LILONGWE (Maravi Post)—Armed robbers on Friday stormed Nkhoma Chipiku Store in the rural Eastern part of Lilongwe district where they shot the branch manager in a botched robbery operation.According to Police report, the Branch Manager was identified as a 36 year old Anania Kuonga who hails from Traditional Authority in Dowa.
The material facts surrounding the gun shooting and unsuccessful robbery operation are that four criminals armed with a gun invaded Chipuku shop at Nkhoma where the manager was shot on both thighs and wounded him on the head with a rifle bionet when the criminals were struggling to get cash chest keys.
The full facts are that the Branch Manager and staff were closing the shop at 17:00hrs Friday when four criminals came and introduced themselves as MRA officials and they wanted to check some shop items.
When the reporter noticed that they were note MRA officials it’s when they started struggling for the cash chest keys. Having wounded the Manger, they also attacked the Clerk, a 24 year old Peter Phiri.
“After failing to steal from the shop they left the crime scene on their motor vehicle ipsum blue in colour reg. No BS 1218 and were heading to area 23 township. Upon the police receiving the information, a follow up was made and were arrested as they were joining area 23 tarmac road” reads the police report.
It is when the criminals were arrested. One of the criminals was identified as No 14726 Sergeant Noel Kabango, aged 30yrs. He hails from Njombula Village T/A Njombwa in Kasungu district. He is a serving officer at Malawi Defence Force, Mveral support battalion but currently studying at Exploits University in Lilongwe.
The second one is Nickson Banda, aged 35yrs, Village Mtupanyama, T/A Likoswe in Chiradzulo District. The third one is Lyton Nang ‘ omba, 25yrs from Jailosi Village, T/A Chikowi in Zomba district and the last one is a 20 year old Jafali Bashiri from Mjini Village, T/A Tambala in Dedza district.
Police say that “one SMG type of riffle no 59735 with 19 rounds of ammunitions and two bionets and one dozen of Protex soap which is believed to have been stolen from the shop has also been recovered.”
Kabango has ever been dispatched to the United Nations Mission as seen in the picture.

Mvera Support Battalion MDF Soldier Noel Kabango arrested in botched Nkhoma Chipuku armed robbery


Early voting starts next month in U.S. election
By Ginger Gibson
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Although the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election is more than two months away, the first ballots will be cast in just a few weeks when several states begin early voting.
Thirty-eight of the 50 U.S. states have some form of early voting in this year's race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Pushing supporters to vote early has become a large organizational effort by both major U.S. parties. Below are the dates for early voting in the states that allow it.
State rankings, such as "most competitive states," are based on the Reuters States of the Nation poll. (http://www.reuters.com/statesofthenation/)
MOST COMPETITIVE STATES
* Florida: Oct. 24 to Nov. 6
* Iowa: Sept. 29 to Nov. 7
* Nevada: Oct. 22 to Nov. 4
* North Carolina: Varies by county
* Ohio: Oct. 12 to Nov. 7
* Virginia: Sept. 23 to Nov. 5
MODERATELY COMPETITIVE
* Arizona: Oct. 12 to Nov. 4
* Colorado: Oct. 24 to Nov. 7
* Georgia: Oct. 17 to Nov. 4
* New Mexico: Oct. 11 to Nov. 5
* Wisconsin: Varies by municipalities
STRONGLY REPUBLICAN LEANING
* Alaska: Oct. 24 to Nov. 7
* Arkansas: Oct. 24 to Nov. 7
* Idaho: Oct. 24 to Nov. 4
* Indiana: Oct. 12 to Nov. 7
* Kansas: Nov. 1 to Nov. 7
* Kentucky: Oct. 21 to Nov. 7
* Louisiana: Oct. 25 to Nov. 1
* Mississippi: Sept. 26 to Nov. 5
* Montana: Oct. 11 to Nov. 7
* Nebraska: Oct. 10 to Nov. 7
* Oklahoma: Nov. 3 to Nov. 5
* South Dakota: Sept. 23 to Nov. 7
* Tennessee: Oct. 19 to Nov. 3
* Texas: Oct. 24 to Nov. 4
* Utah: Oct. 25 to Nov. 4
* West Virginia: Oct. 26 to Nov. 5
* Wyoming: Sept. 29 to Nov. 7
STRONGLY DEMOCRATIC LEANING
* California: Varies by county
* Hawaii: Oct. 25 to Nov. 5
* Illinois: Sept. 29 to Nov. 7
* Maine: Oct. 9 to Nov. 7
* Maryland: Oct. 27 to Nov. 3
* Massachusetts: Oct. 24 to Nov. 4
* Minnesota: Sept. 23 to Nov. 7
* Vermont: Sept. 23 to Nov. 7
* Washington state: Oct. 21 to Nov. 7
* Washington, D.C.: Oct. 29 to Nov. 5


By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Although the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election is more than two months away, the first ballots will be cast i...


Early voting starts next month in U.S. election


“We’re literally around the corner from each other,” said the Rev. Scott Dickison, pastor of the white church.
About 170 years ago, they were one congregation, albeit a church of masters and slaves. Then the fight over abolition and slavery started tearing badly at religious groups and moving the country toward Civil War. The Macon church, like many others at the time, decided it was time to separate by race.
Ever since — through Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, desegregation and beyond — the division endured, becoming so deeply rooted it hardly drew notice. Jarred Moore, whose family has belonged to the black church for three generations, said he didn’t know the details of the history until recently.
“I thought, ‘First Baptist, First Baptist?‘ There are two First Baptists right down the street from each other and I always wondered about it, “ said Moore, a public school teacher.
Then, two years ago, Dickison and the pastor of the black church, the Rev. James Goolsby, met over lunch and an idea took shape: They’d try to find a way the congregations, neighbors for so long, could become friends. They’d try to bridge the stubborn divide of race.
They are taking up this work against a painful and tumultuous backdrop: the massacre last year at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina; the much-publicized deaths of blacks at the hands of law enforcement; the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the sniper killing of white Dallas police officers. These events, and the tensions they have raised, have become part of the tentative new discussions among congregants at the two First Baptists.
Next month, the pastors will take their most ambitious step yet, leading joint discussions with church members on racism in the history of the U.S., and also in the history of their congregations.
“This is not a conversation of blame, but of acceptance and moving forward,” said Goolsby, sitting in the quiet sanctuary of his church on a Monday morning. “What will govern how quickly we move is when there’s a certain level of understanding of the past.”
The South is dotted with cities that have two First Baptist Churches.
In the early 19th century, before the Civil War, whites and blacks often worshipped together, sharing faith but not pews; blacks were restricted to galleries or the back of the sanctuary. Eventually, black populations started growing faster in many communities. Whites, made uneasy by the imbalance, responded by splitting up the congregations.
This was apparently the case for First Baptist in Macon.
In 1845, church leaders bought property a block away, as “a place and habitation for the religious service and moral cultivation and improvement of the colored portion” of the congregation, according to the deed. A building was quickly erected and the black church opened.
That was a year when tensions between anti- and pro-slavery Baptists boiled over nationwide, leading Southerners to break away and create their own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, which upheld slavery as ordained by God. The white Macon congregation, known as the First Baptist Church of Christ, became Southern Baptist.
Whites maintained oversight of the black church as required by Georgia law at the time for fear of slave rebellions. But after the Civil War ended in 1865, the white church fully severed ties.
The two First Baptist Churches stayed that way, just steps from each other but apart, ever since.
Religious groups try to set a moral standard that rises above the issues and ideologies dividing society. But faith leaders often fall short of that ideal, reflecting or even exacerbating the rifts. Like many other American institutions, houses of worship have largely been separated by race, to the point that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called Sunday mornings “one of the most segregated hours.” Recently, more churches have tried to diversify and to look critically at their past actions and teachings, with denominations from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Episcopal Church making a priority of fighting racial bias.
When Goolsby last year told the black church of the plan to work with the white congregation, people applauded. White congregants were enthusiastic as well. Yet, it was excitement mixed with some apprehension, since the effort would inevitably require “some challenging conversations,” Dickison said.
“It’s hard to talk honestly about race,” said Doug Thompson, a member of the white church and also a Mercer University professor who specializes in religion and race. “It’s always hard to help people move forward.”
The two churches’ first activity together was modest but symbolically significant. For years, each church held its Easter egg hunt in the same tree-shaded park behind their churches, but at different times. Last year, they met there together. Photos from the joint gathering show children huddled together for a group picture, grasping pink, blue and yellow baskets, black faces and white faces squinting into the sun.
As the churches held other combined activities — a book drive, a Thanksgiving potluck — some participants were so moved they had tears in their eyes. There were members of both churches who said they had been waiting for decades for such a reunion.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity and a blessing,” said Bea Warbington-Ross, a retired human resources specialist and member of Goolsby’s congregation. “There’s no reason for Sunday to be the most segregated day.”
Congregants were surprised to learn their sanctuaries had nearly identical designs, with vaulted ceilings that resembled the inverted hull of a ship. Warbington-Ross lives in the historic district five blocks from the white church, which some of her neighbors attend. She’d never been inside.
While the visits back and forth and the joint activities are clearly establishing connections, the churches are not working toward a merger.
“We don’t want to be one congregation again. We want to be a family,” said Jessica Northenor, a public school teacher and member of the white church who is helping shape the new relationship.
The congregations sealed their commitment to each other at a joint Pentecost service at the black church. Before a choir drawn from both congregations, leaders pledged to work together under the auspices of the New Baptist Covenant, an organization formed by President Jimmy Carter to unite Baptists.
“If you hold onto the pain of the past, you don’t allow God to minister and bless you in the days to come,” Goolsby said in his sermon that day. “We can show in our relationship what it means to be a child of God.”
But the pastors acknowledge the long journey ahead. They are tackling what some call the original sin of the country’s founding. The influence of racial inequity on U.S. history and modern-day life is, of course, a contentious and sensitive issue. Consider reaction to the recent comment by first lady Michelle Obama that slaves built the White House, a reference long acknowledged by historians as fact but one that critics complained was unpatriotic.
In Macon, where plaques and monuments commemorating Confederate soldiers’ valor adorn street corners and parks, white congregants will be asked to re-examine their own church history, which until recently had been officially recorded in mostly benign terms. It reflected a perspective of white “good paternalism” toward the black congregation, Thompson said, with almost no recognition of racism.
The review is so sensitive that Goolsby had suggested early on that the two churches wait to address the past until they built more mutual trust and goodwill. Dickison, acknowledging that some congregants will be embarrassed and some distressed or resistant, considers the conversation vital.
“A white person from the South — to not come to terms with our own history and experience with race is to deprive ourselves of a full understanding of the Gospel. We need to go through this kind of conversion experience of confession, of repentance and of reconciliation. We need to have that when it comes to race, not just in the country but within the church,” Dickison said.
Goolsby, a 59-year-old Atlanta native and graduate of Morehouse College and Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology, has been pastor at the black church for more than 12 years. He said he and a previous pastor at the white church tried to build ties between the congregations but the effort didn’t go very far.
This time is different, he said, in part because of his relationship with Dickison. The 33-year-old North Carolina native and Harvard Divinity School graduate became a pastor in Macon about four years ago. He and Goolsby have attended meetings of Carter’s organization, and last month took their families to meet the former president on a Sunday at Carter’s church in Plains, Georgia.
“We’ve already seen the fruits of this,” Goolsby said.
He recalled that after the attack last year on the Charleston church, he was in the parking lot of a J.C. Penney store, waiting for his wife, when Dickison called.
“Scott shared how he felt, how he was struggling with what he would share with his congregation,” Goolsby said. The two discussed the history of violence against black churches, and Dickison asked how he could show support.
“I said, ‘We’re already doing it,‘” Goolsby said. “The mere fact he thought to call me was huge.”
The stakes were even more personal about six months later, when the white church invited black church members for a youth trip to Orlando.
Goolsby’s teenage son was among those invited. But Goolsby had considered Florida a danger ever since Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black 17-year-old, was fatally shot in Sanford by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who was later acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
The pastor could not let his son go on the trip. “If you put a hoodie on him,” he said, “he looks just like Trayvon.”
The concerns of anxious black parents had been much in the news amid the shootings of black men. But the white church members hadn’t had to confront the issue directly until Goolsby raised it.
“It’s one thing to understand it intellectually and another thing to understand it emotionally. Once he said that, I could feel it,” said David Cooke, a white deacon, who is also the Macon-Bibb County district attorney.
Cooke was to be a chaperone on the Orlando trip. He promised Goolsby he would be especially watchful. The trip went ahead safely with young people from both congregations — including the pastor’s son.
“The fact that that was so easy to share — we’ve already made progress,” Goolsby said.
Dickison strode into the basement hall of his church with a box under one arm. Inside, were copies of “Strength to Love,” a collection of sermons and writings by King. The book was at the center of classes that Dickison organized on racism for the white church, in preparation for the talks next month.
But the readings had extra significance that morning. It was the Sunday after the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, and the fatal ambush on Dallas police. “It’s weeks like these when we need more than ever to be with God’s people,” Dickison told the roomful of congregants.
With the stifling humidity of a Georgia summer building outside, he launched into a discussion of King’s sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan, about despised groups and showing mercy.
“We have our tribes. We see ourselves over and against others,” he said, then asked church members to reflect.
One man said when you reach out to someone from another group, “you’re perceived as unpatriotic,” or disloyal.
A woman said fear often kept people from crossing racial divides. “What if you make it worse?” she asked.
Another woman said she was upset to see some disrespect of the police. She compared law enforcement officers to the Good Samaritan, who helped a wounded stranger others had ignored. “They rush toward danger when others run,” she said.
Dickison acknowledged “fear is powerful” in shaping reactions to others. After more discussion, he wrapped up the session by quoting King, who said the solution to racism is the “willingness of men to obey the unenforceable.”
“We can’t survive spiritually separate,” the white pastor said.
That same morning, at the service at the black church, the congregation announced it would host the city’s Black Lives Matter vigil, marking the tragedies of the preceding week.
The movement has been a topic at meetings of a group appointed by Goolsby and Dickison, comprised of representatives of each church, to help guide their new relationship.
“I think it’s an opportunity for healing,” said Warbington-Ross, who is part of the group. “It’s an opportunity for us to just inform the church that black lives matter also as it relates to inclusion and exclusion, and to inform them of some things that they take for granted that we have to endure, like racial profiling, like police brutality, like racial inequality, those kinds of things.”
At the vigil the next night, police officers directed traffic as people climbed the steep marble church steps, where “God’s Mighty Fortress” is engraved in gold. Clergy from across the city filled one side of the broad pulpit. Cooke, the prosecutor, and the county sheriff were among those representing law enforcement; community leaders and residents nearly filled the pews.
A speaker wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt explained the movement “was not birthed out of hate. It was birthed out of hurt.”
Goolsby and Dickison sat side-by-side on the pulpit, swaying along with the hymns, then stood together to speak. Dickison compared racism to “a cancer that roams inside the body of this nation, and yes, even in the body of Christ.” Goolsby urged people to maintain hope “in spite of our circumstances,” and he added, “We know there will be change.”
Said both men: “Amen.”

Neighbor churches, split on race lines, work to heal divide


MACON, Ga. — There are two First Baptist Churches in Macon — one black and one white. They sit almost back-to-back, separated by a small park,


Popping out for some milk? Make sure your local store is open first
If you're celebrating the long weekend in style with friends, family or even a garden party - a quick trip to your local supermarket may be on the cards - whether it be for drinks, nappies or party food.
If a trip to Asda is likely, before you slip into your shoes and head for the aisles, don't forget to check if your local supermarket is open - and if so, what time it'll close its doors.
Asda has announced that whilst normal trading times will apply on Sunday, most branches will close slightly earlier on Bank Holiday Monday - at 8pm. Find out more and the trading times for all supermarkets in our helpful guide below.
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 7am - 8pm - with some exceptions.
You can use the online store finder to find out the times of your local branch.
Planning a spot of decorating this weekend? We've also covered opening hours for Wickes , Homebase and B&Q in our DIY stores opening hours guide.
Most of the smaller Sainsbury's Local stores will be open as usual over the long weekend, Monday included.
Getty
Larger supermarkets will operate slightly earlier closures on Monday. Closing times will vary from store to store, so check details for your local Sainsbury's bank holiday opening times via the online store finder.
As a guide, Sainsbury's opening hours over the Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 9am - 7pm - with some exceptions. You can find out more by entering your postcode into their online store finder.
Getty
On Monday 29 August 2016, Tesco stores across the UK will operate slightly shorter hours. Tesco Express and Extra store times will also vary. You can check your local Tesco's bank holiday opening times using the Tesco store finder tool.
As a guide, Tesco opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Tesco Express stores will open 6am-11pm. Tesco Extra stores will open 10am - 4pm.
Monday 29 August: Tesco Express stores will open 6am-11pm. Tesco Extra stores will open 8am - 8pm.
Jaggery / Geograph
Waitrose's opening times over the Bank Holiday weekend will vary. We've provided an overview below, however for more details regarding your local branch check the online store finder.
As a guide, Waitrose opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions at Little Waitrose stores.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 9am - 6pm - with some exceptions at Little Waitrose stores. You can find out more by entering your postcode into their online store finder.
Is Waitrose and John Lewis open on Bank Holiday Monday? 2016 opening times ahead of the long August weekend
Getty
Morrisons stores will open slightly earlier at 8am on Bank Holiday Monday - allowing you extra time to pick up your groceries before doors close at 7pm.
General Morrisons opening hours this Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Store times will vary from 10am - 4pm and 11am - 5pm.
Monday 29 August: All stores will open 8am-7pm. Find out more by entering your postcode into their handy store locator tool.
To find out specific store times, enter your postcode into their online store finder.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Very few exceptions will apply for Lidl's opening times this Bank Holiday Monday, see the store finder to find out your local opening hours.
General Lidl opening hours this Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Normal opening hours across all stores.
Reuters
Aldi opening hours on Bank Holiday Monday will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: All stores will be open from 8am to 10pm.
Visit Aldi online to discover more about your local branch opening times.
PA
General opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: 10am-4pm across most stores - however, shoppers are advised to check their store using the Iceland store finder tool.
To find out specific store times, enter your postcode into the Iceland store finder.
If you're looking for some retail therapy, we have put together this handy guide for department store bank holiday opening times, including John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer.
Marks & Spencer opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Check the Marks and Spencer store locator to avoid a wasted trip.
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Opening times will vary by store on Bank Holiday Monday (between 8am - 6pm). Get specific times to your local branch here.
What about DIY stores?
Getty
For those who want to use the extra days off to get busy around the home, these are the times your local hardware stores will open across England, Scotland and Wales.
See our handy guide for DIY stores August bank holiday opening times including Homebase and B&Q.
See a full breakdown of B&Q's opening hours below, and you can find out more via B&Q's online store finder.
Sunday 28 August - Normal hours - check your local store.
Monday 29 August - All stores open at usual times and close at 8pm.
Sunday 28 August: Normal hours apply - check your local store.
Monday 29 August: All stores will be open from 7am to 8pm.
Find specific times using Homebase's online store finder.
Sunday 28 August: Normal hours - check your local store.
Monday 29 August: Normal opening hours apply, all branches will open until 9pm.
Check your local store opening times here.

Is Asda open on August Bank Holiday Monday? The 2016 supermarket opening times for your diary


You never know when an impromptu trip to your local supermarket will be needed so here's a guide on Asda's opening hours over the long weekend


Do your research before you leave home
Budget food store Aldi is a rival to the big four food giants - but will it be competing against the likes of Sainsbury's and Tesco over the Bank Holiday weekend?
If you're planning a trip to your local store, you can check if it's going to be open by reading our very handy guide below - or our Bank Holiday supermarket opening times guide.
Aldi has advised shoppers that most stores across England, Wales and Scotland will be operating normal trading times, however in certain smaller towns, stores may close earlier - and open at 8am.
You can also visit Aldi online to discover more about your local branch opening times.
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: All stores will be open from 8am to 10pm.
Planning a spot of decorating this weekend? We've also covered opening hours for Wickes , Homebase and B&Q in our DIY stores opening hours guide.
What about Asda?
Asda's bank holiday Monday opening hours will be from 7am - 8am with some exceptions. Below gives an overview of the stores' opening times nationwide over the long weekend.
General Asda opening hours this Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 7am - 8pm - with some exceptions.
You can use the online store finder to find out the times of your local branch.
Is Asda open on August Bank Holiday Monday? The 2016 supermarket opening times for your diary
Most of the smaller Sainsbury's Local stores will be open as usual over the long weekend, Monday included.
Getty
Larger supermarkets will operate slightly earlier closures on Monday. Closing times will vary from store to store, so check details for your local Sainsbury's bank holiday opening times via the online store finder.
As a guide, Sainsbury's opening hours over the Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 9am - 7pm - with some exceptions. You can find out more by entering your postcode into their online store finder.
Getty
On Monday 29 August 2016, Tesco stores across the UK will operate slightly shorter hours. Tesco Express and Extra store times will also vary. You can check your local Tesco's bank holiday opening times using the Tesco store finder tool.
As a guide, Tesco opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Tesco Express stores will open 6am-11pm. Tesco Extra stores will open 10am - 4pm.
Monday 29 August: Tesco Express stores will open 6am-11pm. Tesco Extra stores will open 8am - 8pm.
Jaggery / Geograph
Waitrose's opening times over the Bank Holiday weekend will vary. We've provided an overview below, however for more details regarding your local branch check the online store finder.
As a guide, Waitrose opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions at Little Waitrose stores.
Monday 29 August: Stores nationwide will open 9am - 6pm - with some exceptions at Little Waitrose stores. You can find out more by entering your postcode into their online store finder.
Is Waitrose and John Lewis open on Bank Holiday Monday? 2016 opening times ahead of the long August weekend
Getty
Morrisons stores will open slightly earlier at 8am on Bank Holiday Monday - allowing you extra time to pick up your groceries before doors close at 7pm.
General Morrisons opening hours this Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Store times will vary from 10am - 4pm and 11am - 5pm.
Monday 29 August: All stores will open 8am-7pm. Find out more by entering your postcode into their handy store locator tool.
To find out specific store times, enter your postcode into their online store finder.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Very few exceptions will apply for Lidl's opening times this Bank Holiday Monday, see the store finder to find out your local opening hours.
General Lidl opening hours this Bank Holiday weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Normal opening hours across all stores.
PA
General opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 10am - 4pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: 10am-4pm across most stores - however, shoppers are advised to check their store using the Iceland store finder tool.
To find out specific store times, enter your postcode into the Iceland store finder.
If you're looking for some retail therapy, we have put together this handy guide for department store bank holiday opening times, including John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer.
Marks & Spencer opening hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend will be as follows:
Check the Marks and Spencer store locator to avoid a wasted trip.
Sunday 28 August: Stores nationwide will open 11am - 5pm - with some exceptions.
Monday 29 August: Opening times will vary by store on Bank Holiday Monday (between 8am - 6pm). Get specific times to your local branch here.
What about DIY stores?
Getty
For those who want to use the extra days off to get busy around the home, these are the times your local hardware stores will open across England, Scotland and Wales.
See our handy guide for DIY stores August bank holiday opening times including Homebase and B&Q.
See a full breakdown of B&Q's opening hours below, and you can find out more via B&Q's online store finder.
Sunday 28 August - Normal hours - check your local store.
Monday 29 August - All stores open at usual times and close at 8pm.
Sunday 28 August: Normal hours apply - check your local store.
Monday 29 August: All stores will be open from 7am to 8pm.
Find specific times using Homebase's online store finder.
Sunday 28 August: Normal hours - check your local store.
Monday 29 August: Normal opening hours apply, all branches will open until 9pm.
Check your local store opening times here.

Is Aldi open on August Bank Holiday Monday? All you need to know about the long weekend 2016 opening times


Whether you need bread, butter or a bottle of milk, here's the opening hours for Aldi this Bank Holiday weekend


It doesn't matter if you're talking about a teenager chasing a higher high or a mega star trying to soothe chronic pain. The counterfeit pills they may be reaching for are more deadly than ever, experts say.
Why? One word: fentanyl.
"Synthetic fentanyl showing up in the street drug supply is an enormous game changer," says Carol Falkowski, CEO of Drug Abuse Dialogues, a group that helps track drug trends for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It means anybody who purchases illegal drugs can unknowingly be taking fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine."
All it takes is a dose of fentanyl the size of three grains of sand to kill.
Fentanyl powder is cheap and easy to obtain on the dark web, experts warn, making it attractive to those manufacturing it into pill form mixed with other drugs.
Those counterfeit drugs are sold on the street, and usually dangerously usually labeled as something less potent. Even forensic scientists can't tell whether some of the pills sold on the street are counterfeit or not just by looking at them. That's how good the counterfeiters have gotten at making the illicit drugs.
Those who take fake prescriptions likely have no idea if fentanyl is inside, or how much.
"They should be known as a kill pill," Falkowski says.
Prince Rogers Nelson's death may turn out to be the most famous example of the dangers posed by counterfeit fentanyl. Pills found in his Minnesota home were reportedly marked as hydrocodone , but when tested the pills turned out to have fentanyl in them. No one has said if Prince took those pills. But he did die of fentanyl toxicity, according to the autopsy report.
Fentanyl is an opioid. Its effect on the body is exactly like heroin, or any other opiate-based medication. But fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, up to 100 times stronger than morphine. It is stronger than any prescription painkiller on the market.
"All opiates are just oral heroin. There is no difference to the body," Minneapolis emergency medicine physician Chris Johnson says.
Tracking and taxing the epidemic
The drug that killed Prince is showing up in counterfeit form across the US with devastating effects.
Long before Prince died of a fentanyl overdose, the Drug Enforcement Administration was preparing a document to share with law enforcement around the country. It was a warning. Weeks after Prince died, the document was published , and titled "Counterfeit Prescription Pills Containing Fentanyls: A Global Threat."
"Prince is the most notable and famous person who tragically died from an opioid overdose. But we are seeing it in every town in Minnesota." U.S Senator Amy Klobuchar, who represents Minnesota, told CNN.
"We must go even farther," Sen. Klobuchar says. "We need more funding for treatment and better prescription drug monitoring programs. Because of the fact states like Florida don't even share their information across state lines. There is no way to monitor who is taking what across state lines."
The problem in her state isn't as bad as some states such as Ohio or Florida, which have been hit hardest by the illicit fentanyl epidemic, according to CDC statistics. But attention has focused on the state following the death of Prince, one of its most famous native sons.
Drug overdose deaths have quadrupled in the past 15 years in Minnesota, according to the state's Department of Public Health.
Opioid overdose deaths are rising Minnesota.
"In 2015, more than half of the drug-related deaths were related to prescription medications rather than illegal street drugs," the health department's report says . 216 deaths were associated with opioid pain relievers and 114 with heroin.
Drug overdoses now kill more Americans across America than car crashes, data from the Centers for Disease Control data shows.
How did we get here?
Minneapolis Dr. Chris Johnson, who has testified about the opioid problem to the Food and Drug Administration, points his finger at doctors and pharmaceutical companies for the epidemic sweeping the country.
They were hawking prescription opioids with abandon, he says.
"There was a push by the pharmaceutical industry and their paid physician advocates that pushed opiates saying they aren't as addictive as we thought," Johnson says. "So they can be used for back pain and other daily pain. They influenced government bodies to emphasize pain management as the doctor's responsibility."
He sighs, and says something he knows some will find distasteful, even shocking, coming from a doctor.
"If the cartels could, they would shake the hand of the medical industry and thank them for creating this new business," Johnson says.
He explains how someone who was given Percocet for back pain for years may turn to illegal alternatives if doctors stop prescribing because of increased scrutiny or if prescriptions become too expensive for a patient.
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That's where cheaper heroin, or the counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl may come into play now, he says.
"They are increasingly desperate for opiates to make them feel normal again, then they make that jump" [to illicit drugs], Johnson says.
But Dr. Mark Willinbring, a psychiatrist at Alltyr substance abuse clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, puts the blame squarely on regulators.
"The real blame is on regulatory authorities. Those regulating pharmacy practice in Florida. They let these huge pill mills operate freely in Florida," he says. "There was no monitoring. The regulatory agencies let this be a free for all."
How to kill opioid addiction, fast
Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Opioids: Dangerous prescription painkillers – Prescription opioids are commonly abused because they are so addictive.
Opioid medications bind to the areas of the brain that control pain and emotions, driving up levels of the feel-good hormone dopamine in the brain's reward areas and producing an intense feeling of euphoria.
As the brain becomes used to the feelings, it often takes more and more of the drug to produce the same levels of pain relief and well-being, leading to dependence and, later, addiction. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Fentanyl – Fentanyl citrate, pictured here, is a Class II controlled substance and one of the most powerful opioids on the market. It's often administered via injection or transdermal patch, or in lozenge form for pain after surgery, for difficult-to-manage chronic pain and for people who have developed a tolerance to other opioids.
The type of fentanyl usually associated with overdoses is bought on the street in powder or pill form and is often mixed with heroin in a clandestine lab to increase the high it produces. Street names include Apache, China girl, goodfella, jackpot, murder 8, TNT and Tango and Cash. Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Codeine – Codeine is one of the weakest opioids, often given when painkillers such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen fail to work. Because it decreases activity in the part of the brain that controls coughing, it's frequently mixed with other liquids to develop cough syrups for colds and flu. It's also frequently used for pain relief after removal of tonsils and adenoids in children. The FDA is investigating the safety of codeine-based cough remedies for children younger than 18 due to concerns that it can lead to shallow, slowed or difficult breathing. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Hydrocodone – These pills are a more powerful form of codeine, called hydrocodone, and are often mixed with acetaminophen. Hydrocodone is the most frequently prescribed opioid painkiller, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , and the most abused. An overdose of hydrocodone can cause "cold and clammy skin, severely constricted pupils, and slow breathing that can lead to a loss of consciousness and death." Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Oxycodone – Oxycodone is a powerful narcotic pain reliever prescribed for moderate to high pain relief. It's often given in an extended-release formula for patients who will need to be on pain medications for long periods of time.
Patients are warned not to break, chew, crush or dissolve extended-release tablets because the rush of oxycodone into the system could cause serious health problems, including overdose and death.
Though highly addictive, oxycodone is not thought to be as frequently abused as hydrocodone. OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan and Tylox are some trade-name oxycodone products. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Morphine – Morphine is another powerful opioid often administered via syringe for severe pain. It can come in pill form, usually as extended-release tablets and capsules, and is prescribed only to relieve difficult, chronic pain that cannot be controlled by the use of other pain medications.
As with most opioids, mixing medications, drinking alcohol or taking other meds that contain alcohol, or using street drugs while taking morphine, increases the risk of breathing problems or other serious, life-threatening side effects. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Meperidine – Meperidine is another narcotic analgesic, similar to morphine. It's often used to help put people to sleep before an operation and to provide pain relief after childbirth.
The most common brand name is Demerol, which comes in both tablet and liquid forms. It is usually taken with or without food every three or four hours as needed for pain.
As with all opioids, meperidine can cause drowsiness, so never drive a car or operate machinery after taking it until you know how you will react. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Hydromorphone –
Liquid hydromorphone holds the dubious honor of being
Hydromorphone is another highly potent prescription painkiller. It's most commonly known by the brand names Dilaudid, pictured here, and Exalgo.Liquid hydromorphone holds the dubious honor of being frequently mistaken for morphine in hospital "wrong drug" medication errors because of the similarity of the names and appearances. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Heroin –
CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta
, deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin continue to be the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, rising 14% from 2013 to 2014. No, you can't get heroin by prescription, but many heroin users start off abusing prescription opioids, then turn to this illegal opioid.CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has reported on recent research that shows today's typical heroin addict starts using at 23, is more likely to live in affluent suburbs and was likely unwittingly led to heroin through painkillers prescribed by his or her doctor. According to the CDC , deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin continue to be the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, rising 14% from 2013 to 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Methadone – Though methadone is used to relieve severe chronic pain, it's most commonly known for preventing withdrawal symptoms in patients who were addicted to opioid drugs, as a part of their recovery process.
Methadone has many of the same side effects as other opioids, including weakness, headache, nausea and vomiting, stomach pain, sweating, difficulty urinating, mood changes and vision problems, and difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Buprenorphine – Buprenorphine is a opioid used as an alternative to methadone to help addicts recovering from heroin use. Buprenorphine is different from other opioids because it's a "partial opioid agonist," which means that when taken in proper prescribed doses, it should produce less euphoria and physical dependence, and therefore a lower potential for misuse. It's also supposed to have a relatively mild withdrawal profile.
However, if abused by crushing and snorting or injecting, it can suppress breathing and cause dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and death.
Subutex, the brand name for buprenorphine, is taken as a tablet placed under the tongue and allowed to dissolve.
The brand Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, an opioid antagonist. Antagonists block the opiate receptors in the brain, keeping the narcotic from creating the high abusers crave.
Hide Caption 11 of 11
Willinbring spends his days working with patients struggling with substance abuse.
"I have patients that range in age from 17 to 72," he says. "We are seeing something we have never seen before in the US."
He says the demographics of who is addicted to heroin have changed dramatically.
"Traditionally heroin addiction has been a problem associated with middle aged black men about 43 years of age," Willinbring says. "Those statistics have gone back for decades. Now its predominantly young, white people."
He is very clear. Not all substance abuse problems are the same. He describes how his patients feel when they are addicted to opiates and then suddenly taken off them.
There's no exaggeration, there's a clear and present danger. Carol Falkowski, drug policy expert
"What it means it that you can't experience ordinary pleasure. Every day is a gray day. You have no energy. You have no motivation," Willinbring says. "You have a low grade case of the flu all the time. Your bones and joints ache. And your brain is constantly screaming 'I want more opioids.' It doesn't get better over time."
When it comes to treating opioid addiction, Willinbring says the science is clear and there is agreement on the one treatment that works, fast. You replace what is deficient in the brain.
"The only proven effective treatment is replacement maintenance therapy or methadone," Dr. Willinbring. "What I tell my patients is you can no more will your brain to produce more opioids than you can will your pancreas to produce more insulin."
But the psychiatrist is deeply concerned the current uproar about opioids may do more harm than good if the focus is only on stopping prescribing pills.
"Right now the biggest crisis I am seeing is people with severe disabling chronic pain who are summarily and arbitrarily taken off of them," Willinbring says. "It ruins their lives. I think we are going to see a lot of suicides."
Carol Falkowski says the solution to the opioid epidemic, and the growing threat of fentanyl will take work, not just words, from many different sources. And the medical community, law enforcement, government officials, pharmaceutical companies and regulators must act now.
"Whenever a new drug trend appears on the horizon there's a lot of hand writing and 'Oh my, this is awful,'" Falkowksi says. "When it comes to counterfeit fentanyl pills there is no overstatement going on, there's no exaggeration, there's a clear and present danger."

Prince's death and the growing fear of the 'kill pill'


Fake pills with fentanyl are being sold on the street, but it usually labeled as something else less potent. Only three grains of sand of fentanyl can kill.


A busy few months lie ahead for Bognor’s Regis Centre as it launches into its autumn season.
Events coming up include:
Sunday, September 4 – Royal Marines Association Concert Band: Last Night of the Proms, 3pm.
Monday, September 5 – Shawn Cuddy, 7.30pm. Presented by Chichester Country Music Club.
Saturday, September 10 – All That Malarkey, 7.30pm. Critically-acclaimed vocal ensemble All That Malarkey make their debut at the Alexandrea Theatre this September with a specially-selected Beside the Seaside programme.
Thursday, September 15 – Sally Morgan: Call Me Psychic, 7.30pm.
Saturday, September 17 – The Definitive Elvis Experience, 2pm and 7.30pm –39 years after his passing, the legend of Elvis Presley continues to grow. The Definitive Elvis Experience promises “the most authentic live stage show produced to honour Elvis Presley’s legacy”.
Friday-Saturday, September 23-25 – Southdowns Folk Festival. Headlining Oysterband and Cara Dillon. Further details at www.southdownsfolkfest.co.uk
Thursday, October 6 – Barry Cryer and Colin Sell: Strictly Come Joking. 7.30pm. Barry Cryer and Colin Sell, billing themselves as the Ant and Dec of the sanatogen set reunite to bring you a new show.
Sunday, October 9 – Irish Concert with Frank McCaffrey and Michael Muldoon, 2pm. The Chichester Country Music Club presents a Sunday matinee event with two top Irish acts.
Friday and Saturday, October 14 and 15: An Evening with the Bersted Boys, 7.30pm –James, Michael and Will, a singing trio from Sussex, bring their brand-new show to the Little Alex stage. Featuring songs from stage and screen.
Sunday, October 16 – The Take That Experience 7.30pm. The night features Take That favourites as well as all the classic songs from the past.
Wednesday to Saturday, October 19-22 – CAOS Musical Productions’ Avenue Q, 7.30pm, Sat 8pm; a hybrid of South Park and The Muppet Show.
Monday to Friday, October 24-28 – Family Fun Week. Times various, price free Come down to the Regis Centre during half term and enjoy a range of free arts activities in the foyer and studios. There will be everything from an owl display to free martial arts workshops and music making.
Wednesday, October 26 – The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, 2pm. Pied Piper Theatre Company presents a heartwarming telling of Aesop’s classic fable.
Friday, October 28 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2pm and 6pm. A festive adaptation of C S Lewis’ timeless classic.
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Busy autumn line-up ahead at Bognor’s Regis Centre


Get the latest breaking news from the Bognor Regis Observer - politics, transport, education, health, environment and more, updated daily.


By Huang Li-hsiang and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA
Safety concerns over the long-awaited metro rail line between Taipei and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have been addressed and operations could start in the near future, an independent committee said yesterday.
However, it added that other non-safety-related standards stipulated in the contract have yet to be met, including travel time, train speed and intervals.
The line, which has been under construction since 2006 and is to serve 22 stations, was originally scheduled to open in 2010, but has been delayed six times, largely due to signal problems and a lack of coordination between contractors.
Under then-president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in March postponed this year’s opening date indefinitely, saying there was no timetable for the line to begin operations.
After the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) formed a nine-member committee of industry experts to investigate the delays and facilitate the opening of the line.
The task force on July 4 announced the commencement of its investigation, which formally ended with yesterday’s meeting.
The committee found that 25 problems remain unresolved: 13 engineering-related issues, nine track-related issues and three automatic ticketing system issues, none of which affect the safe operation of trains, it said.
It takes a train 36 minutes to travel between Taipei Main Station MRT station and the airport’s Terminal 1, one minute more than contract requirements.
The committee said express trains average 57kph and regular trains 39kph, less than the contracted speeds of 60kph and 45kph respectively. Subsequently, the time between trains also needs to be adjusted from 10 minutes to 12 minutes, and 15 minutes in off-peak hours.
The Bureau of High Speed Rail, the agency overseeing testing of the system, said operations are to commence at current speeds, but it would require the contractor to increase speeds in accordance with the terms of the contract.
“We have already solved many engineering and power-related issues and achieved system stability,” committee convener Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗) said. “We have also coordinated with Taoyuan Metro Corp on operational tests, conducted drills, completed control measures at every point along the line, confirmed the initial operations schedule and completed stability tests and simulation exercises.”
“After several meetings with manufacturer Marubeni Corp, the Bureau of High Speed Rail and Taoyuan Metro, as well as investigations and surveys of the facilities, we have seen a steady improvement in the stability of the line’s power systems and greater cooperation on the part of the bureau and Taoyuan Metro.”
Chiang said that the committee supports the commencement of operations and that it hopes authorities will be pragmatic and flexible with future safety tests.

Airport line safe, ready for operations: committee


Safety concerns over the long-awaited metro rail line between Taipei and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have been addressed and operations could start in the near future, an independent committee said yesterday.


ROCKSPRINGS, Ohio — The hard work paid off in the long run.
It took four hard-fought games, but the Meigs volleyball team picked up its first victory of the 2016 campaign Tuesday night following a 25-18, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19 decision over visiting Federal Hocking in a non-conference matchup at Larry R. Morrison Gymnasium in Meigs County.
The Lady Marauders (1-2) battled through several obstacles in each of the four games, but the hosts also came up with all of the right answers at critical times — which ultimately enabled the Maroon and Gold to come with 3-1 match triumph.
The Lady Lancers stormed out to an early 6-0 cushion in the opening contest, but MHS responded by scoring a dozen of the next 14 points for a 12-8 edge.
The Lady Marauders followed with a 12-7 run to secure their largest lead of Game 1 at 24-15, but FHHS answered with three straight points before ultimately bowing out in the seven-point decision.
Meigs rode that momentum into Game 2 as the hosts stormed out to a trio of six-point leads, the last of which came at 18-12. Fed Hock, however, reeled off seven straight points to take its first lead at 19-18.
Both teams battled through ties at 21- and 23-all, but the Maroon and Gold broke serve and added a service point for a two-point win and a 2-0 match advantage.
There were eight ties and nine lead changes alone in Game 3, with Fed Hock jumping out to an early 7-2 cushion before MHS rallied back to claim its first lead of the third contest at 22-21.
The Lady Marauders also took small leads after breaking ties at 22- and 23-all, but the guests broke serve to knot things up at 24-all before scoring the final two points to close the match deficit down to 2-1.
The Lady Lancers again claimed an early 4-3 edge in Game 4, but Meigs countered with seven straight points for a 10-4 cushion that it would never relinquish.
The Lady Marauders led by as many as nine points on three different occasions in the fourth game before ultimately finishing things with a six-point win.
Kassidy Betzing led Meigs with 24 service points, followed by Alliyah Pullins with 12 points and Devyn Oliver with seven points. Devin Humphreys and Paige Denney both added three points apiece to the winning cause as well.
Allie Hanstine and Morgan Lodwick each contributed two points, while Jordan Roush, Maddie Fields and Maddie Hendricks also scored a point apiece for the victors.
Betzing paced the hosts with five service aces, while Oliver and Lodwick respectively added three aces and two aces.
Betzing led MHS with 18 kills and Alliyah Pullins chipped in 10 kills, while Oliver added another four kills. Betzing, Pullins and Hanstine also had a block apiece in the win.
Oliver dished out a team-best 25 assists and also had a team-high nine digs. Roush also had four digs for Meigs.
Bryan Walters can be reached at 740-446-2342, ext. 2101.
Meigs sophomore Kassidy Betzing (3) slams a spike attempt as teammates Devyn Oliver (1) and Maddie Hendricks (7) look on during Game 2 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest against Federal Hocking in Rocksprings, Ohio. http://mydailytribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_9.1-MHS-Betzing.jpg Meigs sophomore Kassidy Betzing (3) slams a spike attempt as teammates Devyn Oliver (1) and Maddie Hendricks (7) look on during Game 2 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest against Federal Hocking in Rocksprings, Ohio. Bryan Walters/OVP Sports Meigs junior Paige Denney (4) tips a free ball over the outstretched arms of a Federal Hocking player during Game 3 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest in Rocksprings, Ohio. (Bryan Walters/OVP Sports) http://mydailytribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_9.1-MHS-Denney.jpg Meigs junior Paige Denney (4) tips a free ball over the outstretched arms of a Federal Hocking player during Game 3 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest in Rocksprings, Ohio. (Bryan Walters/OVP Sports) Bryan Walters/OVP Sports


ROCKSPRINGS, Ohio — The hard work paid off in the long run.
It took four hard-fought games, but the Meigs volleyball team picked up its first victory of the 2016 campaign Tuesday night following a 25-18, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19 decision over visiting Federal Hocking in a non-conference matchup at Larry R. Morrison Gymnasium in Meigs County.
The Lady Marauders (1-2) battled through several obstacles in each of the four games, but the hosts also came up with all of the right answers at critical times — which ultimately enabled the Maroon and Gold to come with 3-1 match triumph.
The Lady Lancers stormed out to an early 6-0 cushion in the opening contest, but MHS responded by scoring a dozen of the next 14 points for a 12-8 edge.
The Lady Marauders followed with a 12-7 run to secure their largest lead of Game 1 at 24-15, but FHHS answered with three straight points before ultimately bowing out in the seven-point decision.
Meigs rode that momentum into Game 2 as the hosts stormed out to a trio of six-point leads, the last of which came at 18-12. Fed Hock, however, reeled off seven straight points to take its first lead at 19-18.
Both teams battled through ties at 21- and 23-all, but the Maroon and Gold broke serve and added a service point for a two-point win and a 2-0 match advantage.
There were eight ties and nine lead changes alone in Game 3, with Fed Hock jumping out to an early 7-2 cushion before MHS rallied back to claim its first lead of the third contest at 22-21.
The Lady Marauders also took small leads after breaking ties at 22- and 23-all, but the guests broke serve to knot things up at 24-all before scoring the final two points to close the match deficit down to 2-1.
The Lady Lancers again claimed an early 4-3 edge in Game 4, but Meigs countered with seven straight points for a 10-4 cushion that it would never relinquish.
The Lady Marauders led by as many as nine points on three different occasions in the fourth game before ultimately finishing things with a six-point win.
Kassidy Betzing led Meigs with 24 service points, followed by Alliyah Pullins with 12 points and Devyn Oliver with seven points. Devin Humphreys and Paige Denney both added three points apiece to the winning cause as well.
Allie Hanstine and Morgan Lodwick each contributed two points, while Jordan Roush, Maddie Fields and Maddie Hendricks also scored a point apiece for the victors.
Betzing paced the hosts with five service aces, while Oliver and Lodwick respectively added three aces and two aces.
Betzing led MHS with 18 kills and Alliyah Pullins chipped in 10 kills, while Oliver added another four kills. Betzing, Pullins and Hanstine also had a block apiece in the win.
Oliver dished out a team-best 25 assists and also had a team-high nine digs. Roush also had four digs for Meigs.
Bryan Walters can be reached at 740-446-2342, ext. 2101.
Meigs sophomore Kassidy Betzing (3) slams a spike attempt as teammates Devyn Oliver (1) and Maddie Hendricks (7) look on during Game 2 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest against Federal Hocking in Rocksprings, Ohio. http://mydailysentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_9.1-MHS-Betzing.jpg Meigs sophomore Kassidy Betzing (3) slams a spike attempt as teammates Devyn Oliver (1) and Maddie Hendricks (7) look on during Game 2 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest against Federal Hocking in Rocksprings, Ohio. Bryan Walters/OVP Sports Meigs junior Paige Denney (4) tips a free ball over the outstretched arms of a Federal Hocking player during Game 3 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest in Rocksprings, Ohio. (Bryan Walters/OVP Sports) http://mydailysentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_9.1-MHS-Denney.jpg Meigs junior Paige Denney (4) tips a free ball over the outstretched arms of a Federal Hocking player during Game 3 of Tuesday night’s non-conference volleyball contest in Rocksprings, Ohio. (Bryan Walters/OVP Sports) Bryan Walters/OVP Sports


SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress — specifically when it comes to race relations in the United States.
He knows he could be cut by San Francisco for this stand. Criticized and ostracized, he’ll go it alone if need be.
The quarterback realizes he might be treated poorly in some road cities, and he’s ready for that, too, saying he’s not overly concerned about his safety, but “if something happens that’s only proving my point.”
“I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed,” Kaepernick said Sunday at his locker. “To me this is something that has to change. When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it’s supposed to, I’ll stand.”
Two days after he refused to stand for the “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the 49ers’ preseason loss to the Packers, Kaepernick insists whatever the consequences, he will know “I did what’s right.” He said he hasn’t heard from the NFL or anyone else about his actions — and it won’t matter if he does.
“No one’s tried to quiet me and, to be honest, it’s not something I’m going to be quiet about,” he said. “I’m going to speak the truth when I’m asked about it. This isn’t for look. This isn’t for publicity or anything like that. This is for people that don’t have the voice. And this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful. To provide for families and not live in poor circumstances.”
Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the 49ers as his stance drew chatter across NFL camps.
He explained his viewpoints to teammates in the morning, some agreeing with his message but not necessarily his method. Some said they know he has offended his countrymen, others didn’t even know what he had done.
“Every guy on this team is entitled to their opinion. We’re all grown men,” linebacker NaVorro Bowman said.
“I agree with what he did, but not in the way he did it,” wideout Torrey Smith said. “That’s not for me. He has that right. Soldiers have died for his right to do exactly what he did. … I know he’s taken a lot of heat for it. He understands that when you do something like that it does offend a lot of people.”
Bowman and Smith are African-American.
Kaepernick criticized presidential candidates Donald Trump (“openly racist”) and Hillary Clinton;” called out police brutality against minorities; and pushed for accountability of public officials.
“You can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist,” Kaepernick said. “That’s insane. Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”
In college at Nevada, Kaepernick said, police were called one day “because we were the only black people in that neighborhood.” Officers entered without knocking and drew guns on him and his teammates and roommates as they were moving their belongings, he said.
He said his stand is not against men and women in the military.
Kaepernick, whose hair had been in cornrows during training camp, sat on the bench during Friday’s national anthem at Levi’s Stadium. Giants wideout Victor Cruz and Bills coach Rex Ryan said standing for the anthem shows respect.
“There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality,” said Kaepernick, who is biracial and whose adoptive parents are white. “There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right. That’s not right by anyone’s standards.”
On Sunday, he stopped briefly on a side field to talk with Harry Edwards and they shared a quick embrace before the quarterback grabbed his helmet and took the field. Edwards is a sociologist and African-American activist who helped plan the “Olympic Project for Human Rights” before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal podium barefoot and bowed their heads through the anthem, raising gloved fists in a black power protest.
After swirling trade talks all offseason following Kaepernick’s three operations and sub-par 2015 season, he has done everything so far but play good football — and he doesn’t plan for this to be a distraction.
Coach Chip Kelly did not speak to the media Sunday. He said Saturday he still hasn’t decided on his starting quarterback in a competition between Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, who took over the job from Kaepernick last November and has vowed to be the No. 1 again.
Kaepernick hasn’t stood for the anthem in any of the team’s three preseason games “and I don’t see it as going about it the wrong way.”
“That’s his right as a citizen,” Kelly said. “We recognize his right as an individual to choose to participate or not participate in the national anthem.”
Now, Kaepernick is prepared for whatever comes next.
“I think there’s a lot of consequences that come along with this. There’s a lot of people that don’t want to have this conversation,” he said. “They’re scared they might lose their job. Or they might not get the endorsements. They might not to be treated the same way. Those are things I’m prepared to handle. …
“At this point, I’ve been blessed to be able to get this far and have the privilege of being able to be in the NFL, making the kind of money I make and enjoy luxuries like that. I can’t look in the mirror and see people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that I’ve had.”
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, left, greets Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the end of an NFL preseason football game Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. Green Bay won 21-10. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar) http://timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_112153731-bea03bd48af14a9da4f4d34b9723e8c6.jpg San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, left, greets Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the end of an NFL preseason football game Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. Green Bay won 21-10. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

QB Kaepernick says he will continue to sit through anthem, prepared for criticism


SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress — specifically when it comes to race relations in the United States.
He knows he could be cut by San Francisco for this stand. Criticized and ostracized, he’ll go it alone if need be.
The quarterback realizes he might be treated poorly in some road cities, and he’s ready for that, too, saying he’s not overly concerned about his safety, but “if something happens that’s only proving my point.”
“I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed,” Kaepernick said Sunday at his locker. “To me this is something that has to change. When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it’s supposed to, I’ll stand.”
Two days after he refused to stand for the “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the 49ers’ preseason loss to the Packers, Kaepernick insists whatever the consequences, he will know “I did what’s right.” He said he hasn’t heard from the NFL or anyone else about his actions — and it won’t matter if he does.
“No one’s tried to quiet me and, to be honest, it’s not something I’m going to be quiet about,” he said. “I’m going to speak the truth when I’m asked about it. This isn’t for look. This isn’t for publicity or anything like that. This is for people that don’t have the voice. And this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful. To provide for families and not live in poor circumstances.”
Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the 49ers as his stance drew chatter across NFL camps.
He explained his viewpoints to teammates in the morning, some agreeing with his message but not necessarily his method. Some said they know he has offended his countrymen, others didn’t even know what he had done.
“Every guy on this team is entitled to their opinion. We’re all grown men,” linebacker NaVorro Bowman said.
“I agree with what he did, but not in the way he did it,” wideout Torrey Smith said. “That’s not for me. He has that right. Soldiers have died for his right to do exactly what he did. … I know he’s taken a lot of heat for it. He understands that when you do something like that it does offend a lot of people.”
Bowman and Smith are African-American.
Kaepernick criticized presidential candidates Donald Trump (“openly racist”) and Hillary Clinton;” called out police brutality against minorities; and pushed for accountability of public officials.
“You can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist,” Kaepernick said. “That’s insane. Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”
In college at Nevada, Kaepernick said, police were called one day “because we were the only black people in that neighborhood.” Officers entered without knocking and drew guns on him and his teammates and roommates as they were moving their belongings, he said.
He said his stand is not against men and women in the military.
Kaepernick, whose hair had been in cornrows during training camp, sat on the bench during Friday’s national anthem at Levi’s Stadium. Giants wideout Victor Cruz and Bills coach Rex Ryan said standing for the anthem shows respect.
“There’s a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality,” said Kaepernick, who is biracial and whose adoptive parents are white. “There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That’s not right. That’s not right by anyone’s standards.”
On Sunday, he stopped briefly on a side field to talk with Harry Edwards and they shared a quick embrace before the quarterback grabbed his helmet and took the field. Edwards is a sociologist and African-American activist who helped plan the “Olympic Project for Human Rights” before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal podium barefoot and bowed their heads through the anthem, raising gloved fists in a black power protest.
After swirling trade talks all offseason following Kaepernick’s three operations and sub-par 2015 season, he has done everything so far but play good football — and he doesn’t plan for this to be a distraction.
Coach Chip Kelly did not speak to the media Sunday. He said Saturday he still hasn’t decided on his starting quarterback in a competition between Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, who took over the job from Kaepernick last November and has vowed to be the No. 1 again.
Kaepernick hasn’t stood for the anthem in any of the team’s three preseason games “and I don’t see it as going about it the wrong way.”
“That’s his right as a citizen,” Kelly said. “We recognize his right as an individual to choose to participate or not participate in the national anthem.”
Now, Kaepernick is prepared for whatever comes next.
“I think there’s a lot of consequences that come along with this. There’s a lot of people that don’t want to have this conversation,” he said. “They’re scared they might lose their job. Or they might not get the endorsements. They might not to be treated the same way. Those are things I’m prepared to handle. …
“At this point, I’ve been blessed to be able to get this far and have the privilege of being able to be in the NFL, making the kind of money I make and enjoy luxuries like that. I can’t look in the mirror and see people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that I’ve had.”

Colin Kaepernick will sit through anthem until there’s change


Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress — specifically when it comes to race relations in the United States.


Orgies with California girls. Drug-fuelled recording sessions. Back-biting, fist-fighting... and a serial killer for a babysitter. For the first time, Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love tells the inside story of the most tormented pop group there’s ever been
When The Beach Boys came home from the road in 1966, we knew instantly that things were getting weird.
Our leader, Brian Wilson, had erected a tent in his house – red and maroon with gold brocade – built in his den, with hookah pipes for marijuana. He’d had a carpenter construct an 18-inch-high sandbox around the grand piano, filled with eight tons of sand, allowing Brian to feel as if he were writing music at the beach – which was strange, because Brian didn’t like the beach.
He’d removed the furniture from his living room and put down workout mats, which were good in theory if not in practice – Brian’s weight continued to balloon.
Orgies with California girls. Drug-fuelled recording sessions. Back-biting, fist-fighting... and a serial killer for a babysitter. Rock and roll fame in the 1960s made for some bizarre and dangerous exploits for The Beach Boys
Mike Love was the lead singer of The Beach Boys and co-wrote many of their classic hits
Recording a song in our absence called Mrs O’Leary’s Cow – after the animal that started Chicago’s deadly fire in 1871 – he burned wood in buckets and had the musicians play wearing red fire hats. When a building across the street from the studio burned down a few days later, a panicked Brian thought it was the fault of his song.
The problem, of course, was the drugs – not just LSD, but large amounts of marijuana, hashish and amphetamines.
We had seen signs that something was amiss for some time. On a flight to Houston in December 1964, Brian had an extreme panic attack, crying and yelling, ‘I just can’t take it!’ In July 1965, he pulled into a gas station and rammed his car repeatedly into a 7-Up machine, laughing all the while.
By 1966, Brian’s wife Marilyn was as uneasy as we were. When Brian was writing the song Love To Say Dada, he asked her to buy him a baby bottle and fill it with chocolate milk, which he would drink as he wrote. ‘I slept with one eye open because I never knew what he was going to do,’ she later said of her husband’s alarming behaviour. ‘He was like a wild man.’
The Beach Boys had been the first boy band – a group of young guys who played pop songs for teenagers, taking ‘the California sound’ to the world. Brian was our musical genius, although as the lead singer, I had co-written some of our biggest hits, including Surfin’ USA, I Get Around and California Girls.
But by 1966 we were all under a lot of pressure, trying to keep pace with The Beatles, trying to satisfy the label, trying to become a global band – and 24-year-old Brian felt it the most.
While we toured, Brian was working on an ambitious new album known as Smile, envisioned as a ‘teenage symphony to God’. The music was bizarre and beautiful, but I didn’t understand a lot of the words – I thought they had been influenced by the drugs. My complaints were ignored.
When it was time for us to provide vocals, Brian had us lie on our backs and make strange guttural sounds. He drained his swimming pool, put a mic at the bottom, and had us sing. For the song Heroes And Villains, we sang through our noses. These are not pleasant memories for any of us.
‘Brian degraded us, made us lie down for hours and make barnyard noises, demoralised us, freaked us out,’ our bass player Bruce Johnston recalled in 1995. ‘He was stoned and laughing. We didn’t really know what was happening to him.’
Al Jardine, Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston on Top Of The Pops in 1970.
Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine in 1976
It was certainly a long way from singing with my three cousins, Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, as a child at my mother’s Christmas parties. The first time I saw Brian perform, he was on Grandma Wilson’s lap and singing Danny Boy. I can still see him and hear him: his voice was crystal.
As we got older, we never had a big meeting and decided to create a band – it was more of a natural evolution. On one of our youthful fishing trips, Dennis and I got talking about the surfing craze and why it made sense to do a surfing song. He went home all fired up and told Brian about it. Brian didn’t surf and knew little about it, but the idea intrigued him. With Brian’s friend Al Jardine on board, we just coalesced, singing in the Wilsons’ music room.
If Brian was the musical dreamer and youngster Carl the little angel, middle brother Dennis was the furious rebel of the Wilson family, which was ruled by father Murry, a blunt, pipe-smoking bull of a man who managed the group in our early years.
Dennis craved anything that might be dangerous. As a teenager, he used a BB gun to shatter windows from passing cars. As an adult, while flying on a commuter plane into New York, he told the pilot to bisect the Twin Towers, or he’d be fired. Dennis thought it’d be fun to buzz them. (The pilot refused and kept his job.)
He had an evil sense of humour, too. Dennis once showed up at our early guitarist David Marks’ house with a jar of ashes and tears in his eyes, jabbering that Brian had died in a house fire and the ashes were all that remained. David believed him until Dennis burst into laughter.
Uncle Murry had dreamed of his own career in music, which he eventually channelled through his sons. But he also dominated and bullied them. One of his more ghastly tactics was to remove his glass eye and force his boys to stare into the empty socket.
We started making demos, and an early song, Surfin’ Safari, struck Capitol Records as a sure hit. Uncle Murry did the deal.
‘What do you want, Mr Wilson?’
Uncle Murry opened his wallet, showed it was empty, and said, ‘I just paid the boys my last $1,000. I need $300.’
‘Is that all you want?’ they asked.
‘$300,’ he said. The record company man later said he had the authority to sign us for $50,000, so he got us pretty cheap.
The Beach Boys in 1963: (from top) Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, David Marks and Mike Love.
Even though I was the oldest in the group, I don’t believe I was better prepared for handling our rapid success. One day you’re sweating in your father’s sheet metal factory, and the next day, you’re singing before a thousand girls screaming at the top of their lungs. Dennis said the first time he heard that sound, he thought there was a fire.
It felt good to be a rock star, I can’t deny that. My wife Frannie was pregnant with our second child, but I was not prepared to be a father or a husband. I suddenly had the life of a young rock star, and that meant yielding to every sexual impulse and sleeping with as many women as possible. I was like a kid in a candy store, and there was a lot of candy.
On one of my weekend jaunts to Hawaii I met a beautiful young Japanese woman who sold real estate and though I wasn’t looking for property, she invited me to her apartment for the night. The next day, I met a gorgeous Filipina woman. At lunch, the maître d’ told us that her boyfriend was looking for her, so we escaped through the kitchen and spent the rest of the afternoon in my hotel room.
That evening I bumped into an attractive young woman whom I knew from Dallas, and well, you know the rest. This delirious circuit, of three girls and copious booze, went on for a couple of days – and then ended abruptly with a shame-faced trip to the clinic.
For a bunch of California kids, this was a strange, exciting, bewildering time. And as our fame grew, tensions materialised in the band, especially between Dennis and me. It’s not that he and I were like oil and water. We were like burning oil and burning oil.
We had water pistols and liked to goof around with them, but in Des Moines, Dennis filled one with urine and fired it at me in the airport lounge. I told him to cut it out, and we just mauled each other. He got me in a headlock. I sank my teeth into his wrist.
Eventually, Dennis stood over me. He was preparing to smash me with his fist but his legs were spread and I was ready to drive my heel into his groin. ‘You hit me and you’ll never have kids,’ I snarled. We looked each other in the eye. And we realised we were still cousins, still bandmates, still booked to do our next show in a couple of nights.
After Franny and I inevitably split, I lived with Dennis for a while in Hermosa Beach in Los Angeles. He and I had our battles over the years – about women, about his drug use and lifestyle. But no one ever said Dennis didn’t have fun. The apartment was a non-stop party pad – I’d come home sometimes and not recognise half the people there. I’m not sure Dennis did either.
Onstage, behind the drums, Dennis was nearly impossible to upstage. As one woman told me years later, ‘Dennis could just move his head, and women’s zippers would drop.’
While Dennis and I were living the rock ’n’ roll life, Brian was learning his craft, and it didn’t take long to see his evolution as a producer. Within months of our first hit, he had more confidence and would no longer tolerate his father’s meddling. When Murry showed up at the studio, Brian told him to leave. He told his dad he was fired as producer.
‘If I don’t produce these records, you’re going out of business,’ Murry said. ‘You guys are going down the tubes in six months!’
Brian prevailed, but Murry still managed us, and he also controlled our songwriting credits. So when I looked at the sleeve of our second record, I was surprised to find that I was not credited on two songs I had co-written with Brian – Catch A Wave and Hawaii.
I asked Brian about it, and he said his father would get it done. I trusted Brian and assumed that Uncle Murry would take care of the details. This was, after all, a family business. Back on the road, the wild times continued. I remember an opening act in Australia and New Zealand called the Joy Boys. They had a spellbinding effect on young women and liked to invite their most attractive groupies to something called a Shalomanakee. The invitation was extended to us, and when we arrived, there were the Joy Boys and their lady friends, all in various stages of undress. We had walked into our first Australian orgy.
A CHILLING ENCOUNTER WITH A MURDERER
By June of 1968, Dennis Wilson’s marriage had broken up and he was renting an old hunting lodge on Sunset Boulevard. Late one night, he pulled his Ferrari into his driveway and out walked a small man with long dark hair and a scruffy beard, wearing jeans and a work shirt. Dennis had no idea who this guy was, and something about him was frightening. ‘Are you going to hurt me?’ Dennis asked. ‘Do I look like I’m going to?’ the man replied. The stranger fell to his knees and kissed Dennis’s feet. That was how Dennis (below, right) met Charles Manson (above). Manson was a 33-year-old former convict (armed robbery and car theft) who believed he was a talented singer-songwriter. Dennis was the perfect mark – a famous, wellconnected entertainer who could help him get discovered. Guileless about others, indifferent about his own possessions, Dennis was all too happy to allow Manson and his girls to move in, use his charge cards, take his clothes, eat his food, drive his Mercedes. Manson, after all, had something for Dennis – a stable of young women who catered to his every desire. Bruce Johnston and I finally drove out to Dennis’s house to meet his new roommates over dinner. After we’d eaten, Manson told us to come into the den, where he turned on a strobe light and revealed all of his girls lying there, naked. He started passing out LSD tabs and orchestrating sex partners. I love the female form, but this was too much even for me. For my cousin, the truth about Manson slowly emerged. His house was ransacked. They took most everything that wasn’t nailed down. They also totalled his Mercedes. By summer’s end, Dennis figured he had lost about $100,000, and even for him, that was too much. Not wanting a confrontation with Manson, he simply moved out and let the lease lapse. For me, there was a troubling postscript. In 1968, my wife Suzanne told me she wanted to end our marriage. We were still living together when she revealed she was having an affair with Dennis, my own cousin. Later, I was told that after we separated, Suzanne and Dennis would go out and leave our two young children with a babysitter. On one occasion, the babysitter was Manson disciple Susan Atkins. Arrested after the Manson killings at 10050 Cielo Drive, Atkins was convicted of participating in eight murders and was sentenced to death. And she was our babysitter.
Carl and I had no interest in group sex, but that wasn’t all there was to it. A naked Joy Boy rolled up a newspaper into a funnel, lit the big end on fire, and stuck the other end in his buttocks. Then he started waltzing around the room – they called this ‘the dance of the flames’. Dennis and I later imported our own unique interpretation to the Hawaiian Islands, though not without a fire extinguisher nearby.
Murry came with us on that tour, too. He had bullied Brian for years, but he increasingly called into question his manhood.
‘If you were a man, you would tell Mike to stand closer to the microphone.’
‘If you were a man, you would tell Carl and Dennis to brush up on their harmonies.’
Enough was enough. After we got back from Australia, we took a vote on whether Murry should remain as our manager. It was five-zero to dismiss. My uncle was only 46 years old, but the episode sent his life into a spiral. Aunt Audree later said that his dismissal destroyed him – he stayed in bed for weeks.
A couple of months later, in April of 1964, he appeared at a studio session, inflamed and inebriated, and approached Brian, who was at the control board.
‘Get out of the way,’ Murry huffed. ‘Get out of my way for a minute.’
Brian had a hard time standing up to his father, but this time he did. ‘No! You get out of my way!’ He shoved his dad, who went sprawling backward. That was the only time I saw Brian defy him physically, and Murry, defeated, left the studio.
Within Brian, too, a storm was brewing. We already knew that he didn’t like the road, and his ongoing battles with his father took an emotional toll. In January 1965, he announced to the band that he wouldn’t be touring with us any more.
He later told a journalist that he was boiling with resentment for both Phil Spector and The Beatles, and to compete with them, he wanted to sit at the piano and write songs while we played and promoted them across the country.
But there were other concerns. In a hotel room, as early as 1964, I’d seen a syringe and other drug paraphernalia in Brian’s toiletry kit. He was the last person I imagined getting involved in drugs. In high school, he didn’t even drink or smoke. But Brian’s drug abuse would soon be evident to all of us.
By 1965 he was taking one LSD pill a day and smoking three or four marijuana cigarettes. He credits LSD with inspiring songs like California Girls and Good Vibrations, and the album Pet Sounds. What I know is that Brian was healthy before he took the drugs, and then he wasn’t.
The band in 1966: Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson and Mike Love
I was outspoken about the drugs and my contempt for Brian’s hipster friends who introduced him to them, so I took the brunt of their scorn. Later, I would be cast, with the other Beach Boys, as a villain of the piece for ‘being negative towards Brian’s experimentation’. I learned long ago that if you’re going to be in the spotlight, either you develop a thick skin or you find another job.
Brian eventually scrapped the Smile album. Doctors would diagnose him with a variety of mental illnesses, including depression, paranoid schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations and organic personality disorder. It took decades for my cousin to get his life back on track, and he was never truly the same.
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. ‘Two ways,’ he says. ‘Gradually and then suddenly.’ The Beach Boys’ fall from the top happened in a similar fashion.
FBI agents arrested Carl for evading the draft. We had a disastrous tour of the UK – the British Musicians’ Union forbade us from using the four extra musicians we had brought from the States, so we couldn’t recreate the studio sounds onstage. Smile’s replacement, Smiley Smile, was a baffling departure from everything we’d ever done, pretty much alienating our entire market. Dennis, meanwhile, found a troubling new guru named Charles Manson.
And in 1969, we learned that our entire catalogue of songs – 140 to 150 of them, including about 80 I had co-written, though I had received credit on only a fraction of them – was to be sold. A&M agreed to pay $700,000 for the entire catalogue. And the payment was going, not to the band, but to Uncle Murry. In cash.
I drove to Brian’s house in Bel Air to see if he knew what was going on. At the time, Brian was not in good shape. He was using cocaine and living in the chauffeur’s quarters of his home while his wife Marilyn slept in the bedroom.
I reached his house, stormed into his room and asked what happened with our songs.
‘My dad f***ed us,’ he said.
‘Yeah, no s***.’
For the deal to go through, the agreement had to be signed by Brian, Dennis, Carl, Al, and me. I complained to the lawyers that songs like California Girls, I Get Around and Surfin’ USA, while co-written by me, had never been credited. If I signed, I’d lose the chance to claim them. But if I didn’t, he said, I might lose credit for Good Vibrations, Surfin’ Safari and The Warmth Of The Sun, which did bear my name.
What could I do? I had to sign the agreement to retain what I had. Everyone else signed too, and we lost all we had created.
It wasn’t until 1994, as I faced Brian in a courtroom, that jurors ruled that I deserved credit on 35 Beach Boys songs that had been solely credited to Brian for decades, leaving him facing potential damages of between $58m and $342m.
I had no interest in crushing my cousin, and it wasn’t about the money anyway. It was about getting credit for my songs. I proposed that he give me $5m and we move on. Brian agreed.
Years passed. Dennis had drowned in 1983, and Carl died from cancer in 1998, but Brian and I continued to communicate, and The Beach Boys continued to tour while Brian pursued a solo career.
Love with then wife Suzanne in 1966
In 2012, Brian, Al, David Marks and I reunited as The Beach Boys for a tour and a new album. The whole experience was bittersweet for me. The concerts were amazing, and I was grateful to play again with all the living Beach Boys. Brian and I never had a cross word, but there were tensions between our camps.
The reunion was never meant to be permanent – it wasn’t feasible logistically or economically. But after the shows, when I issued a press release to announce its end, the media backlash was swift and devastating: I had fired Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. This triggered death threats, by mail and phone, which we had to take to the authorities.
I didn’t care for the vilification at the end; I’m used it. For those who believe Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist.
Edited extract from ‘Good Vibrations: My Life As A Beach Boy’ by Mike Love, published by Faber & Faber on September 15, priced £20. Offer price £15 (25% discount) until September 11, 2016. Order at mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640, p&p is free on orders over £15

'For those who believe Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist': Mike Love recalls the drugs, paranoia and tensions that tore The Beach Boys apart


For the first time, Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love tells the inside story of the most tormented pop group there’s ever been


August 26th, 2016 Author: Administrator Filed Under: Opinion
For the last three years I have worked on legislation to transform the federal government’s response to the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic that is devastating too many Ohio communities. The legislation is called CARA, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act.
After a big bipartisan vote in the Senate and the House, CARA was signed into law in July. It represents a change in the way we prevent, treat, and help people recover from addiction. It ramps up prevention and education efforts in the face of this epidemic, treats addiction like a disease—requiring treatment—and is the first federal law to emphasize the need for longer term recovery, which substantially increases the chances of success. It provides law enforcement and other first responders with the resources and training they need on the front lines. CARA directs hundreds of millions of dollars in new resources toward those efforts every year, helping every community across Ohio. As it is implemented, it will help save lives.
In the past month alone, I have visited a dozen cities in Ohio to see the impact of the opioid addiction epidemic. I have heard consistently from prosecutors, police chiefs and county sheriffs that the epidemic is responsible for most of the crime in our neighborhoods. Firefighters have told me they make more runs to administer the miracle drug, Narcan, to reverse the effects of an overdose than they do fire runs. And, sadly, drug overdoses have now surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of death in Ohio.
During these visits, I have met with hundreds of people whose addictions have taken their lives off track, torn their families apart, separated them from work and generally prevented them from reaching their potential in life. The stories are heartbreaking.
But I have also seen a lot of good reasons for hope.
Many of those who are struggling have made the decision to the throw off the grip of addiction by seeking treatment and getting into longer term recovery. And so many compassionate people in our communities are reaching out to help—often in new and innovative ways.
In Dayton, I visited Ohio’s first Federal Veterans court, and one of the first in the country, and met with graduates who were helped not only with their addiction but also with jobs skills and employment and a fresh start on life. I heard from Chris, a proud graduate of the program who served time in prison and is in recovery. Thanks to the program, he’s been sober for several years and has his own successful business that employs others who have served time.
In Lakewood, I toured the impressive Woodrow Project Home for Women, where women who are in long-term recovery from addiction can live in a supportive and safe environment. I met a young woman named Avril, who suffers from an addiction to prescription painkillers and other drugs. With help from the staff and with the support from her peers, she has been sober for a year, is starting college, and hopes to someday work in human resources so that she can help people get the right jobs for them and live out their potential to the fullest.
At the Veterans Treatment Center at Youngstown State University, I met Bill, an Army veteran who used to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol and who eventually became addicted. When he was facing jail time, a veterans treatment court offered him a second chance. Bill just graduated from the program in June, and now he is giving back and helping others get a second chance, too.
In Lancaster, I toured the Pearl House and Recovery Center. I met Dustin, who struggles with an addiction to oxycodone and heroin. He lost his sister to an opiate overdose, and now she is his inspiration to do whatever it takes to beat his own addiction. He’s fighting hard and, thanks to the Pearl House, he’s winning.
In Logan, I visited the Hocking County Municipal Vivitrol Drug Court, where Judge Fred Moses uses compassion and accountability to turn people’s lives around who are in the criminal justice system because of heroin or prescription drug addiction. Judge Moses got reports from those in the program and his treatment team on their progress or failure. We heard testimony from people at various stages on the road to recovery and I had a chance to ask those in the program about what worked and what didn’t. Some were struggling not following the rules, and they faced consequences. One man was sent back to prison, others to community service. Most were succeeding and received applause and encouragement from the dozens of people in the courtroom.
And in Chillicothe, I visited the Adena Women’s Pregnancy Center and met with pregnant women and new moms who suffer from addiction—women like Elizabeth, who developed an addiction after she was prescribed morphine following surgery to remove her appendix. I also met Connie, who became addicted to prescription painkillers after breaking her arm. Both women are now sober and successful thanks to the doctors, counselors, and volunteers at Adena.
In Columbus, I visited the Hope Over Heroin event led by pastors from Ohio and Kentucky. Even with another day to go, they had already helped a number of people get into treatment.
These visits showed me once again that there is hope for those who struggle with addiction. While the toll of this opioid addiction epidemic has been getting worse, not better, these success stories show how the right kind of treatment and recovery can work.
I am encouraged by the positive examples I see in Ohio, and pleased that our new legislation, CARA, will support these successful programs and help write more of these Ohio success stories.