwise have had less than desirable living conditions," said Stacy Bouche, SVP, Chief Mortgage Lending Officer, CoVantage Credit Union. "What a wonderful way to give back to those in need."
The FHLBank Chicago named the first Community First Award recipient on March 20, 2019, at its member meeting in O'Fallon, Illinois, and will announce the remaining 2019 awards today at its member meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.


Once every five years, Congress re-authorizes funding for the FDA under PDUFA. In the current PDUFA legislation, Congress also addressed issues relating to antimicrobial resistance in the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act. This short article critiques the absence of antimicrobial stewardship incentives in the GAIN Act, which is a serious error in the long-term struggle with pathogenic microbes.
Kevin Outterson, All Pain, No GAIN: Need for Prudent Antimicrobial Use Provisions to Complement the GAIN Act, 30 APUA Clinical Newsletter 13 (2012).


Is biodiesel the fuel of the future?
The Granola Ayatollah of Canola, aka Charris Ford, slides behind the wheel of his 1980 International Scout truck and turns the key. The truck burbles to life and off we go, cruising down the gravel roads that divide the aspen groves of southwestern Colorado’s Horsefly Mesa. It would be just a standard evening joyride, except that Ford’s truck doesn’t run on gasoline. Or diesel. Or electricity, or even the sun. This truck is powered by grease, all of it drained from restaurant deep-fryers in the nearby resort town of Telluride.
The Granola Ayatollah of Canola.
The truck’s top is off for the summer and the boxy, orange-and-black vehicle is in mint condition. Clean, vintage floor mats declare “Let’s Boogie!” A small disco ball hangs from the rear-view mirror, and a five-inch Heinz A-1 cardboard air freshener, shaped like a ketchup bottle, dangles from the driver’s sun visor.
“If you’ve got the french fry car, you’ve got to have the ketchup air freshener,” Ford declares.
Does it actually smell like ketchup?
The child of two Woodstock hippies, Ford, who is now 32, spent 10 years living a back-to-the-land existence on a remote Tennessee farm. He learned to farm from his Amish neighbors, logged trees with the help of two Belgian draft horses, and rode a bicycle that bore a sticker declaring “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive.” Now, propelled by a commitment to “serve society,” Ford is on a mission to save us from our petroleum addiction.
“If we made it through the ice age, we can make it through our energy crisis,” he says.
There are good reasons to welcome biodiesel’s increasing popularity. In addition to being a renewable energy source, biodiesel is substantially cleaner than regular diesel. When the Berkeley, Calif., Ecology Center converted its recycling trucks from conventional diesel to biodiesel, particulate emissions dropped by 84 percent. According to Ecology Center Director Dave Williamson, biodiesel emits 78 percent less carbon dioxide than conventional diesel over its full life cycle, as well as 43 percent less carbon monoxide. He calculates that the daily waste grease of a single fast-food restaurant could fuel one of his trucks for its daily recycling collection rounds.
The fuel does have its drawbacks, however — principally expense. Currently, biodiesel costs about $2 per gallon, or almost twice the pump price of conventional diesel. In addition, biodiesel coagulates at cold temperatures, so vehicles must be retrofitted with a fuel-heating system. And although biodiesel vehicles are cleaner than regular diesel in many respects, they still emit about the same amount of nitrogen oxide, one of the main components of smog.
A biodiesel-powered truck in Michigan.
Ford is charming, confident, and charismatic — so much so that his friend Howard Donner made a short film called French Fries to Go about Ford and his biodiesel passion. The 15-minute work premiered to popular acclaim at Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival in May, and since then the self-described Granola Ayatollah of Canola has been asked to introduce it at other festivals. Ford, who left Tennessee in 1998 and now works with his wife, Dulcie, as a caretaker on a 1,000-acre ranch outside Telluride, is only too happy to tell his story.
When a co-worker crashed Ford’s previous, gas-powered truck in 1999, Ford decided to kick the petroleum habit. He found the Scout on the Internet, paid $8,000 for it, and drove it from Pennsylvania to Colorado. He switched out a few hoses — biodiesel will corrode natural rubber — and has been running it on recycled french fry grease ever since. With two partners, dentist Ken Hodges and builder Glen Harcourt, Ford collects used vegetable oil and refines it in Harcourt’s barn in a simple process that removes the natural glycerin and leaves a petroleum-like fuel. Their $6,000 plant can produce up to 25 gallons of fuel a day, enough for all three men to run their biodiesel vehicles.
Ford’s larger goal is not simply to get us to buy renewable go-juice; he wants to reinvent the corner gas station. “I’m calling it the 7-Eleven from Heaven,” he says of his vision for a 21st-century alternative to the modern, soul-destroying convenience store. “It would be the Hard Rock Cafe of alternative fueling stations,” selling not only “Grassolean” — his catch-all term for biofuels — but health food, micro-brewed beers, and information on alternative medicine and energy-saving technologies.
By rapping, Hodges means rapping. When Run DMC released their first rap album, Ford was in high school in St. Petersburg, Fla., and he was taken with the way his African-American classmates would free-rap in the halls. A few years later, working alone in the fields of his Tennessee farm, he found the rap sound still stuck in his head, and he began making up verses about the world around him.
People who’ve been around biodiesel vehicles frequently comment on their smell, often likened to french fries or popcorn, and I’d wanted to get a whiff ever since I introduced myself to Ford. Now, with evening settling in, he pulls the Scout over near a small guest house beside a spring, a place he sometimes stays when his ranch’s California owner comes to visit. It is a beautiful spot.
I get out of Ford’s truck, head to the tailpipe, and breathe deeply. It hardly smells like anything at all. It is, simply, clean.


The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted Thursday to create a community advisory committee for the proposed 710 Freeway tunnel extension while adding to the environmental study process.
The vote builds on a board decision last month to start environmental studies needed to move the controversial project forward.
Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, who had served as chairman of the MTA for the past year, had tried to push an amendment that would have required officials to first study all available solutions to the traffic congestion — including a tunnel, light rail and freight corridor improvements — and compare the cost benefits, but that effort failed.
The MTA board Thursday approved analyzing route alternatives and their costs while drafting the Environmental Impact Report.
The creation of a community advisory committee, as proposed by county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, was in addition to mandated outreach to elected officials and regular updates from Chief Executive Art Leahy to the Measure R committee.


Mario uses the new Spin Drill power-up to smash through this earthy planet, skewering the giant Koopa Troopas in the stomach. Now that's fighting dirty.
Even if you've played every bit of Super Mario Galaxy, you'll find its sequel packed full of surprises.
It's rare for Nintendo to create a straightforward follow-up like this. In fact, the Sunday release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the first time in over 20 years that the company has launched two traditional Mario games on the same home console. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto said he greenlit the project because the team "hadn't run out of ideas."
And boy, was he not just whistling Dixie. Galaxy 2 is a veritable creativity bomb, a megaton explosion of new ideas. With the original 2007 game, the Mario team had its hands full polishing the game's central play mechanics and coming up with levels that worked well with the radical design change – instead of exploring the standard 3-D action game worlds, Mario leapt and flew across a universe of tiny planetoids. The levels played and riffed on the concept of shifting gravity – arrays of spheroids would give way to topsy-turvy Escher-like constructions.
With the basic structure already in place, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gave this talented team a chance to let their imaginations run wild.
Every level in Galaxy 2 is different from the last. There are level concepts here that are only used once that could be made into full games on their own. One minute you're eating glowing fruits that create an illuminated floor underneath you, and you've got to eat another one before it disappears. The next minute, you're jumping across platforms that appear and disappear – to the beat of the level's musical track. The second you finish one level, you're off to another one that feels completely different and asks you to master something new.
Galaxy 2 does all this without introducing too many new power-ups, although Mario can do a few new things this time around.
The Spin Drill is the most prominent – with it, he can tear a hole through a planet and come up on the other side. As with all new ideas in Galaxy 2, it starts off with a light introductory level that teaches you how to use it. Soon after, you start using it in ways you wouldn't expect – drilling every which way through a complex mountain of dirt to reach every side of it, for example. And by the end of the game you're asked to prove your mastery of the tool by using it in complex ways.
Pick up a fluffy cloud-shaped dandelion and you're Cloud Mario, able to create your own platforms to stand on while you're jumping through the air. You can play it conservatively, jumping and laying platforms under your feet every few steps. Or you can take daring risks, throwing together massive long jumps and throwing down platforms at the last second to see if there's a secret hidden out at the very edge of the world.
And of course, there always is. Like all good Mario games, there's always a bonus, a reward for poking at the edges of the levels. While it's possible for a player to see the ending of the game by playing straight through each level, layers upon layers of hidden challenges await the players who look for them.
Each world has a Comet Medal somewhere inside it, and collecting these open up master-class versions of the levels that tweak and rework the things you've already experienced. That music-based level, for example, plays twice as fast once you've found the comet, transforming a clever playful romp into an exquisitely taxing challenge.
The original Super Mario Galaxy didn't sell nearly as well as last year's more traditional New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Perhaps for that reason, Galaxy 2 has been a bit streamlined.
The most obvious example is that the levels are linked together by a straightforward linear map, rather than a big, open, nonlinear hub. Although this will probably help casual gamers understand what they need to do to progress in the game, I don't like it as much; it feels cheaper, smaller.
There's also a greater use of 2-D gameplay in Galaxy 2's levels – points at which the camera snaps to the side of Mario and he can only move on a fixed plane. This was the direction that Galaxy was moving anyway – the use of tiny planetoids was a similar move away from massive sprawling playgrounds, aimed at letting users more easily understand the challenges that are being placed in front of them. I like this, personally; wandering around wondering what to do isn't what I'm looking for out of a Mario game.
One bit of streamlining I don't think was necessary was removing nearly all the story elements. Galaxy showed that the Mario team has some genuinely solid storytelling ability, and they implemented it in a way that didn't distract from the gameplay. Even this was apparently too much for Miyamoto, who told the team to strip the narrative down to the absolute bare minimum for this installment. Again, this was done with the intent of keeping things laser-focused on the gameplay. But in this case it feels like a waste of talent.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is thus simultaneously more and less than its predecessor. It expands and elaborates on the gameplay in unpredictable ways, but the last one felt like a bigger, more complete adventure. That said, better core gameplay with less window dressing is infinitely preferable to the reverse.
WIRED A new surprising gameplay twist every few minutes, great nostalgic moments, deep challenges if you want them.
TIRED Thinner presentation occasionally feels like Mario Galaxy 1.5.
Read Game|Life's game ratings guide.


WILFRIED ZAHA has agreed terms with three other clubs as he prepares to leave Manchester United.
Reports suggest the former Crystal Palace hitman has agreed terms with three other Premier League clubs all based in London.
Zaha has failed to live up to his £15m price tag since his move to Manchester United from Crystal Palace last year and spent the second half of last season on loan at Cardiff City.
As a result of the uncertainty over his future Zaha's representatives have apparently sounded out £30k a week deals with his former club Crystal Palace as well as West Ham and Queens Park Rangers.
However, the player holds hopes of resurrecting his United career under new boss Louis Van Gaal after being frozen out by former manager David Moyes and remaining in Manchester is his preferred option.
On Wednesday he told the Daily Mail: "I just want to be a Man United player. Hopefully this season I will get the chance."
Louis Van Gaal has also apparently told Zaha that he believes he can be a success at Old Trafford but his representatives have gone ahead and prepared an exit strategy.
The 21-year-old scored 12 goals in 110 appearances during his three year senior career at Palace.


KENNEWICK -- There's a store in downtown Kennewick that's aiming to draw the attention of fashionable moms, grandmoms and doting aunts.
It's Swanky Babies and owner Jenna Boogerd, 24, has stocked it with high-end brand names such as Little Maven (by actress Tori Spelling), HulaMula and Blessence Maternity, all in sizes newborn to six.
"I'm appealing to those moms who shop online, who want something different from what's in Walmart and Target," she said. "I also buy just one of everything, one in each size. So if you see a red sweater you like, better get it now because if it sells, I won't reorder."
Boogerd also stocks a variety of mom-made clothing and quilts.
"I get a lot of Nordstrom brand clothing," she said, reaching down to pat her almost 2-year-old son, Brody, on the head. "Some of his clothes came from there, but I didn't buy them new."
Consigning baby gear is popular, she said, because lots of moms tend to buy color-coordinated, or at least gender-specific, bags and carriers.
"If you bought pink for your daughter, you're not going to want to put your new son in it," Boogerd said.
Much of her stock is girls' clothing -- "I think designers just make more for them" -- including a selection of tutus in rainbow colored netting.
"That's one of the hottest trends for toddler girls -- tutus to wear out in public," she said.
Boogerd opened Swanky Babies in July but is having a grand opening at 10 a.m. today with special discounts until 1 p.m. The first 10 customers to spend $75 will get a bag of goodies full of items from other Kennewick businesses.
Swanky Babies is Boogerd's second business. She's also been a wedding photographer, doing business as Jenna Boogerd Photography, for three years.
"I've always wanted a retail shop ever since I was in fourth grade, working in my parents' hardware store in Montana," she said. "I've worked in other retail stores, including mall chain stores, but always knew I'd have my own one day."
It took Boogerd and her husband, Greg, nearly two years to draw up a business plan, find vendors and the best location.
"I always knew I wanted to be in downtown Kennewick. I believe in shopping in downtowns," she said. "People said, 'But there are tattoo parlors and bars in downtown Kennewick.' Sure, but there are also other shops, restaurants and antique stores too."
Swanky Babies is at 224 W. Kennewick Ave. Hours are noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday-Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The store also is on Facebook.


"It seems like Congress, even before Trump, has resolved itself to government shutdowns as par for the course. With Trump and a divided Congress, I didn't think it would get better. My action plan has been to limit my spending … As a government contractor, I ran into this in the past. Learn by example. I'm job searching so I can get out of government contracting. I am the sole income. The shutdown has impacted my marriage and my family. I just wish legislators would think country first, constituents second — those who would vote for them."
"I'm a furloughed federal employee, home with no pay. I've been proactive; paid all bills up to date in December. I've moved things around with my flexible spending. I changed my dental appointment from January to later in the calendar so as not to have to pay the deductible, keeping the focus instead on my family. I limited holiday spending, didn't splurge. I'm not paying annual memberships due in January to organizations and my HOA. My wife is a government contractor. My daughter, 8, is asking. Kids see, and we are home. The solution would be Lindsey Graham. Reopen the government for three weeks. Get people back to work and politicians can hash it out."
"I'm the wife of a government attorney who has been furloughed but is deemed essential. He will eventually receive the back pay, but there are bills to pay now. There are little things we want to do; we are not. Small things make a difference when you have little children, but all extracurricular things are canceled. We have a two-month nest egg for payments as long as we cut back. We called the credit union. My solution is simple. I don't understand why the border wall has to be coupled with the budget. Separate those two arguments. Resolve the budget. Sit. Get working families paid and back to work. I would support anything, even temporary. Eighty-three percent of Americans are not affected, so there is no sense of urgency. There is a need for a human face on it. The uncertainty is terrifying. The divisiveness from our administration is not what I'm getting from my community. People help neighbors."


The Oshkosh Fire Department released tips for how to safely — and legally — celebrate July 4 in Oshkosh.
Don’t throw a firework at your friend, and don’t light fireworks inside buildings: two firework safety tips Oshkosh residents probably already know.
But what fireworks can residents legally use? And how do they make sure they’re not one of the 13,000 Americans injured by fireworks each year?
The Oshkosh Fire Department offered a few helpful recommendations ahead of July 4.
Any firework that explodes or leaves the ground is illegal in Oshkosh. That includes firecrackers, bottle rockets and Roman candles.
Residents can legally use sparklers shorter than 36 inches that don’t contain magnesium, chlorate or perchlorate; snakes that don't contain mercury; and cylinder and or cone fountains.
The fine for using illegal fireworks in Oshkosh is $232.
How can I tell if it’s illegal?
Read the packages to make sure the fireworks you buy don’t have these chemicals, Oshkosh Fire Battalion Chief Dan Mrochek said.
And the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recommends you look at the packaging for a lack of labels or poor-quality construction.
How do I stay safe?
Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse.
Back up to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks.


We imagine even one night here would change your life for the better.
The World Travel Awards took place in the last few days, with a huge number of categories resulting in dozens of winners all over the world.
It is the same award ceremony that named Jameson Distillery the greatest Distillery Tour in the entire world, but this particular prize was specifically naming the single best hotel suite in all of Ireland.
However, there can be only one winner, and 2018's winner also won this same award back in 2014 and 2015, before both the Westbury and the Castlemartyr took the honour. However, they have come back to claim their prize once more, so congratulations to the Presidential Suite @ Conrad - Dublin on the win!
You can find images and details about that suite right here.
Check out some of the jaw-dropping images from that room right here.


High oil prices have many of us trying to save money on heating costs. One option is to use space heaters. They can add warmth and comfort to your home, as long as you use them safely. Space heaters can cause fires if you don't use them properly.
Danny Lipford, host of "Today's Homeowner," displays several types of electric space heaters, and offers safety tips, on The Early Show Wednesday.
He explains to co-anchor Hannah Storm that there are two basic types of electric heaters: convection and radiant. Convection heaters provide warmth by blowing or pulling air over a heated surface. These heaters are designed to heat an entire room. Radiant heaters direct heat at an object.
Convection heaters are either fan-assistant or fan-less. These heaters run an average of $15 to $100.
Granite Countertops A Health Threat?
Ceramic heaters are some of the newest convection heaters on the market. These heaters have ceramic plates and aluminum baffles. When electricity passes through the ceramic, it is heated. The heat is then absorbed by the aluminum and a fan blows the hot air into your room.
Ceramic heaters are easily portable and give off a great deal of heat from a small box. These heaters tend to be more energy efficient and safer than many heaters, so even though they heat up quickly, their plastic casings stay cool. A great use for this type of fan would be in a small office or tabletop.
Heater fans use a standard metal-coil element that is placed in the fan to help distribute heat to a room. These convection fans provide a minimal source of heat for a small area, but not an entire room. Heater fans usually have a good price point and often are available in a variety of sizes and colors. The heat element can also be turned off, so this fan can be a great choice for an office in both the winter and the summer.
The radiant heater is one of the most common types of space heaters. However, this type of heater has been updated with more features and temperature control, keeping safety in mind.
Most of these heaters use a glowing quartz or some type of metal element and reflector to provide heat to a specific area. Radiant heaters quickly provide heat to those closest to the heater, rather than providing heat for an entire room.
Oil-filled radiators look like old-fashioned radiators that are found in many older homes. However, these are radiant electric heaters that are permanently filled with oil. Many of the models available come with wheels so they are easy to move around your home. This type of heater provides a steady heat source for an entire room.
The price range for oil-filled heaters is $50 to $110.
Another option for additional heating in your home is using either a gas or kerosene heater. Both of these heaters give off a great deal of heat and come in handy when there is no power, since they don't require electricity. However, always be careful when using them and be sure to follow the manufacturer's guidelines.
Propane gas heaters are among the newest ways to provide additional heat to your home. These heaters can provide heat for almost six hours on a one-gallon tank of propane. Prices range from $80 to $250.
Since natural gas is so plentiful in many parts of the country, natural gas heaters are another great option. You'll have to connect this type of heater to a gas source; however, you can still disconnect the heater to store elsewhere during the summer.
Fireplaces are the most popular source of additional heat in many homes. They can give off a lot of heat and provide warmth to a room. Fireplaces are becoming so popular, you now find them in bedrooms, kitchens and even bathrooms! However, if your home doesn't have a fireplace, the costs of adding a chimney and/or gas line can really add up.
Keep at least three feet from combustible items.
Turn off before leaving a room or going to sleep.
Always supervise children and pets when using a heater.
Only plug into wall outlets; don't use extension cords.
Don't use it to dry clothes.
Cool down completely before adding fuel.


Charles Cottier recently bowed out of his role as Dex Walker.
Former Home and Away actor Charles Cottier will star in the second series of ABC2 comedy Please Like Me.
Please Like Me is returning for another series after receiving critical acclaim in Australia and the US and being nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.
Cottier joins the line up with several new cast members including Charlotte Nicdao, whose previous credits include The Slap and The Time Of Our Lives, TV Tonight reports.
The series will air ten original half-hour episodes in August 2014 on ABC2 for Australia and Pivot TV in the US, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Viewers recently saw Cottier's character Dex Walker bow out of Home and Away following his wedding to April Scott (Rhiannon Fish).
He has previously addressed plans to launch a career in the US following his exit from the show.


In our weekly series, Ware of the Week, we showcase our favourite organised lines of code from the world of mobile and desktop computing. In today’s edition, we look at an app that aims to make paying for electricity in South Africa a little easier — Powertime. If you missed our previous Ware of the Week, catch it below.
Last time out, we took a little detour through the realms of a pseudo-game Colorfy, which we hailed as the perfect time wasting app for those lazy work days, but this week’s ware is largely tasked with saving time.
You might’ve heard of Powertime. It’s a start up founded in 2009 in Cape Town, and covered by our sister site Ventureburn as well. While it went through a rocky transition in 2011, the company has since recovered and reinvented itself. It now aims to revolutionise how South Africans purchase some of the menial necessities of life, including airtime, settling those rates and more importantly for the purpose of this piece, buying electricity.
The online service really is the apps’ backbone. And spinal column.
The Powertime app is available on almost ever OS you can think of. Yes, even BlackBerry. The founders pride themselves on this diversity, and it’s really where the app itself takes a swipe at others in the field.
Within in the app, signing up for the service of course, users can purchase electricity for various meters and municipalities in South Africa, purchase airtime and even transfer cash to other via the PayGenius Smart Payments wallet (another Powertime mobile payments tie-in).
Like ShowMax, it’s very difficult to talk about Powertime’s app without mentioning the service behind it.
The Android app isn’t the prettiest thing we’ve seen on a mobile screen, but it works.
For one, the Powertime service is easy to negotiate. Signing up is about a three minute process, and the only real thought that goes into it is adding EFT details to the PayGenius account. I wasn’t completely sure how to do this from the app itself, but logging onto the web portal solved my issue.
If you have a credit card, it’ll be your best friend in this regard, but I’m generally suspect of the internet, so I resorted to transferring money into the service instead on my own accord and at my own pace.
Once the PayGenius service recognises that you’ve loaded money into the account, you can then purchase whatever’s available: be it power or airtime. Purchasing said essentials for multiple meters and phone numbers is also possible and easily done. Purchasing power for granny and Timmy then within two minutes is simple as pie. And getting the code to them is easy too: an email or SMS option is available to quickly pass it on. The app also lets you copy the code to the clipboard on Android, something that I do extremely often.
You can also pay Timmy’s bills from the app too, but I didn’t have any overdue bills at the time (score!).
The web service also doubles as a stable framework for all your past transactions, and should you ever forget your login details, it’s relatively simple to revert to another.
The iOS app is a much easier prospect on the eye.
Sounds like kittens made of cotton candy so far? Everything has its flaws in the tech world, and that’s the case with Powertime.
Apps that force you to login each and every time is annoying and that’s exactly what Powertime requires. Yes, I understand that it’s more secure, but give me the option. Especially if I do actually lock down my phone with a complex outer passkey.
If heavens help and you do manage to remember your password, forgetting to transfer funds into PayGenius is another matter. You can do this via an EFT from your mobile banking app, but PayGenius requires a proof of payment to be submitted on the web portal itself. And this pretty much negates the point of the mobile friendly approach the company adopts.
Overall, these points really are nitpicking. The service supports over 50 municipalities in South Africa, a number that hopefully will grow too. But unlike other services, I’ve had next to no issues with Powertime so far.
Powertime currently services a wide range of municipalities and services.
If you happen to live in South Africa and making your life easier is a top priority, Powertime is a great app to do just that. Instead of running to the shop when you need power or purchasing it on a banking portal that demands additional behind the scenes charges, Powertime gives users an efficient, quick and convenient online alternative available for a diverse range of OSes.
Disclaimer: Powertime credited my PayGenius wallet with R100 to try the service, but additional transactions have been made on my accord.


Industry experts have said the Lindows operating system could become a viable open source alternative to Windows on the desktop, writes Karl Cushing.
Lindows.com has taken an operating system that is relatively hard to use - the Debian version of Linux - and given it a user-friendly graphical interface. It is compatible with some Windows applications, including the 2000 editions of Excel, Word and Powerpoint, and a subscription-based service allows users to download and install open source software products such as Sun's Staroffice 6.0.
Its makers claim LindowsOS delivers the power, stability and cost-savings of Linux with the ease of Windows.
Graham Taylor, director of open source promotion body OpenForum Europe, said Lindows' increasing acceptance in the consumer space and improved availability will "create a groundswell that will percolate through to business strategy".
However, Taylor's welcome for LindowsOS is tempered by caution. "I would like a bit more evidence and a better understanding on interoperability and integration issues - especially with Microsoft products," he said.
Dan Kusnetzky, system software analyst at IDC, said organisations relying on Windows applications need to be aware of the difference between making an application run in a foreign environment and supporting it.
"If the organisation feels confident enough in its capabilities for supporting Microsoft applications on Linux, it might be worthwhile considering Linux and, thus, Lindows," Kusnetzky said.
LindowsOS began life bundled with low-cost computers sold through US retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, and it has only recently become available as a separate product.
Lindows.com is now targeting the lucrative US education sector, where its licensing programme allows schools to install the operating system on an unlimited number of computers for just $500 a year.
However, there are hurdles to overcome before Lindows conquers the world. Lindows.com is facing a lawsuit Microsoft has filed against it in the US alleging an infringement of its Windows trademark.
As well as the court case with Microsoft, scheduled for April, Lindows has caused splits within the open source community. Several key participants pulled out of the Lindows-sponsored Desktop Linux Summit this month, accusing the firm of trying to monopolise the event. Lindows.com has also been left out of new Linux promotion body the Desktop Linux Consortium, whose members include Mandrakesoft, SuSE and Lycoris.
Eddie Bleasdale, director at consultancy group Netproject, said Lindows is "a perfectly good operating system". However, he said IT bosses should not just be looking at the operating system, they should be looking at their architecture as well. "IT directors and IT managers who are not looking at Linux on the desktop are not doing their job properly," he said.
April 2003 Microsoft and Lindows go to court to decide if the use of the Lindows name infringes on the Windows trademark.


Silicon Valley luminaries on a State Department-sponsored trip to Iraq are already making observations and floating ideas through Twitter and blog posts about how to bring the war-battered country up to web 2.0 speed.
How bad is it? Almost no one in Iraq has internet at home thanks to years of censorship under Saddam Hussein’s rule — making cellphones the platform for engaging the public in the occupied country.
Tube and WordPress, will be in the country through Thursday, picking up ideas on how to help Iraqis employ interactive technology and user-generated content to improve transparency and engage a newly free citizenry.
Editor’s note: Wired magazine senior writer Steven Levy is the only reporter on the trip. Read his first-person account here.
According to a Tweet from Richard Robbins, the director of social innovation at AT&T, they are already seeing signs of real progress.
Iraqi deputy PM quote: "The only way I can get through cabinet meetings that are long and boring is looking at my iPhone."
Only about 5 percent of Iraqis have internet access at home, while a larger (unknown) percentage get online at internet cafes, WordPress vice president Raanan Bar-Cohen says on his blog. But cell service is practically universal and almost everyone owns a mobile phone.
"With 18M+ lines, mobile is critical for engaging public," Tweets Robbins, who is also impressed with local mobile companies. "Great example of private industry playing major role in rebuilding Iraq," he writes.
The reliance on mobile service for communication could also provide the perfect setting for adoption of the astoundingly popular micro-blogging service Twitter, which lets cell users post and read "tweets" using SMS messages from any mobile phone.
Junket participant — and Twitter co-founder — Jack Dorsey says a service like that could help make the government more open.
The government could easily get a real-time sense of what the people are talking about, and by Tweeting information to the public, it would make it more human and approachable, says Dorsey. For instance, citizens could let the government know when government services break down, and agencies could monitor residents’ posts to make sure that the people it hires to clean the streets actually do the work.
"We’d like to create something that the entire world can use," Dorsey told Cal Perry, a Baghdad-based CNN reporter who is also tweeting. "What we’ve seen, and what we’ve learned in this time is that 85 percent of the people here have mobile phones, and a large majority of them want to participate in the government."
But Iraq’s three mobile networks aren’t reliable and are often overloaded — making them about as reliable as Twitter itself.
"This creates a bit of a comical situational where many people carry at least 2 phones with them from different providers to make sure they can conduct business regardless of where they are," writes Bar-Cohen on his blog.
Bar-Cohen also writes that building a new fiber-based infrastructure for more widespread internet is being held back by legacy systems as well as "security requirements / sabotage missions" that disrupt the work.
A number of participants are Twittering the trip, including @jack, @heif, @dfnssr, @jasonliebman, @raanan and @rar624. You can also follow the conversation using the hashtag #iraqtech.


The recent report, Project MARTHA published by Intermanager shows that fatigue at sea is a growing problem. The report highlights growing levels of fatigue, particularly among masters and watch keepers.
Fatigue at sea (both physical and mental) can impact judgement and therefore safety and can contribute to increased stress. This is a very serious issue which must be addressed and measures taken for it to be alleviated.
The shipping industry has strict regulations in place that all shipowners and ship managers must comply with regarding work and rest hours. These regulations are only part of the story. Checks need to be in place to ensure that these regulations are being adhered to strictly by all seafarers at all times without any operational or commercial pressures, perceived or otherwise from all shore-based stakeholders.
• Trending data on ship type, trade and available manpower to forecast work load and assist senior officers onboard to plan work schedules for ports with simultaneous operations (SIMPOS) such as loading cargo, bunkering , storing followed by short sea passages requiring tank cleaning. Support and guidance on SIMOPS ensures proper planning and proper work rest hours to mitigate risk.
Regulations and compliance are only a small part of the equation. Given what we know today about the effects of physical tiredness on the body and mind, it is imperative that companies have programs in place to ensure that seafarers’ wellbeing is top priority.
We are committed to ensuring the wellbeing of Wallem seafarers. This commitment is formalized in our Wellness@Sea program which was developed in conjunction with a clinical psychologist. The program addresses mental and emotional health and covers every aspect of wellbeing at sea, from stress management to healthy eating and the importance of quality sleep and exercise; as well as a positive working culture and behavior.
Stress management and support due to any unacceptable bullying or harassment onboard is covered under our Dignity@Sea program.
Awareness on work-life balance at sea is a key aspect of our pre-joining safety briefings and training sessions and hard copies of the guide (in both English and Chinese) are available onboard for ready reference. The key to both these programs is that we are empowering our seafarers to take care of themselves and their health, while offering them our full support.
We have a confidential email portal (Seavoice@Wallem.com) that can be used without fear of bias or retribution. It goes to the highest level of management, with a clinical psychologist who is experienced with seafarers on consultation to address the more critical issues. We also extensively promote the support system from the industry to our seafarers such as the Sailor’s Society’s free Wellness At Sea App, an interactive way for seafarers to monitor their progress.
However, support should not stop with the seafarer themselves. It is critical that support is provided to the seafarers’ families too. At Wallem we are very grateful for the constant support provided to our seafarers’ families by the various chapters of the charitable organization Women of Wallem (WoW). Knowing that their families are well taken care of and have a strong support system in their absence can relieve a good deal of stress that seafarers are facing.
As well as support for health and wellbeing, I personally believe very strongly in the power of engagement. Seafarers who feel happy and engaged are essential to boost morale onboard. Our seafarers are provided with ample opportunities to upgrade their skills and training via our in-house training portal and events such as safety dinners onboard are regularly arranged to keep the crew motivated and unified towards the same goal – safe and efficient operations for themselves, the company and our customers.
While our crew is made up of a great mix of people from different cultural backgrounds, Wallem is the largest employer of Chinese seafarers outside of China. All Wallem seafarers are treated equally and with respect and not defined by nationality. Emphasis is put on the very simple concept of the “Wallem Professional Seafarer” who is expected to have a strong safety mindset and take pride in his/her commitment to Wallem and our customers.
In turn, it is our commitment, along with the provision of a strong safety culture and secure living conditions which attracts seafarers to Wallem. Overtime is carefully monitored by the same cell that monitors work/rest hours, and we have measures in place to ensure that any seafarer showing signs of fatigue is not allowed to continue to work as they are risking endangering themselves, their colleagues, our owners assets’ and environment.
Intermanger is calling for urgent industry action on the critical issue of the increasing stress and workload onboard. Wallem fully supports increased compliance in this area. The safety and wellbeing of all seafarers should be a top priority industry-wide.
This issue is not going to disappear. At Wallem, we are taking proactive steps to mitigate it and face it head on in every aspect of what we do from raising awareness, training, empowering our seafarers, embedding this into our Safety Management System and providing support required. We believe that this is something that every responsible employer of seafarers, shipowner and ship manager should do.
This issue has to be addressed if we are to continue retaining professional high performing seafarers, attracting new seafarers and promoting this profession to the younger generation.


Security is tight, protests are small and everyone, with a few exceptions, is in a pretty good mood.
THE LABOUR PARTY has gathered in Killarney, Co Kerry for its annual conference with most people in a fairly chipper mood – one resignation call aside – as things begin to look up for the party.
The protests have been small and at times non-existent outside, while inside the INEC there has been a general sense of ‘it’s been tough, but it’s getting better’.
… but not nearly as many as last year.
… and he isn’t afraid to use it if the members get rowdy.
… and they’ve no idea what all the fuss was about in the first place.
… even this lovely red rose which Ruairí gave the Tánaiste for his lapel. Awh.
… and likes to give it a good look at it, so he does.


Tea with the president, a taxi ride and protesting students. It's all here in the latest edition of our Media Watch.
With match day three is coming up, the two teams took a break to go to tea with President Musharraf. We all know the prez is keen on cricket, having seen him at Rawalpindi during the second one-dayer. He is also a patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board and a fan of Tendulkar to boot. Find out what happened at this tea party inthis report of The Dawn.
Now that it's even Stevens in the series, Javed Miandad has taken time out to needle John Wright. Well, they don't call him the wily old fox for nothing! The Pakistani coach is full of praise for Wright, but hang on, there's a little something between thelines.
The hospitality served out to the Indian players by all accounts is enough to give anyone diabetes. Portal HiPakistan.com reports how Ganguly admits to being "stunned" by the warm welcome they have received. Heinsists that it is better than what they get even back home.
However, there can be too much of a good thing. Hospitality, security, it is all getting a bit too much for the players now. The Jangreports how the Indians are getting a bit fed up of the frequency of press conferences and seem to have had enough of minding their manners with pesky journos.
As the scene shifts to Peshawar for the third one-day international, the muddle of ticket sales that happened at Rawalpindi seems to have spilled over here. Ashfaq Yusufzai of The Dawnwrites that students staged a protest outside the Peshawar Press Club about non-availability of tickets. Apparently, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that tickets would be sold on three days, but they were all sold out on the first.
No marks for guessing that the hosts are pulling out all stops to ensure a safe stay for the Indian players. The Jangreports that Afghan refugees have been barred from not just coming to watch the game, but they are not to be allowed within a 1 km radius around the stadium!
Apparently, we are not the only ones with the bright idea of having a media watch section. Cricinfo do what they call a dailyPaper Round, taking in what various newspapers in the subcontinent have to say about the Pakistan-India series. It's good fun and it's here.
And if you have anything to say or share you views with other cricket lovers, The Jang is running amessage board. Please note, though, that it is open only during match time, and do remember to mind your manners.


2:16 a.m. -- Officers arrested a motorist for drunken driving after a property damage accident at Tittabawassee River Road and Dublin Avenue.
5:16 a.m. -- Police investigated a case of drug possession in the 1000 block of Mill Street and made a warrant arrest at the address.
5:21 a.m. -- A deputy was sent to East Ashby Road for a report of a male dressed in black clothing who was walking in the roadway. The male was gone when the deputy arrived.
8:33 a.m. -- A Larkin Township woman, 45, reported her son, age 9, assaulted her at a Running Deer Lane home.
8:52 a.m. -- A deputy responded to a 911 hang-up call made from a West Isabella Road home, and found a 24-year-old woman who wanted advice about who she should hire as an attorney.
12:43 p.m. -- A deputy investigated the unauthorized driving away of a motor vehicle from an Ingersoll Township home.
12:47 p.m. -- Police responded to a case of retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard.
1:10 p.m. -- Police investigated a traffic violation at an accident at East Patrick Road near South Saginaw Road.
1:52 p.m. -- A Saginaw woman, 21, was arrested on M-20 for driving while her license was suspended.
4:25 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a report of smoke coming from a property on West Gordonville Road, and found a woman who was burning garbage. The woman agreed to extinguish the fire and not burn any more trash.
6:06 p.m. -- Police responded to a felonious assault in the 2200 block of Jefferson Avenue.
6:53 p.m. -- A report regarding a domestic assault, involving a 38-year-old man and 35-year-old woman at a South Homer Road residence, is being reviewed by the prosecutor's office.
7 p.m. -- Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 1800 block of South Saginaw Road.
7:51 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to the U.S. 10 overpass at Hope Road for a report of three boys who were dangling something from the bridge. The boys were gone when the deputy arrived.
8:14 p.m. -- A Mount Haley Township man, 45, was cited for not having a motorcycle endorsement and for speeding on South Meridian Road near West Isabella Road.
11:14 p.m. -- A deputy assisted Coleman Police with a possible personal protection order violation at a South Third Street apartment.
7:46 a.m. -- Property in the 3900 block of East Ashman Street was damaged.
2:48 p.m. -- Items were stolen from the 500 block of West Main Street.
2:56 p.m. -- Items were stolen from the 400 block of East Lyon Road.
3:37 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested for driving on a suspended license at Main and Hubbard streets.
4:39 p.m. -- Police assisted sheriff's deputies with locating a person at Ashman and Ann Streets.
8:05 p.m. -- A Midland man, 19, was arrested for violating a conditional bond after a traffic stop on West Little Salt River Road.
10:37 p.m. -- A deputy spoke with a Midland Township resident who had received a text message about someone wanting to buy drugs.
10:46 p.m. -- A West Isabella Road home was broken into and property, valued at $2,380, was stolen.
11:32 p.m. -- Someone in a black Volkswagen was seen dumping papers into the parking lot of an East Isabella Road business. The vehicle was not found after it left the business.
8:42 p.m. -- A deputy was called to Salt River Acres for a loud music complaint.
10 p.m. -- A deputy responded to an East Saginaw Road storage facility to assist a Kalkaska woman who was locked inside the gate.
10:23 p.m. -- A deputy responded to Isabella Street for a report of a drunken driver. The vehicle was located and the driver said she was dealing with her handicapped son and drifted out of her lane.


A family eagerly awaiting their daughter's birth livened up a Fort Worth hospital delivery room with an impromptu a cappella rendition of Salt-N-Pepa's 1987 hit "Push It."
Father Jordan Houston and mother Jadie Phelps posted the video, taken just 10 minutes before baby Alaya Jae's birth, on Facebook on Dec. 19. Since then, more than 130,000 people have shared the performance.
"This is what happens when your parents are both entertainers," Phelps wrote.
Houston's brother dropped the beat when a nurse asked the family if they had a playlist in mind, Phelps told WFAA-TV (Channel 8). They ended up performing the song several times for the doctors and nurses at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Fort Worth, and Phelps' sister caught it on tape.
Alaya is healthy and home with her big siblings, according to the family.


From the end of WWII until the present, the United States has been borrowing, inventing, or inverting terms to label other nations and their political systems. Eventually, the repertoire of politically motivated rhetorical gadgetries swelled to become a convenient ideological arsenal for US expansions into the sovereign domains of all nations. Noam Chomsky once noted, “Talking about American imperialism is rather like talking about triangular triangles.”1 Debating the rhetorical validity of Chomsky’s observation and if it effectively describes talking about the United States is not the subject of this article. However, the conclusion that US imperialism is highly adept at dispensing interminable triangular triangles is self-evident.
Terms such as “American exceptionalism,” “leader of the free world,” “God bless America,” and “our great American democracy” to describe the United States, and terms such as “dictatorship,” “totalitarian,” “closed-nation,” “rogue state,” “state sponsor of terrorism,” “regime,” etc. to describe targeted states are littered throughout the American political lexicon. Could such terms shape policies and determine events?
The manipulation of language can be baleful. In the documentary film Psywar, a compelling case is made that scourges, such as impoverishment and wars, arise from the abuse of language. Consider World War II. American Anti‑German propaganda used certain Third Reich terms (Lebensraum, Aryan race, Führer, Social Darwinism, etc.) as a rationale, among many others, to justify US entry into that war. In Vietnam, the catch phrase was to stop the “Communist domino” in South East Asia. In the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the semantic ornamentation of US wars of aggression took the cynical names of “enduring freedom,” and “Iraqi freedom,” respectively.
Emphatically, people need to be well aware of words and the meanings they impart. It is all too easy to latch onto and use terms that have been integrated into mainstream discourse from media ubiquity. Language has significance, and it helps to shape consciousness and actions. Knowing this, some people who crave wealth and power will manipulate language to satisfy their cravings. But when imperialist ambition for other nations’ assets or strategic locations becomes state policy, the results can be calamitous for nations targeted by imperialism. Hence, the idioms of US imperialism cannot simply be harmless cravings. What drives this imperialism is the quest for a global imperium, regardless of costs to others.
Because of incessant state propaganda and the media’s absorption of ideologized terms, the rhetoric of regime and regime change have become so pervasive that even progressive outlets are not immune from it. To evaluate how these terms seep into and embed in the culture and conduct of political systems, we will discuss a typical case as represented by Aaron Maté, a host and producer for The Real News.
Because the term regime is ambiguous, highly politicized, exceedingly ideologized, often used out of context, and invariably employed by the West as an instrument of political defamation, why does this supposedly progressive, independent news outlet use a clear imperialist jargon to demonize foreign governments?
Given that language conveys images through words, using figuratively pejorative wording such as regime implies that a government of such a country is illegitimate. Therefore, effecting “regime change” by military force becomes a purported corrective moral duty of the US. Has this been the case, for instance, with “regime change” in Iraq, Libya, and other Arab states? Let us dispense for one moment with linguistic gimmicks. Because Wilkerson and Maté spoke of “regime change” throughout the interview, why not opt for straightforward clarity and say the violent overthrow of a foreign government directly or through proxy! In the case of Syria, it should be emphasized that the overthrow is largely being driven by foreign actors.
KP: In recent interviews, you use “Assad regime” but you never refer to a Bush/Trump regime. They are called administrations. Since “regime” is pejorative, why do you call the elected Syrian government a regime?
AM: The Assads have been in power for more than four decades. And I don’t think Trump-Bush’s electoral victories and Assad’s are comparable — correct me if I’m wrong, but in the latter, there wasn’t voting outside of government areas and some foreign embassies. I can understand the argument against using regime if it can help legitimize regime change. What term would you use?
KP: First, the business parties of the US have been in power several more decades — since the US was established on Indigenous territory. Second, the 2014 Syrian election was open to international observers; it had a 73.4% turnout that garnered 88.7% support for Assad (64% of eligible voters … which, I submit, obviates the criticism of “outside government controlled areas” … difficult to control when foreign mercenaries and terrorists are wreaking havoc in parts of the country). And you are certainly aware of criticisms of US “democracy” and voting there.
Lastly, I submit the US has no business determining for Syrians how they will be led and who will lead them?
AM: Exactly, the business parties have ruled in the US, not one intertwined family regime. I don’t see the 2014 elections, where opponents were state-approved and large parts of the country excluded, as you do. I think regime is exactly the right term for the Assad gang but I can see the argument for not using a pejorative term, even an accurate one. So I’ll consider it. I certainly agree re: your last point.
Further, Maté questions the decades-long father-to-son Assad governance in Syria. We agree. However, such aspect must not be questioned parochially. First, the United States loves dynasties that serve its plans. One example is the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua (1936-1974). The other was the planned transfer of power from Hosni Mubarak to his son Gamal that the US encouraged and blessed until the Egyptian people put an axe to that plan in 2011. Second, we should place the question of dynastic rule in the political context of independent states. That is, the status of who rules in an independent state is exclusively an internal affair of said state.
Explanation: most modern nation-states—especially in Asia and Africa—that emerged after WWI and WWII are the result of myriad historical, domestic, and external (i.e., foreign power intervention) factors. (Israel, being a state created by the West as a homeland for Jewish Europeans is an exception. The western hemisphere, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand are also another subject.) After the dust settled, many nation-states came to exist as political systems with boundaries arbitrarily demarcated by European powers. Consequently, we deem that criticizing, destabilizing, indicting, partitioning, or overthrowing the legitimate (according to prevailing international agreements) governments of these states is not only absurd but patently criminal. Legally and morally, no foreign states, institutions, groups, or individuals have any right to rearrange the political configuration and type of power of any other country.
Of course, we have every right to question the power assets of a specific state if they negatively affect other nations. We also have the right to question the power structures of all other states be they the business duopoly of the United States, the medieval system of Saudi Arabia, or the moribund but obstinate colonialist system of Britain.
Conclusion: Leaving aside the question of the moral cogency of the system of nation states, it is elementary to uphold the notion that the configuration of any national government is a matter for the citizenry to decide. However, no one need defer from taking a critical position in evaluating its policies and actions. Further, if one insists on indicting a country based on any premise, then the meterstick used to judge that country must be extended, first of all to one’s own country, and second, be extendable to all other countries without exception.
Take the example of Jordan. Imperialists abstain from referring to Jordan as the Hashemite “regime,” which Britain fostered to allow for the installation of a Zionist state in Palestine. A similar imperialist impediment exists against calling the house of Windsor the monarchical regime, even though it descended from houses that conquered Scotland and Wales?
Additionally, in terms of power as a family affair, familial lineages are now an entrenched trait in US politics: the influence of the Kennedys, the Bushes, and the Clintons in politics are recent examples. Where do we hear the protests against the power of such dynasties or their being dubbed as regimes transplanted in power roles through elections? If the explanation is that free elections led to that, then the validity of elections (as a process for attaining power for specific families) should be scrutinized and categorized. Moreover, because the validity of US “democracy” and US elections are questionable,4 is it not throwing rocks from a glasshouse when criticizing forms of government elsewhere?
This brings us to question of what has been learned from “regime change” wreaked by the United States and other western powers such as helping racists overthrow the socialist government in Libya, for example?
The most serious human rights problems during the year resulted from the absence of effective governance, justice, and security institutions, and abuses and violations committed by armed groups affiliated with the government, its opponents, terrorists, and criminal groups. Consequences of the failure of the rule of law included arbitrary and unlawful killings and impunity for these crimes; civilian casualties in armed conflicts; killings of politicians and human rights defenders; torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and harsh and life-threatening conditions in detention and prison facilities.
Other human rights abuses included arbitrary arrest and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; denial of fair public trial; an ineffective judicial system staffed by officials subject to intimidation; arbitrary interference with privacy and home; use of excessive force and other abuses in internal conflicts; limits on the freedoms of speech and press, including violence against and harassment of journalists; restrictions on freedom of religion; abuses of internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrants; corruption and lack of transparency in government; violence and social discrimination against women and ethnic and racial minorities, including foreign workers; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; legal and social discrimination based on sexual orientation; and violations of labor rights.
Given the contemporary history in Libya, what would one predict for “regime change” in Syria?
If logical arguments matter, then it is one thing when the French once referred to the monarchic system prior to the French Revolution as the Ancien Régime—that when the term regime came into usage. However, it is something else when the West uses it as a means to express dubious political paradigms. The reason is simple: such expression comes with the implanted code/pretext for military intervention. In post-WWII imperialist practice, the moment a government of a given country gains the enmity of the United States (or Israel), it becomes a “regime.” For example, when Muammar Gaddafi was considered an enemy of the West, they called his government a regime. But when he gave up his advanced weapons programs and rudimentary equipment, the US and Britain refrained from using the word “regime” and started using the standard term: Libyan government. To show the change of heart of the West toward the Libyan leader, Tony Blair, a bona fide war criminal, went to dine with him in his tent.
Another US oddity: the Al Saud family that is ruling Saudi Arabia, with its shuttered female population and head chopping meted out to malcontents, is a regime from top to bottom. When about 14,000 “royals” are placed in every crevice of power, then that power is the pure expression of a regime. And yet, we do not recall Western governments ever calling the Saudi family rule as regime. What is the mystery?
Where do we go from here? What is a Régime?
The notion that a government cannot be called regime because it is elected is a defective way to look at how things work. In the US, for example, the president is elected. Fine, but the entire administration is first appointed and then approved. Technically, therefore, the said administration is a specific regime convened within the framework of certain strictures. Consider this: no one elected Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and other Zionists to take decisions for war against Iraq. Yet, their influence in making decisions transcended the role of elected governance. Arguably, therefore, the US government is a particular regime that responds to special interests among its ruling elites.
Consequently, when the United States calls any foreign government a “regime,” we immediately know that the appellation is dictated by the need of the imperialist system to appear as an expression of a “democratic government.” Meaning, while the US is a normal and democratic state, the other state is not.
Roberts tried to walk a very thin line between two concepts with different meanings and purposes: administration and regime. In short, his method to differentiate is critically flawed. He attributed the conceptual distinction to one factor: Control. The scheme does not work. Control, whether exercised in a “regime” setting or in an “administration” environment neither elucidates nor qualifies the structural quality of governance and its hierarchical order.
For instance, it is known that Ronald Reagan, the governor and the president, was in the habit of delegating many if his responsibilities to others due to serious shortcomings (William E. Leuchtenburg, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, described Reagan with these words, “No one had ever entered the White House so grossly ill informed.”) This means, although Reagan might have had what it takes to appear as the one in charge, he lacked the expertise to run the complex system he was supposed to govern. However, both delegation of power and decision-making do not entail exercising control by those who give it because ultimately those who undertake such delegation are only theoretically responsible for it, while the delegator takes only nominal responsibility.
Further, if the head of a given “regime” tightly controls the apparatuses of his government, would that be enough reason to qualify that regime as administration? On the other hand, even if Roberts meant to confine his distinction to the United States, his approach would not work either. Explanation: Roberts often uses the Deep State paradigm as the true pattern of power in the United States (we endorse this paradigm, too). But an altered reality, where patterns of power are preserved and repeated like clockwork, is the corollary of Deep State. Evidently, therefore, Roberts overlooked how the Deep State works. If this state is effectively in control of the US government, then that government is no longer an administration but a regime that carries the orders of that state.
Considering that the American political system—since inception—responds positively to the financial and political interests and pressure by its capitalistic class, top oligarchs, and special interest groups, then all US administration are regimes—by concept and by fact—under the control of powerful circles.
Curiously, is the Chinese government an administration or regime? When answering, we have to keep in mind the role of the Chinese Communist Party. Because this party appears to control the totality of the Chinese governmental policies and its economic plan, then do we have a regime? Would the Chinese government accept to be called a regime? Would any government accept to be labeled as a regime if such a term is heavily infused with derogatory attributes that could be used against them by aggressive states?
We resolutely consider a change of government imposed by foreign actors as an aggression and act of war. Definitively, it is illegal under the prevailing international law that imperialist states themselves co-wrote and endorsed. What constitutes a legitimate change of government? A change of government should be an expression of the will of a domestic population—be it through revolution, massive civil unrest, or peaceful transition of power. Consequently, we deem all states that are not installed by colonialist powers as having the inalienable right to be considered legitimate and viable for further development.
Does voting confer legitimacy? Broadly, does western-style “democracy” imposed by the mass destruction of weaker nations give legitimacy to governments installed by aggressors? Why does the Vichy Regime installed by Hitler in France still evoke opprobrium but comparatively few criticize regimes installed by the United States in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, and Libya? In the end, could such regimes ever evolve into a genuine democracy—assuming that we have settled on its acceptable definition and mechanisms? We submit that the answer is no.
We view a government imposed by invaders as a means to satisfy the plans of the power that installed it, not the aspirations of the country’s people. Iraq is an example. The post-invasion Iraqi political system cannot be but a regime. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, it dissolved its legitimate governing structures, the army, police force, ministries (except the oil ministry), banks, currency, and so on. Apart from geopolitical demarcation, the Iraqi state ceased to functionally exist including, of course, its political status. That is, we had no idea what it had become: anarchy-land, fiefdom, sect-land, republic, or just mere colony without face or name. And yet, the United States of George W. Bush went ahead and installed a “president” (Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar) for a shell republic. If the post-invasion political system was not a regime exemplar, then what is a regime? With all that, the United State never called the illegitimate and illegal order it imposed on Iraq (still in power today) with any label except the “Iraqi government” to convey the impression of normalcy.
Since the dawn of history, no government has ever reached a theorized- or aspired-to perfection. Is such perfection possible? Societies and governance are an evolving process. In the example of Syria, the struggle of the Syrian people to liberate their land from French colonialism, to confront the installation of a militarized, expansionist Zionist state on its flanks and US plots to overthrow successive Syrian governments have all shaped political attitudes and considerations. Like most developing countries, the Syrian government has flaws. Shall we then accept the killing of over 350,000 Syrians and destruction of their cities in order to enlarge Israel, to allow Turkish intrusions against Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, to provide passage for Qatari pipelines, to re-design the maps of the Arab world, and to turn Syria into an American and Israeli vassal?
Consequent to these arguments, and when confronted with denominating the plethora of political systems existing today, our position is based on simple logic. First, we define any ruling entity of a country as government, and give the name administration to its political configuration. Second, we reserve the term regime to any entity—elected or not elected—that is ruled, directly or indirectly, by special interest groups, by clans, by families, by organizations, by personalities of dubious loyalty to the people, by lobbyists, by oligarchs, by ideologues, by militarists, and by servility to foreign governments. But in the first place, we reserve the term regime to any entity that declares itself above the laws of humanity, above the laws of nations, above criticism, and beyond moral accountability.
To close, we believe clear-minded and critically thinking writers could take the lead in naming any government as “regime” if objective conditions—as explained (or further improved upon)—would support the designation. Again, a middle way exists: that we simply call the entity that rules a country as “government.” Ultimately, this could avoid the diatribe as to what a government is and how it differs from a regime. Having stated that, we do have serious problems when writers, using circulating clichés, uncritically follow the naming system promulgated by the US hyperpower.
This article was posted on Sunday, May 21st, 2017 at 5:41pm and is filed under Imperialism, Journalism, Language, Syria.


What might lead an innocent man confess to something he didn’t do?
“Scenes of a Crime” explores a 10-hour interrogation that resulted in Adrian Thomas’s false confession.
Adrian Thomas is now a free man.
On June 12 2014, Thomas was acquitted of killing his infant son after the New York State Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for him, citing among other reasons “highly coercive” techniques used by police during his interrogation. In 2009, Thomas was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Thomas is the subject of the award-winning documentary “Scenes of a Crime”, broadcast nationally for the first time on MSNBC in December 2012. The New Box Productions film produced by Grover Babcock and Blue Hadaegh investigates Thomas’s false confession and includes interviews with detectives, prosecutors, witnesses, jurors and Thomas himself.
Central to Thomas’s 2009 conviction was a videotaped admission to killing his son, Matthew Thomas—a confession that came nine and a half hours into a 10-hour interrogation. But in February, New York’s highest court ruled the psychological pressure placed on Thomas invalidated the confession, and it should not have been used as evidence.
For most of the interrogation, Thomas maintains he did not harm the child. But police insist the child must have been treated violently, telling Thomas that if he did not accidentally hurt Matthew, then his wife must have. Thomas says that “if it comes down to it” he would “take the fall for my wife.” His wife was never accused.
Detectives repeatedly tell Thomas that explaining how he’d caused Matthew’s head injuries could save the child’s life—even though they knew he was already brain-dead. They ask Thomas to act out throwing the child down on the bed.
The jury found Thomas not guilty after seven hours of deliberations over two days.
“Scenes of a Crime” producers said the documentary’s broadcast helped bring Thomas’s case to national attention, garnering legal support.
“We’re proud the documentary played an important role in gathering attention and support for Adrian’s case, which was eventually embraced by the Innocence Project, Center on Wrongful Convictions, and many other justice reform groups,” they said.
Babcock said false confessions in the United States are much more frequent than most people realize.
Thomas was reunited with his family June 15 in South Georgia after spending nearly six years in prison and jail. Babcock and Hadaegh spoke with him shortly after his release.
“He says it’s unreal, he says he’s taking it moment by moment, and he says he’s just so grateful for the support that gathered around his case,” Babcock said.
“Scenes of a Crime” will re-air Sunday, September 27th at 10 p.m. ET on MSNBC.


Long-term investors who are less wary of short-term twists and turns should look to an equal-weight S&P 500 exchange traded fund that focuses on smaller companies in the benchmark index as a way to generate enhanced returns over the long haul.
Specifically, the the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (NYSEArca: RSP), which tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, just recently celebrated its 14th anniversary after launching on April 24, 2003, and over the past 14 year period, RSP has outperformed the benchmark S&P 500.
Since the fund’s inception, RSP has generated an average annualized return of 11.17%, compared to the S&P 500 Index’s 9.3% return. Over the past decade, the equal-weight S&P 500 ETF has generated an average annualized return of 8.1%, whereas the S&P 500 returned an average 7.5%.
“Over the trailing 10 years through January 2017, the fund has trounced the large-cap blend category by 1.5 percentage points annually, easily placing its performance in top decile,” Morningstar analysts Adam McCullough said in a research note.
The outperformance may be attributed to its equal-weight indexing methodology. RSP is considered one of the industry’s first and oldest smart or strategic-beta ETFs as the fund eschews traditional market capitalization weighting schemes in favor of a very simple alternative by equally weighting each of its components, ensuring that the smaller names within the S&P 500 were weighted as heavily as their larger peers.


Videos uploaded to social media show flames and black smoke billowing from the Irving Oil Refinery in New Brunswick.
Black smoke and flames billowed for hours over Saint John on Thanksgiving Day after an explosion at the Irving Oil Refinery rattled windows across the city.
As many as 3,000 people were at the 78-acre industrial facility on Monday – but most of it was shut down for major maintenance, and nearly all were contractors working on the turn-around. Five were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Saint John’s local hospital network said. All five were discharged.
A company official told reporters there had been a malfunction in the refinery’s diesel treating unit, where sulphur is removed from diesel fuel.
Gerry Graves was sitting on the edge of his bed when the windows of his uptown apartment started to rattle. When he looked out and saw more traffic than usual, he thought maybe there had been a tractor-trailer accident.
Curious, he headed outside and had walked only a half block before the plume of black smoke came into view. He instantly knew it was coming from the refinery about two kilometres away.
Mr. Graves, who is a mason, said he works there regularly.
“I’m usually working shutdowns,” he said, noting that he missed this one because he had booked another job.
“The more I look at the smoke, the more I realize, yeah, I could’ve very well been there,” Mr. Graves said by phone on Monday morning.
Smoke rises from the scene of a major explosion and fire at the Irving Oil Refinery in Saint John, Oct. 8, 2018.
The Irving Oil refinery is an anchor of local industry, with the Irving family’s name splashed across tanks on a major artery of the city’s east side. It is Canada’s largest refinery, producing – according to the company’s website – more than 320,000 barrels of “finished energy products” a day.
Heather Adams, who lives two blocks away, was working at home when she felt her desk shake. It did not seem like an earthquake, she said – more like a truck had just driven into the house.
As she ran up the stairs, she looked out the window.
“Everyone on the street was out there, looking at the refinery,” she said. She knew a shutdown was going on – which means more people would be working than usual.
Ms. Adams and her 22-year-old son got in the car and headed toward the refinery to see what was happening. She took a video of the thick black smoke and flames erupting from the facility.
Saint John Mayor Don Darling said the city is working with Irving Oil and the province’s Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), which co-ordinates responses to such events, to assess the situation. Work Safe New Brunswick has launched an investigation, and the EMO is working with the province’s Ministry of Environment to monitor the air quality.
He said no evacuation is planned for the area, but initially encouraged people to stay in their homes and away from the site. He said the refinery has been shut down, and regulators will decide when it is ready to resume operations.
The City of Saint John later posted on social media that residents in the area were no longer being asked to “shelter in place,” and police tweeted that all roads had been reopened.
Sean Tucker, an associate professor at the University of Regina, started studying the culture of safety in oil refineries after two explosions at the Federated Co-op refinery in Regina, in 2011 and 2013.
Although the company and local hospital said only five people were treated for injuries, Mr. Tucker cautioned that the psychological impact of an earth-shaking explosion, as this was described, might not yet be clear.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if some of these workers who were on site, who sustained minor physical injuries, could be at risk for psychological injuries and possibly [post-traumatic stress disorder]," he said.
In a video posted to social media, Mr. Darling said he is grateful nobody was killed.
“We have to be much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Monday,” he said.


Russian President Vladimir Putin proved Wednesday that getting nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize is basically meaningless by getting nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo, an organization that closely watches the Nobel Committee.
The man at the center of the unfolding diplomatic crisis in Ukraine—where Russian soldiers have largely occupied the country’s Crimea region—was reportedly given the nod by the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation Among the Nations of the World. The group is among those cleared to make nominations to the Nobel committee.
Putin was nominated as one of the 278 nominees for this year’s prize, PRIO says, for his role in the “averting of an air strike on Syria after the chemical gas attacks in August 2013.” The nomination didn’t mention Putin’s role in deploying thousands of Russian troops to forcibly take control of Ukraine’s Crimea.


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Taking a day trip or just going out with the kids for a few hours? Take a few minutes before you leave to make sure you have everything you need. A mom of two has these ten pointers to make your outings as stress-free as possible for everyone.
1) Transportation: You have decided on a specific outing, now look into how you can get there. Should you take your car, a bus, or the train? How long will the ride be? Is there parking available? If yes, for how much?
2) Cost: Call ahead for prices. Do they have family or group rates? Do they have special rates for children? If yes, for which age groups? Are there different off season prices? Ask them for the business hours to help you plan your day.
3) Food: Can you bring in your own lunch or must you buy everything from their restaurant? Can you bring drinks? What type of facilities do they offer, a microwave for baby bottles, or to reheat baby’s lunch? What if one of your children has a food allergy?
4) Equipment: Should equipment be needed, can you bring your own? Do they offer a rental service? How much will rental cost you?
5) Guided Tours: Do they have guided tours? Are they include in your entrance fee or there is an additional charge? How longdo the tours last? Are tours available in other languages?
6) Length of Stay: Outings can range from one hour to the whole day. Be attentive to your children’s moods. For certain activities you might want to make it a half a day instead of a full day? Some outings (ex. bowling or mini-golf) an hour or two are more than enough.
7) Safety: Do they have First-aid certified staff on site? On their excursion map do this list where the first-aid boxes can be found. It’s always a good idea to bring along a pocket-size first aid kit.
8) Making the most out of your experience: Once you get home, ask you child to draw you a picture of his or her outing. Enrich their experience with a song, a poem or story within the same context.
9) Re-evaluation: What’s the feedback from the children? Did they seem to enjoy themselves? Was the price worth the activity? If you were to plan this activity again what would you do differently?
10) Extra Considerations:Make your outings complete. For outdoors activities, bring sun hat, sun screen, extra hat or gloves. Dress in weather appropriate clothing. Bring a pack-sack with little activities to keep a occupied. Crayons, paper, action figures, a few books are some ideas.
Where to go? Use your yellow pages, they’re resourceful. Mini-golf, bowling, sport activities, roller blading, train rides, museum, farm visit, music recitals and plays would also be fun. The important aspect is that your family is involved in an activity.
Take five to ten minutes for every outing to ask yourself these simple questions. It’s well worth the check for you and your children to enjoy and have a good time.


LONDON: Olympic gold medalists Alistair Brownlee and Nick Skelton expressed their surprise British athletics legend Mo Farah was again snubbed by the public for the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
For Murray — who garnered almost 250,000 votes over double the total of Brownlee — it was a historic third BBC award.
Farah — despite emulating Finnish icon Lasse Viren (1972/76) as the only athlete to do the Olympic distance double twice (5000/10000 metres) — finished way behind in terms of the popular vote in fourth.
Skelton — whose sport gets barely any mainstream coverage apart from the Olympics — received just over 109,000 votes with the much higher profile Farah getting only 54,476.
“I’m not sure why that is that he hasn’t made the top three,” said Brownlee.
Farah’s best finish is third in the 2011 poll. He has filled fourth spot on two other occasions — including 2012 when he lit up the track in London to secure his first Olympic double — and sixth in 2015.


Human remains and helicopter parts were recovered Wednesday after seven Marines and four soldiers crashed in heavy fog during military training in Florida.
All 11 service members were presumed dead after the the Army National Guard's UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down offshore, a Pentagon official said.
Kim Urr, 62, who works at the nearby Navarre Beach campground, said she heard a strange sound, followed by two explosions around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
President Barack Obama spoke with the military leaders involved and expressed his condolences to the families before saying he's confident of a detailed and thorough investigation, said his spokesman, Josh Earnest.
The Black Hawk crashed as Marines and National Guardsmen practiced "insertion and extraction missions," using small boats and helicopters to get troops into and out of a target site, said Capt. Barry Morris, spokesman for the Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune.
Fog had reduced visibility to less than two miles at the time, according to the National Weather Service. Another helicopter participating in the training returned undamaged, authorities said.
Despite the human remains washing ashore, the military still called it a rescue mission Wednesday, said Sara Vidoni, a spokeswoman for Eglin Air Force Base, outside Pensacola.
The fog remained so heavy Wednesday that search boats just offshore could be heard but not seen, blasting horns as their crews peered into the choppy water. It finally began to lift in the afternoon, enabling a helicopter to slowly survey the water.
About a dozen airmen wearing fatigues walked shoulder-to-shoulder down the beach, scanning the sand, while civilian rescue crews and searchers with dogs joined the effort.
The Coast Guard said debris was first spotted about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, and that the search area expanded to a 17-mile stretch of the narrow sound separating Santa Rosa Island from the Florida Panhandle mainland.
The Marines were part of a special operations group based in Camp Lejeune. The National Guard soldiers were from a unit based in Hammond, Louisiana. They had arrived Sunday for a week of training.
None were immediately identified, so that families could be told first.
The helicopter that crashed had joined the training from an airport in nearby Destin. The site includes 20 miles of pristine beachfront under military control since before World War II — an ideal place for special operations units from across the military to practice, test range manager Glenn Barndollar told The AP last year.


Treatment wetlands clean water naturally and provide valuable habitat for wildlife, says company.
Our region is home to some of the most wonderful wildlife, and at Anglian Water, we want to make sure that their habitats and environments are not only protected, but improved and allowed to thrive in an increasingly harsh global climate.
We already protect important habitats and species at 47 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) across our region, and as part of our business plan from 2020, our promise is to do even more. We’re proposing £800 million worth of environmental investment as part of our plans. This investment is more than double that of the previous five years and will help to protect and enhance the region’s environment.
This proposed investment still needs to be approved by our industry regulator, Ofwat, as part of our wider business plan which totals £6.5 billion for the whole region between 2020 and 2025.
But the proof is in the pudding. Earlier this year, we unveiled our very first treatment wetland site which signalled the start of our future environmental intentions. If we are successful with our plan, as many as 59 new treatment wetlands could be built in the next few years.
What is a treatment wetland?
A wetland treatment site is a series of interconnected ponds which work as amazing natural habitats with a practical purpose. Primarily as a water company, we’re using them to further clean used but treated water before returning it to the environment. But they have many added benefits, like supporting the lifecycle of a wide range of animals and serving as ecological nurseries for many species.
Our first treatment wetland in west Norfolk has been a huge success so far in aiding the water filtration process and providing a thriving habitat for our wildlife. The site at Ingoldisthorpe is the first of its kind in England to be developed by a water company, and has been created in partnership with the Norfolk Rivers Trust.
The wetland acts a natural filtering process for millions of litres of water a day. Water passes through the wetland and is filtered and cleaned by the plants before being returned to the river. This helps to improve the quality of water being returned to the river even further and does so in a completely natural way.
“It removes the unwanted chemicals naturally, and creates a wildlife-rich environment,” said Chris Gerrard, Anglian Water’s natural catchment and biodiversity manager.
In addition to removing ammonia and phosphorus, we will be monitoring the wetland to see if it removes nutrients such as nitrates and other substances such as metals and microplastics from the water process.
We’re really keen to get the green light to take our investment forward and roll wetlands out as part of our continued environmental work, which aims to help protect our region’s wonderful environment for generations to come.