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'The classic story of America is the story of people who started with nothing, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and made something of themselves. The story of the town of Niagara Falls is the opposite. The town started with something huge — the Falls — and built nothing lasting from it. The modern history of Niagara Falls can be divided roughly into three phases: schemers who came in trying to exploit the Falls for tourism, and failed; schemers who came in and tried to exploit the Falls for hydroelectric power, who've all gone; and the people who are left in Niagara today. Our show is about this last group: people who live in the aftermath.'
Ira Glass: This American Life, Niagara, 1999

domain: geography


text:
A man accused of intentionally running over and killing a 75-year-old woman in Northern Virginia was indicted for murder, police said Tuesday.
Maria Ascencio, of Fairfax, died April 14 after she was hit at Route 50 and Rugby Road. Police said the driver hit her, turned around and ran over her a second time, police said.
Ascencio's devasted family said she was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and "beautiful soul."
Kenan M. Ozcan, 31, of Fairfax, was initially arrested and charged with felony hit-and-run and robbery. He was arrested after police asked the public to look for his car.
Ascencio was crossing Rugby Road, heading east on Route 50, when a 2016 Dodge Dart traveling south on Route 50 hit her, police said the investigation determined.
"It looks like the car struck her, turned around and then struck her again," Fairfax County police spokeswoman Tawny Wright said.
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
A witness said she saw the terrifying crash.
"I saw a woman just lying on Route 50, in the middle of the intersection, just lying down. Immediately, just a few seconds after, a car just came and ran over her," the woman said.
The witness, who asked not to be named, said people at the intersection stopped their cars, called 911 and chased after the suspect.
"Everybody was just screaming," she said. "I saw a lady across the street, just crying on the phone."
At least one person followed the driver but apparently lost him.
Police responded about 10:15 a.m. Ascencio was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her family said she had taken a walk. When she failed to return, they called her cellphone. Police picked up.
"I say no, please no. Please not my mother," Ascencio's daughter told News4.
The Fairfax County Police Department said Ascencio and Ozcan are believed to have been strangers.
"It does not appear the victim and suspect were known to each other," police said in a statement.
Ozcan was arrested after police said he assaulted a woman in a shopping center about a mile away less than three hours after he allegedly hit Ascencio.
A 43-year-old woman saw a man "acting strangely" in a shopping center on the 3900 block of Fair Ridge Drive. She took a photo of him, and he became agitated. He assaulted her, robbed her and then went into a business.
The woman called police about 12:45 p.m. Officers found Ozcan inside and saw the Dodge Dart in the parking lot with damage to the front end.
Authorities previously said they were seeking a man driving a blue or black Mercedes or Chevrolet sedan with blue and yellow license plates and damage to the front end.
The police department thanked everyone who called in with tips.
The witness who spoke with News4 said she was still trying to process the horror.
"I don't know how someone can just do something like this and run away," she said.
Ascencio's family said they are still processing the shock of her death, but they know she is at peace.
"She was sure about her salvation, so I know that she's in a better place now," Ascenio's daughter said.

domain: law


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Description / Transcription
Good evening, Christ Covenant. If I haven’t met you before, my name’s Zach. I’m one of the interns here. I’m not American; I’m English, as you can tell. I’m here studying at RTS. I’m very thankful to Christ Covenant. I don’t think I or my family would be here without that support and I’m thankful to all of you for welcoming me and my wife and my children in and making us part of your family. We’ve made many close friends while we’re here and if I haven’t met you, I’d love to do so in the weeks and months to come.
We’re going to come to the Lord’s Word. If you’ve got a Bible in front of you, do pick it up and turn to John chapter 15. We’re continuing in the Last Supper discourse where the Lord Jesus is addressing His disciples before He goes to the cross.
John chapter 15. Before we come to the reading of God’s Word, let me pray for God’s help.
Lord Jesus, we’ve been coming to You over the last few weeks and we have sat at Your feet in the upper room and joined with Your disciples. You have been teaching us how to be servant-hearted. You’ve been giving us words of comfort. You’ve promised us Your Holy Spirit. You’ve urged us to abide in You as a branch is bound to its vine. Now we come again this evening and ask that one more time You would come to us by the presence of Your Spirit and preach to us those words that You preached 2000 years ago to Your friends and to Your servants and You made them fresh and living in our hearts once more. We ask for Your glory. Amen.
John chapter 15, starting at verse 18.
““If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.””
Well, there is an anxious feeling that we are all very familiar with, an anxiety that is present across personalities and context and coaches. It’s the kind of feeling you have when you walk into a room full of strangers and you know you’re going to need to talk to one of them. Or when you send a text or an e-mail on a sensitive issue and you’re not quite sure how it’s going to be received. Or you post on Instagram and know that everyone will look at it. Or when you wake up in the morning and you’re choosing what to wear knowing that everyone’s going to be watching you. Or perhaps when you start at a new school or a new job or move to a new neighborhood, an anxious feeling.
What is it? Well, it’s the desire to be liked, the desire to be thought well of, to be approved of, to be accepted, to belong in a place, in a community.
So far in the Last Supper discourse Jesus has been speaking to us of comfort and love and joy and fruit and a home in heaven and peace and assurance, and now hatred, the hatred of the world. It’s a sobering thing this evening that if we are to be Christ’s disciples and to follow Christ, to be part of His Church, then that desire we have deep within us to be loved and to be accepted, to be admired, is a desire we’re going to have to crucify.
But Jesus says to us this evening, and this is my first point of three in verses 18 through to 20, Jesus says to us the world will hate you because you belong to Me. The world will hate you because you belong to Me. The world will hate the Church because the Church belongs to Christ.
Of course you know that Jesus is preparing His disciples throughout this whole discourse for the time when He is going to leave them and go to heaven and as a good captain would prepare his soldiers for the battlefield so they don’t lose hope, so they don’t give up, so they don’t abandon the fight, so Christ as our good captain is preparing us for what’s ahead.
Jesus says in verse 18 “if the world hates you,” but it’s clear from the rest of the passage as we’ve read through it that that “if” is not on the off chance, or perhaps the world may hate you, but rather kind of a “when the world hates you.” Not a mere possibility but a certainty. The world will hate you. The world, that is the unbelieving, the ungodly, the fallen humanity that does not know God, that is in darkness and under the power of the devil, the world will hate, that is, the world will malign, the world will reject, despise, abuse, suppress, seek to destroy, condemn, frown upon, you, the collective you, the Church, the world will hate you.
This is to be, according to Christ, the general expectation for the people of God and that has proved true since the time of Christ throughout the ages and across the world. If you were here last Sunday you would have heard of many missionaries who have been hated for the name of Christ.
But while that is a general expectation, the experience of separate churches and of individuals may differ from place to place. It’s true to say that the Western Church, of which Christ Covenant is part of, has not faced the same intensity or level of hatred that is normal for the church of Christ throughout the ages and across the world.
We do sense, don’t we, that it feels like the winds are changing, the tides are turning and that the balances are slowly shifting and that the devil in our world is beginning to stir up the hatred in the world against the Church in the West once more.
So that general expectation for what the Church will experience in the world should actually become increasingly our personal expectation, that we will start coming across more and more people who bear obvious hatred towards us. It might be your neighbor or your colleague or your family member, may hate you for being a Christian, and the Lord Jesus this evening sees to prepare us for that time.
Of course, I must say that for some of us that is not an expectation but actually a present reality already within our own workplaces and within our own communities and within our own families.
Why will the world hate you? Well, because you belong to Christ. The world will hate you because you belong to Christ.
That’s very clear throughout verses 18 through to 20, so you’ve got verse 18, “if the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you.” I’ve paved the way for you to walk in, and that will be for the world to hate you.
Or verse 19 – if you were of the world, that is, if you thought like the world, if you had the same mind as the world, if you belong to the world, then the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world, therefore, therefore the world hates you. The world stands opposed to Christ so the man who turns to Christ will also be hated by the world.
Or verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you, and here He referred back to Himself in John 13 verse 16. He says a servant is not greater than his master and in John 13 He applies that to say therefore you must love one another as I have loved you, you must serve one another as I have served you. But here He applies the same truth to say therefore you are going to share in My sufferings, you are going to share in My sufferings. You will be hated as I was hated.
All the way through those three verses it’s you/Me, you/Me, you/Me. You belong to Me, you are mine, you are united to Me, I am the vine, you are the branches and the world hated Me so the world will hate you.
I wonder do we sometimes forget that we have a crucified Savior. When we consider the cross we often look at the cross and you see the crosses around our sanctuary this evening and we look at the cross we have emotions of love and awe and wonder and joy because we look at the cross and we see Christ there crucified for us and we worship Him. That is right and that is good. But in doing that, sometimes we forget what a robe and cross really is, that on the cross Jesus experienced the full and final expression of the world’s hatred, that in the cross was the complete humiliation and the final rejection of a man as Jesus was first condemned then stripped then beaten then tortured then murdered.
Do we sometimes forget that we follow a crucified Savior and that we belong to Him? That they hated His claim that to be the Son of God and to have authority over all men and we are those who make the same claim about Him. That they hated His call to repent of sin and turn to the living God. And we are those who issue the same call as Him. They hated His character, a man of such burning holiness that the darkness in people’s hearts was exposed and they tried to be rid of Him.
Aren’t we those who are being conformed slowly, gradually, into the same character of Christ? We belong to Him, to the crucified Savior. We bear His name, we carry His message, we champion His cause, and they crucified Him. Do you think the world will not crucify us as well?
But of course, the reason for the world’s hatred, I belong to Christ, is also profoundly the reason for my comfort when the world does hate me. I belong to Christ. I belong to Christ. You see in the passage itself He has chosen me out of this world, out of the fallenness of humanity, out of darkness, and I belong to Him. He’s my Master and I am His friend so that the hatred that I bear for following Christ is actually a mark of the fact that I really belong to Him.
You know the story of the apostles in the book of Acts, how they were persecuted for following Christ, for preaching the Gospel. Do you remember that one story when the Jewish leaders took them in and said you must stop preaching the Gospel, you must stop speaking about this man Jesus. They said, well, we can’t do that. We must obey God. So they beat them and then let them go.
Do you remember what it says in that passage? They went away rejoicing. They went away rejoicing. I think part of that rejoicing must have been that the physical oppression they suffered was a sign to their own souls that they really were Christ’s and belonged to Him.
So what do you think belonging to Christ is worth? Is He worth the world’s acceptance and the world’s admiration and the world’s respect? He was hated by the world for your sake. Are you someone who’s willing to be hated by the world for His sake? Or you can put it another way. Have you this evening made Him the pearl of great price?
You remember that story that Jesus told about the pearl merchant who went in search of a pearl of great price and when he found it he sold all he had to gain it. Christ is that pearl and the cost is all He has, and the cost for us today includes the world’s love. Sacrificing the world’s love may mean sacrificing other things, like your reputation, your family, your friendships, your job, your freedom, maybe even your life.
Only if Christ is worth more to you than all those things will the world’s hatred be a cost that you are willing to bear joyfully and even willingly.
Well, our Lord Jesus takes us deeper still in these verses. Deeper into the reason for the world’s hatred towards us in verses 21 through to 25. This is the second point this evening. First point was you’re hated because you belong to Me. Secondly, Jesus says the world hates Me because I belong to My Father. The world hates us because we belong to Christ, and the world hates Christ because He belongs to God.
In this section of verses 21 through to verse 25, Jesus returns to one of His favorite themes, which is the deep unity and identity between the Father and the Son. So in verse 21 He says all these things they will do to you on account of My name because they do not know Him who sent Me.
Now knowledge in John’s Gospel or knowing someone is not just a knowledge of content, but it’s a knowledge of relationship. To not know God is to lack the desire to know God, to have in your heart an active avoidance of God, to want Him to be in your life out of sight and out of mind.
You can think about that in our own relationships. When a person dislikes another person they tend to cut that person’s presence out of their lives. Or think of a father who hates his son. What does he do? He might disinherit the son. Why does he do that? Because he does not want to know the son. He wants that son out of sight and out of mind.
Jesus said the world does not know God and He’s beginning to show us that the world’s hatred towards Him is really rooted in a hostile attitude towards God Himself.
You may or may not have watched the Harry Potter films, or maybe if you’re more keen have read the books, but one of the key relationships in those films is between Snape and Harry. Put simply, Snape hates Harry. Snape hates Harry. He embarrasses him in front of the class, he maligns his character, and he makes his life miserable at every opportunity. Early on in the story you have a kind of question mark – well, why is that? Why does Snape hate Harry so much? It’s later that we discover that the hatred he has for Harry is actually rooted in a much older and deeper hatred in Snape’s heart, and that’s a hatred for Harry’s father, James Potter. Snape hates Harry because there’s a sense in which when Harry walked into the room with him, he brought the presence of his father into that room. He looked like his father, he sounded like his father, and he acted like his father and he stirred up an old hatred in Snape’s heart.
If that is true, that the likeness between a father and a son is so clear on a human level between an earthly father and an earthly son, how much more true is it of Christ, who is the very image of God who has the exact imprint of His nature upon Him, who can say, as He has said, whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. And in the passage this evening, whoever hates Me has hated the Father.
Verses 22 through to verse 24, we have that exact truth laid out of the hatred for Christ is really rooted in the deeper hatred for God. It’s laid out for us in a kind of twice repeated threefold pattern. It’s a twice repeated, threefold pattern. The pattern is Christ reveals the Father, one. The world is guilty, two. And the world hates. One, two, three, and that’s repeated twice, first in verses 22 through to 23, and then again in verse 24. So first Christ reveals God in His words in verse 22, “if I had not come and spoken to them,” and in His actions, in what He did, in His deeds in verse 24. What He said and did He made God plain to those in front of Him.
By revealing God to them, He made the world guilty of sin because they rejected Him. Although He puts it in the negative. Did you notice that? He says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin.” In verse 22, and actually if you look there in your Bibles you should have a footnote, you’ll find that down at the bottom, it says in the Greek they would not have sin. It’s a very strong statement.
It raises a little question in our hearts. Did Christ by His words and His actions make innocent people sinful? Or guilty? Well, the answer of course, is no. But rather the acceptance or the rejection of Christ was a manifestation of a hostile attitude towards God.
There is a sense, I think, that if they had accepted Christ and the world had welcomed Christ and there had been no hatred, they would not have sin because sin is the rejection God. But they did reject Christ and so they proved that their hearts stood opposed to God, they manifested the heart attitude towards God and proved themselves to be sinners. So in verse 22 Christ says they have no excuse, they’ve shown who they truly are.
Until Christ confronts a man, the hatred that he or she has in their heart I think lies, can lie very, very quiet, has not been roused up. You might find that with many of your neighbors. You might think that, it says that the world hates God, but I don’t always find that to be true. That doesn’t always seem true of those around me. Well, the truth is, of course, that a person may not even know they hate God because they don’t think about God at all. He is out of sight and out of mind. A person isn’t even aware of the hatred in their heart because it hasn’t been stirred up and they can end up excusing themselves of any need for salvation because they don’t know their own heart.
But when a man is confronted by Christ, the hatred is stirred. Christ spells that out for us at the end of verse 22, 23, and in verse 24 – Whoever hates Me hates My Father also. And more clearly in verse 24 – Now they have seen and what? Hated both Me and My Father.
When men and women are confronted by the same God, in Christ through the Church, today, that is why they hate us as well.
It’s interesting now Jesus finishes this section. Isn’t it? In verse 25 He says but the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated Me without a cause.
I wonder, do you, when you read that, do you hear a sadness in His voice? That these are, after all, His fellow Jews that He’s talking about and they are standing condemned by their own Scriptures. There is a lament in Christ’s heart that they are so blind that their own law cannot help them see and that they hated Him without a cause.
Jesus is quoting Psalm 35 verse 19, and the psalmist in that psalm is lamenting the fact that He had poured out grace and favor upon people and they had responded by turning and abusing and hating Him. If that is true of the psalmist in Psalm 35, how much more true is it of Christ? The Christ who loved this world. The Christ who came down from heaven to save ruined sinners. Jesus didn’t have to. No one compelled Him to. But He came freely out of the fullness of His grace.
In the Scriptures we find that even to those who rejected Him, His arms were ever open wide. Do you remember that story where Jesus goes up on a high mountain and looks over Jerusalem, at this point in the gospels, in Luke’s narrative, and when He looks over Jerusalem He weeps, He laments, and He says, “O, but that you would come to Me and I would have gathered you in like a hen gathers in her chicks.”
He wept over the city that crucified Him. No wonder He said they hated Him without a cause.
The Church has that same open arms stance and we cry out to the world that it’s free salvation here, free grace, free eternal life. Here is the place you can find fellowship with the God who made you and loves you and He wants to know you if only you’ll come. Just come. There is no price to pay. Christ has paid it all.
The world hates our message. The world hates our Christ. So when the world hates you, can I say, do not pity yourself. Do not pity yourself. Pity those who are so blinded by their pride, so lost in their ignorance, so devoted to the love of themselves, that they will not have Christ.
We have found the only thing worth having, haven’t we? The world spurns it and that should cause us great grief in our hearts, as it did the Lord Jesus.
Well, our time is coming to a close and I’ve titled my sermon “Hated but Helped.” I’ve so far just talked about hated. So it’s time we talked a little bit about the helped. In verses 26 through to both 26 and verse 27. It’s my third point. The world will hate you but the Spirit will help you, but the Spirit will help you.
Jesus here speaks again of a promise He has already made to His disciples in chapter 14, verse 26, that He will send the Spirit to His church. That is, it’s in the text, the helper, the advocate, the one who draws alongside to help Christ’s people in their hour of need.
Of course, in this verse, in verse 26, that the Church has long recognized, that we catch a glimpse of the relationship between the Spirit and the Father Himself. Whereas Jesus says, talking about a future even of Pentecost and beyond, I will send you the Spirit, He then goes on to say in verse 26, that Spirit who, in the present tense, proceeds from the Father, and the Church has recognized a glimpse there of the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son and the Spirit has been the one who’s going out, proceeding from the Father, from all eternity.
So therefore it’s appropriate that He is the one that the Lord Jesus sends to us. It’s natural. It’s fitting. How wonderful that is the Spirit who has eternally proceeded from the Father is coming to be our helper, our advocate.
I have been recently trying to do war with the American tax system and it is baffling. I’m partly convinced that no one knows how it works so everyone kind of lives under a cloud of fear that someone else does their taxes for them and they live under a cloud of fear that the IRS can come knocking and take all your money. But if you’ve ever struggled with something like that, and you felt kind of lost and confused or for me, personally, fearful of being deported, the relief when someone steps in who knows what they’re doing is enormous. When that person is not just kind of a disinterested third party but is a friend who has a vested interest in helping you, how much better is it?
And that’s what Jesus promises about the Spirit. He’s the one who can draw alongside us and help us to do what we need to do. He’s the one who can do it rightly, perfectly. He knows what to do. The thing He comes to help us with, in verses 26 and 27, is to bear witness. Do you see that? He will bear witness about Me.
First of all, we’ve got to say that that witness bearing is to us and in us, for Christ is sending to us the Spirit. So it’s the Spirit who bears witness to our own hearts that the Gospel is worth believing in and that Christ is as precious as the Scriptures make Him out to be. He reassures us and comforts us and convicts us, in us. But then in us He witnesses to the world through us.
Of course, the apostles have a special role in this. We see that in verse 27. He says to them, “you also will bear witness because you have been with Me from the beginning.” They were the first evangelists. They were those with the eyewitness testimony. The Church was built on their witness.
The New Testament that we hold in our hands today, the passage that we read this morning, is built on their witness, empowered by the Holy Spirit. But it’s also very clear that the witness-bearing role of the Church was not exclusive to the apostles alone but was for all of us.
This is the hope we need. This is the hope we need. Witness to Christ, that is what draws such hatred from the world. Put it this way – a person may be disliked by people for reasons other than Christ. We know that. It might be true of people within the Church as well as without the Church because they’re unkind or unpleasant or unthoughtful. That’s quite a different hatred, it’s actually the fruit of sin, but the hatred in our passage, the hatred is for the faithful witness.
You could put it another way, that the Christian who hunkers down and says nothing about Christ very likely won’t be noticed by the world. Or the Christian who does merely social good, as good as that is in itself, may even be praised and admired by the world. But when a Christian takes up the cause of Christ and spreads the message of Christ, and builds his ethics on the laws of Christ and refuses to bow down to anything other than Christ, and when the world sees that Christian making a stand for Christ, then the hatred in the world’s heart is stirred up. It’s stirred up against him.
So the Spirit is sent to us by our Lord Jesus to strengthen our fail limbs, to put words on our trembling lips, and to make us stand against the devil himself so that we are willing and able to bear the hatred of the world.
He is a good Savior. Let’s pray to Him now. Let’s pray to the one who gave Himself for us and gives us the strength to stand for Him.
Heavenly Father, we have been confronted in no uncertain terms about the cost of being a disciple of Christ. It is not an easy matter. We know that when the Lord Jesus calls a man, He calls a man to come and die. So we pray that this week You would help us to embrace that call of self-denial, that You would be preparing by Your Spirit our hearts to be hated by the world and that rather than crushing us with fear, the knowledge that you are with us and that we have the only thing that’s worth having in this world, would give us joy and give us peace and give us freedom. So we pray strengthen our hearts to stand for Christ this week. In His name. Amen.

domain: literature


text:
2191 Mars Hill Road
Watkinsville, GA 30677
There are two entrances to our church: one on Hodges Mill Road and one on Mars Hill Road. (Note: the Mars Hill entrance is amid the current road construction.) Our church is the grey building with the steeple on top of the hill between Mars Hill and Hodges Mill.
There are several entrances into the building, but the main entrance is on the steeple side where you will see a "Welcome to Faith" sign. This entrance has a doorbell that you can ring to gain entrance on Monday through Friday during office hours.


text:
A container fell from a truck early Thursday morning along Ikorodu road, inward Onipan, Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos.
The incident caused a heavy traffic gridlock in the area. Officials of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) are at the scene trying to clear the road.
Below are photographs from the scene:
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.

domain: news


OPPO has announced the F3 Plus, its latest and greatest in the Selfie Expert lineup. On paper, the F3 Plus seems like a really interesting device especially in terms of the cameras where OPPO has even paid attention to the rear camera despite being a selfie focused smartphone. However, specs are one thing while real life performance is another. We got to spend some time with the device and here are our impressions.
Let us start with the highlights first. The F3 Plus features 2 front facing cameras. One for a regular field of view for those solo selfies. This is a 16 Megapixel unit with f2.0 aperture and a 1/3″ sensor size. This is pretty large especially for a front facing camera and should improve low light performance by a large margin. The secondary camera is an 8 Megapixel unit but manages to provide a much wider field of view so that you can accommodate your friends and family into one frame. It is even great if you love to take selfies at famous landmarks, buildings or scenery. The regular selfie camera has a field of view of 76.4 degrees while the wider camera has a 120 degree field of view.
If you are someone who takes a lot of self portraits then these two cameras should suffice for most of your needs whether it is to post a solo photo on social media or to capture the fun with your friends and family.
The rear camera too is quite a capable one since it is a Sony IMX398 with 16 Megapixels of resolution f1.7 aperture and 1/2.8″ sensor size. The specs do seem to indicate a very capable camera especially with good low light capabilities but again our final comments are reserved for later.
The screen is a 6 inch 1080p that is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Great to see that OPPO hasn’t cut corners with cost especially considering that even LG used only Gorilla Glass 3 for the display on the G6. 1080p resolution means that you can rule out a proper VR experience but for the most of us, it should suffice.
Bezels are sizeable considering the dual front facing camera and the keys below the display. You get two capacitive buttons as well as a touch sensitive home key that houses the fingerprint sensor. OPPO claims that the sensor is water resistant but I guess that’s a wrong term to use or at least irrelevant since the smartphone itself is not so. But it should make the sensor better at detecting the fingerprints on wet fingers too.
The smartphone design is more or less an evolution of the previous selfie expert phones. It looks very similar but there has been a refinement in terms of the build quality and the weight distribution. The antenna lines too are now in a sort of striped pattern rather than the blocky lines of the past.
The phone is powerful since it packs a Snapdragon 653 processor and 4GB of RAM under the hood. 64GB of storage is good for most people but you can expand the memory by another 256 GB using the Hybrid Dual SIM slot. It has a microUSB which is fine but we would’ve expected to see a Type-C port in 2017. It does support fast charging however with the help of VOOC charging that is the fastest in the business. You’ll need to use the bundled charger but it’ll refill the 4000 mAh battery in no time.
Here’s what other techies thought of the OPPO F3 Plus:
We will be testing the smartphone in detail in the coming weeks and letting you know of the results of the same as well. Please do stay tuned for that.


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Enyimba International Captain, Mfon Udoh says the People’s Elephant are battle ready to tackle Rayon Sports club of Rwanda in the first leg of the CAF Confederations Cup quarter-final at the Stade Nyamirambo.
Enyimba qualified for the second round courtesy of a last-gasp winner from Wasiu Alalade at the Aba Stadium but Mfon Udoh is confident that his team will get the better of Rayon Sports.
“There is no second chance at this stage because it’s the knockout stage. The good thing is that we won’t underrate any team,” Udoh stated in an interview with CAF’s website.
“All the teams in the quarterfinals are very strong and we don’t expect Rayon Sport to give us an easy passage. We must be ready for tough games over the two legs (home and away).
No Nigerian team has ever won the CAF Confederations Cup, Udoh is hopeful Enyimba can make history
” It is our dream to make history as the first Nigerian team to win the CAF Confederation Cup, and we are working hard so that we can be the set of players that achieve this dream with Enyimba,” he added.
“The fact that we are the only surviving Nigerian club in this year’s continental club championship speaks well about us.
” We know we have to work extremely hard from this stage of the competition. It will be tough starting from the quarter because it is a knockout stage.”
The match is scheduled to hold on Sunday


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Fake Biden robocall linked to Texas-based companies, New Hampshire attorney general announces
The state’s Attorney General announced Tuesday that a robocall using an AI voice similar to President Joe Biden to warn New Hampshire voters not to vote in the state’s presidential primary was linked to two Texas-based telecom companies.
In a press conference held on Tuesday, New Hampshire Attorney-General John Formella said that the sources of the calls are linked to two companies: Life Corporation, and Lingo Telecommunication. Formella identified Walter Monk, the owner of Life Corporation.
Formella stated that the investigation was ongoing and that it involved additional entities than Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom. He didn’t say who or what entity was behind the AI audio and disinformation campaign. Formella stated that no charges had been filed.
“We’ve sent a cease and desist letter to Life Corporation, ordering the company to immediately cease violating New Hampshire electoral laws. Formella stated that a criminal probe has been opened. We are now taking the next steps, including sending subpoenas and document preservation notices to Life Corporation, Lingo Telecom and other individuals or entities.
Formella stated that the number of robocalls was in the “thousands”, though he gave a range from 5,000 to 25,000 as a possible estimate.
These calls were made before New Hampshire’s primary presidential election in January. They urged New Hampshire voters to “save their vote” for the November elections and not vote in the contest.
“Republicans are trying to get nonpartisan and Democratic votes to vote in their primary.” “What a bunch of nonsense,” says the digitally manipulated Biden voice on the call. We know how important it is to vote Democratic, especially when the votes are counted. You should save your votes for the November elections. Your help will be needed to elect Democrats at all levels of the ballot. “Voting on Tuesday will only help the Republicans to elect Donald Trump once again.”
Biden’s campaign said at the time that the matter had been referred by the Attorney General, and called the call disinformation.
Formella stated on Tuesday that “I believe this case is unique because it provides us with a real-life instance of an attempt to manipulate an election using AI.” It’s something we have been worried about for some time in law enforcement, and state attorneys general are also concerned. We had never seen an attempt as concrete as this one, just days before the primary, to use AI in order to influence an election or mislead a voter.
Formella said that, although he refused to provide specifics, he believed other entities who were not named may have relevant information regarding the robocalls.
“I won’t give you an exact figure, but I can tell you that it is beyond Texas Life Corporation and Walter Monk. It’s also beyond Lingo Telecom. He said that there are several other entities with which we believe we can obtain relevant information. “I wouldn’t be surprised to find more entities or individuals than those we have found so far,” he added.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Biden’s presidential campaign, praised Formella in an official statement released on Tuesday.
She said, “Disinformation that aims to suppress voting and undermine free and fair elections in a deliberate manner is an unacceptable threat. We commend the New Hampshire attorney general for taking this matter seriously and acting swiftly as a strong example against future attempts to disrupt democratic election.”
An AI voice creation tool
According to two separate analyses conducted by Pindrop, a security company, and digital forensic experts from the University of California Berkeley, the fake audio was produced using ElevenLabs.
ElevenLabs said in a CNN statement that they are “dedicated” to preventing misuse of audio AI and take appropriate action when authorities report it. However, they declined to comment specifically on the Biden deepfake.
Formella and Federal Communications Commission said Monk had previously run into issues with US robocall laws. The FCC sent a cease and desist letter to Lingo Telecom on Monday. It said that both Lingo as well as Monk’s Life Corporation had been warned previously about apparent illegal violations of robocall regulations.
The FCC cited Life Corporation in July 2003 for sending “one or multiple prerecorded, unsolicited ads to residential phone lines.”
The FCC stated that Monk’s Company delivered prerecorded advertisements to telephone subscribers, who did not have any business relationship with Monk and had not authorized the calls.
According to the FCC’s citation, Life Corporation failed to disclose the required information on the prerecorded call, including the name of caller, the person for whom the call was made, as well as an address or phone number.
The FCC rules on telephone solicitation are also violated by the citation, which was sent to Life Corporation and 16 other business names for the company.
The citation includes a warning about the financial penalties that can be imposed for subsequent violations. These include fines of up to $11,000 per violation, or daily fines of up to $100.
FCC orders have forced telecom companies to disconnect from the US phone network if they continue to facilitate illegal robocalls. This is part of an overall crackdown by federal and state officials on illegal robocalls.
As part of an anti-robocall task force, more than 50 attorneys general representing both parties sent a letter to Life Corporation about the AI generated robocall on Tuesday.
Attorneys general have expressed concern that Life Corporation, or others, “may attempt to replicate” in their respective states the type of deepfake call that affected New Hampshire. In the letter, Life Corporation was told to “stop originating any illegal calls immediately” and that these calls could violate numerous laws.
Monk, who is a serial businessman, describes himself in social media profiles viewed by CNN. In an interview with Dallas Magazine, he discussed his many failed ventures. Monk spent over $1 million on a company that sold “upscale survival equipment” to women. Dallas Magazine called it a failure of epic proportions.
Voice Broadcasting is one of Monk’s ventures. It has been paid for sending political robocalls. The company advertises its ability to send up to 8 million calls a day on behalf clients. Voice Broadcasting was contacted by CNN. The person answering the phone told CNN that Monk is “very busy”, and the company has not decided whether or not to release a statement.
Monk’s political past is little known. Little is known about Monk’s own political history.


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Melody Armstrong, CHW
Melody joined UM UCH in 2016. With eight years of health care experience as a nursing assistant, she has become a great asset to our program. Her personality and demeanor make her a strong advocate for her patients. In her spare time, Melody enjoys playing an active role in her community and her church and spending time with her niece and nephew.

domain: health


text:
Test: Tell Me How You Hold The Cup And I Will Tell You What Kind Of Person You Are
Your way of holding the cup reveals more of you than you can imagine. How do you hold the cup?
There are many everyday details that can say a lot about your personality. For example, the way you take the cup every day.
Every little detail of your way of being is a small sample of the person you are in every way. That is why some everyday acts can accurately reveal the kind of person you are .
For example, the way you take the cup every day when you have tea or coffee .Your way of holding this element says more about you than you can imagine. You do not believe me? Check it out for yourself!1. You hold the cup by raising the pinky
If you hold the cup like this you are a very confident person, who always knows what he wants and has a leader’s soul. No one ever tells you what you have to do, and you don’t let yourself be easily intimidated.
You are someone really determined! Sometimes, that can make you touch arrogance. However, most of the time you are a nice, funny and friendly person who gets along with everyone.2. You hold the cup with both hands
If you hold the cup with both hands, it is because you are a very open person, who loves to be in the company of other people and work as a team. You understand that working in a group always achieves the best results.
Of course, sometimes you can be a little insecure when you have to make decisions completely alone. You feel more confident with the support of others.
You are an extremely sensitive person. Everything that happens around you affects you, you are one of those people who feel everything that happens to others. That makes you, in turn, someone who everyone trusts, and the ideal person to resort to moments of solitude.
But it also makes you very vulnerable, since you absorb the energy of others and sometimes it is hard for you to recover. You need to start moving people who don’t do you good out of your life.
You are a very cautious and thoughtful person. You always think about things several times before saying them and, if you are not convinced by what you are going to say, you prefer to remain silent. In addition, you are someone super intelligent, who loves to study and always be improving their skills.Sometimes it costs you a little to encourage you to take the initiative at times that warrant it, but you need to be very sure before acting. That may be your greatest virtue and also your worst defect.
You are a carefree person who loves to spend time idle. You are not just the kind of person who is always stressed. On the contrary, you know how to live in the moment and enjoy every little detail that life gives you.
You are someone nice, funny and relaxed and that is why everyone usually likes you, and it costs you nothing to make friends. Sometimes, others may believe that you are a bit irresponsible; but in reality, you simply do what you have to do.
You never leave anything halfway, but neither are you interested in being number 1. You simply act as expected of you and now.6. You hold the handle with your hand clenched in a fist
You are a fairly calm and even a little cold person. You take your time to make decisions and in general you don’t lose your composure for any reason. There are those who think that you are a little insensitive, but in reality, what costs you most is to externalize your feelings.

domain: psychology


NASHVILLE — Not much is known about President Donald Trump’s views of the Byzantine world of copyright law, music royalties and the rights of songwriters and creatives. But members of a panel of Washington insiders appearing at the Music Biz 2017 conference in Nashville on Monday – including influential U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee — see positive signs in the few tea leaves they’ve been able to read so far.
“One of my previous bosses used to say personnel is policy,” said Todd Dupler, the Recording Academy’s Senior Director of Advocacy & Public Policy. “Whenever you’re talking about a new White House or Administration, they can talk about policy, but the people they put in place are actually going to execute it and create the policies.”
The panel, which included Jacqueline Charlesworth, former general counsel for the U.S. Copyright Office, and representatives from SESAC and SoundExchange, agreed the nominations of Makan Delrahim to head the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and Vishal J. Amin to Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator are reasons for cautious optimism, as efforts to reform copyright law essentially restart with the change of administrations from Barack Obama to Trump. Both have long history with the issues that affect songwriters and artists: Delrahim, as Dupler pointed out, was a staffer for Sen. Orrin Hatch on the Senate Judiciary Committee: “If you know anything about Orrin Hatch, you know he’s a songwriter.”
“We’re pleased we’re going to have someone who is copyright aware and respectful in the position,” Blackburn said. “What you’re going to see from the people who are going to staff these positions is a great respect for the rule of law and an understanding that your right to hold, protect and monetize a copyright is a constitutionally protected right.”
Panelists, entertainment lawyers and interested music industry professionals spent three hours listening and learning about government policy as it relates to their lives on the first day of Music Biz, the annual entertainment and technology insiders gathering in downtown Nashville. Topics covered include reform to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the consent decrees that govern performing rights organizations BMI and ASCAP, the idea of a performer right in royalties and several other topics that mean real money — billions of dollars lost in aggregate — to creative professionals.
Blackburn recently co-wrote a letter to the Department of Justice asking it to declare by May 18 whether it would file necessary paperwork in an appeal of a recent federal court ruling that allows fractional licensing, meaning some songwriters will be left out of the profit pool if they don’t belong to the first performing rights organization (i.e. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or Global Rights) that licenses a song. This may lead to songwriters choosing their creative partners based on PRO membership rather than free will.
“It would have a chilling effect because you’d be choosing who you collaborate with based on whether they’re in the same PRO as you, whether you can feel like your contract with that writer will be honored or the Department of Justice is going to step on it and override it,” Dupler said. “We’re concerned it would have a very pronounced, chilling effect on songwriters, who aren’t normally supposed to be thinking about these types of things.”
Blackburn also said she’s reintroducing the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, which among other things would establish a performing right that would pay singers and musicians a royalty in certain situations, something that’s lacking in only the U.S. and 11 other nations. Panelists said upwards of $200 million is lost every year when other nations gather royalties for U.S. performers, only to have the money disappear because the U.S. doesn’t require reciprocation.
“Iran, Syria, Sudan,” Dupler said. “So it’s not good company to keep in this regard.”
Royalties were also the topic in an earlier panel that looked at the DMCA and how YouTube and other providers benefit from the act’s age. Adopted in 1998, members of the music industry claim the DMCA gives YouTube and other similar social media platforms loopholes that are costing musicians millions of dollars in lost royalties.
Don Nottingham, a former member of the YouTube-launched a cappella group Straight No Chaser, noted that many of the people who most consume streamed music weren’t even born when the DMCA was ratified.
“It’s hard to imagine that the authors of DMCA could have anticipated us walking around with nearly every song ever recorded in our pockets,” he said.


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I had read Old Man’s War some time ago and liked it. So when I was looking for some science fiction to buy for our trip to Italy, I got the sequels The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony.
As is common with sequels, whether of books or movies, they are not as good as the original. In this case, they were good enough for the plane and train ride reading and I did enjoy (and finish) them during our vacation.
The Ghost Brigades does not feature the protagonists from Old Man’s War, though it is set in the same universe. It was a fun read and a decent book.
The Last Colony ties up parts of the story in The Ghost Brigades and the protagonists in Old Man’s War in a new space adventure. It is better story than The Ghost Brigades and a lot of fun to read.
I read Old Man’s War on my phone at the time, Treo 650 and The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony were the first books I read on my new Kindle. I enjoyed reading on the Kindle, with the only issue being the flight crew’s insistence that I had to turn it off during takeoff and landing.
Thus it was that I finished The Last Colony on the flight back from Rome to New York and realized that there was a further sequel, Zoe’s Tale. Waiting for my connection to Atlanta, I made my first impulse Kindle purchase and bought Zoe’s Tale.
Zoe’s Tale is a retelling of the story of The Last Colony from the point of view of Zoe, the teenage daughter of the main characters of the previous novel. Making the same story interesting in a new book without introducing inconsistencies is hard and John Scalzi succeeds somewhat. However, Zoe’s Tale is definitely the weakest book of the series.
This first novel by John Scalzi is a gripping story of a 75 year old who joins the colonial army to help humans colonize space.
I had been meaning to read Old Man’s War ever since I found out about it on John Scalzi’s blog since he writes so well there. But I had too many books on my reading list and I never got around to it until I found out about the features and offers with Tor’s new website.
we’ve got a little “holding page” currently at the tor.com URL, where we’re urging people to sign up as preregistered users. In exchange for their advance support (and their permission to email them our newsletters) we are, For A Limited Time, sending them links through which they can download free, un-DRMed digital editions of various recent Tor books in a variety of formats. For instance, if you sign up now, you can download The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory; in a few days, that will go away but you’ll be given the opportunity to download Farthing by Jo Walton. Since we’re rotating books in and out of the program at a fair clip, the earlier you sign up, the more free books you’ll score.
And this is how I got the Old Man’s War ebook, along with a dozen others and continuing.
This was also my first experience of reading a book on my Treo. While I won’t read long works on my PDA/phone, I found reading short novels pleasant.
Old Man’s War is the story of 75 year old John Perry who joins the Colonial Defense Force and battles aliens around the universe in his new, young, green body. It is well written and interesting throughout and reminds me somewhat of Robert Heinlein.
John Scalzi’s first novel, Old Man’s War was nominated for a Hugo award in 2005.

domain: hobby


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Hilliard Studio Method® is a core-centric, pilates-based workout incorporating hand weights, resistance training, intense isometric positions, floor and ballet barre work. This results-driven workout elongates the body, improving overall strength, flexibility and posture. Expect to see flatter abdominals, a lifted seat, leaner thighs and greater definition in the arms and back. read more about our technique
"A year and a half after having my first baby, I still was not back to my pre-baby size. I felt like I had tried everything from running long distances to yoga and other classes at the gym. I also trav.."
- Briana Shait, Charlotte, NC

domain: sports


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Roseland Theater | Portland, Oregon
EVENT CANCELLED. Please contact your ticket point of purchase to claim a refund on your tickets.
Alternative music band Senses Fail, We Came As Romans, Counterparts & SeeYouSpaceCowboy is giving you the opportunity to join them at the Roseland Theater on Tuesday 19th April 2022 for a on stage performance. Tickets are available now but are limited, so book yours and secure your places. Senses Fail, We Came As Romans, Counterparts & SeeYouSpaceCowboy is the inexplicable musicians that is reputed for their inventive style, creating rhythms that rebel against the restraints of music, creating fresh sounds. Senses Fail, We Came As Romans, Counterparts & SeeYouSpaceCowboy is excited to be performing and are ready to have a night that will be epic, so make sure you are there and get your tickets now for Tuesday 19th April 2022 at the Roseland Theater, Portland, Oregon and grab your opportunity without regret.
Senses Fail, We Came As Romans, Counterparts & SeeYouSpaceCowboy has caused a huge stir in the music biz this year, ticket supplies are getting extremely low and fanatics hammered down the door to get their hands on them! Senses Fail, We Came As Romans, Counterparts & SeeYouSpaceCowboy seems to be on the tips of everybody tongues currently and its understandable because there doesn't seem to be anywhere near as excellent an act on the alternative music scene, so understandably fans are going wild! The long awaited spring, 2022 US tour will make a Portland pitstop in April. There has been a lot of talk about where the concert will be held, and luckily this time around, it'll be at nowhere else but the epic Roseland Theater, Portland, Oregon, world famous for it's stunning features, the excellent service, the great food and the perfect location. Roseland Theater is a world class venue and will only add to the ambience of the evening on Tuesday 19th April 2022. Follow the button on this page to buy your ticket this second!

domain: artistic


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As Americans grapple with the devastation wrought by the dual pandemics of racism and Covid-19, it is critically important to understand the vast racial disparities Covid-19 has exposed within the African American community (specifically), but communities of color (generally). The legacies of housing policies sponsoring residential segregation, and the associated racial gaps in wealth, educational achievement, health inequities, and lethal police encounters resonate nationally, but global white supremacy and migration patterns have contributed to powerful displays of international solidarity.
In this episode, Middle Tennessee State University Historian Dr. Louis Woods speaks with experts in multiple fields to examine how the sudden shock of the Covid-19 pandemic has illuminated the centuries-old pandemic of racism in western culture, and particularly in the United States. Sociologist Dr. Tony Brown of Rice University discusses underlying health disparities. Education policy expert Dr. Terah Venzant Chambers of Michigan State University describes how educational funding discrepancies contribute to racial achievement gaps. Historian Dr. Sharita Jacobs-Thompson explores the invaluable contribution that her co-taught “History of Policing” class has made to DC Metropolitan veteran officers and police cadets. Mental health expert Dr. Michelle Stevens of MTSU examines the link between PTSD and trauma in the black community and emphasizes the critical importance of self-care. Historian Dr. Glenn Chambers of Michigan State University provides international contexts to the global protest movement associated with murder of George Floyd. Dr. Woods then concludes with an analysis of historical housing policy and the generational impacts witnessed today.
It took the world stopping, for a critical mass of white Americans to hear, in many instances for the first time, the legitimate outcries of police brutality made generationally by African Americans. This podcast episode provides a holistic exploration to the tragedies that made this latest iteration of white police terror both a national and an international movement.
This episode is part of RTN’s Pass The Mic Project. This episode was recorded by, and remains the property of, Dr. Louis Woods.
You can hear more about Louis Wood’s research in his conversation w/ Ben in The Road to Now #118 The GI Bill & the Legacy of Racial Discrimination.


Donald Sterling has pulled his support from a deal to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sterling is instead preparing a $1 billion federal lawsuit against the NBA.
"The deal is off; the lawsuit is on," Sterling's attorney Maxwell Blecher said in a statement Monday.
Sterling's wife, Shelly, negotiated the record-breaking $2 billion sale of the Clippers to Ballmer last month after Sterling gave Shelly sole control of the team.
According to the lawsuit, the NBA violated Sterling's constitutional rights by relying on information from an "illegal" recording in which the Clippers owner went on a racist rant to his girlfriend. It also alleges that the league committed a breach of contract by fining him $2.5 million and that the NBA violated antitrust laws by attempting to force a sale.
Sterling originally had supported the sale on the grounds that "all their differences had been resolved," his attorney said. But upon learning the NBA wouldn't revoke his lifetime ban and fine, Sterling withdrew his support.
Watch This Tonight: Why Pretty Little Liars is today's editors' picks


Read full article on original website
Though ionic wafers would be more energy efficient, they're likely to be much slower.
Not long to go until we find out if this is going to be a three-horse race.
Hospitals Set Disinfection Records; LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots Complete 35 Million Cycles in Healthcare Facilities Worldwide
SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 5, 2022-- Harmful pathogens remain on commonly touched surfaces, even after the best liquid chemical cleaning efforts. As healthcare facilities battle viruses, bacteria and spores that can lurk on high-touch surfaces, proactive hospitals have invested in powerful UV-C disinfection technology to destroy pathogens missed during the manual room cleaning process. In a milestone achievement, XenexLightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot customers recently completed 35 million disinfection cycles. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221005005572/en/ Xenex LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots are used worldwide to quickly destroy viruses, bacteria and spores that can lurk on high-touch surfaces in healthcare facilities. (Photo: Business Wire)
When Intel's review embargo drops, prepare for some DDR5 surprises.
Activision Blizzard exec who called harassment lawsuit 'distorted and untrue' steps down from position
Frances Townsend has assumed an advisory role to the board.


What started as an idea during his junior year of high school has eventually turned into a successful athletic apparel company for founder Darren Dort, a sophomore business management major.
Choppa Athletics was created during the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Business Camp at Rutgers University in Newark as Dort was tasked to create a business plan for a company he would like to create.
Despite his business focusing on medical athletic wear, this summer his business changed to a sports apparel company. Dort said he hopes to expand and become one of the biggest athletic brands in the world.
“When you observe the owners and executives of the major sportswear companies, they are very few, if any, people of color,” Dort said. “My inspiration for this company came from wanting to create something that could chop the competition in the sportswear industry.”
The company sells a variety of hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants and hats. Dort plans to create sweaters, backpacks and all other forms of athletic apparel in the future. He said that he plans to still pursue medical athletic wear.
“In the future, the goal is for Choppa Athletics to produce to the innovative athletic braces that started the idea of this company and have those braces along with the apparel sold worldwide,” Dort said.
To promote his business, Dort has found success showcasing his company on Instagram.
“Currently, I have been promoting my business through Instagram and have accumulated 17,895 views from all of the content that I have promoted,” Dort said.
Alvin Oliver, a freshman business major, explained his experience with the company. After hearing about the business from word of mouth, Oliver purchased a red hoodie for $50. He was later featured on the Instagram page.
“I was able to reach out to the owner of Choppa athletics and sent him a picture in the apparel because I figured someone showing off the product could help with the business,” Oliver said.
According to Dort, he found his best-selling product is the Choppa Athletics hoodies. He said that the hoodies have “served as the leading instrument in bringing awareness to my business and brand.”
Devon Henry, a freshman business major, explained the two Choppa Athletics sweatshirts he bought.
“I really like the product,” Henry said. “I rock them heavy. They are so comfortable and feel well made. The quality is a major factor and one of the reasons why I bought a second one.”
Dort is the sole creator of all the products sold as he creates the products using tools like the Paint 3D app, and a printing and fulfillment service provider Printful. While taking on a big course load, Dort said it was not an easy task to balance his company and college.
“It was a legitimate struggle finding the right balance between college and my business; however, I feel as if I am at a point where I can genuinely say I am comfortable pursuing both at the highest level possible,” Dort said.
Dort said he has learned many valuable skills and lessons. He added that his company allowed him to enhance his computer skills and learned how to successfully promote a product.
“The greatest lesson I have learned thus far is the value of time,” Dort said. “This journey has given me living proof that time is a horrible thing to waste, and that I need to do everything in my power to ensure that I am using it well to the best of my ability.”
Nicholas Hernandez can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


NXTBLD………..I knew this was the place for me19 Jun 2018 | Written by Karen Crowe
In keeping with our ethos as a tech-focused design studio, John Adams and James Anderson from our digital sister, BIM Strategy, attended NXTBLD in London last week in order to check out the emerging technology trends that will soon be the new ‘norm’ within the construction industry.
NXTBLD has a very different focus to other BIM events. As John says in his blog; ‘It’s not about standards or schemas and not one person mentioned file naming conventions; it’s about tech being used to visualise, prototype and engage people with how we can improve what we do.’ It, therefore, looks beyond BIM to such as VR and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, generative design, reality modelling, IOT, and digital fabrication.
It’s fair to say that both – albeit for very different reasons – were incredibly impressed with what they saw and returned full of ideas for how this tech can be incorporated into what we do.
Click on John and James’ names to read their individual reviews of the event.


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No. 2 – Jeff Gordon and the test drive.
I guess that technically this is more of a commercial for Pepsi Max than it is NASCAR but it does feature four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who does happen to be driving a car.
The premise for the commercial is simple; Gordon takes an unsuspecting guy on the rid of his life. At the end Gordon reveals it was a prank and that is that. The twist comes when after the first commercial aired there was a fan that was quite vocal in his belief that the commercial was fake. He contested that the person being pranked was an actor and that Gordon and Pepsi couldn’t have actually pulled that off.
Enter the second commercial in which Gordon pranks the guy who said the first commercial was fake. I think it’s safe to say that this gentleman changed his tune once his ride was over.


SatSure is a deep tech, decision intelligence company. We leverage advances in satellite remote sensing, machine learning, big data analytics and cloud computing to create products and solutions which help enterprises and their people make smart decisions.
- Optimizing the data science solution using data engineering concepts such as optimized data storage, retrieval, Object Oriented Programming concepts.
- Understanding and automating the training and testing of the data science model.
- Versioning and monitoring deployed models regularly
Experience: 3-5 years
- 3+ years programming in python (R optional)
- hands-on knowledge of Machine Learning /Deep Learning frameworks like Tensorflow/Caffe
- Strong communication skills
- strong interest in learning and researching
- Ability to deliver on timelines
- Ability to work with cross-functional and remote teams.
- data visualization tools
- cloud services (AWS and Azure)
- Git and version control
- Medical Insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Learning & Skill Development Allowances
- Monthly Broadband Allowance & Setup Allowance
- Work from Home Option


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||This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (March 2011)|
|Billy Nichols (aka Papadollabill)|
|Born||Carrollton, Mississippi, United States|
|Genres||R&B, disco, pop, urban|
|Occupation(s)||Songwriter, composer, artist|
|Instruments||Bass, drums, keyboards, guitar|
Billy Nichols (aka Papadollabill) was one of nine children born to Laura Bell and Tom Sanders in Carrollton, Mississippi. They were a farming family. At the end of the work day, Billy's father played blues on the guitar. Billy and his family gathered on the porch to listen. Billy would play the guitar when his father was not home. Billy's favorite blues artist was Muddy Waters. He was also influenced by the likes of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Louis Jordan, Hank Williams, the Blindboys of Mississippi, and many, many other artists that he heard on the radio.
When he was 14, the family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Billy joined the high school band and played in a local band with his brother Ernest, Lyn Perry and Bob Burgess. After high school, he joined the gospel group The Bells of Harmony and traveled from church to church.
Billy then joined Jimmy Vick and The Victors. After they recorded a single in 1963, they had their picture in Billboard Magazine and got some local radio airplay. However, by November, the group broke up. In 1964, Billy went to Detroit to live with his brother with his guitar.
He and Tony Newton were hired by Motown Records where his first job was playing with Martha and the Vandellas. Billy was also in the Motown Road Band led by Choker Campbell where Billy played for the Marvelettes, Stevie Wonder, The Spinners, the Four Tops, and many other Motown artists. Later he became the musical director for Marvin Gaye touring and working with the band at all of his concerts.
He met Billy Stewart, a recording artist who had hit records in Cleveland, Ohio. It was through Billy Stewart that Billy Nichols was taken to Chicago to the Chess Recording Studio where Stewart recorded Billy's song "To Love, to Love". This was Billy's first formal opportunity to be the songwriter that he truly wanted to be.
Still on the road with Marvin Gaye and being disenchanted with the roadwork, Billy jumped at the opportunity to lead a house band in New York City. Billy Nichols and the Soul Swingers played at the Crystal Ballroom for about three years. Many artists came through and performed with the band: such as Al Green, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding, Joe Tex, Bobby Womack, etc. Through this gig, Billy met Galt MacDermot, the writer/composer of the musical Hair. He invited Billy to work with him on the musical play Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Billy's job was to rehearse the fledgling actors and to get them accustomed to singing to the sound of an electric guitar instead of a piano. The actors were Clifton Davis, Raul Julia, Jonelle Allen, Diana Davila, Jeff Goldblum and a cast and ensemble of singers and dancers. The play won a Tony in 1972 for best music in a play.
Billy was still composing songs. His first hit song was "Ask Me What You Want" recorded by Millie Jackson in 1972. It reached the top twenty on Billboard. In 1973 penned the all-time classic entitled, "Do It Til You're Satisfied," recorded by B.T. Express and released in 1974. Billy went on to write and produce a couple of other hits for the group such as "Can't Stop Groovin'" and "Shout It Out". In 1979, near the end of the disco era, Billy wrote, sang and co-produced with Andre Saunders a disco classic entitled, "Give Your Body Up to the Music". Billy produced two rap records, which are hip-hop classics, the pioneering: "The Adventures of Super Rhymes" and "Rhythm Rap Rock".
Rappers such as Will Smith, Beanie Sigel, EPMD, Master P, Ice Cube, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Dr. Dre and de la Soul have sampled Nichols' music. A sample of his song "Do It", heard in the song entitled "Addictive" performed by recording artist Truth Hurts, won him two BMI awards for most urban airplay for the year 2002.
Nichols's music can also be heard in the soundtracks for the movies:
- Carlito's Way
- The Inkwell
- Gun Crazy
- theme song of Showtime at the Apollo
- Mo' Money
- Rush Hour 2
- Serving Susan
- White Chicks
- The Streets Are Watching
- One Perfect Day
- The Fast and the Furious
Many television shows have featured Billy's music such as:
- Third Watch
- That 70's Show
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien
- Stoned Age
- MTV Cribs
- The Real World
- Behind the Music
In addition, his songs have been heard on BET's:
Nichols released his own CD entitled "Love Stuff" in 2008.
With Bernard Purdie
- Purdie Good! (Prestige, 1971)
- Stand By Me (Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get) (Mega, 1971)
- Shaft (Prestige, 1971)
- Soul Is... Pretty Purdie (Flying Dutchman, 1972)
Billy Nichols' IMDB Page for filmwork: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629544/ Discography listed at Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Billy+Nichols BT Express Discography at Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/B.T.+Express


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According to NBC4i, the shooter was reported at the 200 block of E. Main Street at the Pine Kirk Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkersville. The chief's last radio communication said he had the man in sight. When the gunman was confronted by Disario, he shot Disario and the two hostages ran off unharmed.
A shooter opened fire inside an OH nursing home Friday, killing two employees and the town's brand new police chief, police said.
None of the three have been identified and the motive for the shooting was not immediately known.
Authorities say the gunman had taken two passers-by as hostages in a wooded area behind the nursing home. Kirkersville is located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Columbus, Ohio. Disario, a father of six who was expecting another child, had only been police chief for around three weeks, Thorp said.
"It's a real hard day".
USA 40 is closed in the area and will remain closed for the remainder of the day, according to the patrol.
Witness Jeffrey Griffin said he heard the gunshots while dropping his kids off at a babysitter's house.
Dozens of law enforcement officers were dispatched to Pine Kirk Care Center in Kirkersville after panicked 911 calls.More news: Unstoppable: LeBron scores 39, Cavs rout Raptors in Game 2
Shortly afterward, however, police cruisers started swarming the area and police were walking around with shotguns and automatic weapons looking for a suspect.
Previous reports told of almost half of the residents living in the nursing home facility in 2016 being sex offenders.
Disario had only been on the job for about three weeks. The gunman then reportedly walked into a nursing facility and shot two others.
Peter Van Runkle, the head of the state trade association representing nursing homes, told the Dispatch that Pine Kirt caters to the forgotten members of society.. "He wasn't one of our frequent fliers", McConville said.
A report via fox8 told of investigators discovering two deceased female employees inside the nursing home.
The nearby elementary school was placed on lockdown, NBC4i reports.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is processing the crime scene and leading the investigation into Friday's incident.
Kasich ordered flags flown at half-staff at the Statehouse and at all public buildings and grounds throughout Licking County in central OH, where the shootings happened.


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We wondered – how LONG have they been using that theme?
So it was time to do a quick research project – according to Wikipedia.
It’s a piece composed by jingle writer Frankie Vinci for the network, which unveiled it for Super Bowl XXVI at the end of the 1991 season. When the network lost its bid to cover the NFL to FOX after the 1993 season, CBS continued using the music on its NFL radio broadcasts and brought it back again in 1998 when the network started broadcasting the AFC games.
So, to answer the question, the music has been used continuously in some fashion since 1991! Yes folks, that’s 21 years! Sick of it yet? I know I am. I won’t even go into FOX’s composition – maybe on another day.
But in the meantime …
If you go back to the 1960s, I tracked down my favorite NFL theme music – CBS’s usage of “Confidence,” a marching band-like piece taken from Leon Carr‘s score from the 1964 off-Broadway musical The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Let’s go back in time and listen.
Here’s the link. This is from the 1970 television intro for the Lions vs. Cowboys NFL Divisional Playoff Game (yes, that’s 42 years ago!) – an intro voiced over by none other than Pat Summerall.


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World class shopping is a given on any Malaysia holiday, but if your vacation destination here is Langkawi, rest assured that you will get a glimpse of some of the world’s most spectacular beaches as well. Located off the Kedah coast, Langkawi is a cluster of 99 islands with a mysterious legend making it all the more attractive to tourists. The locals believe that Mahsuri, a young woman who was executed based on a false accusation of adultery, cursed the islands to seven generations of bad luck. The seven generations have passed but Makham Mahsuri, the tomb of Mahsuri, continues to attract visitors who are drawn to it by the tragic tale.
There is much to do here in Langkawi but the beaches draw the most attention from holiday makers. The best beach to visit is Tanjung Rhu, which is at the northern tip of the island. For nature lovers this is a must-see with its old limesone cases, crags and waterways offering some exciting spots to explore.
Surrounded as it is by water, seafood is available in plenty in Langkawi and the locals have some incredible recipes that you can taste nowhere else. Enjoy Malay, Chinese and Thai cuisine here and experience fresh seafood with lobsters, crabs, mantis prawns, squids, king prawns and more at the many hotels dotting the more popular tourist centers of Pantai Tengah, Pantai Kok, Pantai Cenang and Kuah.
Activities on Langkawi
Langkawi, like every other Malaysian location, is a shopper’s dream come true thanks to its duty free status. Find what you need and more in the many shopping malls and retail outlets that you will find here. Expect to see international brands here whether you are browsing through perfumes, chocolates, liquor, luggage, fashion or mundane objects like utensils. Pay a visit to the quaint shops selling batik and songket prints if you are looking for unique gifts that reflect the island’s traditional roots.


text: Have a soft spot for Italian food? Well if you’re a Chicagoan, time to rejoice. With Eataly’s newest location planted in the Windy City, Chicagoans now get a taste of Italia without traveling halfway around the world to do so. With its original locations in New York City, Japan, Turkey, Dubai, and of course its mother country, Italy, Eataly has chosen Chicago as its newest target. Eataly is literally its name; a food heaven to eat the best Italy has to offer. Half marketplace, half restaurant, this double floored Italian emporium is guaranteed to fill both your stomachs and grocery baskets. Stepping through the doors, you’ll instantly have a feeling of beautiful Italia with the smell of sweet wine, the whiff of freshly baked bread, and the rich aroma of cheese all fighting to win your attention, this must be the wonderful feeling of happy confusion. As your eyes and most importantly your mouth, are being pulled in opposite directions, you’ll be hit with the oh so difficult decision of what to do first, eat, drink, or shop. Or even more important, what to eat first? Weighing your options, the first floor has the widely assorted grocery store, but then again, upstairs has 23 restaurants and food counters. Talk about literally taking wine and dine to the next level! Only one appetite but a million temptations, oh why must Eataly make life so difficult? Let me help you out, although the upper level food court is equally tasty, the lines are also equally long. I strongly direct you to the coffee and dessert section, whoever said that starting out with dessert was a crime right? You won’t be disappointed, I know I sure wasn’t. First stop, Nutella, a popular dessert stop for sweet lovers. For other popular goodies, check out our post on all time favorite sweet treats. It’s amazing how Nutella somehow magically makes everything taste better. Cookies, crepes, croissants, muffins, you name it and they will fill it with a thick smooth layer of hazelnut goodness, making ordinary become extraordinary. My personal favorite’s the crepe. The crepe’s just thick and moist enough, but not so thick that it overwhelms the taste of the filling, not something that every place can offer. If Nutella already got you hyper, you’re going to fall in love with La Pasticceria. They’re the definition of why Italians know their desserts. Lining La Pasticceria’s dessert counter is a colorful assortment of cakes, tarts, and other breathtaking goodies, everything that would make a sweets lover jump with excitement. Feeling that sugar high yet? Out of the all the desserts I’ve tasted (And that’s quite a long list), I’ve got to say, La Pasticceria was truly impressive. The intricate designs and glimmering frosting make the cakes look almost a little too pretty to even eat, but of course, only almost. I would be crazy to resist. The two pieces that particularly caught my eye: the Limoncello Cake and the Berry Sponge Cake. Devouring this moist cake goblet, is a layer of sticky and sweet Limoncello glaze. Love at first bite? I believe it was. The moist cake mixed with the zesty sweetness of the glaze, ah, a combination with no complaints. By the last bite, the only complaint you’ll have is why the proportion’s so small. However, one good thing about the small portions, is that you’ll definitely have room for seconds (and no surprise, maybe even thirds). In that case, the Berry Sponge Cake is another must try. Look at that pretty little thing, thin layers of tangy fruit jam mixed with scrumptious layers of berry jelly, all laid perfectly on top of a crumbly cake base. Delizioso! The best part is that La Pasticceria’s pastries aren’t only outer beauty, but the inside is even more beautiful, with the bakery offering gluten, dairy, and sugar free dessert options just in case you’re feeling guilty. Just when all those sweets start pulling at your thirst, hop over to Café Vergnano around the corner, sit down, and enjoy a cup of coffee. Or in this case, stand, which I found was pretty popular around this hot spot. Replicating authentic coffee bars in Italy, Vergnano has high counter tops purposely designed for guests to stand around and immediately consume their coffee after ordering. This way, the coffee can be enjoyed at its best, piping hot and freshly brewed. As a caffeine addict myself, this place surely kept me smiling, with their large menu of espresso shots, Macchiato mixes, and Mocha Lattes, just to name a few. And this is the Café Macchiato, rich in taste, and creamy in texture. The Eataly motto is family tradition, Italian heritage, and the hearty belief that “Food unites us all”. Well, I’m pretty sure they have at least successfully united Chicagoans, seeing the place was still packed during our brutal snowstorms. Most importantly, their belief and attitude reminds us that life was meant to be lived and enjoyed, so sit back, relax, and buon appetito. Grade: A 43 E. Ohio St. Chicago, Illinois 312-521-8700 Nutella: 10am-11pm La Pasticceria: 10am-11pm Café Vergnano: 10am-10pm The following two tabs change content below.BioLatest Posts Wenna Pang A writer and photographer who's in love with new experiences, visual art, and the written word. Born and raised in Chicago, I've also spent time living in New York City, Hong Kong, and traveled throughout various places. A travel enthusiast by heart, I love roaming new places and exploring the people & food that comes with it. As an avid story teller, I love sharing my discoveries, whether it be my latest travel experience or newest food adventure. I truly believe that food is the universal factor that connects all of us, no matter how different we may be in other ways, we cannot deny that there’s at least one thing that we love to eat and that one favorite food magically and unconditionally gives us comfort and pleasure. That feeling is one of the purest forms of happiness and I’d love to share that feeling through my work Latest posts by Wenna Pang (see all) Corn Milk Recipe : How to Milk Corn on the Cob - February 11, 2015 Beef Barley Stew : See what’s Brewing - February 10, 2015 ShuMai Recipe : Have Some Dim-Sum - February 6, 2015 Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Current [email protected] * Leave this field empty Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.

domain: food


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Join a political party? Yuck! NC voters explain why they reject Democrats and Republicans
North Carolina now has more unaffiliated voters than registered Democrats and registered Republicans.
At Westover High School in Fayetteville last month, three teens on the cusp of voting said they have no plans to join a political party when they register to vote.
A fourth is a registered Democrat but she said plans to switch to unaffiliated.
Decades ago these young people, who are students in Dan Smith’s Civics and Economics Honors class at Westover, would have been rare outliers in the political fields of North Carolina. Now, independent voters are the norm, especially among Millennials and Generation Z.
Young people have propelled unaffiliated voters to the fastest-growing group of voters in the state, said Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College.
“If you look at the generational cohort that’s just now coming in, and that’s Gen Z, by the data from the State Board of Elections, those voters — 47% of them — have registered unaffiliated,” he said, along with about 40% of Millennials are unaffiliated.
Older voters, too, sometimes switch parties. Such as a real estate agent in Fayetteville who said she left the Republican Party sometime around 2016.
Independent voters surpassed the North Carolina Republican Party in voter registrations in September 2017. Then last month, they blew past the Democrats, picking up around .
Here is what these voters have to say about their decisions to be independent.
►More politics:NC legislature makes local school boards more partisan
Article continues below chart.
Kylah McPherson, 18
Kylah McPherson is getting ready to register to vote, and she was torn between being a Democrat or being unaffiliated before choosing unaffiliated.
“I am definitely more left-leaning,” she said, but she didn’t want to be constrained to voting just in Democratic primaries.
Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina are allowed to pick which partisan primaries they want to vote in — the Democrats, the Republicans and Libertarians all have agreed to take their votes if the voters want to offer them..
As for policy, “I do see some economic values from the Republican side,” McPherson said, but she disagrees with efforts to end a state law that says people must get a permit from the Sheriff’s Office in order to purchase a handgun.
Maryam Feal, 15
“Joining parties is fine with me. I personally — I wouldn’t put myself in one party at all because I share views with both, even though I do tend to lean left,” Westover student Maryam Feal said.
She said she thinks her parents are moderate Republicans and that they would be accepting of her choice to not join a party.
“Honestly I don’t think they’ll really care as much ’cause they’re really big on me having my own opinions,” Feal said. “Maybe they’ll have their little comments but I really doubt that it would be a big deal, just as long as I’m educated on it.”
The political parties seem to Feal to be more about division and separation rather than finding solutions, she said.
Connie Reagan, 63
Fayetteville real estate agent Connie Reagan was a Democrat early in her life, a Republican later and now is an independent voter.
“I started out as a Democrat because I’m born-and-raised in this area,” said Fayetteville real estate agent Connie Reagan.
“Everybody back then was a Democrat. I mean it’s kind of like you — you know — you went to work during the week, you went to church on Sunday, you registered Democrat. But people were still conservative,” she said.
As time went on, Reagan said, the Democratic Party’s values moved away from her values, such as her position against abortion. “I can remember when you could be Democrat and pro-life, and that ship sailed decades ago,” she said.
She and her husband became Republicans, and were for years.
Eventually she found the GOP, too, wasn’t the best fit for her. She said she switched to unaffiliated in 2016.
“And after a while I realized, No. 1, no party represents all the opinions I have,” she said. “And No. 2, I get — I got so sick and tired about some of this stuff my particular party was doing that I didn’t approve of, and I just figured: I don’t want to be associated with any of these knuckleheads anymore.”
For example, “when people are saying they’re not racist, but yet the things they do are racist,” she said.
Reagan said she disliked the animosity among the political partisans and that people don’t seem to try to work together for the common good or even talk to each other as she remembers from her younger days.
“It’s like a football game. You have to root for your team. You have to do everything your team wants you to do whether or not it’s actually good for the people you purport to serve,” she said.
Jordan Smith, 18
Student Jordan Smith registered to vote as a Democrat because her family is Democratic, she said.
“That’s all I really knew,” she said. “So it’s just like, I’d rather have joined a party that I was familiar with than be in the middle.”
And she sees how a candidate’s party affiliation would influence voters who are otherwise unfamiliar with the person.
“If they’re educated, vote for your party, not for the person,” she said. “Like, you’re going to choose a party, vote for your party, not for the person. Because the person can change but the party’s beliefs and values tend to stay the same.”
Smith said she has learned more about politics and the political parties in her civics class and now expects she will change her registration to unaffiliated.
Zoey McKenzie, 17
Student Zoey McKenzie said she has started her voter registration paperwork.
“I don’t really want to join a party,” she said. “Because — Republicans, they’re more like ‘traditional,’ right? … I do share, I can recognize both values of left and right.
“But I can’t really put myself in one box to say, ‘OK, I’m going to be Democrat,’ or, ‘I’m going to be Republican.’”
Both parties have aspects that appeal to McKenzie.
She likes that the Republicans are strong in their beliefs. “It’s good to be determined in stuff,” she said.
McKenzie parts with the GOP’s positions against immigration. “I don’t like that, because I think America should be open to all people,” she said. She’s more aligned with the Democrats on that topic.
Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and firstname.lastname@example.org.

domain: sociology


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Spurred in part by the death of a teenage Toyota driver, the federal government is investigating why Toyota delayed a recall of almost one million trucks and SUVs over defective steering rods.
In October 2004, Toyota issued a recall in Japan of 330,000 vehicles to replace the steering relay rods, which the company found were prone to breaking under stress. Toyota did not issue a steering rod recall in the U.S. until almost a year later in September of 2005, when it acknowledged that the rods were defective.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now reviewing new information suggesting that, in fact, many Toyota owners in the U.S. had complained of breaking steering rods prior to 2004. The new cases emerged because of a lawsuit in which Toyota is being sued over the death of 18-year-old Levi Stewart, who was killed when his Toyota truck rolled over.
The accident took place on a country road outside Fairfield, Idaho. Levi Stewart's father Michael was one of the volunteer firemen who responded to the scene.
"When we got there, the devastation was just more than you could handle," said Michael Stewart.
Three months after Levi's death in 2007 , a long-delayed recall notice from Toyota arrived in the mail at the Stewart home. In the worst case, the notice said, the steering relay rod might fracture, causing a loss of vehicle steering control and thus increasing the possibility of a crash. Levi's family believes Toyota knew of the steering rod relay's defect long before the fatal accident, and should have issued the recall notice months earlier.
"That immediately explained how the wreck happened," said Michael Stewart. "I was just shocked. How could they wait so long to send out a recall on something so important?"
He attributes the crash to a defective steering rod and has sued Toyota for product liability and failure to warn. During discovery in the case, Toyota turned over 40 previously undisclosed cases where American owners had complained directly to Toyota about steering rod problems before October 2004. "Not only did they not reveal it, they said they didn't have the information," said John Kristensen, the Stewarts' lawyer.
Now the Toyota official who sent the letter, Christopher Tinto, has conceded under oath the information was even kept from him by company executives in Japan.
Said Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA administrator and former head of the advocacy group Public Citizen, "It's a knowing and willful cover-up of information that should have been given to the agency and that would have resulted in a recall and the saving of lives and the prevention of injury."
At the time of the Japanese steering rod recall, Toyota told NHTSA that a similar recall in the U.S. was unnecessary because it had no reports of similar problems in this country, and that driving conditions were different in Japan.
The U.S. recall affected older models of the Toyota T100 pickup truck (model years 1993-98), Toyota 4Runner (1989-95) and the Toyota Truck (1989-95).
In announcing an investigation of Toyota's decision to wait for a U.S. recall, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said "safety is our number one priority. ... "With new assurances from Toyota about their efforts to improve safety, I hope for their cooperation in getting to the bottom of what happened." Toyota said it has received the Information Request from NHTSA and will fully cooperate with the agency's investigation.
During a press conference in Japan on Monday, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda denied that the company had withheld information from NHTSA on the steering rod recall. "Since we started the company, we have never hid anything," said Toyoda. "Please understand that we are not hiding anything."
Last month, Toyota agreed to pay a record fine of $16.4 million over allegations that it had knowingly delayed a recall of sticking gas pedals in the U.S. for four months. "By failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at the time. Toyota denied the allegations, and said it paid the fine in order to avoid a lengthy dispute.


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Days after Alexis’ Feb. 22 death, the Clark County coroner reported that her passing was “unnatural.”
Willis replaces Judge Michael Naville, who died in September after nearly a decade in the position.
Officials estimated that the tortoise weighed at least 150 pounds.
Swift kissed rumored boyfriend DJ-producer-singer Calvin Harris on the cheek and gave him a hug before winning top Billboard 200 album Sunda…
Joe Romack has been coming to the race since 1934.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is investigating the accident.
The boat did not flip over and no one was thrown from the boat.
The tricycle winner was congratulated by Mr. and Miss. Circle City IN Pride after the race.
The only other time Dixon started on the pole at Indy, in 2008, he won the race.
Provost Thomas Burish told those graduating Sunday the deaths are reminders of the fragility and preciousness of life.
Police were aware that gang members were gathering at the restaurant and officers were present when shots began.
Conservation officers are investigating, but foul play is not suspected.
They see Indiana marijuana laws as unjust.
The event was on his birthday. He would have turned 26 years old.