Good history requires responsible speculation. Marco Santagata’s most recent book on Dante hints that it will engage in some speculation in its very title, Dante. Il romanzo della sua vita, literally “Dante: The Novel of His Life” (Dante: The Story of His Life, as Richard Dixon’s new translation has it). The book reconstructs Dante’s activity chronologically while also dividing it geographically into two parts: half a life climbing the social and political ladder of medieval Florentine society...
Milford-on-Sea is famous for its seafront views of the Isle of Wight, its seafood restaurants and most of all the stunning nature reserve and stone causeway out to Hurst Castle, making it perfect for beach holidays. The causeway is a mile and a half out into the Solent with the nature reserve on the inland side and the deep waters on the other. During the warmer months, the castle is open to the public and is home to a museum and a café. The castle was built for Henry VIII as part of his sea defences. After a stroll out there, you can catch a ferry back to Keyhaven, a short walk away from Milford-on-Sea.
Milford-on-Sea isn't only perfect for a coastal holiday, however - it's also perfectly positioned for visitors to explore the surrounding New Forest National Park. Take a look at our collection of Milford-on-Sea cottages and self-catering accommodation above, hand-picked for their comfort and luxury.
If you’ve got children, or plans to grow your family, buying a home in a reputable school district is a must. Lucky for you, Manheim Central SD is just the place to find your next home. Shop new construction floor plans from over 5 of the nation’s top builders, and you’ll be sure to land your dream home, in an area where education flourishes.
New construction homes in Manheim Central SD come in sizes for all families, from 2 to 4 bedrooms and 1 to 3 bathrooms, you’ll find a comfortable fit in the area.
Children will benefit from many of the amenities in the 6 communities that include everything from parks and playgrounds to pools and activity centers. And no matter what your price point, homes in Manheim Central SD range from $189,900 to $324,900.
Harvest Grove is Stonefield Home's gorgeous, newest neighborhood. Located in an established and popular area of Los Banos near shopping, entertainment and all commuter corridors, Harvest Grove boasts homes ranging in size from 1398 to over 2500 square feet. Both single and two story home plans are available, with up to 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. Visit Harvest Grove today and see everything that is included in your new home. Among our wonderful amenities are 9 foot ceiling heights, granite kitchen counter tops and several 3-car garage plans. Harvest Grove is the perfect new home for your family!
Tag: beach, candidate, candidates, city, City Council, city council candidates, community, council, council candidates, democrat, election, joy brenner, letter, letter to the editor, newport, Newport Beach, non-partisan, nonpartisan, partisan, republican, Scott Peotter, shawn steel, two-party, two-party system, vote
Recently I have become aware of your communication with the Newport Harbor Republican Women attempting to rationalize your history to liberal Democrat candidates and political action committees.
I am personally offended that you would compare partisan voting of good Americans to the World War II atrocities of Nazi Germany.
This is your quote: “History shows all too sadly that if someone blindly votes “party” lines, leaders can rise who have no moral compass. I think of the 1930s when “brown” was the color in a country that suffered a terrible fate because of party “color” blinded voters…”
I call on you to withdraw from the race for Newport Beach City council. You have embarrassed yourself, Newport Beach, and America’s two-party system.
A candidate that is so quick to compare partisan voting to one of the darkest chapters in history has no business in elected office.
Newport Beach Local News Letter to the Editor: Playing Hide and Seek With the Truth - Newport Beach Local News
Tag: adelant, beach, business, candidate, candidates, cannabis, city, City Council, council, duffy, editor, election, forum, FPPC, government, hired, inbox, letter, letter to the editor, newport, Newport Beach, paid, peotter, politics, vote, weed, work
When it takes the Mayor of Newport Beach almost two months to answer a simple yes or no question, something’s terribly wrong.
At the August 29th West Newport Candidate Forum, I asked my opponent, Mayor Marshall Duffield, if he’d ever employed Councilman Scott Peotter during their time on the Newport Beach City Council.
Up until this week, the two have refused to answer this question, with Peotter calling allegations of their working relationship “rumors” and Duffield noticeably absent from subsequent candidate forums.
Now it has come out in the LA Times that the two did in fact have a business relationship, and Peotter was paid to advocate to obtain a cannabis cultivation permit for Duffield’s property in Adelanto. Why all the secrecy?
I believe in property rights, and if this permit increases Duffield’s ability to sell his land for a higher price as he stated to the press, then why not come out and say that when I first asked the question?
Part of why I asked the question in the first place was because prior to this particular debate, the issue had been raised by Susan Skinner with city attorney Aaron Harp. He told her he didn’t “have any documents or other evidence that Council Member Peotter has performed work for Mayor Duffield for compensation, how much compensation was received, if any, or the nature of the work, if any.”
Skinner has since filed a complaint against Duffy with the Fair Political Practices Commission, which the Daily Pilot says is the “the third resident-initiated FPPC complaint against Duffield and Peotter in less than six months.”
The question remains: Did Harp know about this business relationship or not? His comments don’t add up.
I felt it was important to put the issue on the table at the West Newport Forum so we could move forward in future debates discussing issues facing our city like high density development, traffic and John Wayne Airport, and not focus on this.
Frankly, when I asked the question, I expected a simple yes or no from Duffield. All these weeks later, I can’t begin to speculate why Peotter and Duffield didn’t want to disclose their business relationship. I’m sure investigations moving forward will reveal more.
Sadly, their non-disclosure in this situation speaks to a fundamental problem of transparency and conflict of interest issues within this Council. They’ve done a disservice to the people who elected them.
This whole employment controversy could have been a non-issue if they’d handled themselves differently. Their avoidance behavior raises many questions.
Knowing their business relationship was entering unprecedented unchartered legal waters, why didn’t they consult the city attorney or bring it out openly and publicly?
It’s been my experience when folks have nothing to hide they are more than willing to be forthcoming and put controversy to rest. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen here.
With weeks left in this election we should be talking about the real issues facing our city, and not why our Mayor and Council Member were playing hide and seek with the truth. It’s time to restore confidence, openness and honesty to City Council, and that’s why I’m running for office.
An audit has found that policy regulations had been flouted by people who acquired more than one farm and registered them in their children's names.
An audit of Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms has revealed that children as young as ten were allocated farms seized from whites, state media reported Tuesday.
The audit found that policy regulations had been flouted by some people who acquired more than one farm and registered them in their children's names.
"You know our policy. We do not give somebody land who is less than 21 years, but we are getting people with 10 years, 12 years," The Herald newspaper quoted Lands and Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora as saying.
He said the fraudulent allocations came to light during an interim audit to determine farm ownership and productivity on the farmland.
He said the interim audit involved checking the ministry's farm register against names at the registrar-general's office and that the revelations "explain why some plots are vacant."
President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party launched the land reforms in 2000, taking over white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.
Critics of the reforms have blamed the programme for low production on the farms as the majority of the beneficiaries lacked the means and skills to work the land.
Zimbabwe was a net food exporter before 2000 but now faces food shortages and relies on imports from neighbouring countries.
Mugabe and his wife reportedly own more than one farm, while government land policy limits ownership to one farm.
Mombeshora said the government needs $35 million for a full audit of the land reform programme. - Sapa-AFP
A first look at two variants and two pencilled pages from July 12's Dark Days: The Casting #1 by andy Kubert and John Romita Jr.
American Pharoah runs his way to the Triple Crown in the 147th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park Race Track in Elmont on Saturday, June 6, 2015. Photo Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Even an immortal can have a weakness. For Superman, it's Kryptonite. For American Pharoah, it's noise.
The rangy bay colt wears red cotton earplugs to minimize it, but they couldn't have helped much last Saturday as he rounded Belmont Park's long, sweeping turn and charged into the stretch, a quarter of a mile from eternal glory.
The roar that built as Pharoah led seven rivals down the long backstretch had reached an unheard level of volume, and he had to run through that wall of sound to achieve his destiny.
For a few strides in the upper stretch, it looked as if the gray colt Frosted might create a little drama, but American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza wouldn't hear of it. They spurted clear, and by the eighth pole they had transformed the 147th Belmont Stakes from a parade into a coronation. As the 3-5 betting choice and the favorite of millions crossed the wire 5 lengths in front, he detonated an explosion of emotion 37 years in the making.
"He was amazing," said Espinoza, who got the sweep in his record third try at the Triple Crown. "He can't do better than that. On the first turn, that was the best feeling I ever had."
Strangers hugged, danced and high-fived to celebrate the 12th Triple Crown champion, and the first since Affirmed's unforgettable triumph by a head over Alydar in 1978. It seemed as if the result brought universal joy, which never happens at the track, where bettors compete against each other, not the house. Even those who bet against Pharoah didn't seem to mind contributing to a worthy cause.
Many win tickets never will be cashed, with most kept as souvenirs and some to be hawked on eBay. On Monday, New York Racing Association communications director John Durso Jr. said only 3,891 of the 94,128 $1 and $2 win bets on Pharoah had been exchanged.
There was even some cheering up in the press box, where a few scribes were unashamedly misty. Tears flowed for first-time race goers and for Bob Baffert, the man who trained the colt who seized the crown. He recalled his father, Bill, "The Chief," who introduced him to horses as a boy on the family's cattle ranch in Nogales, a small Arizona town near the Mexican border. He remembered Ellie, his loving but firm mother who did her best to keep her gifted but unorthodox son in line. "Wish you were here" never resonated so powerfully.
Belmont's backstretch: Where Triple Crowns are made The preparation to make him a Triple Crown winner begins on the backstretch and at Belmont Park, the backstretch is a community unto itself. (Credit: Newsday Staff)
"I'm very emotional," a choked-up Baffert told NBC seconds after the race. "I'm thinking about my parents, and how I wish they were alive to see this. They were with me today. I was talking with them through the whole race."
In his record fourth try for a sweep of the classics, the racing gods finally blessed the 62-year-old Hall of Famer. "I was hoping this would happen," he said. "I didn't know how I would feel, but now I do."
In 1997, he thought his gritty gray colt Silver Charm had the Belmont clinched until Touch Gold nailed him in the final 50 yards. The next year, Baffert endured the worst defeat of all time with Real Quiet, who led by four lengths with an eighth of a mile to go but lost by a nose to Victory Gallop. There was no suspense in 2002 with War Emblem, a need-to-lead type who stumbled at the start and plodded in eighth.
"I was thinking about [owners] Bob and Beverly Lewis with Silver Charm, Mike Pegram with Real Quiet, Prince Ahmed ibn Salman with War Emblem," Baffert said, " . . . and all the other people with so much passion that tried to get here but didn't."
"I was prepared for somebody coming because I've gone through this so many times, and I was just hoping that for once . . . ," Baffert said. "I could tell by the eighth pole that it was going to happen, and all I did was just take in the crowd. It was thundering.
On the way to the winner's circle, Espinoza moved toward the stands so everybody could get up close and personal with their idol. For owner Ahmed Zayat, "When Victor paraded the horse up and down, that moment will be frozen in my memory."
Enjoying the scene were Affirmed's co-owner, Patrice Wolfson, 78, and his jockey, Steve Cauthen, 55. For many years, both had been hoping to welcome a new member to racing's most exclusive club. Wolfson said recently, "I think it's time," and predicted Pharoah would end the drought.
After 13 consecutive failures by Triple Crown contenders, starting with all-time great Spectacular Bid in 1979, many people thought never would last forever. Winning three times in five weeks at different distances -- 1 miles at Churchill Downs, 13/16 miles at Pimlico, 1 miles at Belmont -- against three sets of opponents began to look beyond the capability of the modern thoroughbred, bred for speed rather than stamina.
Even Baffert admitted he had his doubts. "Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem, it was really tough on them," he said. "Shipping a horse to different tracks and back and forth takes a lot out of them.
"For a while I was starting to think maybe it was never going to happen, that maybe it's the breed. It's not the breed, you just have to wait for a really superior horse, and he's got to be tough. You have to be way better to get it done, and that's what this horse is.
And so a horse named in a contest by a Missouri woman apparently unfamiliar with the spelling of the Old Testament Pharaoh led a struggling, minority-interest sport to the Promised Land.
Mike Watchmaker, the Daily Racing Form's national handicapping columnist, a low-key guy who rarely hands out superlatives, saluted Pharoah in a Monday morning interview on, of all places, the Weather Channel. For the time being at least, horse racing is a big deal almost everywhere.
Watchmaker explained to Sam Champion how American Pharoah had to handle three very different scenarios -- a dry, loose track in Kentucky, a sea of slop amid a driving rain in Maryland, and a fast surface on Long Island. "He's an amazing, amazing animal," Watchmaker said.
Commack's own Bob Costas will be forever grateful to Pharoah. "I was 26 when Affirmed did it," Costas said. "As they went into the gate, I said to myself, 'If I have to wait another 37 years, I'll be a hundred, so get it done now.' "
On the morning after the Preakness, Baffert pondered the challenge of the Belmont. "Those New York fans, there's a lot of pressure," he said. "The ones who were there rooting for Silver Charm and Real Quiet, now their kids are going to be there, too."
Now they all can tell their grandchildren about the glorious day when they saw the dream finally come true.
From the beginning, American Pharoah had an aura. There was just something about the colt whom the mare Littleprincessemma brought into the world on Feb. 2, 2012, at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
"They told me that this is the nicest colt on the entire farm, and we have something coming here," Zayat said the day after the Belmont. "Of course we were tickled because we also bred the sire, Pioneerof the Nile. That was the second stage.
"The third stage was when he went into training. I was told, 'Mr. Z, I can tell you unequivocally, this is the fastest horse I ever put a saddle on.'
American Pharoah was transferred to the nearby Vinery Stud. Zayat said he was told of his unusually mature demeanor. "Someone said when he went out into the field and played with his friends, the way he carried himself was what made him different."
His grown-up personality also is a winning one. Baffert called him "the sweetest good horse I've ever had." He accepts his favorite treats, carrots and peppermints, without nipping fingers, and poses eagerly for photographers. He's also quite a looker, compact and muscular. One woman at Churchill said, "Ooh, he's cuter than George Clooney," as her husband winced.
Potential is wonderful, but rarely is it fully realized, especially with a genetically engineered beast that Mother Nature never would have produced on her own. Selective breeding began 350 years ago in England, when King Charles II and his aristocratic cronies began matching their horses in private races on Newmarket Heath.
The thoroughbred is the most magnificent creature in the animal kingdom, but durability is not one of its strong points. According to the Jockey Club's database, 29 percent of foals never get to the races, and only 48.6 percent of those ever win. A bad step on an ankle no bigger than a man's forearm can end a career. As for winning the Triple Crown, no odds are high enough.
Baffert has had a remarkable eye for a horse since he was 12, when he began grooming and breaking his father's cheap quarter horses. The ability to look at a bunch of unraced young runners and pick out the best athlete is called the "third eye." As his longtime assistant, Jimmy Barnes, said: "Bob trawls the pond really well, and it's hard to do that at a yearling sale. The training is easy. You just have to find the horse."
"From Day 1, Bob was absolutely super high on this horse," Zayat said. They had won major stakes together and finished second in the Derby, Preakness and Belmont, so it struck him as odd that someone with nine wins in the Triple Crown series would be so excited.
"I see a different Bob," Zayat said. "He keeps telling me, 'This is the one, this is the one.' From very early on, he knew. He told me, 'I've been waiting all my life for a horse like that.'
There are few secrets at the racetrack, and none when one of the world's most high-profile horsemen gets his hands on a gifted 2-year-old. The word was out weeks before American Pharoah debuted on Aug. 9, 2014, in a 6-furlong race at Del Mar, near San Diego.
Baffert had been touting the unproven wonder horse to his wife, Jill, whom he met when she was a television reporter in Louisville. Then they watched him melt down for jockey Martin Garcia and finish fifth as the 7-5 favorite, beaten by 9 lengths. The stress of performing before a noisy crowd was unsettling.
NBC analyst Randy Moss called the freakout "completely out of character for his personality. He went bonkers in the paddock and during the prerace warm-ups." Baffert, who dismissed it as "a bad first day of school," recalled his wife's reaction: "If that's one of your best 2-year-olds, it's going to be a long summer."
A makeover and tutoring turned Pharoah around in a hurry. Baffert removed his blinkers, inserted the earplugs and schooled him in the gate. He didn't lose any confidence and entered him 25 days later in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity. Victor Espinoza picked up the mount after Garcia committed to another horse in the race before Baffert decided to enter Pharoah. He went off at 3-1 and cruised by 4 lengths, beginning a seven-race winning streak, all in stakes, by a total of 35 lengths.
On Sept. 27, Pharoah crushed Santa Anita's Grade I FrontRunner Stakes by 3 lengths. A bruised left front foot kept him out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile five weeks later, but he was voted 2-year-old champion anyway. Baffert believes in omens, and this was an excellent one, because the previous four Triple Crown winners -- Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed -- also won that award.
That wasn't a talking point during the winter, because Pharoah didn't run again until March 14 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. To protect the foot, Baffert had his blacksmith put on a protective plate, which he still wears, and brought him along slowly. He was in everyone's Derby top 10 but he had to start earning points in stakes to assure himself a spot in the Derby.
No problem, because he dazzled by leading throughout a 6-length rout in the slop in the Rebel Stakes, foreshadowing the Preakness. His effortless, eight-length score in the Arkansas Derby on April 11 made him the Derby favorite.
"I knew he was a really good horse [last fall],'' Baffert said last Sunday. "But when he won the Arkansas Derby, I thought, 'Oh, man, he's a superstar.' I started getting nervous."
Three weeks later on Derby Day, so did American Pharoah, who started to snap on the half-mile journey from the backstretch to the paddock. It's called The Walk, but it's more like a gantlet, with thousands, many in an alcohol-fueled frenzy, screaming nonstop. Baffert compared it to leading your horse through Times Square on New Year's Eve.
Many highly rated Derby runners lost their composure and chance to win in that crazy scene, and Baffert was having terrifying flashbacks to Pharoah's debut.
"The people got him really stirred up," Baffert said. "He was starting to get pretty hot. He dragged the groom all the way over there, and I didn't like what I saw. Finally, he cooled down, but he doesn't like all that screaming. It took something out of him, and he didn't bring his A-game that day."
The Derby was the most demanding race he ran in the spring, and Espinoza had to start urging him seven-sixteenths of a mile from the wire. Zayat got the fear as Pharoah dueled in midstretch with a very game Firing Line. The owner was reliving his traumatic second-place finishes in the Derby with Pioneerof the Nile (2009), Nehro (2011) and Bodemeister (2012).
After Pharoah wore down Firing Line and edged away late to win by a length, terror gave way to ecstasy. "In seconds we went from fear that somebody is going to take it away from us again to actually you have done it," Zayat said. "Tears of joy."
Baffert said Zayat's first Derby win meant more to him than the trainer's fourth did. "It's a nerve-wracking business we go through," Baffert said. "I'm just so grateful that this horse got him there and the Zayats won. It's an unbelievable feeling."
Baffert thinks the Derby is the hardest of the three to win, and the Preakness is the easiest. That was true for him this year, when all the drama at Pimlico occurred before the race. Lightning crackled, thunder boomed and the infield was evacuated 15 minutes before post time as a downpour turned the track into muck.
"I've never been through anything like that," Baffert said. "That was crazy. I was worried about the cotton balls in his ears. What if they get soaking wet? How is he going to react? Maybe I should have taken them out.
"Then I saw a shot of the track with like a river running along the rail, and I thought, 'He's got to run through that?' "
He needn't have worried. Unlike the biblical Pharaoh, whose trip to the Red Sea did not go swimmingly, this Pharoah walked on water. His fluid, efficient stride, which resembles a computer model of a thoroughbred's ideal running action, produced a laughably easy seven-length romp.
Then it was back to Churchill for 2 weeks of jogging, galloping and two workouts that set him up perfectly to ace the "Test of the Champion."
The morning after the Belmont, Zayat and his wife, Joanne, Baffert and Espinoza pulled a cord to unveil a banner with Zayat's blue and yellow silks. It hangs from the ceiling on Belmont Park's fourth floor next to the colors of the other Triple Crown winners -- Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed.
NBC's Moss thinks American Pharoah "with what he has accomplished, deserves to be placed in the same conversation with all-time greats such as Seattle Slew and Secretariat." So does clocker Gary Young, who before the Derby said: "In 35 years, American Pharoah is the best horse I've ever seen."
How much longer we'll be allowed to see him is the big question. Zayat sold his breeding rights last month to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, and he said he wants to race him for the rest of this season. Millions hope he will.
"The journey with this horse has been incredible, and it's been very stressful for all us," he said. "If I didn't win yesterday, I was going to take a bat to the Triple Crown trophy and destroy it and the jinx.
DeLand, FL – The DeLand Police Department is set to take part in the DEA’s National Drug Take-Back Day.
The event will be held on Saturday, April 30, from 10 AM to 2 PM in the front parking lot of the DeLand Police Department at 219 West Howry Ave. The event is an opportunity for people to dispose of unwanted, unused, or expired prescription drugs.
Law enforcement agencies have collected more than 2.8 million lbs, or 1,409 tons, of prescription medication in the past 5 take-back events alone.
People who are unable to participate in this event can still get rid of unwanted prescription drugs on their own by following some simple tips from the U.S. Food and Drug administration. First, remove the drugs from their original containers and mix them with coffee grounds, dirt, or kitty litter. Then place the mixture in a sealed bag, empty can, or a container so as to prevent the drug from leaking. Scratch out all identifying information on the label so it’s unreadable – this will help protect your identity and personal health information. Don’t give your medicine to friends. And when in doubt about how to properly dispose of drugs, ask your local pharmacist.
If drugs are disposed of improperly, it can cause problems. “We’re finding through studies that people that take medicine and flush it down the commode… it does lead to what we call ‘ground work contamination,’ or another type of contamination,” said Rod Hancock, Community Service Officer with the DeLand Police Department. “Unwanted prescription drugs that get into a landfill can also cause contamination in the ground.” To avoid these contamination issues, the DEA takes the collected drugs and incinerates them.