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ACLU explains its review board letter
Posted By Chris Potter on Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:15 AM
As the Pittsburgh Comet and other media outlets have noted, the ACLU has warned city officials that the current effort to replace members of the Citizens Police Review Board has been ... well, problematic.
For the most part, the ACLU's letter covers territory already discussed here. It argues that the appointment process has been undermined by unclear language, and that the city has failed to follow even requirements that are clearly spelled out. It proposes that the current board members be allowed to continue to serve as if they had been appointed to full four-year terms, and replaced as those terms expire. (Which dovetails with a previous suggestion I've made, but that no one seemed to like.)
The city solicitor -- surprise, surprise -- has argued that the nomination process is consonant with city law. But I spoke to ACLU attorney Sara Rose about her organization's letter, and about the ACLU's concerns about the city's handling of G-20 issues generally. A partial transcript of that discussion follows.
Full disclosure: Rose and the ACLU represented City Paper in a suit to open up courtroom proceedings in the divorce case of Richard Mellon Scaife last year.
What motivated the ACLU to send this letter?
We've been contacted by various community members -- notably B-PEP and the Thomas Merton Center -- who are upset about everything that has been going on. But in particular they're upset about the way that these nominees were being put forth.
Have you heard a response from anyone at the city?
I have not heard anything. It's my understanding that the council still has to confirm the nominees. We're going to see whether that happens. If they do, we'll have to consider what actions can be taken.
I think those would be invalid appointments, and [if council approves them under the current circumstances] we could go to the court of common pleas. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. The reason this is so important is that the review board is supposed to be an independent agency. This process compromises the board.
But aren't you worried about opening a can of worms here? Your letter contends that several of these appointees -- the ones controlled by council -- should have been submitted to the mayor by a formal council resolution. But that doesn't seem to have happened when it comes to selecting the current board members. So if the new board members don't pass muster, does that invalidate actions taken by the old members? I mean, could a police officer challenge a ruling against him by the old board, saying the board wasn't duly constituted?
Well, the review board doesn't have any disciplinary power, so --
OK, bad example. But could the city say, "The review board initiated this G-20 investigation, but its members were not duly appointed, so this whole investigation is problematic"?
I don't think that could actually happen. I don't see how they could say, "You weren't appointed in the right way, so this board has no authority." A statute of limitations might apply [since the current board members were all appointed at least four years ago]. And they've already been before Judge [Stanton] Wettick, who is going to make them follow the law. [Wettick has, in fact, previously ruled in the review board's favor on requests for G-20 documents.]
Your letter contends that the city code required council to submit its nominees to mayor by resolution. But that's not actually what the city code says. The code did require a resolution back when it was time to propose the original board members, but the part of the code that speaks to filling vacancies doesn't mention a resolution at all. Doesn't that strengthen the argument that the process used here was acceptable?
The way courts read things, you have to read this altogether. The fact that it requires the resolution [originally] would suggest that's how it's supposed to be done [subsequently]. And even if it isn't done by resolution, the code says there has to be three people submitted for each seat. So the question becomes how do you do that? I think in this case, it was council members acting on their own, rather than a joint effort. But there's got to be some formal process for council to choose which nominees it is going to pick, and submitting those picks to the mayor.
There are some concerns that the ACLU may have a vested interest in trying to protect the current board. The fear all along here has been that the review board's G-20 inquiry may turn up material that could make it easier to sue the city. The ACLU is already suing the city on behalf of groups who claim they were harassed during G-20. So can't this be construed as an effort to get your hands on additional material for your case?
We've already served discovery requests in the Seeds of Peace case [although the city is trying to delay the request]. We have had absolutely no discussion with the review board -- no input at all -- about their requests. I don't even know what they've asked for. It has nothing to do with why we sent this letter.
Some city councilors have said they are afraid that a G-20 related lawsuit might name them individually. And that they could lose their homes as a result. As the organization representing plaintiffs in current litigation, does that seem plausible to you?
Council members thought they would be sued? It would be incredibly difficult to link individual council members to any arrests of people during G-20.
In fact, [in the current G-20 litigation] Judge Gary Lancaster removed Mayor Ravenstahl, [police chief] Nate Harper and [public safety director] Mike Huss from our lawsuit. [Rose notes that if something turns up in discovery tying those officials directly to unconstitutional actions taken by police, they may be reinstated, but] the Supreme Court has heightened pleading requirements when you file a lawsuit. The evidence you have when you file a lawsuit must be higher [to name a given official].
But I can't think of a single case in which we've ever sued any kind of legislator for damanges. We've sued for injunctive relief -- to overturn actions they've taken as a legislative body. Maybe something will turn up in discovery, but I don't see how council members are going to be individually liable. They have legislative immunity. What did council do? It's kind of intriguing that they're so worried.
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New sheriff in town in stolen-gun legal battle
Posted By Chris Potter on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:24 PM
At first blush, there wouldn't seem like much new in a Commonwealth Court ruling on Pittsburgh's stolen gun ordinance. In a decision echoing a ruling upheld by the state Supreme Court weeks ago, a three-judge panel tossed out a challenge of the law for a lack of standing.
But this decision, unlike some previous cases, suggests the NRA may have a new gunslinger on its side.
Gun owners detest the city's ordinance, which requires them to report a lost or stolen firearm within 24 hours of discovering its absence. (The legislation is intended to curtail "straw purchases" of guns bought by third parties, who pass the firemarms along to someone barred from owning a gun themselves.) But generally, before you challenge a law, you have to show that you actually stand to be harmed by it. And so far, no one has been charged under the Pittsburgh ordinance, or the Philly law upheld previously. As a result, judges have found that none of the plaintiffs -- who include the NRA and several gun-owners -- have been in a position to complain about it.
The Commonwealth Court's opinion followed that earlier reasoning -- which is no surprise since it issued a very similar ruling on the Philly matter almost exactly a year ago. So once again, we seem to have a weird sort of Mexican standoff -- all the parties are itching to fire, but everybody's gun is loaded with blanks.
But this ruling is notable for a dissenting opinion by Judge P. Kevin Brobson.
Formerly a Pittsburgh-based attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Brobson was elected to the court last year. So he didn't take part in the earlier deliberations over the Philly bill. And his dissent makes clear that he didn't share the court's logic, either.
Brobson points out that by the standards set out by the court, "the only person who may lodge a pre-enforcement challenge to a criminal ordinance is a person who ... either (a) admits that he or she has already violated the ordinance ... or (b) commits to violating the law.
That leaves gun owners with a "Hobson's choice," he says: "either comply with a law you believe is unlawful or subject yourself to possible criminal prosecution."
I'm no lawyer, but Brobson seems like a deft writer and thinker. For one thing, there's this little zinger:
We must not presume that the citizens of the Commonwealth will blithely choose to violate a law and risk criminal sanctions for the sole purpose of proving the law's invalidity any more than we should presume that a local government would enact a law, regulation, or ordinance that it has no intent to enforce.
The emphasis there is mine. On the one hand, Brobson is saying that there's no excuse for leaving a bad law on the books -- even if we don't think it will ever be used. But to me, it also sounds like Brobson is slyly suggesting that this particular law may never actually be enforced. Certainly, as we've reported before, Pittsburgh police are taking their sweet time about charging anyone with it. (It may be worth noting that the ordinance became law without Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's signature, which suggests a lack of enthusiasm on the administration's part.)
In any case, Brobson concludes, gun owners "have a direct and immediate interest sufficient to bring this pre-enforcement challenge." And thus the challenge should go forward.
The NRA has endorsed that logic. Which is hardly surprising, since the NRA endorsed Kevin Brobson himself in 2009. The group plans to appeal the three-judge panels' decision to the full Commonwealth Court. The sniping will no doubt continue there. But it seems like this time, the NRA will have some help from a savvy legal sharpshooter.
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Mayor finally keeps an appointment
Posted By Chris Potter on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 4:53 PM
I've received confirmation that today, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl submitted to council the names of nearly two dozen people he is nominating to various boards and commissions. So now we all have something to look forward to next week.
The city clerk's office is not yet releasing the names of the appointees, or the positions they have been selected for. That information, I'm told, is not public record until formally presented at council's regular session next Tuesday. But the office did confirm that 23 nominations have been sent over for council approval, and you can find plenty of likely posts by clicking around the list of boards and commissions, looking for expired terms. (Note: Some of the online information about these appointments may be more outdated than the appointments themselves.) Can it be, for example, that it is finally time to replace Sergei Matveiev -- who left his city post last year -- on the Historic Review Commission? (Answer: No, it can't. But it's too boring to explain why. Let's just move along.)
It's been common practice to leave some seats vacant -- or filled by members on expired terms -- for years. So why the rush now? Well, the move comes as the city's slip-shod appointment process has become a flashpoint of controversy. In addition to City Paper's constant whining about it, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette issued an editorial today faulting the process used to name new members of the city's police review board.
What's more, on Tuesday city councilor Bill Peduto fired off a letter to city solicitor Dan Regan regarding the review-board appointment controversy. The letter raises some arguments I noted last week -- namely that replacing a board member with an expired term is not the same as filling a vacancy.
Writes Peduto, "[T]his Administration has repeatedly stated that appointees may continue to serve after a term expires and the seat should not be considered vacant. Why in this case is the Administration following the Code for filling a vacancy?"
With luck, today's events mean the mayor is trying to get out ahead of these problems in the future. I mean, there actually are things I'd rather write about ... though at this point, I wouldn't blame you if you find that hard to believe.
City Council: the fear of fear itself
Posted By Chris Potter on Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 7:34 PM
Yesterday's Tribune-Review had a story illuminating city council's recent hostility toward the Citizens Police Review Board. And by a strange coincidence, I had a column out the same day covering some of the same ground. Once again, in other words, I march in lockstep with the minions of Richard Mellon Scaife.
There's a reason city council has pushed the review board to ease up on looking into last year's G-20 summit. Both stories report that councilors were given a warning by the city law department. If the review board turns up material that could weaken the city's defense, councilors were told, the city could lose a multi-million-dollar insurance policy covering police actions during the event.
The Trib story, however, adds a note that I didn't have space to get into. Councilors aren't just worried about the city's bottom line. They are afraid for their personal bank accounts too. Some councilors, it seems, are fretting that they may be held personally liable for any civil-rights judgments.
As the Trib quotes Theresa Kail-Smith saying, "We could lose our homes over this. If we don't have insurance, then [the liability] falls to us."
I have heard this misgiving expressed by other city officials as well. And on paper, at least, there's something to it.
An action against the city will likely allege a civil-rights violation under section 1983 of the federal civil-rights law. That section asserts
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured
Put simply, if you use government authority to violate someone's civil rights, you can be held personally liable. Which is what Kail-Smith and others seem to be afraid of.
But things are not that simple. Or that scary.
As a whole slew of court cases has established, it's hard to sue government officials in their personal capacity -- especially when they are legislators whose actions are limited to casting votes and other official business. Among the precedents, for example, is Tenney v. Brandhove, a 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decison. (This case involved a state legislature rather than a local government, but the principle is similar. And anyway, the ruling includes the priceless observation "One must not expect uncommon courage even in legislators.")
The court held that legislators should be "immune from deterrents to [carrying out] their legislative duty" -- not for their own sake, but for the sake of the people they represent. What if an official was looking over his or her shoulder every time a vote came up, worried that an aggrieved citizen could take away the councilor's home? That would deny the rest of us adequate representation by our officials. It would result in legislative paralysis, or even silly non-binding resolutions urging paralysis on others.
That's not to say a city councilor could never be held personally liable. Truly flagrant abuses could result in personal liability.
But in this case, "[I]t is extraordinarily unlikely -- extraordinarily far-fetched -- that council members will be held liable," says Joseph Mistick.
Mistick ought to know: He's a Duquesne University law professor, and a former city of Pittsburgh official during the administration of Sophie Masloff. And though he's been around for decades, "I can't remember any case like this in which it went to personal assets.
"We've seen a series of police-brutality cases" over the years, Mistick points out. "But I don't see how they've affected members of council personally." Hell, council just voted to settle two police-misconduct cases earlier this month. And while the ACLU has already filed suit against the city on behalf of two plaintiffs, no members of city council are included as defendants.
So what's going on here? It's simple, Mistick surmises.
"Someone is trying to scare the hell out of council members. And obviously, they have."
John Fetterman and Braddock: living by the seat of their pants (UPDATED)
According to the New York Times, Levi Strauss is set to launch a new marketing campaign -- one that uses the long-struggling Mon Valley town of Braddock as a backrop. Residents of the town will be used as models.
Warning: The Times article contains the word "gritty," in accordance with journalism rules governing the coverage of Mon Valley towns. (Though the word "hardscrabble" is absent. Must be an oversight by the copy desk.) Also per media guidelines, the story notes that Mayor John Fetterman has a tattoo of Braddock's zip code on his arm.
Says the paper of record:
Levi Strauss executives plan to put their money where their pants are, donating more than a million dollars over a two-year period to assist Braddock in renovating a community center and further developing an urban farming program.
And the company will forgo using models for the campaign, instead casting residents of the Braddock area and paying them to appear in the ads. Some ads will include the words "Braddock, Pa." in a corner.
Braddock will also have a star turn on an hourlong show "sponsored by Levi's, to appear online and on the IFC and Sundance cable channels."
Now I know what you're thinking, and so does John Fetterman.
"Across the board, it is an authentic, organic partnership," Mr. Fetterman said. "At no point did it ever feel it was a marketing campaign."
"They didn't show up with magic beans and a couple pairs of free jeans and say, 'Come be in our ads,' " said Mr. Fetterman ...
For instance, a young single mother who recently lost her job will appear in print ads and billboards, Mr. Fetterman said, and "the money she received helped out a lot."
Fetterman seems to have some weird gift for attracting publicity to his neck of the woods. Media types can hardly help fixating on his size and skin art. (And no, City Paper is not immune.) Nor is Levi's the first bunch of folks to see Braddock as an emblem of America's efforts to pick itself up off the mat. Earlier media coverage has made Braddock a veritable metaphor for the nation's post-post-industrial malaise.
Hell, this isn't even Fetterman's first experience with ad campaigns: The subject of a full-blown Rolling Stone profile, he was also a pitchman for a green technology campaign. Now apaprently it's his constituents' turn to be featured.
Fetterman's an utterly sincere guy; besides, he can crush me like the tiny insect I am. Braddock deserves every break it can get, and Levi's deserves credit for making a meaningful investment. Still ... am I the only one who feels like there's something unappetizing at how modish the town's hardship has become? I mean, at this point, you've gotta feel for the places like McKeesport, Duquesne, and Rankin -- places struggling just as much, but without even the consolation of a single Geico ad.
That isn't Fetterman's fault of course; his job is to worry about Braddock, and that's enough for any man. But if I were a Mon Valley official, I'd be shopping around for tattoos and waiting for my close-up.
UPDATE: Fetterman called me up a little bit ago, and wanted to stress that he himself will not be making any additional cash from the Levis campaign: It's all going to community projects, or individual members of the community.
Echoing remarks I quoted above, Fetterman said that "this wasn't a typical 'pose here, pose there, let's be a bunch of circus poodles'" type promotion. "It was a completely dignified process" he says -- and you aren't going to start seeing Levi's logos appearing on street signs, either.
Fetterman seemed sensitive to the idea that anyone would see any sign of self-promotion in this. "Everything I'm trying to accomplish here is to improve the quality of life in this community," he says, noting that he has turned down other offers that didn't further that goal: "I've had two dozen reality-show offers, but I don't take any of that stuff seriously."
Fetterman, of course, agrees that other Mon Valley towns deserve attention and help too, and what to do for them "really is a serious question."
After all, he says, "The Mon Valley can't count on the creative class" -- a reference to Richard Florida, the former CMU professor whose ideas on talent attraction have long been a punching bag for Fetterman. And even charities and other social service providers have let the area down. Braddock, after all, lost a hospital operated by UPMC last year.
"The state's biggest charity bailed on our town," says Fetterman. "And then Levis came in -- and was totally genuine."
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Pittsburgh blow-up masks real challenge in regulating gas industry
Posted By Chris Potter on Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 1:11 PM
At city council yesterday, an argument broke out -- surprise! -- over efforts to regulate drilling of the Marcellus Shale within city limits.
City councilor Patrick Dowd, whose district is rife with talk about future drilling, has proposed an early draft of a bill to try and regulate such operations within city limits. The measure envisions such modest demands as requiring a minimum lot size of 15 acres for any drilling operation, and a 1,000-foot buffer separating such operations from any public building.
Dowd's measure was not embraced by the gas industry, nor by more strident councilors Bill Peduto and Doug Shields, who want an outright ban.
But unfortunately. both sides have something in common. The worrisome truth is that whether you want an outright ban or something less ambitious, the law isn't on Pittsburgh's side. In fact, due to a legal loophole I'll explain toward the end of this post, even a miniscule community like, say, Lower Burrell may have more control of its destiny than we do.
Gas drilling is regulated by the state's Oil and Gas Act. And Section 602 of the act makes clear that "No [local] ordinances or enactments ... shall contain provisions which impose conditions, requirements or limitations on the same features of oil and gas well operations regulated by this act."
This is what the lawyers call pre-emption: When the state passes a law govering some activity, those regulations trump any local ordinances that might try to regulate the same activity.
Section 602 does make one notable exception to the preemption: zoning. By law, municipal zoning rules can apply to gas drilling. So a city could, for example, preclude a gas driller from putting a well in a residential community. (Unless, again, that city is Pittsburgh. Like I say -- more on that in a bit.) But there are some real limits to that power.
Generally speaking, zoning focuses on what the courts have called "how-versus-where" matters. Local officials can use zoning law to determine where a gas well can be installed ... but once a valid site is chosen, local officials have only limited say in how it does business.
In fact, the state Supreme Court has already rejected one community's efforts to limit the growth of the gas industry. In a 2009 ruling, the court held that Salem Township had overstepped its authority in trying to set rules for gas drillers. The Westmoreland County community required, for example, that gas drillers seek permits from the township itself before drilling began. It set requirements for restoring drilling sites once the job was over. And it established rules for building gas lines and water-treament facilities while the drilling was going on.
The Supreme Court tossed out all those rules -- largely because they were pre-empted by the state law. "[T]he Ordinance reflects an attempt by the Township to enact a comprehensive regulatory scheme relative to oil and gas development," the ruling held. And that, see, is a bad thing.
Dowd's legislation is still in its very early stages, of course, and seems less stringent than the Salem ordinance. Some of its rules would almost certainly pass muster -- like its ban on lighting that shines into residential homes. But I can already imagine a lawyer making a stink about other provisions.
For example, Dowd's bill calls on a gas-driller to do soil testing before drilling begins and after it ends -- and mandates environmental remediation to repair any damage. That's a great idea, but it also seems duplicative of the Oil and Gas Act's provisions on well-site restoration.
So if even Dowd's fairly tepid bill might run into trouble, you can probably imagine how an outright ban -- a la Shields and Peduto -- would fare. Using zoning for such purposes, anyway, is always problematic. A 1967 state Supreme Court rulng, for example, held that "[a] zoning ordinance which totally excludes a particular business from an entire municipality must bear a more substantial relationship to the public health, safety, morals and general welfare than an ordinance which merely confines that business to a certain area."
Of course, drilling critics argue, that's just the point: There really IS a "substantial relationship" at stake here. And drilling is arguably so dangerous that in a densely populated city, only an outright ban makes sense.
As a matter of fact, some of those critics are probably wondering where I'm getting my legal knowledge from. Some industry front-group? The city solicitor?
God forbid. The analysis above is largely informed by a conversation with John Bailllie, the senior attorney for the environmental group PennFuture. Baillie and I didn't discuss the merits of Dowd's bill, and he's not an expert in zoning per se. But he says that in general, "Municipalities have very little control over gas-drilling."
In fact, Baillie says, Pittsburgh may have less control than almost anyone else. Remember up above, when I said state law makes an exception for zoning ordinances? That was only partly true. It makes exceptions for ordinances "adopted pursuant to the act of July 31, 1968 (P.L. 805, No. 247), known as the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code." That law established zoning rules for every municipality -- every township and borough in the state -- except for two. One was Philadelphia. Can you guess which the other is?
That's right: Pittsburgh's zoning law was created by a separate state law, in 1927. And that law is not mentioned in the Oil and Gas Act. Which Baillie says could be construed to mean that "Pittsburgh has less protection than almost anywhere else." (As for Philly, no one's really talking about drilling for gas there anyway.)
Baillie says that the omission was "probably just an oversight." But it's one that needs to be fixed. And in fact, House Bill 2213 -- a key reform measure currently idling in committee -- closes that loophole.
Even so, Baillie says that for environmentalists, "Increasing local control can be a double-edged sword." Sure, "some muncipalities would use it to go in the right direction," he says. "But for others, it could be a race to the bottom" -- with local politicos whoring out their communities to gas companies.
Which is something to think about. I'm not counselling resigned despair by Pittsburgh's city council. (Like I said, I didn't get my legal advice from the city solicitor.) Local zoning controls are clearly important. But let's say Pittsburgh does manage to keep its own water pristine, its land unsullied by drilling. What happens if Rankin, say, or Fox Chapel, or some other desperate place rolls over for a gas-driller ... and that driller then pollutes the Mon or the Allegheny? Sadly, zoning regulations don't apply to pollution.
HB2213 does a lot more than fix a quirky loophole for Pittsburgh's benefit. It would implement far stricter environmental protections throughout the state. I'm all for city officials focusing on city stuff. That's what we pay these guys for, and as I wrote recently, cities have special concerns when it comes to gas drilling. But for good or evil, the real action here is to be found in Harrisburg.
Art at Pittsburgh Public Theater
Posted By Bill O'Driscoll on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 1:12 PM
I won't call it "smart," because that would be redundant: Everything about Yasmina Reza's neo-classic is smart, and likewise this Ted Pappas-directed production. But there's one passage in the play that illuminates a lot about both Reza's craft and the themes of her cunning take on the vagaries of long-term male friendships.
The passage occurs late in this concise, intermissionless play, as the three characters finally drag the tensions between them into full light.
Till now, the conflict has been mostly between Serge, a dermatologist, and Marc, the engineer who thinks his buddy Serge is an idiot for paying a small fortune for a white-on-white abstract painting. But the long, climactic scene turns the focus on Yvan, the mediator and accommodator in this friendship triangle.
Yvan (played by Harry Bouvy) is the least professionally successful of the three, having just switched from one undesired job to another; he also has a private-life disaster waiting to happen, via a seemingly unadvisable marriage.
While Serge (Darren Eliker) and Marc (Rob Breckenridge) verbally -- and almost physically -- duke it out, Yvan lets drop an observation from his therapist (whom the intellectually overbearing Marc has, naturally, already announced is a fool).
I'm paraphrasing: "If I am who I am because I am who I am, and you are who you are because you are who you are, then I am who I am and you are who you are. But if I am who I am because you are who you are, and you are who you are because I am who I am, then I'm not who I am, and you're not who you are."
The neurotic Yvan's reading of his handwritten crib from his therapy session draws a nice laugh, and predictable derision from his two friends. But it's a measure of Reza's sophisticated structuring that this seeming bit of double-talk is actually one of the play's key points: Over 15 years, the friends have molded each others' lives so much that, when they are together, at least, they are no longer three individuals, but rather a unique sort of symbiotic organism -- one that requires its own kind of care to survive.
"Your friends need to be chaperoned, or else they'll get away," notes Marc at one juncture. It's a truism that, characteristically, cuts a couple ways, at least one of them ironic and at least one other poignant. And its an observation the Public's staging nicely follows up on in the closing scene, when the show's straightforward lighting scheme turns soft and shaded, suggesting relationships that might proceed with more thoughtfulness and less taken for granted.
Art continues at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (www.ppt.org) with eight more performances through Sun., June 27.
Tags: Program Notes
A quick thought before today's council meeting (UPDATED)
Posted By Chris Potter on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 11:49 AM
As I type this, council is set to meet in just a few minutes. Among the items slated to come before it are Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's proposed new board members for the Citizens Police Review Board. Today's Post-Gazette, meanwhile, features city council president Darlene Harris expressing bafflement at claims by Bill Peduto and others on council, who say they didn't have a chance to weigh in on a list of council nominees before they were sent to the mayor:
Mrs. Harris and Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, chairwoman of council's public safety committee, reiterated Monday that all council members had the chance to put in names.
Mrs. Harris said council members received at least four e-mails on the issue from her, Ms. Kail-Smith and the city clerk's office. Ms. Kail-Smith said she stopped in her colleagues' offices to remind staff members of the need to fill board seats.
I'm willing to bet that's true, whatever protests Peduto voiced to me late last week. I've since seen a purported copy of one of those e-mails myself. If that all pans out, Peduto and Co. deserve even more blame than I doled out last week. Not only should they have recognized the abstract threat reprseented by having current members serving expired terms, but they obviously should have responded to the immediate request for input.
That said, I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes from a legal perspective. As I pointed out last week, the city code's language on reappointing board members is vague where the review board is concerned. But about the only clear provision is this one:
[T]he Mayor shall fill [each] vacancy by appointing the Board member from a new list of three (3) nominations submitted by Council
Council only submitted seven names for four seats under its jurisdiction. That's five short of what it is obliged to do. Blame Peduto for that if you wish, but council as a body didn't live up to the requirements under the code. To me, that makes the nominations it sent over flawed. And while Peduto has only himself to blame for the part he played in this, he raised a good point with me: Issuing a list of nominees by formal resolution -- rather than by informal chain e-mail -- is a much saner way to go about this.
I mean, what the hell. In other news yesterday, the city's financial overseers demanded that council jump through some extra budgetary hoops before hiring a consultant to review plans to lease the city's parking garages. I don't see anything wrong with that request on the face of it. But if council has to follow the rules for choosing who reviews the future of city parking garages, it ought to follow the rules when it comes to choosing who review the police.
But we'll see whether anyone else agrees.
UPDATE: Well, that was ugly. There was Theresa Kail-Smith, saying she was "disgusted" by councilors who raised a stink about the process while not doing their "damn jobs." And then things REALLY got frosty.
Here's what I think: Everyone is right.
Theresa Kail-Smith and Darlene Harris were right to fault critics of the nomination process for not taking part in it by submitting their own nominees. Kail-Smith and Harris argued passionately that they had sought feedback through a handful of e-mails and a drop-by-office visits. And I sure didn't hear much that sounded like a denial from anyone on the other side of the table. Which struck me as a pretty damning silence.
Harris and Kail-Smith also argued, as I pointed out last week, that such a process was similar to the one used to appoint council nominees for the Ethics Hearing Board, and some other appointments as well.
On the other hand, I think Bruce Kraus and Bill Peduto et al. were right about the larger picture here. Just because there's a precedent for this sort of thing doesn't make it right. For starters, the ethics board is a godawful model for appointments. Created 20 years ago, it has been moribund for much of its two-decade history. During the fleeting administration of Bob O'Connor, ethics board members were appointed, but didn't have their first meeting until a year later.
You could probably get council to agree on changing the rules going forward, such that this sort of thing won't happen again. I think it's pretty apparent to all concerned that the existing rules don't make much sense. The problem is that there is so much controversy about what is happening now, with the board members currently on the table. As Kail-Smith acknowledged, Ravenstahl's timing here has upped the ante considerably. And I don't see either side backing down.
So what happens if a majority of council passes these nominations, but critics insist that the underlying nomination was improper? Will there be a court case about whether the review board can continue with its court case? Will we have a review-board-in-exile? All I know for sure is this. By summer's end, a majority of Ethics Hearing Board members will be serving on expired terms too. If council doesn't act more proactively in that case, it's time to give up hope entirely.
On natural gas special, WPXI gives us plenty of gasbags
Posted By Chris Potter on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 8:35 AM
Those of us who don't have cable, and couldn't see Gasland on HBO last night, had to make do with "Fueling Pittsburgh," WPXI's special on the region's burgeoning energy industry. I mean, I suppose we could have just read a book instead, but come on.
I expressed some misgivings about the program in a blog post yesterday, noting that its sponsors were big players in the gas-drilling business. And truth to tell, it was sometimes hard to tell where the ads stopped and the show itself began. (The program also was sponsored by Westinghouse and -- surprise, surprise -- safe, clean nuclear energy was featured prominently.)
But, like the blowout of that well in Clearfield County, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. You can't say WPXI ignored environmental issues, exactly. But it never really confronted anybody with them either.
The first thing you noticed was how breathless the hour-long special was. Things moved fast. There was almost no explanation of how horizontal drilling worked, or what exactly "fracking liquid" was -- even though it was repeatedly cited as a source of environmental concern. And WPXI's on-air talent are clearly dazzled by the economic possibilities of fuel sources like the Marcellus Shale (which as Danielle Nottingham told us, provides "clean-burning, job-producing natural gas").
"By some accounts, energy exploration in western Pennsylvania is the new gold rush," co-host Peggy Finnigan enthused as the broadcast wrapped up. By that point, in fact, a spokesman for gas-driller Range Resources had assured us that while "In many ways, the technology we use is second only to NASA." (Even so, he added, there's a place for you even if you don't have a high-school diploma:"[A]s long as you're a hard worker ... there's tons of career opportunities for those folks.")
Much of the program was taken up by corporate profiles of energy leaders ... several of whom were also, by an amazing coincidence, sponsors of the show. We were told about how Westinghouse -- which by the way was founded right here in Pittsburgh, in case you didn't know -- is kicking ass in the nuclear biz. We learned how Bayer, which used to just make aspirin, is on the cutting edge of manufacturing energy-efficient materials. And while the program nods to the danger of coal mining, we were assured that our very own Consol is one of the safest mine operators around. Oh, and although Range Resources is based in Texas, it has roots just next door in Ohio. Yes! I am telling you!
There was also a segment on solar power, represented here by a small businessman, and one on wind. But it's clearly the energy giants that excited WPXI. The program was bookended by interviews with Dennis Yablonsky, who heads the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. "This Marcellus Shale represents a game-changer," he assured us -- citing an oft-quoted assertion that there may be more energy beneath our feet than you can find in all of Saudi Arabia.
Yablonsky did acknowledge that, yes, there are some risks to all this potential. Any time a worker is injured or killed in an industrial accident, he allowed, it is "not good."
And it's not that WPXI ignored things like environmental concerns. Dan Volz, a public-safety expert who has had harsh words for the business, appeared in the show's second half-hour. So did Bob Donnan, a blogger who has waged his own online campaign against the industry. And in an early segment about community response to shale development in Upper Burrell, WPXI did the classic one-the-one-hand-this/on-the-other-hand that approach, quoting a neighbor on each side of the issue.
So can you say the WPXI program was a whitewash? Not really. It acknowledged environmental concerns -- early on and more than once. And if it barely scratched the surface, well, that was how "Fueling Pittsburgh" handled a lot of its material.
What you ended up with, though, was two starkly different views of the industry, and no attempt to mediate between them.
When Upper Burrell's township manager frets that shale drilling is "contaminating water tables," for example, WPXI makes little effort to verify the concern. (As a Scranton Times-Tribune report did yesterday, finding hundreds of "violations for spills that reached waterways, leaking pits that harmed drinking water, or failed pipes that drained into farmers' fields, killing shrubs and trees.")
Similarly, there is no attempt to question all those amazing-slash-dubious job estimates that seem to transfix WPXI's on-air personalities. And when the industry asserts that its procedures are safe, there's no response from its critics, who are confined to their own segments elsewhere in the broadcast. and on the other side of the scale, there's no industry response to, say, Volz's calls for a moratorium on drilling either.
"Fueling Pittsburgh" walls the two sides off from each other in separate segments, so they just end up talking past each other's concerns. If the fossil-fuels business were as good at sequestering pollutants as "Fueling" was at sequestering criticism, all our energy problems would be solved.
In fact, when it came time to mention environmental and worker-safety mishaps -- or any sort of controversy -- WPXI never mentioned the company involved by name. Mines just collapse, gas wells just explode. In the upbeat stories, by contrast, the corporate brand is always front and center. The criticisms of Volz and others are never really attached to anyone -- it's a vague, if persistent, alarm directed everywhere and nowhere at once. Which means that by quoting such concerns, WPXI gets to protect its reputation for balance, without raising doubts about the reputation of any particular industry player -- its sponsors least of all.
About those advertisements. I counted them. Range Resources had seven commercials during the hour-long broadcast. Westinghouse and Bayer had four apiece. One-third of the 44 ads I counted during this broadcast, in other words, were sponsored by companies profiled in the special. (And I'm including PSAs and station promos in that total count.)
At the end of the show, David Johnson asserted, "We want to thank all our sponsors." Pretty sure they'd already taken care of that, actually.
In any case, if you missed the show -- and you have cable -- you can catch it on PCNC on June 26th at 10 p.m., or 4:30 p.m. the next day.
Revisiting Pintek, natural-gas drilling and (sorry!) a 19th Ward item
Posted By Chris Potter on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 7:34 PM
A few quick items including -- for those who still care -- a brief update on the Kimberly Cagni dispute.
First, a follow-up to my post last week about KDKA Radio host Mike Pintek's puzzling take on local cyclists. Pintek revisited the subject today, and had me on as one of his guests. (I was a last-minute substitute -- Pintek had originally tried to schedule something with the head of Bike Pittsburgh, but apparently it didn't work out. The group's Scott Bricker is now scheduled to go on KDKA on Friday afternoon at 1:00.)
Pintek acknowledged -- more than once -- that his remarks last week were, well, ill-considered. And I think it's safe to say that he was taken aback by the some of the impassioned online response his remarks provoked. So for those seeking to track the influence of online commentary (Hai Bram!) here's another piece of evidence.
In fact, it's sort of interesting. I think cycling brings up a new Pittsburgh/old Pittsburgh tension in this town, with newer/younger residents brought into a conflict with lifers -- a conflict exacerbated by a constricted street grid and decaying infrastructure. (These may be the symptoms of just about every argument in the city, come to think of it.) And similarly, what we saw with Pintek was a battle between new and old media. Because KDKA originally put Pintek's snippet online -- it has apparently since been removed -- he got a much different audience than I suspect he is used to.
But in any case, Pintek was open and fair with me and another guest, the wife of an avid local biker who professed fear for her spouse's safety. It was a good, even-handed discussion, and the guy deserves props for that. There are plenty of radio talk-show hosts who don't admit to mistakes, and who wouldn't let a critic get a word in edgewise before hanging up.
Moving on ... one of the iron truths of Anthony Coghill's life, apparently, is that the guy loses even when he wins.
Coghill, you may recall, vied with Pete Wagner for control of the city's 19th Ward ... and lost handily. But as part of that effort, a Coghill supporter challenged the residency of Kimberly Cagni, who they claim actually lived in Mt. Lebanon, rather than within the city neighborhood she represents on the Democratic Committee.
I am told by Jim Burn, the party's county chair, that last week Cagni submitted her resignation from the committee, thereby making the challenge moot.
But Coghill can't feel too much satisfaction at this turn of events. The party's rules state that vacant committee spots shall be filled by the chairman ... " upon the recommendation of the Ward or Municipal Chairperson on whose committee the vacancy has occurred."
In other words, Kimberly Cagni's replacement will likely be named by ... Pete Wagner, the guy Coghill was hoping to defeat.
Finally, a quick tip of the hat to Maria at 2 Political Junkies, who reminds us that the documentary Gasland airs on HBO tonight. The special -- which had a sneak-preview airing here in Pittsburgh not long ago -- is an eye-opener. So is the fact that Maria's post results in an amusing visit from a gas-industry spokesperson, who Maria outs in short order.
Also tonight -- and also demonstrating how the gas industry is looking to shape our environmental debate -- is a WPXI special, "Fueling Pittsburgh." Among the special's featured sponsors? Range Resources, among the largest gas drillers in the country. Also the legal firm of Babst, Callan, Clements and Zomnir, which lists "Marcellus Shale Development" as a special area of expertise on its home page.
"Fueling Pittsburgh" airs at 8 p.m. -- it might be interesting to watch just to see how upfront it is about some of the concerns surrounding Marcellus drilling.
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SEOUL, Korea (July 7, 2017) – The World Taekwondo and the entire taekwondo community around the world mourns the loss of Grand Master Chong Soo Lee, who passed away on July 5, 2017, at the age of 79.
Grand Master Lee will forever be remembered as a man of good heart, and a man of respect and honor. We have lost a giant of Taekwondo in Canada, but we are certain the entire taekwondo community in Canada will commit to carrying forward Grand Master Lee's legacy. He will forever be immortalized as the legendary mentor in the history of Taekwondo in Canada and worldwide.


text:
The Voters' Choice Act: Restoring the Commonwealth's Constitution
7 February 2013 By Louis R. Jasikoff
"Elections shall be free and equal," so directs Article 1, Section 5, of the Constitution of the Republic of Pennsylvania, but current Pennsylvania election laws are anything but free and equal and that is exactly what Senate Bill 21, also known as the Voters' Choice Act, or VCA introduced by State Senator Mike Folmer of Lancaster in the state's previous legislative session was intended to remedy. Senator Folmer is to reintroduce the measure in the current session.
The VCA has naturally garnered the support of independents, third parties, and constitutionally-minded citizens and voters. The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition has supported a resolution reading:
Whereas, the current ballot access laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania impose an undue and unequal burden on all political parties seeking to offer an alternative choice to the established Democrat and Republican Parties; and,
Whereas, the current ballot access laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as applied to independent candidates of political bodies and minor political parties are in violation of the mandate of the Pennsylvania Constitution, that "Elections … be free and equal" and deny the voters of the Commonwealth a "free and equal" choice of political parties and candidates on the ballot.
Ballot access disparities would seem simple enough to correct, especially given that each and every one of our legislators takes an oath to defend and uphold the Commonwealth's Constitution.
The Gazette has contacted our local state representatives and hopes to conduct interviews with each one of them throughout February to determine where they stand on this important issue. Mere lip service in support of "free and equal" elections is not the prime objective. Rather, the Gazette will be pressing representatives to take a visible stand by co-sponsoring such legislation and encouraging General Assembly leadership to bring it to a floor vote this year.
Face-to-face meetings with the following representatives have been requested: Senators Lisa Baker, John Blake and John Yudichak along with State representatives Karen Boback, Mike Carroll, Sid Michaels Kavulich, Frank Farina, Marty Flynn, Kevin Haggerty, Sandra Major, Gerald Mullery, Phyllis Mundy, Eddie Day Pashinski, and Tarah Toohil.
Under the present system candidates other than Republicans or Democrats seeking statewide offices in the next election cycle would need to collect and submit more than 60,000 signatures, in contrast to the 2,000 required for Republican and Democratic candidates to attain inclusion on the ballot. Consider also a closed primary system in which independents, unaffiliated voters, and third-party voters are not allowed to participate and yet are forced to pay for these major — or, legacy — parties to select their General Election candidates, and it all adds up to an election process that is anything but "free and equal."
Nothing changes until we return competition to politics. If we truly desire good government, we must reduce the influence politicians exert over us. Remember, the bigger government becomes the more favors that it can grant. When it is less expensive for corporations to legislate their competition out of business than to build the better mousetrap, we all suffer — individually and as a nation. The answer for better government is the same one frequently touted for private sector improvement: Competition! Competition! Competition!
Voters' Choice Act Pennsylvania's Voters' Choice Act Voter Choice Act: Letter to PA State Representatives & Senators Follow-up letter to Pennsylvania legislators concerning the Voters' Choice Act
Louis R. Jasikoff
http://www.jasikoff.com
Lou is the founder and producer of the WBIG family of publications. He's been active in politics most of his adult life, and is passionate in building the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Independent Gazette into an independent press organization that is respected for its independent journalism, educating the public on stories and issues often not discussed in today's biased and controlled media.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Respect The Come Up
Meekz
HIP-HOP/RAP · 2022
On Respect the Come Up, Manchester's Meekz resurfaces with the fascinating duality that has marked his high-flying breakthrough—combining sharp-witted observation with a masterclass in blocking out the world around you. "I don't think people understand or even notice that a lot of this stuff is for me," he tells Apple Music. "It's selfish, but a lot of this is for me to reflect on, and yeah, other people do seem to like it. But Respect the Come Up is to remind myself, 'Get the fuck up'. Along with the people that I might have inspired, I want to make sure I stay aware of how I've been blessed. And to remind myself that it's never over, so you should never cheat the grind." The 2020 mixtape Can't Stop Won't Stop occupied a much darker world—arriving on the back of jail time and subsequent self-work—and also broke down the enigma of the masked Gorton rapper. Here, he embraces the moments of progression that have followed with forensic self-examination: "Hope you didn't think I'd panic/I've seen the ship sinking, it's been Titanic/But I just think gigantic,' he raps on "Instagram Caption". "The whole tape reminisces and reflects on the past, present and future. That's why I'm looking [on the mixtape cover] in all directions with eyes to all of that," he says. "There's songs for the past ['Hustler's Ambition'] and songs with a message for the future, thinking about kids ['Patience'] and others that fall into all of the categories. I understand how that's hard to understand, but that's just me." Below, he takes us through the story of Respect the Come Up, track by track. "Say Less" "I don't need to be online. I don't even really need to do interviews. I just say less. This is that freestyle-slash-'Respect the Come Up' vibe here, that core Meekz [sound]." "Respect the Come Up" "This song means so much to me. I'm taking you through the motions here. I'm talking to the inner me, like, 'Meekz, you've come a long way, and you should pat yourself on the back.' That's why I repeat it so many times: 'respect the come up' for real. And I know, musically, it's not that amazing, but I bet it hits you right in the chest. This is the alarm clock for the Meekz Manny army." "Fresh Out the Bank" [Meekz & Dave] "The angels had me lit that night [in the studio]. I hit a pocket that I'm not sure I could hit again, even if I tried. My voice did some crazy shit that night. I'd been rapping for seven days straight, going crazy, and I thought, 'You know what? Let's not even rap on these n****s right now. Let me give some melodies.' [Dave] and I were in the studio for almost a week, turning up. Some of the guys came through and, eventually, ended up a full party in there: 10, 20 of us, all dancing to this track as it's being made." "Don't Like Drill" "Actually, I say, 'I don't like drill much' because I do like it—just not that much. Would you like drill [music] if you could rap like me, you know what I mean? Furthermore, I don't like the fact that it's killing my people. Let's just go with that one." "More Money" "This is the 'get money' anthem of the mixtape. I'm just trying new things out with my vocals, finding new flows and also switching up [my style of] beat." "Hustler's Ambition" "Of all the elements I tap into [on this mixtape], this song falls into each of them. I'm reminiscing on the past but still thinking on the present and future, all at once." "Patience" "As I get older, I realise the benefit of allowing things to season and marinate. Things take time sometimes and need a bit more love and soul poured into it—that's the general idea here. And over the years, that same patience is just something that I've learned to develop." "Take Losses" "I think everyone's taken a loss and had to bounce back, and it just feels better when you win eventually. When you come from the bottom, everything tastes better when you get it out of the mud. And lastly, those losses are where you learn from the most. These are all well-known facts—I'm just reflecting on them here." "Killin' Off" "The mandem named this one. I just laid down the track. We didn't have a name for it at first, actually. And I should probably also explain, in Manchester terms, 'killing off' means, yeah, 'I made a killing off'...whatever. Not killing something off. It's just our terminology, but the world's going to have to get to know sooner or later." "Instagram Caption" "I was out in Essex, in the mansion we rented. Indoor pool, outdoor pool, basketball court, and I had the family over, feeling like Frank Lucas up in there. And I recorded this at 5 o'clock in the morning. The producer was falling asleep, ready for bed. Told him to stay up and hit them buttons. Some people that were asleep in the room woke up at some point, and I still carried on with the freestyle—one take, from top to bottom."
Say Less
Fresh Out The Bank
Meekz, Dave
Don't Like Drill
Meekz, Central Cee
Hustler's Ambition
Take Losses
Killin' Off
18 November 2022 10 Songs, 35 minutes ℗ 2022 Neighbourhood Recordings
More By Meekz
Can't Stop Won't Stop
Big Bag - Single
Year Of The Real (feat. M1llionz, teeway & Pa Salieu) - Single
Mad About Bars - S4-E18 P1 - Single
Rap Aside
Respect The Come Up - Single
More Money - Single
Apple Music Hip-Hop
Charlie Sloth
Charlie Sloth Rap Show
The Agenda 2022
WXVED


text:
A Educação no Vietname é dividida em cinco níveis: pré-escolar, ensino fundamental, ensino secundário, ensino médio e ensino superior.

A educação formal é composta por doze anos de educação básica. A educação básica é composta por cinco anos de ensino básico, quatro anos de ensino médio, e três anos do ensino secundário. A maioria dos estudantes da educação básica estão matriculados em uma base de ensino integral. A educação é administrada pelo Ministério da Educação e Formação.

O principal objetivo da educação no Vietnã é melhorar o conhecimento geral, qualidade dos recursos humanos das pessoas e promoção de talentos.

A educação do Vietnã está passando por uma reformulação no seu sistema de ensino, a fim de preparar os alunos para o papel crescente do uso do inglês como língua de negócios, bem como a importância da internacionalização do sistema de ensino para manter o rápido crescimento econômico das últimas duas décadas.

Tipos de estabelecimento de ensino

Quanto à propriedade, conforme previsto no artigo 44 da Lei de Educação do Vietnã, há quatro tipos de estabelecimentos de ensino:

 Estabelecimentos de ensino públicos: estabelecido e monitorado pelo Estado. O Estado também nomeia os seus administradores. O Estado investe em infraestrutura e aloca recursos para as suas tarefas de gastos regulares.
 Estabelecimentos de ensino semi-públicos: criadas pelo Estado com base na mobilização de organizações e indivíduos na sociedade para investir em conjunto em infraestrutura.
 Estabelecimentos de ensino fundamentados: Organizações sociais ou econômicas que atuam mediante autorização do Estado na criação de uma instituição com orçamento de capital não estatal.
 Estabelecimentos de ensino privados: indivíduos ou grupos de indivíduos que solicitam a permissão do Estado para estabelecer e investir na instituição por si mesmos.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


After seven hours of race, after a long day spent on the road waiting the race, everything fires and consumes in less than 30 seconds. You can hate this race, you can love but you can't change it. It's crazy to read every year opionion about how this Classic should or could be. Her perfection consists in the waiting. Waiting for the next edition, waiting for the passage, waiting for the rain, or the sun, waiting on the Poggio, waiting for the action. It's not important when the action will ever come, it's crucial the exciting of the expectation. When everything, then explodes it will be over too fast. Usually in the same place, in the same way, on the Poggio. Anybody in Milano, the morning of the race, knows where the moment will come. Almost seven hours later. Everybody know that it will be challenging wait those stressful hours but there's not an alternative solution. Then waiting.


Driving Instructors. Find UK driving lessons and intensive courses.
Choosing the right driving instructor can help you to pass your driving test quickly and effectively, and it can also ensure that you are a safe and confident driver when you do hit the streets. You should ensure that driving instructors are fully qualified, have a good and reliable car, and that they are able to meet your requirements in terms of lesson time. You may also want to choose a male or female instructor, a multilingual instructor, or one that specialises in intensive courses to help you pass even quicker.
All driving instructors should be fully certified and accredited, and willing to show you the appropriate paperwork to prove this is the case. It is certainly worth checking, though, because instructor insurance depends on these qualifications and if you have an accident then you might find your instructor is not covered and you may be liable. Using a qualified instructor also means that they have a greater understanding of what is required to pass your test and get your licence.
If you have any specialist requirements then you should look for driving instructors that meet these requirements. A lot of women prefer to have a female driving instructor and if English isn't your first language then you are likely to be more comfortable if your instructor is fluent in a language you understand. There are instructors that specialise in automatics, too. Whatever preferences you have, you will be able to find driving instructors that meet them.
Short courses, which are also known as intensive courses and the rather unfortunately named crash courses, offer a way to get out on the road in your own car as quickly as possible. These courses can last just a few days and culminate in you taking your driving test at the end of this period. Within a week you could take your test and be rewarded with your full licence. Not all driving instructors offer this and not all are skilled at such intensive training.
Driving instructors will help you learn the skills that are required to pass your driving test, acquire a full driving licence, and become a confident and competent driver. There are many instructors to choose from across the country but you should ensure that you choose an instructor that you are happy and confident with. Also consider the quality and style of car that you will be driving to ensure that you will be fully equipped to drive during your test and after it.


Although they resemble the commonly accepted histories, true elven scholars hold to a divergent view on how the world of Korinth was created.
Creation began as a concept in the mind of Meneth'Kel'Badaris, the Creator. At the will of Meneth'Kel'Badaris, from nothing, emerged the essential tools of creation: Essence, from which the materials of existence are drawn; the Vault of Celestia and the Pits of the Netherworld, from which all good and evil come; the Ever Turning Gears, from which time flows; and the chaos-stuff of Limbo, from which springs creativity.
With the tools in place, Meneth'Kel'Badaris created life. The First Creations who are also called Jaaren. Beings so ancient and mighty, together they might rival even Meneth'Kel'Badaris. When the work of creation finished, Meneth'Kel'Badaris made ready to depart but one final act remained. To Jaaren Elvedreth-Abar was the Gift of Purity bestowed. Please with all that had been wrought, Meneth'Kel'Badaris quit the realm of mortals forever.
After their creator departed, the Jaaren took what had been made for them, and created the universe. The heavens and the earth, darkness and light, mountains and seas, and all things natural. Only then, with the worlds in place, did they add new life, their own First Creations. Perfect beings, sculpted from the stuff of Essence and imbued with the energy of Limbo, Celestia, and Netherworld. All life sprung from these perfect models. The perfect human gave birth to humanity. The perfect dragon, dragonkind. And of course from the perfect elf, came the race of elves. It fell to Elvedreth-Abar to create the race of elves, and into the elven spirits he laid the Gift of Purity, given to him by Meneth'Kel'Badaris and entrusted to the elves by the Father of All Elvenkind.
The first elves were called Minethrin and Aryion, and they walked on Korinth with their father for many days before he, like all his Jaaren brethren, followed their maker away from this world and into the unknown. Alone, in a new world, Minethrin and Aryion made a home for themselves and gave birth to the race of elves. Thanks to the Gift of Purity, bound in their very soul, not even the smallest tinge of evil existed in their hearts.
Many ages passed on Korinth. Elves alone, among all the first creations, had the Gift of Purity and so their bodies never grew old and never died. Instead they lived in perpetual youth. This kindled within them an understanding of life not held by mortals. They did not seek the the things other races did, instead living their lives in seclusion and close contact with nature.
Then magic entered the world and the elven spirit began a slow drift away from the Gift of Purity. Magic came natural to elves, but it did not come without its price. It changed the spirit of those elves who embraced it, altering them in subtle and difficult-to-see ways. Younger elves sought out this change while the oldest among them urged purity. In time, the first Great Schism occurred, when the elders of Mineth'Aryon closed the realm off from mana. Those among them that wished to continue the pursuit of magic, and in so doing abandon the Gift of Purity, left their ancestral homes to settle among the other races.
Still, after the first Great Schism, no animosity existed between the two races of elf. They maintained close ties with one another.
It took almost a millennia for the true impact to be known. The elves that left their home grew old and died. A new sorrow came into the elven spirit when the first of their race passed into the unknown, and to this day the loss of an elf brings great sadness, a grief that is deeper and stronger than anything the short-lived races can experience.
It took a long time after the death of the first elf for the very bedrock of their foundation to be challenged.
The elf Drethmendureth, who had abandoned his home and, in so doing, forsook immortality, lusted after that which he had lost. He tried to return to Mineth'Aryon but he could not. Slowly his heart hardened and his rage grew until he opened himself to dark influence of the farol. With this turning, the song in his heart died, replaced by the evil of the farol. Shocked and grief-stricken, his family cast him out. Undaunted, Drethmendureth sought for a home of his own, taking with him by force Elendreine, daughter of the ruling king. He fled with her into the bowels of the earth, not to be seen again until the race of elf known as the drow emerged. Alone among the elves, the drow spirit is vile and wicked, and its song has gone out.
All of Mineth'Aryon suffered, for through their Gift of Purity they could feel the acts of depravity committed by Drethmendureth and his people upon the elven soul.
Though only the Mineth'Aryon could feel it, the stain would forever change elves. It opened a gateway within their spirit through which evil could seep. No longer could it be said that all elves were good, pure, and gentle. Now they exhibited the full range of depravity previously known only to the lesser races.
The second Great Schism resulted when the elves Mineth'Aryon withdrew even further, cutting relations with all of their "tainted" kin.


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Themed Issue: Enemies in the Middle Ages
The Enigmatic Demon in York Minster's Saint William Window: Identifying the Text Behind the Image—By Candace A. Reilly
In this article Reilly identifies the demon in panel 12a of the St. William window in the York Minster and associates it with a miracle about a demon under the guise of an Ethiopian from the Vita Sancti Willelmi. Panel 12a has been unattached to any miracle despite the overwhelming amount of scholarship concerning the window and the miracles of St. William; it has been simply identified as a panel of a devil chasing a man. The article correlates imagery and texts concerning Ethiopians as enemies and demons with the Vita Sancti Willelmi and panel 12a's iconography. The article also compares Panel 12a and this miracle text to stereotypes of Ethiopians in the Middle Ages as the greatest supernatural enemies of man—the disciples of Satan—and how they were typically fashioned in the guise of demonic iconography.
Le Bone Florence of Rome: The Profaned Body in Use and in Language—By Petya Ivanova
The body as an object of representation in late medieval literary texts gestures towards a number of cultural paradigms defining and orienting the figures and norms of corporeity. This article seeks to show how the literary treatment of such paradigms contributes to question and destabilize topical images of late medieval literary culture by exposing them to creative reconfiguration. This narrative treatment exposes the body as the product as much as the agent of the cultural norms organizing its use and representation. The text discussed here—the Middle English popular romance Le Bone Florence of Rome—stages the tropes of the senile fabliau body, the virgin, the persecuted wife, the damsel in distress, the sublime body of the martyr and re-invests them with traits that exceed and subvert the type, thus exposing it as the object of narrative play and re-appropriation. Further, these paradigmatic shifts are accompanied by a reflection on language and its enunciative agency. In this text both the body and the language acts it gives rise to are profaned. No longer assigned to a delimited sphere of representation, they become available to the play of narrative use.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS SECTION
Scandinavians and Franks: Good Neighbors–Bad Neighbors—By Daniel F. Melleno
This is an abstract of Dr. Melleno's paper, which he presented in the Hortulus-sponsored session at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday, May 10, 2014.
(Former) Enemies at the Gate: Insinuations of Betrayal in Pa gur yv y porthaur—By Edward Mead Bowen
This is a modified version of the paper Mr. Bowen presented in the Hortulus-sponsored session at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday, May 10, 2014.
A response to Hortulus' 2014 sponsored session at Kalamazoo—By Emerson Storm Fillman Richards
BOOK REVIEW: A Companion to Boethius in the Middle Ages (Noel Harold Kaylor and Philip Edward Phillips)—Review by Sean Tandy
BOOK REVIEW: Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance (Neil Cartlidge)—Review by Victoria Shirley
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I am such a firm believer in the power of essential oils, and I have dedicated much information on this site to essential oils. But, then I realized many people may not realize what essential oils are! Here is a brief primer on essential oils.
Essential oils are aromatic compounds that are found in plants. They are not visible with the naked eye, and not all plants produce essential oils. There are approximately 3000 identified essential oils and many of these are beneficial to humans for our health and well being. Essential oils may be extracted from the roots, flowers, seeds, and bark of the plant. They are highly concentrated, which makes them extremely potent. The plant produces these aromatic compounds to give it its aroma, protect it from environmental conditions, repel insects, and may play a part in pollination.
Someone once told me, "Plants can't run, they need help!" and that is a key role essential oils play, protecting the plant.
Historically plants have played a large part in medicinal practices, dating back to ancient times. Everyone has heard that the baby Jesus was brought Frankincense and Myrrh. However, these would not have been essential oils, but in resin form from the trees. Still effective for heath, but not nearly as strong as the oils we have today. The process of distilling essential oils from plants did not occur until later, approximately 700AD. We now distill the aromatic compounds from the resins to produce extremely potent essential oils of Frankincense and Myrrh. Other plants may have the oils distilled from their leaves, stems, roots, bark, seeds, or flowers.


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Bill Peters signs two-year deal to coach KHL's Avtomobilist
By Sean LeahyApr 15, 2020, 9:19 AM EDT
Bill Peters has resurfaced and has been given a two-year deal to coach the KHL's HC Avtomobilist.
Five months ago, Peters resigned as Flames head coach after former players came forward with accusations of racial slurs and physical abuse.
Akim Aliu, who played for Peters with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs in 2008-09 and 2009-10, Tweeted in November that Peters used a racial slur "several times" because he did not like the choice of music being played in the team dressing room.
Those allegations were confirmed by two of Aliu's Rockford teammates.
Two more of Peters' former players came forward days later. Michal Jordan alleged he was kicked and punched in the head on the bench by Peters when he played for Carolina. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour, an assistant under Peters, confirmed that it had happened.
Sean McMorrow, who played for Peters in 2008-09 with the Ice Hogs, Tweeted, "Worst human being to ever coach me … treated me terrible on a AHL team (IceHogs) where I won a League Award for Community Service. #badguy."
Peters released a statement offering a 'sincere apology' to the Flames and 'anyone negatively affected.' He was out of a job two days later after Flames general manager Brad Treliving did an investigation.
On a video conference with KHL media Wednesday morning, Peters was asked about his end in Calgary.
"I think as time goes on we all grow and improve and become better versions of ourselves, and I'm no different than that," Peters said. "You learn from all the experiences that you're in and you become better. It's no different right now, we're going through a very trying time as a world with the global pandemic. I believe we're going to come out of this and when we come out of this people are going to be better people for it and more passionate and compassionate towards each other and more patient."
Peters' staff in the KHL will include Perry Pearn and German Titov and his roster will feature former NHLers like Nikita Tryamkin, Nigel Dawes (pending free agent), Pavel Datysuk, and Peter Holland.
UPDATE: Treliving said the following after being asked about the former Flames coach's new gig:
"I'm a big believer in second chances for everyone. Bill made a mistake. He's a good coach, he's a good man. He made an error and I certainly wish him well."
Aliu posted a statement on Twitter Thursday afternoon:
Over the last 24 hours I've received a lot of requests to comment on the news of Bill Peters being hired by a KHL Team. I thought this would be the best way to share my thoughts.. pic.twitter.com/qLwaeevKbm
— Akim Aliu (@Dreamer_Aliu78) April 16, 2020
• 'This is for real:' Journeyman Aliu sparks hockey reckoning
• Aliu calls Flames coach's apology 'misleading, insincere'
• Bill Peters out as Calgary Flames head coach
Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.


Researching family trees and family histories is a very special type of work. It takes lots of patience, both with the deceased ones and with the living.
People who want their family trees to be researched come from all around the world and it's no wonder every one of them is different. But as special as family Sadar was, none were before them.
They contacted me with a simple task – to find their ancestral families and where their grandparents came from. Research was not hard, vital books were well kept and all was fine up until they decided to come to meet their living relatives about a year after I did their initial research.
They asked me to contact living relatives and ask them if they could come by and meet them, to see where their grandparents came from.
And so I did – but their cousin was a real "doubtful Thomas". When I introduced myself and told her I was hired to find her and the rest of her family the first thing she asked was "Are you serious"? "You must be joking, right?". Eventually she agreed on us meeting her in a few days, but I could sense she was still suspicious. Little did I know of how big the suspicion was.
So I met with Sadars on a beautiful morning and when we sat down for a while before leaving to go to Krka, their ancestor's birth place, they expressed their doubt in my research and wondered where the information came from, if this was the correct data and if there was absolutely no doubt that this family is theirs. I explained the processes of research, after which they were convinced enough to get in my car and off we went.
She didn't believe we were real, she thought I was a survey girl who just wanted to get into her house under the pretense of living relatives in America!
She laughed aloud when they pulled their huge paper with family tree out and when she saw names of her ancestors she easily recognized.
Her mother came by a little later and was surprised even more. She and her son mocked the cousin when she first told them that a genealogist called. They asked her if she was crazy enough to believe it!
But after all the crying and the tears they pulled out their family pictures and my clients got their proof. There were, among hundreds of pictures they had two pictures with family from America, with my clients grandfather and an old house he lived in. There was the proof that they were more than willing to believe in, there was proof that bonded them together again, this time forever.
I always say that cases like this are why I do this work. Connecting living relatives who don't know of each other, but still share such a big part of their past without which they cannot progress. Sadars had a great time with their newly found family members, but discovered one more thing during their visit – they all have those special, funny noses and Mr. Sadar said jokingly, although I believe it to be the truth, "if there was nothing else to prove we were related, I would most definitely believe it just by looking at our noses".
I am looking for information on Rosa Antolovich 10/03/1910 Vrsar/Porec?, died 14/07/1984 Rijeka. Also her daughter Annamaria October 1940 Pula, (Son Dino pre 1940not necessary). Is this the kind of subject you can help with easily?
It is omly birth and marriage information for Rosa, and birth for Annamaria I am concerned with.


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Krispy Kreme to deliver doughnuts from almost all locations starting Feb. 29
By Gabrielle Moreira
Krispy Kreme to start delivery on Feb. 29
Krispy Kreme will begin nationwide delivery services on Feb. 29, and to commemorate Leap Day, the doughnut company will surprise hospital staff and parents with goodies for any Leap Babies.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Krispy Kreme fans will soon be able to get fresh doughnuts delivered to their door starting on Feb. 29.
To commemorate Leap Day and the launch of the delivery service, the doughnut company will also be honoring Leap Babies, their parents and the hospital staff who helped bring the bundle of joy into the world.
Lucky parents who are at a hospital within 10 miles of a Krispy Kreme location can post on Instagram or Twitter for a chance to get fresh doughnuts delivered for free. Just post when the little love was delivered, name the hospital and tag @krispykreme with the hashtag #KrispyKremeSpecialDelivery.
The doughnut giant said throughout Leap Day, families and hospital staff will be surprised with deliveries of five dozen doughnuts.
In 2018, Krispy Kreme tested online ordering and delivery options at select stores.
Fans who want to get the delicious doughnuts sent their way from most locations on Feb. 29 and beyond can head to krispykreme.com or through the Krispy Kreme app.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.
Company paying $500 for someone to watch Netflix, eat pizza all day
Austin man charged in fatal shooting in Humboldt Park


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Adygea Republic- Monday Map
The Republic of Adygea is virtually unknown in the West
Located within Krasnodar Krai, at the extreme southwest tip of the Russian Federation, near the Black Sea
Called Cherkess by the Soviets, when it was set in the 1920s as an autonomous region for the Adyghe people, more than 60% of the republic's current 107,000 residents are ethnic Russians. But the Adygejtsy government is headed by an elected official, sensibly called the Head, who by law must be fluent in the Adyghe language.
Notable people who have come from Adygea include professional athletes, a cosmonaut, Sci-Fi novelist Iar Elterrus, and the artist and illustrator Konstantin Vasilyev, who had a minor planet named after him.
The Adyghe are made up of twelve tribes, with two languages, considered dialects by modern linguists. They are among the indigenous people of the Caucasus mountains, but the majority of the modern Adyghe population live in Turkey, Jordan, and Syria, and are Sunni Muslim. Most of the rest reside within the Adygea Republic and are primarily Orthodox Christians, with a minority of Muslims and others not officially religious.
Also called the Circassians, the Adyghe suffered from persecution and "ethnic cleansing" throughout their history, when the greater Krasnodar territory was conquered at various times, first by local tribes, then the Kievian Rus, then Byzantine armies, and basically ever afterwards. And the Adyghe have adopted customs from other cultures, just as they have provided some of their own. Hence, they embrace the fashion and spirit of the Slavic Cassocks who were at times their enemy, while also inventing the Cossack's fabled shashka sword. The word shashka coming from the Adyghe term for "long knife."
A crossroads of empires, the Adyghe homeland is found within an area that includes the northeastern shore of the Black Sea, and the peninsula situated directly across from the Crimea.
But the Republic of Adygea itself is landlocked within a larger republic, with plains in its northern areas, and mountains in the south. It has no lakes but several large reservoirs. It is one of the poorest Russian republics, but has considerable natural resources, with some 40% of its 2,900 square miles covered large forests, along with undeveloped oil and natural gas reserves.
The Adyghe are also capable farmers, with a deep and fabled history of cultivating fruit and nuts. The oak from the region is prized by Georgian and Russian winemakers, and similar to oak used by French vineyards. And the Adyghe tradition of wine goes back to the deepest recesses of their ancient tribal history, and it is something that even Muslim Adyghe have never given up. Their prehistoric religion was centered on the fruit tree and archeologists have discovered the remnants of Adyghe gardens deep within the wild forests of the Caucuses and Asia Minor, still producing fruit, nuts, and grapes to this day.
This landlocked "island" at the southwest edge of the Russian Federation has a surprising connection to the Isle of Islay, of the Inner Hebrides near the southwest edge of Scotland. Oak trees from a forest in Adygea were made into barrels and seasoned there before being shipped to the Ardbeg distillery, on Islay, where they were used to age single malt whisky that has now been turned into an exclusive, high-priced expression called Kelpie. The result is an impressive and eccentric spirit, even for that maker of exceptionally robust whisky. You can read my exclusive review of Ardbeg Kelpie at 1mansmalt.com.
This entry was posted on April 24, 2017, in History, Monday Map and tagged Adygea, Ardbeg, Black Sea, Circassians, Cossacks, Islay, Krasnodar, Russia, Scotland, shashka. Bookmark the permalink.	2 Comments
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2 thoughts on "Adygea Republic- Monday Map"
matt w. says:
Fascinating. I was wondering the relevance to the editor in cheif of Onemanz…oh!
Yes indeed. Arbeg is always close to the vest about their methods, but when I found out that the casks they were referring to as "Black Sea oak" came from a land that even this geography fan was unfamiliar with, I had not know more.
And I became engrossed in the fascinating and often tragic history of the Adyghe and the current society living out their lives today, in Republic named for them.
Borne on the 4th of July
Toothy!
June!
The Actor's Nightmare
Dunkirk Done Right
David on The Actor's Nightmare
Joseph Kerski on About
one man on Dunkirk Done Right
David on Dunkirk Done Right
David on Birthday Weekend – Part 3 – Comfort Food
At the Met
Monday Map


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Stena Line adds temporary ferry service between Holyhead and Belfast
Updated / Tuesday, 15 Jun 2021 13:24
One of the firm's newest ships, Stena Estrid, will operate the eight-hour sailings
Wales and Northern Ireland will be connected by a ferry route in response to strong demand for sailings, with Stena Line introducing a temporary weekend timetable between Holyhead and Belfast from 2 June, until 18 July.
One of the firm's newest ships, Stena Estrid, will operate the eight-hour sailings, carrying a combination of freight and leisure traffic.
This comes amid "very high demand" on Belfast routes to and from Liverpool and Cairnryan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, according to the company.
"We are delighted to be able to announce details of our new temporary service between Holyhead and Belfast," said Paul Grant, Stena Line trade director.
"The much-anticipated summer rebound for travel is beginning and we are hugely encouraged by current booking trends.
"The current travel restrictions between Britain and Ireland have created a lot of pent-up travel demand so hopefully the addition of this new route will help provide another option for people visiting friends, relatives or taking a break as well as being an attractive option for our freight customers," he added.
Accreditation: PA


During August, we were delighted to announce the launch of our brand new residential estate agency site – SW Residential. Our residential team have over 50 years' combined experience in the Leeds property market and offer a bespoke service to landlords, tenants and investors respectively and you can click here to view the site.
In the second quarter of this year Newcastle city centre office take-up totalled 53,768 sq ft, the strongest quarter in the city centre since 2016. Seven of the deals in Newcastle also saw businesses moving into Grade A accommodation, further highlighting the occupier trend of relocating from larger Grade B offices to more prestigious and efficient Grade A offices. Click here to view our Newcastle office market update for Q2 2018.
In Leeds, city centre take-up totalled just under 150,000 sq ft across 34 transactions. The out of town market achieved a 100% increase on the previous quarter with total take up of 167,962 sq ft, outperforming the city centre market for the first time in two years. You can view the full Leeds office market update for Q2 2018 here.
We have been appointed sole selling agents by KPMG, as administrators of Adam & Baka Ltd, owners of a very substantial freehold property portfolio located in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The large portfolio extends to 400,000 sq ft of accommodation and has a gross rent roll approaching £350,000 per year.
In Teesside, we have improved our already strong position with several significant commercial property instructions in the region. The Northshore development in Stockton-on-Tees highlights the increased investment in the area and the all-new Station Place development in Newton Aycliffe is gaining unprecedented interested we're pleased to be in talks with several potential occupiers seeking high quality new industrial space.
We have been appointed Sole Selling Agents by Howard Smith and David Costley-Wood of KPMG as Administrators of Adam & Baka Ltd, owners of a very substantial freehold property portfolio located in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Click here to view the property listing. The portfolio is offered for sale as a whole or in seven Lots and extends to over 400,000 sq ft (37,160 sq m) of accommodation on 18.6 acres (7.5 ha) with a gross rent roll approaching £350,000 per annum. Combined quoted asking prices for Lots 1-6 is £4.22m. Offers are invited for Lot 7, a 4.6 acre (1.9ha) cleared site in the BD4 district.
We have recently improved our already strong position with several significant new commercial property instructions in the region. The Northshore development in Stockton-on-Tees highlights the increased investment in the area with the mixed-use site creating 200 homes and over 400,000 sq ft of commercial space. With a number of the houses already occupied, the flagship scheme has created a brand new, vibrant community on the bank of the River Tees. Teesside's property market continues to display its resilience, with confidence high and lenders investing more throughout the region, as well as strong new developments and schemes entering the market across a broad range of sectors.


Dysregulated fibulin-5 expression and elastogenesis in COPD lungs: pyromaniac or fire fighter?
COPD is characterised functionally by a persistent airflow limitation, which is not fully reversible and is usually progressive. The pathological hallmarks of COPD are, on the one hand chronic inflammation and remodelling of the small airways (ie, bronchiolitis) and, on the other hand enlargement of alveolar spaces due to destruction of alveolar lung tissue (ie, emphysema).1 Fibrosis of the small airways and loss of elastic recoil due to emphysematous destruction contribute to chronic airflow limitation in COPD. Elastic fibres, principal components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of alveolar septa, provide mechanical elasticity to the lungs and interconnect the lung parenchyma with small airways via alveolar attachments. An imbalance between proteases (such as neutrophil elastase) and antiproteases (such as α1-antitrypsin, the main inhibitor of neutrophil elastase), leading to a net increase in proteolytic activity, has been implicated in the pathophysiology of COPD.2 However, two opposing processes are supposed to drive the pathogenesis of small airway fibrosis and emphysema: the thickening of the small airway walls results from an exaggerated repair process leading to a marked increase in deposition of ECM, whereas the emphysematous destruction of the lung tissue is indicative of an insufficiënt production of ECM and, thus, a defective repair. Since small airway fibrosis and emphysema occur in close proximity to each other in COPD, the underlying mechanisms of their pathogenesis remain enigmatic.
C-A Brandsma and collaborators add an important piece to the puzzle.3 Thanks to an international collaboration between three academic centres (Groningen, Quebec and Vancouver, as partners within the Lung eQTL Consortium), they demonstrate—using genome-wide gene expression profiling of a large number of lung tissue samples—that 112 genes are significantly upregulated in patients with COPD compared with non-COPD controls, and that 61 genes are downregulated (including vascular endothelial growth factor α (VEGFA) and periostin (POSTN)). Among the most upregulated genes, they discovered four genes which are involved in ECM organisation and elastogenesis: fibulin-5 (FBLN5), elastin (ELN), latent transforming growth factor β (TGFβ)-binding protein 2 (LTBP2) and microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4). Importantly, they validated the array gene expression findings using quantitative PCR (qPCR) on lung tissue samples from the Groningen cohort, confirming increased messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of fibulin-5, ELN and MFAP4 in COPD. Moreover, they found significant negative correlations between the expression of these three elastogenesis genes and disease severity (FEV1). Since pulmonary fibroblasts are the main source of ECM proteins in the lung, and since TGFβ is a key driver of remodelling processes, the authors investigated the FBLN5 gene expression levels in lung fibroblasts in vitro, and demonstrated a significant increase in fibulin-5 mRNA expression after treatment with TGFβ. Finally, the investigators examined the protein expression of fibulin-5 in the lung by immunohistochemistry and western blot. The histochemical analysis revealed clear colocalisation of fibulin-5, LTBP2 and MFAP4 with elastic fibres in the lung, particularly in alveolar walls and around the airways. Interestingly, western blot analysis demonstrated that total fibulin-5 protein levels in lung tissue were significantly higher in COPD subjects than in controls, and also highlighted the presence of a cleaved, non-functional form of fibulin-5 in COPD. Since serine proteases, such as neutrophil elastase are vastly increased in the lungs of patients with COPD and can cleave fibulin-5 into a non-functional protein, increased levels of cleaved non-functional fibulin-5 are unable to contribute to the appropriate assembly of elastic fibres and tissue repair in COPD. Thereby, the attempt to enhance elastogenesis in COPD could be ineffective in counterbalancing the increased proteolytic breakdown of the lung ECM. Of course, this hypothesis should be tested appropriately.
What are the next steps? First, since the expression studies were performed on whole lung tissue resections, it would be worthwhile to pinpoint the exact localisation of the increased expression of fibulin-5 in the diseased lung in COPD (alveolar compartment vs small airways) via laser capture microdissection and/or confocal microscopy. Second, and more importantly, we need to address the functional role of fibulin-5 in the pathogenesis of COPD by translational and preclinical research in animal models in vivo. Is the vastly increased mRNA and protein expression of fibulin-5 in the lung causing the fibrosis of small airways in COPD, and thus detrimental (ie, pyromaniac)? Or is the increased elastogenesis gene expression in the lungs of patients with COPD an attempt to repair the large-scale damage and destruction of the alveolar walls, and thus beneficial (ie, fire fighter)? Last, can fibulin-5 protein be detected in blood and/or sputum, and could it be used as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker in COPD? Independent of the answers on these questions, we thank the Lung eQTL Consortium for putting the fibulin family on the COPD research agenda.
. Pathophysiology of airflow limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lancet 2004;364:709–21.
. A large lung gene expression study identifying fibulin-5 as a novel player in tissue repair in COPD. Thorax 2015;70:21–32.
. Fibulin-5 is an elastin-binding protein essential for elastic fibre development in vivo. Nature 2002;415: 168–71.
. Fibulin-5/DANCE is essential for elastogenesis in vivo. Nature 2002;415:171–5.
. Comprehensive clinical and molecular analysis of 12 families with type 1 recessive cutis laxa. Hum Mutat 2013;34:111–21.
. Genome-wide association analysis identifies six new loci associated with forced vital capacity. Nat Genet 2014;46:669–77.
. Fibulin-3 as a blood and effusion biomarker for pleural mesothelioma. N Engl J Med 2012;367:1417–27.
. Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identify multiple loci associated with pulmonary function. Nat Genet 2010;42:45–52.