Source: Washington Post (Original Article)
LOUISA, Va. — Planted in the lawn at the courthouse on West Main Street here is a gray historical marker that draws little attention. It proudly proclaims that the country’s first black elected official was native son John Mercer Langston, born in this central Virginia county, the son of a wealthy white planter House And Garden Article 26424 and an emancipated slave of Indian and black ancestry.
Source: York Weekly (Original Article)
Amy Cotton of Hampton Falls is among the recipients of the 2008 Honey Dew Donuts Scholarship awards. Cotton is a graduating senior at Winnacunnet High School.
Cotton and other students will be recognized at the 6th annual Honey Dew Donuts Scholarship Breakfast on Saturday, June 7, at the Sheraton Needham (Mass.) Hotel. Scholarship winners who attend Saturday’s event will be eligible for three additional Honey Dew Donuts scholarship awards in the amounts of $500, $1,000 and $1,500. Honey Dew Donuts will award more than $20,000 in scholarships to New England students heading to college this fall. More than 70 graduating seniors from the local Honey Dew Donuts franchise communities around New England were selected to each receive $250 to help offset the costs of books and other college-related expenses. All scholarship winners and their parents will be treated to a special breakfast and Honey Dew Donuts founder Richard Bowen will award the scholarships to students.
To be eligible, scholarship recipients had to demonstrate academic excellence by maintaining a grade point average of B- or better, be accepted into a four-year accredited college or university, and participate in community service activities.
Seacoast Academy is still accepting applications for incoming sixth-graders. Come take a look at the academy and learn more about its offerings during a Friday Morning Coffee on Friday, June 6 at 8:30 a.m. During this casual visit, you will have the opportunity to observe classes in progress, meet faculty members, have a campus tour and speak with Head of School Scott Votey. RSVP at 772-9093.
On Monday, June 9 at 6:30 p.m., the faculty of Seacoast Academy will demonstrate and explain their curriculum as well as discussing their teaching styles, philosophies and answering your questions. Seacoast Academy is a new independent middle school in Hampton Falls at 356 Exeter Road. For more sudoku information, call 772-9093 or visit www.seacoastacademy.org.
All …continue reading
Source: USA Today (Original Article)
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BUFFALO — When police entered Tom Irish’s suburban Buffalo home on March 9 responding to a call about a disturbance, the 59-year-old Army veteran says he did not see uniformed officers.
He says he was drunk on vodka, suffering from a flashback to his wartime experiences, and saw in his mind the Viet Cong soldiers he fought close to 40 years ago.
“I’m still in recovery, still facing myself,” Irish said as he stood last month before Buffalo City Court Judge Robert Russell in a courtroom half-filled with fellow military veterans in trouble with the law.
Instead of time behind bars, Irish is in counseling. The felony weapons possession charge against him — for brandishing a loaded shotgun at police — likely will be dropped if he finishes everything required of him by Buffalo’s veterans treatment court, according to Hank Pirowski, project director for Buffalo City Court.
Russell, who created Buffalo’s drug treatment court in 1995 and mental health treatment court in 2003, started holding sessions in January in what is, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Drug Court Institute, the nation’s first veterans treatment court.
Veterans report back once a month
The defendants all are military veterans or family members. The court typically handles non-violent offenses, Russell said, with the veterans required to get mental health or addiction counseling, find jobs, stay clean and sober and get their lives back on track.
Court meets weekly or bi-weekly, with veterans reporting back about once a month to update the court on their progress, Russell said. The judge said that, based on his past experience with other treatment courts, the veterans compare credit card tend to remain in treatment court …continue reading
Source: AntiguaSun (Original Article)
by Aarati Jagdeo
The constituency office of Senator Lenworth Johnson was burglarised over the weekend.
Senator Johnson received a call from his office clerk at around 9 a.m. yesterday alerting him that thieves had broken into his Belmont office.
Senator Johnson is the UPP candidate to run in the St. John’s City South constituency and recently opened the Belmont office in January to cater to the needs of residents in that area.
The thieves made off with a computer system and related accessories, two telephones and a fan. The break-in most likely took place between Friday night and the early hours of yesterday morning, reports suggested.
Police who had been on the scene, surmised that the thieves entered through a side window and exited through the back door, using force in both instances.
Johnson, speaking to the Antigua Sun, said the most unfortunate aspect of the incident was the fact that the items stolen were donated to his office.
Johnson did not wish to speculate on any political motive of this crime but said the timing of the burglary seemed coincidental. Over the weekend, he had complained publicly about what appeared to be evidence of vandals at work on newly paved roads in the constituency.
“Every time we lay concrete, and leave it to set overnight, some person or persons use their bicycles and ride on the wet cement,†he stated. He further added that this had been particularly obvious in the Briggings area.
“You could see where the persons use the bicycles and root it up into the wet cement,†he said. “One may wish to ponder…is this related? Is this a deliberate attempt to stymie me – the progress that I’ve been making in the constituency?â€Â
Despite the incident, Johnson told the SUN that he will maintain his resolve and the office will remain open.
When asked why his office had no alarm system or SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS dvd any other sufficient form of security …continue reading
Source: Telegraph.co.uk (Original Article)
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Source: Denver Post (Original Article)
It’s troubling that after years and millions of dollars, the state still hasn’t put the finishing touches on a reliable statewide voter database.
The latest glitches were uncovered in a two-week mock election conducted for the Colorado Department of State. The test showed progress in fine-tuning the system, but still revealed greater than expected difficulties in the system’s electronic infrastructure and operations.
Fixes are in the works, and that’s a good thing. And counties are creating backup plans — a smart move.
But time is running out for excuses. The cost of this system is now pegged at almost $13 million and it’s more than two years late in being implemented.
Colorado is shaping up to be a battleground state in the 2008 presidential election, and it is imperative the state have a reliable voter database.
State officials are aiming to have the system ready for the August primary election, said Rich Coolidge, spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. Given the latest results, he thinks that’s a realistic goal.
“People are in good spirits here,” he said.
The pressure to convert to a statewide system comes from the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The law provides funding to help states meet new election standards. But if you take the money, you have to follow the rules.
One of those is the creation of a statewide voter registration database. In Colorado, that means the system, known as SCORE, should connect all of the state’s 64 counties into one database so election clerks can check voters’ registration status when they arrive to vote.
Colorado officials have been working on it for years now.
Back in 2005, then-Secretary of State Gigi Dennis fired the contractor putting together the system. At the time, she said the delay would be brief.
The state missed a 2006 deadline for having such a database. The state since has hired a new contractor and more consultants and spent more money to get the thing Aussie Credit Cards up and running.
Colorado is among …continue reading
Source: guardian.co.uk (Original Article)
The story is told of GK Chesterton delivering proofs, late, to his editor. The office was deserted, with just one person, from the accounts department, to take delivery of the great man’s work. When Chesterton produced from his bag not only his corrected pages but a bottle of port and a glass, the terrified clerk confessed he was teetotal. ‘Good heavens,’ Chesterton squeaked in dismay. ‘Give me back my proofs!’When I joined The Observer in 1996, the world of books was in limbo between hot metal and cool word processing, but it would have been recognisable to many of our past contributors, from George Orwell and Cyril Connolly, to Anthony Burgess and Clive James. Everything smelled of the lamp. It was a world of ink and paper; of cigarettes, coffee and strong drink. Our distinguished critic George Steiner used to submit his copy in annotated typescript.
Article continues
The business end of books - WH Smith, Dillons and Waterstone’s - was run by anonymous men in suits whose judgments were largely ignored. Trade was trade. Literature was another calling. The atmosphere was dingy, time-hallowed and faintly collegiate. Every October, we all got together in the Guildhall and gave a cheque to the novelist of the year. In 1996, the winner of the Booker Prize was Last Orders by Graham Swift.Now that world is more or less extinct. Many of the great names from those times (Hughes, Murdoch, Mailer, Heller, Gunn, Miller, Vonnegut) are gone. Books, meanwhile, have been pushed to the edge of the radar. A series of small but significant insurrections has placed the language and habits of the market at the heart of every literary transaction. The world of books and writing has been turned inside out by the biggest revolution since William Caxton set up his printing shop in the precincts of Westminster Abbey.Heaven or hell? It’s too soon to say. This is a bankwest credit card story whose outcome remains mysterious. There’s …continue reading
Source: Denver Post (Original Article)
As three people who have believed in the dream and vision of Centennial since before its inception, we want to share with our fellow citizens our conviction that home rule is the appropriate and necessary next step for our city.
Becoming a home-rule city will help Centennial become a more strategic, stable and secure city. And it will squarely place the responsibility and the control over our city in the hands of its citizens, rather than in the constraints of the state legislature.
When Centennial incorporated almost eight years ago, those of us who were there, who were the leaders of the formation, chose not to ask the citizens to make Centennial a home-rule city because it would be too difficult under the first election.
Imagine if, in addition to the many town meetings we held to help people understand the importance of incorporating, we had also tried to inform the public about the concept of home rule and form a 21-member Home Rule Charter Commission at that time. Instead, our 18-member transition team recommended that Centennial pursue home rule within the first five years after incorporation.
So, if you are wondering if it’s too soon for Centennial to become a home-rule city, according to our initial time line, we’re late!
Some refer to a small group of us as the “founding fathers” of Centennial. While we are proud of all that we did to help create this city, we are humbled and slightly embarrassed by that title. As you know, it took the insight and dedication of hundreds of volunteers to educate the voters about the need to become a city, and now it is taking the commitment of scores of volunteers to embrace home rule.
Last November, the citizens of Centennial voted to create a 21-member Home Rule Charter Commission made up of citizens elected by citizens to propose a governance structure that would detach us from rules imposed by the state legislature and increase Centennial’s ability to solve local issues at a credit card au local level. Now that’s government of …continue reading
Source: editorial - The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com (Original Article)
County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo
obviously care more about padding the payroll with cronies
than they do about protecting the citizens of Cuyahoga
County.
Nothing else can explain their asinine criticisms of the
first county government reform plan in memory that actually
enjoys some positive momentum.
Don’t Dimora and Russo understand that voters are
utterly disgusted with county government - with its
mismanagement and obscene payroll-padding?
Someday soon, voters will become so fed up with the antics
of their county officials that they will revolt. That’s
not just a possibility. Absent meaningful change in county
government, it’s a certainty.
And when those voters reject a request to fund vital human
services, the port authority or maybe even the Metroparks,
the suffering of this community will become a permanent blot
on the legacy of those who resist meaningful change.
Last week, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted told County
Commissioner Tim Hagan and The Plain Dealer that he would
support a law giving Cuyahoga County voters the right to
retain the three commissioners, prosecutor and judges as
elected officials. The plan would eliminate an elected
auditor, recorder, clerk of courts, treasurer, coroner,
engineer and sheriff.
Soon after, Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones announced his
support. But Dimora ranted against the idea on Tuesday and
Russo sent a preposterous letter to the editor suggesting
that a committee be formed to study the idea of county
govern ment reform.
Russo must think the people of Cuya hoga County are com
plete idiots. What Russo wants to do is painfully obvious:
de lay any reform long enough for voters to stop paying
attention.
That’s exactly what happened in the mid- 1990s in
the wake of the SAFE crisis that resulted in the county
losing $114 million from its investment portfolio. Faced
with mounting calls ANZ Frequent Flyer Card for structural change, the commissioners
named …continue reading
Source: ESPN (Original Article)
You’re sick of Spygate. I’m sick of Spygate. The NFL’s owners are sick of Spygate, because it is making the goose that laid the golden eggs less valuable by the day.
But things are going to drag on until commissioner Roger Goodell or the owners take the steps necessary to bring Spygate to a close. Changing their story week by week doesn’t close Spygate. Rationalizations and doublespeak don’t close Spygate. Admitting only what you have been compelled to admit doesn’t close Spygate. The reason Spygate keeps dragging on is because the guilty party — New England coach Bill Belichick — has not been punished in any meaningful way.
Belichick cheated and lied, and so far has gotten away nearly scot-free. Not only does Belichick continue to run a team that has systematically cheated for (we now know) eight years — a team that engaged in “a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition,” to quote Goodell — he shows not one whit of remorse, except over being caught. Belichick just spoke about Spygate on CBS News. He didn’t sound like a blameless hero who wanted his reputation back, he sounded like he was angry that people were questioning him.
A man of dignity, who is caught cheating, would resign. Had Belichick shown dignity and resigned, this week’s humiliating media circus in New York over former Patriots videographer Matt Walsh would never have occurred. Spygate would already be behind us. “Cheaters! Cheaters!” the crowd at Radio City Music Hall chanted when New England’s name went on the clock at last month’s draft. “Cheaters! Cheaters!” crowds will chant next fall when New England takes the field, if the cheater Belichick is still running the show. The way to stop that, and bring Spygate to a close, is to suspend the person responsible.
The $500,000 fine assessed against Belichick is a token sanction at his income level. The draft choice fine ugly betty dvd against the Patriots penalizes mainly the …continue reading