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Murphy News
Sophie Samson
Casino Royale- M&A Style
Puget Sound Business Journal named Murphy & Associates as the #1 Best Place to Work in the State of Washington on Thursday, August 16th. The award was based on employee survey results and marks a milestone for the company. "This is the fourth year in a row that we have been nominated, and we are beyond thrilled that we won. It really is a testament to the great work that our staff does in supporting employees out in the field" said VP of Partner Management, Judi Brittin.
The competition was stiff; hundreds of companies threw their metaphorical hats into the ring, and a total of twenty-five companies made it to the final selection round in the Large Company Category. A group of six employees represented Murphy & Associates at Best Workplaces festivities at Safeco Field. Along with winning first place, highlights included all you can eat hot dogs and an encounter with the Mariner Moose.
There have been some exciting changes to our internal team since the last newsletter went out. If you have called in or stopped by our office in the last few weeks, you may have noticed a new face behind our front desk. After almost 2½ years running the phone lines and the frontlines, Nikki Morley, our Partner Management Coordinator, has moved over to the Partner Management side of the office to become more entrenched in the recruiting and on-boarding processes. While she will miss getting to meet everyone who comes through the door, she is very excited to grow her responsibilities and take this next step in her career.
With Nikki's move, we have brought on Sophie Samson as our new Office Coordinator.
As Sophie becomes more familiar with our company and employees, we thought it was only fair for you to get to know her better as well.
What brought you to Murphy & Associates?
I was seeking an opportunity in a new field and Murphy & Associates came very highly recommended.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I recently graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in Business Management. Over the years I've shifted through various positions in the equestrian industry. What began as a "summer job" of working for a photographer morphed into the creation of my own small photography business. As I became more involved with competitions I began to work more closely with management and for the past few years have worked for shows as an "in-gate". It's essentially air traffic control for a competition ring. I was delighted to add Thunderbird Show Park to my resume this past season, they have been one of my favorite venues to compete at so being able to work within their team was an opportunity I really valued.
When not at work, what do you enjoy doing?
Horses are my passion. I began riding at the age of 4 and have been hooked since. I competed in showjumping throughout my junior and college years but took a brief break after I graduated. I'm excited to be getting back into as I'm acquiring a youngster to work with for the foreseeable future.
Binge-watched anything good lately?
It's nothing new but I've rediscovered my love of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", which is a show a haven't watched since middle school. It brings back a lot of fond memories.
What's your perfect Saturday entail?
Getting a group together for an evening of board games at Mox Boarding House.
We are so happy to have watched Nikki flourish in her role and become a more integral part of our Partner Management team, and we're excited for Sophie to join our team, and can't wait to see where she takes her role with us in the future.
If there is one thing Murphy & Associates is famous for, it's our quarterly events. While St. Paddy's Day bashes & Happy Hours are always an enjoyable time, we've decided to take this quarter's event in a different direction. With the Season of Giving fast approaching, we have chosen to partner with Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA)-Nature Consortium for a group volunteer activity.
We would love for you to join us on December 1st, from 10am until 2pm as we install native plants and possibly remove invasive plant species like English ivy from this important urban forest located in the Duwamish Head Greenbelt. Bring your water bottle, weather-appropriate clothing, and closed-toed shoes, and we will provide lunch for all volunteers. All ages are welcome to join us, but those under 18 will require a waiver signed by a parent/guardian. Please email Nikki if you need a waiver to fill out (waivers can also be downloaded from their website)
Nature Consortium is a grassroots, community-based organization whose mission is to connect people, arts and nature. Their Urban Forest Restoration Program is committed to restoring Seattle's largest remaining forest, the West Duwamish Greenbelt. This important ecological resource spans nearly 500 acres on the eastern slopes of West Seattle and includes 182 acres of public park land. Pollution from industry developments in the area has made the Duwamish River one of the most polluted rivers in the country. The West Duwamish Greenbelt remains an important part of the Duwamish Watershed because it serves as a buffer between the polluted industrial corridor and nearby residences.
Nature Consortium fosters a journey of discovery for people to find their individual passion, empowerment and action. By partnering with DNDA-Nature Consortium, we hope to instill some of their core values in ourselves and those who join us, like connecting art and nature, building community, modeling sustainable behavior, and, most importantly, having fun!
Over the past few years, Murphy & Associates has offered short-term Lynda.com licenses to employees for training purposes. For the most part, we received positive feedback about the training program. Lynda.com's recent overhaul of their subscription policy, however, has led us to re-evaluate our approach.
A little background is in order. Back in the day (i.e. 2017), Lynda.com enabled companies to hold a number of transferable user licenses. This worked great for us; Murphy & Associates held on to twenty licenses and M&A consultants could check out licenses for three-month stints. Over the 2017, about 50 different employees took advantage of the licenses.
With the dawn of the new year, however, Lynda changed its name to LinkedIn Learning and eliminated our ability to transfer licenses. Bummer. But change can be good. Although we love Lynda/LinkedIn Learning, it is not the only game in town, and online classes aren't the only way to enhance your skills. With that in mind, we have updated our training policy, and liberated ourselves from Lynda's shackles (a little dramatic, but you get the picture).
For 2018, we will match employee training expenses, up to $100 per year per employee. For example, if you want to take Certificate Class on Java from Coursera that costs $200, we will pay for $100 and run the other $100 as a pre-tax expense on your next paycheck. If the class is $300, we will pay for $100 and run the balance as a pre-tax expense. If the class is $150, we will pay for $75 and run $75 as pre-tax. You get the drift, right?
The upshot is that there is no longer a waiting list for training, nor is there a limit on the type of resource you utilize. You can use the tuition subsidy for a professional seminar, an online class on Udemy, an individual account on LinkedIn Training or a to help pay for a certification class. If interested, please contact our operations team for more information.
On January 20th, Murphy & Associates hosted its annual post-Holiday party at Newcastle Golf Course. The roulette wheel was spinning, the dice on the Craps table were rolling and the cards at the blackjack were flying as M&A employees and their guests vied for chips that converted to raffle tickets at the end of the night. Technically, we didn't run afoul of any state gambling regulations, so please don't call the Vice Squad.
That is not to say that the raffle prizes weren't legit. Because they were… too legit to quit, in fact. They included a travel package featuring a voucher for Alaska Airlines tickets and "travel sundries", an X-Box, and a Woodinville Wine Package that included a couple of bottles from Three of Cups Winery (which, not coincidentally, is owned by a couple of M&A consultants).
Non-Raffle related awards were given to a handful of M&A consultants that have been with us for five and ten years. In all, 2017 marked the 5th year anniversary for eleven of our consultants and the 10-year anniversary for two consultants. Whenever we recognize M&A consultants for longevity, we are reminded that we are incredibly fortunate to be partnering with such high-caliber and reliable professionals.
Finally, as the night wound down and the dealers packed up their casino tables a few ne'er- do-wells (including the entire M&A internal team) lingered by the bar, picking over the remains of the dessert plates. Plans are already being made for next year's holiday party. Should we have the magician come back? Do a karaoke night? Re-visit the trivia contest? We welcome suggestions for entertainment options.
Internal Insights
Reviving a M&A Tradition
Erik Murphy, COO
Judi Brittin, VP of Partner Management
Joel Murphy, VP of Information Technology
Donna Murphy, Co-Founder
Consultant Spotlight
Max Tomassini
Laura Freeman
Cindie Stevens
Dave Ivie
Meleigha Holt
Welcoming Jason Klinke
Operations Manager Transition
Boeing Award
Curated List of Opportunities Now on Website
March 2017 Tips & Tricks
May 2017 Tips & Tricks
July 2017 Tips & Tricks
February 2018 Tips & Tricks
November 2018 Tips & Tricks
PDF Pay Ledger Changes
Best Places to Work Surveys are on their way
Taxes done? Time to start planning.
2017 Summer Event
Non-Competes are a hot topic
PSBJ Washington's Best Workplaces 2017 Nomination
Murphy & Associates, Inc. receives the Silver Boeing Performance Excellence Award
Murphy & Associates Wins Best Places To Work Award
Murphy & Associates: Washington's Best 2020
@ 2021 Murphy & Associates, Inc


In the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case — the case that became known as the crime of the century — was an innocent man railroaded to the electric chair? Did politics underlie both the crime and its aftermath?
After Charles Lindbergh flew The Spirit of St. Louis from New York to France in 1927, completing the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, he became America's most admired hero. "The Lone Eagle," as he was called, then helped develop aviation and married Anne Morrow, daughter of diplomat Dwight Morrow. Anne learned to fly, and she and Charles made spectacular intercontinental flights together. In 1930, the first of their six children, Charles, Jr., was born, dubbed "the Eaglet" by the press.
But tragedy struck on the windy evening of March 1, 1932. The child was snatched from his second-story bedroom. The kidnapper(s) left a crude note demanding $50,000 ransom. It bore a mysterious "signature": overlapping red and blue circles, and three punched holes. On the ground outside, police found a chisel and homemade three-piece ladder.
As the largest manhunt in American history began, police and reporters swarmed the Lindbergh estate in Hopewell, New Jersey. Thousands of letters poured in from both well-wishers and cranks. Among these were notes from the kidnappers bearing the strange signature. These scolded Lindbergh for violating their instructions not to involve police. The Lindberghs publicly pleaded for the child's return, promising to meet the kidnappers' demands.
Because Charles Lindbergh suspected organized crime, his attorneys contacted known racketeers. The latter offered to make inquiries — but, they warned, the kidnapping didn't seem like work of "the Mob," who would have asked more than $50,000 for Lindbergh's son.
On March 8, John Condon, a retired New York City school principal, published a newspaper announcement, offering to be the intermediary for the ransom exchange. Condon then received an anonymous message authorizing him as go-between, with an enclosed letter addressed to Lindbergh. Because that letter bore the unique symbolic signature, Lindbergh met Condon, and accepted the old man as intermediary.
Condon communicated with the kidnappers through coded newspaper messages. On the night of March 12, at the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, he met their representative, who became nicknamed "Cemetery John." Condon told "John" the Lindberghs wanted proof his gang had the baby.
A baby's sleeping suit was mailed to Condon's home. Lindbergh identified it as his son's. The ransom money was gathered; though unmarked (as the kidnappers demanded), each serial number was recorded.
On the night of April 2, Condon received ransom-drop instructions. Lindbergh, with the money — and a pistol — drove Condon to St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx, where the old man gave "Cemetery John" the cash in exchange for a note on the baby's location — the boat Nelly off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Lindbergh chartered a seaplane and, with Coast Guard help, scoured the region for two days — but no such boat existed.
Further newspaper messages to the kidnappers went unanswered. On May 12, about four miles from Lindbergh's house, the baby's corpse was found in roadside woods by a trucker who'd stopped for a call of nature. However, police and volunteers had already searched this area. Furthermore, advanced decay suggested the body might have been kept someplace warmer — then deposited, conceivably as a "present" for Lindbergh. Outrage filled the nation.
The police suspected an "inside job." The kidnappers knew where the baby's nursery was. Furthermore, the Lindberghs always stayed at the Morrow mansion in Englewood, New Jersey, on weekdays, while building their own home in distant rural Hopewell, where they stayed weekends as construction finished. On the week of the kidnapping, however, the baby came down with a cold, and the Lindberghs decided to remain longer at Hopewell. Without a tip, the kidnappers shouldn't have known about this variation in routine. The baby was snatched on a Tuesday.
Suspicion fell on Violet Sharp, a Morrow maid. Sharp had taken Anne Lindbergh's phone call about the change in plans. She lied to the police about her whereabouts the night of the kidnapping, saying she went to the movies — but couldn't recall the film or her date's name. On subsequent interrogation, she said she actually visited a roadhouse with an Ernie Brinkert — but Brinkert denied it. After the baby's corpse was found, Sharp became increasingly disturbed. When the police came to question her again, she was dead, having swallowed cyanide. Oddly, a different "Ernie" later corroborated her roadhouse alibi. Today, investigators of the kidnapping still debate the reason for Sharp's suicide — or was it even murder?
Another evidence of "inside help": Police found no fingerprints in the nursery — not even the child's, his nurse's, or the Lindberghs'. Eventually, Dr. Erastus Hudson — pioneer of a silver nitrate fingerprint process — lifted latent prints from the nursery. Hudson stated the only explanation for the missing fingerprints was someone methodically wiping down the nursery after the abduction. It hardly seemed likely the kidnappers waited around to do this. At the time of the crime, five adults were in the house — Mr. and Mrs. Lindbergh, the baby's nurse, the cook, and butler. Only the butler, Oliver Whateley, was unobserved during the kidnapping. And like Violet Sharp, Whateley died suddenly, in 1933 of peritonitis.
Heading the investigation was New Jersey State Police Superintendent H. Norman Schwarzkopf — father of "Stormin' Norman" of Gulf War fame. A "political" appointee, Schwarzkopf's only criminal justice experience before this position was as a department store floorwalker. President Herbert Hoover ordered federal agencies to assist the investigation — a process facilitated when Congress made kidnapping a federal crime. J. Edgar Hoover offered the superior criminology resources of the Bureau of Investigation (BI — later called FBI), but Schwarzkopf refused. While some might commend this as keeping police independent of federal intrusion, Schwarzkopf also rejected local assistance. New Jersey's Governor authorized the state's most famous detective, Ellis Parker, to help. Known as "America's Sherlock Holmes," Parker had solved over 200 murders. Yet Schwarzkopf declined, saying Parker was not in his jurisdiction. Since the kidnapping went unsolved for over two years, Schwarzkopf's refusal of top resources was sharply criticized.
Investigation focused on tracing ransom bills, which appeared in a trickle. Since most were passed in New York City — outside Schwarzkopf's own jurisdiction — this entailed interagency cooperation. Tracing money was difficult, however; few cashiers delayed customers to check serial-number lists. Most was found when later turned in at banks, but efforts to trace bills to original passers either failed or located someone cleared of suspicion.
The case broke in September 1934. A Bronx carpenter, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, passed a $10 ransom bill at a gas station. Police found about $14,000 more in ransom money hidden in his home.
The German-born Hauptmann told police he'd discovered the $14,000 in a box left with him in December 1933 by an associate, Isidor Fisch, who'd gone to Germany where he died of tuberculosis. (Fisch had indeed been in a joint venture with Hauptmann and died in Germany.) Fisch's brother was coming from Germany to settle the estate. Hauptmann meanwhile decided to spend some of the cash he'd found — Fisch owed him over $7,000 anyway, and Hauptmann said he didn't know it was ransom money.
The police, however, dismissed Hauptmann's explanation as a "Fisch story"; he was extradited to New Jersey for trial. In newspapers, the case appeared open-and-shut. Hauptmann had entered the United States as a stowaway, with a prison record in Germany for robberies. John Condon identified him as "Cemetery John." Condon's address and phone number were found scrawled in Hauptmann's closet. Two eyewitnesses placed Hauptmann near the Lindbergh residence around the time of the kidnapping. Handwriting experts indicated similarities between the ransom notes and his writing. A federal wood expert said a board in Hauptmann's attic matched a rail in the homemade ladder left at the crime scene. The three-quarter-inch chisel found at the scene was asserted to be Hauptmann's — when police confiscated his tools, the prosecution said, only the three-quarter-inch chisel was missing.
The prosecution claimed Hauptmann alone did the kidnapping, murder, and ransom exchange. Brushed aside was the improbability of a Bronx carpenter knowing about changes in the Lindberghs' plans. The jury found Hauptmann guilty; he was sentenced to death. When Harold Hoffman, New Jersey's Republican Governor, learned much was wrong with the prosecution's case, he granted Hauptmann stays of execution while investigating — to jeers of newspapers, who accused the Governor of protecting a child murderer. Asserting innocence to the end, Hauptmann died in the electric chair in 1936. Then the case was gradually forgotten — except by Hauptmann's widow Anna, who spent nearly 60 years seeking her husband's vindication.
A breakthrough came with publication of Scapegoat (1976) by crime reporter Anthony Scaduto, who examined police and prosecution records that had been under wraps for decades.
After World War I, food was scarce in Germany. Hauptmann, 19 and unable to find work, did turn to theft with a fellow ex-soldier. But after prison, he promised his devout mother, Paulina, it would never happen again. In 11 years in the United States before his 1934 arrest, Hauptmann never committed a known crime. He always went by his middle name "Richard," but newspapers called him "Bruno" — it sounded more ruthless.
To her regret, Anna Hauptmann was persuaded by the Hearst newspaper chain to engage attorney Edward Reilly. In exchange for exclusive interviews, they would pay Reilly's fee. With Hauptmann behind bars and Anna caring for a baby, the family could not afford the enormous defense costs — so Anna welcomed the proposal. Reilly, however, though once notable, was now an alcoholic and two years later landed in a mental institution, suffering effects of syphilis. Before being hired, he opined that Hauptmann was guilty and should burn — sentiments echoed by the Hearst press that paid him. Reilly spent less than 40 minutes with Hauptmann before the trial, and though showing occasional adeptness in court, made mistakes that cost his client dearly. After one key blunder, assistant defense counsel Lloyd Fisher — who never doubted Hauptmann's innocence — shouted at Reilly, "You are conceding Hauptmann to the electric chair!" Some think Reilly was hired to deliberately lose; he was seen dining and boozing with prosecutors.
New Jersey Attorney General David Wilentz, a powerful Democratic Party figure, led the prosecution. Responsibility should have fallen to the county prosecutor, and Wilentz had never before tried a criminal case. Some attribute his involvement to "ambition." As we will see, there may have been another reason.
• Scaduto discovered the original New York police receipts for Hauptmann's tools, including his three-quarter-inch chisel; later he found the chisel itself in storage at New Jersey State Police headquarters in Trenton. The prosecution had lied about this being missing.
• Not one fingerprint linked Hauptmann to the crime — neither in the nursery nor on the 13 ransom notes. Fingerprint expert Dr. Erastus Hudson lifted about 500 prints (including partials) from the homemade ladder at the scene — but none were Hauptmann's. This seemed improbable if — as prosecutors claimed — he built it. New Jersey State Police Captain John Lamb then asked Hudson a stunning question: Could fingerprints be counterfeited? Hudson indignantly said yes, but that counterfeiting was detectable. The police then washed the ladder clean of fingerprints, and Schwarzkopf refused to let the public know Hauptmann's were never found on it.
• Hauptmann's shoes were confiscated for comparison to footprints at the crime scene and cemetery. The prosecution omitted this evidence — presumably they didn't match.
• Hauptmann said he worked at the Majestic Apartments in New York City until 5 p.m. the day of the kidnapping. His supervisor Joseph Furcht confirmed this in a sworn affidavit with attached documentation. But after being summoned to the New York District Attorney's office, Furcht was no longer "positive," and work records for that time vanished.
• Both of the witnesses placing Hauptmann near the crime scene were discreditable and handsomely paid. Unknown to the defense, 87-year-old Amandus Hochmuth was partially blind and admitted to prosecutors pretrial that he couldn't identify Hauptmann. When Governor Hoffman interviewed Hochmuth, he couldn't identify a flower vase 10 feet away. Illiterate Millard Whithed, labeled a chronic liar by neighbors, had denied to police seeing anything suspicious after the kidnapping — but came forward two years later, motivated by reward money.
Hauptmann had much better witnesses for the kidnapping time-frame. On Tuesdays his wife Anna worked late at Fredericksen's, a New York bakery-café. Hauptmann always waited there for Anna, and sometimes walked the Fredericksens' dog. Not only did the Fredericksens confirm Hauptmann was there on the kidnapping evening, but August Von Henke saw Hauptmann walking the dog. Mistaking it for his own lost dog, he argued with Hauptmann. Louis Kiss, a bakery customer, remembered the argument. Von Henke and Kiss weren't friends of Hauptmann, had no incentive to lie, and threatened the prosecution's case.
The day after Kiss testified, a New York attorney named Berko pressed him to change his testimony with a threat of arrest and an offer of money. Berko admitted his legal career was failing, but that Attorney General Wilentz offered to help him get a position on Manhattan special prosecutor Thomas Dewey's staff if he could persuade Kiss to recant his testimony. Kiss informed Berko he'd told the truth in court and wouldn't change it for any price. He summarized the incident in a sworn deposition corroborated by a witness.
• After Hauptmann's arrest, the New York police gave samples of his writing to handwriting expert Albert D. Osborn, who reported they didn't match the ransom notes. But after the frustrated police told Osborn large ransom sums were in Hauptmann's residence, Osborn requested more samples. The police forced Hauptmann to write the ransom note words dozens of times; "best" examples were selected. Osborn changed his mind, explaining in court that Hauptmann made the same spelling errors as the actual ransom notes. But as Scaduto revealed, the police forced Hauptmann to write with the spelling mistakes dictated to him.
The state paid eight handwriting experts over $33,000 to testify that Hauptmann wrote the notes. But "experts" testify for who pays their fee, and many differences in Hauptmann's writing were disregarded. The defense could only afford one handwriting expert, who was simply outnumbered.
• Isidor Fisch, who Hauptmann said left the "money box," had been a confidence man in many swindles, even swindling Hauptmann in their joint venture. Fisch was seen laundering "hot money" after the ransom payment, and applied for a passport the day the baby's body was found. Hauptmann's friend Hans Kloppenburg saw Fisch give him the box before departing for Germany. Kloppenburg told Anthony Scaduto that prosecutor Wilentz warned him: "If you say on the witness chair that you seen Fisch come in with the shoe box, you'll be arrested right away." Kloppenburg testified anyway.
• Wilentz used a partner of Isidor Fisch — ex-con Charlie Schleser — to spy on defense witnesses. Feigning friendliness to Hauptmann, Schleser learned about defense plans and reported to Wilentz.
Wilentz's summation violated jurisprudence rules by introducing new arguments; he described Hauptmann using the chisel to bludgeon the child in the nursery. Had he suggested this during normal proceedings, the defense could have refuted it — the nursery had no signs of bloody violence.
However, the judge, Thomas Trenchard, gave Wilentz leeway — as he had throughout the trial. The court transcript reveals Trenchard's marked bias toward the prosecution, overruling the defense in great disproportion. Perhaps the worst impropriety was his 70-minute charge to the jury, in which he aggressively argued for the prosecution. Reviewing the defense's arguments point by point, Trenchard repeated, "Do you believe that?" By emphasizing the word "that," Trenchard conveyed disdain — but helped protect himself, since court records didn't include voice inflections.
Soon I will be at home with my Lord, so I am dying an innocent man. Should, however, my death serve for the purpose of abolishing capital punishment — such a punishment being arrived at only by circumstantial evidence — I feel that my death has not been in vain. I am at peace with God. I repeat, I protest my innocence of the crime for which I was convicted. However, I die with no malice or hatred in my heart. The love of Christ has filled my soul and I am happy in Him.
In a generation no longer gripped with media-driven hatred of Hauptmann, Anthony Scaduto (and subsequent writers like Ludovic Kennedy) convinced many that the carpenter was railroaded to the electric chair. But if Hauptmann didn't do it, who did?
Over the last two decades, some authors have claimed Charles Lindbergh, or others in his family, killed the baby. This began with Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax (1993) by Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen Monier, whose contempt for the aviator is undisguised.
Lindbergh, known as a practical joker, once hid the baby from Anne as a prank. From that, the authors devised this scenario: Returning home from work on March 1, 1932, Charles decided to play a joke. He himself climbed the ladder and took the baby, intending to enter the front door saying, "Look who was with me in New York." But, they declare, he accidentally dropped the baby, killing him. Lindbergh, concerned only for his reputation, drove off, dumped the body in the woods four miles away, hurried home and wrote a fake ransom note before the baby's nurse returned to the nursery.
Their source for this? Their imagination. Their 286-page volume has only one page of footnotes. This theory, like many, cherry-picks details that support it while ignoring what doesn't. The ladder abandoned at the scene didn't belong to Lindbergh and wasn't sturdy — if he'd wanted a ladder, he had a strong one in his garage. It was dark with a gale blowing; with no one holding the ladder steady, it would have been insanity for Lindbergh to risk his life and his sick child's for a joke.
Lindbergh's daughter Reeve says he was "very gentle" as a father, and he was unquestionably courageous. If Lindbergh had really dropped his son, his instinct would have been to seek help — not cravenly dump the body in the woods.
Many people offered to pay the ransom. But Lindbergh insisted on paying himself, selling investments at steep losses to raise the $50,000 (around a million dollars in today's currency). If Ahlgren and Monier are correct, why would Lindbergh pay the ransom knowing the child was dead?
Others go beyond this "prank" hypothesis. Lindbergh was a leader of the America First Committee, which, before Pearl Harbor, tried to keep the United States out of World War II. Some Lindbergh haters claim he was a "Nazi racial supremacist," and deliberately murdered his son over some defect in health or appearance. In fact, Charles, Jr. was a handsome, healthy boy who could talk and run. Although less than two, he already attended a Montessori-type preschool. He did have rickets (not uncommon then) and a couple overlapping toes — hardly incentives for murder.
William Norris, in A Talent to Deceive, claimed Lindbergh's brother-in-law, Dwight Morrow, Jr., murdered the baby.
1. "Why did Lindbergh call his LAWYER before calling the police?" So asks the website lindberghkidnappinghoax.com, implying legalities worried Lindbergh more than his child. This question twists the truth over a technicality. While Lindbergh searched the grounds with a gun, he had the butler phone the police. Later he called his friend/attorney Henry Breckinridge for advice.
3. Lindbergh kept the police from the ransom drop — he was hiding something! The kidnappers had warned Lindbergh not to involve police. The Lindberghs complied; their priority was the child's life. Many kidnapping victims have paid ransoms without even notifying authorities. Note the two-headed coin of Lindbergh's critics — cooperating with police means "guilt"; so does not cooperating.
4. Lindbergh himself wiped off the fingerprints in the nursery! The fingerprints of Lindbergh and his family would be expected in the nursery. The wipedown could have only benefited outsiders.
5. Lindbergh cremated the baby's remains to destroy evidence! Lindbergh, the child's nurse, and the child's pediatrician viewed the remains. An autopsy was performed. However, a news reporter and photographer gained entry to the mortuary, forced open the casket, and photographed the remains. Realizing their baby would never escape paparazzi exploitation, the Lindberghs respectfully decided to cremate, and scattered the ashes from an airplane.
In 1992's Republican presidential primaries, Pat Buchanan was the leading opponent to George Bush, Sr. Buchanan deliberately revived Lindbergh's cry "America First" while challenging the interventionism of neocons in Bush's administration. This battle continued in 1993-94 (when the Ahlgren-Monier and Behn books appeared), as patriots fought to keep America out of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. Joining those entanglements devastated American manufacturing and sent millions of jobs overseas.
No one had symbolized "isolationism" more than Lindbergh. And his father, U.S. Congressman Charles Lindbergh, Sr., was a chief opponent of our entering World War I and bitterly fought the Federal Reserve Act, which he prophesied would benefit a few bankers while plaguing average Americans with inflation and economic despair.
In the 1990s, globalists of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) — whose members dominate key positions in both Republican and Democratic administrations — envisioned a "new world order" where America would yield sovereignty to a NAFTA-based North American Union and engage in endless foreign interventions. They also thirsted for billions in bailout dollars for their multinational banks and corporations. Since these bailouts would come largely from "fiat" money (created from nothing by the U.S. Federal Reserve), working Americans would pay for the bailouts through soaring inflation.
In 2002, President Bush appointed Stephen Monier U.S. Marshal for New Hampshire.
Logic dictates the kidnapping wasn't about $50,000. That was a lot in 1932 — but there were many wealthier families whom the public never heard of. To take Lindy's kid for money would be foolish — the whole country would be after you.
Besides inside knowledge of the Lindberghs' plans, much evidence suggested conspiracy. Several police officers attempted to reenact the abduction single-handedly, yet none succeeded — even with a sturdier ladder in daylight. Lindbergh and Condon believed they saw lookouts at the cemeteries. Ransom money still appeared after Hauptmann's arrest. Ellis Parker — considered New Jersey's best detective — independently found another suspect. But ironically it was Parker who went to prison; in seizing the suspect, it was charged he'd violated the new federal kidnapping law!
The prosecution suppressed all evidence of conspiracy, claiming Hauptmann acted alone. Wilentz' insistence on the death penalty, not life imprisonment, made little sense, given the meager evidence. If really guilty, in prison Hauptmann might eventually reveal how the crime was done, or name accomplices. Electrocution made this impossible. Was Hauptmann made a patsy to protect someone?
The trial's injustices — involving the prosecution, judge, and some police officers — suggest a powerful hand at work. Lindbergh was popular, but lacked the wealth and political influence to compromise an entire justice system. Could the kidnapping, and eventual smearing of Lindbergh as perpetrator, both trace to the Lindberghs' enemies?
In his new book The Lindbergh Baby Kidnap Conspiracy, Professor Alan Marlis, who taught for 35 years at City University of New York, believes James P. Warburg was behind the kidnapping. A prominent banker and member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "brain trust," Warburg is perhaps best remembered for telling a Senate subcommittee in 1950 we would have world government "by conquest or consent." He was the son of Federal Reserve architect Paul Warburg.
• Walter Liggett, speechwriter for Lindbergh, Sr., was murdered in 1935 — a case never solved.
• In 1936, Louisiana politician Huey Long, possibly FDR's biggest reelection threat, was assassinated — an incident still controversial.
• Louis McFadden, the Fed's chief congressional critic, survived two attempts on his life before dying suddenly, also in 1936.
• After triggering the Great Depression, "establishment" bankers wanted Roosevelt elected as President in 1932 to spawn an era of government borrowing, erosion of the Constitution, and moves toward world government. Lindbergh's father-in-law, Dwight Morrow, now Republican Senator for New Jersey, was touted as a possible presidential candidate. In October 1931, Morrow, 58 and fit, attended a charity dinner hosted by Lehman Brothers — heavy backers of FDR. (Herbert Lehman was Roosevelt's Lieutenant Governor in New York and signed the papers extraditing Hauptmann to New Jersey.) After the dinner, Morrow returned home — and died that night. Thus vanished a remaining hope for the Republicans, whom newspapers blamed for the Depression.
• The Lindberghs and Warburgs had what Marlis calls a "blood feud." In 1913, Charles Lindbergh, Sr. tried to stop creation of the Federal Reserve — which Paul Warburg, its first vice-chairman, had designed. In 1917, Lindbergh tried to have Warburg, as well as FDR's uncle Frederic Delano, impeached from the Federal Reserve Board. According to Marlis, Lindbergh "Jew-baited" Warburg at the Fed chairman hearings; Paul told his son, and the insult wasn't forgotten.
• In 1941, the fathers' feud continued between the sons. James Warburg helped found and finance the Freedom First Committee to oppose Lindbergh's America First Committee, debated Lindbergh at Madison Square Garden, and publicly denounced him.
• Paul Warburg died less than two months before the kidnapping.
• The police had suspected the crime was an inside job. The governess in James Warburg's household was the sister of the Morrows' seamstress, Marguerite Junge, who knew about the Lindberghs' change of plans. Junge's alibi for the kidnapping night: She was "out riding" with Red Johnsen — boyfriend of the baby's nurse.
• In April 1932 (just after the kidnapping and ransom payment), James Warburg took a two-month trip to Europe.
• Warburg's estate was in Greenwich, Connecticut — the town where the very first Lindbergh ransom gold certificate was passed, by a well-dressed woman at a bakery. The cashier, checking the serial-number list, exclaimed it was Lindbergh ransom money. The woman snatched it back and ran outside into a chauffeured sedan — which police unsuccessfully searched for.
Dr. Marlis makes an interesting case, but also seems to draw some unnecessary inferences from coincidences. Warburg ordering the kidnapping cannot be proven. As with Hauptmann, fairness should negate "convicting" him on circumstantial evidence.
This article could not address many facets of this still-debated case. For those interested in more, good starts are Anthony Scaduto's Scapegoat, Lloyd Gardner's balanced The Case That Never Dies, and www.lindberghkidnap.proboards.com.
James Perloff is the author of The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline and Tornado in a Junkyard: The Relentless Myth of Darwinism.


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Boozman Says Allies Continue to Express Need for "Strong Relationship" as Russian, Chinese and Iranian Influence Grows
(Boozman and Members of a Congressional Delegation led by Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, meet with German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen and members of the German Bundestag to discuss the U.S. – German alliance and a shared commitment to NATO)
WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) said allies voiced concerns about the increasing influence of Russia, China and Iran at high-level meetings in nine countries last week.
Boozman traveled with a delegation led by the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). After representing the U.S. Senate at the Munich Security Conference—where the delegation conducted discussions with officials regarding political, economic and security issues—the delegation traveled to Kosovo, Israel, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Algeria and Spain to discuss bilateral relations between these countries and the U.S. and participated in classified briefings about U.S. military cooperation and regional security efforts.
"The message we received at each stop was that a strong relationship with our allies is important as Russian, Chinese and Iranian regional influence continue to grow at alarming rates. As we face evolving security challenges, it is critical that we reinforce our commitment to strong, capable partnerships. I remain dedicated to protecting and advancing our goals while working with our allies around the globe," Boozman said.
While at the Munich Security Conference, the delegation met with Ashraf Ghani, President of Afghanistan; Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General; Mariusz Blaszcak, Polish Defense Minister; and Ursula von der Leyen, German Defense Minister with a delegation from the German Bundestag.
The post-Munich leg of the trip included a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where discussions focused on the possible U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and Syria as well as the influence of Iran and Russia in the region. The delegation also visited the Iron Dome Missile Defense Site while in Israel. In Djibouti, the delegation got a firsthand look at China's growing influence in Africa when it flew over the first Chinese military base outside of its territory. The members of Congress also met with political and security leadership in each nation as well as U.S. military leadership and service members, including Arkansans, stationed at U.S. military installations.
"With tensions on the rise around the globe, it is important to ensure that our troops serving abroad have everything they need to complete their mission and return home safely. It is always extra special to see Arkansans who are deployed far from the Natural State, working hard to ensure that the U.S. and our allies are safe," Boozman said.
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Permalink: https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/2/boozman-says-allies-continue-to-express-need-for-strong-relationship-as-russian-chinese-and-iranian-influence-grows

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These sample images show the amazing experience you get with your 3D ultrasound from Northline Women's Health Center. Unlike a basic flat ultrasound image, a 3D ultrasound creates a rich, multi-dimensional view of your baby, so you can see form, shape and details, just like in a real photograph. And when we combine a series of these high-quality 3D ultrasound images in a motion sequence, you get the ultimate view in a 4D ultrasound video that shows movement of your baby. You can welcome your new child and share the experience with family and friends with a 3D/4D ultrasound from Northline Women's Health Center, Michigan's leading provider of ultrasound services.


It is very difficult to give an exact answer to the question which renewable energy source is the most important. This is because we can judge each renewable energy source by different criteria, and in each case have completely different outcome. For instance if we look at the current level of development and price tag then wind energy would be the most important energy source, if we look at the potential of each renewable energy source then solar energy would be the most important energy source, and if we look at the availability to use it in every corner of the world then biomass would be probably considered the most important energy source.
Still, most energy experts will tell you that two of the most important renewable energy sources are wind and solar energy. This is because wind currently leads the way as the most developed energy source, and solar energy is expected to dominate global energy market in years to come.
We must not also forget that fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) still play the most important role in global energy supply, and they look very likely to remain dominant sources of energy for at least next couple of decades because renewable energy sources still need to significantly decrease their costs, find adequate storage solutions to solve intermittency issue, etc.
The importance of renewable energy sources is multi-dimensional, not only are they expected to cover for fossil fuels once we run out of oil and natural gas, but they also provide energy security (by diversifying domestic energy portfolio), and also energy independence (by reducing need for foreign fuel import). Their environmental dimension is well known as they are clean energy sources that do not release vast amounts of greenhouse gases that cause global warming like this is the case with fossil fuels.
It is of vital importance to further develop renewable energy technologies in order to not only make renewable energy more cost-competitive with fossil fuels but also much more efficient. Maximum efficiency and low costs are the two main goals that renewable energy needs to achieve in order to end the dominance of fossil fuels.
Labeling just one renewable energy source as the most important would be definitely wrong thing to do because each country determines importance of certain renewable energy source. For instance wind energy could be considered as the most important renewable energy source for United States, geothermal energy for Iceland, solar energy for Spain, tidal and wave power for Britain.


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Differing Site Condition Clause: Shifting Risk of the Unexpected
Change Orders, Claims, Construction Bidding, Contracting, Government Contracts
A differing site condition is a condition other than weather, climate, or other act of God, discovered on or affecting a construction site that differs in some material respect from what was reasonably anticipated.[i] The conditions must be physical; changes in political or economic conditions, or labor issues are not differing site conditions. It may surprise some contractors that in the absence of a contract clause providing otherwise, the risk of any cost or difficulty associated with unexpected subsurface conditions are generally borne by the construction contractor.
Many private construction contracts do not contain a differing site conditions clause shifting the risk to the owner. For example the contract to build the IDX Tower in downtown Seattle (a private high-rise) did not contain a differing site conditions clause, and the risk of unforeseen conditions was entirely upon the general contractor. Thus, when contaminated soil (a differing site condition) was encountered, the contractor bore the cost of remediation.
A mere unanticipated condition that renders the contract performance more difficult, burdensome, or expensive provides no excuse for the nonperformance and no basis for modification.[ii] In Washington, the courts have made it very clear that if a contract does not contain a differing site conditions clause, the risk of unforeseen subsurface difficulties falls entirely on the contractor:
Where one agrees to do, for a fixed sum, a thing possible to be performed, he will not be excused or become entitled to additional compensation, because unforeseen difficulties are encountered. Thus, one who undertakes to erect a structure upon a particular site, assumes ordinarily the risk of subsidence of the soil.[iii]
Thus, absent a differing site condition or changed conditions clause, contractors must increase the amount of their bids or proposals to cover the contingency of encountering unexpected difficulties, make their own subsurface investigation, bare the risk of unknown conditions without price contingencies, or choose not to bid it all.
Courts have recognized some exceptions to the general rule that puts the entire risk of loss on the contractor, if the contractor is able to prove (1) fraud or negligent misrepresentation of conditions;[iv] (2) breach of implied warranty of the sufficiency and adequacy of the plans and specification;[v] (3) constructive changes;[vi] (4) failure to disclose superior information;[vii] (5) impossible ability or commercial impracticability;[viii] and (6) cardinal change.[ix]
Comment: Virtually every public works contract contains a differing site conditions clause. The AIA and ConsensusDocs contracts also contain differing site conditions provisions. The logic of including a differing site conditions clause in a contract is that sophisticated owners long ago recognized that one of the greatest risks in fixed-price construction contracting was encountering unforeseen subsurface conditions during performance. A prudent contractor will include a contingency in its bid to protect itself from the potential disasters. When the contingencies do not eventuate, the owner incurs an unnecessary expense by paying more than actually necessary for contract work. On the other hand, if the contingency is insufficient to cover the contractor's cost, the construction project might be disrupted and delayed while the contractor seeks instructions, files claims, or suspends work for lack of funds. To avoid these problems, the federal government, as well as a host of other owners, has developed a risk shifting clause that minimizes the contractor's risk, relieving it from unexpected and unfavorable conditions that cannot be ascertained by a reasonable site investigation.
[i] Foster Const. C.A. & Williams Bros. Co. v. U. S., 435 F.2d 873 (Ct. Cl. 1970).
[ii] United States v. Spearin, 248 US 132, 136, 39 S. Ct. 59, 63 L. Ed. 166 (1918).
[iii] Dravo Corp. v. Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, 79 Wn.2d 214, 218, 484 P.2d 399 (1971).
[iv] Douglas Nw., Inc. v. Bill O'Brien & Sons Const., Inc., 64 Wn. App. 661, 828 P.2d 565 (1992).
[v] Weston v. New Bethel Baptist Church, 23 Wn. App. 747, 753, 598 P.2d 411 (1978).
[vi] Emerson/Sack – Warner Corp., ASBCA 6004, 61-2 BCA § 3248, 16, 827 (1961).
[vii] Hardeman-Monier Hutcherson v. United States, 458 F.2d 1364 (Ct. Cl. 1972).
[viii] Valley Constr. v. Lakehill Sewer Dist., 67 Wn.2d 910, 410 P.2d 796 (1965).
[ix] Bignold v. King County, 65 Wn.2d 817, 399 P.2d 611 (1965).
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In October 2008 one of our sand dam projects in Kenya went on display at the American Museum of Natural History in their Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future exhibition.
This exhibition covers the broader issues of climate change and some of the solutions that various communities have been using to adapt to it. One of those solutions is the weir, or sand dam. In Kenya, we have been funding these types of projects over the last few years.
In the picture on exhibition, our local partner, the Africa Brotherhood Church, is seen with their weir under construction in Nginni in May of 2008. Peter Chasse, President of The Water Project, snapped the shot as together we celebrated with them about the change that was coming.
We're excited to see the work of the ABC on display for the world to see. These kinds of projects make a huge impact and we hope with your help, we'll be able to continue funding them.


hi guys, I have got a question about nursing course. I have tried to find some information on internet but I didnt had any luck.
I really wanted to get into Midwifery, however I am missing one GCSE so I have decided to do Adult nursing as it always been my second choice. However is the any way i could become midwife after graduating as registered adult nurse? or is the any specialisation I could go into which leads to working in similar field?
if anyone have any information about it i would really appriciate if you could share it .


The High Court has ruled that the Hong Kong government's move to control access to the forecourt of the Central Government Offices – commonly known as "Civic Square" – was unconstitutional.
Press photographer Cheung Tak-wing launched a legal challenge in 2014 against the government's policy of limiting public events at the square to 10am to 6:30pm on Sundays and public holidays only. Cheung argued that the move restricted his freedom of speech, assembly and right to participate in public affairs.
Civic Square at Central Government Headquarters. Photo: In-Media.
Judge Thomas Au ruled on Monday that the policy was unconstitutional as it failed the "proportionality" requirement, and in addition, contained an error of law.
Civic Square is a popular site for protests since the government opened its Admiralty offices in 2011. But the government added metal fencing around the area in September 2014, and later barred the public from entering it altogether. It was partially reopened to the public last December.
In the judicial review case, the government had argued that the policy was necessary because public events at Civic Square on weekdays and Saturdays would disrupt government operations.
The government further argued that the Civic Square was not a public space, and the government as a landowner had a right to exclude the public from it.
Au rejected both positions, saying that the policy amounted to a "blanket refusal" to allow people to enter the forecourt on weekdays and Saturdays, regardless of the scale and nature of potential events.
Au said this was disproportionate and contrary to established human rights law – which requires the government to justify restrictions on freedoms according to the specifics of each case.
Au further ruled that the government could not say it had an unlimited right to bar the public from government property.
"It is wrong in principle to formulate the Permission Scheme by starting off with the premise that, as a landowner, [the Director of Administration] could in principle exclude anyone from entering the place to exercise the rights of freedom of expression and assembly," he wrote.
Au cited an earlier Court of Final Appeal judgment which stated that, in the context of freedom of speech and assembly, private property rights cannot trump fundamental rights. The government therefore could not say that protesters' rights were irrelevant simply because they were protesting on private property, Au said.
Nevertheless, Au accepted that the government had the power to impose new restrictions and conditions on using the Civic Square, as long as they followed legal requirements.
On Tuesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the government respected the judgment and it will take time to carefully study it: "I have already asked the director of administration to revisit those guidelines and mechanism and guidelines to see whether there are ways… that we could change or relax some of the requirements," she told reporters.
Lam said she decided to reopen the square when she took office last year, but a balance has to be achieved between the right to express opinion and the efficient and smooth operation of the government headquarters.
She also said people were only prosecuted for protests at the Civic Square because they broke the law, and the cases were unrelated to whether the square was open or whether there were fences.
Pro-democracy lawmakers said on Monday that the government's past policy on Civic Square was overly restrictive, and called on it not to appeal the case.
"The policy on 'reopening' Civic Square was a joke: people have to apply, the opening hours are limited, and it is only open for one day per week… There are so many security guards and staff, it is preposterous to say they could not handle a few people and cars," said lawmaker Tanya Chan.
Lawmaker Ray Chan added that the government should apologise to protesters who received legal sanctions for breaking the rules at Civic Square – namely the three Umbrella movement activists who were convicted of unlawful assembly for climbing the fence.
The Administration Wing, which is in charge of the management of Civic Square, said it was studying the judgment and will decide on next steps after seeking legal advice.


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Posts Tagged 'Personal'
The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
2018 is a surprisingly busy year for Matthew and myself.
We are grateful to Sr. Sonia, who encourages and inspires us in our spiritual journey. Through her, we met two wonderful people, Ricky and Corito, who have become endeared friends. We are grateful for their love and friendship. In the words of Matthew, "I am always energized by the visits of Ricky and Corito."
We are also thankful to Sr. Marijo who, in spite of her busy schedule, makes it a point to visit us at least once a month for fellowship, prayer and sharing. Her constant presence in our lives has been always a source of support and joy. We are always happy to see her.
Through the efforts of Sr. Marijo, our parish priest, Fr. Edgar Lumanlang, visited us on Matthew's birthday when he turned 60! He prayed for us and gave communion to Matthew. The best gift ever is to receive Jesus through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist!
The year began with Matthew's delightful and unexpected reunion with Jun who came with Sr. Marijo. It has been 40 years since they last saw each other. Sr. Marijo introduced Jun and Matthew and a small group of students to Zen meditation. They had a wonderful time of catching up with each others' almost a lifetime of spiritual journey.
After Jun left my sister Cristy went up to Baguio. We had fun sharing stories and taking photos of each other. After Cristy's visit, Luth, who is based in the US and whom I have not seen in decades, went up to Baguio for an overnight trip just to see me. I am deeply touched by her gesture of taking time to be with me. We spent a full day catching up on our lives.
As soon as Luth left, I met up with my dear friend Wawi and her family who also went up to Baguio for a visit. We enjoyed our time together during breakfast at Chocolate de Batirol in Camp John Hay and bought some pasalubongs in Good Shepherd. Not to be missed is Wawi's favorite, the raisin bread from Palaganas Bakery!
We were happy to see members of the Sacred Heart Community, who dropped by on April 1 to celebrate Bro. Paul Aguas' – Matthew's Dad – birthday! This enjoyable bunch of happy brothers and sisters is so much fun to be with.
Still in April, I went down to Manila to be with my best friend, Natalie and her family, because of the passing of her Dad. It was also an opportune time to meet up with my siblings whom I have not seen in a while.
Matthew was delighted to reunite with members of Sacred Heart Community in the 1970's – Pia, Jean, Flor, and Helen. Everyone had fun reminiscing the good old days! Since then, we have now reconnected through Facebook.
June was a special month for us. Besides celebrating Matthew's 60th birthday and our 16th year wedding anniversary, we were happy to meet up with Binky's parents. I have happy memories of them when Binky and I were still office mates and I would go up to Baguio for a visit. They have big hearts and have always made me feel loved and welcome. It was sad though, because that was the last time we were going to see Tita Rose. A month after, she passed on.
September was a stressful month for us because I had to rush Matthew to the hospital where he was confined. He had an allergic reaction to a diabetes medicine that was prescribed to him. But we thank God, he was able to recover albeit slowly. We were happy to see Gie and Mel, who also dropped by the house.
Come October, I had breakfast with Candy and Riley who went up to Baguio for a quick visit. After they left, my cousin from the US, Ate Ely came to the house with Ate Genie and Bobbie Malay (Ate Ely's good friend). I was excited to spend time with her since I have not seen her in more than 10 years. Her company brought happy memories of my childhood.
Beth was a high school chum whom I have not seen since 1977 when we both graduated from High School. We met up because she was vacationing in Baguio. It was so much fun and it seemed like we didn't run out of stories. She had to postpone an appointment two times because we could not seem to get enough of each other!
At the same time that Beth and I were together, Matthew was spending time with Leo at home. We always look forward to Leo's visits because his pleasing personality makes him great company!
Finally, we cannot end this letter without mentioning our blog. Now on its tenth year, we have grown to have 350+ followers and have reached an astonishing 497,000+ hits! We are amazed and delighted because people from around the world are visiting our blog, liking our posts and our cyber community continues to grow.
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and blessings for the New Year."
— Matt & Jojang
Tagged with Christmas, Christmas Letter, Corito Reyes, Jojang Aguas, Matt Aguas, Personal, Relationships, Ricky Gonzales, Sr. Marie Jose Garcia, Sr. Sonia Punzalan
Sir Isaac Newton said that we always stand on the shoulders of other people. In other words, our lives are shaped by our encounters with people, who shared generously their time, talent and treasure with us. On the top of my list are these people who changed my life:
1. Bro. Paul Aguas – My Dad. A selfless man who spent his entire life serving God and His people. To this day he remains my model in the way I live my life.
2. Sr. Marie Jose Garcia, SSpS – Dear friend for 40 years now. She introduced me to the practice of Zen meditation, which changed my life in a way I couldn't ever imagine.
3. Dom Fil Cinco, OCSO – Abbot of the Our Lady of the Philippines Trappist Monastery and my novice master. Our conversations in the open fields of the monastery, under the blue skies about the spiritual life, especially about the Desert Fathers, remained etched in my memory. 30+ years later it seems that those conversations took place only yesterday.
4. Sr. Elaine MacInnes, OLM – Catholic Nun and Zen Master. What I can't forget about her was her generosity. Although we couldn't offer her anything, even her retreat stipend, she generously guided us, a group of young college students, myself included, 40 years ago in the practice of Zen meditation by conducting Zen retreats for us. The seeds she planted would later bear fruit in our lives. In my case, it just took a little longer to do so.
5. Sr. Sonia Punzalan, RC – A religious of the Sisters of the Cenacle and one of my Zen teachers. It was on my first Zen retreat with her that I had one of the most powerful spiritual experiences of my life. It goes without saying that it transformed my life. Almost 20 years later that experience continues to inform and affect my life.
6. Fr. Thomas Merton, OCSO – Trappist monk, and considered as one of the most significant spiritual writers of the 20th century. I've never met him in person, but his books on the Christian monastic and contemplative tradition, which I read when I was 15 or 16 years old, changed my life forever.
I humbly owe them a debt of gratitude.
Tagged with Dom Fil Cinco, Paul Aguas, Personal, Relationships, Spirituality, Sr. Elaine Macinnes, Sr. Marie Jose Garcia, Sr. Sonia Punzalan, Thomas Merton, Zen
Sr. Elaine Macinnes: Catholic Nun and Zen Master
Sr. Elaine Macinnes
I have been reading about freedom in confined spaces. How a prison cell can become a practice ground. I have never been to a prison and somewhere in my mind I have an image of a cell as a stark, empty place, a place of isolation and silence. It does not seem a far leap to link the word "cell" with a monk's quarters.
Paradoxically, the most vivid the world has ever been to me was during a sesshin, a week-long Zen meditation retreat. No television, no books, no writing, no eye contact, no radio, a strict schedule and limitations everywhere.
All of a sudden the empty world around me was alive – a teacup filled with magenta, a colour my eyes had never witnessed, the syllables in the chant book leaping off the page, each one distinct and embodied with life. I wonder what this space of silence is, where what seems to be empty is in fact very full and what feels like a prison can be a vast open space? With this in mind, I go to meet Sister Elaine MacInnes.
Sister Elaine lives in a modest house on a crescent in a residential, east-end Toronto neighbourhood. This is the main house belonging to Our Lady's Missionaries, a community of Roman Catholic nuns founded in 1949. It looks as if it could be an old people's home or a retirement community; nothing spectacular here. On the inside there isn't anything obviously religious about the space – just a communal kitchen with a long counter, a living room with large windows looking out onto a ravine, violets growing in the windows, a sofa and some modest chairs, a coffee table with a doily, a calendar on the wall. Not a cross or icon in sight.
Sister Elaine MacInnes has been on the phone all morning. At eighty-two, things are not really slowing down for this Roman Catholic nun who is also a Zen Roshi. She was talking to the Prison Phoenix Trust in England, where she was director for seven years. Next she had to handle an incident involving sex offenders in one of the Canadian prisons where she sends yoga and meditation teachers now. It seems that some of the teachers are uneasy working with pedophiles. Sister Elaine does not distinguish between sex offenders, murderers, political prisoners, young offenders or lifers – they are all people she can offer help to and bring a little more freedom into their trapped places. "We hold out a little hope for people in doing meditation when they are in that state," she says confidently.
Sister Elaine has led a truly extraordinary life. When you look back, it appears to have been guided. Originally from a musical family in Moncton, New Brunswick, she joined Our Lady's Missionaries in 1953 after studying violin at Julliard in New York. While training to become a nun, she read the writings of St. Francis Xavier and was struck by his experience of attempting to encounter a monk on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto in Japan. She made a secret vow that where he had not succeeded she would.
As fate had it, in 1961 Sister Elaine's first missionary assignment was to Japan. Not only did she climb Mt. Hiei and meet a monk, she went on to join an order of Rinzai Buddhist nuns at Enkoji in Kyoto, where she lived for eight years. She then practised zazen (sitting meditation) and koan study in the Sanbo Kyodan order in Kamakura under the tutelage of Yamada Koun Roshi, from whom she received transmission in 1980 as a Roshi or "old teacher."
In 1976, Sister Elaine was transferred to the Philippines during the worst years of the Marcos regime. It was through her work opening a Zen centre for the Catholic Church in Manila that she ended up teaching meditation to political prisoners. Her work in prisons would become her vocation.
Wearing all black clothes, the only splash of colour a cloth flower in vivid hues of orange and red attached to her lapel with a clothespin, her eyes shining as bright as the day she was born, she does not look like a monk or a nun, a Buddhist or a Catholic. Her voice has its Maritime lilt still intact despite the forty-three years she spent abroad, testimony to how vivid and true her personality is.
She may have had "the bottom fall out in a most spectacular way" when she experienced satori, but the "no-self" or "extinguishing of the self" that Zen points to has led to the much more vivid human being. No spiritual trappings here, no pretensions, no stink of Zen or Catholicism or anything I can put a finger on. And perhaps that is her greatest majesty and greatest mystery. Sister Elaine seems ordinary, someone you might encounter on the street in a small town, a warm-hearted neighbour, and yet it is quite clear that she is the real thing, one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met: a true mystic.
Surprisingly, Sister Elaine does not consider herself to be a Buddhist. In Kamakura, she studied with a unique teacher from the Sanbo Kyodan order, a mixture of the two dominant schools of Zen (Soto and Rinzai). He was a teacher who did not draw lines of division between lay people and monks, men and women, or even between religions. "You know, there is no separation. We make separation." She describes the Sunday talks that her teacher Yamada Roshi would give, and said they were filled with Buddhist references.
"I was never moved to be a Buddhist," she says. When people in Japan asked her about it, she would say, "Look, I was just brought up in Moncton, New Brunswick. I can't all of a sudden say I have had a hundred lives beforehand. I was born on March 7th in 1924 and I was fresh and clean and I have my own personality. I'm not another hundred thousand people behind me." When her teacher noticed her first breakthroughs in Zen practice, he simply said, "Now you go out and be a better Christian and a better Sister."
Sister Elaine speaks of Zen as being about direct experience, not words or objects. "There was never anything but the right now, right here." Even the Buddha requested that his words not be recorded. He taught from experience and it was these practices that were later to be the basis for Zen teachings, but the terms themselves and the religious elements of Buddhism were recorded later. "Scholars say the Buddha grew up in a Hindu country so that he just went back to the religious matrix of his time."
Of her own teaching Sister Elaine says, "I have Jewish people and I have Muslims and I have people with no religion and it doesn't bother me at all. I just try to use quite a few different terms so that people won't get stuck on one. We don't find it necessary to impose a god on you, we just ask you to sit down and keep quiet." She laughs heartily at this.
"My teacher in Japan used to say 'we are all born to be mystics.' And I say that goes for each of us. There were twenty-four lifers who had all committed murder in Wormwood Scrubs Prison in England and I went around to each one and I said, 'that means you' and there wasn't one snicker." When Sister Elaine talks about the prisoners she works with, it is with a great deal of love and an incredible dose of optimism. "There is no guile there, you know, and they're lovely, lovely to work with."
In 1992, Sister Elaine was invited to become the director of the Prison Phoenix Trust in Oxford, UK, whose patron is the English actor Jeremy Irons. She set up a network of yoga and meditation teachers who go into penitentiaries across the UK and Eire, teaching simple yoga postures and breath-centred meditation to prisoners who voluntarily come to the classes. The idea behind the Prison Trust is that the space of a prison cell can become a practice ground, not unlike a monk's cell.
My first image of a prison cell was perhaps a little off. Sister Elaine tells me that most of them are filled to the brim with "fifteen or twenty pictures of all kinds of different girls, a teapot, cups, all sorts of mementos…My experience working with people is that the more they go into Zen the less they need accoutrements." So an empty cell only comes later, with an empty mind. It is also a constant struggle to find silence in a prison; they are noisy, bustling places "full of society."
The yoga and meditation taught are a practice of "silent body, silent mind," and apparently it works. By the time she retired from the Trust, Sister Elaine had set up eighty-six teachers in prisons across the UK and they receive thousands of letters each month from the inmates. "I would say our discipline is therapeutic and that is why it is so important for prisoners."
The kind of zazen they teach is Shikantaza. "'Shika' means 'only' and 'ta' means 'to hit' and the 'za' is squatting on the floor. It is something that will hit the mark." Simple counting of breath is emphasized, as well as correct posture. "The bottom line of meditation for a teacher is that you're bringing people to a deeper state of consciousness and that involves something very, very touchy. There is something in practising silence the way we teach that is very safe, and to my knowledge it has never been known for anyone to crack up."
In her prison programs, Sister Elaine felt it necessary to balance meditation practices with yoga instruction. Yoga Outreach, a charity organization based in Surrey, BC, was asked to implement a yoga program for the correctional institutions in Canada. The yoga postures taught are breath-centred to facilitate a link between body and mind.
The practice of yoga and meditation brings a space of silence to the prisoners, and with this seems to follow discipline, productivity, a sense of purpose, an alleviation of depression, a reduction in violence, and in the long run, a reduced rate of recidivism. This approach fits in with a paradigm shift slowly being introduced into the judicial system called Restorative Justice.
One of the most moving letters Sister Elaine ever received was from a nineteen-year-old prisoner: "As long as I can remember I have had a pain in my chest. When I got to prison it got worse. For one month I have been doing just what you say and I want you to know that not only is the pain better now, but for the first time in my life, I can see a tiny spark within myself that I can like."
Initially, it was her experience in the Philippines that convinced Sister Elaine of the effectiveness of yoga and meditation as tools for working with prisoners. When sent to the Philippines during the Marcos regime to open a zendo (Zen meditation hall), she unwittingly attracted many dissidents into the practice.
"Boy" Morales, a renowned rebel who headed the New People's Army against the dictatorship, asked her to come and teach meditation at the Bago Bantay detention centre, where he and nine other political prisoners were being held and tortured. It took the protection of the Canadian Embassy to ensure her safety – General Verr, the head of Marcos' army and Intelligence, happened to owe them a favour. And so, in spite of her fears, Sister Elaine went to teach meditation to political prisoners. "I couldn't have said no. And it was an eye opener for me how a person can change from an angry, enervated, depressed person into … I saw them come out of all their jerkings (from the shock treatment) and they became productive. But you need a lot of sitting if you want real results. In some ways you can say there are no miracles in Zen."
Because of that work, Sister Elaine became director of the Prison Phoenix Trust. When she returned to Canada she decided to set up a similar organization here. It is called Freeing the Human Spirit and in spite of initial resistance from the Canadian prison authorities, she has managed to place yoga and meditation instructors in prisons across Canada. "You don't find much openness toward anyone in prison in Canada, do you? There is no death sentence here, so a lot of them are going to be back on the streets again, so it is to our advantage to rehabilitate them. Prisons don't work, that's the first thing we have to remember."
Even though Sister Elaine sees the flaws in our penal system, she continues to run Freeing the Human Spirit with a great deal of optimism and enthusiasm, and she does it because it works for the prisoners. "I suppose everybody in a position like mine goes through a time when they try and get more justice in the system." Sister Elaine recognizes that the work she does is separate from a political struggle for change. She says that if she were to take that up, it would only build a dichotomy between the officers and the prisoners. "I am staying on the prisoners' side," she tells me. "Other people will try and get a better idea going. I don't know what that idea is, but Restorative Justice is a very good step." In 2001, Sister Elaine was awarded the Order of Canada for her humanitarian work.
When thinking about Sister Elaine, the image I am left with is from a documentary film made about her life and work called The Fires that Burn. The image of an inmate – shaved head and tattooed arms, his muscled body suddenly looking very fragile as he holds himself in Plank pose. I have never seen anyone do yoga with such tenderness and fear before. This is clearly fertile ground – the space for things that are broken to mend in silence.
–Talya Rubin
Note: Almost 40 years ago I had my first sesshin in 1978, that is, a Zen retreat, with Sr. Elaine Macinnes. Thanks to Sr. Marie Jose Garcia who introduced me and some friends to Sr. Elaine. (By the way, Sr. Marie Jose visited I and my wife yesterday. I was so happy to see her. It was almost 20 years since I last saw her).
On my first dokusan or interview with a Zen teacher, Sr. Elaine gave me the Mu-koan. It took me 20+ years before I could have some insight on the koan. But it was worth it. It happened when I attended a one-week Zen retreat with my 2nd Zen teacher, Sr. Sonia Punzalan. I wrote an account of what happened to me during that retreat in this blog post — A Touch of Enlightenment: A Christian's Encounter with Zen.
Tagged with Christianity, Friendship, interreligious dialogue, Meditation, Personal, Spirituality, Sr. Elaine Macinnes, Sr. Marie Jose Garcia, Sr. Sonia Punzalan, Zen
It has been a tumultuous year for Matthew and myself. We had a roller coaster ride of highs and lows which felt like it would never end. You see, for the past two years we were carrying a burden which seemed unsolvable. Suffice it to say that we tried everything we can to find solutions, but we always end up sad, stressed and frustrated. Quite recently, in the most unexpected way, our prayer was answered miraculously.
God is good indeed.
Like how our life has been for the past 13 years since we've been married, the Lord has never failed to reassure us that our life is indeed in His hands. Each time He reassures us that our seemingly insurmountable challenges are actually faith building experiences that brings us from glory to glory.
Of course, we cannot end this letter without mentioning our blog. Now on its seventh year, we have grown to have 283 followers and have reached 300,258+ hits. It's edifying to know that many people appreciate our posts, and our cyber community has grown.
2016 is a new beginning for us. As God leads us, we trust that He will continue to be with us every step of the way.
May the forgiving spirit of Him to whom we dedicate this season prevail again on earth.
May hunger disappear and terrorists cease their senseless acts.
May people live in freedom, worshiping as they see fit, loving others.
May the sanctity of the home be ever preserved.
May peace, everlasting peace, reign supreme.
We pray that Christ will be alive for you this Christmas and all throughout the New Year ahead.
–Matthew and Jojang
Tagged with Christmas, Christmas Letter, God, Jojang Aguas, Matt Aguas, New Year, Personal
Remembering My Grandparents
A Grandmother thinks of her grandchildren day and night, even when they are not with her. She will always love them more than anyone would understand.
–Karen Gibbs
Tagged with Family, Grandfather, Grandmother, Grandparents, Grandparents Day, Jacinto Perez, Life, Matt Aguas, Patrocinio Perez, Personal
My Nephew Vinnie and David Benoit
My 12-year-old nephew, Vinnie (on the drums), jamming with jazz legend David Benoit…
Tagged with David Benoit, Family, Jazz, Music, Personal, Video, Vinnie Aguas, Watermelon Man
An Invitation to a Zen Retreat
An invitation to attend a Zen retreat 16 years ago from Sr. Perla Macapinlac, an ICM nun. Attended the 6-day retreat, and it changed my life. An account of what happened to me during that retreat is found in this blog post:
A Touch of Enlightenment: A Christian's Encounter with Zen
Tagged with Bible, Christianity, Contemplation, Enlightenment Experience, God, Jesus, Matt Aguas, Personal, Religion, Spirituality, Zen
Nelson Mandela, South African Icon of Peaceful Resistance, Dies


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Raptor Technologies Partners with RapidSOS to Deliver Enhanced Emergency 911 Response to Schools
This article originally appeared on PR Newswire. To view the original article, click here
Raptor announces a partnership with RapidSOS and is now recognized as RapidSOS Ready. Through this partnership, Raptor Alert sends life-saving emergency data directly to 911 through the RapidSOS Platform in an emergency
HOUSTON, June 22, 2021 – PRNewswire – Raptor Technologies, the leader in school safety software, today announced a partnership with RapidSOS to make emergency data from the Raptor mobile panic alert product, Raptor Alert, available to 911 and first responders through the RapidSOS emergency response data platform. This partnership enhances the information Raptor Alert customers automatically provide 911 operators and first responders during school emergencies and improves the depth of integration with 911 center systems. Built-in partnership with public safety, RapidSOS's Platform securely links life-saving data from over 350M connected devices directly to over 4,800 Emergency Communications Centers (ECCs) nationwide.
With this partnership, data from Raptor Alert will be delivered directly to ECCs with access to the RapidSOS Platform. This data includes the name of the school and building, the name of the caller, and additional information from the School Information System such as pictures or role, the type of emergency alert generated, and the real-time status, location, and headcount of students, staff, and visitors on the school's campus. This data empowers faster and more effective emergency response and provides first responders with the critical information they need to protect lives.
"Partnering with RapidSOS helps us deliver on the promise of protecting every child, every school, every day," said Gray Hall, CEO, Raptor Technologies. "Raptor Alert generates a great deal of critical data that first responders can use to save lives. By integrating our solutions to work together seamlessly, we empower 911 operators, dispatchers, and emergency personnel with a single source for mission-critical information that can help them respond to incidents faster than ever."
"We're united in our commitment to empowering safer, stronger communities with intelligent, data-driven emergency response worldwide," said Jessica Reed, Vice President of Strategy and Global Partners at RapidSOS. "Together with our RapidSOS Ready Emergency Community, we're providing people with an added layer of safety and security. We're also proud to support our heroic first responders in saving millions of lives annually."
With the launch of this solution, Raptor Alert will be recognized as RapidSOS Ready allowing critical data to be sent directly to local 911 agencies in an emergency through the RapidSOS Platform. To learn more about the solution, visit www.raptortech.com/protect-your-school.
About Raptor Technologies
Raptor is driven by our mission to protect every child, every school, every day. Founded in 2002, Raptor has partnered with over 35,000 K-12 U.S. schools to provide integrated visitor, volunteer, and emergency management software and services that cover the complete spectrum of school safety. To learn more about Raptor Technologies, visit www.raptortech.com.
About RapidSOS, Inc.
In partnership with public safety, RapidSOS has created the world's first emergency response data platform that securely links life-saving data from over 350M connected devices to emergency services and first responders. Through its platform, RapidSOS provides intelligent data that supports over 4,800 Emergency Communications Centers worldwide, across 150 million emergency calls annually. Together with our RapidSOS Ready emergency community, RapidSOS supports first responders in saving millions of lives annually.
To learn more about our technology thats creating life-saving connections, visit www.rapidsos.com.
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Lose Weight for Love is a TV show on British national television from BBC1 with an average rating of 3.0 stars by TelevisionCatchUp.co.uk's visitors. We have 4 episodes of Lose Weight for Love in our archive. The first episode of Lose Weight for Love was broadcast in June, 2016. Did you miss an episode of Lose Weight for Love but don't you wan't that to happen in the future? Please set an alarm and add Lose Weight for Love to your favourites, so we can remind you by email when there's a new episode available to watch. For free!
Documentary series following couples who are locked in a cycle of overeating that threatens not only their health but also their relationships.


A safety researcher discovered the e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords of greater than 92 million customers of the family tree web site on a non-public server exterior the corporate.
ISTOCK, FATIDOThe account data of greater than 92 million customers of on-line family tree platform MyHeritage has been compromised, in accordance with a press release launched by the corporate on Monday (June 4). Last October, in what the assertion calls a "cybersecurity incident," electronic mail addresses and encrypted password data have been leaked from the corporate's web site by unknown actors.
The assertion notes that there's "no reason to believe" that different data—resembling bank card numbers (which aren't saved by MyHeritage) or DNA information (that are saved on separate MyHeritage techniques)—has been affected. Other family tree platforms resembling 23andMe take the same method to distributing data, protecting electronic mail and password data separate from genetic information.
Harvard Medical School's Robert Green, chatting with Science News earlier than phrase of the breach at MyHeritage had unfold, notes that there's an inherent danger with storing private data on-line. Following high-profile safety breaches at massive firms together with Equifax and Facebook, "there's an ongoing, slow-motion realization that there are so many avenues where our privacy can be compromised," he says.
MyHeritage recommends in the assertion that customers change their passwords for "maximum safety," and notes that the corporate is endeavor its personal investigation of the incident.


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Tonne of cocaine worth £100m found hidden in banana pulp shipment at UK port
It's the second-largest shipment of cocaine to be discovered at London Gateway in the space of two months.
Monday 7 December 2020 10:55, UK
Image: The class A drugs were hidden amongst a shipment of banana pulp bound for Antwerp in Belgium
A tonne of cocaine worth an estimated £100 million has been found concealed in a shipment of banana pulp, the Home Office said.
The illicit drugs were found during an inspection at the London Gateway depot in Essex last month, hidden in a shipping container docked at the port.
Authorities found a total of 1,060 kilograms of cocaine, thought to have been put in the cargo in Colombia and intended to arrive in Antwerp, Belgium.
Image: Authorities found a total of 1,060 kilograms of cocaine
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "Drugs fuel criminality and destroy lives.
"Class A drugs such as cocaine inflict unimaginable damage onto our citizens and communities, shattering lives and stoking obscene levels of violence, disorder and crime.
"This significant seizure of drugs sends a stark message to criminals in the UK and abroad seeking to smuggle drugs into or through the UK: you will not succeed and we will use every inch of our law enforcement powers to track down and stop drugs from coming into the UK."
The discovery on 12 November marks the second-largest shipment of cocaine to be discovered at the Essex port in the space of two months.
More on Drugs
Young at risk from county lines exploitation if there's another lockdown, charity warns
Prisons to get 'airport-style' security and addiction assessments for all inmates under drugs crackdown plan
County lines: Ministers unveil new multi-million pound strategy to target drug crime and save lives
Image: The drugs found in the latest raid are thought to have come from Colombia
In September, Border Force National Deep Rummage Team officers discovered 1,155 kilograms of cocaine in a shipment of paper - also bound for Antwerp.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating the discoveries to identify those involved, though the two shipments are not believed to be linked.
NCA branch commander Jacque Beer said: "These were substantial seizures and will represent a significant hit to the organised crime groups involved, meaning less profit for them to reinvest.
"While the UK wasn't the end destination for either shipment, it is likely that at least a proportion would have ended up being sold on our streets.
"The NCA is working with law enforcement partners in the UK, in Europe and worldwide to target the criminal networks behind drug trafficking and disrupt their activities."


MTO SHOCKER: Rihanna Sends Out A TWEET Supporting Conor McGregor . . . Then She Quickly DELETES IT . . . People Are Saying Conor MAY HAVE SMASHED!!!
Rihanna sent out a tweet last week - and then quickly deleted - and now it's being shared among Rihanna's fan sites. One of the most popular of Rihanna's fan sites speculates that Rihanna and Conor may have been in some type of relationship.
Rihanna's gonna be real DISAPPOINTED after that fight.
Check out the tweet - it's blurry, but it shows she called out the Irish fighter.