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Excerpt Reveal: Wicked Dirty (Stark World #2) by J. Kenner
Title: Wicked Dirty
Series: Stark World #2
Author: J. Kenner
Sometimes bad isn't good enough…
On the outside, Lyle Tarpin is a clean-cut Hollywood actor whose star is on the rise. Inside, he's battling his own demons, shunning relationships and finding solace in the arms of a string of anonymous women paid very well for their discretion.
But when he's photographed in a compromising position by an over-eager reporter, the only way to save his career is to say that the woman he was with is his fiancée. And now Lyle has to play a very public game with the only woman who's ever managed to get under his skin.
Struggling waitress Sugar Laine agrees to spend one night with Lyle—but only because she's desperate to save her family home. She never expects that a night of passion will turn into a pretend engagement … or that the heat between them will blossom into love.
But sometimes love has a price.
And now the only question is—can Lyle and Sugar afford to pay it?
Pre-order Links:
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"As for the first, he probably did it to piss me off. He knows I don't date and don't like to be in the spotlight where relationships are concerned. And he's a little jealous that I'm doing movies now, and his last show was a web series.
"And as for why I didn't correct him," Lyle continues, "I honestly didn't think about it. Then again," he adds softly, "maybe it was there in the back of my mind."
"What was?"
"That if you were my pretend fiancée, I'd get to see you again."
"Oh." I draw a breath, hoping he can't tell how much I like hearing those words.
"Will you do it?" he asks. "Backing off now would draw the kind of attention I don't want. And besides, being engaged is a sure fire way to keep Frannie at bay for the filming."
"The filming? You aren't even set to begin for weeks, right?"
"Our engagement doesn't have to be that long. Two weeks, very public. Then we can break up. With any luck, Frannie will have found another man. And even if she hasn't, I can claim a broken heart and the hope of reconciliation. She'll leave me alone," he says with certainty.
"And that's it? That's all I have to do? Pretend to be engaged?"
He nods. "You in? I'm willing to pay."
"Damn right, you are," I say. "This is going to be an arms-length transaction or not at all."
He laughs. "Well, then name your price."
I think about it, then nod. What the hell, right? I might as well go for broke. "Sixteen thousand, nine-hundred seventy-four dollars."
"Well," he says with a small frown. "That's a very exact number."
"The amount I need to pay off the loan, minus the ten I already applied, and the five you paid me for our date. I'm not applying the value of the thousand-dollar bill, because I think it's cool, and I don't want to sell it. And I'm not applying the two grand I've saved because that would clean me out. Or the money I could get as a cash advance off my credit cards. Because then I'd just have more debt." I shrug. "So that's the number. Take it or leave it."
"Really?" I grin. I was expecting more of a battle.
"Really," he acknowledges. "You're my adoring fiancée, in public and in private."
I take a step toward him. "Fair enough," I say. "As long as we're clear on one thing. I'll be your girl, and I'll put on a show for whoever's watching. As for the private part? You can sleep here, or I'll sleep at your place. And we can take day trips together and put on quite the show for the media. And if you really want me to, I'll even do your laundry."
I'm right in front of him now, and I press my finger to his lips, then trace it down, down, down, all the way to the fly of his jeans. "But that's as far as private goes. This," I add, cupping his crotch, "isn't part of our deal at all."
I back away as I feel his cock stiffen under my hand, then smile sweetly. "Those are the terms," I say. "Take them or leave them."
J.Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.
Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, "chicklit" suspense, urban fantasy, and paranormal mommy lit.
JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a "flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations" and by RT Bookclub for having "cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them." A five time finalist for Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy). Her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (as Julie Kenner) is currently in development with AwesomenessTV/Awestruck.
Her books have sold over three million copies and are published in over twenty languages.
In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Amazon Author Page
Labels: Excerpt Reveal, J. Kenner, Stark World, Wicked Dirty


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CAPITOL RECAP: Pritzker after Legislature adjourns: 'Illinois is back'
Capitol News Illinois
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, surrounded by Republicans and Democrats from the legislature, touts the accomplishments of the spring session after the Illinois Senate approved funding for the capital construction plan, legalized sports betting and gambling expansion.
JUSTIN L. FOWLER, STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER FILE, via AP
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the state budget and legislation related to a graduated income tax in Illinois, during a bill signing Wednesday at the Thompson Center in Chicago.
Amr Alfiky, ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPRINGFIELD – Minutes after the Senate put the final touches on first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker's sweeping legislative agenda Sunday, June 2, the governor addressed media and delivered a message: "Illinois is back."
"Today, the people of Illinois can be proud that we are putting state government back on the side of working families," Pritzker said at the news conference. "They can be proud that we are restoring fiscal responsibility after many years of crisis and deficits."
Pritzker stood beside Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican, and several senators of both parties as he addressed the media in his office after receiving overwhelming bipartisan approval on several key measures.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at a press conference in April.
Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune
"Throughout this session, Senate Republicans were not afraid to speak up when needed, and were not afraid to stand together when warranted," Brady said in a statement. "I commend Governor Pritzker for working across the aisle on those key issues that produced bipartisan support. Now, as we move forward, Senate Republicans will continue to fight for the issues important to Illinois residents."
Pritzker touted the bipartisan process and the working groups that negotiated the budget behind closed doors. The 1,500 page document was released publicly just 12 hours before it was approved.
Legislative leaders from both parties called the $40 billion operating budget a balanced, responsible state funding effort, and Republicans emphasized the inclusion of several pro-business reforms and tax incentives that were added to the package upon their request.
Those measures include tax incentives aimed at enticing data centers to locate in Illinois; eliminating reporting of the retailer's discount in the comptroller's tax expenditure report; eliminating the franchise tax; reinstating the manufacturers purchase credit; and a "Blue Collar Jobs Act to help attract large scale projects."
While the passage of the budget itself gave Pritzker a major victory, it often seemed an afterthought as the General Assembly passed a slew of other hot-button issues.
Guess how much: Illinois Tourism doubles ad spending to get visitors to travel state — potholes and all
Those include a $45 billion capital infrastructure plan for road, bridge, building and broadband internet projects, a massive gambling expansion, legalization of recreational marijuana, a reproductive rights expansion bill, a graduated tax constitutional amendment and a minimum wage increase.
The infrastructure plan is the first in more than 10 years and is made possible by revenues expected to come from sports betting licenses, a $1 increase to the state's cigarette tax and a doubling of the state's motor fuel tax to 38 cents from 19 cents along with increased driver's license fees among others.
Upon adjournment, Pritzker said he will work to ensure new policies are implemented correctly before returning for the fall veto session and the second legislative session of his first term.
"Make no mistake. We still have a lot of work ahead," he said. "Our budget and pension challenges unfolded over many years, and they won't go away overnight. We have more big things to do: to bring more efficiencies to state government, to grow our economy at a faster rate, to create jobs, to invest in our future."
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a $40 billion state budget into law. Here's a look at what your tax dollars are buying.
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Wednesday a $40 billion budget package, representing an increase in state spending of $1 bill…
BUDGET BILL SIGNED: Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a new, $40.1 billion state budget bill into law Wednesday, June 5, along a revenue package to pay for it and a bill that would establish a new, multi-bracket income tax structure in Illinois, provided voters approve a constitutional amendment allowing it in the 2020 elections.
The budget bill, Senate Bill 262, adds about $1.14 billion in new spending during the fiscal year that begins July 1. It passed the General Assembly over the weekend with broad bipartisan support, but it came about only after weeks of contentious negotiations between legislative Democrats and Republicans.
"Just a few years ago, simply passing a budget was considered nearly impossible. And for years before that, the budget included gimmicks and tricks, and was balanced in name only," Pritzker said during a bill-signing ceremony at the Thompson Center in Chicago. "Those days are over. That this budget is balanced and bipartisan demonstrates just how far we have come."
Some of the highlights of the budget, according to the governor's office, include an $80 million increase in funding for the troubled Department of Children and Family Services to hire additional staff and to increase reimbursement rates paid to social service providers who work on contract with the agency.
LISTEN: Grading Pritzker's first 5 months in office
K-12 and higher education will also see funding increases next year, with more than $378 million in new funding going to public schools and another $66.7 million in additional base funding for public universities and community colleges.
The budget plan also includes a full payment into the state's pension systems. And it adds $410 million to the current fiscal year's budget to cover costs associated with unpaid union contract obligations dating back to fiscal year 2016.
That new spending was made possible by passage of a revenue bill, Senate Bill 689, that levies a new tax on the private insurance companies that administer the state's Medicaid program. Money from that assessment will be used to draw down additional federal matching funds, thus freeing up about $530 million in state general revenues to be used for other purposes.
NURSING HOME FUNDING: Funding for nursing homes serving the state's most vulnerable elderly populations will increase by $240 million next fiscal year as part of the state's recently-passed budget.
Of that $240 million, which will be split between the state and federal government, $70 million will be directly appropriated to help nursing homes meet minimum staffing requirements. Another $170 million will update the reimbursement formula for support costs such as food, utilities, maintenance and equipment.
Advocates for the nursing home industry say the added funding will help stem a tide of 20-plus skilled- and intermediate-care facility closures that occurred over the past five years due to crippling budget cuts and decades-old Medicaid reimbursement rates.
"This money means survival," said Pat Comstock, executive director of the nursing home advocacy group Health Care Council of Illinois. "Our members are thrilled, but they're also relieved because these dollars are going to provide some much needed relief from the struggles to survive that members are experiencing."
The legislation also creates fines for nursing homes that fail to meet staffing minimums, and provides safeguards against the use of psychotropic drugs. Labor and senior care advocates say this will help hold nursing homes accountable and make life better for workers and patients.
The $70 million for nurse staffing will be distributed by a funding formula to be decided by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. That formula will drive greater funding to the nursing homes with more Medicaid bed days.
The $170 million for support costs would update reimbursement rates currently determined by costs dating back to 2004. The distribution formula is still to be determined, but $37 million of that sum will be used to ensure facilities will not lose funding as a result of the new formula.
PAY RAISES: Illinois lawmakers will get their first pay raises since 2008 after the House chose not to concur with a Senate action that would have prevented the salary increases.
Lawmakers earn base salaries of $67,836, a rate which would rise by more than $1,600 July 1 once statutory cost of living increases are applied. They also receive per diem reimbursements and some receive added pay ranging from $10,326 to $27,477 per year for committee chair and leadership positions.
Since 1990, Illinois law allowed lawmakers a cost of living increase of about 2.4 percent each year, but in the past decade it has become routine for each chamber to adopt language prohibiting those increases from taking effect.
Language that would have stayed the raises this year was not included in budget implementation legislation as it has been in years past. Senate Republicans questioned the absence of the language when the budget bills passed late May 31 into June 1, and that chamber rushed to pass a measure preventing the increases.
That measure, House Bill 837, passed unanimously and went to the House, where sponsorship was transferred to Rep. Thaddeus Jones, a Calumet City Democrat. He filed a non-concur motion, and the House never took the final vote that would have prevented the pay increases.
A Sunday call to Jones was not returned by Tuesday.
But Pritzker told Chicago media Tuesday he would sign the budget as is—even without the added language to prevent pay increases—echoing comments he made upon the Legislature's adjournment Sunday.
GAMBLING EXPANSION: Six new casinos, along with legalized sports betting, are coming to Illinois after Senate lawmakers approved a massive gambling expansion bill Sunday, June 2.
Senate Bill 690, sponsored by Indian Creek Democratic Sen. Terry Link, passed that chamber on a 46-10 vote after being approved by House lawmakers the day before. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has already announced his intention to sign it into law.
"I've only been doing this for 20 years to get this done, and it's a little emotional," said a teary-eyed Link during floor discussion of the bill.
Link estimated that gambling expansion along with other revenue-raising measures in the bill could net Illinois more than $12 billion in the next six years.
"This key piece of legislation really is going to make an economic difference of keeping our dollars home," he said, adding he expects "thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in construction across the state."
That construction would go toward the six new casinos authorized by the bill in Waukegan, Rockford, Danville, South Suburbs, Williamson County and downtown Chicago.
Casinos, race tracks and sports facilities that seat more than 17,000 people – such as Wrigley Field or United Center – would also be eligible to buy sports betting licenses under the bill, making Illinois one of about a dozen states to legalize the practice after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year allowed it.
Revenues raised from the new casinos, the selling of sports betting licenses, and a higher tax on video gambling machines would go toward funding the vertical components of a long-term capital infrastructure plan, such as state building renovations. Sports betting licenses would range from $3.2 million to $20 million and be offered to both brick-and-mortar facilities and to online operators, with taxes of 15 percent.
Under the bill, race tracks in the state would be able to install slot machines and table games, turning them into racinos. A pilot program will also assess sports betting through the Illinois Lottery, a plan that was considered but dropped by lawmakers earlier in the session.
HOUSE PASSES BUDGET, CAPITAL PLAN: The Illinois House closed out what was perhaps the most monumental legislative sessions in recent memory Saturday, June 1, after passing the final pieces of a budget for the upcoming year and a $45 billion capital improvements program that will be partially funded by expanded gambling.
Those measures, though, were only the finishing touches on a session that also saw passage of a minimum wage increase, a constitutional amendment to overhaul the state's income tax system, legalization of recreational marijuana and a sweeping expansion of abortion rights.
"This has been an extraordinarily productive session of the General Assembly. Simply historic," House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said just before the House adjourned.
Saturday's action in the House effectively marked the end of an intense competition between Democratic and Republican leaders that had threatened to send lawmakers into extended overtime.
The final 48 hours were marked by heated discussions and intense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans and a constant flurry of back-door meetings with House and Senate caucus leaders and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Although Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers, Republican votes were needed on some key measures to get them over the finish line, especially after the session stretched into Saturday, June 1, which triggered a constitutional requirement that bills taking immediate effect receive three-fifths majorities in both chambers – 71 votes in the House and 36 votes in the Senate.
But Republicans held out because they wanted Democrats to agree to a number of pro-business initiatives that included tax incentives for businesses hiring construction workers for major projects, other incentives for developing high-tech data centers and phasing out the franchise tax, to name a few.
When Democrats finally agreed to those measures, the final pieces of the budget package fell into place with broad bipartisan support.
One of the pieces needed to make the budget work was a revenue bill, Senate Bill 689, which included, among other things, a new tax on Medicaid managed care organizations that will allow the state to draw down additional federal matching funds, freeing up about $390 million in general revenue funds for other purposes. It passed by a vote of 107-to-9.
Another was what's known as a "budget implementation bill," Senate Bill 1814, that spells out specifically how money appropriated to various agencies is to be spent. That bill includes pay increases for home care providers who deliver home and community-based services to the elderly and disabled. It passed by a vote of 97-17.
The final piece was House Bill 142 authorizing the state to issue $1.7 billion in bonds, the proceeds of which will be used to pay down the state's backlog of unpaid invoices, a measure that is expected to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year in interest costs.
The capital improvements program also consisted of a package of three bills.
House Bill 62 spells out how the $45 billion will be spent. It calls for $33.2 billion, or about 74 percent of the total, to be spent on roads and bridges, what lawmakers refer to as "horizontal" infrastructure. Another $3.5 billion, or 8 percent of the total, would be spent on K-12 and higher education facilities.
The remainder would be divided between state facilities, environmental conservation projects, deployment of broadband internet, and health care and human service facilities.
The other two bills provide the funding for those projects.
Senate Bill 1939 provides funding for the horizontal projects through a combination of a 19-cent per-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax, increases in vehicle registration fees, especially for electric vehicles, plus a variety of other miscellaneous fees. It passed the House, 83-29.
And House Bill 690 provides funding for the "vertical" infrastructure projects. It includes legalized sports betting and expansion of casino gambling, a $1 per-pack increase in cigarette taxes, new taxes on parking fees, and extending the state sales tax to purchases made remotely, including online purchases from out-of-state retailers that do not have a brick-and-mortar nexus in Illinois. It passed the House, 87-27.
ABORTION BILL: Legislation that backers and detractors agree will be the most liberal reproductive health statute in the country is headed to the governor's desk after about 80 minutes of impassioned debate by the Illinois Senate late Friday night, May 31.
The abortion repeal-and-replace measure was a source of controversy this session. From its introduction in February, the Reproductive Health Act drew calls of support from advocates looking to the General Assembly to respond to restrictions enacted by some states across the country, and those of warning from opponents concerned about protections being struck from current law.
Sen. Melinda Bush, a Democrat from Grayslake and the bill's sponsor in that chamber, said she hopes passage of the legislation will make the state "a beacon for the country."
"I'm so proud that Illinois is standing up and saying, we're not going back, we're going to continue to fight and we're going to make sure that women are equal here. Their reproductive rights are part of that," she said.
In a statement, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he will sign the measure.
"In Illinois, we trust women to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives — and now, that will be the law of the land, even as it's under threat in other states," he said.
Chicago Democratic Rep. Kelly Cassidy, the initiative's sponsor in the House, was on the floor during the debate. In the back of the chamber were a handful of other Democratic representatives who supported the legislation — they stood and joined hands during Bush's closing remarks.
"That was amazing to have them all over here — I was there when it passed in the House — because it was so important to all of us," Bush said. "To have that amazing camaraderie and support and really love for each other; I'm just so proud of all these amazing women. It really felt like a sisterhood."
The measure received 34 Democratic yes votes. Twenty senators voted no, including lone Democrat, Bunker Hill Democrat Andy Manar. Three Democrats voted present.
The measure, Bush said, "codified current practices" and repealed parts of Illinois law enjoined by courts.
Sen. Dan McConchie, a Republican from Hawthorn Woods, said if that was all the bill aimed to achieve, it would be one page — not 126.
McConchie sought clarification on whether any provisions of the legislation would render toothless the Parental Notification of Abortion Law, which requires a minor to consult her parents before getting the procedure. Bush said no part of her bill would impact that statute.
"This proposal leaves me stunned," McConchie said. "For anyone who wants abortions to be legal and safe, this bill will do exactly the opposite."
Republican Sen. Jil Tracy, from Quincy, called the bill "extreme."
"It goes far beyond the current practice in Illinois. It has provisions that could endanger rather than protect a pregnant woman and it's not needed under current Illinois law or federal law," she said. "Once again in Illinois, we are passing bills looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist."
ABORTION BILL OPPOSITION: Illinois' dioceses have condemned the General Assembly's passage of an abortion repeal-and-replace measure headed for the governor's desk.
Both chambers approved the Reproductive Health Act, which proponents and opponents agree will be the most liberal reproductive health care law in the nation, during the final days of the legislative session.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement he will sign the bill.
"In Illinois, we trust women to make the most personal and fundamental decisions of their lives — and now, that will be the law of the land, even as it's under threat in other states," Pritzker said.
But Cardinal Blase Cupich, head of Chicago's archdiocese, said in a statement Saturday, June 1, that the act's passage "marks a sad moment in our history as a state."
"We have worked to make the case for a consistent approach to human dignity in Illinois and will continue to do so even as elected officials single out unborn persons for particular disregard," he said. "It remains our hope that Illinois will eventually distinguish itself as a safe place that welcomes not only those seeking a new life or second chance, but also the most vulnerable among us who deserve a chance at life."
Joliet diocese Bishop R. Daniel Conlon called the Reproductive Health Act a "horrific piece of legislation;" Rockford diocese Bishop David Malloy called it "horribly misnamed;" and Springfield diocese Bishop Thomas John Paprocki said in a statement lawmakers passed the bill in a "gravely immoral action."
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION: Legalized recreational marijuana is on its way to the governor's desk, and by all indications he will sign it.
In the first legislative action in the Illinois House of what had been scheduled as the last day of the session, Senate Bill 1438 passed on a 66-47 vote after more than three hours of debate Friday, May 31.
Marijuana legalization was one of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's marquee campaign points. It joins a graduated income tax constitutional amendment as one of the major campaign promises that have passed both houses.
Once the governor signs the bill, the goal will be to have marijuana available to consumers by Jan. 1, 2020. Per the bill, Illinois residents could possess up to 30 grams, or roughly one ounce, of marijuana flower, five grams of THC concentrate and five grams of THC in a marijuana-infused product.
The bill authorizes the state to issue a limited number of licenses for cultivators, processors and retail dispensaries, and to charge excise taxes on the retail sale of marijuana products.
Medicinal marijuana patients would be allowed to grow up to five cannabis plants in their home.
The bill also allows for expungement through the governor's clemency process if the case involves less than 30 grams of marijuana. For cases involving amounts greater than that, up to 500 grams, individuals and state's attorneys would be allowed to petition a court to vacate a conviction.
The Senate passed the bill Wednesday, May 29. The vote was 38-17, with two Republicans joining 36 Democrats in supporting it.
"This bill is going to set the model, I believe, the gold standard for how to approach social equity issues, relating (to) cannabis legalization," Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, the bill's chief sponsor, said in her closing statement on the Senate floor.
The action came just hours after a new, revised version of the bill was made public, and it is substantially different from the one Steans introduced on May 3, a proposal that sparked strong resistance from law enforcement, business groups and some local governments.
"I think what is proposed today is a significant shift from what was proposed, what, two or three weeks ago," Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, told reporters following a committee hearing on the bill Wednesday. "Moving that off the table, I think, paved the way for us to resolve a bunch of other issues that were very important that weren't resolved initially."
CIGARETTE TAX: A pack of cigarettes will cost an extra dollar in Illinois after the Senate on Sunday, June 2, approved a bill passed a day earlier by the House.
Buried on page 170 of an 800-page bill providing funds for vertical infrastructure projects is a usage tax increase on cigarettes and a new tax on e-cigarettes.
The language increases the state's current $1.98 per-pack cigarette tax by $1, and is expected to generate about $159 million in revenue per year, according to advocates. That new money will go toward capital projects including building construction, land acquisition and utilities improvements.
In his February budget outline, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed increasing the usage tax on cigarettes by only 32 cents, about one third of the number approved by the House Saturday.
The legislation also incorporates the initiative of Sen. Terry Link, a Democrat from Indian Creek, to include electronic cigarettes — such as e-cigars, vapes or hookahs — in the state's definition of a tobacco product so Illinois can charge a usage tax on them too.
That tax is set at 15 percent of the wholesale price of such products. It is unclear how much revenue will be generated, advocates say, because there is no regulation on that classification of goods.
The new taxes on both cigarettes and electronic cigarettes will take effect July 1, 2019.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: The Senate on Sunday, June 2, voted to permanently legalize medical marijuana in Illinois. The House OK'd the measure the previous day.
Lawmakers approved a pilot program for medical marijuana legalization in 2013 that is set to expire next year.
Rep. Bob Morgan, a Deerfield Democrat, said Senate Bill 2023 stabilizes the program, clarifies who can be certified patients, and adds a social equity component. The bill also adds 11 new qualifying conditions, including chronic pain, migraines, anorexia, and irritable bowel syndrome.
"There are tens of thousands of patients in Illinois that are relying on us to get this done, to stabilize and continue and extend this program for them," Morgan said from the House floor Saturday evening.
WORKPLACE HARASSMENT: All businesses in the state would need to provide workplace sexual harassment training to employees under a robust bill approved by the Senate on Sunday, June 2, and the House a day earlier.
Senate Bill 75, carried by Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, requires all employees to provide workplace sexual harassment training at least once a year and advises workers on steps they can take after reporting incidents of harassment or discrimination.
The bill extends to the private sector many of the same increased workplace protections of a 2018 bill addressing sexual harassment policy in the Legislature.
Rep. Ann Williams, a Chicago Democrat who carried SB 75 in the House, said the legislation is the "next step in a series of bills" to strengthen workplace protections regarding sexual harassment statewide.
Under the new bill, failure to train employees could result in a $500 penalty to businesses with fewer than four workers, or a $1,000 penalty to those with four or more.
FOID OVERHAUL: Rep. Kathleen Willis said she was "extremely disappointed the Senate chose not to call" her bill to increase Firearm Owner's Identification card fees and mandate fingerprinting before the end of session.
Willis, a Democrat from Addison, said she remains committed to working on the bill over the summer with hopes of reviving it during the fall veto session, a brief two-week period in November when lawmakers return to the Capitol.
"I always find bills can find ways to be better," Willis said.
Under Willis' proposal, both new applications for FOID cards and five-year card renewals would cost $20, up from the current cost of $10. The fees would have gone toward law enforcement revocation efforts.
"The bottom line is we need to fix the revocation system, and there's no doubt about that," Willis said.
The increased fees and a mandate that FOID applicants be fingerprinted drew opposition from those who questioned the bill's constitutionality and believed the increased fees would cost too much.
PROPERTY TAXES: A pair of bills aimed at addressing Illinois' high property tax costs passed the General Assembly on Friday, May 31, and will head to the governor.
The property tax bills became part of the conversation this session at the request of several "swing" votes on the constitutional amendment, and were backed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
One bill, Senate Bill 39, will establish a "property tax relief fund," which would be used to pay refunds to Illinois property taxpayers, but it would be subject to the appropriations of future General Assemblies and would not take effect until January 2021.
It passed the House 98-16 Thursday night with one voting present, and it passed the Senate 56-0 with one present vote Friday.
"This bill will create a mechanism that will allow the General Assembly to provide direct property tax relief to every single homeowner in the state of Illinois," Rep. Daniel Didech, a Buffalo Grove Democrat and the bill's House sponsor, said.
Didech said a property tax task force will meet this summer in an effort to identify revenues for the fund and find other ways to provide property tax relief, and the General Assembly will decide on revenues in the future.
The legislation creating the task force passed both chambers Friday after heated debate Thursday night which led to a late amendment being pulled from the House record.
Republican Minority Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, pointed out the late amendment removed the authority of Republican lawmakers to appoint members to the task force.
"This is the first time in my time down here that the rights of the minority party have been completely trampled on an issue that you claim is important," Durkin said. "But you're saying in here that Republicans don't matter. We have no voice in this committee. Shame on you."
The sponsor of the bill, Democratic Rep. Jonathan Carroll of Northbrook, said the language was provided by the governor and he eventually pulled it from the record after initially refusing.
By Friday, Carroll added a fourth amendment to Senate Bill 1932 including the minority leaders in the task force appointment process once again.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit news service operated by the Illinois Press Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Illinois. The mission of Capitol News Illinois is to provide credible and unbiased coverage of state government to the more than 400 daily and weekly newspapers that are members of the Illinois Press Association.
J.b. Pritzker
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Home » Jewish Holidays » Shavuot » Themes
Shavuot: The Holiday for the People of the Book
by Rabbi Jonathan Feldman, PhD
The centrality of Torah in a Jew's life.
Shavuot could be considered the holiday of the book. Unlike Rosh Hashanah which has the shofar, Chanukah which has the menorah and Sukkot which has the four species and the sukkah, Shavuot has no concrete symbol. Since it is the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, the custom is to engage in Torah study. More recently the custom is to stay up all night studying Torah.
We sometimes hear Jews referred to as 'The People of the Book.' Paradoxically this term actually comes from the Koran, not from Jewish sources. For many it emphasizes the Jewish focus on education, and achievement in education. Jews, until recently, made up 25% of many Ivy League schools. The People of the Book have garnered over 20% of Nobel prizes even though Jews make up only .02% of the population. It is difficult to determine the figures for Jewish literacy in the past, however it does appear that historically it was well above that of the general population. Eighteen hundred years before the Western world, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Gamliel instituted universal education for children in Jewish communities (see Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 21a).
It has been suggested that Jewish success in education, and as a result in general society, is largely a result of the importance placed on education in Jewish society and culture. My grandmother's mantra to me was to acquire as much education as I could because "they cannot take it away from you." This was spoken from first-hand experience; before WWII she and my grandfather had their home and business taken away from them in Austria when they were in their fifties and had to start over again in America. I absorbed the message and wound up with two advanced degrees.
Yet if we trace it back, we see that the Jewish emphasis on education does not come from a cultural value; it comes from the importance placed upon Torah study. This is embodied in the Rabbinic statement that we recite daily in the morning prayers, "Talmud Torah is equal to them all [honoring one's parents, acts of kindness and other primary mitzvot]" (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 127a).
One of the features of a religious Jewish home is the prominent display of books. Having Torah books in a central place in the home projects a message of the primary importance of Torah study in our lives.
Rabbi Judah Halevy, the Spanish philosopher, physician, and poet expressed his love of books this way: "My pen is my harp and my lyre, my library is my garden and orchard" (Brodi p.166). Implicit is the message that the garden is meant to be harvested. The Talmud tells us that this means incorporating Torah study into the pattern of our lives.
Shammai tells us that we should make Torah a consistent part of our lives (Avot 1:15). One of the top five questions we will be asked when we reach the world to come is "Did you set aside regular times for Torah study?" (Shabbat 31a) Torah study is not a mere hobby; it is the primary activity of a Jew's life.
Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai over 3000 years ago, and our transmission of the teachings over 3000 years of Jewish history. Jewish holidays are not just commemorations of the past. Like the Passover Haggadah tells us to actually re-experience the Exodus, so too on Shavuot, we bring ourselves to re-experience the receiving of the Torah, and we re-dedicated ourselves to our commitment to Torah by studying Torah. This opportunity can extend the rest of the year as reflected in this teaching of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: every day a voice comes out from Mount Horeb (Mt. Sinai, Avot 6:2).
So whether you stay up all night studying Torah, or find time to do some studying your own, this Shavuot, let's recommit ourselves to learning Torah and making it a consistent part of our daily life throughout the year.
Rabbi Jonathan Feldman, PhD
Rabbi Jonathan Feldman is Community Educator for Am Yisrael Foundation, an organization that runs cultural, social and Torah programming for young olim and expats who have come to Tel Aviv from all over the world. He was formerly Associate/East Side Director of Manhattan Jewish Experience for 17 years, working with Jewish young professionals on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Rabbi Jonathan grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After attending Cornell University he started studying Torah at Yeshiva Aish Hatorah and eventually received his Rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and his Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from New York University. He has lectured widely and has taught at Stern College and Yeshiva University. He, his wife and two of their children acted on their dream and made Aliyah this past summer and never looked back (although he does visit the States occasionally). They and enjoy working on their Hebrew, exploring the more remote parts of the land of Israel and learning to become sabras.
For more content visit the author's website at www.rabbijonathanfeldman.com
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In the past few years, the brewery scene in Birmingham has really skyrocketed. Craft beer is no longer a second option, it's not seen as "fussy" or "fancy." Local breweries have become places to relax and grab a beer with a friend, or a spot to settle in with your pup and groove to some low-key live music.
Expand your palette with IPAs, kettle sours, brown ales and more. Testing the water (err… the hop-infused water) at local breweries is a great way to learn about what kind of flavors you prefer and the styles of beer you really enjoy. Birmingham breweries are exceeding expectations with their increasingly speedy output of new beer styles and flavors, sometimes weekly.
Interested in taking a spin around the Magic City and seeing the city the brewery way? Lucky for you, I did some very sophisticated and high-level brewery research to help you out. I've mapped out a pretty well-structured order in which to visit the breweries, with a quick jaunt out to Trussville for the newcomer on the scene, Slagheap Brewing.
As always, please make sure you have a designated driver if you plan to consume alcohol — especially if you plan to be hopping around town drinking beers.
Seasonal Beer: Cahaba currently has a few special beers on tap. The Oktoberfest beer is a fall seasonal, but they also have a beer called DD's Cherry Hibiscus Sour, which benefits the Breast Cancer Research Center of AL, and one called Sweet Lady IPA $1 of which goes to Ales for ALS.
Atmosphere: Relaxed, open, laid back. They have TVs for sports as well as skee ball and arcade games.
Fun Fact: The brewery is housed in an old depot building.
Seasonal Beer: Avondale currently has a Märzen Oktoberfest beer on tap, but their sours are what they are brewing and selling right now.
Atmosphere: Relaxed, fun, dogs everywhere. Because Avondale has a large patch of grass in their patio (which feels more like a friend's backyard), this is an extra dog-friendly place to be.
Events: Magic City AIDS Walk on October 14.
Fun Fact: Avondale Brewery also has a separate Sour Room for their sour beers. It is located in the parking lot adjacent to the brewery, next to Wasabi Juan's.
Seasonal Beer: High Hazard Tropical DIPA, a summery double IPA with coconut and pineapple. Great for the hot beginning days of Fall!
Atmosphere: Back Forty boasts a full restaurant as well as an on-site brewery. Get the fries. Thank me later.
Upcoming Events: Boos and Brews benefitting Mitchell's Place on October 23.
Fun Fact: This brewery has 2 locations. The original location is in Gadsden, and the Sloss Docks location is their second.
Seasonal Beer: Nothing on tap yet, but we've been told that they are working on a brew made with locally-grown Golden Kiwis!
Atmosphere: While Slagheap is the smallest brewery, the vibe was very cool. Joe Meadows, the owner, was front and center engaging with customers in the stylish subway-tiled taproom.
Upcoming Events: The brewery often hosts food trucks, like the new hand-pies truck, The Anatomy of Pi.
Fun Fact: Meadows supplies beer to the bakery across the street, Great Harvest Bread Company, where the baker makes bacon-cheddar-beer bread. I've heard great things about this bread.
Seasonal Beer: Ghost Train has been serving their cheesecake series for a little while, and their Peach Cobbler is another delicious play on a fruity, cinnamon-y dessert.
Atmosphere: Comfortable, with sofa-style seating outside and a stage inside for live music.
Upcoming Events: Redemptive Cycles' Tall Bike Joust on October 13.
Fun Fact: Ghost Train now distills their own gin and vodka – you can order a spirit next time you stop in!
Seasonal Beer: The Holiday Now Cranberry Spice beer is a seasonal play on their fan-favorite beer, the Raspberry Berline Weisse Paradise Now.
Atmosphere: The brewery showcases and sells art from local artists and plays old-school movies on the projector screen. They host DJs regularly and have a selection of board games for guests.
Upcoming Events: Tour de Brewers XIII – Oktoberfest Edition on October 20.
Fun Fact: The 205 Pale Ale was just named the best beer in Alabama!
Seasonal Beer: Mumbai Rye IPA, a classic Fall IPA from Good People that was just released this season.
Atmosphere: Picnic tables outside encourage outdoor relaxing. They also have giant Jenga games for guests to play. The location is right across the street from the Baron's stadium, which brings a fun atmosphere to the area.
Upcoming Events: Paints and Pints on November 7.
Fun Fact: Good People is the oldest brewery in the state of Alabama.
Photo via Red Hills on Facebook.
Seasonal Beer: Caught in the Rye IPA, a refreshing and light IPA perfect for Fall!
Atmosphere: Laid back and family friendly. Play darts or drink your beer in a one of a kind wooden booth.
Upcoming Events: No events on the schedule, but Red Hills is always open to scheduling you and your friends or co-workers for your next big gathering.
Fun Fact: "Sal" the Salamander is the brewery mascot.


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Senior Leaders Across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Make Commitment to STOP Suicide
Senior leaders from organisations across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have united in their commitment to get behind the countywide ambition to end suicide.
At a STOP Suicide event, hosted by gaming company Jagex and local mental health charity Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire (CPSL) Mind, on World Suicide Prevention Day – 10th September – more than twenty influential figures in local organisations were equipped with life-saving skills as they came together to take the national Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) training.
Steve Mallen, a founding member of the ZSA, then challenged attendees to encourage all staff in their organisations to also take the training before World Mental Health Day on 10th October thus creating a suicide-safer community.
The ZSA training is a free online session which takes just twenty minutes to finish and can be completed by anybody. It aims to enable people to identify when someone is presenting suicidal behaviour, to be able to speak out in a supportive manner and to empower them to signpost the individual to further support.
Aly Anderson, CEO of CPSL Mind, said "Our local STOP Suicide campaign highlights the fact that suicide is everybody's business. You don't have to be a mental health professional to identify warning signs and have direct conversations about suicide.
Providing individuals and organisations with suicide prevention skills by sharing the ZSA training is really important in ensuring that our community is well equipped to save lives."
The partnership between CPSL Mind and Jagex on the STOP Suicide campaign has already been a huge success in raising awareness of suicide prevention across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Their 2018 campaign push created millions of opportunities for people to see clear messages encouraging direct conversations about suicide and their work locally has been shortlisted for three national awards.
Kelvin Plomer, Director of Player Experience at Jagex said: "Jagex is a very proud supporter of CPSL Mind and we are extremely grateful to our staff and our players for supporting our fundraising which enabled the charity to launch the May 2018 Stop Suicide awareness campaign.
CPSL Mind's commitment to the awareness campaign is ongoing and vitally important as they empower communities to prevent suicides across our region. Today's event was a key further step in engaging further organisations in their work."
To take the life-saving ZSA suicide prevention training yourself visit https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/
If you are experiencing an emotional or mental health crisis, there are people who can help you.
People living in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough can access mental health support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year via the NHS First Response Service by calling 111 and selecting option 2.
People outside of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are encouraged to call the Samaritans on 116 123. This is also a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year helpline.
Further support can be found here: https://www.cpslmind.org.uk/need-help-now/


You should never, but overuse the credit just to earn more points, and is a trap numerous fall into. Virtually in contemporary automobiles today, there needs to be an automobile computer system that control crucial jobs from the autos, especially engine control module. The sales of arcade games have become prominent utilizing the objective to entertain more and more people at the same time.
That sounds about as safe and secure a posture when I've have you ever heard and one fantastic reason not to have work. We had been marched into a gymnasium where there were card board bins prepared on to the ground. If this credit is utilized to get some thing, the seller gets the content right after which the bank will reimburse the seller right after which the financing card owner will spend the lender.
And luckily for us for us, there is a device that could do this for us. In the event that language is unclear or complicated whatsoever, ensure that the product sales associate means it individually. You will find additionally viewed a 50percent increase in fuel economy and increased fuel consumption.
There are lots of available to choose from that sell premium pre-owned personal computers. Would it be residential, business, car computer? A really common use of touchscreen is within the Carputer (indicating car + pc) Touch displays are put in in autos to supply much better number of functions compared to the typical automobile stereos as they devices enrich the quality of experience. By going online you will be able to collect home elevators the different models and companies.
Report all thefts instantly: the next you understand the credit card is actually missing out on, phone the financing card issuer but it canceled . The subsequent can give you tactics as to how you are going to explain to you the company card printing jobs. Fixing all of them never really operates.
Ensure you get the program version because wireless internet isn't available almost everywhere. To get power from engine to your wheels, the most effective way may be the clutch. More over, a motor vehicle that fails an emission examination is actually a car computer exchange which will have serious difficulties with their computer systems. You could make this technique acquainted with coiled electrode cables that pull hydrogen from drinking water.
The Central Processing Unit heat settles at around 50-60c depending on the outdoors heat. Nevertheless've also heard every disturbance regarding the frauds and fishing traps on the market. Here is the most popular gasoline alternative that motorists are employing nowadays.


Party Animal Pittsburgh Steelers Night Light is rated 4.0 out of 5 by 1.
Bring a piece of your favorite team into any room in your home with the Party Animal® Pittsburgh Steelers Night Light.
Rated 4 out of 5 by steelers58fan from Very happy with this light. I use it in the bathroom and it does the job. The light is a bit brighter when you turn it on manually rather than leaving it on automatic.


There appears to be children who come into this earth, those who you would say were bad seeds, who are often spirits who made the wrong choice in coming to earth in the time they reincarnated. They are oftentimes children who are born into families of extreme distress, extreme anger, and to use your earth words, extreme dysfunctional environment.
Question 361: Where do good and bad human qualities come from? Answer: From the spirit who is incarnated in the person. The purer the spirit is, the more inclined to goodness a person will be.


ORLANDO, Fla. – Baseball fans thought it took Bryce Harper a long time to sign with a new team.
Francesco Molinari, one of golf's most high-profile free agents this year, has found a new home with Callaway Golf. The company announced on Tuesday they have signed the Italian to a multi-year endorsement deal beginning with this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Molinari, who told GolfChannel.com that he began testing new equipment in October and that he has been playing Callaway clubs since January, won three times around the world in 2018 including The Open Championship, He also went 5-0-0 at the Ryder Cup for Europe.
Molinari will play the company's Epic Flash Sub Zero driver, Epic Flash Sub Zero fairway woods, Apex MB 18 irons, Mack Daddy 4 wedges and an Odyssey Toulon Madison putter, but the biggest change for players is always transitioning to a new golf ball.


Manchester City have signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Gatorade.
The agreement will see the PepsiCo-owned brand become the team's official sports nutrition partner. Gatorade products will be used by City teams and staff during matches and training, while the club's in-house sports scientists will work with the Gatorade Sport Science Institute (GSSI) on nutrition programmes.
In addition, Gatorade will enjoy a range of branding rights and will collaborate with City on the development of a behind-the-scenes video series.
"We're delighted to be teaming up with a global leader in Gatorade," said Damian Willoughby, senior vice president of partnerships at City Football Group. "Gatorade's knowledge and commitment to sports nutrition through innovative scientific research speaks for itself. Our team of sports scientists will work closely with the GSSI team to find new ways to support and fuel our players, both on and off the field.
"Gatorade is a globally recognised brand with a fantastic relationship with competitive athletes in the United States and all around the world. After a successful Manchester City US pre-season tour in summer 2017, coupled with our growing presence and fanbase in the US and globally, Gatorade are the perfect partner for us.
Anuj Bhasin, the head of global marketing for Gatorade, added: "Gatorade is excited to partner with Manchester City, to help fuel City athletes to perform at their best through the latest sports fuelling innovation.


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Q: Array of Buffered Readers in JAVA Is it possible to have an array of Buffered Readers like
 BufferedReader[] b = new BufferedReader(5);

and Initialise them individually like
b[0] = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("foo"));

A: If you change BufferedReader() to BufferedReader[] it is possible:
BufferedReader[] b = new BufferedReader[5];//<-- correct size declaration of array

b[0] = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("foo"));

BufferedReader(5) results in a compiler error in your IDE..

A: Yes it is possible but you're using the wrong syntax to create the array. It should use square brackets to specify the array size instead of parentheses:
BufferedReader[] b = new BufferedReader[5];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, & More To Perform…
The lineup also includes Chaka Khan, John Mayer, Tori Kelly, Anita Baker, Doug E. Fresh, Luke James, Bilal, and Mint…
The 2016 BET Awards Honors Prince With A…
BET delivered on their promise to rightly honor the Purple One
Madonna And Stevie Wonder Tribute Prince At Billboard…
Here's The FULL WINNERS LIST From Last Night's…
Follow @RachelBogle The Weeknd and Adele were the BIG winner's last night at 2016 Billboard Music Awards. But just in…
What's Happening In Hip-Pop: Stevie Wonder Pays Homage…
Prince might be gone but his legacy will live on forever. Yesterday, hundreds gathered together to honor the Purple One…
QOTD: MAX, Who Are You Listening To?
We caught up with singer/actor MAX to find out what music he's playing when he has a little downtime, and…
Stop Everything You're Doing & Watch Stevie Wonder…
Dab on 'em, Stevie.
Stevie Wonder To Pay $25K A Month In…
A Los Angeles judge has finalized Stevie Wonder's divorce from his second wife, a move that will include some hefty…
Watch Stevie Wonder Attempt To Drive On Hilarious…
R&B legend Stevie Wonder headed out west to have a karaoke session with UK comedian James Corden.
Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, & Stevie Wonder "California…
Go get yourself a medical marijuana card, because that's how California rolls. Snoop Dogg offers a trip into the future in…
Late Night News Recap: Snoop Dogg Drops Teaser…
Snoop Dogg has been receiving tons of high remarks for his new album BUSH, and now he's making sure to keep…
Snoop Dogg Unveils Tracklist For 'BUSH'
Snoop Dogg has finally released the official tracklist for his highly-anticipated album BUSH, and it's pretty star-studded. While the project is…
Beyonce Shares Pics Of Rehearsals For Stevie Wonder's…
Stevie Wonder Tribute: Beyonce Rips It; J Hud…
Some of music's living legends and hottest stars came out to pay homage at the Songs in the Key of Life:…


A plasma display from Sony. See more HDTV pictures.
For the past 75 years, the vast majority of televisions have been built around the same technology: the cathode ray tube (CRT). In a CRT television, a gun fires a beam of electrons (negatively-charged particles) inside a large glass tube. The electrons excite phosphor atoms along the wide end of the tube (the screen), which causes the phosphor atoms to light up. The television image is produced by lighting up different areas of the phosphor coating with different colors at different intensities (see How Televisions Work for a detailed explanation).
A new alternative has popped up on store shelves: the plasma flat panel display. These televisions have wide screens, comparable to the largest CRT sets, but they are only about 6 inches (15 cm) thick. In this article, we'll see how these sets do so much in such a small space.
If you've read How Television Works, then you understand the basic idea of a standard television or monitor. Based on the information in a video signal, the television lights up thousands of tiny dots (called pixels) with a high-energy beam of electrons. In most systems, there are three pixel colors -- red, green and blue -- which are evenly distributed on the screen. By combining these colors in different proportions, the television can produce the entire color spectrum.
The basic idea of a plasma display is to illuminate tiny, colored fluorescent lights to form an image. Each pixel is made up of three fluorescent lights -- a red light, a green light and a blue light. Just like a CRT television, the plasma display varies the intensities of the different lights to produce a full range of colors. On the next page, learn how the plasma works.


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[100% OFF] TikTok Marketing 2020: Grow Your Account & Master TikTok Ads
byAdmin • May 30, 2020
Did you know that TikTok is currently the fastest growing social media platform in the world, with more than 2 billion downloads and 800 million monthly active users?
Did you know that TikTok is currently the most downloaded app in the world, outpacing YouTube, Facebook, and even Instagram?
Did you know the average use time in app for a TikTok users is 62 minutes?
TikTok is the hottest social media platform out there and its growing 4x as fast as Facebook did when it first started.
Everyone agrees: TikTok will replace Instagram as the 'king of social media".
Your instructors:
Darius Moravcik is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Reflectly, a rapidly growing mindfulness mobile app. He's also a 2-time Udemy instructor, with over 7,000+ paying students and 300 5-star reviews.
Evan Kimbrell is in the top 1% of Udemy instructors with over 30 courses on Entrepreneurship & Marketing. His courses have over 500,000 students, 39,000+ 5 star reviews, and have been covered in publications such as TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Buzzfeed.
If you're unsatisfied with the course in any way, you can get a full refund within 30 days of purchase.


text:
Trump Administration Delayed $20 Billion in Hurricane Aid To Puerto Rico
A housing department watchdog report published Thursday found that the Trump administration withheld $20 billion in aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, then obstructed the investigation into the delay.
According to the report, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "unnecessarily delayed" the funds with "bureaucratic obstacles."
Among other hurdles, OMB imposed several prerequisites for the money, including requiring certain grants to go through a time-consuming interagency review that had never been previously mandated for disaster aid.
Investigators were unable to determine why the review was needed because top officials, including former Housing Secretary Ben Carson, refused to give them essential information and interviews.
HUD Inspector General Report
The administration of former President Donald Trump delayed more than $20 billion in hurricane relief to Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the stalled funds, according to a report by the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published Thursday.
The publication of the 46-page report comes over two years after Congress requested an investigation into delays of aid for the territory after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, killing thousands and leaving many without power or water for months.
That investigation revealed that the essential funds had been "unnecessarily delayed by bureaucratic obstacles" set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
According to the watchdog, the OMB, operating under Trump, insisted that as a prerequisite for the aid, Puerto Rico needed to overhaul its property management records, suspended its minimum wage on federal contracts, and take other actions that some HUD officials worried were beyond the agency's authority to impose.
Additionally, in 2018, OMB began requiring all HUD grants to go through a lengthy interagency review process before receiving approval, thus preventing the housing agency from finalizing its draft notice of funding by the target date.
That requirement, the inspector general found, had never before been mandated for disaster recovery aid, and there had not been any previous discussions about the extra step.
The investigators were not able to determine why the reviews were being required, due to "denials of access and refusals to cooperate."
Senior Officials Refuse to Comply
Per the publication, access to HUD information was delayed or denied multiple times throughout the investigation, and several senior administration officials in the OMB also refused to provide requested information regarding the funds.
Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson and another top department official also declined to be interviewed by investigators during the probe. Carson previously defended the delay in aid to Puerto Rico, citing concerns about corruption and the local government's ability to manage funds.
Trump repeatedly used the same argument to justify his adamant opposition to providing aid to the island while also falsely disputing the death toll and damage caused by Maria.
Reports from the HUD inspector general's office published last year did state that Puerto Rico was in need of a better system for monitoring federal grants after the hurricane. However, the reports also found that Texas and Florida had similar issues, and their disaster funds were not held up.
The Washington Post reported in 2019 that Trump had told aides he wanted more money to go to Florida and Texas, and for none to be given to Puerto Rico.
The inspector general report comes just days after President Joe Biden's administration removed Trump-era restrictions that limited Puerto Rico's access to HUD recovery funds and unlocked an additional $8.2 billion in federal mitigation funds.
Since 2017, the federal government has allocated nearly $69 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from Maria and other natural disasters that followed the storm, but, according to the Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience, just $19 billion of that has been distributed.
See what others are saying: (The Washington Post) (NBC News) (The Guardian)
Related Topics:Ben CarsonBiden AdministrationDisaster AidDisaster ReliefDonald TrumpFeaturedGrantsHousing and Urban DevelopmentHUDHurricane MariaHurricane Recovery AidHurricane ReliefInspector GeneralInvestigationJoe Bidennatural disasterOffice of Management and BudgetOMBPuerto RicoPuerto Rico AidTrump Administration
Experts Say J&J Shot Is Safer Than Aspirin, but Many Are Still Unwilling To Get It
Capitol Rioter Arrested After Bragging To Unimpressed Bumble Match Who Turned Him In


Hydrology Research (2016) 47 (6): 1198-1210.
The problem of seawater intrusion is encountered in almost all coastal aquifers. Because of its higher density, the seawater migrates inland into freshwater aquifers even without any pumping activities. Excessive pumping of groundwater would accelerate seawater intrusion. Climate change and sea level rise represent critical parameters affecting the rate and degree of seawater intrusion. In this paper, a coupled transient finite element model for simulation of fluid flow and solute transport in saturated and unsaturated soils (2D-FEST) is employed to study the seawater intrusion in the Nile Delta aquifer. The results of the current model are compared to results of SEAWAT for model verification. The (2D-FEST) model is used to investigate seawater intrusion considering the impacts of climate change. Three scenarios are studied: (a) rise in sea level, (b) decline of the piezometric head at the land side due to excessive pumping, and (c) combination of sea level rise and decline of the piezometric head. The results show that the rise in the sea level has a significant effect on the position of the transition zone. The third scenario represents the worst case under which the groundwater quality would deteriorate in large areas of the Nile Delta aquifer.


I am a professor at the Desautels Faculty, McGill University and an associate fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. For the last 10 years I have worked closely with Henry Mintzberg running leadership programs. Before that I was on the faculty from 1995-2000 at Oxford University. I have also taught executive education at LBS, INSEAD, Cornell, Duke, Darden and Cambridge. I've authored 28 refereed journal articles, 10 books and over 2,000 Google Scholar citations.


You're hopefully here because you're eager to improve your soul tending skills and reap some of the benefit from stepping away from the stress, stuck + overwhelm in your daily lives. Well, you're not alone.
Starting Saturday, September 1st – there will be one prompt for every day of September. Each prompt is designed to help you take some time to pause your routine in exchange for quality moments of rest.
I know it can be difficult to step out and do new things – hello, it's my first Instagram Challenge – but doing it within a community of others who are also new and trying, can help make it a little easier. This Instagram challenge is designed to help you develop some new habits and insights, but is also to help you give to and share with others. An idea that comes easily to you (and that you post – using the hashtag) could be exactly the spark of encouragement that another person struggling with that prompt may need.
This challenge is supposed to help you tend to your soul – that's the most important thing – but it's also supposed to be F-U-N! Be creative, include your family, co-workers, friends or even strangers! To participate, follow the prompts and tag your photos on your feed and in your stories with #SoulTendingSeptember and @reginasather. I'll be following along and selecting a couple of favorites for each prompt to share in a weekly update here on Simply Sather!
Invite your followers to join in. The more, the easier because, well…we're better together!


text:
package org.jbpm.workbench.common.client.menu;

import java.util.Iterator;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import javax.enterprise.context.Dependent;

import com.google.gwt.core.client.GWT;
import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.Composite;
import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.Widget;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.AnchorListItem;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.Button;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.ButtonGroup;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.DropDownMenu;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.constants.ButtonSize;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.constants.IconType;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.constants.Styles;
import org.gwtbootstrap3.client.ui.constants.Toggle;
import org.jbpm.workbench.common.client.resources.i18n.Constants;
import org.uberfire.mvp.ParameterizedCommand;

@Dependent
public class ServerTemplateSelectorViewImpl extends Composite implements ServerTemplateSelectorMenuBuilder.ServerTemplateSelectorView {

    private Constants constants = Constants.INSTANCE;

    private DropDownMenu dropDownServerTemplates;

    private Button serverTemplateButton;

    private ButtonGroup serverTemplates;

    private ParameterizedCommand<String> changeCommand;

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        serverTemplateButton = GWT.create(Button.class);
        serverTemplateButton.setText(constants.ServerTemplates());
        serverTemplateButton.setDataToggle(Toggle.DROPDOWN);
        serverTemplateButton.setSize(ButtonSize.SMALL);

        dropDownServerTemplates = GWT.create(DropDownMenu.class);
        dropDownServerTemplates.addStyleName(Styles.DROPDOWN_MENU + "-right");

        serverTemplates = GWT.create(ButtonGroup.class);
        serverTemplates.add(serverTemplateButton);
        serverTemplates.add(dropDownServerTemplates);

        initWidget(serverTemplates);
    }

    @Override
    public void selectServerTemplate(final String serverTemplateId) {
        for (Widget widget : dropDownServerTemplates) {
            if (widget instanceof AnchorListItem && ((AnchorListItem) widget).getText().equals(serverTemplateId)) {
                selectServerTemplate((AnchorListItem) widget);
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void addServerTemplate(final String serverTemplateId) {
        final AnchorListItem serverTemplateNavLink = GWT.create(AnchorListItem.class);
        serverTemplateNavLink.setText(serverTemplateId);
        serverTemplateNavLink.setIcon(IconType.SERVER);
        serverTemplateNavLink.setIconFixedWidth(true);
        serverTemplateNavLink.addClickHandler(e -> selectServerTemplate(serverTemplateNavLink));
        dropDownServerTemplates.add(serverTemplateNavLink);
    }

    protected void selectServerTemplate(final AnchorListItem serverTemplateNavLink) {
        final boolean serverChanged = serverTemplateNavLink.getText().equals(serverTemplateButton.getText()) == false;
        unselectAllServerTemplateNavLinks();
        serverTemplateNavLink.setActive(true);
        if (serverChanged) {
            serverTemplateButton.setText(serverTemplateNavLink.getText());
            if (changeCommand != null) {
                changeCommand.execute(serverTemplateNavLink.getText());
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void clearSelectedServerTemplate() {
        serverTemplateButton.setText(constants.ServerTemplates());
        if (changeCommand != null) {
            changeCommand.execute(null);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String getSelectedServerTemplate() {
        final String serverTemplate = serverTemplateButton.getText();
        return serverTemplate.equals(constants.ServerTemplates()) ? null : serverTemplate;
    }

    @Override
    public void removeAllServerTemplates() {
        final Iterator<Widget> iterator = dropDownServerTemplates.iterator();
        while (iterator.hasNext()) {
            iterator.next();
            iterator.remove();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void setServerTemplateChangeHandler(final ParameterizedCommand<String> command) {
        changeCommand = command;
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    private void unselectAllServerTemplateNavLinks() {
        for (Widget widget : dropDownServerTemplates) {
            if (widget instanceof AnchorListItem) {
                ((AnchorListItem) widget).setActive(false);
            }
        }
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Eli Dourado Wonders: Maybe America is Simply too Big (2016):
But I want to focus on something else. I can't shake the idea that we're way out of equilibrium in terms of optimal country size. If this idea is correct, then at least some of our problems could be the result of a mismatch between reality and the unexamined assumption that we all have to be in this together.
He goes on to summarize a classic paper on optimal country size, concluding:
…if economic integration prevails regardless of political integration—say, tariffs are low and shipping is cheap—then political integration doesn't buy you much. Many of the other public goods that governments provide—law and order, social insurance, etc.—don't really benefit from large populations beyond a certain point. If you scale from a million people to 100 million people, you aren't really better off.
As a result, if economic integration prevails, the optimal country size is small, maybe even a city-state.
The number of independent nations in the world has been roughly tripled over the last century. As for the United States:
In his book American Nations, Colin Woodard argues that North America is actually composed of 11 distinct cultures, each dominant in different parts of the continent. Many of our internal political divisions—over gun control, the death penalty, abortion, the welfare state, immigration, and more—may actually reflect these cultural differences.
Given what we know about optimal country size, a monolithic America makes less sense today than it did a century ago. What made America into the superpower that it is today is its massive internal free trade area. Now that trade barriers have declined worldwide, this is less of an advantage than ever before. It's not at all clear that this diminishing advantage outweighs the cost of our divisive politics based on unshared cultural assumptions.
All of which argues for a look at a pamphlet I edited, with some help from Charlie Keil, Thomas Naylor's Paths to Peace: Small Is Necessary (Local Paths to Peace Today))
Tags: economics, politics, Thomas Naylor
Categories Economy, Great Rebalancing, Politics, Positive Visioning, Resilience, Subsidiarity
Yes, citizen Trump has played a major role in the parade of accusations, albeit an indirect and unintended role to be sure.
The president of the United States serves two functions: 1) he governs the nation and, 2) he's a symbol of the nation. The British separate these functions. The monarch is a symbol of the nation, but has no power to govern. The monarch doesn't introduce legislation or sign it, doesn't negotiate and sign treaties, doesn't issue regulations, and so forth. Those are functions of government, and those functions belong to the prime minister. But the prime minister is not asked to shoulder the burden of being a national symbol.
It is in his role as national symbol that citizen Trump has motivated and energized these women to tell their stories. As a symbol of the nation citizen Trump represents our ideas and ideals, our hopes and aspirations, our values and commitments. These women are telling us that they do not want a sexual predator as the symbol of our nation, and they are saying this in the most powerful way that they can, but outing the powerful men who have preyed on them.
No more!
To be sure, citizen Trump is not the first president with unsavory sexual attitudes and actions. But he has come to office at a time when the press, for whatever reason, has decided that it will no longer look the other way. Moreover, he has come to office, not from a career in politics, but from a show-biz career. Thus it is fitting that men in show business are among the most prominent predators being called to account before the public, if not before the law.
Yes, Ronald Reagan was a movie star. But he came to the presidency after two terms as governor of California. And he knew something that 45 does not, he knew there was a deep and fundamental distinction to be made between his personal interests and activities and his actions as head of state. Citizen Trump treats that distinction with utter contempt and disdain, the way he treats women.
By ignoring the distinction between his person and the nation he governs, citizen Trump dishonors and damages the nation. Powerful men ignore a similar distinction, perhaps even, when you think about it, the same distinction, when they prey on women who serve them. When these women speak out to demand recognition, redress, and above all, dignity and respect, they are by that fact speaking on behalf of the nation. Let them and their actions symbolize these United States of America.
Tags: harassment, politics, sexual assault, Trump
Categories Photo, Politics, Positive Visioning
Sometimes David Brooks Makes Sense: After the Women's March
From today's NYTimes:
In the first place, this movement focuses on the wrong issues. Of course, many marchers came with broad anti-Trump agendas, but they were marching under the conventional structure in which the central issues were clear. As The Washington Post reported, they were "reproductive rights, equal pay, affordable health care, action on climate change."
These are all important matters, and they tend to be voting issues for many upper-middle-class voters in university towns and coastal cities.
Alas and alack:
But this is 2017. Ethnic populism is rising around the world. The crucial problems today concern the way technology and globalization are decimating jobs and tearing the social fabric; the way migration is redefining nation-states; the way the post-World War II order is increasingly being rejected as a means to keep the peace.
All the big things that were once taken for granted are now under assault: globalization, capitalism, adherence to the Constitution, the American-led global order. If you're not engaging these issues first, you're not going to be in the main arena of national life.
There it is again, the problems of the nation-state.
Now he gets down to the nitty-gritty:
Without the discipline of party politics, social movements devolve into mere feeling, especially in our age of expressive individualism. People march and feel good and think they have accomplished something. … It's significant that as marching and movements have risen, the actual power of the parties has collapsed. Marching is a seductive substitute for action in an antipolitical era, and leaves the field open for a rogue like Trump.
Alas, he's right: "Identity-based political movements always seem to descend into internal rivalries about who is most oppressed and who should get pride of place." But I'm not at all sure about Brooks's prescription:
If the anti-Trump forces are to have a chance, they have to offer a better nationalism, with diversity cohering around a central mission, building a nation that balances the dynamism of capitalism with biblical morality.
Can "the nation" be repaired in that way? Color me skeptical.
Tags: nation, nation-state, NYT, politics, protest
Categories Great Transition, Politics
Is universal mistrust the moral foundation of this stage of capitalist society?
Over at Crooked Timber Corey Robin has a post, The Bernie Sanders Moment: Brought to you by the generation that has no future. Here's the first paragraph:
Last week I met with a group of ten interns at a magazine. The magazine runs periodic seminars where interns get to meet with a journalist, writer, intellectual, academic of their choosing. We talked about politics, writing, and so on. But in the course of our conversation, one startling social fact became plain. Although all of these young men and women had some combination of writerly dreams, none of them—not one—had any plan for, even an ambition of, a career. Not just in the economic sense but in the existential sense of a lifelong vocation or pursuit that might find some practical expression or social validation in the form of paid work. Not because they didn't want a career but because there was no career to be wanted. And not just in journalism but in a great many industries.
The discussion has been going on a bit, as many discussions do at Crooked Timber. I was particularly struck by this observation by George Scialabba (comment 156):
It would be interesting to know, if one could quantify such things, what proportion of all the communications one receives (or better, perhaps, the stimuli one experiences) in an average day are some form of advertising or marketing. I'd guess a large majority. In which case, a hypothesis presents itself: the nature and function of human communication has altered. Through most of history, the default reaction to any communication was "this is what the speaker believes." One needed only to judge the credibility of the speaker in order to know how to act. In the 21st century, after generations of saturation advertising, much or most of it deceptive or at least manipulative, the default reaction is "this is what the speaker, for some purpose of his/her own, wants me to believe." Virtually all public communication may safely be presumed to be aiming at some effect, rather than simply at conveying information or conviction. Finding out what the speaker actually believes, much less what's actually true or false, is the hearer's responsibility: caveat auditor. Universal mistrust is the moral foundation of this stage, at least, of capitalist society. Hence, honesty is no longer the best policy.
Tags: advertising, politics, wlb
Categories CorpState, Good Information, Politics
Why is there so little opposition to the hegemony of the super-rich?
What we have here is a failure of political memory and imagination.
Naomi Klein reviews The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser, in The NYTimes. Her opening salvo"
In 2014, when Oxfam arrived in Davos, it came bearing the (then) shocking news that just 85 individuals controlled as much wealth as half of the world's population combined. This January, that number went down to 80 individuals.
Fraser terms out current era the second Gilded Age. The first ran from the end of the Civil War through to the stock market crash of 1929. In that first Gilded Age:
American elites were threatened with more than embarrassing statistics. Rather, a "broad and multifaceted resistance" fought for and won substantially higher wages, better workplace conditions, progressive taxation and, ultimately, the modern welfare state (even as they dreamed of much more).
So far there is little popular resistance in the current Gilded Age. What's missing?
Fraser offers several explanations for the boldness of the post-Civil War wave of labor resistance, including, interestingly, the intellectual legacy of the abolition movement. The fight against slavery had loosened the tongues of capitalism's critics, forging a radical critique of the market's capacity for barbarism. With bonded labor now illegal, the target pivoted to factory "wage slavery." This comparison sounds strange to contemporary ears, but as Fraser reminds us, for European peasants and artisans, as well as American homesteaders, the idea of selling one's labor for money was profoundly alien.
This is key to Fraser's thesis. What fueled the resistance to the first Gilded Age, he argues, was the fact that many Americans had a recent memory of a different kind of economic system, whether in America or back in Europe. Many at the forefront of the resistance were actively fighting to protect a way of life, whether it was the family farm that was being lost to predatory creditors or small-scale artisanal businesses being wiped out by industrial capitalism. Having known something different from their grim present, they were capable of imagining — and fighting for — a radically better future.
It is this imaginative capacity that is missing from our second Gilded Age, a theme to which Fraser returns again and again in the latter half of the book. The latest inequality chasm has opened up at a time when there is no popular memory — in the United States, at least — of another kind of economic system. Whereas the activists and agitators of the first Gilded Age straddled two worlds, we find ourselves fully within capitalism's matrix. So while we can demand slight improvements to our current conditions, we have a great deal of trouble believing in something else entirely.
Tags: economics, inequality, politics
Categories Great Rebalancing, Great Redistribution, Inequality
Obama Needs to Think SERIOUSLY Before Committing Us to an Unwinnable War in Syria
Questions for President Obama — Before He Pulls the Trigger on Syria (via Moyers & Company)
Let us posit that the Syrian government did, in fact, order last week's chemical attack that killed hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women, children and others who had not taken up arms against the Assad regime. In Washington, the eagerness…
Tags: Libya, Middle East, politics, syrian government
Categories War & Military
The Pope and the Dalai Lama
Have they ever met, the Pope and the Dalai Lama?
I'm sure that many individual Roman Catholics and many individual Tibetan Buddhists have met. Perhaps some are neighbors and tend flower gardens side-by-side. Perhaps some've discussed their religious beliefs in a panel discussion at some august university. And perhaps some have just met in passing at a bus stop. But met they have in the course of their lives.
The Pope and the Dalai Lama are different. They are the heads of their religious groups. They have responsibilities and symbolic significance. They represent Roman Catholicism and Tibetan Buddhism to the outside world and, of course, to their followers as well. The Pope and the Dalai Lama are not merely individuals, but they, if you will, are offices too. Offices that individuals occupy, for a time. But the office itself persists.
The Papacy is unoccupied as I write this. There is no Pope, only a conclave of cardinals seeking to elevate one of their number to that office. It is otherwise with the Dalai Lama. That office has an incumbent.
I suppose that the Pope is more visible in the world than the Dalai Lama and considerably more powerful too. Yet I also suppose that while all those cardinals are aware of the Dalai Lama, he isn't necessarily aware of any of them beyond a few particularly prominent ones. There is a difference between the head and the rest, a dramatic difference. Continue reading →
Tags: conclave of cardinals, dalai lama, human rights, politics, pope, religion, roman catholicism, tibetan buddhism, tibetan buddhists, TNT
Categories Great Revaluing, Politics
Bleg: Beyond/Beneath the Nation-State
Two days ago I put up a post in which I asserted, by the time-honored method of pulling it out of my arse, that
in the long run, more and more political action which shift to cities and thereby 'hollow out' the increasingly sclerotic system of nation states which governs the earth and the global level. In a century the nation states will be husks of what they are now and most of the world's civic business will be conducted by shifting coalitions of cities and regions.
I'm interested in exploring that notion.
Anyone have ideas, suggestions for things to check out, etc.? Any relevant science fiction?
In that post I cited, as examples,
the Second Vermont Republic, a group of citizens who want Vermont to secede from the USofA,
the Transition Town movement, folks who are adamantly apolitical but who, in anticipation of peak oil, are working toward local self-sufficiency in food and energy and all that that implies, and
Mayors of Peace, an international organization of cities seeking to end nuclear weapons by 2020.
What else is there like that, where "like that" is interpreted generously? Continue reading →
Tags: charter cities, China, climate, Mayors for Peace, Native Americans, politics, secession, Second Vermont Republic, sister cities, Tibet, transportation, tribes
Categories CorpState, Great Localization, Great Rebalancing, Great Reskilling, Great Revaluing, Great Transition, Politics, Positive Visioning, Resilience, Subsidiarity
Jill Stein Needs Your Help, Running Green, Running for Peace
URGENT! PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!
FROM: David Swanson, Medea Benjamin, Leah Bolger, Bruce Gagnon, Chris Hedges, George Martin and Kevin Zeese
Dear Friends in the Peace Movement,
We can't afford to let this opportunity slip by. By taking action over the next five days the peace community has a chance to inject a compelling and courageous peace advocate into the 2012 presidential campaign, to have a voice in the national debate over war, militarism, and military spending.
You know what is going to happen if we leave this election up to the two major party candidates. President Obama will defend his troop surges, his excessive Pentagon budgets, his preparations for war with Iran, his escalation of the drone wars, his crackdowns on whistleblowers, his indefinite detention policy, and his new role as manager of the White House assassination list. Mitt Romney will not question these policies, but will promise to pursue them with even more enthusiasm. In debates and interviews, the American people will have the Big Lie drilled into their consciousness: that our nation must accept escalating military engagement and must visit worldwide violence against all who defy the U.S. government. Continue reading →
Tags: 2012 presidential race, green party, jill stein, physicians for social responsibility, politics
Categories Climate & Environment, Cost of War, Politics, War & Military
A Practical or Coalition Strategy for "Truth and Traditions" Party as Paleocon Greens
By Charlie Keil
There is NO split in the Republican Party unless there is a real T for Truth Party that old-fashioned, paleo-conservatives can vote for happily with confidence and in good conserving conscience. By Traditions, plural, we mean the diversity of eco-moralities that once upon a time (pick your pre-industrial era) kept all of us in some kind of balance with "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." If there is no real TnT Party most of those Ron Paul teaparty voters stay trapped inside the Republican Party at election time. You can guess who will win big in 2012, a divided but 'big tent' Republican Party. Same party that elected colorful women to governorships in New Mexico and North Carolina. Continue reading →
Tags: charlie keil, climate, green party, occupy wall street, peak oil, politics, ron paul, science
Categories Climate & Environment, CorpState, Cost of War, Economy, Great Transition, Politics


Fried stuffed pizza dough also called fried calzone.
Stuffed with freshly sliced ham, mortadella, salame. Wonderful for parties!
Pizza dough balls stuffed with mozzarella, tomato sauce, origano and whatever you wish to add. Deliciusly as light as a cloud.
TORTA PASQUALINA – Pasqua in Italian means Easter. This cake originates from the 1400 and it is a typical dish of my birth region Liguria. It is usually filled with chard but also spinach or other green leaved vegetables or even artichokes, ricotta cheese and eggs. Tradition in the making of this cake wants the use or 33 super fine like pasta sheets as a reference to Jesus' years. I only use 3 or 4 sheets. The bubble at the top comes from my mum. She use to blow air inside the pasta sheet before sealing it in order to create this nice bubble. This Ligurian speciality is consumed cold. It is the perfect picnic or banquet food . There is a lot of work in the making of this cake but the final result is well worth it.
POLPETTONE Green beans and potatoes. Another one of my mum's home recipes.
RUSSIAN SALAD HAM ROLLS IN BEEF JELLY Great "antipasto" dish to be eaten cold possibly accompanied by crackers breadsticks, bread, focaccia and so on. Another one of my mum's appetisers often present during special meals.
PARMIGIANA Fried sliced locally produced aubergines and layered with only using top quality ingredients. Fried exclusively in extra virgin olive oil!
made with grilled aubergines, parma ham, mozzarella, tomato sauce by Mutti, spices including Italian oregano.
made with asparagus, parma, cheese and béchamel sauce.


A great personal development tip is to figure out exactly what you want. If you have vague or hazy goals, it's not likely that you'll get anywhere near accomplishing them. Clear and focused goals are much better to have because they give you a sense of purpose everyday.