Per msnbc.com:

HARTFORD, Connecticut - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making that state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions.

The court ruled that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut's civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples.

New Jersey, did you hear that?  Connecticut doesn't believe that the civil union laws provide the same rights as heterosexual couples.  They didn't, you know.  And they don't in New Jersey.  Will you be next?

People hear me on Iraq; on the PATRIOT Act; on human rights; on healthcare; on gay marriage; on education - we find common ground. There is one issue, however, where people seem to put up a wall that's dramatically harder to tear down: abortion. Both sides of this debate usually come to the table with equal amounts of moral outrage that it's frequently impossible to convince anyone to even consider listening. We all know where we stand and we're all passionately entrenched there.

I hear the dedication to preserving life. I hear it.

Part of why I'm pro-choice is because it's clear to me that those policies actually save lives and prevent abortions. A lot of people on the other side of the aisle just snorted derisively at me. Regardless: pro-choice policies save lives and prevent abortions. Nicholas D. Kristof's column in Wednesday's New York Times outlines one of the ways how (emphasis and links are mine):

Can This Be Pro-Life?

The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa...a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year — along with more women dying in childbirth...

There is something about reproductive health — maybe the sex part — that makes some Americans froth and go crazy...The latest bout of reproductive-health madness came in the last couple of weeks when the U.S. Agency for International Development ordered six African countries to ensure that no U.S.-financed condoms, birth control pills, I.U.D.’s or other contraceptives are furnished to Marie Stopes International, a British-based aid group that operates clinics in poor countries...

“The irony and hypocrisy of it is that this is a bone to the self-described ‘pro-life’ movement, but it will result in deaths to women who just want to space their births,” said Dana Hovig, the chief executive of Marie Stopes International. The organization estimates that the result will be at least 157,000 additional unwanted pregnancies per year, leading to 62,000 additional abortions and 660 women dying in childbirth.

That may overstate the impact. Kent Hill, an official of the U.S. aid agency, insists that there will be no increase in pregnancies because the American contraceptives will simply be routed to other aid groups in Africa.

That will work to some degree in big cities. But it’s a fantasy in rural Africa. Over the years, I’ve dropped in on a half-dozen Marie Stopes clinics, and in rural areas there’s typically nothing else for many miles around. Women in the villages simply have no other source of family planning...

In some parts of Africa, a woman now has a 1-in-10 risk of dying in childbirth. The idea that U.S. policy may increase that toll is infuriating.

.........

I've had the abortion/choice discussion with countless people who claim to be "pro-life" and every time examples like this one are cited they bemoan the tragedy and say, Well, I certainly don't agree with that.

Then stop voting for it.

McCain supports this decision (click on the link for full text). Obama does not. With these facts at hand, a vote for McCain guarantees thousands more abortions that Obama would prevent. If your vote is based upon stopping the murder of innocent babies, I guess the question is, does that only apply to American babies or do African babies count too?

Despite my inability not willingness to occasionally climb up on very high horses, my preferred modus operandi is positive reinforcement. The targets of my wrath might find that difficult to believe but, when given a choice, I really do focus on the good stuff. Ergo...

Well done New York Times!

Three New York Times articles in the last three days have left me nodding my head in agreement with their cogent arguments that I haven't necessarily seen in other MSM. Three!

We'll start with the most surprising one...It is a rare day when I can read Tom Friedman without rolling my eyes but, doggone-it, his column earlier this week on Palin's Kind of Patriotism makes a heckuva lot of sense. This isn't a Sarah Palin is the Devil Incarnate piece, but a broader critique of the twisted "patriotism" of Republican tax policies. - Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq?

Friedman's also just given me a new quote to summarize my own views: I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization. -- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

It's sad that I'm actually surprised to see this being covered, but...The NYTimes gets a happy pat on the back for, well, doing its job in reporting that tens of thousands of registered voters are being illegally removed from the rolls. Verify your voting registration and know your rights (go to your state's Secretary of State website) and make sure you can put them into practice on November 4.

The last piece comes from, hands down, my favorite writer at the New York Times. If you think it's Maureen Dowd, you're (still?) trying to put me in a snippy little partisan box where I don't fit. I go in the proactive progressive box, along with Nicholas D. Kristof. The outcome may seem partisan, but the argument is about the real-life impact of policies and ideology. Case in point: Nick's column about Bush/McCain policies on abortion in Africa - how their policies are promoting abortion in Africa.

It turned into a post of its own...

Kathy blogs at fivefeetoffury.com and is a reader of this site.

Like many people I imagine, I had thought the risk were limited only to certain brands of baby formula. Apparently not, it appears it could even be spreading in far wider food circles than that, even covering Dove chocolate and M&M's.

With 4 Chinese babies already dead and nearly 11,000 babies and children still being hospitalised, the world is now sitting up and starting to get itself into something of a flap. Dozens of countries, from Indonesia to Kenya to Colombia, have now banned Chinese dairy imports amid fears sparked by the tainted infant formula.

As a precautionary measure, Tesco (UK) removed 'White Rabbit' milk sweets from its shelves, a brand that the New Zealand's Food Safety Authority have now warned contains "unacceptable" levels of melamine - a chemical used in making plastics and fertilizer that can cause kidney stones and even kidney failure.

Of course the Chinese government are busy trying to play down the problem, or in other words stick their head in the sand where no one can ask them too many awkward questions. Despite Xiang Yuzhang, the quality watchdog's chief inspection official, telling reporters in Beijing that "There is no problem," the world it seems is just not buying it. Perhaps because another senior Chinese product safety official has also insisted that the problem was "under control, more or less".

Not the most comforting of words to use really, 'more or less'. Those in charge of Chinese media spin must be shaking their heads in horror.

It does seem these days, according to the media at least, like the world is forever lurching from one food scare to another. It's hard to know what's safe to eat anymore, whether something is healthy or packed full of cancerous additives and which panic reports and urban myths to believe.

A World Health Organization study reported this year that unsafe food is responsible for illnesses in at least 2 billion people.

Of course it's impossible and unrealistic to expect everything we eat to be 100% germ free. Food now is grown, flown and consumed all over the world and passes through more pairs of hands than you can shake a stick at. So while you may keep your kitchen as sterile as an operating room and religiously and rigorously wash every piece of fruit that you eat, the chances are the food you eat has already been contaminated in some way, long before you even brought it home. Possibly 1000's of miles away by some backpacking fruit picker who went to use the loo and forgot to wash his hands. What a lovely image as you bite into your Royal Gala.

A long history of food scares, many of which turn out to be completely unfounded are enough to have you turning anorexic with fear.

The outbreak of listeria in 1989 that had customers fleeing from  supermarket soft cheese and cooked chicken. Edwina Curries 'egg fiasco' of 1999, when the country stopped poaching, scrambling and boiling their breakfast for fear of getting salmonella. The 23% of pigs taken for slaughter that the British Government then reported were also infected with salmonella in 2000. The BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and the outbreak of E coli that caused widespread mayhem in 1997.

The numerous links with cancer for a whole host of foods, including salmon, prawns, low fat milk, MEAT, bread, rice and even potatoes. The reports that cling film was dangerous, chickens nursing the flu could kill and swordfish gives you mercury poisoning. The concerns over food irradiation and the ongoing debate surrounding margarine.  The media furore over GM (genetic modification) food and the unknown fear over what long term effect a chemically enhanced cucumber may have on our body in 20 years time.

Even trying to eat your 5, or is that now meant to be 7-a-day has become a mission in staying alive, with recent reports of fresh spinach, tomatoes and peppers all testing positive for salmonella and certain brands of carrot juice (organic no less) being linked to botulism.

When you start looking at your fork and wondering what exactly is in the food you are about to eat and whether it will one day cause you to grow another limb, then you know it's time to dig out a vegetable plot and only eat what you can manage to grow.

Much like with the everyday products that we use, the medications we pump into our bodies and the diets that we follow, it seems that in this day and age, eating has never been so dangerous.

: : : : : : : : : : :

New gecko-like clue is the stickiest yet, study finds

Headline, October 10, 2008, Page A22

Obama's Race May Be as Much a Plus as a Minus ( Frank Newport, Gallup)...Hmmmm...was this written by the NRA,KKK,or the NSM (Nazis, FYI).

McCain Misunderstands Meaning of Honor (Joe Conason, NY Observer).... did this misunderstanding happen before or after his service in Vietnam and US Senate?

The Question Obama Won't Answer  (Peter Wehner, Commentary)....Exactly how are McCain and Hillary related?

Confidence is Everything (The Economist Newspaper)... Overheard at the AIG $400,000.00 + weekend get-away.

The Race Isn't Necessarily Over (Michael Barone, US News & World Report) 1st translation: How can the Democrats still screw this one up?  2cnd translation: How evil will the Republicans go?

Write your own headline...I'm still waiting for Christmas next month.

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The backstory: Grandma takes kid to bar during school hours. Dad comes in and claims the kid, unbeknownst to Grandma. Hilarity at taxpayer expense ensues.

The bright point of this odd story: We really love the fact that Deputy Tom Erickson of the JoCo County Sheriff's Office took the opportunity to riff on the classic bar joke intro:

“A dad goes into a bar  [emphasis ours] where grandma (his mother-in-law) has his daughter (who is about 4). He takes his daughter out of the bar and grandma calls and says kidnap — we send everybody."

Not much of a punchline, but we salute him for making the best of this situation. Hey, have you heard the one about the police stakeout of the well-to-do criminal in Overland Park? Not often that someone stings a WASP! Hey-yo!

So, I would love to write something useful about the stock market and the wild plunging of the DOW recently.  I thought I would go check out some Wall Street Blogs.  Silly me.  I thought I would be able to understand them.  I thought I would be able to analyze the rhetoric in search for signs of desperation.

Here's what I saw:

"Currently, nobody trusts the market or what anyone has to say about long term the markets are cheap. This sounds like trying to convince someone to buy your home in the current real estate market."  
- from www.blogginwallstreet.com.

There's nothing wrong with this blog. I mean, everybody makes mistakes (note the run-on sentence, which is not defined as a long sentence but one that combines two independent clauses [groups of words containing a subject and verb and which could stand alone as a sentence because there are no other subordinators attached] with no punctuation or coordinators - essentially, there is a period missing). I just didn't gain anything useful from it. Go to the page and read through the posts. If you find something that's useful, great. The problem (for me) is that it is Wall Street blog for people who could walk into the NYSE, not dummies who just look at it from down the street. I'm not the right audience. It made me think that to really understand the stock market, you have to become the stock market. People who really understand it can't explain it to a general audience except by talking about the movement of a few indices, but that doesn't really tell us outsiders what is happening. What does it mean if the DOW drops? Does it mean my money is worth less? Does it mean somebody had to hand some money over to somebody at the end of the day? I don't know. I wish I could understand without devoting hours and hours every day.

So, this is probably a pointless post (ahem, like all of my posts), but I thought I should "do" something when I saw that the DOW dropped below 9,000 today. It was just about a week ago that it dropped below 10,000 and people were making a big deal out of it, so this must be bad. I am strangely optimistic, though. I bet those people who understand Wall Street have a trick up their sleeves (though on TV you normally them with their sleeves rolled up). We have always been told that economics is cyclical, so maybe we should buy now while everything is low. How else would we sell high later? Still scared? Maybe you haven't seen these headlines:

"Day Ends in Near Free Fall" - FoxNews.com

"Dow plunges more than 678 to fall below 9,000" - Yahoo News

Great verb in that Yahoo headline! "Plunges" It just sounds so good, and the motion is unmistakable. CNN was also generous enough to give an image of the despair:
[caption id="attachment_101" align="alignleft" width="265" caption="Investor cracks walnut on forehead, says "ouch.""][/caption]
Poor fella.

Sheriff: I will stop enforcing evictions
By Azam Ahmed and Ofelia Casillas | Chicago Tribune reporters

As the nationwide mortgage crisis puts the squeeze on homeowners, the Cook County sheriff's office is on pace to evict more people than ever from foreclosed homes.

At least it was until Wednesday, when Sheriff Tom Dart announced he wouldn't do it anymore.

Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies. (more...)

I have to agree with the Sheriff on this one. Renters who pay their rent on a regular basis should not be thrown out of these homes. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to see to it that the mortgage is being paid.

Here are two reasons why landlords have not been making mortgage payments:

1 - Like most subprime loan recipients, they banked on the idea that with the low introductory interest rate, they could easily refinance once the rate matured. Initially, many of these first time landlords were making a killing on rent because their rate was so low. Once the rate went up and they were unable to refinance, many of them were stuck with a mortgage payment that was larger than what they received from rent.

2 - Poor planning that catered to their greed.

The sad thing about all of this is that we could see many of these homes become public housing.

HUD: Five Million Fraudulent Mortgages Held by Illegals

One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt.

Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It's not known how many of those have contributed to the subprime housing mortgage meltdown, but it has affected every state, including Arizona. (more...)

Close to 2 years or so ago, an agent friend of mine who sold new homes told me of a family that came into the office wanting to buy a home. When it came to signing the initial loan paperwork, a social security number was need. Instead of just jotting down the number, the family left the office and spent several minutes talking amongst themselves and making cell phone calls. A few minutes later, they came back into the office to provide the sales person a social security number to use on the application. According to my friend, this was not the first time he noticed a homebuyer getting fidgety when it came to providing a social security number.

Today, the homes this family purchased are owned by the bank.

Look, Kansas City has always been a geographic and civic stepchild. It straddles a state border somewhat imperfectly, and so claims full association with neither Missouri nor Kansas. Both sides want full service throughout the metro area, but neither side wants to help pay for the other's development. The chip on this city's shoulder is massive and probably unsurprising. The rest of Missouri considers St. Louis to be the state's primary city in travel, culture, sports, etc. The rest of Kansas considers our city to be somewhat of a bastion of urban snobbery, where we look down on rural lifestyles and impugn the agriculture that makes Kansas tick. Further, Kansas City has always been good, but never quite good enough, in a lot of ways. It's railway centers were important, but not as key as Chicago's; it's sports teams were good, but not as good as St. Louis'. We've always been just slightly second-class, as far as industrial Midwestern cities go.

Our inferiority complex is perpetuated by our fixation with nativism. This city is astoundingly suspicious of outsiders, to the point of exclusion and breakdowns in citywide relationships. For whatever reason, we tend to think of those from outside the metro area as some kind of modern carpetbaggers, riding into Cowtown with a slight smirk of elitism, rolling eyes at our barbecue obsession and chuckling at our small-town mentality.

This inferiority complex is why, when civic improvement comes up, we always look to others for guidance. The conversation is always the same: how did that city do light rail? How did that city do a downtown entertainment district? How did that city do renovations of its sports complexes? Other cities always seem to do it better, we think -- and so our reference point for changes in our own city is always external, always focused on reproducing on what others have done. We have a surprising lack of faith in our own capability.

But why? For all its faults -- and there are many, but show us another post-industrial city without similar problems -- Kansas City has some tremendous things to offer. We have not just a world-class art museum, but other, smaller installations (Kemper and Nerman) which would qualify as a huge deal in other cities. We have a rapidly developing life sciences program led by the Stowers Institute, an unqualified success and major force in biotechnology. Kansas City is a Midwestern epicenter for philanthropy, particularly with the Kauffman Foundation and the Hall Family Foundation. Our business scene is expanding, led by local companies like Garmin. Witness also our two downtown developments, Power & Light and the Crossroads Arts District -- one led by taxes and business, one homegrown, but both successful. Our downtown arena, though tenant-less, exceeded first-year expectations. And for all our interstate organizational problems, don't things run pretty smoothly? If we read I-435 as a metaphor, we're doing okay.

So why not establish ourselves as advocates for exportation of ideas and development? Instead of city officials traveling to other cities solely to learn about what we can bring back, why not suggest what we've done well as a good road map for that city? Perhaps it's time to overcome this rampant inferiority complex and start to think of our city as the place from whence ideas come, not the place desperate for ideas from every other Midwestern burg. We do a lot of things right in Kansas City. Let's start talking about them.

CLEVELAND - Two Ohio voters, including Domino's pizza worker Christopher Barkley , claimed yesterday that they were hounded by the community-activist group ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they'd already signed up.

Barkley estimated he'd registered to vote "10 to 15" times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others.

Claims such as his have sparked election officials to probe ACORN.

"I kept getting approached by folks who asked me to register," Barkley said. "They'd ask me if I was registered. I'd say yes, and they'd ask me to do it [register] again.

"Some of them were getting paid to collect names. That was their sob story, and I bought it," he said. (more...)

Notice where most of these incidents take place: in mostly low income Black or Hispanic communities.
There is a reason why these tactics would not fly in upper-income communities: Because they would be questioned and eventually tossed out. ACORN knows this which is why they continue to play on the ignorance of low income minorities--all while they enjoy the protection of their 'minority shield". Why? Because they can fall back on programs where they 'help' minorities.

So basically you can screw po' folks, just as long as you can say you participate in a food or clothing drive, help them find a house, etc. Unfortunately, Frank Lucas practiced the same thing and was regarded as a local hero--despite the fact he help flood New York with drugs. Moving on--

This was reported yesterday~

In Ohio, large numbers of homeless people received free van and bus rides to register. Shelby Holliday, a reporter for Palestra.net, filmed ACORN shuttling prospects to the polls. She told me she spoke with one homeless woman who told her ACORN “told her who to vote for if she wanted a ‘better life,’ and told her not to worry about jury duty (one of the reasons this homeless woman didn’t want to register) because the government probably wouldn’t be able to track her down. She was registering with a temporary address.” (more...)

Don't worry, shuga. After election day, they'll leave your backside back on the street while 'activists' continue to use your plight as a way to shame Americans for not doing enough.

At this point, the best way to fix ACORN is to force them to employ Klan members and skinheads. That will make it into a race issue, causing folks who typically yell about taking advantage of poor people to actually care. Until then, the end justifies the means.

September 01, 2008 -
A Salute to NEPA's Outstanding Educators included Marywood Alum Sonji Lee, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Keystone College in the division of business, management and technology, Marywood Alum Joseph F. Gilroy, business chairman at Lackawanna College, and Marywood Employee Arthur Comstock, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the business programs:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/1539356/a_salute_to_nepas_outstanding_educators/

September 01, 2008 -
Marywood Alums Karen Clifford & Sister Therese O'Rourke, I.H.M. are among those from St. Joseph's Center Auxiliary planning a card party at the Scranton Country Club on Sept. 14. Also, Marywood Alums Michael Kenny & Raymond Ceccotti and Marywood Trustee Austin J. Burke are serving on the board of MetroAction, a nonprofit business and community development organization in Northeast Pennsylvania:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/09/01/news/sc_times_trib.20080901.a.pg2.tt01namedrop_s1.1902444_loc.txt

September 01, 2008 -
Marywood Student Alicia Grill will be participating in a Philadelphia 3 Day Walk to raise funds to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20100432&BRD=2149&PAG=461&dept_id=365715&rfi=6

September 02, 2008 -
Kenneth W. Rundell, Ph.D., a professor of health science and director of respiratory research and the human physiology laboratory at Marywood University, was referenced in Time Magazine, The New York Times, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, China Post, International Herald Tribune, Science Magazine, The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Daily News, Bangkok Post, Washington Times and The Baltimore Sun for his extensive research on the effects of air pollutants on athletes:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/09/02/news/sc_times_trib.20080902.a.pg2.tt02namedrop_s1.1908229_loc.txt

September 05, 2008 -
Ex-Sudan soldier Ezekiel Gatkuoth, Mayor Chris Doherty, Marywood President Sister Anne Munley, I.H.M., Ph.D., and Joseph K. Grieboski, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion and Public Policy, gathered for a roundtable discussion on the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom plans:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/09/05/news/sc_times_trib.20080905.a.pg4.tt05marywood_s1.1923678_loc.txt


September 05, 2008 -
Marywood Students Katie Blake & Mark Woodyatt will be part of a benefit concert to defray the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom costs:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/09/05/news/sc_times_trib.20080905.a.pg4.tt05concert_s1.1925113_loc.txt

October 04, 2008 -
Emmy award-winning filmmaker & Marywood Alum Mike Stivala is planning to showcase his hometown in his new Internet television series, "Hillers":
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/04/lifestyles/sc_times_trib.20081004.c.pg1.tt04stivala_s1.1990863_fea1.txt

October 04, 2008 -
A $400,000 Scranton Area Foundation grant has been awarded to Commonwealth Medical College to fund scholarships over the next four years, the largest grant in the history of the community foundation. Chairman of the Foundation's board & Former Marywood Trustee George Lynett was quoted in the article:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/04/news/sc_times_trib.20081004.a.pg6.tt04safmedical_s1.1991171_loc.txt

October 05, 2008 -
Marywood Alum Jill Murray of Dunmore has been named vice president for academic affairs for Lackawanna College. Also, Marywood Alum Karen Gasper of Jermyn has been promoted to vice president, internal audit for Wayne Bank:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/05/business/sc_times_trib.20081005.h.pg3.tt05people_s1.1979638_bus.txt

October 05, 2008 -
Meet Northeast Woman Marywood Alum Rose Ellen Skodacek:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/05/lifestyles/sc_times_trib.20081005.f.pg3.tt05newskodacek_s1.1981378_fea.txt

October 05, 2008 -
Marywood University's science department was awarded $200,000 to support a new biotechnology faculty research position and to provide new opportunities in advanced technology:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/05/business/sc_times_trib.20081005.h.pg3.tt05bizbuzz_s1.1979632_bus.txt

October 06, 2008 -
Parent of Former Marywood Student State Sen. Robert J. Mellow and Marywood Friend PNC Bank Regional President Peter J. Danchak will be honored at the 65th anniversary dinner of Goodwill Industries of Northeastern Pennsylvania:

http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2008/10/06/news/sc_times_trib.20081006.a.pg3.tt06a3briefs_s1.1985714_loc.txt


Edward A. and Evelyn D'Agostino celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary 9/6/8.

September 29, 2008
GreenBeing is pleased to announce the opening of Downtown Scranton's first Eco-Boutique, located on 334 Adams Avenue. This "green" retail store will offer environmentally friendly clothing, accessories, and handmade items by Pennsylvania designers, including handbags constructed from burlap and other recycled materials made by Marywood Alum Cristin Powers and screen printed reused tees and collected pieces of fabrics made by Marywood Alum & Employee TomLynn Fallon:
http://shopgreenbeing.com/recycled.html

September 30, 2008 -
Marywood Friend Karen Clifford is a Scranton Co-chairwoman for the "It's All in the Game" fundraiser for the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/09/30/news/sc_times_trib.20080930.a.pg2.tt30namedrop_s1.1964324_loc.txt

October 1, 2008 -
Wilkes University's Law School Planning Initiative Advisory Board includes Former Marywood Trustee Thomas F. Burke Jr., Marywood Trustee Joseph M. Cosgrove and Marywood Alum Julia K. Munley:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/MunicipalNews/Panel_to_help_law_school_planning_10-01-2008.html

October 2, 2008 -
The LEAP Academy University Charter School, founded by Former Marywood Trustee Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, plans to expand its educational mission to babies, toddlers and preschoolers:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081003/NEWS01/810030368/1006

October 2, 2008 -
Marywood Trustee Austin Burke was included in a Wall Street Journal article about the financial rescue plan:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122290093221496051.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Duh!"

People Undergoing Surgery Bleed (This was in a slide presentation we produced for a client about a bleeding disorder similar to hemophilia. OK, it was a main bullet point and not a headline, but honestly, this is just so obvious that it doesn't need mentioning!)

Actual Causes of Death in the United States (This is an actual headline on a JAMA article. Reading it makes me want to say, "Oh, actual causes, as opposed to those fake, made-up causes of death?")

"Huh?"

New Valproic Acid Formulation Obviates the Need for Mixing (Honestly, "eliminates" isn't much longer and is much clearer. Just use that.)

Achieving Spectacle Independence With Intraocular Lenses in the 21st Century (This is from a Medscape article. How about "Eliminating the need for glasses with implantable contacts" instead?

Unbelievable. I awoke to the sound of my work pager going off at 6:00 am this morning. It was a local news station calling to get my agency's emergency response/action plan to a house in SW Portland that slid about 300 feet down the side of a hill at about 5:30 am this morning, ramming in to 3-4 other houses on the way. How would you like to wake up to your house physically sliding down a hill? Holy cats!

Click here or here to read more, see pictures and video. Luckily, it has been determined, thus far, that it was of no fault by my agency, so I'm off the hook for the time being as far as more media goes. Phew. This could have been a hell of a day otherwise!

We're not in Kansas anymore, Newman!

This morning, we asked "Morning Express" viewers to write their own headlines describing Tuesday night's townhall-style Presidential debates.

Once again, you gave us plenty of fodder for laughs, and were insightful too. Go ahead, have a look.

Feeling inspired? Leave a headline of your own in the comments below.

10. Thirty new members joined Zion on September 21.

9. September offerings were lower than September 2007; but so were expenses.

8. Zion started the year with a large balance in the general fund checking account (in excess of $50,000) thanks to an estate gift.

7. Zion did not have to "borrow" from itself this summer as has been the case in the past.

6. At the end of August the YTD "arrears" amount had been reduced almost in half from its high earlier in the summer - from $49,892 down to $25,655.

5. With students and volunteer guides, 180 are involved in the Confirmation program each Wednesday.

4. Both the general fund and the Forward in Faith fund are currently carrying positive balances.

3. Twenty-four of the top 25 giving units in 2007 are giving at or above their 2007 level.

2. Worship Attendance has averaged more than 700 (714) since Rally Day.

1. An additional 452 students and 80 volunteer staff are involved in the rotational Sunday School program each week.

Do you have others?

The theme for this week"s SAPCC #4 photo challenge was "absence".  Oh, yes.  I've got me some of that.

It is amazing just how much room "absence" requires when the absence is of confidence.   And, by the looks of it, I've got some company.

It is not like Auden's description of suffering going on privately while someone else is eating or opening a window or walking dully along.  The herd is on the move.

I took a trip to the Canadian Rockies in 1989-Banff, Lake Louise, Calgary and we stopped at what was called the Buffalo Stampede.  It was a tourist stop next to a relatively small cliff.  It was explained that in the past, the most efficient way to hunt buffalo was to herd them in such a way that they would all run (stampede) in one direction and then the hunters would simply wait for the buffalo to run off the cliff and fall to their deaths.

Gulp.  That stop bothered me for days into my trip.

I've been feeling a bit buffaloish these past weeks and decided to invest in creativity to get me out of the herd, if at all possible.  Some days it even works.

For this week's deadline (and I heart deadlines), I took a photograph of an abandoned home with boarded up windows of plywood.  I thought the photograph of the house would be it.  The roots of this global crisis appear tangled in plummeting real estate values so it seemed like a logical image.

Then, I started looking more closely at the boarded windows.  There were ghost pigments of color and text from old newspapers that apparently had been used in blocking off the windows as well.    Wind, snow and rain over time had allowed the pigments to bleed into the plywood.

This suggested to me the final idea of putting the dramatic and graphic headlines from this previous week onto the boarded up windows themselves.

It doesn't help my 401K but it is going into my portfolio as I begin trolling for freelance work.

Creativity is the one investment under my sole control.

Ah, control.

As Martha Stewart might say:  Chocolate chip cookies, Champagne, Control--all very good things.

©Pat Coakley 2008

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Washington Post

Biden derides McCain camp’s ‘mildly dangerous’ tactics

The Hill

Sharpton Leans Against Mayor’s Term Limit Plan

The New York Times

Lawmaker’s son indicted in Palin e-mail hacking

Yahoo! News

$       The Fed announced that it will create an SPV to purchase 3m dollar-denominated unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper directly from eligible issuers at a spread over 3m OIS; purchases will continue through 30 April 2009

€       Spain has set up a €30bn fund to buy high-quality assets from Spanish banks; the deposit guarantee was extended to €100k

€       The EU finance ministers have agreed to support financial institutions of systemic importance; they agreed to an increase in the bank deposit guarantee across countries to at least €50k from €20k and said the Commission will soon bring forward a proposal to promote convergence of deposit guarantee schemes

€       ECB’s Quaden said that the option of reducing interest rates is no longer excluded

€       The ECB has doubled the size of today’s 6m supplementary LTRO to €50bn; in the weekly MRO the ECB left €209.5bn in funds above the benchmark allotment versus an excess of €230.0 last week; marginal/ average rates rose further to 4.70/ 4.99%

$       Fed’s Bernanke signals Fed has not ruled out possibility for additional rate cuts, although conviction for more aggressive action appears limited as inflation outlook remains uncertain

$       FOMC Minutes 16 Sept: although members judged that a steady rate decision was appropriate at the time of the meeting,  intensifying financial strains could require further rate cuts

$       US consumer credit declined $7.9bn in August versus a revised gain of $5.2bn in July (initially $4.6bn); this was the first decline since January 1998

€       Germany factory orders rose 3.6%MoM in August after eight consecutive months of decline (-1.3% in July) but the economy ministry said that the figure was boosted by calendar effects and volatile orders for big-ticket items

£       UK August industrial production fell 0.5%MoM, led by a 0.4% decline in manufacturing, reinforcing our view that the economy entered into a recession in Q3