Monday, October 31, 2011

On cities and counties (Offthekuff)

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50 Cent Talks New Album, Keeping Fans Entertained On Twitter & How Record Companies Can Negatively Affect An Artist's Career [Video]

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Video After The Jump


50 Cent
taped an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday. It will air Monday October 31, at 9PM Eastern.


After the interview, Fif stopped backstage for a quick chat to talk about his influence on Twitter, his upcoming album, record companies and Piers himself.


"He's a great journalist," 50 said of Piers. "He's going to make sure the public gets to hear the answers to questions they would actually be interested in."


Unlike a lot of celebrities, 50 actually interacts with his followers on Twitter. He said that should be expected of all entertainers who use the social networking site.


"It allows you the opportunity to reach your base," said 50. "To create something, as a form of entertainment. I think entertainers are supposed to entertain on it."


The G-Unit boss also discussed his upcoming album and how record companies can negatively affect an artist's career.


"You can make great music and it just goes into a slot where people say 'it was done well, but who cares?' You got older material of artists you listen to and you go back and say 'wow, this person was amazing; what happened to them?' The system happened to them. The business of music itself happened to them," he said. "Sometimes the companies don't prioritize things the actual public thinks are amazing and it just falls to the wayside"


He went on to add that his new album is all but finished. He needs just two songs before the disc is complete.

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Source: http://www.thisis50.com/xn/detail/784568%3ABlogPost%3A28232051

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A skinhead's journey from racism to redemption (AP)

People grabbed their children when Bryon Widner swaggered into a store, lowered their voices when he entered a restaurant, sidled away when he strode up to a bar.

He reveled in it ? the fear he inspired, the power. It made him feel like Superman.

He had symbols of racist violence carved into his face and the letters HATE stamped across the knuckles of his right hand ? the hand that knocked out countless victims, sometimes leaving their teeth embedded in his skin. "Blood & Honour" was tattooed across his neck, "Thug Reich" across his belly, swastikas adorned his shaved scalp. On his forehead, a thick, black, upward-pointing arrow symbolized his willingness to die for his race.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Bryon Widner was a skinhead thug until he found love, and turned away from racism and violence. But how could he build a new life with a face stained by racist tattoos? First of two parts.

___

For 16 years, Widner was a glowering, strutting, menacing vessel of hate ? an "enforcer" for some of America's most notorious and violent racist skinhead groups.

Hellbent on destruction, he was living to die, though even during the bloodiest beat-downs he knew he was unlikely to lose his life as a warrior in the glorious race war promoted by the white power movement.

"It was more likely to be a bullet through the head," he says, grimly.

By the time he was 30, Widner had spent a total of four years in jail, accused of murder and other charges, though he was never convicted of a major crime. Victim intimidation, he says, took care of that.

And then he met Julie Larsen.

Like Widner, Larsen's arms and legs were covered with neo-Nazi symbols ? iron crosses, a Totenkopf skull, axes crossed into a swastika, the Nazi salute "sieg heil." She posted regularly on the Internet forum, Stormfront. Its motto: "White Pride, World Wide."

And she was active in The National Alliance, a once-powerful white supremacist organization founded by William Pierce, whose writings called for the extermination of Jews and the violent overthrow of the Federal government ? and had inspired the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that left 168 people dead.

But by her 30s, the single mother of four was questioning her racist beliefs. She grew tired of telling her children they couldn't watch certain Walt Disney movies because Hollywood was controlled by Jews, or listen to rap music, or eat Chinese or Mexican food. After struggling to put an abusive marriage to a skinhead behind her, she yearned for something simpler.

"I just wanted a normal family life," she said.

And to his great surprise, Widner discovered that was what he wanted, too.

But leaving a life of hate would not be easy when it was all that he had known. And when his past was tattooed all over his face.

___

They first met in May 2005 at Nordic Fest, an annual Memorial Day weekend extravaganza hosted by the Imperial Klans of America in Dawson Springs, Ky.

It was hardly a romantic setting. Speakers from hardcore skinhead and white power organizations like The American Front, Blood & Honour USA/Combat 18 and The Creativity Movement ranted about racial justice and race war. White power bands thundered fierce anti-Semitic and racist lyrics.

Widner, a mean and scrappy brawler with a penchant for slicing victims' faces with a straight edge razor ("I wanted to leave a gash that would make them remember me for the rest of their lives") was living in Sidney, Ohio. He worked construction and other jobs, but mostly he acted as both recruiter and enforcer for the Vinlanders Social Club, which had quickly carved out a reputation as the most thuggish and violent skinhead organization in the country. Blacks, Hispanics, Jews ? the Vinelanders savaged them all.

Their credo was a racist form of Odinism, a Viking religion named after the Norse god Odin which preaches that the path to heaven (Valhalla) is to die fighting for your race.

"We sent out a clear message," Widner says. "Cross a Vinlander and we WILL kill you."

Larsen, meanwhile, was living in Ironwood, Mich., working in a bank and raising her kids. Introduced to the white power movement by her late ex-husband, she began actively working for the National Alliance, distributing fliers about racial purity, organizing fundraisers for imprisoned white supremacist leaders and their families. Her home was also a base for the Pioneer Little Europe movement, an effort to create white communities purged of ethnic or Jewish influences.

At Nordic Fest, Larsen's 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, clamored to have her photograph taken with the guy with the wildly tattooed face. Larsen thought Widner was cute. Widner thought Larsen, with her smiling green eyes and mane of raven hair, was "one cool chick."

Over the next seven months they poured out their souls in endless, late-night phone conversations that often lasted until dawn. They talked of their dreams for the future ? and their doubts about the past. They marveled at how much they had in common.

Raised in broken homes ? their parents divorced when they were young ? both had become teen runaways, cutting school, acting out. In Albuquerque, Widner discovered that shaving his head, wearing combat boots, and randomly beating people earned him a respect he'd never had before. Larsen, who grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz., started having babies in her teens and then bounced through different jobs and states and men. Alienated, restless, angry and self-destructive, they were the perfect recruits for the white power world.

It is a world populated by hundreds of different groups, including several thousand skinheads in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization that tracks hate groups. The numbers are fluid: Skinhead gangs are notoriously short-lived, as members feud over leadership, create splinter groups, or join other gangs. Only a few ? such as the Hammerskins ? have managed to survive for a significant length of time.

The groups have no particular unifying code or coherent philosophy other than violence, says SPLC chief investigator Joseph Roy. There are racist skinheads with ties to outlaw motorcycle gangs. Some are explicitly revolutionary. Others belong to white supremacist groups with connections to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups. Still others claim to be anti-racist.

"These groups are violent, and they are dangerous," says Roy. "And when people get involved it is rare and difficult for them to get out."

The SPLC reports a growing interest in hate groups, fueled by recent events including the election of Barack Obama, the economic crisis, and the heated debate about illegal immigration. The Internet and social networking sites have also become powerful recruitment tools.

"The movement had answers for everything," Julie says. "And the answers usually revolved around the special status of the white race and the fact that most of existing problems, in society, in the economy, in the world, were created by Jews or blacks or immigrants."

But the movement provided something more ? a tribal sense of belonging, a unity, brotherhood and purpose that neither Larsen nor Widner had ever experienced. Years later they would call it a cult. At the time it felt like family.

One night six months after they met, Widner staggered home from a bar brawl, picked up the phone and stammered out a proposal. He was so drunk he had to double check the next day to make sure she had said yes. It was just before Christmas 2005.

Friends told her she was crazy. But Larsen didn't hesitate. She packed up her kids and drove 12 hours to meet him.

They were married in Ironwood by a justice of the peace on Jan. 13, 2006. Their witnesses were Larsen's children and a couple of Vinlanders.

Two months later, she was pregnant.

___

"I am very glad that my mother found the perfect guy ever," wrote Julie's eldest daughter, Mercedez, on the inside of a book of tattoos she gave Widner as a Christmas present. "You are the greatest father any kid could ask for. Love always."

Fatherhood transformed Widner, though initially the responsibilities terrified him. For although he was utterly in love with Julie, he had a whole new family to get to know: Mercedez, then 14, Destiny, 8, and little Isabella. (Julie's eldest son wanted nothing to do with the world of skinheads or white power, though he eventually grew to respect his stepfather.)

Widner found that he loved the simple, daily routines ? driving the kids to school, helping with homework, sitting around the dinner table.

"It was like overnight he went from being a drunk, a skinhead and a fighter, to being this kind, nurturing father and husband," Julie says. "He was amazing."

Widner was still drinking heavily, but he began cutting back and eventually stopped completely. He was still spending time with Vinlanders, but things were changing ? in his mind and his heart.

Julie was changing as well. She had been deeply disturbed by a scene she had witnessed at the Nordic fest ? tents where she says men lined up for sex with underage girls. She thought of her own daughters. She thought of the 14-word mantra of white nationalists: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children."

"These guys weren't honoring Aryan women or protecting white children," she says in disgust. "They were just thugs exploiting young girls."

She began questioning the violence of the movement, the abuse of some of her women friends who were married to skinheads and white nationalists, the arbitrary rules. Suddenly, it all began to feel oppressive and wrong.

At the time, the National Alliance was disintegrating after the death of its leader, Pierce. When Julie decided to leave, it was relatively easy. She simply stopped participating.

Things were far more complicated for Widner. Nicknamed "Babs" because of how he babbled incessantly when he was drunk, Widner was a "made" man in the Outlaw Hammerskins (a precursor to the Vinlanders), initiated in an elaborate ritual in which he placed his left hand on the gang's insignia or "patch" and his right hand on a pistol. He had "earned" the SS lightning bolts tattooed on his right forearm by beating some poor victim senseless. He was a founding member of the Vinlanders. He had stood in a circle with his "warrior" brothers in Odinist rituals and swigged mead from a sacred horn.

"I had lived with them, bled with them, sat in jail with them," he says. "That was the only way of life I knew. My crew WAS my family."

For Widner to leave would be heresy. He would be branded a "race traitor" and become a hunted man.

Vinlanders had given their blessing for him to move to Michigan in order to start a new chapter. Now they were pressuring him to be more active, to travel more, recruit more, attend leadership meetings. Julie was begging him to stay home.

It all came to a head in the summer of 2007, during a Vinlander day trip to Lake Superior. At the end of the day, the women and children returned home while the men stayed and drank.

Julie got a call: Widner had collapsed. She raced to the hospital.

Outside, she was met by Eric "The Butcher" Fairburn, a ferocious skinhead with "MURDER" tattooed across his neck. "This is Vinlander business," he said.

"No, it's not," she said, angrily pushing past him. "It's husband-and-wife business."

Larsen told Widner she didn't want his Vinlander friends in the house anymore. Vinlanders warned him to get his wife under control.

Widner, who had suffered a panic attack, didn't know where to turn. "I just felt like I was being attacked at every angle," he said. "I was done."

Filled with self-loathing, he locked himself in the bathroom and swallowed a bottle of pills.

___

The photo on the computer screen is striking ? a cherubic sleeping newborn nestled next to the hate-tattooed face of his adoring father.

Cradling Tyrson, born in November 2006, Widner had never been so sure. He would shield his son from a life of violence and hate. He would give him a safe home, a happy childhood, a devoted dad.

And yet, the joy of Tyrson's birth could not mask his daily struggles. People wouldn't look at him in the eye, wouldn't serve him in restaurants, wouldn't give him a job. He had survived the pills; Julie had rushed him to the hospital. But he was deeply depressed.

For the first time, Widner began to see himself as others did: a social freak, an outcast from the society he now so desperately longed to be part of. Potential employers cringed when they met him. When he picked the kids up from school, parents and teachers looked at him in horror. Once, as he cradled a fussing Tyrson while waiting for Julie in a doctor's office, a woman, a stranger, blurted, "No wonder the baby is crying. He's probably scared of your face."

"I was a circus freak," Widner says. "And the worst part was that I had brought it all on myself."

He hated his face and all it represented. He wanted to scream at the world that he was a good father and husband, that he had changed. He wanted to beg people to look beyond the markings on his skin, to give him a second chance.

Sensing his withdrawal, his former crew members began turning against him. They spread vicious postings on the Internet, calling Widner weak, accusing the couple of being race traitors and sexual deviants.

"It was sickening," he says. But it also erased any lingering loyalties he had for his crew or his past.

In late 2007, Widner said, Brien James, self-appointed leader of the Vinlanders, called with an ultimatum: your club or your family.

"It's my family, man," Widner said.

"Then you better turn in your patch," James said.

Widner hung up and did what would once have been unthinkable. He mailed back his patch ? a laurel wreath atop a red, white and blue shield that he had designed with James. He threw all his other skinhead trappings into a bonfire. Watching it burn, he felt a surge of relief.

Finally, he thought, I'm free.

But Widner still faced the seemingly insurmountable dilemma of trying to fit into society. How could he ever be a proper father, husband and provider, when he looked like a walking billboard of hate?

The answer was painfully clear. He had to find some way to wipe the tattoos from his face.

TO BE CONTINUED.

___

Helen O'Neill, a New York-based national writer for The Associated Press, can be reached at features(at)ap.org.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111029/ap_on_re_us/us_shedding_his_racist_skin_i

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Chop Tomatoes with Kitchen Shears for Less Mess [Kitchen Hacks]

Chop Tomatoes with Kitchen Shears for Less MessChopping fresh or canned tomatoes with a knife on a cutting board works great but can leave a mess afterward with tomato juice and seeds to clean up. Real Simple magazine's web site suggests using kitchen shears to cut tomatoes directly into a measuring cup or other vessel to avoid the mess.

We've previously covered how to mince herbs using a similar method. When your marinara sauce is simmering mince your basil and add it at the end just before serving for the strongest basil flavor.

New Uses for Office Supplies | Real Simple

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YDQLNpi0svw/chop-tomatoes-with-kitchen-shears-for-less-mess

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Michelle Obama?s challenge: Stay popular while campaigning (Washington Post)

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Oakland mayor sorry for clash that injured ex-Marine (Reuters)

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was booed out of a public square by protesters against economic inequality on Thursday, apologized for a clash between police and demonstrators that badly injured an ex-Marine.

Quan, who has drawn withering criticism for her handling of a confrontation with so-called "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, said in a written statement that she had met with ex-Marine Scott Olsen and his parents and was concerned about his recovery.

Olsen, 24, was struck in the head during protests in Oakland on Tuesday night and has become a rallying cry for the protests nationwide.

A spokesman for Highland General Hospital in Oakland said Olsen remained in fair condition on Friday, upgraded from critical one day earlier, and was visiting with his parents.

"I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday," Quan said in the statement, which she also delivered from her office in a videotaped posted online. Shouts of protesters rallying outside City Hall can be heard in the background of the video.

"It was not what anyone hoped for. Ultimately, it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," she said, concluding: "We can change America, but we must unite and not divide our city. I hope we can work together."

The disturbances in Oakland have made it one of the hubs of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in New York City last month to protest economic disparities, high unemployment and government bailouts of major banks.

Makeshift encampments sprouting up in cities across the country have forced local officials to walk a fine line between allowing peaceful assembly and addressing concerns about trespassing, noise, sanitation and safety.

CATCALLS AND BOOS

Quan pledged to work with the Occupy Oakland activists but said "we need to have direct communications between city staff and your representatives."

Quan had paid a visit late Thursday night to a rally and speakers' forum organized by protesters at Frank Ogawa Plaza, a public square adjacent to the mayor's office that has been the fulcrum of demonstrations.

She was greeted with a hail of angry boos and catcalls and hastily retreated with her staff back to City Hall, followed by protesters shouting, "Get out, go home!" and "Resign!"

In her videotaped statement, Quan said she was "asking" protesters to refrain from camping overnight in the plaza.

Police forcibly dismantled the encampment on Tuesday, and protesters were marching to retake it when Olsen was critically injured in the confrontation with police.

Protest organizers said the ex-Marine was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by police. City and police officials have not said how they believe Olsen was hurt but police opened an investigation into the incident.

Protesters reclaimed the plaza on Wednesday night and police kept their distance.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters returned again to the square for a rally attended by documentary filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore, who was loudly cheered as he addressed the crowd.

"We've seen the militarization of our local police departments because Congress has spent billions to buy them armaments ... even spying systems to prepare them for what they believe is the inevitable," Moore said. "Sooner or later the people aren't going to take it anymore."

Organizers have called for a general strike in Oakland one day next week over what they called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters there.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111029/us_nm/us_usa_wallstreet_protests_oakland

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Office of Fair Trading gives thumbs up to Amazon's purchase of The Book Depository

The Book Depository
Amazon may have faced stiff opposition to its plans to acquire British online bookseller The Book Depository, but one of those not standing in its path is the Office of Fair Trading. Over protests from the UK Booksellers Association, Publishers Association and Independent Publishers Guild, the OFT approved the purchase, saying that the acquisition would not form a de facto monopoly. While Amazon's market share is "strong" its newest purchase only holds between two- and four-percent -- hardly making it a competitor of the internet giant. The Book Depository will continue to operate as an independent entity for the foreseeable future, but our friends across the pond now have one less option if they choose not to do business with Bezos.

Continue reading Office of Fair Trading gives thumbs up to Amazon's purchase of The Book Depository

Office of Fair Trading gives thumbs up to Amazon's purchase of The Book Depository originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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California governor wants workers to pay more for pensions (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? California Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday unveiled a major overhaul of the pension plan for the state's public employees, proposing they equally share the cost of pension contributions and raising the retirement plan for most new workers to 67 from 55.

Brown said his plan would save taxpayers billions of dollars over the long term and close loopholes that allow workers to inflate pensions.

Pension costs have been a growing concern for state leaders due to forecasts of their burden on California's already strained finances.

"It's time to fix our pension systems so that they are fair and sustainable over a long time horizon," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Leaders of the Democrat-controlled legislature responded cautiously to the plan. Public employee unions, whose members have already been hit with layoffs, furloughs and a hiring freeze as California has reined in spending, reacted negatively.

Under the plan, which now goes to lawmakers, all new and current employees in state, local, school and other public agencies would have to equally share with their employers contributions to retirement plans.

Brown also proposed changing the existing defined benefit pension plan -- under which retirees receive a guaranteed amount of money per month for life -- for a "hybrid" plan with a reduced defined-benefit component paired with a defined-contribution component.

The combined approach would provide employees 75 percent of salary based on a full career of 30 years for safety employees and 35 years for nonsafety employees. The two components of the plan would provide roughly equal benefits.

For state workers who are not covered by U.S. Social Security, defined benefits would make up two-thirds of targeted pension payouts and defined-contribution payments would make up the remaining one-third.

Brown also proposed restructuring the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the biggest U.S. public pension fund.

"In the past, the lack of independence and financial sophistication on public retirement boards has contributed to unaffordable pension benefit increases," Brown said.

POLITICS OF PENSION REFORM

Democratic lawmakers gave a muted response to the plan.

"The governor is proposing a provocative set of reforms, and I intend to approach them with an open mind," said Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg. "The abuses that a small number of people take advantage of absolutely must be resolved. But we can't forget that the vast majority of public sector employees are middle class workers and their average pensions are far from exorbitant."

Assembly Speaker John Perez said his chamber would work with Brown to "bring stability to our pension system in a manner that does right by taxpayers and public servants alike."

Union officials offered a fairly blunt assessment.

"The governor has said for weeks now that he would release a plan labor wouldn't like. Mission accomplished," said Dave Low, executive director of the 220,000-member California School Employees Association. "It's a pretty tough pill to swallow."

Even before taking office in January, Brown had vowed to be a tightfisted governor and said that would involve changes to shave pension costs.

He had been in talks on pension issues with Republicans in the legislature's minority as part of broader state budget negotiations in March. Talks on pension matters, however, were shelved as more pressing budget matters prevailed.

Republicans were able to insert pensions into budget talks because polls have been showing voters back changing them.

"This seems to be increasing in urgency," said Mark DiCamillo, director of The Field Poll, which has conducted polls on voter sentiment on public pensions.

(Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/us_nm/us_economy_california_pensions

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Passenger arrested over stun gun in carry-on bag

A passenger on a flight from New Jersey to Hong Kong has been arrested after Transportation Security Administration officers at Newark Liberty International Airport detected a stun gun in his carry-on bag.

The passenger was going through the security checkpoint on Thursday when the weapon was discovered.

The TSA says the Port Authority Police Department confiscated the weapon and arrested the passenger. His name has not been released.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45077460/ns/travel-news/

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Video: The New

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Friday, October 28, 2011

Watch: Spooky Halloween Ideas

iVoice Liz Henry shares her family's frightfully fun tips for creating that spooky Halloween spirit with costumes, movies, decor and more!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/spooky-halloween-ideas-costumes-scary-movies-candy-and-parties/1-h-396903?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aspooky-halloween-ideas-costumes-scary-movies-candy-and-parties-396903

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Linux Foundation, Canonical and Red Hat Weigh In On Secure Boot

linux-foundationThere's been some hubbub lately about Secure Boot, a hardware-verified, malware-free operating system bootstrap process that aims to improve the overall security of computers. Part of the UEFI specification which is slated to replace the aging BIOS with which many of us are familiar, Secure Boot can forbid the loading and execution of unsigned operating systems. Microsoft is requiring that Secure Boot be activated and enforced for any OEM systems that want to use the "Designed for Windows 8" logo. The nature of the technology, and Microsoft?s recommended implementation of it, could remove control of the overall system from the end user, and in this configuration Secure Boot may prevent Free Software operating systems from loading. After some initial hysteria on Slashdot (where else?), calmer minds have prevailed, and have reviewed the UEFI Secure Boot specification in some detail. It's a pretty marked change from the old BIOS: the use of public key cryptography makes the whole thing considerably more complex. But there's nothing about Secure Boot, prima facie, that specifically locks out Free Software operating systems.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lCjzlsYaoy4/

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Class size issues are everywhere (Offthekuff)

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Business activities disrupted - The Nation

The Nation October 25, 2011 5:09 am

The tourism industry is expected to be hit hard, as domestic and overseas travel demand should plummet.

On Tuesday, the Security Bureau in Hong Kong raised the outbound travel alert for Thailand from yellow to red. Residents intending to visit these areas should consider adjusting their tours heading to Bangkok from Wednesday to November 1.

Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said that as a result of the travel warning, about 50 tours with 1,500 members will be cancelled.

Many functions and events are also rescheduled. Toshiba (Thailand) will postpone the Dealer Grand Convention 2012 to mid-January, in line with the Board of Investment?s decision to postpone the BoI Fair from November.

The Federation of Thai Industries today announced that it would indefinitely delay the seminar "New Government and Business Direction 2012". It was originally set for Oct 27 at Miracle Grand Hotel.

ARIP Co Ltd, the organiser of Commart Comtech Thailand 2011, on Tuesday decided to reschedule the event to Nov 24-27. The event was scheduled to take place during Nov 3-6 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

"The severe flooding causes difficulties for travelling," Pathom Indarodom, general manager of ARIP, said in a statement.

The 5th Thailand Retail, Food & Hospitality Services 2011 (TRAFS) is also postponed from Oct 27-30 to Nov 24-27 at Bitec Bangna.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Business-activities-disrupted-30168499.html

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hoyer to Cubs as GM; Byrnes promoted by Padres

FILE - In this March 10, 2011, file photo, San Diego Padres general manager Jed Hoyer watches a minor league game at the Padres' spring training baseball facility in Peoria, Ariz. The Padres and the Chicago Cubs have announced that Hoyer and Jason McLeod are leaving San Diego to accept positions in Chicago's front office. The Cubs have agreed to send the Padres a player to be named as compensation. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)

FILE - In this March 10, 2011, file photo, San Diego Padres general manager Jed Hoyer watches a minor league game at the Padres' spring training baseball facility in Peoria, Ariz. The Padres and the Chicago Cubs have announced that Hoyer and Jason McLeod are leaving San Diego to accept positions in Chicago's front office. The Cubs have agreed to send the Padres a player to be named as compensation. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)

En esta fotograf?a del 21 de febrero del 2011 proporcionada por los Padres de San Diego aparece Josh Byrnes durante el entrenamiento de primavera en Peoria, Arizona. Byrnes ser? promovido a gerente general del club, seg?n se?al? el equipo el mi?rcoles 26 de octubre del 2011. (Foto AP/Padres de San Diego, Andy Hayt)

(AP) ? General manager Jed Hoyer and assistant Jason McLeod are leaving the San Diego Padres to accept similar positions in the Chicago Cubs' front office.

Because Hoyer was still under contract, the Cubs have agreed to send the Padres a player to be named as compensation.

Both teams said Wednesday that they will hold news conferences after the World Series. The Padres will announce on Monday morning that Josh Byrnes will replace Hoyer as general manager. The Cubs will introduce Hoyer as GM and McLeod as senior vice president of scouting and player development at a date to be determined.

The deals have been in the works since Theo Epstein left his job as Boston Red Sox general manager and was hired by the Cubs as president of baseball operations.

Hoyer and Byrnes both worked under Epstein with the Red Sox. Byrnes is a former GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"If we bring in someone as a general manager it will be because there is someone I think is one of the best and one of the brightest in the game," Epstein said Tuesday after he was introduced in Chicago. "Somebody who can make a real impact for the Cubs. We have a ton of work to do. It's going to be a lot of hard work. We're ready for it. ... I think it was important to develop a structure that allowed for the hiring of the GM, if we got the right person."

The moves give Byrnes the chance to once again serve as GM under Jeff Moorad.

Byrnes was hired as GM of the Diamondbacks in November 2005, when Moorad was one of Arizona's top executives. Byrnes and manager A.J. Hinch were fired by the Diamondbacks on July 1, 2010.

In March 2009, a group headed by Moorad began its purchase of the Padres on an installment plan. Moorad fired GM Kevin Towers after the 2009 season and hired Hoyer away from the Red Sox.

The Padres went 90-72 in 2010, leading the NL West for much of the season before stumbling in September and missing the playoffs. After Hoyer traded three-time All-Star slugger Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox for three prospects and outfielder Eric Patterson in December, the Padres struggled badly and finished last in the division at 71-91.

The Diamondbacks, who hired Towers as GM late in the 2010 season, won the division this season.

Hinch was hired as the Padres' vice president of professional scouting in September 2010. He was promoted to vice president-assistant GM last month and will replace McLeod.

Byrnes will work with a player payroll of between $53 million and $55 million ? one of the smallest in the majors. It'll be his turn to try to field a team suited to Petco Park, a pitcher-friendly ballyard where runs are hard to come by.

Epstein, Hoyer and McLeod worked together with the Red Sox and helped build teams that won the World Series in 2004 and 2007.

In 2005, Hoyer served as Boston's co-general manager for 44 days while Epstein briefly left the organization.

Hoyer was assistant GM under Epstein in Boston and, like his boss, is known for his ability to analyze data when evaluating players. Epstein said Tuesday that Hoyer had put together a computer-based information system program in San Diego that was similar to the one used by the Red Sox.

Hoyer had two years and a club option left on his deal with the Padres.

___

AP Sports Writer Rick Gano in Chicago contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-10-26-Padres-Cubs%20GMs/id-de307f81ee944faab131460fd53728ba

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Black Keys' 'Lonely Boy' Video: Dancing Fool

Oddly compelling clip gives us the first listen to their new single and showcases some seriously funky dance moves.
By James Montgomery


The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" music video
Photo: Warner Music Group

Perhaps not content to let Coldplay's Chris Martin soak up all the glory for the unicycle skills he showcases in his band's new "Paradise" video, on Wednesday (October 26), the Black Keys unveiled their own delightfully odd video, for "Lonely Boy." And let's just say: It's your move, Mr. Martin.

The "Lonely" clip may or may not be the actual video for the first single from the Keys' El Camino album (a spokesperson for their label, Nonesuch, did not respond to MTV News' request for comment at press time, though the fact that it's titled as a "first listen" leads us to believe there's a proper clip to follow). While it features little more than one fabulously funky gentleman and his dazzling array of dance moves, it is truly amazing to behold. Basically, it validates the existence of the entire Internet.

Mostly because, dang, can this dude dance. The Twist, the Carlton, even an MJ thrown in for good measure, he does it all, getting down in what appears to be the garage of a used car dealership (probably the same one Bob Odenkirk works at) while "Lonely Boy" blasts in the background. In fact, he even mouths most of the lyrics and acts a few of them out for us too. Much like the garage it is filmed in, this video is full-service.

While, sure, it would be easy to write the "Lonely Boy" clip off as just another viral video, that would be selling it short. It is a deceptively brilliant, oddly compelling and cleverly handmade thing, the kind of vid that practically begs to be watched over and over again (and believe me, I've spent the entire afternoon doing just that). There's not only an uninhibited joy to the man's moves, it doesn't hurt matters that the song is pretty fantastic too: a herky-jerky, down-and-dirty boogie powered by some raunchy guitar and a keening organ.

If anything, it makes me excited to hear even more of El Camino, which is out December 6. No word on whether the gentleman in the "Lonely Boy" video will be involved in any future promotion, but I've got my fingers crossed. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch this thing again. And again.

What do you think of the "Lonely Boy" video? Let us know in the comments!

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673217/black-keys-lonely-boy-video.jhtml

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

News in Brief: Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association

News in Brief: Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association

The mystery of HIV elite controllers, a vaccine against C. difficile, blood transfusion and infection, and contaminated public surfaces

Web edition : 3:43 pm

An HIV mystery
Less than 1 percent of HIV patients have the uncanny ability to suppress the virus for years, earning them the name ?elite controllers? because they rarely develop AIDS. But researchers now report that some of these people have a chink in their immune defenses after all. In most HIV patients, the virus depletes essential immune cells called CD4 T cells. Elite controllers continually rebuild supplies of these cells. But sometimes their ability to restock these cells fails, and they develop AIDS as their CD4 T cell numbers plummet. For reasons that aren?t clear, these people get sick despite the fact that the rest of their immune systems continue to suppress HIV to practically undetectable levels, reported physician Mathias Lichterfeld of Harvard Medical School. ?This raises a clinical problem because HIV drugs work by knocking down virus replication ? which is already suppressed in elite controllers. Thus, the drugs don?t help them, Lichterfeld says. ?Nathan Seppa

C. diff vaccine progresses
An experimental vaccine against the bacterium Clostridium difficile has cleared an early hurdle. The vaccine is designed to boost a person?s ability to produce antibodies against two toxins, dubbed A and B, made by C. difficile. The toxinscause colitis that is marked by fever, diarrhea and cramps. Researchers gave 72 adults three injections each of the vaccine over 56 days in low, medium or high doses. Another 24 volunteers got placebo shots. Blood samples drawn six months after the last shot showed that nearly all the vaccinated people had developed an antibody response against toxin A, and more than half did against toxin B. C. difficile infections most commonly spread in hospitals among people on antibiotics. If the vaccine passes further tests, the target group for it would be older people who frequently visit hospitals or who are planning to do so for an upcoming medical procedure, said physician and vaccinologist Ginamarie Foglia of the drug company Sanofi Pasteur, who reported the data. ?Nathan Seppa

Blood transfusions pose risks
Hospitalized patients with infections are more prone to develop sepsis ? a dangerous immune overreaction ? if they get a blood transfusion, researchers report. Transfusions have long been thought to dampen the immune response and possibly open the door to infection, said epidemiologist Mary Rogers of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She and her colleagues identified 969 people who were hospitalized from 2000 to 2008, all of whom had a urinary tract infection. In 299 of those people, the infection spread to the blood and caused sepsis. The chances of developing sepsis were nearly five times greater if a person underwent a transfusion of red blood cells beforehand, the scientists found. Nearly one-third of the people who developed sepsis died, compared with only 4.5 percent of those who didn?t have the immune reaction. Red blood cells stored the longest were associated with a greater risk of blood infection and sepsis. ?Nathan Seppa

Bacteria, bacteria everywhere
The current quality of hand-washing in restrooms isn?t up to par, suggested epidemiologist Lennox Archibald of the University of Florida in Gainesville. A sampling of common surfaces and handles in public restrooms revealed substantial amounts of well-known bacterial culprits such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and others. Archibald?s team took swabs from four airplane restrooms and 18 restrooms in U.S. restaurants, offices, libraries, hotels and other public establishments, noting that many microbe-laden surfaces were those typically touched after hand-washing. ?I don?t want the public to get paranoid,? Archibald said. ?But I think in the current era of [methicillin-resistant S. aureus] and community-acquired infections, you just need to wash your hands carefully.? ?Nathan Seppa


Found in: Body & Brain

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335522/title/News_in_Brief_Annual_Meeting_of_the_Infectious_Diseases_Society_of_America_and_the_HIV_Medicine_Association

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Equinix business exchange plays proximity card ? Cloud ...

It may seem counterintuitive, but in the cloud computing era, location does matter, at least when it comes to where data is stored and processed.

Data centers are becoming the market exchanges of the new digital economy so the?closer a business can put its data?and compute power?to its users and partners, the better.

That?s the thinking behind the new Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX). Equinix, the big data center services provider, built the online marketplace to help its data center ?customers?which include SaaS companies, managed service providers and financial services outfits?expand into new markets and tap into an existing battery of potential partners that already use those data centers, according to Jarrett Appleby, chief marketing officer.

Equinix fields 99 data centers in 38 countries and claims 4,000 business customers.

Partnering with partners that use the same data center is not new and Equinix even helped match-make some customers in the past, but in an ad hoc way. IBX should give these customers easy click through menus to find potential partners based on geography and type of services needed, Appleby said.

?You can say, look, I?m a Rackspace OpenStack customer in Singapore and I want to add this sort of service. Who can I work with that?s already in my data center?? he said.

The Equinix effort follows other work big data center hosters have done to cut latency times and boost throughput for business customers. In August, Amazon Web Services a Direct Connect program that gave large data center services companies, including Equinix?a fat, fast direct pipe into AWS.

Equinix sees an opportunity given the demographics of its customer base. ?Now more than half of our business is with customers who use us in multiple regions and 60 percent are businesses who use us in multiple countries, up about 10 percent from last year,? Appleby said.

If a business wants to expand into new geographies, it can do so faster if its data center provider is already local to the new venue and the business can utilize connections already in place, Appleby said.

He cited an example of Bloomberg L.P, big financial services firm ?which initially wanted to launch a new service in Chicago and New York. ?But then they figured, why not do that globally? We helped them get into ten markets in less than a year.?

Photo courtesy of?Flickr user DeclanTM.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Source: http://gigaom.com/cloud/equinix-business-exchange-plays-proximity-card/

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Deadly flooding in Central America: how people contributed to the tragedy

Hurricane Rina has formed off of the Caribbean coast of Central America as the region digs out from floods that killed more than 100 people. Guest blogger Tim Muth looks at the role that humans play in such tragedies.

The floods of this month in El Salvador were extraordinary. But when we look at the consequences of the floods, it is clear that calling this a "natural" disaster excuses too easily the role of humankind in contributing to the tragedy. There are several places where the actions or inactions of human beings had a role:

Skip to next paragraph

Global climate change. Weather scientists asked about the flooding rains of October opined that the rains were an example of the more extreme and variable weather events produced by global climate change. The charts I have posted in this blog showing rain totals of other weather events in El Salvador certainly seem to show that the past decade has been significantly worse than the preceding 40 years. The carbon emissions of an industrialized world have created an imbalance producing life-threatening weather events in ever-increasing frequency.

Structural poverty. In the pictures from the flooding in El Salvador and the rest of Central America, you do not see any photos of the homes of the middle and upper classes ? you see champas of scrap wood and corrugated tin. You do not see manicured lawns under water ? you see the tiny milpas of the campesino farmer. You do not see a submerged Lexus ? you see the water flowing over an ox cart. You do not see the bank manager sitting in a school which has been converted into a shelter ? you see the single mother with two children who sells trinkets on the side of the street.

These flood disasters which hit El Salvador on a regular basis disproportionately affect the poor because they can only afford to build their dwellings in places where they are at risk. So they end up living in the flood plains, along the gullies which can flash flood, and in communities where a mudslide can block access along the one unimproved road.

Salvadoran Catholic bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez has proclaimed that the disaster caused by the rains demonstrated "the economic vulnerability, that is to say the poverty so many of our countrymen live immersed within, the social vulnerability, characterized by the structural injustice and the ecological vulnerability, for which the great fault lies in the wild ambition that rages against God's creation, this house of all of us which is deteriorating more each day."

The role of hydroelectric projects. Some are certainly blaming the flooding of the Lower Lempa River on the dams built on the river and the periods of enormous water discharge through the September 15 dam. It's hard to know what would have happened if there were no dams on the river. Generating clean electric power is also important for the country as is the flood control on the river.

The failure to complete risk-mitigation projects. The areas where there were floods and landslides in El Salvador are all places known to be at risk, because they have flooded or collapsed before. In part, the fact that the risks are well understood contributed to a relatively low loss of life in these floods ? communities could be evacuated because the coming dangers were foreseeable. But since these risks were foreseeable, why was so little done to eliminate the risks in the first place? I remember standing near the community of Puerto Parada in the summer of 2010 where flood waters from the Rio Grande de San Miguel had just about dried up. Someone pointed to where the levee along the river had burst to allow in the flood waters. In the past two weeks, I have seen the video of the water again flowing through Puerto Parada as the levee burst again. This same story is repeated in many areas in El Salvador. The government has not done enough to mitigate the foreseeable risks.

***

Feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, replanting fields, and treating water borne illnesses will all be an important part of flood relief in the coming days, weeks, and months. But until the underlying structural problems are addressed and the risks are mitigated, I fear this tragedy will repeat itself. And with global climate change, the repeat event may come much sooner than El Salvador can ever afford.

--- Tim Muth covers the news and politics of El Salvador at his blog, Tim's El Salvador Blog.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of Latin America bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UzZvb21fojE/Deadly-flooding-in-Central-America-how-people-contributed-to-the-tragedy

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Drilling boom brings surge in crime to small towns (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Up to 20 million tons of debris from Japan?s tsunami moving toward Hawaii (The Envoy)

Debris from Japan's tsunami approaching Hawaii. (KITV/ABC)

Some 5 to 20 million tons of debris--furniture, fishing boats, refrigerators--sucked into the Pacific Ocean in the ake of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami are moving rapidly across the Pacific. Researchers from the University of Hawaii tracking the wreckage estimate it could approach the U.S. West Coast in the next three years, the UK Daily Mail reports.

"We have a rough estimate of 5 to 20 million tons of debris coming from Japan," University of Hawaii researcher Jan Hafner told Hawaii's ABC affiliate KITV.

Crew members from the Russian training ship the STS Pallada "spotted the debris 2,000 miles from Japan," last month after passing the Midway islands, the Mail wrote. "They saw some pieces of furniture, some appliances, anything that can float, and they picked up a fishing boat," said Hafner. The boat was 20-feet long, and was painted with the word "Fukushima." ?"That's actually our first confirmed report of tsunami debris," Hafner told KITV.

Crew on Russian ship STS Pallada spotted the debris almost 2,000 miles from Japan, including a fishing boat from??


Researchers say up to 20 mn tons of debris from Japan's March 11 tsunami could reach U.S. West Coast in three years.??

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 has left some 20,000 people dead or missing.

Other popular Yahoo! News stories:

? U.S. pulls out Syria envoy after threats
??In Iowa, Romney campaigns as an agent of change
? Obama announces America to withdraw from Iraq

Want more of our best national security stories? Visit The Envoy or connect with us on Twitter.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/20111024/ts_yblog_theenvoy/up-to-20-million-tons-of-debris-from-japans-tsunami-moving-toward-hawaii

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iPod: 10 Breathtaking Years of Industrial Design

The iPod, which celebrated its 10th birthday Sunday, may not have been the first portable music player, but it will go down in history as one of the most significant technology launches of the 21st century. Here's a look at how the iPod has evolved over the years.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/8LiH4yBx_xQ/

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Hey ladies, want a hit song? Bash a man!

?Mr. know it all/Well ya think you know it all/But ya don't know a thing at all.?

So go the lyrics to Kelly Clarkson?s recent Top 20 hit, ?Mr. Know It All,? the lead single from her fifth studio album, ?Stronger,? which dropped on Oct. 21. Another song on the album, ?Einstein,? has a chorus that goes ?I may not be Einstein/But I know dumb plus dumb equals you.?

Depending on your point of view ? and perhaps your gender ? these songs are either female empowerment anthems or male-bashing songs. Whatever the case, this mini-genre has become fashionable among female artists, with songs like Pink?s ?U and Ur Hand,? Orianthi?s ?According to You? and Britney Spears? ?Womanizer? all becoming big hits in the past few years. Vibe Magazine?s female arm, Vibe Vixen, even put together a list of ?The 45 Greatest Male-Bashing Anthems? ? and that list didn?t even include any country songs (like Carrie Underwood?s ?Before He Cheats?).

Although these types of songs had precursors, like Carly Simon?s ?You?re So Vain,? their widespread popularity today can be traced back to the riot grrrl feminist punk movement of the early 1990s, said Marisa Meltzer, author of the book ?Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music.?

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?There were a lot of things happening culturally and politically then that bubbled over into music,? said Meltzer. ?What we started to see was underground music slowly becoming more and more part of the mainstream and mainstream music aping underground music. So suddenly angry women were kind of fashionable, and what happens with fashionable music is we tend to see many generations of it.?

Meltzer said it was Alanis Morissette?s 1995 album ?Jagged Little Pill,? with its aggressive, in-your-face lyrics, that opened the door for female artists and fans to ?get the message that it?s OK to be angry, that there are people who feel like them.?

Songs like ?Mr. Know It All? are also a way for female artists to attract more listeners, said Leah Greenblatt, senior editor at Entertainment Weekly.

?(Artists) want to reach the widest audience possible and that means reaching girls who are happy, girls who are lonely, and girls who are angry about a bad breakup,? Greenblatt said. ?These kinds of songs lend themselves to being really powerful.?

A TODAY exclusive: Listen to Kelly Clarkson's new song

Why are there so few hit ?angry guy? songs directed at women? Meltzer said that?s the way the pop cycle has turned lately.

?Men seem to be doing well with party music and love songs now,? Meltzer said. ?It seems to be women who are channeling the broad spectrum of emotions.?

But according to Glenn Sacks, a men?s issues expert, the lyrics of songs by Clarkson and others are indicative of anti-male stereotypes found today in sitcoms, movies, and commercials, where men are seen as inept and foolish.

?I think it speaks to something larger in the culture,? Sacks said. ?Where the man?s always wrong the woman?s behavior is never examined. I always found ?Womanizer? to be ironic because Britney had been married and divorced multiple times and is nobody to be pointing fingers about womanizing or being promiscuous or whatever.?

? 2011 MSNBC Interactive.? Reprints

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45016586/ns/today-entertainment/

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Schools fear worst budget cuts ahead

Student Jayvin Mercado, 9, keeps an eye on his science experiment at Lincoln Middle School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Student Jayvin Mercado, 9, keeps an eye on his science experiment at Lincoln Middle School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Cindy Labezius, a library assistant, replaces a book on the shelf at Washington Elementary School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Teacher Laura Kangay, second from left, helps Jose Acosta, 13, with his reading at Lincoln Middle School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Brianna Resh, 13, reads in class at Lincoln Middle School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Student Yolivtte Santiago, 10, left, works with teacher Kristin Powers at Washington Elementary School Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in Lancaster, Pa. Financial woes have forced school districts to shed thousands of teaching jobs, adopt a four-day school week and cut electives such as art. And the budget situation probably won?t improve any time soon for school districts that rely heavily on state and local tax dollars. But what might happen in a best-case financial scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(AP) ? Teenage girls in ponytails and boys in long athletic shorts dash across the gym at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, pausing their game of indoor tennis to motion "Y-M-C-A" with their arms as the Village People's song blares from the loudspeaker.

It's a scene happening less frequently these days. Budget cuts and teacher layoffs have forced the school to cut some PE classes, reduce library hours and eliminate small literacy classes for problem readers and Spanish for sixth- and seventh-graders.

"I'm scared to death. As we continue to look at fewer and fewer non-classroom positions that are there, at some point it's going to impact core classroom positions and that's a very, very scary thing," said principal Josh Keene.

Educators across America, like Keene, are bracing for a tough reality. Even in a best-case scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year, it won't be until 2013 or later when districts see budget levels return to pre-recession levels, said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. That means more cuts and layoffs are likely ahead.

"The worst part is that it's not over," Domenech said.

Already, an estimated 294,000 jobs in the education sector have been lost since 2008, including those in higher education.

The cuts are felt from Keller, Texas, where the district moved to a pay-for-ride transportation system rather than cut busing altogether, to Georgia, where 20 days were shaved off the calendar for pre-kindergarten classes. In California, a survey found that nearly half of all districts last year cut or reduced art, drama and music programs. Nationally, 120 districts primarily in rural areas have gone to a four-day school week to save on transportation and utility costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Others are implementing fees to play sports, cutting field trips and ending after-school programs.

Districts have little choice but to put off buying textbooks and technology and training teachers, said Rob Monson, a principal in Parkston, S.D., who is president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

At Abraham Lincoln Middle School, Keene says he's worried ? not just about offering electives next year, but whether class sizes in core subjects will jump from around 25 to 35 or 40. His district received $6 million less from the state this year, which meant six staff positions in his school were cut. Even if state funding remains the same next year, the district expects to have from $5 million to $7 million less because of increased pension obligations and other expenses.

Recognizing the reality districts face, President Barack Obama included $30 billion in his $447 billion jobs creation package to save teachers' jobs. The Senate rejected the jobs package as well as a separate measure focused on saving the jobs of teachers and first responders. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said the plan resembles "bailouts" that haven't proven to work and only perpetuate economic problems.

Not everyone sees all doom and gloom in schools' budget woes. Some say many districts haven't wisely spent tax dollars or didn't adequately prepare for the end of the $100 billion in federal stimulus dollars for schools. And that while the number of students per teacher in America dropped from 22.3 in 1970 to 15.3 in 2008, according to the National Center For Education Statistics, they say the reduction hasn't made a noticeable difference.

Karen Hawley Miles, executive director of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit based in Watertown, Mass., that helps urban districts develop ways to more effectively use resources, encourages districts to use this time to make changes they have been reluctant to do. They include strategically raising class sizes to refocus on teacher quality and changing teacher compensation to be more tied to performance, she said.

"In tough days when it's incredibly urgent, sometimes these conversations can take place in a different frame. We see districts really thinking about how they can really do things differently and really focus in on their priorities," she said.

In Pennsylvania, at the urging of Gov. Tom Corbett, the Legislature slashed public-education spending by roughly $900 million, or more than 10 percent, to avoid a state budget deficit for the year that began July 1 without raising taxes.

Seemingly overnight, thousands of education jobs in the state were lost. A survey of school districts by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials found that leading into this school year, 44 percent reduced elective course offerings and 70 percent increased class sizes. More than 30 districts said they either reduced or eliminated full-day kindergarten or pre-K programs.

The cuts hit many of the poorer districts harder because they are more reliant on state dollars.

In York, Pa., about a 30-minute drive from Lancaster, full-day kindergarten was saved when administrators and teachers agreed to a pay freeze. But art, music, and physical education teachers in elementary schools were eliminated, forcing classroom teachers to incorporate the electives in their classroom teaching, said Kim Schwarz, 45, a teacher and president of the York City Education Association. High school class sizes now are in the upper 30s, she said.

Schwarz said the changes are tough for kids who really shine in art or physical education and it's been hard on the morale of teachers.

"The district has scrimped and pulled and did everything they could to find additional funds ... and I think the teachers are doing an absolutely phenomenal job of educating the students and giving them the attention that they need given the circumstances, which just adds more to the stress and the level of exhaustion that we're all feeling," Schwarz said.

At Keene's school in Lancaster, about 60 percent of the students are Latino and 80 percent are considered low income. Many are sent home on Friday nights with donated groceries and recipes for cooking them. Among the staff members cut was one who did home visits to follow up on children who weren't attending class. The school was able to continue an after-school program only after a non-profit agreed to run it.

Keene said he wants his children to have a full life, and he thinks music, art and physical education are part of that. He just hopes those classes will be offered in the future.

"You know the old adage sometimes you need to work smarter, not harder? We're frankly at a point where we just need to work harder and more hours, and with the reductions in staff, that's what needs to happen because otherwise, kids are going to suffer, and that's unacceptable," Keene said.

_____

Online:

American Association of School Administrators: http://www.aasa.org

Compass Mark: http://www.compassmark.org/

Education Resource Strategies: http://erstrategies.org/

National Association of Elementary School Principals: http://www.naesp.org/

Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators: http://www.pasa-net.org/

York City Education Association: http://ycea.psealocals.org/

School District of Lancaster: http://www.lancaster.k12.pa.us/

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Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-24-Education-Budget%20Cuts/id-553378ee652a46b9bba07dfa0fdab82e

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