1. Chreece II
Aug. 27, 2 p.m. 9 stages. 50+ acts. 1 awesome day of hip-hop music.
click to enlarge Chreece founder Oreo Jones!
2. Dig IN: A Taste of Indiana
Aug. 28. noon. This is your chance to sample food from 40 of the best chefs from around the state. Head here for a more in-depth preview.
Military Park, 601 W. New York St., $40, all-ages
3. IN Light IN
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Hoosiers might find an iceberg or two floating in the Canal at IN Light IN
More than 20 local, regional, national and international artists come together for one giant visual spectacle.
Canal Walk, 801 W. Washington St. FREE, all-ages
4.
Aug. 26-27, times vary. Sample more than 250 wines from around the world. This two-day fest will also feature local cuisine, live musical entertainment and more.
American Legion Mall, 700 N. Pennsylvania St. $40, 21+
5. Adult Swim Drive-In
Aug. 26. 7 p.m. Indy is one of 10 stops on this magical tour of irreverent entertainment, which features unaired episodes of current and upcoming shows as well as never-before-seen pilots, specials and more! This unique, fun-filled evening will also include trivia, prizes, food trucks and more.
Old National Centre, 502 N. New Jersey St., FREE with RSVP
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Fastidio
6. Kids Punk Rock Night
Aug. 27, 3 p.m. As if Fountain Square wasn't going to be busy enough on Saturday. We profiled Fastidio last week, but there’s a bunch more bands you can see including Mr. Daniel, School of Rock, Danny Thompson, Pravda, The Slappies, Stealing Volume and Black Cat Rebellion. Proceeds from this event benefit The Villages foster care program.
Kuma's Corner, 1127 Prospect St., FREE, all-ages
7. Hops & Flip Flops Festival
Aug. 27, 1 p.m. Guess what this festival's focus is? 25 breweries from across the country will be in town with their HOP-forward brews. Whiskey Bent Valley Boys, Brandon Whyde and the Devil’s Keep, The Stampede String Band, Prowlers and the Prey, Midwest Rhythm Exchange and Bleedingkeys provide the tunes. Barbecue and Bourbon, Big Ron’s Bistro, King David Dogs and Speedway Lions Clu provide the grub.
Daredevil Brewing Co, 1151 Main St., $40, 21+
8. Feast of Lanterns
Aug. 27, 4 p.m. The Historic Near Eastside Festival is back again this year! Featuring more than 40 artisans, six bands, food trucks and more it's an all-around grand time.
Spades Park, 1800 Nowland Ave, FREE, all-ages
9. Hoops EP release performance
Aug. 26, 6 p.m. Big news on the local circuit: Hoops signed to Fat Possum earlier this year and their new EP is out August 26 on that label. They’ll celebrate that release in Indy at this local record store.
LUNA Music, 5202 N. College Ave., FREE, all-ages
10. Day of Flight
Aug. 27, 8:30 a.m. This all-day celebration of the three B's will be filled with chances to see many different types of birds close-up, discover the beauty of butterflies and learn about the importance of bees.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road, included with admission ($18), all-ages


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-All Cuisines- American Asian Fusion Bakery Bar Food BBQ Brewery/Brew Pub Burgers Cajun/Creole Caribbean Chinese Comfort/Soul Food Deli Dessert Diner Egyptian Ethiopian Farm to Table Food Truck French Fusion Gastropub German Greek Hot Dogs Ice Cream Indian Irish Italian Japanese Latin America Mediterranean Mexican Middle Eastern Modern American Moroccan Organic Pakistani Pizza Russian Salads Sandwiches Seafood Spanish Steakhouse Sushi Tapas Tea Thai Vegetarian Wine Bar -All Neighborhoods- CENTRAL Downtown Mass Ave Butler-Tarkington EAST East (general) Irvington Martindale-Brightwood WEST Lafayette Square West (general) Avon/Plainfield NORTH Lafayette North (general) Carmel Noblesville Fishers Keystone NORTHWEST Muncie Zionsville NORTHEAST Broad Ripple Nora/Castleton SoBro SOUTH Bloomington South (general) Greenwood SOUTHWEST Southwest (general) SOUTHEAST Fountain Square OTHER Out of state Various


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This shouldn’t be difficult.An Indiana Democrat, John Gregg, ought to win the governor’s race in this year’s election. This is as true now that Gregg’s opponent is Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, as it was when it appeared Gregg would be running against incumbent Mike Pence.Pence’s gift of gaffe was almost limitless. Let us begin to count the ways: Whether he was defending discrimination against the LGBT community as religious freedom, enabling the state’s degrading addiction to coal, or earnestly signing off on one of this country’s most oppressive laws regarding women’s reproductive rights, Pence seemed determined to build a wall around Indiana.It’s no wonder he won Donald Trump’s vice presidential sweepstakes.By the time Trump plucked him from a freakishly narrow field of ne’er-do-wells, Pence had so thoroughly managed to reinforce every negative Hoosier stereotype that many voters seemed ready to vote against him, if only to stop his ham-handed assault on the state’s national reputation.Enter Eric Holcomb, a Republican hack, whose career in politics has never included actually being elected to anything. Short on both time and money, his campaign, thus far, has amounted to his saying, “more of the same.”In most elections, in most states, this situation would represent a golden opportunity for the opposing party, a chance not just to compete, but win a coveted office. But this is Indiana we’re talking about — and the Indiana Democratic Party — which makes predicting what happens in November a decidedly slippery proposition.This starts with John Gregg, the Democratic nominee. Gregg is a longtime Democratic pol, whose greatest claim to fame may be that he almost beat Mike Pence in the last election. This, in spite of a cornpone campaign that managed to alienate many urban voters, most of whom happen to be Democrats.As long as he could play the anti-Pence, Gregg’s prospects were bright. But, like so many Hoosier Dems, Gregg’s record is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-coal. His ads feature Republicans applauding him for being a fiscal conservative. He appears, in other words, to be just like a Republican — only competent.This approach may work for Gregg. But it does nothing to enhance how we think about Indiana, or address the ways life is changing here. Unfortunately, its lack of imagination is characteristic of the Hoosier Democratic Party’s MO, which has been to accept and thus perpetuate clichés about how retrograde and reactionary we are.And herein could be John Gregg’s undoing. Our state’s lack of genuine political competition — not just among candidates, but ideas — has led to almost unprecedented levels of voter apathy and political participation. In 2014, 43 percent of state house and senate races were actually uncontested. Voter turnout, unsurprisingly, was the lowest since World War II.Bernie Sanders has called for an initiative, “Our Revolution,” aimed at recruiting, training and even funding new generation progressive candidates to run for state and local offices. It’s a provocative idea that has yet to find its legs. But something like it could reinvigorate Indiana’s Democratic Party. Unless, that is, the state’s Dems like things just the way they are.


Like so many Hoosier Dems, Gregg’s record is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-coal.


Bio:
In addition to being a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist and author of books, Savage can also lay claim to being the only person at his home paper to have actually converted his sexuality into a profession. He has a boyfriend and a child. He is also wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice and cheats at racketball...
In addition to being a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist and author of books, Savage can also lay claim to being the only person at his home paper to have actually converted his sexuality into a profession. He has a boyfriend and a child. He is also wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice and cheats at racketball. Good luck getting him on the phone, and don’t ever ask where he’s going or where he’s been.

Savage Love: Say goodbye to that limp dick


If a guy can't get it up during sex in a new relationship, it's about time to go.


Gadfly: Trump's Make America Great Again


News, down and dirty, brought to you (mostly) by NUVO Engagement Editor Brian Weiss.


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Israeli guitarist Yonatan Gat will bring his brilliant brand of unrestrained rock and roll anarchy to The Hi-Fi on Thursday, September 8.Gat released his excellent debut solo LPon the Indianapolis-based Joyful Noise label in 2015. It was Gat’s first full length release since departing the Tel Aviv based garage punk band Monotonix.With Monotonix Gat earned a reputation for wildly unpredictable, chaos-fueled performances. Gat’s current work maintains the raw, manic punk rock energy of Monotonix, while adding additional layers of musical complexity through the extensive use of free-form improvisation. It’s a powerful combination that Gat calls “unstoppable.”Gat’s performance in Indianapolis earlier this year at the Fountain Square Music Festival was one of the best shows I’ve seen in 2016. Gat is an incredibly charismatic performer and an impressive innovator on the electric guitar. His upcoming show at The Hi-Fi will undoubtedly be a scorcher and I can’t recommend attending highly enough.I spoke with Gat via phone from his current home in New York City.Yonatan Gat: I think it’s different for each project. It’s just kind of became the way I do things. In Monotonix we started playing on the floor because we had a certain objective — to shock people actually. [laughs] It’s hard for me to think about that now because I’m in such a different place. I’m much less interested in shocking people now. But I think shock has a lot of value and I think people need to be shocked out of their senses constantly. But I feel like I’ve already done that.When Monotonix started playing on the floor we just wanted to do something very different and catch people by the balls, to get a response and make them feel something. Eventually Monotonix became like it’s own world and our interaction with the audience grew from that. For example, the way our singer Ami would take a beer from an audience member and spill it over his own head, or take a trash can from the ladies' restroom and spill it all over our drummer. That kind of came from playing on the floor, it wasn’t like the whole thing was planned. It started out as an attempt to really get in the audience’s faces, but it became something else. It became this interactive show where the band communicates with the audience in a very individual and intimate way — even when we’re playing really big shows. When I play festivals I usually set-up a little stage in the middle of the audience so people can see us all around. I don’t have to stand behind the barricades and I can really feel the audience.That’s the point of this band. When I started this band, playing on the floor was not for shock value or for a theatrical element. I wanted to have the audience partake in the show in more of a musical sense. And because the show is completely improvised, I wanted to make it 100 percent flexible, meaning anything could happen at any moment. Thirty minutes into the show we can do something we’ve never done before and keep doing that for another thirty minutes. It’s very open like that. Being inside the audience really allows us to improvise with the audience. I can really get the response of the audience and feel what they need. We don’t try to make an experimental show, and just stare at our effects pedals. We do try to communicate with the audience. Obviously we’re not going to start playing a Britney Spears songs just to try to impress people. But we’re there with the audience and we try to build some sort of community vibe with them.There’s a certain play between us and the audience that I think makes the feeling you had at our show very true. You are a part of the music. You are a part of what you called the “ritual.” Just by being there and the energy you give, you can actually affect what happens next. There’s no set list and nothing is pre-designed. It’s all about adjusting to that moment.Yonatan Gat: Of course it is. Music is one of the deepest things you can have. Music existed before language. Music basically is the source of everything. Music can really tap into some of the primal experiences of being human. That’s actually one of the greatest things about punk music. You asked if I’m a punk musician just thrashing on the guitar, or if I think about music in a deeper way — and I think it’s both. I think punk music’s biggest contribution to the history of music is that it brought back this idea of getting lost inside your music. The jazz people had that, but then they forgot it. Around the ‘70s when there were all those progressive bands in rock music and everything was very self-conscious - actually it’s not that different from now. The punk rockers went back to that feeling of losing yourself in music, to kind of transcend language and ideas and get connected to this primal energy. I think that’s a lot of my attraction to punk music.When I think about music as a ritual, I think every performance is ritual in a way. I like that people call it a ritual, and I agree. It feels like that to me.But I like your question, and a lot people when they talk about our shows having a ritualistic element compare it to voodoo music or shamanistic music. For me one thing that sets our music apart from that idea, is that voodoo or shamanistic music is very repetitive. If you listen to voodoo music with all the Haitian drums it tends to have a very repetitive element. But our music is the opposite of that. So why do you think people make that connection?Yonatan Gat: Interesting.Yonatan Gat: I think it’s both, and more. There are a lot of guitarists I like that are less typical. When people ask me this question I think maybe they expect me to say Jimi Hendrix. Of course I love Jimi Hendrix, it’s sort of impossible to not be influenced by Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist. So me saying Jimi Hendrix is not interesting in a way. When it comes to Western guitarists I really like Syd Barrett and on the other hand I also like Robert Fripp, especially his work on the David Bowie records. I think Fripp’s experiments with Eno really pushed the guitar forward in an ambitious and interesting way. But I really appreciate Syd Barrett for the incredible touch that he has on the instrument. I think it’s completely unique and I was always drawn to guitarists like that.So many things have been done already on the guitar, so it seems like it’s very hard to do something new in a way. But in a way it actually isn’t because all the groundwork has been laid before you. I think you can get insane ideas if you just open your ears and go a little bit beyond Western music, and go a little bit beyond rock and roll recorded between 1955 and 1975 — which most musicians refuse to do.The guitarists I listen to are West African guitarists. One of my favorites… I don’t really know his name unfortunately, which is embarrassing. But he plays in this band called Orchestra Baobab.Yonatan Gat: Yes, he’s one of my favorite guitarists and I’m glad you know him. If you listen to his guitar playing, which is very influenced by Cuban music, you just get this insane amount of new ideas.Even if you listen to a really famous guitarist like Django Reinhardt, which everybody in the West knows. You can take his ideas Not in the sense of studying him or mimicking his style as so many people do. Django completely dominates jazz guitar. He became not only a name, but a whole style of music. But if you listen to his approach to music, then of course you can do new things in rock and roll.People are obsessed with celebrating a certain style of music, from a certain set of years, from a very particular part of the world called the U.S. and England. I think there’s much more music than that. I think if what I do sounds new and refreshing, a lot of it comes from my curiosity about many styles of music from everywhere in the world.One more thing I want to say in that context is to talk about improvisation. We talked about how in the 1970s punk was an important thing to release rock and roll from its own ass. I hope maybe this combination of incorporating styles from outside the U.S. and England will lead to a new music. But it’s tricky talking about these things, because I don’t want to encourage people to go out and start an afrobeat band tomorrow if they don’t come from that part of the world and don’t understand that music.I’m not saying you need to listen to Fela Kuti and imitate his music. But you can take his approach and implement that to your own music and that would immediately make your own music ten times more interesting. I think the place where a lot of bands fall is when they listen to a certain kind of music and than imitate the style. What can be imitated, without any danger of becoming an imitator, is approach. Fela Kuti had his own approach to music. Orchestra Baobab had their own approach to music. Jazz improvisers like Miles Davis had a completely unique approach to music. We don’t need to steal that, but we can use that to open our own minds.Maybe the same way punk rock saved rock and roll from its own ass in the 1970s, maybe taking in those influences and approaches from different musicians, from different times, from different parts of the world —And maybe improvisation too! I think rock and roll is a perfect music for improvising. It doesn’t have to be jam bands playing twelve bar blues. There’s so much more to improvisation. The beauty of improvisation in jazz in the old days was the energy. It was the most insane energetic music. Going to a big band show in the 1920s was like going to a punk show at CBGB’s in 1976. Over time the music became very academic. I think improvisation, with the energy of a music like punk, is unstoppable. There will always be something new to say, especially if you are opening your mind to influences from wherever you can get them.Our time on this planet is short and there is so much music. We only have to open our minds immediately. Then maybe people would stop voting for Trump.Yonatan Gat: Are you going to ask me about Aris San?Yonatan Gat: [laughs] Haha, nice! Yeah, yeah, definitely. I’ve actually been rediscovering Aris San lately. In the last year I bought an Aris San vinyl on Ebay. The album wasn’t that good, but as a guitarist he’s amazing.I think about this a lot: Aris San’s influence in Israel was massive, even though he was ostracized and had to leave the country at some point. There’s a documentary about him on Youtube. I think it has English subtitles - but if not, you’re screwed. It tells his life story and his story is insane. He emigrated to Israel and he became very successful because no-one could play guitar like him in Israel. Something really interesting happened to him, and I think this is something that happens to immigrants when they become very successful in a new country. The country just spits them out.We saw the same thing with Charlie Chaplin in the U.S. This guy moves to America from England, and becomes huge. He was a genius director, he acted in the films and scored them. He had an amazing method of working, it was very improvisational. I get very inspired by people like him. He would shoot with no scripts. His script may have two lines and everything else just happened on set. I think that’s where the potency of his films comes from. Anyway, he becomes this gigantic American icon and in the 1950s they accuse him of Communism and he has to flee back to England at some point, humiliated with his tail between his legs. Spat out of the country where he helped popularize the cinema so much.The same thing kind of happened to Aris San in Israel. He came to Israel and became huge. Then at some point, he did this weird thing. He started incorporating Arabic influences into his music. Which is of course something I do to, because I come from that part of the world. For me it makes a lot of sense to play those Arabic scales. It makes a lot of sense to have Arabic elements because I come from there. It’s not something I would recommend other guitarists to do because it needs to be in you.You can’t play something just because you like it. It’s not that simple.But Aris San did that, and it was very groundbreaking during the late ‘60s and early ’70s. At that time nobody did that. Israel was a much more racist place than it is now. And people just thought he was insane. But for him, he was a stellar musician and it was the next logical way to go. He’s in Israel surrounded by the Arabic countries of the Middle East. Why not bring an oud in? Why not bring the Arabic scales and atmosphere?But people really freaked out. People started calling him a spy, an Egyptian spy or Syrian spy. People were saying he had a camera on the headstock of his guitar and he had to leave the country after being the most successful guitarist. It’s a really interesting story and I could talk about it for a long time.But I think what he brought to Israeli culture was an appreciation for Greek guitar playing. That bouzouki style all comes from Turkish music and back to Arabic music. He really popularized that style in Israel. Now every Israeli guitarist can be influenced by that. So much of Israeli pop music has those elements in them.So even if you don’t grow up listening to Aris San in Israel, his influence is completely inside you. He just completely reshaped music in Israel. He is an incredible guitarist, for sure one of the best guitarists to come out of Israel. He changed music forever and a lot of the change was incorporating those Greek, Turkish, Mediterranean, even Middle Eastern influences into the guitar sound of Israeli music.That exists in my playing whether I like Aris San or not. But in the last year I’ve been on an Aris San kick and I’ve been really enjoying him. He’s a super creative guitar player. Getting into his music is a really good idea. There are great videos of him on Youtube where you can watch him go, and he shreds.Yonatan Gat: I don’t know. Israel is a very problematic place. It’s a very young country. It’s been around way less than a century and I don’t think it has really developed its own identity in music yet. I think part of the problem for Israel culturally is that it’s still looking out to the West for inspiration instead of trying to finds its own voice. That’s a problem in general for musicians around the world. That’s part of what I’ve been complaining about with rock and roll bands. They’re not trying to find their own voice, they’re trying to glorify the 1970s or something like that.A lot of bands in Israel are trying to sound like American or European bands. Or on the other hand, they’re going for that cheap shot of being an ethnic-whatever band - which is something I’m not that interested in. It’s definitely not organic to bill yourself as some ethnic world music band. You can call all music world music, and all music is ethnic music. I have a lot of problem with that.So music in Israel has not been an inspiration to me in the way that I sit home and listen to a lot of Israeli records - outside of a really great Mediterranean-Israeli singer named Zohar Argov. He’s really good. There are some great songwriters and some great musicians, but not as many as I would want to see. Of course there is Aris San. But I think the future might be better.I think the influence for me is just being from there and absorbing the musical culture, whether I wanted to or not. That makes me a different guitar player than any American guitar player because I have this completely different cultural background. Even if I just wanted to make rock and roll. When I was young I listened mostly rock and roll. But slowly over the years you kind of understand that the music you make is a combination of what you want to make, and what you are.Yonatan Gat: Interesting. Yes, it’s valid enough. It’s considered a legendary record amongst psychedelic collectors. You happen to know all these things — but Aris San and The Churchills are rare things in Israel. You’re not going to find a lot of examples of this kind of music in Israel.I heard that record a few times. It doesn’t sound like the most unique piece of music I’ve ever heard. I like it, but I don’t feel like it adds anything to my musical world at the moment. ...Of course it’s valid and I think it’s a beautiful record in a way. There are a lot of interesting things about it. But in the future I would expect more from Israeli bands - and from bands in general. But yes, it’s an interesting record and I should get into it again. I don’t want to say too much about it without listening to it again more recently. I already said a lot.From the way I remember it, it sounds like a band that was looking outside of Israel. But that band actually ended up playing on very weird Israeli records by this famous singer named Arik Einstein. In the later ‘60s they became his backing band. They made very interesting music together, but it still suffered a bit by trying to imitate The Beatles and whatever was fashionable at the time. But it still had some kind of Israeli flavor.I think it would be very interesting for somebody to curate some sort of Israeli rock comp, because I think we definitely have enough stuff for at lest one very interesting compilation. But other than that, I think the future is where we want to be looking when it comes to Israeli music.Yonatan Gat: We’re working on our next record. It’s been two years of that. I started working on the record as soon as we finishedIt’s a bit of a different project. It’s been an insane two year process where we keep going back into the studio recording more stuff and doing crazy editing experiments. I think it’s going to be very special. It’s definitely not going to be rehashing what we did on our last record. But I think it will have a lot of what’s good about that record. I think our next LP will be something that people who like our music can really look forward to and I’m definitely interested in hearing people’s reactions to it. We also have a love DVD coming out soon. A lot of the DVD was shot at our Fountain Square show.

Yonatan Gat's unrestrained rock and roll anarchy


"I think you can get insane ideas if you just open your ears and go a little bit beyond Western music, and go a little bit beyond rock and roll recorded between 1955 and 1975 — which most musicians refuse to do."


Gage Hein snapped shots of Lil Uzi's show in Indy this week.


Savage Love: Take control of what enters your ass


Dan's replacement of the week weighs in on a pegging problem.


Is it right to lie to your partner so they'll give you a hand job? What if they've cheated on you in the past?


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Rehema McNeil
Rehema McNeil unapologetically identifies as a "conscious" rapper, but she's not afraid to pair her thoughtful lyrics with club-friendly beats. She follows up her 2015 debut EPwith a new project, a five-song EP titled. The release finds Rehema hitting an impressive stride as an emcee, and her mix of conscious lyrics and dance floor-ready tracks creates a winning combination that appeals to a wide berth of listener tastes.
I rank Moko as one of the best local releases of 2016 thus far and I strongly recommend catching Rehema's 10:30 White Rabbit performance Saturday night at Chreece.
NUVO: In your notes for the release, I read that the word "moko" means "womanhood" in the Polynesian language of Tonga. Why did you choose that word to represent this project?
Rehema McNeil: Overall, I wanted to reflect my upbringing. My father introduced the word "moko" to me years ago and I thought it sounded cool and clean. I felt it was fitting for this project because I have become a woman since the release of Davu.
NUVO: When we spoke last year I remember you telling me that Davu was essentially your first attempt at rapping, that you came from more of a spoken word background. Listening to Moko, it sounds like you've really found your voice as an MC.
McNeil: I'm still finding my voice. There's so much to learn, and the more you learn the more you realize that there's so much more that you don't know. It's a continuous journey and I'm looking forward to learning what's next. So I try to stay open to grow as a person and artist.
NUVO: On Davu your lyrics addressed themes relating to social justice. For example, your piece "Terrorist" commented on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots in Oklahoma. Are there similar themes in your lyrics for Moko?
McNeil: It's a bit more personal this time around. I've been going through a lot of things, both good and bad. Those challenges helped to create character. So I wanted to write about it to release it. "Black Widow" speaks about beauty and identity and relationships.
On "False" I wanted to do a song based off Greek mythology. It tells a story about how hip-hop has become like gospel now for many people. People follow and adhere to the lyrics of the mainstream rappers and it changes their lifestyles. I didn't want to call the song "False Gods" because I didn't want it to be too preachy. So I called it "False" because I don't really agree with a lot of the things being told within music today.
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Rehema McNeil click to enlarge
NUVO: So you think the language of popular contemporary hip-hop is having a negative influence on young people?
McNeil: Yes, I would say so.
NUVO: You think it's contributing to violent or misogynistic attitudes?
McNeil: I love hip-hop and I think it's a beautiful art. As individuals every choice we make is our own. We can't blame media; we are only influenced and from there we make our own choices. I feel like whatever you expose yourself to repetitively, that is what you become over time. I'll leave it at that.
RELATED: Rehema at Chreece in 2015
NUVO: Womanhood is a central theme on Moko. On that topic I'd like to ask about your role as one of the few women emcees working the Indianapolis hip-hop scene. The rap scene here is very male-dominated. Do you have any thoughts on that?
McNeil: I have mixed emotions about it honestly. Part of it is an opportunity, because there aren't that many female emcees in the city that are dominating, so I have an open path to dominate and control the scene and saturate it with my music. But also I feel like I'm overlooked in certain areas, like getting booked for shows. I do get booked for more shows now, but that's more because of my personal connections. It's progressing, but it's slow like baby steps. At the same time I believe in creating my own doors and creating a buzz that is so broad and saturated within social media that people can't ignore it.
NUVO: Do you get a sense of whether there's more opportunities opening up for other women to follow your path?
McNeil: I would say yes. I hear women when I get offstage say, "Oh my god that was amazing. You were the only woman up there and you really represented!" That makes me feel good and I feel like it inspires other women to know that just because there aren't any women onstage you can still get up and do it.
NUVO: I want to get your thoughts on "Black Widow," which has a heavier club sound than any other work you've created thus far.
McNeil: I love to dance. I wanted to make a song that would make people get up off their seats and dance, and I feel like we achieved that. That song tells different stories. One of them is about being compared to another woman in a relationship and how that made me feel emotions of pain and disappointment, but ultimately helped me realize my self-worth, which is a beautiful thing. Then the song talks about identity and how the media paints a picture for little girls and young women to grow up to. I feel like every woman is beautiful, and there's not just one form for beauty. It's an anthem for confidence and finding your self-worth.


Her new release finds Rehema hitting an impressive stride as an emcee, and her mix of conscious lyrics and dance floor-ready tracks creates a winning combination that appeals to a wide berth of listener tastes.


Wilder in 1970
Indy film lovers have a chance to pay tribute to the late Gene Wilder this weekend thanks to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Indiana State Museum. Wilder passed away Aug. 29 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Fans can catch any of the following screenings for $5 each.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN on Friday, September 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Toby Theater. WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY on Saturday, September 3 at 11:00 a.m. at the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum. This screening will be accompanied by a “concession stand takeover” where Wonka candy will be rampant. BLAZING SADDLES on Saturday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum.
And in case you didn't know:

IMA, State Museum to honor Gene Wilder this weekend


Three of Wilder's most famous films will be shown at the Toby and IMAX® Theater


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Fishers first brewery celebrates its first anniversary tonight, plus Rita has rounded up plenty of new brews and beer events to enjoy.


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FARGO — They're in most everyone's wallets, but the next generation of credit and debit cards aren't accepted everywhere — long after the deadline for merchants to stop swiping and start reading chips.
EMV cards, short for Europay-Mastercard-Visa, have been around since 1994 and used in many countries since the early 2000s. But the cards, which have an embedded chip that encrypts transactions and boosts security, are relatively new in America.
Switching to EMV has been in the works for years, gaining urgency with big data breaches, including the 2013 Target breach that affected 40 million customers.
Instead of requiring the change, the U.S. opted for a liability shift on Oct. 1, 2015 — after that, merchants unwilling or unable to accept new cards were liable for fraudulent charges when the lower-tech magnetic stripes were swiped.
"The risk is not that big yet, but it's growing," said Dan Fisher, president and CEO of Fargo-based technology and payment consulting firm Copper River Group.
Nearly 11 months later, Fisher said only half of America's point-of-sale terminals accept chip payment.
Slow change
Even merchants that want EMV might not be capable yet, according to Bill Russell, executive vice president of banking services for Bell Bank.
Heavy demand led to long delays in getting new equipment, he said, while chains might require companywide software upgrades before the new readers work.
"It's a combination of all those things that has made the accessibility that's out there so low," he said.
It's also a complicated and time-consuming change, according to Carrie Lick, interim deposit administration and serving solutions manager for Gate City Bank.
"There's more involved than just plugging it in and dipping your card," she said. "Retailers have to install special software and go through a certification process."
Fisher said the processors that merchants and financial institutions use for card transactions are a big reason for the delayed rollout. Many processors weren't ready on time or have been slow to change.
That's why customers may be asked to swipe their card even when a store has chip-reading terminals — the machine is ready, but the processor or store software isn't.
Banks generally wanted EMV as early as possible because of the liability shift, Fisher said. That's a big deal when card fraud topped $11 billion globally in 2012 and counterfeit card fraud was on the rise in America.
In countries that went to EMV, banks saw a 40 to 50 percent cut in debit card fraud, he said.

Many merchants still swiping long after deadline to switch to new credit, debit card technology


Farm market report for Aug. 29 from the Zumbrota Livestock Auction Market


A recruitment firm has been named the best company in the UK for work-life balance.
Financial recruiter Goodman Masson took first place in the list by jobs site Glassdoor, based on reviews submitted to its website by current and former staff.
The company, which is based in London and also has offices in Dusseldorf, was praised by staff for its “huge investment” in staff benefits and “great” parties twice a year.
“The attention paid to the wellbeing of staff is at a level rarely matched elsewhere,” said an anonymous employee working in the London office.
In second place was technology firm Cisco Systems, and in third place was insurer HomeServe.
West Midlands-based HomeServe, which employs 1,200 people at its headquarters in Walsall and has 2.1 million customers in the UK, was commended for its attitude towards the treatment of its staff.
“The salary is very competitive and you are rewarded very generously for your hard work and just for carrying out your role. The company has a great framework for career progression and is always looking to promote people internally for job roles,” said a water supply engineer working at the firm.
Greg Reed, chief marketing officer at HomeServe, said: “We believe if you take care of your people, they will take care of your customers. This means creating a culture where people genuinely enjoy coming to work every day because they feel what they do really makes a difference in our customers’ lives.”
Temping firm LOLA and Screwfix completed the top five. Other companies in the top 20 included Apple, American Express Lloyds Banking Group, Unilever and John Lewis.
Google is known for its plush offices, but doesn’t make the top 20 companies for work-life balance. Its new London office has sleep pods so workers can take a nap, although perhaps this is an indication of long hours.
For a company to have been considered, at least 50 work-life balance ratings must have been submitted by UK-based employees in the past year.
The top 20 companies for work-life balance:
1. Goodman Masson
2. Cisco Systems
3. HomeServe UK
4. LOLA Staffing
5. Screwfix
6. American Express
7. BP
8. Peninsula Business Services
9. ARM Holdings
10. Unilever
11.Thomson Reuters
12. Kantar Worldpanel
13. Atkins
14. Téléfonica
15. Credit Suisse
16. Rolls-Royce
17. John Lewis
18. Waitrose
19. Lloyds Banking Group
20. Apple

Revealed: The top UK companies for work-life balance


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There aren’t many hotels that boast a two-Michelin star restaurant, but this delightful haven in Devon has just that.
Set on the doorstep of Dartmoor National Park, near Chagford, stunning Gidleigh Park ticks all the boxes for a five-star weekend of food heaven.
Standing proudly on a bank within more than 100 acres of private woodlands, its location is wild and dramatic, with the immaculate gardens a vision of beauty.
Refined, traditional and classic are just three words to describe the stunning Tudor building, which also boasts an immensely stylish interior.
Before check-in, ensure to stretch your legs with a stroll around the beautiful estate, which is a lovely way of soaking up the fantastic green surroundings.
A circular route takes you past the picturesque water gardens, tennis courts, croquet lawn and Bluebell Copse wood.
Also make time for a spot of golf on the large lush putting green, with 18 testing holes featuring various water hazards and narrow slopes.
Inside is everything you’d expect from a country house hotel – antique furniture, stone fireplaces and elegant bouquets of flowers – all very sophisticated and ideally suited to the quiet atmosphere.
Our beautifully-decorated room, one of the hotel’s luxury suites, included a roll-top bath, his and hers sinks and the biggest walk-in shower you may ever see.
If you book the Manaton room, you’ll get a private rooftop hot tub where you can bask under the stars and top-of-the-range Dartmeet houses a marble bath, sauna and steam room.
Sipping drinks on the terrace is a great way to admire the stunning panoramic views and the lounge is an area where you can make yourself feel at home.
There’s also a well-stocked bar, conservatory and self-service pantry stocked with teas, coffee and biscuits.
Dinner is a gastronomic experience of a lifetime, with chef Michael Wignall a food genius who will take you on a food journey you will never forget.
His exquisite seven-course tasting menu was a culinary carnival which was simply the best meal I have ever had the pleasure of eating.
From the elegant dainty canapes through to the rich malt and yeast frozen cream dessert, the flavours in each dish complemented each other perfectly, leaving your palette purring.
Torched eel, loin of rabbit, baked smoked carrots and St Austell bay mussels were just a few of the delights on offer.
There’s an informative aspect to the meal as well, with restaurant staff explaining in detail the flavours of each dish and how they were prepared.
For breakfast, there’s the more traditional menu, featuring full English, Eggs Benedict, kippers and porridge.
No words will do this place justice unless you go and experience it for yourself, for this was an experience that has left memories we will treasure forever.
Hotel facts:
Overnight stays at Gidleigh Park start from £250 for a double room, or £125pp, on a bed and breakfast basis.
Lunch is £40 for three courses Monday to Thursday, or £50 Friday – Sunday.
A seven-course tasting menu, available at lunch or dinner, costs £110, while a ten-course tasting menu, available for dinner only, is £130.
Afternoon tea is served every day between 3.30 and 5pm and costs £37.50 per person, or £50 including a glass of champagne.
For further information or to book visit www.gidleigh.co.uk or call 01647 432367.
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Popular destinations include London, Mallorca, Alicante, Dublin, Malaga and Edinburgh.

Gastronomy at its finest - Daniel Bailey enjoys a star-studded stay at a Devon country house hotel


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After months of rumours, Apple has all but confirmed that the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be officially unveiled on 7 September.
The tech giant has confirmed plans for a major media event in San Francisco next Wednesday where it is expected to take the wraps off the newest version of its groundbreaking mobile.
A second-generation iWatch is also expected to be revealed at the event.
Rumours around the iPhone 7’s specifications have been flying around for months. It is expected to be slimmer and lighter than the current iPhone 6S and there is a suggestion it could be waterproof.
Leaked photos also suggest it could do away completely with a headphone jack, replacing the traditional tangle of white wires with wireless Bluetooth-connected headphones.
There is also speculation that the larger 7 Plus will come with a dual-camera system.
It is likely to get a full HD 1080p edge-to-edge screen and a larger battery to keep users online for longer and address criticisms about the longevity of the iPhone 6.
Speculation about processing power has ranged from a dual-core processor like the 6S up to an unlikely hex-core but RAM is expected to remain at 2GB. Whatever the hardware, it’s likely to come with iOS 10 and the variety of functionality upgrades that brings with it.
Pricing is expected to follow Apple’s trend of keeping the cost of new handsets stable so the iPhone 7 will cost around £539 but that’s likely to come with 32GB of storage, a jump over its predecessor’s 16GB.

iPhone 7 launch date confirmed - and it’s soon


“We cook on so many levels, not just to feed ourselves,” says Georgie Hayden, taking a sip of tea.
As part of Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Team’, the bubbly brown-eyed Londoner cooks for a living, dreaming up and styling recipes for Oliver’s books, magazine and TV shows. But she also cooked her way through a traumatic maternity leave, after her son Archie died just before birth two years ago.
“I can’t remember what happened for the first few months. I think we must have lived off food from nice people. I don’t think I cooked for a while. I really scared myself. I thought, ‘I just don’t care, I actually don’t care about food or anything’,” she recalls. “You feel really vulnerable and I didn’t want to go out... Then it sort of went full circle.”
Fearing she’d lost her love of food, Hayden gathered all her cookbooks together - including Honey & Co’s book, the Middle Eastern cafe where we meet today - and started thinking about food for her and husband Pete.
“After a few months of calming down, I thought, ‘Let’s start again... You’re going to sit down and start making a weekly meal plan’. Then I would drive myself to the supermarket and do the shop, and that’s actually what got me out again - having a purpose got me back into doing something and being a bit more confident.”
The familiarity and routine of cooking was like therapy and slowly eased Hayden, 34, through her bereavement.
What started out as a simple project has been gently nurtured into Hayden’s first cookbook, Stirring Slowly: Recipes To Restore + Revive. With chapter titles such as ‘A Sunny Start To
The Day’, ‘Bowl Food’, and ‘Bake Yourself Better’, it’s a book to turn to when you’ve had a long, tough day - full of warming, comforting and revitalising recipes.
In his foreword, Jamie Oliver says he loves Hayden ‘like a sister’, and she is equally full of praise for her mentor, with whom she’s travelled the world for work.
“After my maternity leave, I went back part-time, because I needed to sort my life out a bit. He said, ‘Whatever you need to do, we’ll make it work’. He’s phenomenal and he really cares.
It sounds cheesy, but the Food Team is family and it’s the most inspiring place to be.”
Hayden’s real family has had a huge impact on her love of food, too. Born to Greek Cypriot parents, her childhood memories are of Saturday pilgrimages from their home above her grandparents’ Greek restaurant to the ‘smelly shop’ - an Italian deli packed with hanging salami - around the corner.
Her dad worked in the family restaurant while her mum stayed home, teaching Hayden and her sister to bake. It sparked a lifelong passion - and she remembers shadowing both her grannies, determined to learn all the traditional Cypriot family recipes before they were lost.
“I still cook with my granny,” she says. “She’s amazing. She’s had such an influence on me.”
Hayden’s already planning her next cookbook - full of Cypriot food - but for now, she’s pleased to have created a legacy for Archie with her first one.

Recipe for a calmer life - Georgie Hayden tells Kate Whiting about the emotional journey behind her new recipe book


Victoria went on to rule for 63 years, and was our longest serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II on tith September 2015.
BAFTA-nominated actor Rufus Sewell is cast alongside Jenna starring as Lord Melbourne, Victoria’s ﬁrst prime minister. The two immediately connected and their intimate friendship became a popular source of gossip that threatened to destabilise the Government – angering both Tory and Whigs alike.
Tom Hughes stars as Prince Albert. Appearing in the drama from episode 3, Albert immediately makes an impression on the young queen, his ﬁrst cousin. Although Victoria resisted attempts to rush her into marriage initially, her partnership with Albert was a success and they would ultimately produce nine children.
We caught up with former Doctor Who companian Jenna to find out about the drama. . .
Jenna explains one of the most useful aids to understanding Victoria was her sketchbook...
“I read her diaries but although those have her words they’re more about the rhythm of her writing and her emphasis and consciousness in a way. She’s very emphatic in her writing.
What she likes is in capital letters and underlined and it was very thorough and passionate but I think for me, the most interesting thing was her sketchbook because that is the one thing that has been untouched of her vision and what interests her and how she saw the world. I never knew Victoria was such a good artist but most of what she draws is very human and is not about grandeur or jewels or aﬀairs of state in a way it is much more about nature, horses and people, drama and opera and when she was younger the heights of passion and emotion. She drew Lord Melbourne a lot at one stage and then obviously Albert as well as a lot of landscapes. It is interesting to see the world through her eye which you feel more from her when looking through her sketches.”
What helped your transformation into Queen Victoria?
“We went through a lengthy process with the contact lenses trying to ﬁnd the right ones that would look natural and work on camera. There were a couple that made me look like a white walker from Game of Thrones but I would rehearse in the lenses and I kept them in all of the time because once you have them in, to look at yourself in the mirror and see yourself completely diﬀerently is fantastic. It was the make-up designer Nic Collins idea to go with the lenses because in all of the portraits the one thing that really sticks out are her eyes; they are so big and such a known feature about her.”
But ultimately Jenna explains it was ﬁnding the voice of Victoria that was the biggest challenge...
“As well as the relationship between crown and girl it was her voice that was most interesting because for me I start at a place of voice and can hear the voice very clearly before I play a person or character so I think ﬁnding a regal voice that was of the time, accessible but not inhibiting in a way was a challenge. I listened a lot to Emily Blunt in Young Victoria and Judy Dench in Mrs Brown and bridging that age gap.
“For speeches you had to up it a certain notch and then when behind closed doors with Albert, ﬁnding the more human elements to her because I think one of the biggest fears in period drama is being so stiﬀ that you become talking heads and you have to be mindful of the etiquette and as a girl, she is impulsive. Also taking her through an age. Beginning at 18 and growing her up and yet doing that quite quickly and in less of a marked way, going from someone who is vulnerable and actually insecure and inexperienced yet someone who has a big sense of will and who is incredibly stubborn and ﬂawed yet trying to get across her likeability through that. Trying to get her lust for life through all of that.”
Jenna tells us what it has been like to undertake such an incredible role and what she was keen to portray to an audience.
“Something we spoke about a lot was this idea of playing between state and private, between Victoria’s public face, her private face and going between those two worlds. When she is in her quarters she is undone and private. It’s about ﬁnding the human within the role of Queen and discovering the girl taking on this incredible responsibility.’
“With so much access to her diaries you know a liEle bit about what her daily life was like. On the day of her coronation, for example, she woke up at 4am and could hear the crowds outside and the cannons being ﬁred. It is so fascinating to think of her experience inside the palace and outside those four walls and what her relationship was to the public.
“So it’s about fulﬁlling that on screen, seeing her the way we see her, as queen Victoria in this role that she plays but also seeing her as the girl that she was, behind the scenes and playing between the private and public worlds.”
Queen Victoria had a vast number of hidden talents, which meant that Jenna had to learn a whole new set of skills for this role.
“It was very interesting because once I got the job it was a matter of three weeks before I had to be on horseback riding on camera, ballroom dancing and playing the piano. I managed to get some Beethoven down. I have a piano in my house and I have wanted to learn for ages so it was the perfect opportunity. Tom (Hughes) is an amazing musician, he actually really could do it all and I could do one small section and then completely fudge the rest by methods which were rather ludicrous. Apparently she sings opera but I’m not so sure I would get those skills up to par but we will see!”
Victoria start on Sunday at 9pm on ITV with a 90-minute special and continues on Monday.


A show which asked people to write letters to their past, present and future selves is coming to the stage.
Writer Becci Sharrock penned Letters To Myself after spending six months working with people across Sunderland and South Shields.
As she met people, she handed out letter writing kits and collected the resulting letters.
She said: “Letters To Myself came about after hearing lots of friends talk about problems or situations and finish by saying something along the lines of, ‘I know what I’d say to myself if I were you’.
“I’m fascinated by the idea that we are sometimes unable to give ourselves the same brilliant advice that we give to friends and family.
“I’m interested in how we might become better at talking to ourselves, and what advice we would offer if we could.”
The show is coming to Arts Centre Washington, in Fatfield, on Thursday, September 8.
In January, Becci was awarded seed funding from The Cultural Spring which allowed her to test her idea with a whole host of groups from Sunderland and South Shields.
She said: “Working with Cultural Spring has been amazing and has allowed us to get out and about, meeting so many interesting people along the way.
“We’ve been in libraries, cafes, empty shops, talked to writing groups and WIs and even run workshops in schools.
“At every session we hand out free letter writing kits and simply ask those that we meet to consider writing a letter to their past, present or future selves. Then, if they want to, they can send it back to us so we can use it in the making of the show.”
Becci added: “It’s been so inspiring to read everyone’s stories and experiences. People have been really generous and open with us and that’s a real privilege.
“The pressure’s now on us to make a show that does justice to that. We can’t wait for everyone to see it, to meet some of our letter writers again and see what they think and finally to get the show out on the road.”
Anyone who would like to write a letter for the project can do so by visiting www.letterstomyself.org.uk
Letters To Myself has been supported by Cultural Spring, The Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Tickets for the 7.30pm show cost £8.50 with a £6 concession. To book, go to www.artscentrewashington.co.uk or call 0191 561 3455.

Theatre show asks people to write letters to their past and future selves


Visit now for the latest theatre and comedy news - direct from the Sunderland Echo


Jermain Defoe will find out on Sunday whether he has done enough to earn an England recall.
Defoe has scored twice in three Premier League games for Sunderland this season ahead of former Black Cats boss Sam Allardyce naming his first England squad on Sunday.
The 33-year-old put Sunderland 1-0 up from the penalty spot in the 80th minute before Jay Rodriguez equalised five minutes from time for Southampton.
Moyes said: "I wouldn't be surprised at all, because Jermain Defoe is a goalscorer.
"He has that ability to score out of very little.
"And Sam knows him, he knows him better than me because he has worked with him for longer than I have.
"From what I've seen, he is a really good pro and that's what I like about him.
"He wants to do things right, and he wants to stay in good condition.
"He is certainly not someone who is just playing out the latter days of his career.
"I'd love to have a Sunderland player in the England squad.
"We started at Everton like that, then I hoped to have two players in the England squad, then three, and build it up into a squad of top international players.
"If Jermain Defoe gives us the start we need, I will be thrilled."
Defoe was tripped by Jose Fonte for the penalty.
Moyes added: "He had one or two sniffs of chances as well, and he put one away against Man City the other week as well.
"He took his penalty kick terrifically well, and we are going to need his goals.
"I haven't seen it [the penalty] yet. But some people say yes and some people say no, so if it is a split decision the referee has to call it one way or the other.
"He's a really good finisher, and we just need to keep a check on him because he is carrying a bit of a thigh strain."
New signing Javier Manquillo, 22, made his debut for Sunderland after arriving on a season-long loan from Atletico Madrid.
Moyes added: "I thought the right-back played very well today on his debut, so there were some pluses.
"I thought Adnan [Januzaj] had some great moments for us, and there were moments where you could see what a great player he is.
"We have to raise our quality and make sure that we are winning games, not drawing or losing them."

David Moyes: 'I'd love to have a Sunderland player in the England squad'


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When the mercury soars, some gardeners enjoy the peace and calm of a cool, shady haven.
Yes, we can all crouch under the sun umbrella, but it’s just not very pretty, is it? And I’m afraid I don’t go for canvas gazebos either, even if they are practical, what with all those metal poles and coach bolts.
So how else can you create shade in a sunny spot?
Awnings are another option and can add a splash of colour if you need it. But they have to be situated in the right spot, can be expensive and if your patio is windy, they may be vulnerable.
One idea which can be effective is to train leafy climbers over an arch to create a retreat.
If you have a wooden bench, you could place some sort of arch over it and grow climbers in pots or in the earth on either side, to train up it and provide colour as well as some shade.
A light-roofed structure, such as a pergola, can also provide relief from the sun, as you can train climbers over the crossbeams, providing more hours of shade.
Pergolas are usually made from timber or metal, with a horizontal trellis laid on top.
They are usually built out from the house or a wall, often positioned directly above a patio and, as well as providing shade, they also put paid to nosey neighbours who may want to know what you’re up to. Ideal trailers to use on pergolas include sweet-smelling roses, honeysuckle or clematis.
You can buy kits from DIY stores and big garden centres consisting of timber uprights and cross pieces to put together yourself, or alternatively have a local builder do it.
If plants aren’t creating your shade, you can add colour and texture to a shady spot with hostas and ferns, heucheras and hydrangeas, adding further splashes of colour with shade-tolerant Busy Lizzies, stocks, violas and nicotiana.
Climbers which grow over a freestanding structure in the sun often do better than when planted against a wall or fence because there is no restriction of light.
If the structure - arch or pergola - is big enough, virtually any climber will be suitable, but if the gap is only small, avoid roses with sharp thorns or other bushy plants.
And remember that a combination of climbers which flower at different times will provide colour to your patio for longer and create an attractive mix. For big structures, you could train wisteria, laburnum and a late-flowering clematis.
Trellis is another useful commodity to help create shade in a sunny spot. Panels with curved tops are available to make useful screens to shelter the patio.
Arbours are another option for shade. They are open-sided structures, usually set over a sitting area in an informal part of the garden, and while they may not suit the patio area, you could always move down the garden to sit in an arbour smothered with fragrant climbers.
Remember before you start, though, to experiment with temporary shade before investing in time and money to create permanent shade.
If you have that old sun umbrella, move it around the patio to find out where it is most effective.


A Sunderland shop assistant with a passion for fashion has been chosen as the face of a national campaign for a plus-size clothing brand.
Michelle Ball, 19, from Castletown, is one of the only women from the North East who will feature in the Autumn/Winter campaign for major brand Yours Clothing.
As well as modelling the clothes in a forthcoming fashion shoot, Michelle also sells them at the Yours Clothing store in The Bridges.
After tweeting pictures of herself to the brand’s account she made the final 40 in the Face of Yours Clothing contest who were invited to a casting.
Her pictures impressed the brand’s bosses so much she’s been chosen as one of 18 women nationally to appear in the next season’s fashion images.
Michelle, who is a size 18-20, also posts updates on beauty and plus-size fashion on her Redhead with Curves blog.
Michelle at the Yours Clothing casting
The aspiring model, who also works part-time as a youth worker, said: “We had an opening day at the store which was attended by fashion bloggers and I got chatting to one of the girls who’d featured in the Face of Yours Clothing campaign last year. She recommended I apply so I thought I’d give it a go. I tweeted them some images using the campaign’s hashtag and they invited me to a casting.
“It’s such a great opportunity as I’m an aspiring plus-size model. I believe I’m the only woman from the North East in the campaign and I feel really proud to represent Sunderland, as well as the store itself.
“The other women in the shop are all body positive and sassy, they’re great to work with.”
A spokeswoman for Yours Clothing said: “The competition was aired across social media to give plus-size women a chance to appear in upcoming Autumn/ Winter campaigns. The competition was designed to encourage realness by discovering true to life women who are genuinely plus-size and body positive, for the customers of Yours Clothing to relate to.
One of Michelle's fashion posts
“The winners will be appearing in the Yours Clothing upcoming campaign shoots, inclusive of Autumn Forest, Halloween, Outwear and Christmas Party themes.
“Yours Clothing would like to thank each and every beautiful entrant and congratulate all eighteen winners.”


Rafa Benitez is a happy man at Newcastle United after a double swoop and a win – and he’ll be happier still when the transfer window closes.
Defender Achraf Lazaar became the club’s 11th summer signing yesterday when he signed a five-year deal at St James’s Park.
Experienced Republic of Ireland striker Daryl Murphy also joined from Ipswich Town over the weekend.
United manager Rafa Benitez is still looking to sign a winger – Chelsea’s Christian Atsu is one target – before Wednesday night’s transfer deadline.
The acquisitions followed Saturday’s 2-0 Championship win over Brighton and Hove Albion at St James’s Park.
Speaking after the game, Benitez said: “Now I am a little bit happier, but if we sign what we want and we can do the business that we want to do, then I will be happier.”
Newcastle are set sell midfielder Cheick Tiote, who is in Turkey for talks with Galatasaray.
The club are set to bank £1.5million from the sale of the 30-year-old, who is in the final year of his contract and does not feature in Benitez’s plans.
Murphy – who had a five-year spell at Sunderland earlier in this career – will offer Benitez another option up front.
The 33-year-old Republic of Ireland international has signed a two-year deal at the club.
“I’m absolutely delighted to get it over the line and really looking forward to it,” said Murphy.
“When I knew the club was interested, it was a no-brainer for me so I’m happy it’s all done.
“I think with the squad of players that the club have now, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.”
Benitez wanted a powerful striker to compete with Aleksandar Mitrovic up front.
“Daryl has experience and has proven that he can score goals in the Championship,” he said.
“He gives us another option in attack and we could see from this weekend’s game against Brighton that we needed more bodies up front.
“Daryl has a good attitude and he can be very important for us this season.”
Lazaar, 24, will compete with Paul Dummett for a place at left-back.
“I am very happy to be at Newcastle United,” said Lazaar. “I’m proud to sign here because Newcastle is a great team in England.”
Benitez said: “Achraf is a good, young player with international experience who has grown his game in Italy.
“He gives us width on the left, has a good left foot and will add great competition to the squad.”
Meanwhile, Newcastle’s third-round EFL Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’s Park will be played on Tuesday, September 20 (7.45pm kick-off).

Why Rafa Benitez hopes to be a ‘happy’ man at Newcastle once the transfer window closes


Visit now for the latest Newcastle United news - direct from the Sunderland Echo and updated throughout the day.


American actor Gene Wilder has died at the age of 83.
Famous for his collaborations with actor/comedian Richard Pryor and director Mel Brooks, Wilder was perhaps best known for his performance as the titular character in 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Before that he had starred in Brooks’ Broadway spoof The Producers, for which he was Oscar nominated and went on to become one of the biggest comedy actors of the 70s and 80s.
He worked again with Brooks on the likes of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein - earning another Oscar nod - and teamed up to huge success with Pryor for Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
As tributes from co-stars, celebrity fans and ordinary cinema-goers poured in from around the world, pop culture blog i09 put together this compilation of some of Wilder’s greatest on-screen moments.

Gene Wilder’s greatest on-screen moments


Visit now for the latest film news - direct from the Sunderland Echo


A former police officer was caught drink-driving as a result of an anonymous tip-off from a fellow punter in the club where he was drinking.
Frederick Worsfold’s Mercedes CDI was stopped by officers in Houghton Road, Hetton, on August 8, Sunderland magistrates heard.
The caller did not know the male personally, but had observed him consuming at least four pints in the club Laura Lax, prosecuting
The 71-year-old had been drinking in Hetton victory Club when police were informed of his intention to drive.
Prosecutor Laura Lax said: “Police received a phonecall at 8pm, from an anonymous member of the public advising that the driver of a Mercedes was in the Victory Club and would be leaving soon, and ought not to be driving that vehicle.
“The caller did not know the male personally, but had observed him consuming at least four pints in the club.
“Officers saw the vehicle in Houghton Road, a short time later.
“They signalled for it to stop, which it did, and spoke to the driver.”
The court heart police could small alcohol on Worsfold’s breath, and he subsequently failed a roadside breath test.
He was arrested and taken to the police station, where he tested 56 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit being 35.
The pensioner is of previous good character, the court heard, with no previous convictions.
Worsfold, of High Street, Carville, Durham, admitted driving with excess alcohol.
Representing himself in court, he said: “I’ve had a clean licence for over 50 years, I’ve never even had a parking ticket.
“I was a police officer years ago.”
Worsfold was banned from driving for 14 months and was fined £500 and told to pay £85 costs and £50 surcharge.

Former police officer caught drink-driving after an anonymous from club punter


News and features for the Houghton and Hetton area, from the Sunderland Echo


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Melt Bar & Grilled to Open Quick-Serve Café at 200 Public Square


Melt Bar & Grilled is coming to the heart of Cleveland. Next month, the beloved grilled cheese eatery will open “Melt Public Square,” a quick-service...


Could you imagine the Terminal Tower without this Twitter account? If not you may want to start.... #ticktock https://t.co/thqb8LLpic — Terminal Tower CLE (@TowerLightsCLE) August 25, 2016
@susman28888 @TowerLightsCLE2 @CarlyFMorgan Relax. The lights will continue. You'll just lose some of the interaction — Terminal Tower CLE (@TowerLightsCLE) August 28, 2016
One of Cleveland's best Twitter accounts is going away for good soon. In a series of tweets, the good folks behind the social media account beaming out reliable shots of the Terminal Tower's ever-rotating light displays announced that the photo stream will soon be ending. (That being said, the Tower is one of Cleveland's most Instagrammed icons, so it's not like we'll be at a total loss but still, @TowerLightsCLE was reliably funny .)Anyway...The Tower lights account appears to be an unforeseen victim of K&D's recent purchase of the Terminal Tower . There will still be lights, just, as the account put it, less interaction.

Goodbye, Terminal Tower Lights Twitter Account


One of Cleveland's best Twitter accounts is going away for good soon. In a series of tweets, the good folks behind the social media account...


Craigslist
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Last August, almost exactly a year ago to be specific, we blasted out a Craigslist posting that caught our eye. It caught your eye too, apparently, because it's not often that a homemade backyard wrestling ring pops up for sale, and its existence and our post were among some of that month's most shared stories.There wasn't much mystery to the story: Here's a picture of the ring, here's the Craigslist posting, and here's the link should you want to inquire about purchasing the equipment for any and all backyard amateur wrasslin' shenanigans you had in mind.That people were interested wasn't surprising — it was a wrestling ring, and for the bargain price of $500 to boot. That people somehow got the idea that we at Scene were the sellers was, however. And so the emails came in the following months and, to our great delight, they continue to arrive. Here's just three from this summer.While these little inbox chestnuts are amusing, for clarification sake, should anyone land on the previous story or this one: We do not have a wrestling ring for sale and the original Craigslist post is now expired. We wish you luck in your search for a way to practice your suplexes in your backyard, but we can not help you.

No, Scene Does Not Have a Wrestling Ring for Sale


Last August, almost exactly a year ago to be specific, we blasted out a Craigslist posting that caught our eye. It caught your eye too,...


click to enlarge K9 Jethro
click to enlarge Kelontre Barefield
Twenty-three-year-old Kelontre Barefield, who shot and killed police dog Jethro in a Canton burglary last year, was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday.Thirty-four years of the sentence were for the incident that resulted in Jethro's death. Eleven additional years were tacked on for four burglaries and an aggravated robbery charge, to which Barefield pleaded guilty.Stark County officials were reportedly pleased with the sentencing, happy to get a dangerous repeat offender off the streets. Barefield had served time in 2013 on burglary and vandalism charges. On the flip side, the reported that Barefield was unhappy with his legal representation.Though he signed a plea deal, Barefield said "he felt his attorneys were there for a paycheck and that he had asked for multiple things that hadn't been provided to him. The courtroom was cleared, and after Barefield spoke privately with his attorneys — who are public defenders — the hearing resumed."One of the reasons Barefield's case was settled before a trial was because his lawyers knew finding a local impartial jury would be difficult, given the media frenzy surrounding Jethro's death.National outlets picked up the story of the heroic police dog who died in the line of duty (and who also was a companion pet to Canton officer Ryan Davis.)“I would trade places with him in a heartbeat,” Davis said when Jethro died. “Absolutely, because I wouldn’t have to sit here and suffer over the loss of him. He’s left a hole that will never be filled. He gave his life for me.”Stark County Common Pleas Judge Kristen Farmer may have been swayed by the media coverage as well.She called Barefield's actions "intolerable" and said that the 45-year-sentence"reflects not only the seriousness of Jethro's death and the fact that he shot at two officers but also the terror inflicted on victims of the burglaries and aggravated robbery."Still, six years is the maximum penalty allowed by the state for shooting Jethro.

Jethro Killer Gets 45 Years, 34 For Slaying Dog


Twenty-three-year-old Kelontre Barefield, who shot and killed police dog Jethro in a Canton burglary last year, was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday. Thirty-four...


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You can soon add Noce Gourmet Pizza to the list of pizza providers in Tremont. The popular Chardon-based restaurant has been going strong for almost a decade, but management feels the time is right to install an outpost in the big city."We want to be downtown and the opportunity popped up, so we're rolling the dice," explains owner John Tomlinson, who along with son Jay run the operation. "We’ll see what happens. We think we have a good product. There’s not a lot of science behind it."Noce made news a couple years back when it claimed honors as "Northeast Ohio's Best Pizza" in a vote-herding competition spearheaded by the Northeast Ohio Media Group. But for years before that, the popular pizza shop has been pleasing customers with its fresh take on the Italian staple."It's kind of a combo between New York style and West Coast," Tomlinson adds. "The crust is like a baguette consistency — thin, crispy. crusty."Unlike Neapolitan-style pies, Noce’s undergo a long, slow bake in moderate oven, allowing the crust to support a generous array of fresh toppings. Those toppings come from small farms like New Creation and Great Lakes Growers, among others. Staples like that airy dough as well as salad dressings are made in-house.Unlike the full-service Chardon location, the Tremont spot will be a strictly take-out and delivery operation. The 1,000-square-foot storefront, formerly Big Guy’s Pizza (2539 W. 10th St.), will carry the same menu of salads and two dozen pizzas, with versions available in slice or pie form.Look for Noce to open in the next couple months.

Chardon-Based Noce Gourmet Pizza to Open Spot in Tremont


You can soon add Noce Gourmet Pizza to the list of pizza providers in Tremont. The popular Chardon-based restaurant has been going strong for almost a...


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Last month we broke the news that Mad Greek restaurant (2466 Fairmount Blvd., 216-421-3333, madgreekcleveland.com) would be closing its doors after a remarkable 40-year run. The popular spot at the top of Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights first opened its doors (down the street) in 1976. Now we have learned that the last day for fans to enjoy a meal at the Greek-Indian eatery will be Sunday, September 4.In Mad Greek’s wake, Barrio Tacos will begin readying the space for its fourth full-service location (fifth if you count Progressive Field). On the list of to-dos is expanding the bar, opening up the dining room and adding a rear garage door to unite the back patio with the interior. Mad Greek’s twin garage doors up front will stay, naturally.“Once we get in there we can do the work in 30 to 60 days,” says Barrio owner Sean Fairbairn. “We’re getting pretty good at doing these things.”


Last month we broke the news that Mad Greek restaurant (2466 Fairmount Blvd., 216-421-3333, madgreekcleveland.com) would be closing its doors after a remarkable 40-year run....


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Back in June, we shared the news that Cleveland would be on the receiving end of a Taco Bell Cantina, a new concept from the “Mexican” themed fast-food mega-chain. In 2015, Taco Bell opened up its first two Cantina restaurants in San Francisco and Chicago, promising future spots in urban settings like Cleveland.“Expansion into urban markets is a key focus for us both this year and over the course of the next several years,” Brian Niccol, Chief Executive Officer at Taco Bell Corp. said in a release.According to Taco Bell, these urban concept restaurants have five things in common that differentiate them from standard Taco Bells: décor, localized artwork, open kitchen layout, open plating and shareable menus. Additionally, Cantina restaurants serve alcoholic beverages, which can include beer, wine and sangria.Yes, you can soon get loaded at the place where you go to eat after getting loaded (though we recommend still getting loaded before because, well, Taco Bell).The Cleveland spot is earmarked for the old Cadillac Ranch space on Euclid by Public Square. The rustic/modern style features reclaimed wood, corrugated metal, brick and glassy, open kitchens.While corporate has been vague as to opening dates, a recent Craigslist ad in search of employees for the new spot is pegging the opening at mid-September.

Date Set for Boozy Opening of Taco Bell Cantina


Back in June, we shared the news that Cleveland would be on the receiving end of a Taco Bell Cantina, a new concept from the...


click to enlarge Courtesy Elyria PD
Ellis B. Doyle III
It was the finger and footprints (and surveillance camera footage) that did a burglary suspect in, but this wasn't your run-of-the-mill theft.Ellis B. Doyle III, 26, has been charged with breaking and entering at Cirilla's, an adult shop in Elyria, on August 20. The sticky-fingered culprit allegedly gained entry into the business through a ventilation shaft.Once inside, he made off with $2,700 worth of adult goods, including 11 masturbators, lubricant and spray, as well as a mannequin named "Eva," the top which he absconded with and the bottom half which he left behind. (Camera footage showed Doyle taking off the mannequin's clothes and then putting a blonde and burgundy wig on it before leaving. So there's that detail.)Doyle has a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 29 for the incident, and hasn't yet entered a plea, according to the Morning Journal.

Man Charged With Stealing Sex Toys from Adult Store in Elyria


It was the finger and footprints (and surveillance camera footage) that did a burglary suspect in, but this wasn't your run-of-the-mill theft.  Ellis B. Doyle...


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Miss the VMAs last night? Then you probably haven't seen Cavs guard Iman Shumpert and fiancé Teyana Taylor make a cameo in Kanye West's new NSFW music video, "FADE". No biggie, that's what the morning-after Internet is for.One catch: The video is exclusively on Tidal, but you can sign up for a free trial.

Iman Shumpert Makes Cameo in Kanye West's New NSFW Video


Miss the VMAs last night? Then you probably haven't seen Cavs guard Iman Shumpert and fiancé Teyana Taylor make a cameo in Kanye West's new...


click to enlarge One of our favorite East Cleveland memories: William Fambrough confronts the board, with police in tow, in January, 2015.
Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley has rejected a merger ordinance presented last week by East Cleveland's annexation commission. The ordinance included a list of merger conditions so extreme that Kelley rejected the proposal out of hand, gently calling it a "non-starter."The ordinance was drafted by East Cleveland's City Council, not by the three annexation commissioners. The annexation commission was created in the same ordinance that included the merger conditions, attached as a Memorandum of Understanding, elaborated below.]“I am committed to continue discussing ways toward a possible merger with East Cleveland,” Kelley said, in a statement. “But any movement must be fair and feasible to both cities."In its current iteration, the proposed ordinance is not. A Cleveland city council spokesperson confirmed that Kelley will not be presenting the ordinance to city council; and, accordingly, council will not be appointing three of its own representatives to the annexation commission.The merger has, therefore, effectively stalled out. Until East Cleveland presents a more reasonable proposal, or until, improbably, 25 percent of Cleveland voters petition to force Cleveland city council's hand, discussions won't be moving forward.Perhaps East Cleveland's strategy was akin to open-air-market haggling, kicking off negotiations with ludicrous demands, hoping to arrive somewhere in the middle. If so, Kelley (as vendor) has called their bluff.What East Cleveland proposed doesn't even resemble a merger. They'd like to to remain a "semi-autonomous" ward within the city of Cleveland, retaining its name, its red light traffic cameras (which Cleveland voted down in 2014), and its city council. The proposal calls for current East Cleveland city council members to keep their salaries while managing a new all-powerful community development corporation, which would have rights to every publicly owned parcel in the ward. They would also like to absorb parts of University Circle, thank you very much!The list is frankly outrageous. It requests a one percent annual income tax credit for all East Cleveland residents (or 1.5 percent credit, presumably, if Cleveland were to pass its income tax hike in November), $20 million from the State, via the Cuyahoga County land bank, for home rehab loans, and $10 million as a "merger incentive payment" to cover city debts and capital repairs.In a further and yet more profound misunderstanding of the word "merger," the new ward of East Cleveland wants to keep its own municipal court, become its own police and fire district, and outsource maintenance of all ward parks to the Metroparks system (what??).The ward of East Cleveland also pretty clearly intends to keep Gary Norton in power. Envisioned by the annexation commission is a councilperson to be "elected from an election of standing elected government officials."Mad props to East Cleveland for the melon-sized cojones in submitting the ordinance. But as Kevin Kelley is only too pleased prove, East Cleveland is in no position to be making demands of this magnitude (or any demands at all).

Ballsy East Cleveland Merger Proposal is "Non-Starter"


Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley has rejected a merger ordinance presented last week by East Cleveland's annexation commission. The ordinance included a list of...


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When it comes to professional sports, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are bitter rivals. Thankfully, the rivalry doesn’t extend to the world of rock 'n’ roll. Clevelanders tend to support Pittsburgh bands, and people from Pittsburgh tend to support Cleveland bands.Pittsburgh-based Get Hip Recordings, for example, has just announced that it's “proud” to present two new tracks from Cleveland’s iconic proto-punk outfit, Pagans, who recently reunited to release 2014’sand embark on a limited tour. Taken from the sessions that produced, "Hopped Up" and "Nowhere Girl" demonstrate that the punk act hasn’t lost its touch as Pagan frontman Mike Hudson sneers and spits his way through the songs, exhibiting as much vitriol as he did back in the '80s. “Hopped Up” is streaming now ; the 7-inch single will be available on vinyl and as a download on Sept. 2.

Pittsburgh Label Issues New Single From Iconic Cleveland Punk Band Pagans


When it comes to professional sports, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are bitter rivals. Thankfully, the rivalry doesn’t extend to the world of rock 'n’ roll. Clevelanders...


GIOVANNI ARTEAGA
Seeing a need to address allegations of hazing during a summer football camp, Lake Catholic High School Principal Robert Kumazec announced that the football team will forfeit its first game of the season.Here's the gist: In July, allegations of a "hazing incident" and a subsequent criminal investigation picked up headlines following the school's summer football camp at John Carroll University. It's unclear what exactly occurred, but around that time Kumazec sent a letter to parents, saying: "It is my responsibility to inform you that there is a possibility that your son may have captured inappropriate pictures and/or video involving nudity and/or partial nudity [during the football camp]."Fast-forward to late August, and, as the reports , the school administration and football coaching staff have decided to issue a stack of one-game suspensions to a number of players. “Consequently," Kumazec writes, "the team is unable to field a squad sufficient in number to play this Saturday’s home game against Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School. Lake Catholic has notified Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School of its intent to forfeit the game."The game was scheduled for this weekend, on Aug. 27.

Lake Catholic Will Forfeit First Football Game of Season in Discipline Over Alleged Hazing


Seeing a need to address allegations of hazing during a summer football camp, Lake Catholic High School Principal Robert Kumazec announced that the football team...


click to enlarge Edgar Ramirez and Robert DeNiro in the ring.
, about the life of boxer Roberto Duran, is directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz with all the precision of a person who seems himself to have taken one too many blows to the head.The film combines two of Hollywood’s most tired tropes: the life-skimming biopic and the in-search-of-redemption boxing pic. And if you feel, upon hearing the words “boxing biopic,” that you could summarize the film’s beats without even seeing it, that’s most likely because you could.The film starts promisingly enough. A low camera trek follows the heels of young Duran as he dashes through the slums of Panama. Poor and angered with the violent American occupation in the region, the young Duran is hungry as much for food as he is for agency, and, after making some coin beating down another local boy in a street fight, he finds himself being taken in by a local trainer.It’s after this opening scene, when Edgar Ramirez takes over as the adult Duran, that things begin to get muddled. Political strife, a stable of unnecessary characters, leaps in time and place that are either sloppily handled or just downright confusing, changes in point-of-view characters and even a single, brief scene that dissolves jarringly into black and white, all lead to a truly messy affair.Oh, and there are training montages. Lots and lots of training montages.Ramirez has charm and talent to spare, but the character of Duran seems to go from one obnoxious antic to the next as the scenes of his life play out. Ray Arcel, a famed veteran trainer played by Robert De Niro, is brought in to tame the wild Duran, and eventually shepherds him to a championship bout against Duran’s arch-rival Sugar Ray Leonard.(Arcel is given a few sublots of his own which are barely worth mentioning, including dull scenarios with his ever-patient wife, an adult, drug-addicted daughter who appears out of nowhere near the end of the picture, and the bubbling up of past trouble with the mob, all of which add even further to the film’s confused focus.)Duran’s wife, Felicidad, played by the gosh-wow-stunning Ana de Armas (), is given little challenging to do here other than look lovely in bad ‘70s attire. She spends the film popping out children and cheering Duran on to further bludgeoning. (In its one break with cliché, our hero pugilist’s love interest seems to care little for the health of her champion beau, pausing not even once to ask, Hey, maybe it’s time to stop getting your brains beaten in?)Popster Usher — or, beg your pardon, Usher Raymond IV, as he’s listed in the credits — does play famed pretty-boy boxer Leonard with a hint of complicated brio, but Raymond looks just as hopelessly miscast in his boxing scenes as you might imagine. The real trouble with the Leonard character is that he actually comes off as likeable and root-worthy, whereas our hero Duran squanders any chance for our sympathies by remaining the same brash, self-aggrandizing child from the first frame to the last.As Arcel, Robert De Niro actually seems to care about his performance in this film, which is a nice break from his recent wheel spinning, but ultimately you can’t help but feel that his is the old ‘a good performance in search of a better movie’ type of turn.In the end we’re left asking, just what is Duran fighting for? For his country? Though we’re pounded over the head with nationalistic flashbacks from his restive childhood, we’re never made to feel that Duran hopes for anything more than Panamanian hero status in order to feed his own ego.Is he fighting for his family? His children only serve as punchlines — he insists on naming each of his sons Roberto — and the relationship with his wife, which could have been the steadying center of the film, seems rooted solely in the fact that they like to look at each other naked.So is he fighting for himself? Maybe, but the character is so flat it’s hard to believe he has any real internal need for personal revival. Perhaps, ultimately, he's fighting for Arcel. But the relationship between Duran and his trainer lacks the complexity and heft to hold this messy and unsatisfying film together.is rated R and opens Friday in wide release.

Down for the Count: 'Hands of Stone' Underwhelms Inside and Outside the Ring


Hands of Stone, about the life of boxer Roberto Duran, is directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz with all the precision of a person who seems himself...


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The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office is looking for some help. Specifically, the department is asking any residents or business owners with private security cameras to register the devices, as to provide more ready access to police during investigations. Basically, it would help build a registry for cops who otherwise might knock on doors or scope out a crime scene area looking for cameras. Instead, in theory, this would give them a ready made list of private surveillance in a given geographic region.It's voluntary, of course, but if you wish to participate there's a short survey to fill out.Interested? Here's the memo and the link to join:

Prosecutor's Office Creates Program to Register Privately Owned Security Cameras


The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office is looking for some help. Specifically, the department is asking any residents or business owners with private security cameras to...


click to enlarge Courtesy Stark Co.
Douglas Stevens
That Stark County Narcotics Unit has uncovered one of its largest marijuana grow raids to date, confiscating more than 350 plants in Waynesburg, near Canton.The operation including a complex system of lighting, nutrients and irrigation, as well as a THC extraction lab. The plants were being grown both indoors and outdoors.See, we told you it was huge.The man believed to be responsible, Douglas Stevens, has been charged with several felonies including assembly and possession of chemicals for the manufacturing of drugs, possession of drugs and illegal cultivation of marijuana.

Man Arrested After More Than 350 Weed Plants Found During Raid


That Stark County Narcotics Unit has uncovered one of its largest marijuana grow raids to date, confiscating more than 350 plants in Waynesburg, near Canton....


HBO'shosted by our friend and free-blog-post provider John Oliver, took aim at charter schools Sunday night. Much of the segment focused on Ohio, the Wild, Wild West of America's charters schools.From about the 9:00 mark to the 17:00 mark in the 18:00 minute segment, Oliver casts his gaze upon lax Ohio laws, atrocious leadership, and the scourge of for-profit companies treating education like a business."Yes, education is first, last and always a business. Take the L off the word learning and what have you got? Earning," said Oliver, mocking Ohio's David Brennan, of the infamous White Hat Management . "Take the E off it and what have you got then? Arning. Yeah, sure, that's not a word, but it could be in one of our English classes."Oliver didn't mean to suggest charter schools were good or bad — it's obviously a case-by-case situation — but that the manner in which charter schools are monitored and funded must be more closely scrutinized.Thanks to the Pee Dee's Patrick O'Donnell, whose work was referenced on the segment, for his work on that score.After a clip of John Kasich, wherein the Ohio Governor and former presidential candidate sang the praises of charter schools as a competitive tool to improve public schools, Oliver dropped one of his best lines."It's a little hard to hear the man who just defunded Planned Parenthood talk about the importance of choice," he said.Keep preaching, Johnny. Keep preaching.

John Oliver Takes Aim at Ohio Charter Schools


HBO's Last Week Tonight, hosted by our friend and free-blog-post provider John Oliver, took aim at charter schools Sunday night. Much of the segment focused...