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5.05(11) (11) Aids to counties and municipalities. From the appropriations under s. 20.510 (1) (t) and (x), the commission may provide financial assistance to eligible counties and municipalities for election administration costs in accordance with the plan adopted under sub. (10). As a condition precedent to receipt of assistance under this subsection, the commission shall enter into an agreement with the county or municipality receiving the assistance specifying the intended use of the assistance and shall ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement. Each agreement shall provide that if the federal government objects to the use of any assistance moneys provided to the county or municipality under the agreement, the county or municipality shall repay the amount of the assistance provided to the commission.
5.05(12) (12) Voter education. The commission may conduct or prescribe requirements for educational programs to inform electors about voting procedures, voting rights, and voting technology. The commission shall conduct an educational program for the purpose of educating electors who cast paper ballots, ballots that are counted at a central counting location, and absentee ballots of the effect of casting excess votes for a single office.
5.05(13) (13) Toll-free election information and requests.
5.05(13)(a)(a) The commission shall maintain one or more toll-free telephone lines for electors to report possible voting fraud and voting rights violations, to obtain general election information, and to access information concerning their registration status, current polling place locations, and other information relevant to voting in elections.
5.05(13)(b) (b) The commission may maintain a free access system under which an elector who votes under s. 6.96 or 6.97 may ascertain current information concerning whether the elector's vote has been counted, and, if the vote will not be counted, the reason that it will not be counted.
5.05(13)(c) (c) The commission shall maintain a freely accessible system under which a military elector, as defined in s. 6.34 (1), or an overseas elector who casts an absentee ballot may ascertain whether the ballot has been received by the appropriate municipal clerk.
5.05(13)(d) (d) The commission shall designate and maintain at least one freely accessible means of electronic communication which shall be used for the following purposes:
5.05(13)(d)1. 1. To permit a military elector, as defined in s. 6.34 (1), or an overseas elector to request a voter registration application or an application for an absentee ballot at any election at which the elector is qualified to vote in this state.
5.05(13)(d)2. 2. To permit a military elector or an overseas elector under subd. 1. to designate whether the elector wishes to receive the applications under subd. 1. electronically or by mail.
5.05(13)(d)3. 3. To permit a municipal clerk to transmit to a military elector or an overseas elector under subd. 1. a registration application or absentee ballot application electronically or by mail, as directed by the elector under subd. 2., together with related voting, balloting, and election information.
5.05(14) (14) Information from county and municipal clerks.
5.05(14)(a)(a) The commission may request information from county and municipal clerks relating to election administration, performance of electronic voting systems and voting machines, and use of paper ballots in elections.
5.05(14)(b) (b) The commission shall establish a subscription service whereby a person may electronically access the absentee ballot information provided under s. 6.33 (5) (a), including semiweekly updates of such information.
5.05(14)(c) (c) On election night the commission shall provide a link on its Internet site to the posting of each county's election returns on each county's Internet site.
5.05(15) (15) Registration list. The commission is responsible for the design and maintenance of the official registration list under s. 6.36. The commission shall require all municipalities to use the list in every election and may require any municipality to adhere to procedures established by the commission for proper maintenance of the list.
5.05(16) (16) Policies and procedures.
5.05(16)(a) (a) Annually, the commission shall adopt written policies and procedures in order to govern its internal operations and management and shall annually report such policies and procedures to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature under s. 13.172 (3).
5.05(16)(b) (b) Notwithstanding par. (a), the commission may reconsider at any time any policy or procedure adopted as provided under par. (a). If, upon reconsideration, the commission revises a previously reported policy or procedure, the commission shall report the revision to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature under s. 13.172 (3).
5.05(16)(c) (c) The commission may reconsider at any time any written directives or written guidance provided to the general public or to any person subject to the provisions of chs. 5 to 10 and 12 with regard to the enforcement and administration of those provisions.
5.05(17) (17) Payments. The commission may accept payment by credit card, debit card, or other electronic payment mechanism for any amounts owed pursuant to the administration of chs. 5 to 10 or 12, and may charge a surcharge to the payer to recover charges associated with the acceptance of that electronic payment.
5.05(18) (18) Electronic poll lists. The commission may facilitate the creation and maintenance of electronic poll lists for purposes of s. 6.79 including entering into contracts with vendors and establishing programs for development and testing.
5.05 History History: 1973 c. 334; 1975 c. 85, 93, 199; 1977 c. 29; 1977 c. 196 s. 131; 1977 c. 418, 427, 447; 1979 c. 32 s. 92 (8); 1979 c. 89, 154, 328; 1983 a. 27, 484, 524, 538; 1985 a. 303; 1985 a. 304 ss. 3, 155; 1989 a. 31, 192; 1999 a. 182; 2001 a. 109; 2003 a. 35, 265, 266, 327; 2005 a. 177; 2007 a. 1 ss. 2 to 19, 94, 99, 100, 103, 104, 107, 109, 111, 112, 114, 116, 127, 128; 2007 a. 20; 2009 a. 28, 180; 2011 a. 75; 2013 a. 20, 166; 2015 a. 2, 117; 2015 a. 118 ss. 3 to 54, 266 (10); 2015 a. 261; 2017 a. 365 s. 111; 2017 a. 366, 369; 2021 a. 38.
5.05 Cross-reference Cross-reference: See also EL, Wis. adm. code.
5.05 Annotation Notice to the district attorney, attorney general, or governor is not a prerequisite to a civil forfeiture under sub. (1) (c). State Elections Board v. Hales, 149 Wis. 2d 306, 440 N.W.2d 579 (Ct. App. 1989).
5.05 Annotation A party being investigated by the Wisconsin Elections Board is not entitled under sub. (1) (b) to attend and participate in all depositions conducted by the board. Notice to the party being investigated under sub. (1) (b) is limited to the board's exercise of its subpoena power and does not relate in any way to the conduct of depositions the board may wish to take. State ex rel. Block v. Circuit Court for Dane County, 2000 WI App 72, 234 Wis. 2d 183, 610 N.W.2d 213, 00-0507.
5.05 Annotation County clerks are not to interpret Wisconsin's election laws and make declarations based on those interpretations. It is the Wisconsin Elections Commission that is responsible for guidance in the administration and enforcement of Wisconsin's election laws, not the county clerks. Jefferson v. Dane County, 2020 WI 90, 394 Wis. 2d 602, 951 N.W.2d 556, 20-0557.
5.05 Annotation Unless otherwise stated in a specific statute, criminal and civil forfeiture provisions of the election, lobby, and ethics laws can be enforced by a district attorney independently of the Government Accountability Board (GAB). A referral following an investigation by GAB is not required. A district attorney may request prosecutorial or investigative assistance from the attorney general in connection with any duty of the district attorney under those laws. If there has been a referral to the district attorney by GAB under sub. (2m) (c) 11., 14., or 15., the district attorney must retain ultimate supervisory authority over the matter referred unless a special prosecutor has been appointed to serve in lieu of the district attorney. OAG 10-08.
5.05 Annotation The Government Accountability Board (GAB) and district attorneys possess joint and co-equal authority to investigate possible violations of the election, lobby, or ethics laws and to prosecute civil forfeiture actions under those laws. Unless otherwise stated in a specific statutory provision, the district attorney possesses the authority to prosecute criminal proceedings under those laws. GAB has no statutory authority to prosecute criminal proceedings under those laws except as stated in sub. (2m) (i). OAG 10-08.
5.05 Annotation For the attorney general to prosecute violations of the election, lobby, and ethics laws, there must be a specific statute authorizing the attorney general to independently initiate the prosecution of civil and criminal actions involving violations of those laws unless there is a referral to the attorney general by the Government Accountability Board under sub. (2m) (c) 16. or unless the attorney general or an assistant attorney general has been appointed as special prosecutor to serve in lieu of the district attorney. OAG 10-08.
5.055 5.055 Election assistance commission standards board. The commission administrator shall, in consultation with the commission, appoint an individual to represent this state as a member of the federal election assistance commission standards board. The administrator shall also conduct and supervise a process for the selection of an election official by county and municipal clerks and boards of election commissioners to represent local election officials of this state as a member of the federal election assistance commission standards board. The administrator shall ensure that the members of the federal election assistance commission standards board representing this state shall at no time be members of the same political party. Upon appointment or election of any new member of the federal election assistance commission standards board representing this state, the administrator shall transmit a notice of that member's appointment or election to the officer or agency designated by federal law.
5.055 History History: 2003 a. 265; 2007 a. 1; 2015 a. 118.
5.056 5.056 Matching program with secretary of transportation. The commission administrator shall enter into the agreement with the secretary of transportation specified under s. 85.61 (1) to match personally identifiable information on the official registration list maintained by the commission under s. 6.36 (1) and the information specified in s. 6.34 (2m) with personally identifiable information maintained by the department of transportation.
5.056 History History: 2003 a. 265; 2007 a. 1; 2015 a. 118, 261.
5.06 5.06 Compliance review; appeal.
5.06(1)(1) Whenever any elector of a jurisdiction or district served by an election official believes that a decision or action of the official or the failure of the official to act with respect to any matter concerning nominations, qualifications of candidates, voting qualifications, including residence, ward division and numbering, recall, ballot preparation, election administration or conduct of elections is contrary to law, or the official has abused the discretion vested in him or her by law with respect to any such matter, the elector may file a written sworn complaint with the commission requesting that the official be required to conform his or her conduct to the law, be restrained from taking any action inconsistent with the law or be required to correct any action or decision inconsistent with the law or any abuse of the discretion vested in him or her by law. The complaint shall set forth such facts as are within the knowledge of the complainant to show probable cause to believe that a violation of law or abuse of discretion has occurred or will occur. The complaint may be accompanied by relevant supporting documents. The commission may conduct a hearing on the matter in the manner prescribed for treatment of contested cases under ch. 227 if it believes such action to be appropriate.
5.06(2) (2) No person who is authorized to file a complaint under sub. (1), other than the attorney general or a district attorney, may commence an action or proceeding to test the validity of any decision, action or failure to act on the part of any election official with respect to any matter specified in sub. (1) without first filing a complaint under sub. (1), nor prior to disposition of the complaint by the commission. A complaint is deemed disposed of if the commission fails to transmit an acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint within 5 business days from the date of its receipt or if the commission concludes its investigation without a formal decision.
5.06(3) (3) A complaint under this section shall be filed promptly so as not to prejudice the rights of any other party. In no case may a complaint relating to nominations, qualifications of candidates or ballot preparation be filed later than 10 days after the complainant knew or should have known that a violation of law or abuse of discretion occurred or was proposed to occur.
5.06(4) (4) The commission may, on its own motion, investigate and determine whether any election official, with respect to any matter concerning nominations, qualifications of candidates, voting qualifications, including residence, ward division and numbering, recall, ballot preparation, election administration or conduct of elections, has failed to comply with the law or abused the discretion vested in him or her by law or proposes to do so.
5.06(5) (5) Upon receipt of a complaint under sub. (1), or upon its own motion, the commission may order any election official to immediately transfer to its possession any original documents in the custody of the official which the commission finds to be necessary and relevant to permit review of compliance with the laws concerning nominations, qualifications of candidates, ward division and numbering, recall or ballot preparation or the proper administration of such laws.
5.06(6) (6) The commission may, after such investigation as it deems appropriate, summarily decide the matter before it and, by order, require any election official to conform his or her conduct to the law, restrain an official from taking any action inconsistent with the law or require an official to correct any action or decision inconsistent with the law. The commission shall immediately transmit a copy of the order to the official. An order issued under this subsection is effective immediately or at such later time as may be specified in the order.
5.06(7) (7) The commission may withdraw, modify or correct an order issued under sub. (6) within a timely period if it finds such action to be appropriate.
5.06(8) (8) Any election official or complainant who is aggrieved by an order issued under sub. (6) may appeal the decision of the commission to circuit court for the county where the official conducts business or the complainant resides no later than 30 days after issuance of the order. Pendency of an appeal does not stay the effect of an order unless the court so orders.
5.06(9) (9) The court may not conduct a de novo proceeding with respect to any findings of fact or factual matters upon which the commission has made a determination, or could have made a determination if the parties had properly presented the disputed matters to the commission for its consideration. The court shall summarily hear and determine all contested issues of law and shall affirm, reverse or modify the determination of the commission, according due weight to the experience, technical competence and specialized knowledge of the commission, pursuant to the applicable standards for review of agency decisions under s. 227.57.
5.06(10) (10) This section does not apply to matters arising in connection with a recount under s. 9.01.
5.06 History History: 1983 a. 484; 1985 a. 182 s. 57; 1985 a. 304; 1989 a. 192; 2015 a. 118 s. 266 (10).
5.06 Annotation The plaintiff's failure to comply with the method of review prescribed by this section deprived the circuit court of jurisdiction to hear the plaintiff's original action regarding election irregularities. Kuechmann v. School District of La Crosse, 170 Wis. 2d 218, 487 N.W.2d 639 (Ct. App. 1992).
5.061 5.061 Compliance with federal Help America Vote Act.
5.061(1)(1) Whenever any person believes that a violation of Title III of P.L. 107-252 has occurred, is occurring, or is proposed to occur with respect to an election for national office in this state, that person may file a written, verified complaint with the commission.
5.061(2) (2) If the commission receives more than one complaint under sub. (1) relating to the same subject matter, the commission may consolidate the complaints for purposes of this section.
5.061(3) (3) A complainant under sub. (1) or any of the complainants in a consolidated complaint under sub. (2) may request a hearing and the matter shall then be treated as a contested case under ch. 227, except that the commission shall make a final determination with respect to the merits of the complaint and issue a decision within 89 days of the time that the complaint or the earliest of any complaints was filed, unless the complainant, or each of any complainants whose complaints are consolidated, consents to a specified longer period.
5.061(4) (4) If the commission finds the complaint to be without merit, it shall issue a decision dismissing the complaint. If the commission finds that the violation alleged in the complaint has occurred, is occurring, or is proposed to occur, the commission shall order appropriate relief, except that the commission shall not issue any order under this subsection affecting the right of any person to hold an elective office or affecting the canvass of an election on or after the date of that election.
5.061 History History: 2003 a. 265; 2015 a. 118 s. 266 (10).
5.07 5.07 Action to compel compliance. Whenever a violation of the laws regulating the conduct of elections or election campaigns, other than a violation of the laws regulating campaign financing, occurs or is proposed to occur, the attorney general or the district attorney of the county where the violation occurs or is proposed to occur may sue for injunctive relief, a writ of mandamus or prohibition, or other such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to compel compliance with the law. No bond is required in such actions.
5.07 History History: 1973 c. 334; 1983 a. 484 s. 136m; Stats. 1983 s. 5.07; 1985 a. 304; 2015 a. 118.
5.08 5.08 Petition for enforcement. In addition to or in lieu of filing a complaint, any elector may file a verified petition alleging such facts as are within his or her knowledge to indicate that an election official has failed or is failing to comply with any law regulating the conduct of elections or election campaigns, other than a law regulating campaign financing, or proposes to act in a manner inconsistent with such a law, and requesting that an action be commenced for injunctive relief, a writ of mandamus or prohibition or other such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to compel compliance with the law. The petition shall be filed with the district attorney for the county having jurisdiction to prosecute the alleged failure to comply under s. 978.05 (1) and (2). The district attorney may then commence the action or dismiss the petition. If the district attorney declines to act upon the petition or if the district attorney fails to act upon the petition within 15 days of the date of filing, the petitioner may file the same petition with the attorney general, who may then commence the action.
5.08 History History: 1983 a. 484; 2007 a. 1; 2015 a. 118.
5.081 5.081 Petition for enforcement of voting rights. The attorney general shall accept a verified petition from any person alleging failure to comply with section 2 of the federal voting rights act, 42 USC 1973 (a) and (b). The attorney general may commence an action or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction on behalf of any elector of this state whose rights under 42 USC 1973 (a) and (b) are violated.
5.081 History History: 1985 a. 312.
5.10 5.10 Presidential electors. Although the names of the electors do not appear on the ballot and no reference is made to them, a vote for the president and vice president named on the ballot is a vote for the electors of the candidates for whom an elector's vote is cast. Under chs. 5 to 12, all references to the presidential election, the casting of votes and the canvassing of votes for president, or for president and vice president, mean votes for them through their pledged presidential electors.
5.10 History History: 1973 c. 334 s. 2; Stats. 1973 s. 5.10; 1977 c. 26; 1979 c. 89, 311.
5.15 5.15 Division of municipalities into wards.
5.15(1)(1)
5.15(1)(a) (a)
5.15(1)(a)1.1. Every city, village, and town in this state shall by ordinance or resolution of its common council or village or town board, respectively, be divided into wards as provided in this section, except as authorized in sub. (2). The boundaries of the wards established under this section, and the number assigned to each ward, are intended to be as permanent as possible, and to this end each ward shall when created contain a population at a convenient point within the applicable population range under sub. (2) (b), with due consideration for the known trends of population increase or decrease within that part of the municipality in which the ward is located.
5.15(1)(a)2. 2. Once established, the boundaries of each ward shall remain unchanged until a further decennial federal census of population indicates that the population of a ward is then above or below the applicable population range, or until the ward boundaries are required to be changed to permit creation of supervisory or aldermanic districts of substantially equal population or to enhance the participation of members of a racial or language minority group in the political process and their ability to elect representatives of their choice, or until otherwise authorized or required under this section.
5.15(1)(a)3. 3. If the population of a ward has increased above the maximum of its population range or if the population of a ward must be decreased for a reason specified in subd. 2., the ward shall be divided into 2 or more wards in compliance with sub. (2) (b). If the population of a ward has decreased below the minimum of its population range or if the population of a ward must be increased for a reason specified in subd. 2., the ward shall, if possible, be combined with an adjoining ward, or the underpopulated ward and one adjoining ward shall be combined and together subdivided into 2 or more wards in compliance with sub. (2).
5.15(1)(b) (b) Except as authorized in sub. (2) (a), within 60 days after the receipt of a tentative supervisory district plan and written statement, if any, from the county board of each county in which a municipality is located, the governing body of the municipality shall adjust its wards according to the schedule shown in sub. (2). All territory contained within the municipality, and only the territory so contained, on April 1 of the year of the federal decennial census shall be contained within a ward established under the division ordinance or resolution. Except as authorized in sub. (2), each ward shall consist of whole blocks, as utilized by the U.S. bureau of the census in the most recent federal decennial census. To suit the convenience of the voters residing therein each ward shall, as far as practicable, be kept compact and observe the community of interest of existing neighborhoods and other settlements. All territory within a ward shall be contiguous, except for island territory as defined in sub. (2) (f) 3. Enactment or adoption of a division ordinance or resolution requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the governing body.
5.15(1)(c) (c) The wards established by municipal governing bodies in a division ordinance or resolution enacted or adopted under this section shall govern the adjustment of supervisory districts under s. 59.10 (2) (a) and (3) (b) and of aldermanic districts under s. 62.08 (1) for the purpose of local elections beginning on January 1 of the 2nd year commencing after the year of the census until revised under this section on the basis of the results of the next decennial census of population unless adjusted under sub. (2) (f) 4. or 5., (6) (a), or (7), or unless a division is required to effect an act of the legislature redistricting legislative districts under article IV, section 3, of the constitution or redistricting congressional districts. The populations of wards under each decennial ward division shall be determined on the basis of the federal decennial census and any official corrections to the census issued on or before the date of adoption of the division ordinance or resolution to reflect the correct populations of the municipality and the blocks within the municipality on April 1 of the year of the census.
5.15(1)(d) (d) Every ward shall be wholly contained within a single county.
5.15(2) (2)
5.15(2)(a)(a) Except as required by par. (d), no city electing its common council at large in which the total population is less than 1,000, and no village or town in which the total population is less than 1,000 is required to be divided into wards under this section, but any such city, village or town may divide itself into wards if the creation of wards facilitates the administration of elections. No village or town located in a county having only one town is required to be divided into wards under this section.
5.15(2)(b) (b) Except for wards created to effect an act of the legislature redistricting legislative districts under article IV, section 3, of the constitution or redistricting congressional districts and except as authorized under pars. (bm), (c), (e), and (f) and sub. (7), wards shall contain the following numbers of inhabitants:
5.15(2)(b)1. 1. In any city in which the population is at least 150,000, each ward shall contain not less than 1,000 nor more than 4,000 inhabitants.
5.15(2)(b)2. 2. In any city in which the population is at least 39,000 but less than 150,000, each ward shall contain not less than 800 nor more than 3,200 inhabitants.
5.15(2)(b)3. 3. In any city, village or town in which the population is at least 10,000 but less than 39,000, each ward shall contain not less than 600 nor more than 2,100 inhabitants.
5.15(2)(b)4. 4. In any city, village or town in which the population is less than 10,000, each ward shall contain not less than 300 nor more than 1,000 inhabitants.
5.15(2)(bm) (bm) Every city electing the members of its common council from aldermanic districts shall assemble the blocks wholly or partially contained within the city into wards that will enable the creation of aldermanic districts that are substantially equal in population. If a block is partly contained within the city, the city shall divide the block to form a ward containing the portion of the block that lies within the city.
5.15(2)(c) (c) If the population of a block exceeds the maximum population for a ward otherwise specified in this subsection, such block shall be constituted a ward by itself, except that if the population of a block substantially exceeds the population of proposed aldermanic districts in a city so that, if the block were to constitute an aldermanic district, the populations of the aldermanic districts in the city would not be substantially equal, the city shall divide the block to permit assembly into wards that will enable creation of aldermanic districts that are substantially equal in population.
5.15(2)(cm) (cm) Any division of blocks under this section shall be based on the best evidence available. In this paragraph, "best evidence" includes, but is not limited to, the population of the block and other information received from the U.S. bureau of the census and such data as number of housing units, utility connections and vehicle registrations or a special census conducted locally. For each ward so established, the population estimate shall be correlated with the results of the most recent federal decennial census, so that the total population reported for all wards in the municipality agrees with the census results.
5.15(2)(d) (d) Every municipality shall make a good faith effort to accommodate the tentative plan submitted by the county or counties in which it is located under s. 59.10 (2) (a) or (3) (b) 1., and shall divide itself into wards in such a manner that will permit the creation of county supervisory districts in accordance with the population requirements for the plan specified in s. 59.10 (2) (a) or (3) (b) 1.
5.15(2)(e) (e) If territory is detached from a city, village or town after April 1 of the year of the federal decennial census, and the remaining portion of the ward to which it was attached falls below the prescribed minimum population for the applicable range, the remaining portion of the population may be constituted a ward by itself.
5.15(2)(f) (f) Any city, village or town may establish a ward below the prescribed minimum population for the applicable range whenever the proposed ward is established under par. (a), (d) or (e) or whenever the proposed ward contains solely:
5.15(2)(f)1. 1. That part of a city or village situated in a county other than the county in which the major part of the municipality is located.
5.15(2)(f)2. 2. That part of a city, village or town belonging to a school district other than the school district to which the major part of the municipality belongs.
5.15(2)(f)3. 3. Island territory containing a resident population. In this subdivision, "island territory" means territory surrounded by water, or noncontiguous territory which is separated by the territory of another municipality or by water, or both, from the major part of the municipality to which it belongs.
5.15(2)(f)4. 4. New territory which becomes a part of a city, village or town after April 1 of the year of the federal decennial census.
5.15(2)(f)5. 5. Territory that lies between an actual municipal boundary that existed on April 1 of the year of a federal decennial census and an intersecting municipal boundary that deviates from the actual municipal boundary on that date if the deviating boundary was used by the U.S. bureau of the census to enumerate the population of the municipality in that census.
5.15(2)(g) (g) If a block is affected by an annexation or detachment which establishes a municipal boundary that subdivides the block, the municipalities in which the block is contained shall incorporate only the portion of the block contained within their boundaries in their division ordinances or resolutions.
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While every family should have a home fire safety plan, it's even more critical if you have a family member with cognitive or physical disabilities. These individuals are 2.5 to 6.5 times more likely to die in a house fire. However, there are a number of safety precautions you can take to reduce the risk of injury for your loved ones.
Assess each room in your home and identify at least two exits, particularly in your child's bedroom. Make sure the windows and doors open easily. You may also wish to obtain child-finder fire rescue decals to place on your child's windows. This may save precious time as it helps emergency responders locate the most likely whereabouts of your child.
Make sure your house has smoke alarms on every level and in every sleeping room. Smoke alarms can be interconnected, so that if one sounds, all will sound simultaneously. This may provide extra time to escape if the fire starts in a more distant part of the house.
Test your smoke alarms every month and replace batteries often. Some devices have non-replaceable batteries that will last 10 years and may be easier to maintain.
If your child will not respond well to loud noises, consider a smoke alarm that uses a recorded message of your voice, saying something like, "leave the house now." If your child has a hearing impairment, install a smoke alarm with high intensity strobe lights, as well as vibrating bed and pillow shakers that are activated by the smoke alarm.
Install home fire sprinklers and place fire extinguishers in high risk areas, such as the kitchen or a room with a fireplace. These items may help to keep fires small and allow more time for escape.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), home fire sprinklers only cost $1.35 per square foot, may reduce homeowners' insurance premiums, and reduce the risk of dying in a fire by about 80 percent.
Depending on your child's needs, you may need special equipment to help safely and quickly evacuate your child in the case of a fire.
For example, if your child is non-ambulatory (or ambulates slowly) keep a plastic sled or blanket in an accessible location, particularly near the top of the stairs. It will be easier to drag your child to safety than to carry them, especially under conditions of heavy smoke.
If your child has difficulty with verbal communication, set up a signaling system — like a bell or whistle — so your child can call for help.
Choose a meeting place in front of the house; make sure that everyone can identify the meeting place and knows they should stay at the meeting place.
To see these ideas in practice, watch this video from SafeKids Worldwide: Fire Safety for Families with Children with Cognitive Impairments. Or, use this interactive fire safety plan e-book from the NFPA. The NFPA also has a website with videos, games and activities designed for kids: sparky.org.
Review your fire safety plan with a member of your local fire department. Bring your child with you to the fire station so they can see the fire trucks and learn not to fear the firefighters. Ask the firefighters if your community has a special needs disaster registry, so you can provide as much advance information as possible about your family and your special needs child.
If you have supplemental oxygen in your home, please remember that oxygen causes fire to burn hotter and faster — even if it's not in use. Personal and household items can ignite at lower temperatures if they have previously been saturated with oxygen. Keep oxygen tanks at least 5 feet away from any heat source, open flame, or electrical device.
Absolutely DO NOT allow smoking in your home and consider posting NO SMOKING signs at the front door. Do not use open flames, including candles, matches, wood stoves, and sparking toys when supplemental oxygen is in use.


Brazil is a surrealistic nightmare vision of a perfect" future where technology reigns supreme. When a daydreaming bureaucrat becomes unwittingly involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mystery woman, he becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions. This off beat fantasy blends biting humour with pointed commentary to produce an unforgettable look at a delightfully dastardly tomorrow.


The second biggest atoll in Polynesia - a 60 km by 25 km rectangle- it has two main villages: Rotoava in the northeast near the Ngarue pass, one kilometre wide and its airdrome; and then there is Tetamanu, formerly the main village of the island located near the southern Tumakohua pass.
Pearl Farm, Sea Slug Smoke House and the Ancient Village of Tetamanu with one of the first Catholic churches built in coral and dating from 1874.
It is an island of steep vertiginous mountains where most of its 14,000 people live along the naro discover the Polynesia of Melville, Gauguin and Michener, you must visitrow coastal shelf, with a backdrop of lush green mountains rushing upwards to fill the sky. French Polynesia is made up of some 130 islands, of which Tahiti is the best known. Just 12 miles across the lagoon from Tahiti lies Moorea.
Raiatea's importance as both a religious and historical center for all of Polynesia is complimented by a wealth of archaeological sites, tropical scenery and reef fringed lagoons. Considered the second largest island in the Society Islands, Raiatea is situated approximately 120 miles northwest of Tahiti. It shares a sparkling lagoon with neighboring island Tahaa. Raiatea's main village is Uturoa, with a population of over 10,000. This bustling port town features a colorful market with arts and crafts shops along the waterfront.


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Angela Hoover's semifinal performance on America's Got Talent 2013
Posted by Sean L. McCarthy | Aug 28, 2013 | TV, Uncategorized | 0 |
Angela Hoover took on celebrity moms in her semifinal performance on last night's live episode of America's Got Talent on NBC.
If celebrities are just like us, as the tabloid magazines suggest, why then are they getting so much praise for acting like us? That's the premise for Hoover's routine, with her impersonating Arianna Huffington interviewing the Kardashians, Sharon Osbourne and Sofia Vergara. While also throwing in a nursery rhyme. Not the Jack & Jill rhyme that Andrew Dice Clay told you. The other one.
The audience and judges clearly approved of Hoover's impersonations of Osbourne and Vergara. But did they, and you, vote for her to make it to the finals? Stay tuned to find out.
Roll the clip!
PreviousJon Lajoie's timeless ode to the latest pop music scandal du jour: "Miley, You're A Good Girl"
NextTaylor Williamson's semifinal performance on America's Got Talent 2013
The Big Bang Theory leads all TV sitcoms in live and delayed (Live+7) viewing for Fall 2013
Tracy Morgan makes his case for "Bona Fide" comedy star status
Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla and Bill Simmons on the future of late-night TV, podcasting
Live from Montreal: The Kids in the Hall reunion


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HomeNew OnlineRodham : The SUNDAY TIMES bestseller asking: What if Hillary hadn't married Bill? by Curtis Sittenfeld
Rodham : The SUNDAY TIMES bestseller asking: What if Hillary hadn't married Bill? by Curtis Sittenfeld
'This addictive novel is the SLIDING DOORS of American politics. Gripping' STYLIST 'Startlingly good. One of my favourite writers' KATE ATKINSON____________'Awfully opinionated for a girl' is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that's the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader- and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No. How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton?With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence and iron determination that characterise the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. _____________________________'A lot of fun. A wonderful sad dream of what might have happened' GUARDIAN'It ends up being a love letter to a type: the female intellectual, who is given none of the licence of her less talented male peers. At the end, i found myself saying Oh My God' OBSERVER'An explosive new book' GRAZIA'Getting inside a living person's head sounds like a colossally bad idea, but Sittenfeld makes it convincing here, just as she did with a character based on First Lady Laura Bush in her 2008 novel, AMERICAN WIFE' BBC CULTURE'An ingenious yet plausible glimpse of an alternative reality' THE SPECTATOR'Sittenfeld's RODHAM offers the cartharsis of uncomplicated regret' NEW YORKER'A nauseating, moving, morally suggestive, technically brilliant book that made me think more than any in recent memory' NPR'Deviously clever . . . Sittenfeld's Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She's a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She's whoever she wants to be' O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE'Of all the SLIDING DOORS fantasies offered by the last 40 years of American office, this may be the most mouth-watering. THE BIG ISSUE'Fascinating. Rich-with-possibilities concept' SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE
Rodham : The SUNDAY TIMES bestseller asking: What if Hillary hadn't married Bill? by Curtis Sittenfeld quantity
Tyll : Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020 by Daniel Kehlmann
Homecoming by Luan Goldie
Beginner's Guide to Life Drawing by Eddie Armer
The Address Book : What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth and Power by Deirdre Mask


The ROUX® R-1F Flat Black Fiberglass helmet is SNELL® SA2015 rated. This helmet is what's considered a "LOADED" model and comes complete ready to race. It includes an integrated water drink tube with quick disconnect, complete radio gear with noise cancelling microphone and speaker pods, HANS® anchors, and RELEASE emergency helmet removal system.


Morton Fraser's employment law team has been bolstered by the arrival of Elise Turner as a senior associate.
Based in the firm's Glasgow office, she joins the Scottish law firm from Dentons (previously Maclay, Murray & Spens), where she worked for over nine years advising both employers and employees on employment law matters with a focus on discrimination law.
Innes Clark, partner and head of Morton Fraser's employment team, said: "We want to ensure that we have the best team to meet the needs of our clients.
Ms Turner is the second lawyer to join Morton Fraser's employment law team from Dentons this year, with legal director Alan Delaney making the same move in April.


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Q: sqlite using LIKE and hebrew I am trying to use SQLITE  and the like statement with wildcards and hebrew
when I put in an english string it works correctly, such as
Select  * from dbname where colname like '%123%'

I will get all the entries from that column that contain 123 anywhere in the column.
However if I substitute 123 with hebrew letters - it matches all the entries, not just the ones containing what I asked for.
If I do not use the wilcards in the like it matches the exact word properly. In version 3.2.2 of sqlite this worked fine (with wildcards), later versions it does not. So for example "SELECT * from dbname where colname like '%אב%' will give me all the entries not only the ones matching אב.
I tried GLOB, which also did not work.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Note to NZEI: the public isn't listening
A recent opinion poll, conducted for the New Zealand Herald, indicated that 73 percent of people with school-age children supported national standards for primary and intermediate schools even though only 12 percent said they fully understood what national standards were.
What conclusions can be drawn from this? An obvious one is that New Zealanders are now so distrustful of the teachers' unions that they simply choose not to believe their propaganda. They have switched off.
It's probably not going too far to say the public has decided that if the NZEI opposes national standards, that's reason enough for them to be implemented.
Even when people admit they are not in full possession of the facts, their instinct is to reject whatever the teachers' unions are saying. This may not be good for informed debate, but it's hardly surprising.
New Zealanders don't like bullies, and for years they have watched the petulant teacher unions threaten and stamp their feet until weak governments meekly capitulated over issues such as bulk funding. The exception was during Labour's nine years in office, when threats and foot-stamping weren't necessary because the government benches were stacked with ex-teachers and former union officials.
The NZEI and PPTA have become the de facto controllers of primary and secondary education policy, refusing to countenance any initiative that threatened to upset the status quo. It was only a matter of time before parents and the public at large rebelled against this affront to democratic process, as they now appear to have done.
The NZEI may have sound reasons for opposing national standards, but it can only blame itself if people are no longer listening. The merits of national standards are no longer the issue; it's all about control of the education system. The Herald's poll suggests the public has turned bloody-minded – it wants national standards even if their merits haven't been proved. The phrase "poetic justice" comes to mind.
Posted by Karl du Fresne at 12:55 PM No comments:
Labels: Education, national standards, teacher unions
Labour and ACC
THE OUTCRY from Labour in Parliament this week when the government made modest adjustments to ACC was predictable. But what was National expected to do, when the cost of ACC claims has ballooned by 57 percent over the past four years?
Part of the problem with ACC is that left-wing politicians have been unable to resist using it in their quixotic quest to right all the wrongs inflicted by a cruel world, even if it meant going far beyond the original remit of the scheme.
The rot set in during the 1980s when a Labour government extended ACC to cover claims for sexual abuse – unverified claims at that. Since then the scheme has been further extended, again under Labour, to compensate the families of suicide victims. But as ACC Minister Nick Smith asked last year, since when was suicide an accident? (Or sex abuse, come to that.)
ACC represents the high-water mark of a welfare system that has steadily expanded without regard for the ability of an under-performing economy to pay for it. Labour has only itself to blame now the day of reckoning has arrived.
Labels: ACC
Clark is exposed as a sore loser
Helen Clark will have burned off a lot of public goodwill with her sour-grapes sniping at the National government. She certainly deserves to.
She says it's hard to stand by and watch Labour's legacy being unpicked. But as Paul Holmes pointed out when he interviewed Clark on Q+A today, National has left most Labour policies (Kiwi Saver, Working for Families, interest-free student loans) intact, much to the chagrin of many of its own supporters. Challenged to explain what she was referring to, Clark latched on to Gerry Brownlee's comments about mining the conservation estate – only a proposal at this stage – but didn't seem able to come up with much else, other than a vague reference to education.
But the real point is this. Clark and her party had their shot at government. They were in power for nine years, during which time they introduced a lot of policies many people heartily disliked.
Then the voters decided it was someone else's turn. In case Clark has forgotten, this is called democracy.
She says she has tried to stay above the hurly-burly of New Zealand politics, but clearly she hasn't tried hard enough. To use a favourite phrase of her own, she should move on.
I believe Clark went to New York with the blessing of most New Zealanders. But I also think they expected her to rise above partisan domestic politics, especially after the National government enthusiastically lobbied on her behalf at the United Nations and awarded her New Zealand's highest honour.
Diplomatically, she has shown bad judgment. In human terms, she has exposed herself as a sore loser.
Posted by Karl du Fresne at 10:53 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Helen Clark
Sound and fury, signifying nothing
The Hollywood hype machine is shifting into overdrive as Academy Awards night approaches.
Until two weeks ago, James Cameron's futuristic epic Avatar – made with substantial input from Weta Digital in Wellington – was considered a shoo-in for the all-important Best Picture and Best Director awards, and probably a swag of others as well.
Now another, lower-key contender, The Hurt Locker, has entered the running. When the Oscar nominations were announced, The Hurt Locker scored nine – the same number as the much-hyped Avatar.
So Oscars night is shaping up to be a dramatic contest between these two very different films, and what makes the showdown even more piquant is that the director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, is the former wife of Avatar mastermind Cameron.
A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn't have contrived a more compelling scenario. In fact you don't have to be a hardened cynic to suspect that what we are seeing is a contest carefully orchestrated to maximise public interest.
So, what of the films themselves? The Hurt Locker has yet to be released here, so I can't comment on its merits. But it would have to be a very dire film to be worse than Avatar.
Never in the history of the cinema has so much money, and so much creative talent, been invested in such a stinker of a film.
Avatar is tolerably watchable for the first hour or so but then gets progressively sillier, to the point where I had to stifle the urge to laugh out loud. It is never more than a kids' film, which makes it all the more baffling that normally intelligent critics have hailed it as a masterpiece.
To make matters worse, Avatar bashes viewers around the head with a heavy-handed, moralistic message about rapacious American capitalism. Never mind the irony that the film is itself a product of the same American capitalism that it condemns and has done exactly the job it was intended to do, which was to make truckloads of money.
The basic theme of Avatar – in which an infiltrator, planted amid an alien race to facilitate their exploitation by a mining corporation, has an attack of conscience and changes sides – isn't even original. The film has been compared with Dances With Wolves (indeed it has been described as Dances With Wolves in space) and the animated Disney film Pocahontas.
Avatar's theme also had echoes of the 1983 British film Local Hero, in which the colourful inhabitants of a Scottish fishing village charm a representative from a Texan oil company that wants to build a refinery where their houses are.
Unlike those films, Avatar depends entirely on visual effects, which admittedly are spectacular. The characters are never more than cardboard cutouts, the screenplay sounds like a parody of every third-rate sci-fi movie ever made, and the acting is laughably wooden.
I reviewed Avatar on my blog after seeing it without the benefit of the 3D glasses available at some screenings. Two people then attached comments to my blog saying I needed to see the film in 3D to appreciate it fully – which said it all, really. Anyone who thinks a bad film can be magically transformed into a good one simply by putting on 3D glasses is missing something.
The comments on my blog confirmed that some movie-goers are now so accustomed to silly, big-budget spectacles that they no longer look for cinematic qualities such as a coherent plot, intelligent dialogue and convincing characters. Hollywood has persuaded them to buy the sizzle and overlook the fact that there's no steak.
In recent years we have seen a string of preposterous, expensive epics that depend for their impact on noise, visual effects and stunt-driven, non-stop action – tales "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing", to quote Shakespeare. Most are pitched at the adolescent schoolboy fantasy level and are so absurd that they defy rational critical scrutiny.
It's heresy to say this, but I count Peter Jackson's acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong in this category. The latter was one of the silliest films I've seen – a waste, it seemed to me, of Jackson's undoubted ability.
As for Lord of the Rings, I patriotically sat through two of the films in the trilogy but admit that for much of the time I had no idea what was going on and, worse, couldn't have cared less. I was bored rigid and even drifted off to sleep in one of them. (I can't remember which one because with the passage of time, the two films have melded in my brain to the point where they are undistinguishable.)
In the light of my previous experiences I went to Avatar hoping to be impressed but expecting to be disappointed. I sat out the entire 162 minutes (162 minutes!) only because I was curious to see whether it could get any sillier. It did.
This was an act of unusual stoicism for me. Back in the 1990s, my two then-teenage sons were shocked and appalled that I walked out of Braveheart, Mel Gibson's much-lauded kilts-and-swords epic. Since then I have lost count of the number of Hollywood spectacles I have walked out of, or switched off after about 10 minutes when they have been screened on TV. Life is too short to waste watching bad films.
Braveheart, of course, went on to win five Academy Awards, confirming my suspicion that the Oscars have less to do with intrinsic, enduring cinematic values than other factors, such as what's fashionable and who the Hollywood establishment has decided to pay obeisance to.
Occasionally even the pretentiously titled Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will get it right and give the Best Picture award to a film that deserves it, as happened in 2007 with No Country for Old Men. But it's a fair bet that any list of the greatest and most memorable films of all time would exclude an awful lot of Oscar winners.
It will be entirely consistent with history if Avatar cleans up when the awards are announced, just as James Cameron's last spectacle, the overwrought Titanic, did. But I reckon the only award Avatar deserves is for Sigourney Weaver, an intelligent and capable actress, for managing to keep a straight face through the whole ridiculous affair.
Labels: Academy Awards, Avatar, movies
A lot of smoke, but no sign of fire
I admit I'm often mystified by politics and the process of government. Take the present fuss over Radio New Zealand funding.
If I thought the National government was seriously trying to hobble the state broadcaster or force it to adopt a commercial model, I'd be one of the first volunteers to man the barricades outside Radio New Zealand House. Notwithstanding my occasional whinges about it (mostly to do with pervasive political bias, which is not nearly as marked now as it used to be), RNZ is a national treasure. My quality of life, and that of virtually everyone in my circle of friends and acquaintances, would be greatly diminished without it. It follows that if Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman does anything to disembowel the institution, as some of his critics (such as the Greens' Sue Kedgley) allege he is plotting to do, National can expect a savage backlash – much of it from people of a centre-right disposition who are otherwise broadly National-friendly.
But having followed the flurry of alarmist publicity about the possibility of budget cuts, I'm left wondering what all the fuss is about. It seems RNZ has simply been told it must get by on its current funding for the foreseeable future – which is no more nor less than other government departments are doing. If that means having to curb some of its aspirations, such as opening an office in Gisborne, that's surely a relatively small sacrifice at a time when the government is borrowing a hair-raising $250 million a week to prop up an anaemic economy.
If, further down the track, RNZ has to cut services, it may have to make some difficult choices – such as shutting down National Radio's FM network, seeking commercial sponsorship for Concert FM (good luck!) or taking National Radio off the air between midnight and 6am. In that case I believe its ultimate priority should be to protect the core National Radio service – in other words, 24-hour-a-day programming on AM frequencies, which have a better reach than FM. The RNZ board will tamper with the all-night programme at its peril; Lloyd Scott rules the night and has a lot of friends out there.
But isn't it a bit early to be panicking? I haven't seen any evidence that RNZ is in imminent danger of brutal cuts, still less that its very existence as a public service broadcaster is threatened, as a rather overwrought Kedgley was insisting on Morning Report today. If and when that happens, that will be the time to launch the Save Radio New Zealand campaign – and a pretty formidable campaign it would be. But for now, there's a lot of smoke billowing around but no sign of fire, and I have a sneaky suspicion that this whole furore may have been stirred up by a low-ranking (and so far undistinguished) minister who's feeling left out and wants to build himself a profile.
Labels: Radio New Zealand
The day everyone's been waiting for - when HR managers revert to being personnel officers
(First published in the Curmudgeon column, The Dominion Post, February 16.)
THE CURMUDGEON has a theory that every decade can be defined by the occupational or professional group that was in the ascendancy at the time.
The 1950s was the decade of the sheep farmer, who wallowed in wealth generated by demand for wool to keep troops warm in Korea. That was when townies told jokes about farmers ordering new Rolls-Royces with glass partitions behind the front seat so their dogs couldn't lick them while they were driving.
The sixties was the decade of the construction engineer, when motorways and overpasses spread unchecked over the landscape and tunnellers blasted holes through mountains to create hydro-power schemes. (Environment Court? No such thing. Maori land claims? Get away.)
In the seventies the media discovered academics, and you couldn't turn on your radio or TV set without hearing a political scientist, sociologist or economist pontificating to a nodding journalist. It took time before we realised that universities only produced a better-educated idiot.
The eighties was the decade of the financial wide-boys – the spivs, sharks and Flash Harrys who stayed cold-eyed and sober while the rest of the country got drunk on financial deregulation. By the time we woke up with the inevitable hangover, they'd cleaned everyone out and scarpered in their executive jets.
In the nineties it was the turn of the consultant, when people who'd been sacked in public service restructurings went out on their own and managed to persuade their former employers to re-engage them at five times more money than they'd been earning before. Goodbye Hallensteins cardigan and 10-trip train ticket; hello Working Style suit and BMW.
And the noughties? Make no mistake – this was the decade of the human resources department. Cleverly picking up on Mao Zedong's idea of permanent revolution, HR managers ensured that the organisations which employed them were kept in a constant state of disruption and uncertainty, merrily disestablishing old jobs and creating new ones, then watching everyone fight over them.
The cost to the economy, in terms of time and energy wasted by endless re-organisation while real work got left undone, is anyone's guess. But the real brilliance of the HR revolution was that it kept people so anxious and distracted that no one thought to ask an obvious question: do we really need HR departments?
If the Curmudgeon's theory holds true, however, 2010 may mark a turning point. This newspaper recently reported the very significant information that staff at Capital and Coast District Health had been told of a proposal to shed 49 management and administration roles – including the entire human resources unit. Does this mean that HR managers are about to be devoured by the very revolution they set in motion?
I look forward to the day when they revert to being known as personnel officers and occupy poky little offices with filing cabinets recording the date of birth of each employee and a calendar showing when the next long-service gold watch is due to be handed out.
DOES TVNZ have any further to fall? Put another way, does it still have any credibility to lose?
Its priorities were tellingly exposed when, on the evening of Prime Minister John Key's speech at the opening of Parliament, TV One's Close Up cancelled an interview with Mr Key in favour of an "exclusive" with Robin Brooke, the former All Black who disgraced himself at a Fiji resort on New Year's Eve.
Mr Key's speech was the first major political set piece of the year. It finally gave voters a clue to where this government might be heading after more than a year of treading water.
There were important questions to be asked. Mr Key was primed and ready. But at 4.30 in the afternoon his media minders were advised he was no longer wanted.
Close Up had a much bigger fish to fry. Why burden viewers with an interview about New Zealand's economic future when there's an ex-All Black prepared to make a craven apology in front of the nation for drunkenly groping a 15-year-old girl's bum?
Obviously, this was so compelling it couldn't wait. It had all the ingredients tabloid television loves: scandal, celebrity and a public display of shame.
What a pity Brooke couldn't be induced to break down and sob with remorse. Perhaps the Close Up team would then have collected a bonus.
This was arguably a private matter that should have been dealt with privately. Trouble is, media intrusion into private lives is now so entrenched in popular culture that people submit to it without question. Viewers become accomplices in a circus in which everyone is demeaned – participants and viewers alike.
The entire item was imbued with a familiar moralistic sanctimony. In medieval society they had the stocks. These days we've got Close Up.
YOU JUST know, when you see a newspaper item headed "Bomb joke backfires", that two immutable truths are about to be confirmed yet again.
The first is that airport security officers are genetically programmed to have no sense of humour and even less discretionary common sense, and therefore regard every jocular reference to ticking bombs as a serious threat calling for immediate arrest.
The second immutable truth is that there's always a tourist – invariably male and often Australian, as in the latest case last week at Hamilton Airport – who still hasn't grasped the first one.
Labels: Human resources; TVNZ; airport security
Er, where's the story?
I often scratch my head over the news judgment of the major TV channels, but last night's lead item on One News was especially perplexing.
Alone among the nation's media outlets, One News chose, as the most important story of the day, an exchange in Parliament between prime minister John Key and the Opposition over Key's ownership of shares in an obscure Australian mining company, Jackson Mining.
The Dominion Post devoted a brief item to the subject this morning on page 2 and the New Zealand Herald referred to it in passing towards the end of its parliamentary "sketch" piece covering the day's events in the debating chamber. Which was about the level of coverage the story seemed to merit.
In her lead item, One News political reporter Francesca Mold (who was, in the ridiculous jargon of TV newspeak, "across developments") didn't take the trouble to spell out why the story was supposed to pique our interest. Was it because Jackson Mining was involved in uranium mining? Hardly scandalous, surely. It's not as if it's illegal, after all. Australia's Labour government actively encourages it. Or is uranium one of those political litmus words that's supposed to throw nuclear-free New Zealanders into a tizz? It wasn't made clear.
I had to watch the item a second time, online, to pick up a brief reference by Mold to the government's proposal to open up the conservation estate to mining. So that was it? Were we supposed to get agitated about the possibility that Key stood to gain from the government's still-embryonic proposals to relax prohibitions on mining? Again, it wasn't spelled out – but this was the only clue I could find to explain why TVNZ's news editors considered it the story du jour.
It was only later that I realised One News had broken the Jackson Mining story in its lead item on Sunday night, after political editor Guyon Espiner questioned Key about his holding in the company on Q+A that morning.
Now it all started to fall into place. One was beating up a story of its own making – standard behaviour on a quiet Sunday, when Q+A often furnishes material for the 6pm news (and provides an opportunity for TVNZ to promote its own programme). But even on Sunday, One News was straining to make much of the story. Espiner himself acknowledged on camera that it would probably blow over quickly and that no one thought there was anything sinister about it.
Why, then, try to resuscitate the story on Tuesday? Hasn't TVNZ heard the old adage about soufflés never rising twice? And why make the mistake of assuming that One viewers had seen the item on Sunday so didn't need to be told again why they should be concerned that Key owned shares in Jackson Mining (if indeed TVNZ could answer that question itself)?
Having now watched both items, I'm still not sure why One News considered the issue so newsworthy. Was it the uranium angle, or was it the possibility that Key might secretly be plotting for Jackson Mining to dig holes all over our national parks? The viewers are none the wiser. This struck me as flawed news judgment compounded by sloppy journalism that failed to ask, still less answer, the vital question – why should the viewer (or reader, or whatever) care?
Posted by Karl du Fresne at 3:06 PM 1 comment:
Labels: Journalism, TVNZ
A genius, or just tormented?
I don't claim to have closely followed the career of the British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who sadly took his own life this week, or to have made a close study of the surreal world in which he moved. But I have read and seen enough to conclude that he was a disturbed man. What the sycophants of the fashion world (or art, or pop music, or literature for that matter) describe as genius is often mental or emotional torment desperately looking for an outlet.
Few people outside the fashion industry would doubt that McQueen's bizarre creations were the products of a damaged mind. His parades looked like out-takes from a Federico Fellini fantasy film, full of models so grotesquely pale and thin that they looked like creatures from an alien planet, wearing garments (for want of a better word) that seemed designed to strip the wearer of all dignity and humanity. To watch those blank-faced, asexual, other-worldly models parading clothes by McQueen was to understand the view of some feminists that the high fashion industry is fundamentally misogynistic, created to humiliate and demean women. (His 10-inch heels were too much even for some models, who refused to wear them for fear of injury.)
Of course his clothes provoked gasps of astonishment, which is why the fashion industry loved him. It is an industry that craves novelty like a drug. Having realised long ago that there were only so many ways classical design themes could be re-invented, high fashion has left itself nowhere to go other than to that edgy place we call out-there.
McQueen appears to have been in his natural realm there. A gay boy from working-class London, he apparently viewed himself as an outsider and seems to have been ambivalent about the adulation heaped on him. According to The Times, he was shy in private but foul-mouthed and confrontational in public. A "powerful fashion journalist" who crossed the Atlantic to meet him is said to have been left "white with shock" afterwards. Good. There should be no such thing as a "powerful fashion journalist" in the first place. The notion is preposterous, and an example of how inflated with conceit and self-absorption the alternative universe that is the fashion industry has become.
It was no surprise to read that McQueen was "discovered" by Isabella Blow, the "eccentric, aristocratic former fashion editor of Vogue". Blow killed herself in 2007 by drinking weedkiller. Now McQueen too has taken his own life, which leaves me wondering whether the fashion industry, like rock music, attracts talented but inherently unstable people or whether the excesses, adulation, pressures and temptations of the culture and lifestyle render previously normal people unstable.
No doubt McQueen will be ostentatiously mourned for a few days – his funeral, if there is one, should be rich in air-kissing and photo opportunities – and then the Beautiful People will move on, anxious to find the next big thing; some other tortured soul who will satisfy the industry's appetite for newness, outrage and entertainment.
It's getting perilously close to cliché territory to say that McQueen was devoured by the celebrity culture that created him. The real explanation for his premature death may be far more simple. In the end, it appears that all the adulation in the world couldn't compensate this fragile man for the recent loss of his mum. Who knows; she may have been the one person in his glitter-filled life whom he felt loved him as someone other than a fashion darling.
Labels: Alexander McQueen, fashion
Thank God for stroppy democracies
(First published in the Nelson Mail and Manawatu Standard, February 3.)
WHAT a shocking and tragic picture has emerged from the inquiry into the sinking of the Tongan ferry Princess Ashika.
Reports present almost a caricature of the archetypal Pacific Island backwater where complacency, lethargy, deference to authority, lack of initiative and fear of upsetting important people combined with catastrophic results.
There is even an element of what might be called the Bwana Syndrome, in which expatriate white men of dubious ability enjoy being big fish in a small pool.
In the unlikely event that you've forgotten the details of the Princess Ashika sinking, let me remind you.
The decrepit, 37-year-old ferry sank last August while on a voyage from Nuku'alofa, the Tongan capital, to the Ha'apai island group. It was making only its fourth trip in Tongan waters.
Of the 74 who drowned, 29 were women and 12 were children. All the survivors were male.
It's clear there were innumerable opportunities to prevent this tragedy, starting with the ill-advised decision to buy the patently unseaworthy ship. But at every point where people in authority could have applied prudence and common sense, instead a casual fatalism and reluctance to act prevailed – either out of complacency, penny-pinching or fear of angering the bosses.
The Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, which operated the ferry for the Tongan government, dispatched its manager, New Zealander John Jonesse, to buy a ferry in Fiji despite Mr Jonesse apparently having little or no maritime experience. He got the Princess Ashika for $400,000 and reportedly considered it a bargain.
Evidence given to the commission indicates Mr Jonesse, a former schoolteacher who changed his name from Jones, had got his job with the corporation after only one formal interview and without references.
Mr Jonesse was on the corporation's board with a former Scottish deputy transport commissioner, a lawyer who boasted the grandiose title of Lord Dalgety of Sikotilani, and a Tongan chairwoman who, in the three years she had been in the position, had reportedly never sent an email or letter on corporation business.
It later transpired that Dalgety, the corporation secretary, had spent 66 days staying in a five-star Singapore hotel on corporation business, for which he was paid a daily rate of $US674. So while the corporation was eager to procure a ferry on the cheap, no such constraints seem to have applied to Dalgety's expenses.
The Princess Ashika wasn't subjected to a survey before purchase and no independent valuation was obtained. The most recent survey carried out in Fiji had described the ship as "beyond repair" and with "uncontrollable corrosion", but the survey report either was not seen or not acted on.
The ship had to turn back after taking on water on its delivery voyage to Tonga and when it finally arrived in Nuku'alofa, a team of Tongan marine surveyors compiled a six-page list of defects.
Not to worry – a "provisional survey certificate" was issued to allow the Princess Ashika to sail.
Only the day before the sinking, a former general manager of the Shipping Corporation inspected the ship for insurance purposes and concluded it was an "intolerable risk", but did nothing to stop it sailing. This was literally an accident waiting to happen.
The same fatal complacency appears to have sealed the ship's fate on the night of its sinking. Despite alarming incidents on its previous three trips in Tongan waters, including one in which waves smashed holes in the sides of the vessel, no one bothered to check liferafts and lifejackets or ensure that passengers were briefed on safety procedures.
On the fatal night, the ship began taking on water within hours of leaving port at 4pm. Yet the captain went to bed at 7pm, leaving the first mate in charge.
Even when water on the cargo deck was knee-deep and the ship was listing dangerously, no one roused the master. He was finally woken about 10 minutes before the ship sank. It was only then that passengers were alerted to the imminent danger, but it appears to have been too late.
The captain admitted to the inquiry that he knew the ship was unseaworthy but he sailed because that was what the corporation wanted.
The reluctance to act continued even after the sinking. The New Zealander who heads the Tongan police, Chris Kelly, didn't learn of the tragedy till his daughter texted him the next morning. Kelly's deputy knew of the sinking at 1.10am but didn't tell his boss because he didn't want to bother him.
Instead he directed emergency operations from his bed, evidently sleeping between calls from his subordinates.
It subsequently transpired that a Tongan fishing boat skipper ignored a distress flare from the Princess Ashika because he thought he was short of fuel and didn't have the right safety equipment. Survivors were picked up later by another vessel.
The shambling incompetence continued the next day. Mr Jonesse came to a briefing with a manifest recording only 79 names rather than the 128 who had been on board. The manifest didn't even name the ship correctly, calling it the Olavaha – the ferry the Princess Ashika had replaced.
All in all, reports from the royal commission's hearings present a picture of a terrible tragedy unfolding in slow motion. The bumbling incompetence, amateurism and complacency would have been comical if the outcome hadn't been so utterly appalling.
The Tongan people have every right to be very angry, but probably won't be. They are a passive, respectful people who didn't seem offended even when their worse-than-useless king, immediately after the sinking, flew off to Scotland to attend the Edinburgh Tattoo rather than remain at home with his grieving subjects.
Are there any lessons to be learned from the terrible fate of the Princess Ashika and its doomed passengers? Probably none that we didn't know already. The tragedy confirms that hierarchical societies produce a culture of deference where people do what they are told and are reluctant to speak out or take the initiative for fear of stepping out of line.
Thank God for stroppy democracies.
Labels: Tongan ferry sinking
We no longer expect politicians to tell us the truth
(First published in the Curmudgeon column, The Dominion Post, February 2.)
AUSTRALIAN Opposition leader and practising Catholic Tony Abbott brought a hail of criticism down on himself last week for expressing a conservative view on virginity. Feminists and leftist academics predictably pounced, denouncing Abbott as an unreconstructed male chauvinist.
But hang on. Regardless of what anyone thinks of his views, shouldn't Abbott be given credit for expressing his opinions honestly and openly? That's what democracy is supposed to be about: politicians saying what they think and letting the voters make up their minds.
Trouble is, politics is now so contaminated by spin-meisters and risk-averse media minders that we no longer expect people like Abbott to tell the truth.
Are his critics saying they would prefer it if he prevaricated and dissembled, like so many of his colleagues? It's a strange old world, all right.
HOW entertaining it is to see the fear-mongering campaign of the global warming alarmists unravelling.
First there were the hacked emails and documents that indicated a conspiracy to massage scientific evidence in favour of the manmade global warming hypothesis. Then came the almost comical revelation that a predicted melting of Himalayan glaciers – one of the most alarming assertions in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – was a fiction, utterly lacking in any scientific validity.
Now a sheepish IPCC has had to admit there was no scientific basis for claims that global warming was linked to a supposed rise in natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.
This latest backdown came as no surprise to me. I recently watched a compilation of old movie newsreels dating back to the 1920s, and in virtually every year there were reports of catastrophic weather events – most of them every bit as bad as the more recent floods and hurricanes allegedly caused by climate change.
The global warming alarmists insist that a few embarrassing porkies don't detract from the overwhelming weight of evidence pointing to an impending climate catastrophe. But the truth is that they reveal a shocking lack of scientific rigour and in doing so, raise questions about the credibility of all IPCC reports.
None of this should surprise anyone. When scientific report writers are little more than propagandists, they will inevitably be tempted to use whatever scrap of dodgy information they can find to support their case – even to the point of making things up.
And when gullible governments and charitable foundations are handing out massive grants for research into global warming, what mug is going to choke off the flow of funds by saying it isn't happening?
THE funniest comedy on television is often to be found on the 6 pm news.
In a lead item last week on the Auckland power blackout, One News excitedly crossed to reporter Jack Tame who, we were told, was "across developments" (my thanks to media critic Denis Welch for picking up this latest fatuous expression).
Then we saw Tame standing at a city intersection at peak hour, telling us about the traffic problems supposedly caused by the outage. Trouble was, viewers looking over his shoulder could see no sign of congestion. In fact vehicles were moving as freely you're ever likely to see in Auckland.
I have a suggestion for TVNZ's Auckland newsroom when covering such stories in future. Perhaps they should hand out petrol vouchers to motorists as an incentive to remain stationary, banking up at the lights and tooting impatiently, so as to replicate the traffic gridlock One News is so anxious to report.
Aucklanders are an obliging lot, after all; I'm sure they would be happy to comply.
IN THE sports pages of this paper last week, Phoenix football team chief executive Tony Pignata reportedly said he was "in agreeance" with another club about the undesirability of a recent on-field fracas.
Agreeance? Pardon me?
The word "agreement" has served the English language very well for a long time, but what the heck – let's make up a new one.
Come to that, why doesn't everyone just invent whatever new words happen to come into their heads? Then people can babble away in their own private languages and make even less sense than they do now.
Speaking of new words, what about "firefight" and "lockdown"? Reporters love them, presumably because they convey a sense of drama – but what do they mean?
I assume a "firefight" (the word originated in the Vietnam War) is what we used to call a gun battle, in which case the latter term seems a lot more accurate.
As for lockdown, I hear it used freely by journalists but don't have a clue what it means. How can an entire neighbourhood be placed in lockdown, as is sometimes reported? And why are prisoners now said to be locked down when, only a few years ago, they were locked up?
A free weekend in Paremoremo with the partner of your choice for the most convincing explanation.
Labels: global warming, language, Tony Abbott, TV One
Let's ignore this one, chaps
Let it be noted that police breath-tested about 1000 drivers leaving Trentham racecourse after the Wellington Cup meeting on Saturday, according to the Dominion Post. Only two drivers were over the limit.
This inconvenient statistic will doubtless be ignored by the New Wowsers, since it undermines their conviction that we are a nation of helpless drunks who must be protected from ourselves.
Posted by Karl du Fresne at 11:43 AM No comments:
Labels: Liquor laws, New Wowsers
That guy on Q+A
It's not easy finding positive things to say about TVNZ, but I think political editor Guyon Espiner has earned a big tick.
Espiner is steadily growing into his role as an interviewer on the Sunday morning political programme Q+A. He kicked off the year on an impressive note yesterday with an interrogation of Labour leader Phil Goff that was searching and incisive but never hectoring – not always an easy balance to strike.
As an interviewer, Espiner prepares well, is quick on his feet and has a pleasant manner. He has a slight tendency to interrupt too often, but there's a fine line between giving interview subjects a fair suck of the sav and letting them control the show (as any politician will do, given half a chance). And he doesn't shrink from the tough questions, to wit: "Are you a failure as leader?" – a question Goff answered with the same imperturbable smile he displayed throughout the interview. (He has inherited Helen Clark's practice of grinning even when he's being serious, which I find slightly unnerving.)
In his pieces to camera on One News, Espiner resists the temptation to grandstand and generally respects the boundary between analysis and editorialising – a skill his blustering counterpart at TV3, Duncan Garner, has yet to master (assuming Garner wants to, which may not be the case). And Espiner passes the most important test of any political journalist, which is that he leaves us guessing as to what his own political views (if any) are.
Best line from yesterday's Q+A: "You don't create wealth by taxing people" (Mike Moore). This should be tattooed on left-wing politicians' foreheads.
Funniest line from yesterday's Q+A: Asked by Paul Holmes whether he liked being in bed with the Nats, Hone Harawira paused for a moment before answering: "I wake up a lot." He might have an anger problem, but he's got a sense of humour too.
Labels: Guyon Espiner, Hone Harawira, Phil Goff, Q+A, TVNZ
The day everyone's been waiting for - when HR mana...


text:
Q: AngularJS form - ng-model becoming undefined after typing in input? I've done this a million times before so im slightly confused what is going on here.
I have a form called placementForm with numerous fields but whenever i type in any of them other than candidateName, the field goes to undefined but if i remove the text then it goes back to "".
I have a form using these fields(controller aswell)
var application = angular.module('timeSheetsApplication',[]);

application.controller("portalController",
    function($scope) {
        $scope.placementForm = {};
        $scope.placementForm.candidateName = "";
        $scope.placementForm.clientName = "";
        $scope.placementForm.jobTitle = "";
        $scope.placementForm.placementStartDate = "";
        $scope.placementForm.placementEndDate = "";
        $scope.placementForm.frequency = "";
    });

and the form being:

        <input type="email" id="clientName" class="form-control" ng-model="placementForm.clientName" placeholder="Client Name">

        <input type="email" id="txtJobTitle" class="form-control" ng-model="placementForm.jobTitle"placeholder="Job Title">

        <input type="email" id="placementStartDate" class="form-control datepicker" ng-model="placementForm.placementStartDate" placeholder="Placement Start Date">

        <input type="email" id="placementEndDate" class="form-control datepicker"  ng-model="placementForm.placementEndDate" placeholder="Placement End Date">

    <select class="mdb-select" ng-model="placementForm.frequency">
        <option value="" disabled selected>Choose your option</option>
        <option value="WEEK">Weekly</option>
        <option value="MONTH">Monthly</option>
    </select>


text:
Home Craig Craig Police Department Report Week of January 31, 2015
Craig Police Department Report Week of January 31, 2015
Arthur Martin Editor POW Report Craig,
The following incidents were reported to and/or investigated by the Craig Police Department:
11:55 a.m. Provided courtesy transport for a citizen from 2 mile Craig Klawock HWY to SEARHC
5:04 p.m. An officer provided assistance at a residence on the 100 block of Tanner Crab Ct. during a controlled fire
5:34 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop on the 600 block of Port Saint Nicholas Rd.; verbal warning given for taillight out
6:01 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop on the 600 block of Shaan Seet at Port Saint Nicholas Rd; citation issued for speed
6:27 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop on Port Saint Nicholas Rd. at Cloud Nine; verbal warning given for speed
6:34 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop on the 600 block of Shaan Seet at Port Saint Nicholas Rd; verbal warning given for speed
10:59 p.m. Responded to an animal complaint at a residence in Tanner Crab Ct.; the dog was placed inside the home
1:39 p.m. Responded to an animal complaint at a residence on the 300 block of North Hamilton Dr.
4:10 p.m. Received a report of suspicious behavior
5:06 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop on Craig Klawock HWY at Tanner Crab Ct.; verbal warning given for speed
12:50 a.m. Removed debris from the roadway at 3 mile Craig Klawock HWY
10:58 a.m. Conducted a traffic stop on Port Saint Nicholas Rd. at the 700 block of Shaan Seet; verbal warning given for speed
11:56 a.m. Responded to a report of suspicious activity
12:09 p.m. Responded to a report of a citizen needing assistance in the woods near Sunnahae; the individual was located and transported to Peace Health
6:53 p.m. Conducted a welfare check at a residence on the 400 block of Shaan Seet; the individual was okay
8:08 p.m. Responded to a report of a vehicle in a ditch at Tanner Crab
9:33 p.m. A 41 year old female was arrested for Driving Under the Influence
9:04 a.m. Responded to Hamilton Dr. near the Healing Heart totem pole for a traffic complaint
11:07 a.m. Responded to a request for a business assist
11:37 a.m. Investigated a vehicle complaint at the high school; the owner will move
1:43 p.m. Received a report of a damaged vehicle; investigation started
6:36 p.m. Received a noise complaint from the Harborview area
9:16 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop at 1 mile Port Saint Nicholas Rd.; verbal warning given for speed
9:29 p.m. Conducted a traffic stop at .5 mile Craig Klawock HWY; verbal warning given for speed
12:31 p.m. Received a report of a lost dog
1:03 p.m. Received a report of the fire alarm going off at the Senior Center; the alarm was set off in error
12:56 p.m. A subpoena was served for an upcoming court case
5:42 p.m. Investigated a bonfire at the shelter by the causeway; the bonfire was extinguished
6:03 p.m. Responded to a report of an individual possibly violating their conditions of release
8:49 p.m. Responded to a report of an individual in the ditch at T&H St.; the male was transported by medics to SEARHC
6:10 a.m. Responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at a residence on the 800 block of Main St.
7:01 a.m. Responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at a residence on the 800 block of Main St.; the disturbance was verbal only
8:13 a.m. A 33 year old male was arrested for Disorderly Conduct
2:02 p.m. Received a report of a suspicious male on the Shaan Seet property by the trailer court
2:58 p.m. Responded to the Crab Creek area for reports of gun shots
4:40 p.m. Received a report of an individual possibly violating their probation 9:11 p.m. Responded to the Hill Bar for a report of an individual violating a Domestic Violence Protection Order; no violation found
11:11 p.m. Courtesy transport was provided to an individual from Sunnahae Trail to SEARHC
During the week January 31, 2016 to February 6, 2016 the following complaints were reported and investigated by the Craig Police Department:
0 abandoned vehicles; 2 adult arrest; 0 agency assists; 2 animal reports; 0 assault; 0 bear complaints; 0 burglaries, 2 business assists; 4 citizen assists, 1 citation were issued; 0 criminal mischief; 0 criminal trespass, 0 disorderly conduct; 2 disturbances; 2 domestic dispute; 0 Domestic Violence Orders Served; 0 fire call; 0 found property; 0 harassments; 0 juvenile arrest; 0 juvenile complaints; 1 lost property; 0 medical call; 2 motor vehicle accidents; 1 noise complaints; 0 protective custodies; 1 subpoena served; 0 summons served; 8 suspicious circumstances; 0 theft; 2 traffic complaints; 0 unsecured premise, 7 verbal warnings and 2 welfare checks were given
Tags # Craig
Labels: Craig


Characterize the emission levels of PAHs from stationary sources.
Characterize the emission levels of PAHs from mobile sources.
Present the atmospheric concentration, size distribution and phase distribution of PAHs.
Evaluate the atmospheric dry and wet depositions of PAHs.
Describe the toxicity and cancer risk of PAHs to human beings.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are a class of semi-volatile organic carbons that are emitted from both natural and anthropogenic sources therefore are ubiquitous in nature. Their main sources are both fossil and biomass fuels as well as other feedstocks used in chemical and combustion processes. Mostly the combustion processes are PAH depletion processes rather than PAH generating processes. PAHs are emitted from both stationary and mobile sources at varying levels depending on the operation conditions such as fuels, feedstock, and control devices in use as well as process parameters for example combustion temperatures.
After emission from sources, the fates of PAHs in the atmosphere include partitioning between gas and particulate phases, particle size distribution, long range transport, dry and wet deposition on to water bodies, soil, vegetation and other receptor surfaces as well as resuspension from receptor surfaces back to the atmosphere. These processes are controlled by their physiochemical properties. Additionally, it is through these processes that human beings are exposed to PAHs via inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact.
Dry deposition is the major process through which PAHs from the atmosphere are made available to receptor surfaces including the human respiratory system. From studies with cumulative fractions of dry deposition and size distribution for particulate PAHs, it is evident that the coarse particles are majorly responsible for the highest fraction of deposition fluxes. This is especially true for the high molecular weight PAHs, since the low molecular weight PAHs are majorly in the gas phase, which have lower dry deposition velocities. On the other hand, the highest risk for human being comes in the form of fine particles, whose mean aerodynamic diameter is below 2.5 µm. This is because the particle bound content results and particle size distributions of PAHs indicate that the fine particles have the most PAH content owing to their large surface areas and high organic carbon content. For the wet deposition of PAHs, more research is recommended for measurement of scavenging ratios of individual PAHs, since there is a scarcity of studies focusing on this issue.
PAH mutagenic activity and exposure risk of humans can be estimated using the deposition rates, toxicity levels based on benzo(a)pyrene, or biomarkers such as urinary 1-hydroxypyrene. Other parameters that have been used to evaluate the risks of various exposure groups include inhalation exposure levels (IEL), incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR), and estimation of maximum consumption time (tmax). Highway toll workers, back carbon workers and food vendors in night markets are among susceptible groups identified using these biomarkers and exposure parameters.
To reduce exposure to human beings, PAH emissions need to be controlled at the sources. Control and reduction of PAH emissions from various sources involves largely altering the fuel and feedstock characteristics, using air pollution control devices and/or adjusting the operating parameter's such as temperatures and air-fuel ratios or turbulence in combustion processes.
Unfortunately, albeit all the studies done on PAHs, they still remain a concern in our environment and more attention and research should be dedicated to this group of compounds.


I try to only post deals I find on books that I've read, want to read, or that I think people who read the same type of books might want to read. Today I've found one I'm going to read and two I've read!
I'm scheduled to be part of a virtual Book Tour in January for Husbands and Other Sharp Objects by Marilyn Simon Rothstein. I won't post my full review until then but this looks like a very fun read and it's $1.99 for the Kindle version or FREE if you have Kindle Unlimited! Her first book, Lift and Separate, is also $1.99 for the Kindle version or free with Kindle Unlimited! Let me know if you read either one!
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory was a fun light read about a woman who meets a man in an elevator and becomes his plus-one to his ex-girlfriend's wedding! I read it this summer and enjoyed it and now it's $1.99 for the Kindle version!!
I know I've mentioned this one before, but it's still on sale! Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani is very different than the two books mentioned above! It is a story of finding forgiveness in a dysfunctional family. I thought it was a very good book and it has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon with over 6000 reviews so others must think so too:) It is $1.99 for the Kindle version or free with Kindle Unlimited!
Previous Post: Great Author Visits!
Love that you are showcasing authors I have not read — just bought the Wedding Date and Husbands and Other Sharp Objects. Thanks!