U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the U.S. is committed to Afghanistan for the long haul.
Gates met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul Tuesday. Finding ways to strengthen and increase recruiting in the Afghan National Army was among the topics they discussed.
At a news conference with Gates, Karzai said it …
For many of the 75 guests attending the cocktail party announcingplans for the Merit Music Program's 1997 gala, it was their firstglimpse of the stunning new quarters of the Attic Club atop theLaSalle Bank building.
And it was the first notice of the individual who will receivethe group's Alice S. Pfaelzer Award, presented annually fordistinguished service to the arts.
Harrison Steans will receive his much-deserved honor at ablack-tie fund-raiser to be held at the Hotel Inter-Continental onMay 31. The evening will include cocktails, dinner, a silentauction and dancing to the music of the Dick Judson orchestra.Steans said he was "thrilled and honored to have …
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Striking civil servants occupied the Transport Ministry building in Athens early Friday, forcing international debt inspectors to reschedule a meeting where they were to discuss reforms, including new licensing laws for taxis.
Transport Minister Yannis Ragoussis's morning meeting was delayed to the evening after the debt inspectors, collectively known as the troika, arrived to find the building under occupation and protesting employees in the courtyard.
A similar meeting Thursday with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was moved to a different government building in central Athens due to an occupation of that ministry.
"This is our answer to those …
The Netherlands has woken to a World Cup hangover following its 1-0 extra time loss to Spain in Johannesburg.
Among the headlines in Dutch newspapers Monday was "Not Again" above pictures of dejected Dutch players following the final whistle. The Netherlands also lost to hosts West Germany and Argentina in 1974 and …
WASHINGTON - An elderly woman who looks like Nancy Reagan at aMary Kay party is cooing over romance novel covers stapled onto avast display board. Wearing gold pins, pink ribbons and agrandmotherly smile, the romance fiction writer turns, looks at thereporter and says: "Young man, trash us and we'll find you. Thenwe'll kill you. OK, dear?" Another woman - who had been comparingthe covers of "The Cowboy and the Virgin" and "The Pregnant Virgin"on the display - chimes in: "Yeah - use the phrase 'bodice-ripper'and your life won't be worth a nickel."
They are among 2,000 female publishers, agents, writers and would-be writers wafting through the check-in at the 20th Annual …
Tracy Pawelski, 38
Director, Office of Communications
Department of Public Welfare
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Tracy Pawelski directs the office of communications at the state Department of Public Welfare. Inspired by the opportunity to help people who need help the most, Pawelski oversees information about adoption, children's health care, child care, welfare reform and mental illness.
Through television and radio advertisements and Web sites, Pawelski helped reach out to more adoptive families, resulting in a record number of successful adoptions.
The …
Israel will push forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip until it "destroys completely" the ruling Hamas militant group, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said Monday, saying that the operation will continue as long as necessary to reach that goal.
Ambassador Gabriela Shalev also played down international criticism of the offensive and ruled out a return to the terms of a recent cease-fire with Hamas that collapsed in violence over the weekend.
Israel launched the surprise offensive on Saturday after more than a week of intense Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. More than 360 Palestinians have been killed, including at least women and …
SPRINGFIELD The state's checkbook balance "dropped sodrastically" in August that "additional extraordinary measures" maybe necessary, Illinois Comptroller Roland W. Burris warned yesterday.
Richard Kolhauser, the governor's deputy budget director,accused Burris of "either an oversight or a misrepresentation."Kolhauser said a dip at the end of August in the general fund balancewas a one-month statistical freak caused by a special school-aidpayment.
Gov. Thompson, a Republican, "is simply living beyond hisbudgetary means," said Burris, a Democrat.
Burris said the balance in the general fund - the workhorseaccount of the $20 billion state budget - fell to …
LOS ANGELES - Twelve years after Marcia Clark heard jurors pronounce O.J. Simpson innocent of murder, the former prosecutor carried her enduring guilt into another courtroom with the ex-football star.
This time, Clark was the most startling member of the media pack covering Simpson's Las Vegas felony arrest. As legal correspondent for "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider," she had the chance to tell the world what she thinks of Simpson - and she used it.
"Just seeing him back in court again, facing charges. I can't believe it. It's just surreal," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "He skated on two murder charges, and he managed to get out of other …
The dollar fell Tuesday after the U.S. government released a mixed batch of economic data, even while an official statement from the "BRIC" summit had no explicit mention of the buck.
Earlier, Russian officials had called for the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar and said the country may invest part of its currency holdings in bonds issued by Brazil, China and India.
"These proposals are based upon growing concern over the creditworthiness of the United States and the stability of the dollar amidst aggressive U.S. monetary and fiscal stimulus," said Michael Woolfook, senior currency strategist at Bank of New …
Here is a listing of various events and meetings on the calendarsof some area hospitals and associations. MONDAY
Rush North Shore Medical Center sponsors a series of freelectures starting with tonight's "Why Dieting Won't Help You LoseWeight" at 7:30 p.m. in the Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette.For information on upcoming lectures or to register for tonight's,call the Referral Line at (708) 933-6000. WEDNESDAY
La Grange Memorial Hospital sponsors a workshop on how toeffectively discipline your children without arguing, yelling orspanking at 7 p.m. at Lyons Township High School South Campus, 4900S. Willow Springs Rd., Western Springs. Psychologist …
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) — The young man stood before the judge, his usually neatly trimmed hair now long enough to brush the collar of his prison jumpsuit. Glenn Duffie Shriver had confessed his transgressions and was here, in a federal courtroom, with his mother watching, to receive his sentence and to try, somehow, to explain it all.
When the time came for him to address the court, he spoke of the many dreams he had had to serve his country.
"Mine was to be a life of service," he said. "I could have been very valuable. That was originally my plan."
He had been a seemingly all-American, clean-cut guy: No criminal record. A job teaching English overseas. In letters to …
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Results in the first round of the German Cup:
| Friday's Games |
|---|
Rot-Weiss Essen 2, FC Union Berlin 2 (Essen advances 4-3 on penalties)
RB Leipzig 3, VfL Wolfsburg 2
FC Saarbruecken 1, FC Erzgebirge Aue 3, extra time
SSV Jahn Regensburg 1, Borussia Moenchengladbach 3
SV Wehen Wiesbaden 1, VfB Stuttgart 2
VfL Osnabrueck 2, 1860 Muenchen 3, extra time
| Saturday's Games |
|---|
BFC Dynamo 0, Kaiserslautern 3
Hallescher FC 0, Eintracht Frankfurt 2
FC Heidenheim 2, Werder Bremen 1
Dynamo Dresden 4, Bayer Leverkusen 3, extra time
Eintracht Trier 2, St. Pauli 1
Arminia Bielefeld 1, Nuremberg 5
Rot Weiss Ahlen 0, SC Paderborn 10
SV Babelsberg 0, MSV Duisburg 2
VfB Oldenburg 1, Hamburger SV 2
Holstein Kiel 3, Energie Cottbus 0
SV Sandhausen 0, Borussia Dortmund 3
Kickers Emden 1, FSV Frankfurt 5, extra time
Hansa Rostock 2, VfL Bochum 2, (Bochum advances 5-3 on penalties)
Rot-Weiss Oberhausen 1, FC Augsburg 2, extra time
| Sunday's Games |
|---|
FC Oberneuland 1, FC Ingolstadt 4
Unterhaching 3, SC Freiburg 2
Karlsruher SC 3, Alemannia Aachen 1
Eimsbuetteler TV 0, Greuther Fuerth 10
Anker Wismar 0, Hannover 6
ZFC Meuselwitz 0, Hertha Berlin 4
Germania Windeck 1, Hoffenheim 3, extra time
FC Teningen 1, Schalke 11
Hessen Kassel 0, Fortuna Duesseldorf 3
SVN Zweibruecken 1, Mainz 2, extra time
SC Wiedenbrueck 0, Cologne 3
| Monday's Game |
|---|
Eintracht Braunschweig 0, Bayern Munich 3
Tim Holt was among the men and women who wove fabric and prosperity here for generations, until the textile factories left town in a global manufacturing shift that the rest of the country hardly seemed to notice.
Fifty-one years old and pushing through his second federally funded job-training program in six years, he names the departed companies like a list of suspects. Gold Toe, which introduced its durable socks during the Great Depression, found cheaper labor in Mexico. Culp Weaving, an upholstery giant that may have covered your parents' sofa, left for China. And the town's namesake, Burlington Industries, abandoned its sprawling compound after a 2001 bankruptcy, the remnants bought by the conglomerate International Textile Group but still vacant.
What most frustrates Holt and others in ailing industrial towns across the country is that their communities began their tailspin long before sub-prime mortgages failed and stocks plunged. And compared with places where the housing crisis has done most of the damage, their prospects for rebounding are dim.
According to the Associated Press Economic Stress Index, an exclusive county-by-county measurement of foreclosures, bankruptcies and unemployment that shows the relative impact of the recession, smaller industrial cities that were already reeling from decades of job losses have been among the hardest hit in the current economic crisis.
"We worked 40 or 50 years in textiles. Then, that was gone," said Holt, whose retraining at a community college is designed to help workers displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement. "People talk about a five-year plan, a 10-year plan. You could do that then. Now it's a moment-to-moment plan."
The AP's analysis, which assigns each county a score from 1 to 100 with higher numbers reflecting the greatest stress from the recession, shows some of the heaviest impact in hardscrabble communities where the factories went quiet years ago.
Cities like Woonsocket, R.I., whose aging population has watched so many plants depart that surrounding Providence County carries one of the nation's highest unemployment rates despite being home to universities and state government.
Towns like Elkhart, Ind., on the Michigan line, where recreational vehicle makers have laid off hundreds. Elkhart County forms the western end of a strip of counties stretching into Ohio that includes four of the eight worst Stress Index scores, and in each place, manufacturing makes up close to half the workforce.
Places like Burlington, a city of 50,000 two hours northeast of Charlotte, where the tough times are measured not only by the loss of a steady paycheck, but by the strain it places on veteran workers trying to reinvent a career later in life.
"It really hurts your heart when you have a grown man in your office who has worked all his life, crying," said Tracy McKinney, an intake specialist at the Alamance County Department of Social Services who processes applications for public assistance. "People try to keep up appearances for as long as they can, until there's no options left."
Holt's classmate, Charles Andress, 61, is trying to avoid McKinney's desk as he balances the loss of a job he held for 25 years and obligations that he never expected to have as a grandfather. Andress was laid off from Culp Weaving in May 2007. His wife Brenda, 39, a former line supervisor at Gold Toe, lasted a year and half longer before her job was eliminated.
Another blow came when the couple took guardianship of Brenda's 2-year old grandson and 1-year-old granddaughter. They used $50,000 of their 401(k) funds, two-thirds of what they had left after Wall Street's plunge, to meet court requirements of building the children separate rooms. Their unemployment benefits expire next month, and they say they will never accept welfare.
"Once you get on that, you're dependent," Brenda Andress said in the living room of a home they can no longer afford.
A March sampling of laid-off factory workers in the area found 44 percent had less than a high school diploma, 47 percent needed health care benefits and 33 percent needed mortgage or rental assistance. Last year, the county social services rolls _ from foster care to Medicaid _ increased four percent. This year, they are projected to increase another 13 percent.
"It's grown beyond our doors," said Linda Allison, director of the Alamance County Department of Social Services, who helped form response teams to confront factory closures.
There are faint signs of a rebound. LabCorp, a medical sample testing company, has become the largest employer in town with 3,400 workers, and classes at Alamance Community College are crowded with students training for a career there.
Honda intends to build a new breed of light commercial jets in Burlington and hire 600 employees. It announced in April, however, that "global aerospace industry business challenges" will stall deliveries until the fourth quarter of 2011.
Burlington officials have sought $12 million in federal stimulus money to pay for 50 job-creating infrastructure projects. And the town is located just outside the Research Triangle region, home to the research jobs found at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, North Carolina State University and private firms.
Allison's efforts funnel laid-off workers directly into retraining and counseling, and are designed to prepare them for careers at the growing industries. Textiles offered nearly three times as many jobs, but the new work can pay twice as well.
David Carter, assistant pastor of the Baptist Temple of Alamance County, counsels people transitioning from blue-collar work to a diversified economy. His father founded the church in the recession year of 1975, when Burlington saw unemployment nearing 20 percent.
Carter counsels parishioners who may not be completely out of a job, he said, but take two or three to pay their bills. Family time is sacrificed.
"The old mill houses here, they were all built with a front porch. You saw your mom greet your dad home from work on that porch. You learned on that porch," Carter said. "You don't see a lot of porches like that anymore."
As he nears the end of his job training, Holt is concerned that he will have to swallow some pride. A friend who graduated from the same course in programmable electronic controllers _ the mechanical brains of everything from factory machinery to traffic lights _ became a janitor at an interstate truck stop. It was all the Triangle had for a former mill worker in his 50s.
On the road to Carter's church, which he has attended for years, Holt passes the gleaming Honda plant that will play a role in Burlington's future.
"Every laid off worker in North Carolina is going to apply there, me included," Holt said.
"It can be done, but you're going to have to dig deep within yourself to do it. You felt like you were part of something, a vital part, now all of a sudden you're back at square one."
Candidates are always searching for new ways to raise money, but in reality there are only a few solid ways of raising money for campaigns. Campaigns must focus on realistic, manageable and efficient fundraising programs.
One such program is the establishment of an Executive Finance Committee - a group of individuals who will raise money for the campaign through their contacts and associations. Usually the first committee members are personal friends of the candidate and business colleagues.
The more people who get involved in raising money for your campaign, the better. The committee should include all of the candidates contacts who are willing to help with fundraising.
The following are the key steps in developing an Executive Finance Committee:
Identifying members: Make a list and do an analysis of potential fundraising committee members.
The campaign literally needs to sit down with all the individuals who will be involved in the fundraising process including the candidate and brainstorm. Although it is a repetitive process, brainstorming and making lists must be done at the beginning and throughout the entire campaign.
Analysis of committee members. First, identify the background and the issues of concern to the individual. Second, determine if only a phone call or both a phone call and a meeting is needed to bring them on board. Third, identify how much money you think the individual can raise.
Solicitation of the potential committee member. Once the candidate understands the background of each committee prospect and issues of concern, he or she should call or meet with each one.
Usually the candidate's pitch combines the campaign's message with reasons as to why the candidate can win. That may include a mention of other key supporters.
The last thing the candidate must do - and it should be done after the prospect has agreed to be on the Executive Fundraising Committee - is to ask them to raise a specific amount of money. If the new committee committee is not comfortable with the specific amount the candidate has asked for, then the candidate should simply negotiate a new goal to be raised.
Follow-up: The candidate must call each member of the Executive Committee periodically to encourage them to meeting the goals. The finance director will also be heavily involved in this process. Ideally, meetings of the committee should be held at least once each month to report progress.
Members can also participate in major fundraising events as hosts or hold house parties. Events give Executive Finance Committee members a deadline to meet their monetary goal.
One of the best ways to keep in touch with all the members of the committee is through faxes. The campaign can either hire a broadcast fax company or enter the names of all the committee members into an in-house computer faxing program. Then, regularly fax them with "talking points" and good news about the campaign.
Regardless of a committee structure, the candidates must always be the chief fundraiser. This is crucial to the ultimate success of the fundraising effort.
[Author Affiliation]
Kenneth S. Christensen is a partner, RMM Consulting, Inc., a Washington, DC-based fundraising firm.
A glance at the 20 Premier League clubs ahead of the new season starting Saturday Aug. 16:
ARSENAL
nickname _ Gunners
stadium _ Emirates Stadium (capacity 60,000)
manager _ Arsene Wenger (since September 1996)
honors _ English champion 12 times (last 2004), FA Cup champion (10 times), League Cup twice, Cup Winners Cup once (1994), European Fairs Cup once (1970).
last season _ third
new players _ Aaron Ramsey (Cardiff), Samir Nasri (Marseille), Amaury Bischoff (Werder Bremen)
departed players _ Jens Lehmann (Stuttgart), Mathieu Flamini (AC Milan), Alexander Hleb (Barcelona), Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos).
prospects _ Third again, but a reliance on youth could mean a fourth straight season without a trophy.
ASTON VILLA
nickname _ Villans
stadium _ Villa Park (39,000)
manager _ Martin O'Neill (since Aug. 2006)
honors _ English champion seven times (last in 1981), FA Cup seven times (last in 1957), League Cup five times (last in 1996), European champion (1982), world club champion (1982), European Super Cup (1983).
last season _ sixth
new players _ Curtis Davies (West Bromwich Albion), Steve Sidwell (Chelsea), Brad Friedel (Blackburn), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Nicky Shorey (Reading), Luke Young (Middlesbrough)
departed players _ Luke Moore (West Bromwich Albion), Patrik Berger (Sparta Prague), Olof Mellberg (Juventus), Erik Lund (Goteborg),
prospects _ Top eight again but no nearer top four.
BLACKBURN
nickname _ Rovers
stadium _ Ewood Park (31,400)
manager _ Paul Ince (since June 2008)
honors _ English champion three times (last in 1995), FA Cup six times (last in 1928), League Cup 2002.
last season _ seventh
new players _ Paul Robinson (Tottenham), Julio Santa Cruz (Cerro Porteno), Robbie Fowler (unattached), Danny Simpson (Manchester United, loan), Carlos Villanueva (Audax, loan)
departed players _ Peter Enckelman (Cardiff), Brad Friedel (Aston Villa), David Bentley (Tottenham), Bruno Berner (released), Stephane Henchoz (released)
prospects _ Loss of Mark Hughes a big blow. At best 10th and Ince could even struggle.
BOLTON
nickname _ Trotters
stadium _ Reebok Stadium (28,000)
manager _ Gary Megson (since October 2007)
honors _ FA Cup four times (last 1958), League (best third in 1921 and '25).
last season _ 16th
new players _ Fabrice Muamba (Birmingham), Johan Elmander (Toulouse), Danny Shittu (Watford), Mustapha Riga (Levante)
departed _ Andranik Teymourian (Fulham), Daniel Braaten (Toulouse), El-Hadji Diouf (Sunderland), Ivan Campo (released), Stelios Giannakopoulos (released), Daniel Braaten (Toulouse)
prospects _ Good moves in transfer market but another relegation battle may loom.
CHELSEA
nickname _ Blues
stadium _ Stamford Bridge (41,000)
manager _ Luiz Felipe Scolari (since July 2008)
honors _ English champion (three times, last 2006), FA Cup four times, League Cup three times, Cup Winners Cup twice (last 1998), European Super Cup (1999).
last season _ runner-up
new players _ Jose Bosingwa (FC Porto), Deco (Barcelona).
departed _ Hernan Crespo (Inter Milan), Steve Sidwell (Aston Villa), Claude Makelele (Paris St-Germain), Tal Ben Haim (Manchester City), Khalid Boulahrouz (Stuttgart), Slobodan Rajkovic (FC Twente)
prospects _ Scolari has to work magic to catch Man United.
EVERTON
nickname _ Toffees
stadium _ Goodison Park (40,000)
manager _ David Moyes (since March 2002)
honors _ English champion nine times (last 1987), FA Cup five times (last 1995), Cup Winners Cup (1985)
last season _ 5th
new players _ none
departed _ Lee Carsley (Birmingham), Andrew Johnson (Fulham), Stefan Wessels (released), Jamie Jones (Leyton Orient)
prospects _ Lack of new names could hurt Moyes, may slip to about eighth.
FULHAM
nickname _ Cottagers
stadium _ Craven Cottage (19,250)
manager _ Roy Hodgson (since December 2007)
honors _ none (best league finish 10th in 1960), FA Cup runner-up 1975.
last season _ 17th
new players _ Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough), Zoltan Gera (West Bromwich Albion), Andranik Teymourian (Bolton), Tony Kallio (Young Boys), Bobby Zamora (West Ham), John Pantsil (West Ham), Fredrik Stoor (Rosenborg), Andrew Johnson (Everton), David Stockdale (Darlington), Pascal Zuberbuhler
departed _ Bjorn Runstrom (Odense), Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Tony Warner (Hull), Ricardo Batista (Sporting Lisbon), Dejan Stefanovic (Norwich), Brian McBride (released), Lee Cook (QPR), Ian Pearce (released), Simon Elliot (released), Philippe Christanval (released), Kasey Keller (released)
prospects _ Can't afford to rely upon a repeat of last season's amazing escape.
HULL CITY
nickname _ Tigers
stadium _ KC Stadium (25,000)
manager _ Phil Brown (since January 2007)
honors _ first time in top flight, never won FA Cup, League Cup.
last season _ promoted through Championship playoffs
new players _ Craig Fagan (Derby), Geovanni (Manchester City), Bernard Mendy (Paris St-Germain), George Boateng (Middlesbrough), Tony Warner (Fulham), Anthony Gardner (Tottenham, loan), Peter Halmosi (Plymouth)
departed players _ Henrik Pedersen (Silkeborg), David Livermore (Brighton), Frank Belt (released), Brewster Frizzell (released)
prospects _ Tigers will enjoy Premier League experience and go straight back down.
LIVERPOOL
nickname _ Reds
stadium _ Anfield (45,500)
manager _ Rafa Benitez (since June 2004)
honors _ English champion record 18 times (last 1990), FA Cup six times (last 2001), League Cup seven times (last 2003), European champion five times, UEFA Cup three times (last 2001), European Super Cup (1977)
last season _ fourth
new players _ Phillip Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Andrea Dossena (Udinese), Robbie Keane (Tottenam), Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras), Emmanuel Mendy (Murcia), David Ngog (Paris Saint-Germain)
departed _ John Arne Riise (AS Roma), Anthony Le Tallec (Le Mans), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray), Peter Crouch (Portsmouth), Danny Guthrie (Newcastle), Scott Carson (West Bromwich Albion), Besian Idrizaj (released), Charlie Barnett (Tranmere)
prospects _ Torres-Keane strikeforce looks interesting but no nearer to title. Top four again.
MANCHESTER CITY
nickname _ Blues
stadium _ City of Manchester (40,000)
manager _ Mark Hughes (since June 2008)
honors _ English champion twice (last 1968), FA Cup winner four times (last 1969), League Cup winner twice (last 1976, European Cup Winners Cup winner 1970.
last season _ ninth
new players _ Jo (CSKA Moscow), Tal Ben Haim (Chelsea)
departed _ Andreas Isaksson (PSV Eindhoven), Sun Jihai (Sheffield United), Geovanni (Hull), Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Bernardo Corradi (Reggina), Emile Mpenza (released), Garry Breen (released), Paul Dickov (released)
prospects _ Hughes arrival could be offset by uncertainty over club's future and finances.
MANCHESTER UNITED
nickname _ Red Devils
stadium _ Old Trafford (76,000)
manager _ Alex Ferguson (since November 1986)
honors _ English champion 17 times (defending champion), FA Cup winner record 11 times (last 2004), League Cup twice (last 2006), defending European champion and three-time winner, Cup Winners Cup (1991), World Club Cup (1999), European Super Cup (1991).
last season _ champion
new players _ Davide Petrucci (AS Roma)
departed _ Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Chris Eagles (Burnley)
prospects _ Has quality and youth to win title for third year in a row, although may need new striker.
MIDDLESBROUGH
nickname _ Boro
stadium _ The Riverside (35,000)
manager _ Gareth Southgate (since June 2006)
honors _ best league position third in 1914, FA Cup runner up (1997), League Cup winner (2004).
last season _ 13th
new players _ Marvin Emnes (Sparta Rotterdam), Didier Digard (Paris St-Germain)
departed _ Mark Schwarzer (Fulham), George Boateng (Hull), Lee Cattermole (Wigan), Luke Young (Aston Villa), Steve Thompson (Port Vale), Fabio Rochemback (Sporting Lisbon), Herold Goulon (released), Lee Dong-gook (released)
prospects _ Southgate unable to get any big names and Boro will finish no higher than last season.
NEWCASTLE
nickname _ Magpies
stadium _ St. James Park (52,000)
manager _ Kevin Keegan (since January 2008)
honors _ English champion four times (last 1927), FA Cup six times (last 1955), European Fairs Cup (1969)
last season _ 12th
new players _ Jonas Gutierrez (Real Mallorca), Danny Guthrie (Liverpool),
departures _ Peter Ramage (Queens Park Rangers), David Rozehnal (Lazio), Emre Belozoglu (Fenerbahce), Stephen Carr (released), Mark Cook (Hartlepool)
prospects _ Keegan has to get good early results, otherwise more frustration. Ninth at best.
PORTSMOUTH
nickname _ Pompey
stadium _ Fratton Park (20,000)
manager _ Harry Redknapp (since Dec. 2005)
honors _ English champion twice (1949, 50). FA Cup champion and twice winner (1939, 2008)
last season _ eighth
new players _ Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Ben Sahar (Chelsea, loan), Glen Little (Reading), Younes Kaboul (Tottenha)
departures _ Sulley Muntari (Inter Milan)
prospects _ Redknapp magic continues but still short of top six
STOKE
nickname _ The Potters
stadium _ Britannia (28,000)
manager _ Tony Pulis (since June 2006)
honors _ never won league or FA Cup, League Cup winner 1972
last season _ promoted as Championship runner up
new players _ Dave Kitson (Reading), Seyi Olofinjana (Wolves), Thomas Sorensen (Aston Villa)
departed players _ Marlon Broomes (released), Russell Hoult (Notts County), Matthew Hazley (Airdrie)
prospects _ Not enough quality to survive. Will be relegated.
SUNDERLAND
nickname _ Black Cats
stadium _ Stadium of Light (48,300)
manager _ Roy Keane (since Aug. 2006)
honors _ English champion six times (last 1936), FA Cup twice (last 1973).
last season _ 15th
new players _ Teemu Tainio (Tottenham), Pascal Chimbonda (Tottenham), El-Hadji Diouf (Bolton), Steed Malbranque (Tottenham), David Meyler (Cork City), Nick Colgan (Ipswich)
departed _ Andy Cole (Nottingham Forest), Ian Harte (released), Stephen Wright (released)
prospects _ Busy Keane is still rebuilding and could finish around halfway.
TOTTENHAM
nickname _ Spurs
stadium _ White Hart Lane (36,000)
manager _ Juande Ramos (since Oct. 2007)
honors _ English champion twice (last 1961), FA Cup winner eight times (last in 1991), League Cup champion and four times (last in 2008), Cup Winners Cup (1963), UEFA Cup twice (last in 1984).
last season _ 11th
new players _ John Bostock (Crystal Palace), Giovani Dos Santos (Barcelona), Paul-Jose Mpoku (Standard Liege), Heurelho Gomes (PSV Eindhoven), Luka Modric (Dynamo Zagreb), David Bentley (Blackburn)
departed _ Radek Cerny (Queens Park Rangers), Teemu Tainio (Sunderland), Pascal Chimbonda (Sunderland), Robbie Keane (Liverpool), Paul Robinson (Blackburn), Steed Malbranque (Sunderland), Joe Martin (Blackpool), Younes Kaboul (Tottenham)
prospects _ Ramos has built exciting lineup and Spurs should be back up to fifth.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION
nickname _ Baggies
stadium _ The Hawthorns (28,000)
manager _ Tony Mowbray (since October 2006)
honors _ League title 1920, FA Cup five times (last 1968), League Cup 1966.
last season _ promoted as Championship winner
new players _ Roman Bednar (Hearts), Luke Moore (Aston Villa), Kim Do-heon (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma), Gianni Zuiverloon (Heerenveen), Graham Dorrans (Livingston), Marek Cech (FC Porto), Scott Carson (Liverpool)
departed players _ Curtis Davies (Aston Villa) Zoltan Gera (Fulham), Martin Albrechtsen (Derby), Luke Steele (Barnsley), Kevin Phillips (Birmingham), Ronnie Wallwork (released)
prospects _ Lots of goals at either end but Baggies will be among relegation strugglers.
WEST HAM
nickname _ Hammers
stadium _ Upton Park (26,000)
manager _ Alan Curbishley (since Dec. 2006)
honors _ FA Cup winner three times (last in 1980), best league finish third 1986, Cup Winners Cup winner 1965.
last season _ 10th
new players _ Valon Behrami (Lazio), Jan Lastuvka (Shakhtar Donetsk, loan), Balint Bajner (Liberty Salonta), Holmar Eyjolfsson (HK)
departures _ Bobby Zamora (Fulham), John Pantsil (Fulham), Richard Wright (Ipswich), Nolberto Solano (released), Fredrik Ljungberg (released)
prospects _ Still not good enough to win anything but should avoid relegation trouble. 14th.
WIGAN
nickname _ Latics
stadium _ JJB Stadium (25,000)
manager _ Steve Bruce (since November 2007)
honors _ none. FA Cup (best quarterfinal 1987). League Cup (best quarterfinal 2003)
last season _ 14th
new players _ Olivier Kapo (Birmingham), Lee Cattermole (Middlesbrough), Amr Zaki (Zamalek, loan), Daniel De Ridder (Birmingham)
departures _ David Cotterill (Sheff United), Andreas Granqvist (Groningen), Julius Aghahowa (Kayserispor), Salomon Olembe (Kayserispor), Peter Moore (released), Josip Skoko (released)
prospects _ Bruce should help Wigan hover above relegation zone.
The head of France's army has resigned following a weekend shooting at a military show that injured 17 when real bullets were used instead of blanks, the presidency said Tuesday.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has accepted Gen. Bruno Cuche's resignation, Sarkozy's office said.
Investigators are investigating Sunday's display of hostage-freeing techniques at the Laperrine military barracks in southern France. Sarkozy pledged "consequences" following the shooting.
Most of those injured were civilians, and three were children. Hospital officials said Monday that none of the injuries appeared life-threatening.
The soldier who fired the bullets was taken into custody. Montpellier Prosecutor Brice Robin said the shooting appeared to be unintentional.
"According to his early statements, it appears that he made a mistake while loading his gun," Robin said Monday. "This act was absolutely not premeditated; I want to be clear about this point."
Few businesses or nonprofits operating in Boston would deny that diversity is a good thing. More than half of the city's population is made up of people of color and one-in-four residents was born in another country.
But there are diverse organizations and then there are diverse organizations.
Take the Codman Square Health Center. With a workforce that was 70 percent people of color, Executive Director Bill Walczak still questioned to what extent the organization served the needs of its clients and employees.
Armed with a grant from Third Sector New England, the health center polled its staff and clientele to determine whether people felt welcome at the Dorchester health center.
"One of the areas it was very clear we needed to work on was with providers," he says. "The provider staff was predominantly white."
Walczak's pursuit of diversity was made possible by a grant from Third Sector New England, through its Diversity Initiative, a program aimed at diversifying the staffs and boards of area nonprofits.
Initiated in 1990, the Diversity Initiative usually works with ten organizations every other year, helping them to create effective strategies for diversifying their staff and boards.
While the program started off working with social justice organizations, it now works with a range of organizations including large human service providers and arts organizations. The Diversity Initiative has distributed $1.3 million in technical assistance grants to 90 organizations in its 15 years of operating.
"Nonprofits are generally doing a good job," says Denise Moorehead, communications director for TSNE. "But the staffs and boards aren't always reflective of the communities they serve."
Most non-profits in Boston include people of color on their staffs. But Moorehead says it's even more important that people of color be integrated at every level of an organization, including in decision-making roles.
"There was a time when diversity simply meant hiring people from different cultures," she says. "That's not diversity. Diversity is really changing the culture of an organization. You can't just say 'this is the dominant culture and you all have to fit into it.'"
At Codman Square, that meant instituting new programs to aggressively recruit and retain physicians of color, boosting the diversity on their provider staff. The health center also began programs to help educate the staff members about the diversity represented in the health center.
"The big trick is to figure out ways in which we can all work together and live together," Walczak says. "Part of it is having a staff that reflects your clientele. But it also has to be a comfortable place to work."
The Diversity Initiative focuses on developing what in the non-profit world is called a community of practice -- an often informal network of people who meet to collaboratively work to find solutions to challenges -- to develop diversity strategies.
TSNE also provides assistance on organization assessments, diversity plan development, staff and board trainings and revisions of bylaws and personnel policies.
The organization hosts forums and trainings, like their Nov. 22 workshop, "Tools for Change," which introduced local nonprofits to the concept of the bystander.
That forum, which TSNE held jointly with the Simmons School of Management, taught skills for people who witness acts of racism, sexism or homophobia in an organization to intervene.
"The bottom line is if someone says something that's sexist or racist, you're perfectly within your right to respond," says Tyra Sidberry, director of the Diversity Initiative.
While many people focus on the dynamics between victims and villains in instances of workplace harassment, the bystanders have as much agency as anyone else, if not more.
"People look at the role of the manager in bringing about change," Maureen Scully, a faculty affiliate at the Simmons Center for Gender Organizations, told the audience at Simmons. "What's often missing is the role of the bystander."
Scully cited psychological experiments looking at how the actions or inactions of bystanders can help guide group behavior.
Sidberry says reactions to offensive behavior can be as simple as saying "ouch" when witnessing an act of intolerance and still be effective.
The workshop, which utilized strategies and instructional videos developed at MIT's Sloan School of management, reflects the TSNE's comprehensive approach to diversity, according to Sidberry.
"It's not about counting numbers," she says. "It's about doing the work. It's about working together to improve conditions. All nonprofits have a mission and a vision, which is the value they add to a community. You can't add value to a community unless you add the voices of all your constituents."
Article copyright The Bay State Banner.
Photograph (Stacey Blake-Beard)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported strong third-quarter earnings Wednesday as its thriving investment banking business more than offset rising loan losses that the bank warned would continue for the foreseeable future.
JPMorgan, the first of the big banks to report earnings for the July-September period, reported a $3.59 billion profit but also said it roughly doubled the amount of money it set aside for failed home and credit card loans in the quarter.
The bank's earnings cheered investors, who sent JPMorgan stock and the overall market higher. Still, the bank's performance shouldn't be taken as a forecast for how well other banks did during the quarter. Many financial companies don't have such big investment banking operations, which includes trading of stocks and bonds and allowed JPMorgan to overcome its loan losses.
Banks including JPMorgan have predicted for some time that their loan losses would keep rising. And in JPMorgan's earnings statement, CEO Jamie Dimon confirmed that this trend continues.
"Credit costs remain high and are expected to stay elevated for the foreseeable future in the consumer lending and card services loan portfolios," Dimon said.
In its earnings statement, the bank also described the near-term path of the economy as uncertain.
The company said for the second straight quarter that there are some signs of stabilization in delinquencies among consumer loans that are only recently past due. But Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh said during a conference call with reporters that the bank "can't at the moment be certain" that the trend will continue.
JPMorgan may be able to raise its 5 cent per share quarterly dividend to as much as 25 cents if loan losses stabilize and the company's credit costs fall, Cavanagh said. The CFO said that an increase could come early next year, but he again cautioned that's it too soon to know if the economy will recover enough to make a higher dividend possible.
Investors didn't seem troubled by the bank's dim credit outlook, and likely were more focused on the fact that big profits in divisions such as investment banking helped the New York-based bank earn 82 cents per share during the third quarter. Analysts forecast a profit of 52 cents per share.
JPMorgan said its investment bank net income came to $1.92 billion, up $1 billion from a year earlier as fixed income trading thrived.
The company's stock jumped $1.69, or 3.7 percent, to $47.35 in midday trading.
JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank by assets, has been considered one of the strongest financial companies during the past year's turmoil. It has performed better than other large competitors in part because of its relatively light exposure to troubled subprime mortgages and commercial real estate. It was also among the first banks to repay government bailout money. On June 17, JPMorgan gave back all of the $25 billion it had received at the height of the credit crisis in 2008.
Its relatively stronger foundation than its competitors, which report results in the coming days, helped set JPMorgan up for a quarter that is likely to be among the best in the industry, analysts said. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are also scheduled to report earnings this week, followed by many other banks over the next two weeks.
"It's harder to come out when you're eight feet deep than when you're two," said Denise Valentine, a senior analyst at financial consulting firm Aite Group.
Still, the company is far from immune to the industry's problems. Traditional residential mortgages and home equity loans as well as credit cards continue to default at a rapid pace and that has eaten into JPMorgan's profits.
JPMorgan's loss provision to cover current and future home loan defaults jumped to $3.99 billion, while its provision for credit card losses surged to $4.97 billion.
Eric Schopf, a vice president at Hardesty Capital Management, said JPMorgan's aggressive additions to loan loss reserves throughout the downturn have also given it a leg up on the competition, which has lagged in adding to reserves.
Indeed, Cavanagh said that if the economy continues on a recovery path and doesn't falter again, JPMorgan is probably close to reaching its peak loan-loss reserve levels.
Credit card defaults and mortgage losses are likely to continue rising and lag an overall economic recovery. Losses on credit cards typically mirror unemployment, which rose to 9.8 percent in September and which is expected to pass 10 percent in the coming months.
JPMorgan said the percentage of credit card loans it wrote off as not being repayable in the third quarter reached 10.3 percent of its total portfolio. Cavanagh said during a separate call with analysts that the card loss rate is expected to reach 10.5 percent in the first half of 2010 and could go higher depending on the unemployment rate.
Loan losses were also pushed higher by weakness in the portfolios JPMorgan acquired when it purchased the failed bank Washington Mutual a year ago.
Fixed income markets accounted for two-thirds of the investment bank's $7.51 billion in revenue. While the company's trading operations were strong, JPMorgan was also able to write up the value of some investments that have started to recover after souring during the peak of the credit crisis.
JPMorgan's fixed-income trading got a boost from investors still uneasiness about their own financial situations. Investors continue to flock to the relative safety of bonds, strengthening that market.
"The good thing at JPMorgan is you have a lot of different profit levers," Schopf said. "The diversity works to their advantage."
Overall, JPMorgan generated $28.78 billion in revenue during the quarter, better than the $24.96 billion predicted by analysts.
| All Times Eastern |
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| Denver vs Boston, 7:30 p.m. |
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| National Hockey League |
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| Florida vs Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m. |
| Nashville vs Detroit, 7:30 p.m. |
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| Top 25 College Football |
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LONDON (AP) — What dress Kate Middleton will be wearing when she marries Prince William on April 29 remains one of the most eagerly anticipated and closely guarded secrets of Britain's royal wedding. Here's a look at some designers who may have been asked to lend a hand.
___
SARAH BURTON
Burton, appointed creative director of Alexander McQueen shortly after the designer's death in 2010, is widely tipped among the British press to be Middleton's dress designer — despite Burton's denials. Some believe she may be covering up her involvement to maintain secrecy. The Telegraph reported that Burton was "chosen for the discretion afforded by her relatively low profile, as well as for her alternative take on elegance."
Burton's work is said to have caught Middleton's eye when she designed an off-the-shoulder wedding dress for Sara Buys, a fashion journalist who in 2005 married Tom Parker Bowles, the son of Middleton's future stepmother-in-law, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
The designer, who was raised in Manchester in northern England, has dressed Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga and Gwyneth Paltrow. She joined McQueen in 1996 as an intern and in September presented her first womenswear collection in Paris. Her clothes were not as dark or dramatic as McQueen's, but still bold enough to make her a fashion-forward choice for a royal bride.
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BRUCE OLDFIELD
One of Princess Diana's favorite designers, Oldfield is best known for his couture evening dresses and bridalwear. He counts Queen Rania of Jordan, Jerry Hall, Barbra Streisand and Catherine Zeta-Jones among his celebrated clients.
Oldfield's style is traditional and timeless, and his gowns, made in classic bridal fabrics like crushed velvet and taffeta, would befit a formal occasion like a royal wedding. Middleton's mother and sister Pippa were spotted in his boutique earlier this year; Sophie Wessex, the wife of Prince William's uncle, has become the latest royal seen at the store, adding to speculation that Oldfield is crafting several gowns for the royal wedding.
Oldfield, from northwest England, studied at Central St. Martin's College of Art before starting his ready-to-wear label in 1975 and his couture label in 1978.
___
PHILLIPA LEPLEY
A luxury bridal fashion designer based in London's swanky Chelsea — an area frequented by Middleton and her well-heeled friends — Lepley is known for her romantic, classic style. Lepley, who made wedding gowns for celebrities Davina McCall and Ulrika Jonsson, was an early frontrunner as a designer for Middleton. Lepley grew up in Nottinghamshire, studied at the London College of Fashion and launched her bridal business in 1988.
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ALICE TEMPERLEY
Known for Bohemian designs that use traditional embroideries and intricate embellishments, Temperley makes bridal gowns that are ethereal and vintage-inspired. Middleton's mother and maid-of-honor sister Pippa were recently snapped in Temperley's London showroom, fueling gossip that she may be designing the bridesmaids' dresses or the wedding gown. Temperley studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. She is from Somerset in southern England.
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JASPER CONRAN
Conran's trademark style is clean and understated, and his bridal line is dominated by regal, modern silhouettes. Conran, known as one of Princess Diana's favored designers, made the wedding gown of Princess Margaret's daughter Lady Sarah Chatto in 1994 as well as heiress and model Jasmine Guinness's wedding dress in 2006. The designer studied at New York's Parsons School of Art and Design before launching his label, which now spans clothing, perfumes, furniture and tableware. He is the son of British designer Terence Conran.
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SOPHIE CRANSTON
Sophie Cranston won the Designer of the Year award at Graduate Fashion Week in 1999 and then went on to work with Alice Temperley and Alexander McQueen before founding her own label, Libelula ("dragonfy") in Spain. As Libelula grew in stature, she returned to south London, where the label has attracted a devoted following. She is known for her use of bright, exuberant colors and has designed numerous bespoke wedding gowns and bridesmaids outfits.
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AMANDA WAKELEY
Wakeley, a self-taught designer, launched her label in 1990 and has since dressed celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Demi Moore, Kate Beckinsdale and Dita Von Teese. Her bridal line is contemporary and glamorous, with lots of slinky, bias-cut silk dresses — perfect for an outdoor or beach wedding but perhaps not so for traditional church ceremonies. From Chester, central England, Wakeley worked in the U.S. for a designer and retailer before starting her own brand.
___
JENNY PACKHAM
Another designer with a vintage-inspired bridal line, Packham's wedding dresses are often unstructured sheaths that dip low in the front and back — not exactly royal wear. Packham opened her first ready-to-wear shop in 2008 and her bridal gowns are now much sought after among British brides. She also owns a bridal accessories boutique called The Boudoir. Born in Southampton in southern England, Packham studied textile and fashion design at St. Martin's College of Art.
___
DANIELLA ISSA HELAYEL
Brazilian designer Daniella Helayel founded her label Issa in 2001 and has since been widely known as Middleton's favorite go-to designer for feminine, elegant dresses. The Daily Mail went as far as to say that Issa has become "a name synonymous with Kate."
Although she had dressed Hollywood stars from Madonna to Sharon Stone, the designer had not been well known until Middleton wore a blue silk Issa dress to announce her engagement to Prince William in November. The dress — and numerous knock-offs — became an instant sell-out.
Issa is known for soft silk jersey dresses in bright, tropical colors, but Helayel does not have wide experience with bridal gowns.
___
CAROLINE CASTIGLIANO
Castigliano, a popular bridal designer with six boutiques throughout Britain, set up her first bespoke bridal boutique in Surrey in 1991, specializing in contemporary wedding dresses. She has been quoted saying she hopes Middleton finds a gown to show off her "tiny" waist.
Boosting both safety and productivity, Oregon has released its new 18HX Harvester saw chain, an enhanced version of its aggressive, long-lasting 18H chain made solely for mechanical timber harvesters. It has a thicker drive link, making the chain stronger and less likely to break. The load-bearing surface of the rivets has been increased to fit the thicker drive link, making for a larger contact area and lubrication surface within the moving part of the chain. "The most notable improvement in the 18HX will be fewer chain replacements while cutting," predicts senior product design engineer Chris Seigneur.
More info at www.oregonchain.com.
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers patrolling western Baghdad, the military reported on Sunday, while another soldier died in a non-combat related incident.
The four soldiers died Saturday, the military said in a statement. Small arms fire followed the blast, wounding another soldier. The attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting patrols as part of a month-old security operation to end sectarian violence in the capital, the statement said.
So far this month, the soldiers' battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs, as well as helping to rescue a kidnap victim, the military said.
Another soldier also died Saturday in a non-combat related incident, the military said in a second statement. The circumstances were under investigation, it said.
The victims' names were withheld pending family notification.
Separately, two policemen and two civilians were killed in other incidents Sunday in Baghdad, police said.
A roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding five others, authorities said. Two vehicles were damaged.
Later, police said a mortar round landed near a house in central Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding another.
In Shorja market, Baghdad's most popular central shopping district, a man tossed a grenade into a group of workers, police said. One worker was killed and another was wounded. The suspect escaped through a nearby alley, they said.
The Shorja market has been bombed several times, including a large truck bomb last month. But the area was turned into a pedestrian zone after a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown began in Baghdad on Feb. 14.
Also Sunday, an abandoned hotel exploded in an industrial area of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. Police said insurgents had planted bombs in the three-story building and then detonated it at dawn. Half of the building was destroyed.
Iraqi troops had taken over part of the building's roof as a base, police said. There were no reports of casualties.
In Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, fierce fighting erupted between U.S. troops and elements of the Shiite Mahdi Army, police said. There were no reports of casualties, and the U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Police also found an unidentified man's body with signs of torture, dumped in central Diwaniyah.
The U.S. military said U.S. troops captured 12 suspected militants Sunday in raids across Iraq.
The operations targeted members of al-Qaida in Iraq and others suspected of building and planting roadside bombs, the military said in a statement.
Five suspects were detained in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the statement said. All were accused of involvement in car bomb and rocket attacks on U.S. troops, it said.
Ramadi is the provincial capital of Iraq's volatile western Anbar province.
Also in Anbar, troops captured three suspects accused of ties with al-Qaida in Iraq in Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
In the capital, two men were detained for allegedly procuring bomb-making materials, the statement said.
And in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, two others were detained. They were accused of helping foreign fighters come to Iraq, as well as of involvement in roadside bomb operations, it said.
TUCSON, Ariz. - After federal inspectors last winter found"quality control" problems at the only pharmaceutical plant in thecountry that makes rattlesnake antivenin, production was halteduntil 2001. Now, at the height of snakebite season, the Pennsylvaniamanufacturer is rationing its limited inventory, leaving somehospitals fretting about their meager supplies. Nowhere has theantivenin shortage caused more jitters than here in the SonoranDesert, the rattlesnake capital of North America.
It's not that snakebite victims are dying for lack of antitoxin.Although Arizona hospitals have only half as many of the 10-milliliter vials on hand as they anticipate needing this month andnext, when the rattler population is at its peak, the manufacturersays it has a sufficient (but undisclosed) quantity in stock. Thecompany says it's prepared to quickly supply any emergency room inthe country that runs critically short of the life-saving serumwhile treating a patient.
Still, poison control specialists here are uneasy. Because theamount of serum needed to treat a bite can't be predicted - somevictims need none, others 50 vials or more - the Arizona Poison andDrug Information Center in Tucson is keeping close track ofantivenin supplies statewide. It wants to be able to coordinateborrowing among hospitals if a crisis arises and the company can'tdeliver.
Officials also are urging campers, gardeners, golfers, joggersand other Arizonans to be extra careful where they step this summer.
"How nervous we are is really dependent on how much informationwe get from the company about how much (antivenin) they haveavailable," said toxicologist Jude McNally, the poison center'smanager. "And the problem is, they're not telling us how much theyhave, except to assure us they have enough."
In other parts of the country (notably the Southeast, whererattlers slither in the forests and swamplands), some of McNally'scolleagues are equally apprehensive, said an official of theAmerican Association of Poison Control Centers.
The "controlled inventory situation," which Wyeth-AyerstLaboratories says is necessary to prevent hoarding, won't raiseeyebrows in Maine, say, or in Washington, D.C. Most Americans willnever glimpse a rattler out of captivity, let alone feel the clampof its jaws. Deaths from venom are rare even in the herpetologicwonderland of Arizona, where about a dozen people have been killedby rattlesnakes in McNally's two decades at the poison center.
But with 11 types of rattlers thriving here - the biggest varietyin the country, including the super-poisonous Mojave - Arizonahospitals treat hundreds of bites a year, most of them very painfuland some nearly fatal. With more and more subdivisions pushingdeeper into the desert beyond this city of 450,000, regionalfirefighters answer nearly 6,000 calls a year from residents whocome upon rattlesnakes in garages and closets, on porches anddriveways, in gardens, trash cans and public parks.
No one knows how many people nationwide are treated forrattlesnake bites every year. McNally's poison center, which givestreatment advice to all Arizona hospitals outside the Phoenix area,consults in 200-plus cases annually, most of them from July to earlyfall, the period when newborn rattlers swell the snake population.If history holds, he said, Arizona emergency rooms will need atleast 2,000 vials through the rest of this season. He said a recentsurvey found only half that many on hospital shelves.
For instance, recently St. Mary's Hospital here used 30 vials andwanted to buy replacements. The manufacturer agreed to send five,said the hospital's emergency room chief. McNally said he knows ofno case yet in which a hospital has needed a rush shipment from thecompany with a patient writhing in the emergency room, but duringthe hours-long treatment process of severe bites, some hospitalshave asked to tap others' dwindling supplies.
With antivenin production halted until early next year, themanufacturer said it wants to prevent worried hospitals fromoverstocking and preserve its limited inventory for emergencies.
"We feel quite comfortable ... that we have enough on hand to getus through this situation," said Doug Petkus, a Wyeth-Ayerstspokesman. If a hospital desperately needs antivenin, he said, "wefeel we can get it there within a matter of hours."
The company, which makes the serum in Marietta, Pa., closed theplant for renovations after the Food and Drug Administration found"quality control" problems, the FDA said. Petkus declined to discussthe problems and said the amount of antivenin the company has instock is proprietary information.
A few weeks after American Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, his predecessor as the king of world swimming has started studying for a university degree.
Australian Ian Thorpe, who retired in 2006 after a career that included five Olympic gold medals, 11 world titles and 13 world records, is a Bachelor of Arts psychology and linguistics student at Macquarie University in Sydney.
After dropping out of school as a 14-year-old to focus on his swimming and being home-schooled during his career in the pool, the 25-year-old Thorpe was expected to eventually major in psychology.
"He is just trying a few things on for size and seeing what he likes," a university spokeswoman was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Thorpe, who is also a television presenter, was in Beijing to witness some of Phelps' record gold haul last month. Phelps broke fellow American Mark Spitz's previous record of seven gold medals from the 1972 Munich Games.
A city union warned Thursday of a "witch-hunt" as it prepared todefend two employees disciplined by Mayor Daley for the allegedbungling that led to the Loop flood disaster.
The American Federation of State, County and MunicipalEmployees (AFSCME) said it intends to fight Daley's attempt to fireGeneral Services employee James McTigue and the 29-day suspensionhanded down against engineering technician James Bolster.
McTigue, whose job was to escort cable companies through thefreight tunnel system, was hospitalized after suffering chest painsWednesday night, hours after being notified of Daley's decision tofire him.
"They're running tests. I don't really know what's wrong. I'mnot a doctor," McTigue said from his hospital bed. He said he plansto contest the firing because "I don't feel I did anything wrong."
A Thursday hearing before the city's Personnel Board waspostponed.
McTigue, who is accused of allowing pictures of the damagedfreight tunnel wall to sit for a week at a local drugstore, refusedto discuss specifics of the city's case against him.
"The first thing I wanted to do when they told me I was firedwas go tell my side of the story," he said.. But I talked to myunion and they advised me not to talk to the media."
AFSCME spokesman Steve Trassman said the union is "trying todetermine whether the facts the city presented against McTigue aretrue or not. . . . We want to make sure this doesn't turn into awitch-hunt and that he's not being made a scapegoat."
Daley has alleged that McTigue was warned about the tunneldamage in late February but waited until March 13 to check it out.The mayor also cited a mysterious handwritten memo from McTigue thatdescribed the problem as urgent. The memo - undated, unaddressed andunsigned - was never sent and was turned over to city investigatorsonly this week.
Trassman contended that Bolster's rights were violated when hewas informed of his suspension on Wednesday. The city says Bolsterwas the first to learn that the Kinzie bridge pilings were notinstalled in the location specified in the contract. They alsocontend that he concurred in an incomplete inspection of the project.
"Under the contract, charges are supposed to be read to him andhe's supposed to be given a chance to respond to the charges,"Trassman said. "That was not done. They were there to impose thediscipline."
Mayoral spokeswoman Carolyn Grisko said that the meetingrequired by the contract was held and that Bolster's unionrepresentative and supervisor were present.
"All union procedures were followed," she said. "He has 72hours to respond, in writing, to the Personnel Board. If he choosesto appeal, that is his forum."
Grisko said the union's fear about a witch-hunt was unfounded.She said the mayor is "moving surgically here to take a careful lookat who not only knew of the situation, but understood the seriousnessof it and had the responsibility to do something about it. . . .He's being very careful and deliberate." Contributing: Charles Nicodemus
SEATTLE Two 900-pound beluga whales from Manitoba, destined forthe Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, landed at SeattleTacoma InternationalAirport Thursday for a 10-month layover at Tacoma's aquarium.
The whales, both pale gray, 8 1/2-foot-long adolescent females,will join three white belugas at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquariumuntil Shedd's new Oceanarium opens in fall of 1990, aquariumofficials said.
The whales were flown in fleece-lined crates. They were coveredwith lanolin and continually "misted" during the flight to keep themfrom drying out, said Shedd spokeswoman Michele Gaspar.
Both arrived in good condition amid sharp criticism from animalrights groups that tried but failed to get a court order blocking thewhale shipment.
Chicago schoolchildren will be asked to name the whales in acontest, Gaspar said. No date has been set for the contest, but thenames will be chosen well before the whales make their Chicago debutat the $43 million Oceanarium's opening, she said.
The whales will be part of a display that aims to re-create thecoastline of southeast Alaska. It will include dolphins and seaotters that were rehabilitated after being covered with oil from theExxon Valdez spill.
To Mitchell Fox of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, thecapture of the marine mammals is a travesty. The organization wentto U.S. District Court in Seattle seeking a court order to stop themove, but the aquariums acted before a hearing was scheduled.
"They won that one," said Fox. "We think that was one moresleazy insult in an affair that has happened without the correctamount of public input and consideration of our environmental laws."
Fox said PAWS, based in Lynnwood, Wash., and the InternationalWildlife Organization will press their lawsuit to have the whalesreturned to Canada.
He said the capture last week at Churchill, Manitoba, disruptedbreeding grounds. The aquariums' educational goals aren't worth thewear and tear on the animals, he said. He described the capture as awater rodeo in which whales are herded by motor boats into shallowwater and exhausted until they can be hauled into a sling.
Byron Olson, director of administration for Tacoma'sMetropolitan Park District, which oversees the zoo and aquarium, saidall government permits were in order.
He said the whales were moved because they were ready to traveland the action didn't have anything to do with the lawsuit by theanimal welfare group, whose opinions were considered but deemedunpersuasive.
Leon Pitt contributed to this story.
It took a new arts center, nearly $300,000 and days ofinstallation for the Avampato Discovery Museum to land its mostexciting exhibit yet.
Starting Saturday, members of the public can see what the fuss hasbeen about when "American Accents, 1670-1945: Masterworks from theFine Arts Museums of San Francisco Featuring the RockefellerCollection," opens.
Friday night, an invitation-only event will allow museum membersto preview the 86 pieces that include such well-known names asGeorgia O'Keefe, John Singer Sargent, Charles Wilson Peale, WinslowHomer and Mary Cassatt.
Ric Ambrose, the curator of the Avampato Museum, said many of thepieces are the finest examples of …
Democrat Barack Obama used word of the nation's worst monthly job loss in over five years Friday to argue the policies of his Republican opponents "are killing jobs in America every single day." Republican John McCain retorted that Obama's tax and spending plans won't solve the problem.
The government reported employers cut 159,000 jobs last month, the ninth straight month of job losses. The crowd gathered to hear Obama at a Pennsylvania high school football field booed when he told them the numbers and again when he told …
A lawyer for the supermodel, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanourcharge of reckless assault in New York after she threw a mobilephone at her housekeeper, said yesterday it would not be safe forher to pay for her offence by doing community service such as street-sweeping.
Following a plea bargain with prosecutors at Manhattan CriminalCourt, she was sentenced to five days' community service and a two-day anger management course, and ordered to pay medical bills of$363 (Pounds 185) for her housekeeper.
In court, Campbell admitted throwing the phone in her Park Avenueapartment but said she did not intend it to hit Ana Scolavino, whoneeded four stitches after the …
Campbell admits assault but asks to do community service indoorsA lawyer for the supermodel, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanourcharge of reckless assault in New York after she threw a mobilephone at her housekeeper, said yesterday it would not be safe forher to pay for her offence by doing community service such as street-sweeping.
Following a plea bargain with prosecutors at Manhattan CriminalCourt, she was sentenced to five days' community service and a two-day anger management course, and ordered to pay medical bills of$363 (Pounds 185) for her housekeeper.
In court, Campbell admitted throwing the phone in her Park Avenueapartment but said she did not intend it to hit Ana Scolavino, whoneeded four stitches after the …
Gerber Technology announces the launch of "3D Direct", a software solution for the transportation interiors market that will flatten three-dimensional (3D) design models to produce two-dimensional (2D) pattern pieces. The system is easier to use than other 3D-to-2D software solutions and accelerates, streamlines and automates the 3D-to-2D pattern design process.
"3D Direct" reduces the need for full size physical prototypes to derive flattened material patterns. Using highly advanced computer algorithms, "3D Direct" automatically flattens a 3D CAD model into the two-dimensional parts required for production, optimizing the pattern shapes for cutting. Designed to be within reach of …
DSM Bakery Ingredients has finalized the sale of the marketing, distribution, and product development activities of its pastry business to Friesland Coberco Dairy Foods (Meppel, the Netherlands). …
Byline: Sudipt Arora
May 12--NEW DELHI -- India is poised to invite global bids for mobile-phone spectrum, a step many experts describe as the most significant policy announcement in telecoms since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government took office nearly three years ago.
Dayanidhi Maran, the federal minister for communications and information technology, says the department wants global players to commit to new investments in India's fastest-growing telecoms sector, mobile telephony.
"The Indian Air Force is vacating 42.5 megahertz of spectrum by July. Shortly after this, we will announce a 3G spectrum allocation plan, which will be part of a larger broadband policy," he said.
The trend is pro-competition and pro-consumer. "We will follow the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on spectrum allocation which specifies that …
Byline: Howard Blumenthal United Feature Syndicate
One of the best things about watching a movie in a video home theater is the quality of the sound. Even die-hard home theater fans will admit that the images shown in a real movie theater are superior to those seen at home; in fact, movie theater images are at least four times as clear, and far more vivid on any scale of measurement. However, when it comes to sound, there is no need for compromise. Surround sound in the home can be every bit as lifelike as surround sound in a well-equipped movie theater.
What is surround sound? It's pretty much what you think it is - sound that surrounds the listener. But it's not as simple as that.
Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound, by far the most …
It was swift and chaotic, witnesses said, as the plastics plant worker with a determined look opened fire, killing five co-workers then himself in rural western Kentucky.
Police said Wesley N. Higdon, 25, shot his supervisor outside the plant, then went inside and kept shooting. When the gunfire ended, one of Higdon's co-workers was dead, four others were dying and he had committed suicide.
A witness who hid behind a wall when the gunfire started said a bullet struck a water line, spraying water all over the plant.
"When I heard the gunshots, I thought it was something electrical," said plant worker Mark Singery. …
WASHINGTON The Labor Department on Monday proposed to sharplyreduce the time employers have to invest their employees'contributions to 401(k) pension plans.
Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said employers should berequired to deposit employee contributions to pension funds on thesame schedule that they transmit federal income tax or SocialSecurity withholdings to the Internal Revenue Service.
"This means that most large companies will have to deposit401(k) contributions within one day after they are received," Reichsaid. "Smaller companies will have a longer period of time dependingon their size, but almost all will have to deposit employeecontributions within 30 …
