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Summerfest $20M Renovation

Summerfest chairman talks about $20M renovation

MILWAUKEE - For the rest of us, pondering how to spend upwards of $20 million to improve the Summerfest grounds is a hypothetical exercise.


Dan Minahan, though, will have his hands on the plans and the cash.

Minahan, president of Continental Properties Co., became chairman of Milwaukee World Festival Inc. in February and will reign over still-in-planning renovations that will affect roughly a third of the 75-acre Maier Festival Park for decades. Perhaps appropriately, Minahan brings 12 years as a real estate attorney and his experience as a developer to the headliner spot on the World Festival board.

On the eve of the 41st Summerfest, Minahan shared his view of the Big Gig of 2008 and beyond, navigating as carefully through the questions as a man carrying four beers to the new Harley-Davidson stage.

Q.What's your bottom line? What would you consider a successful festival this year?

A. The success ultimately is measured by the individual festival-goer's experience being a positive one. Summerfest, particularly in the time we find ourselves today, offers fun and an enjoyable respite from all the other bad news that we're hearing out there bad economy, we've had bad weather, we have high gas prices; all we hear is bad news. Summerfest is an opportunity for people to get away from all that and have fun and enjoy a real high entertainment value.

Q.How do you see some of the bad news, gas prices and the economic pinch affecting your attendance and, more important, revenue?

A. We can only speculate at this point, but we hope we are accurate in our thought that we're going to get a boost from all of that. We're hoping that people see the next 11 days as an opportunity to stay home and still be able to have a real festive and action-packed holiday season, and be able to do that by coming down to Summerfest once, twice or even more often.

Q.With your background in property development, looking at the lakefront from Veterans Park to the Marcus Amphitheater, what would you do to maximize the value of that property?

A. Milwaukee must first realize that it's done a terrific job. When you look at other similar lakefront locations, Milwaukee has done a terrific job in what it has to offer. We've got a great spot on the lake, all the way up and down from Bradford Beach to Calatrava to Discovery World and the festival grounds. The key to it is being able to provide an opportunity for as many of our residents, our citizens, in Milwaukee access to all that the lakefront offers.

Q.What opportunities do you see to expand the use of the Summerfest grounds for a greater segment of the year?

A. There are obvious hurdles that have to be overcome for the year-round utilization of the Summerfest grounds, beginning with weather. However, in our master planning efforts, we are looking at any idea that makes sense that includes looking at longer-term utilization of the grounds -- nothing that I can point specifically to today, but something that we're certainly looking at.

Q.There were suggestions posted by readers yesterday, maybe putting hotels on the property, more business, perhaps a sit-down restaurant. What are your thoughts on those ideas?

A. As the board has talked with Don (Smiley, CEO and President of Milwaukee World Festival Inc.) about how can we maximize the utilization of this gem of a property that Summerfest leases on Milwaukee's lakefront, we have begun a master planning process that will look to ultimately, hopefully, further development, particularly on the south end to improve what we have in place already. One noticeable change that people who visit the festival will see immediately is the new Harley-Davidson stage: cutting edge, high-tech, consumer-friendly, that will make the pleasure that much greater of watching acts at Harley.

Original Source : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-summerfest,0,296716.story
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Acai Berry, Goldenberries, Goji & Gooseberries


The natural-foods movement has sent the health-conscious and adventurous on a hunt through grocery aisles in recent years, scouring shelves for the newest and most exotic in so-called superfood products.

Goji and acai berries were the latest antioxidant darlings that health foodies munched by the handful. Now, it's the tart and tangy goldenberry that's gaining attention and perking up taste buds.

Sometimes called Cape gooseberries or ground-cherries, the tiny golden fruits are native to Columbia, Peru and Chile, where they grow wild in papery husks. They've long been staples in upscale European shops and fruit stands, a popular ingredient in their gourmet jams and pies.

But the fruit has only recently found its way onto U.S. grocery shelves in its dried form, noted as an antioxidant that's high in protein, bioflavinoids and vitamins A, C and B12.

"It's like nature's candy. I always say it tastes like Sour Patch Kids," says Zak Zaidman, co-founder of Kopali Organics, a Miami-based company that added goldenberries to its line of "superfuits" earlier this year, one of the first to bring the certified organic dried berries to the U.S. market.

A fair-trade company, Kopali has partnered with farmers in Costa Rica on a restoration project to restore the crop. A snack-size 1.8-ounce bag sells for $3.99 at Whole Foods. The berries are also available from Navitas Naturals, whose 4-ounce bag (not certified organic) sells for $5.95.

Zaidman dubs himself and his team as "food explorers" who travel the world in search of the new and forgotten nutrition-packed foods that the market is hungry for.

"Once upon a time, people didn't know from a mango. I even remember when people started getting excited about this weird green fruit called a kiwi," says Zaidman.

The goldenberry, he says, has the same potential to explode in popularity as the goji and acai berries before them.

"They're getting a lot of interest," he says. "I say they're like a super raisin, like a superfood raisin. And we're obsessed with this whole idea of superfoods, because if you're going to eat something, it might as well be something that's really good for you."

Original Source : http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-noticed0626.artjun26,0,7068950.story

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Richard Jefferson, Yi Jianlian, Bobby Simmons, LeBron

Jefferson-for-Yi deal all about LeBron and Nets

If you're a Nets fan, you had better hope LeBron and Jay-Z are reaaaaaaaaal tight. Like sardine-can tight. Because the only way to make hay from what amounts to a giveaway of Richard Jefferson on Thursday is if LeBron decides to bolt for Brooklyn in 2010.

Yes, the Nets also will get Yi Jianlian in Thursday's deal (along with Bobby Simmons), but that's small consolation in return for one of the league's top small forwards. The Nets now have a gaping hole at that slot, one which may or may not be adequately filled in Thursday's draft, and one has to question whether LeBron will be willing to make the jump in 2010 to a team that, at the moment, looks to be a 30-win squad.

Look, I know the issues with Jefferson. He's not worth what he's making ($42 million over the next three seasons), he's struggled with ankle problems the past two seasons, and he makes poor decisions when asked to be an initiator offensively.

But let's not overstate things. He's 28, he's a quality defender -- even if he slipped a bit last season -- and he ranked 13th among small forwards in player efficiency rating last season while playing all 82 games.

Or look at it this way: Even if Yi becomes a decent player, which remains a question to be answered, it's hard to imagine him becoming any better than Jefferson.

Obviously, New Jersey didn't do this deal with the hope of improving its roster in 2008-09. No, this was done to improve its cap space in 2010 -- Simmons' expiring deal will cut $10.6 million off the payroll two summers from now, and the clear-as-day idea is that King James will ride in to the rescue the Nets at that point.

In the meantime, maybe Yi earns them a few more Nets fans from the New York area's large Asian population, and maybe he'll play a little better now that he's not in Wisconsin culture shock.

But for a team that's business side has been focused on the 2010 move to Brooklyn for some time now, it only makes sense that the basketball side starts getting in line. The hope for the Nets is that the nucleus of Yi, Devin Harris, Nenad Krstic, Josh Boone, Marcus Williams, Sean Williams, and whomever they draft will be decent enough to attract James to join the crowd; if Vince Carter is still chugging along by then so much the better. But the Nets are clearly rolling the dice.

Meanwhile, the Bucks obviously consider themselves closer to being a good team than last season's record indicates, and they may have a point. Milwaukee has been able to score, but the team hasn't defended well. Under new coach Scott Skiles, whose defenses in Chicago were consistently among the league's best, one has to think that might improve.

Additionally, with the trade, the Bucks address a massive weakness at small forward without giving up a starter. Simmons was a big-money free-agent bust, while Yi was splitting time with Charlie Villanueva -- apparently they figured one soft, perimeter-oriented power forward was enough. And since new Bucks GM John Hammond wasn't the one who drafted Yi or traded for Villaneuva, he didn't feel any compulsion to ride it out with those two.

Jefferson can guard the opponent's top perimeter threat, much like he did in New Jersey, and should be effective in that role. Additionally, the presence of Michael Redd and Mo Williams means Jefferson won't be asked to be the creator that he was in New Jersey, saving everyone some headaches. It's enough to make you take Milwaukee's playoff hopes seriously again.

Still, at the end of the day this deal is all about the Nets. Either LeBron joins the Nets in 2010 and the deal looks like a stroke of genius ... or he doesn't and the team is left wondering why it gave away one of its better players two years earlier.

Original Source : http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=JeffersonYi-080626


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Varsha Sabhnani Gets Prison For Slavery

NY millionaire gets prison for enslaving Indonesian workers in mansion

ENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) - It's 11 years in prison for a New York millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on her two enslaved Indonesian housekeepers at her Long Island mansion.

Varsha Sabhnani (sahb-NAH'-nee) was convicted with her husband in December of forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens. Her husband will be sentenced tomorrow.

The victims testified that they were beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, and forced to climb stairs and take freezing showers as punishment.

Their slavery ended in May of last year, when 1 of the women fled early on Mother's Day and wandered into a Dunkin' Donuts wearing nothing but rags. Employees called police.

The women said they were tortured and beaten for sleeping late or stealing food from trash bins because they were poorly fed. Both women also said they were forced to sleep on mats in the kitchen. The maids' relatives in Indonesia were paid about $100 a month for their work, but the maids themselves were not paid.

Original Source : http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8561699

Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje 2 Medals

Alumna wins two medals at Athens Paralympic Games


Oakland alumna and champion swimmer Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje, CAS '93, returned from the Paralympics in Athens, Greece, as Michigan’s most decorated athlete, sporting two bronze medals.

“It was a great sense of relief, knowing I had something I could hold in my hand to justify all the hard work and sacrifice for all those years,” she said.

On the podium, she didn't take her eyes off the American flag that was being raised in her honor. “It was an amazing, tremendous feeling,” she said.

The Paralympic Games are the second largest sporting event in the world and follow the Olympic Games in the host city. The multi-sport competition showcases the talents and abilities of the world’s most elite athletes with physical disabilities. More than 4,000 athletes representing more than 140 countries competed in the Athens Paralympic Games.

Angelelli-Kornoelje won a bronze medal in the women’s 200-meter freestyle, finishing in a time of 3:51.41. She also was a member of the bronze medal-winning women’s 4 x 50 meter freestyle relay, finishing in 3:12.80. Additionally, she finished fourth in the 50-meter freestyle, fourth in the 100-meter freestyle and fifth as the anchor of the women’s 4 x 50 meter medley relay.

Now that she’s met her Paralympic goal, Angelelli-Kornoelje is working on another – to raise awareness of the Paralympics games.

Angelelli-Kornoelje is the subject of a documentary that will trace her steps as she prepared and competed in the Athens games. The film is being produced in partnership with the Athletes with Disabilities Hall of Fame and the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. PBS is among those interested in broadcasting the documentary nationally.

“I wanted to get involved and get the ball rolling to bring about greater awareness about athletes with disabilities,” she said. “We’re one of the only countries that doesn’t televise the Paralympics. I didn’t know about the Paralympics until I was in my late 20s, and I was hurt when I was 14.”

Angellelli began competitive swimming when she was 8 years old. A devastating diving accident ended her swimming career and left her a quadriplegic.

She competed in the 2000 Sydney, Australia, Paralympics and finished sixth. Arriving at the Athens games, she was ranked second in the world and was a medal favorite.

“It was different going into Sydney, I had no expectations and I was a long shot for a medal, but I knew the experience would be good,” she said. ”There was a lot more expectation and pressure going into this one.”

Next week, she will return to the White House with members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams to meet with President Bush. After the 2000 games, she had the opportunity to meet President Clinton.

It’s too soon to say if there will be a third Paralympic Games in Angelelli-Kornoelje’s future. She’s trained intensely since January without a break, so she plans to take time and “sit on the couch.”

“I knew this was my best and last chance of winning a medal. I was ready to retire,” she said. “But on that medal stand, in a moment of insanity, I thought, Beijing isn’t that far away. I could have signed retirement papers, but passed on it.”

Original Source : http://www2.oakland.edu/oakland/ouportal/open_news.asp?showdate=y&news=6930&site=11&name=Alumna+wins+two+medals+at+Athens+Paralympic+Games

Tim McGraw Fight

Tim McGraw Fight at Concert Gets Caught on Video



Tim McGraw was caught on camera, getting into a slight fight with a spectator after he removed him from his concert.

McGraw was performing at his concert at White River Amphitheater in Auburn, Washington. In the middle of performing his song "Indian Outlaw," McGraw looked over in the crowd and saw a spectator getting rowdy with a female fan.

McGraw told his band to "keep going", while he walked over to the man and told him to stop. When McGraw saw him troubling a female fan in the front row, he yelled out "Get rid of this guy! Security!"

When security took longer than expected, McGraw extended his hand to the rowdy spectator and brought him onto stage himself. Once on stage, McGraw threw him into security.

The spectator got loud and came toward in attempt to fight McGraw, who then clenched his fist in preparation to fight back. Security then escorted the spectator off of the stage and out of the arena. There were no punches thrown between the two.

McGraw then continued his song "Indian Outlaw" as the band never skipped a beat with the music.

People in the crowd said that the spectator smelled of alcohol and was moving around wildly during the song, smashing into people next to him.

The video was placed on the video site YouTube.com, where it became popular. The video is available on YourFindit Videos as well.

Original Source : http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=51741&cat=16

DC Gun Ban

D.C.'s Gun Ban Is History (Updated)

The District of Columbia's ban on handguns is history because the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess firearms and because throughout much of our history, "the American people have considered the handgun to be the quintessential self-defense weapon...," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia writes today in an exhaustive and scathing defense of gun rights. "A complete prohibition of their use is invalid."

But Scalia says in today's 5-4 opinion tossing out Washington's gun ban that the idea of licensing handgun possession is fine and that the District is free to have such a regulatory scheme. "The Constitution leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem [gun crime], including some measures regulating handguns," Scalia writes. "But what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct."

Scalia and dissenting Justice Stephen Breyer agree that there is a place for regulation of gun ownership, but other than Scalia's vague assurances that the Court approves of existing restrictions on where guns may be possessed and who may possess them, the Court today gives precious little specific guidance about how strict a limit might prove constitutional.

The District will now have to come up with a new regulatory scheme for handguns, presumably focused on the licensing approach that Scalia assumes will take the place of the total ban that's been in effect since 1976.

Guns won't be sold in D.C. shops anytime soon; the D.C. Council and the mayor first have to come to agreement on new laws to replace the 1976 rules that the Supreme Court today invalidated.

In its first ruling in 70 years on the meaning of the Second Amendment, the Court decided that the Constitution guarantees an individual right to bear arms and is not merely a protection of state militias.

Scalia wrote the majority opinion; dissenters are Justices David Souter, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens.

There is not a word in Scalia's 64-page opinion addressing the District's arguments in its defense of its law that it has a right to regulate guns differently because it is not a state; that is, that the city's unique place as a federal district exempts it from some of the constitutional rules addressed to states.

Only in Breyer's dissent is there an extensive discussion of the District's reasons for its decision to ban guns and of the unique urban ills that led the city to this extreme act. The ban, Breyer argues, "represents a permissible legislative response to a serious, indeed life-threatening, problem,...the presence of handguns in high-crime urban areas." Breyer looks back at gun control efforts in Boston, Philadelphia and New York in Colonial times to show that America's largest cities restricted the firing of guns.

The justices instead took this case as the opportunity to make historic and sweeping decisions about the nature and meaning of the Second Amendment.

"There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms," Scalia writes. But he immediately adds that just as the guarantee of free speech in the First Amendment is not absolute, so too is there a state role in regulating gun ownership.

Stevens, in his dissent, comes to the opposite conclusion, examining the historical record to argue that there is no evidence that the Founders intended to enshrine any individual right to self-defense with firearms in the Constitution. Calling Scalia's approach "strained and unpersuasive," Stevens says the Second Amendment "does not curtail the Legislature's power to regulate the nonmilitary use and ownership of weapons."

In the majority ruling, Scalia says that while the Constitution indeed states that the right to bear arms is related to the purpose set forth in the Second Amendment--"a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state"--that is merely a preface that states one purpose of gun ownership, and the right extends to other purposes, such as self-defense and hunting. "The Second Amendment's prefatory clause announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia," Scalia writes. But quoting from Pennsylvania's Declaration of Rights in 1776, Scalia finds that there was a larger purpose to the right to bear arms: "the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves, and the state . . . ."

Breyer in his dissent concedes that one purpose of the Second Amendment was "to help
assure citizens that they would have arms available for purposes of self-defense." But he says that was at best a secondary purpose to the protection of state militias.

Scalia and the majority quickly note that the right to bear arms is not absolute and that regulations on gun ownership have been held as constitutional over and over--including bans on certain types of weapons or by certain people (felons and the mentally ill, for example) and on possessing firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.

The District's ban on handguns, however, went way too far, the Court decided, because it banned an entire class of weapons that people rely on for self-defense.

Scalia's first defense of the individual right to bear arms is grammatical. A strong believer in the idea that the words of the Constitution should be read plainly, Scalia says that the existence of a preface that refers to state militias does not mean that that collective use of firearms is the only circumstance in which guns should be legal.

In a scathing dissent, Justice Stevens accuses Scalia of a bit of sophistry, saying that the prefatory words about the militia are the heart and soul of the Amendment and that there is therefore no right to bear arms other than for the defense of the nation.

Stevens pores through early American history to find examples of instances where the bearing of arms was meant exclusively to refer to military action. But to bear arms, Scalia retorts, "in no way connotes participation in a structured military organization," and he has his own bevy of historical citations to show that owning a weapon often had little to do with serving in the militia. (Scalia, never one to mince words, accuses Stevens of mounting a "bizarre argument." These guys have a future on cable TV.)

For many of the justices, today's case was about whether the Court ought to overturn its last statement on the Second Amendment, the 1939 Miller case that upheld the idea that the right to bear arms is a collective, not individual, one. Stevens says that case clearly distinguishes between military and non-military uses of guns, that the precedent governs and that the Court should abide by it. Scalia argues that that case centered on the type of weapon being used--a short-barreled shotgun--not on the basic right to carry arms. Scalia reads the Miller case to mean only that "the Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns."

Justice Stephen Breyer takes a different tack in his defense of the D.C. law, arguing that an urban area has special concerns because of congested living and that cities should be permitted to have stricter controls on guns. Breyer finds some examples from early American history to back up the idea of a different standard for crowded places, but Scalia dismisses this line of thinking as ahistorical and too willing to make exceptions to a basic right: "A constitutional guarantee subject to future judges' assessments of its usefulness is no constitutional
guarantee at all."

While Scalia says the individual right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution, Stevens says his fundamentalist colleague is the one who is today putting new ideas into the plain meaning of the Founders: "The right the Court announces was not 'enshrined' in the Second Amendment by the Framers; it is the product of today's law-changing decision," the dissenting justice writes. Stevens says Scalia and the majority have now opened the floodgates of litigation over every possible regulation and limitation placed on gun ownership or possession. As Breyer puts it, "The decision will encourage legal challenges to gun regulation throughout the Nation.... [Did] the Framers [intend] to guarantee a right to possess a loaded gun near swimming pools, parks, and playgrounds? That they would not have cared about the children who might pick
up a loaded gun on their parents' bedside table?"

Scalia completely ignores Breyer's extensive argument about the unique dangers of handguns in big cities. Breyer concedes that District residents are proportionately victim to more homicides now than before the gun ban. But he argues that the crime stats don't really prove anything: Just because D.C. murder rates climbed after the gun ban was instituted doesn't mean there was any cause and effect. "As students of elementary logic know, after it does not mean because of it. What would the District's crime rate have looked like without the ban? Higher? Lower? The same? Experts differ; and we, as judges, cannot say." Breyer says it is lawmakers, not judges, who should draw conclusions from the evidence and create policy accordingly.

But Breyer was on the losing side in this decision, and so it is indeed judges who have decided that the D.C. gun ban was an unconstitutional experiment. Now, Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council have to create a new architecture for gun regulation in a city where shootings are so common that there are now rooftop sensors deployed across large swaths of Washington to collect the sounds of gunfire and help direct police toward the latest pops in the night.

Original Source : http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2008/06/dc_gun_ban_the_decision.html

NRA Helps With Shooting Sports Program


Britani Burns target practices with a new compound bow and Kevin Martin tries his luck with a new recurve bow. Paul Manders looks on while archery project leader Dan Kennedy instructs and calls out range commands for this group.

The Dan Kennedy residence was buzzing with activity on Saturday, June 14, with eager Ruff Riders 4-H Club Shooting Sports Project members. This was the day to unpack, assemble and test archery equipment that was purchased for the 4-H Club's Shooting Sports Program with a very generous grant from The NRA Foundation.

The Shooting Sports Program includes Archery and Rifle. The club is still waiting on the rifle order to arrive.

Shooting Sports members this year for archery are Caleb Laszloffy, Josiah Laszloffy, Jacob Spenner, Nathan Stenson, Tyler Stenson, Britani Burns and Paul Manders. Rifle members are Bryant Beck, Kevin Martin, Nicole Haack, Kaari Hultgren, Stene Hultgren, Tyler Stenson and Nathan Stenson.

Project leaders are certified after completing the state-required 4-H Shooting Sports Leader Training for their respective disciplines. Dan Kennedy is the project leader for Archery and Tim Stenson and Leroy Haack are the project leaders for Rifle. The project leaders and members hope that this start-up purchase with grant money and their enthusiasm gets other club members excited about enrolling in shooting sports project next year - April was the deadline for enrolling in new project areas for this 4-H year.

To get the Shooting Program up and running for the Ruff Riders 4-H Club, a grant from the National Rifle Association seemed like a logical place to start. The project leaders researched equipment and supply needs. With help from Denise Kennedy, the club wrote a grant proposal and submitted it to the NRA Foundation in October 2007.

In the meantime several Shooting Sports members participated in local postal shoots and in the State 4-H Postal Shoot in Bozeman this past January.


The Ruff Riders 4-H Club received a check for $8,791.00 in April from The NRA Foundation for the club's shooting sports start-up project. Project leaders purchased archery equipment from Precision Shooting Equipment, Inc. (PSE) and Hips Targets; rifle equipment was purchased from Crosman.

Archery equipment purchased with this grant money included six Discovery compound bows and three Buckeye Junior recurve bows. PSE donated two more of the recurve bows. More than 12 dozen fiberglass arrows, six fletch jigs, 36-inch paper targets, arm guards, releases and quivers; six 48-inch heavy-duty targets with stands were also among the extensive list of equipment and supplies purchased for archery.

Rifle equipment purchased includes Crosman air rifles, co2 cartridges, pellets, targets and safety glasses.

According to their website, The NRA Foundation, Inc. has funded more than 15,000 grants totaling over $100 million since its inception in 1990, becoming America's leading charitable organization in support of the shooting sports. Through its grant support of eligible education programs, The NRA Foundation carries out its important educational mission across the country.



Foundation grants allow shooting sports-related programs to develop, expand, and enhance their educational curricula to deliver valuable services to millions of Americans, ensuring the continuation of our country's proud shooting and hunting heritage.

Shooting Sports project leaders, members and parents spent a good portion of Saturday morning assembling and outfitting bows and arrows. Club member Britani Burns sat the members down and read them a handout entitled, “What is Shooting Sports?” Members were able to test out the bows while learning the proper stance, how to hold the bow, nocking the arrow, drawing the bow and releasing.

Members were also instructed on the proper way to remove an arrow from the target to avoid injury to themselves and others around them. Even parents had the opportunity to try shooting with the different types of bows. This incorporated one of the objectives of the 4-H shooting sports program - to strengthen families through participation in life-long recreational activities.

Shooting Sports members taking part in Saturday's activities were Britani Burns, Kevin Martin, Caleb Laszloffy, Josiah Laszloffy, Tyler Stenson, Paul Manders.

Other club members participating were Kasey Haack and Logan Kennedy. Project leaders Kennedy, Stenson, Haack and parent Mark Spenner outfitted the bows and worked with project members.

The focus of all 4-H programs is the development of youth as individuals and as responsible and productive citizens. Members of the 4-H Shooting Sports Program will learn marksmanship, the safe and responsible use of firearms, the principles of hunting and archery, in addition to much more.

Original Source : http://www.laureloutlook.com/articles/2008/06/25/sports/01nra.txt

Blackberry 7130g Smartphone

Overview


The BlackBerry® 7130g smartphone offers complete BlackBerry® smartphone functionality and puts top-of-the-line features — such as speakerphone, Bluetooth® technology instant messaging and polyphonic and MP3 ring tones — into a stylish, lightweight, phone-style device.

Browsing the web, viewing attachments and running applications is faster than ever, thanks to a combination of state-of-the-art technologies, including the latest high-speed wireless networks and a powerful processor. You’ll be wowed by the sleek design, fast performance, light-sensing screen and more.

Original Source : http://eu.blackberry.com/eng/devices/device-detail.jsp?navId=H0,C141,P164

Christine Morteh : Brothel Bus

Police pull over brothel bus

Sure, $US40 sounds a bit steep for bus fare - even in Florida.

But the ride, say Miami Beach police, included an open bar and female passengers offering lap dances and other sexual favours.

The sleek black "brothel bus" was cruising the city's Collins Avenue early on Sunday morning when three of the women on board got the attention of three undercover cops, Miami Beach police said.

They each handed over $US40 ($A41) to board, then paid $US20 ($A21) for lap dances, $US125 ($A130) to get into the curtained-off VIP section at the back, and $US100 ($A104) for various sex acts.

But before their clothes could come off, their badges came out and the party was over, police said.

"It was pretty brazen," said spokesman Detective Juan Sanchez, noting the officers boarded the bus just two blocks from a police station.

Among those arrested was Christine Enyoniam Afi Morteh, 29, who gave police a Miramar, Florida address where the bus was also registered.

Police said Morteh served one officer vodka with cranberry juice and offered oral sex in exchange for $US100. She later told police she owned the bus.

Two other women were arrested for prostitution. No other customers were on the bus.

Clyde Scott, who was the driver and the only man found on the bus, was charged with transporting for the purpose of prostitution and possession of a controlled substance - six Viagra pills on him.

Police said they also found $US2,028 ($A2,115) in cash on the bus, which features leather seating for about 15-18 people and a television set in the back.

Original Source : http://www.theage.com.au/world/police-pull-over-brothel-bus-20080626-2x6n.html

Verne Troyer Sex Tape

Verne_troyer___carmen_electra

In the immoral words of Paris Hilton, "Euuuuuwwww!"

Seems that Paris Hilton's sex video broker, Kevin Blatt, is now hawking a Verne Troyer (yes, that would be Mini-Me, from "Austin Powers" ) sex tape of the actor with his girlfriend. Apparently, someone snatched it from their apartment and the tape may fetch as much as $1 mill.

Browse on over to TMZ.com to see a snippet. But be forewarned: There's no going back.

Your brain will never be the same after seeing this.

The irony is that Verne's sex tape may actually be funnier - and make way more money - than Dr. Evil, a.k.a. Mike Myers' latest cinematic effort, "The Love Guru."

Original Source : http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2008/06/in-the-immoral.html

The Apollo Alliance

Shooting the moon on renewables

While McCain wants to drill more oil to fight $4 gas, Obama calls for an 'Apollo project' aimed at alternative energy. Should the government get involved?


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- This week's push for increased U.S. oil drilling - both offshore and in Alaska - is part of a longer-standing debate about the best way to solve the energy crisis: tap domestic reserves or put more emphasis on developing alternatives?

Presumed Republican presidential candidate John McCain called Tuesday for opening more fields off the East and West coasts to drilling. On Wednesday, President Bush reiterated that call and urged development of fields in protected land in Alaska, something McCain still opposes.

But experts say additional drilling would only boost production by about 2 million barrels a day. That's about 20% of domestic oil production, but only about 2% of total worldwide demand, so its impact on prices would likely be marginal. In short, it's not a long-term solution to the nation's energy challenge.

Some say a real solution lies in the government embarking on a massive effort to fund renewable energy - something akin to the Apollo program that put a man on the moon in the 1960s.

Supporters are calling for the government to boost funding from about $4 billion a year now to $30 billion a year - every year for the next few decades.

"That's less than a third of what we're spending in Iraq," said Keith Schneider, a spokesman for the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of politicians, environmentalists, labor groups and businesses pushing the idea. "It's not a big number."

Barack Obama is halfway there. The presumed Democratic nominee wants to fund renewable energy to the tune of $15 billion a year for 10 years, paid for by auctioning off permits to companies that emit greenhouse gases.

McCain also wants to issue permits to pollute in an effort to gradually reduce greenhouse gasses - a plan known as "cap-and-trade" - but he doesn't want to charge companies for them, at least at first.

He also does not support a big government effort to fund renewables, instead relying on the greenhouse gas restrictions and lower corporate taxes to spur private sector investment. It's perhaps the biggest difference between the two candidates' energy policies.

Debating government's role

Plenty of people agree with McCain and say the government has no business in the renewable energy business.

The government already is spending billions on renewable energy, and the private sector even more, said David Kreutzer, an energy economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. More money will likely mean more pork, but not more results, he said.

"There won't be some Brave New World of energy simply because the government spends $30 billion a year," he said "This is just another version of we're going to spend our way to the Jetsons' lifestyle," referring to the animated futuristic family.

And every $30 billion the government takes out in taxes is $30 billion the private sector can't invest on its own, he said.

The Apollo Alliance's Schneider counters that the government has had a long history of being the prime backer, at least at first, of big projects that serve a greater public good. They include land grant colleges, the railroads, the Interstate System of highways and the Internet, he said.

"The government, working with the private sector, has produced tremendous gains in a way that's much more fair than the free market would," he said. "The free market might achieve a cleaner environment, but not at the pace we need to move."

He also said the nation is hardly operating in a free market when it comes to energy, noting the massive government support for the highways that led to urban sprawl and defense expenditures related to protecting oil supplies.

While most people think wind and solar when they hear renewables, Schneider says the project centers around several key points that include typical renewables, but also call for a state-of-the-art high-speed rail system in major urban corridors and improved public transit within cities.

It also calls for better community design that is more pedestrian- and bike-friendly and less reliant on the automobile, a point Obama makes in some detail on his Web site.

Assessing the possible payoff

So what will the nation get for all this money and effort? After all, the U.S. government says that, under current policies, oil, natural gas and coal will still provide the overwhelming majority of the nation's energy two decades from now.

And those in the oil and utility industry often point to the huge amount of power the world consumes and are skeptical renewables could provide even a significant fraction of that anytime soon.

For starters, Schneider said the project would create 3 million domestic jobs.

On the energy front, backers of renewable energy say it could power half the nation by 2030, given enough funding. Clearly, those are forecasts made on not much more than an educated guess.

Voters will decide if $15 billion a year is too big a wager.

Original Source : http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/18/news/economy/apollo_energy/?postversion=2008061813