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It's easy to see how these photos may have served to fortify a nation at war during the long, grim years. At that time, the Vietnamese were less cynical than they are now and were perhaps more likely to believe what was in the Communist-run press. Today educated Vietnamese get their news from the BBC Vietnamese languag...
This is perhaps the most poignant part of Another Vietnam. It harks back to an era when, for many of these photographers, the revolution was still pure, there was a cause worth fighting for and dying was the patriotic thing to do. Today, of course, the Communist Party in Vietnam has degenerated and censorship and corru...
Canada's Mirela Rahneva has captured gold in a World Cup skeleton event. The 30-year-old Ottawa racer gave Canada its first win in any World Cup sliding event — bobsled, skeleton or luge — this season.
Canada's Mirela Rahneva captured her second career World Cup skeleton gold medal at the birthplace of sliding sports on Friday.
"It feels really good," said Rahneva. "I love it at St. Moritz. I'm trying to figure out why it is exactly so I can bring it with me to other tracks, but I think it is just the long straightaways and beautiful ice. It a privilege to slide here.
"I have a smile from the dressing room to the start line, and I keep that smile all the way. It is beautiful here. You are sliding in the middle of the forest. It is very peaceful and quiet. You just really get in the moment because it is so quiet. This is my jam. It is my track and I'm not giving it back."
"The last time I went into Horseshoe (corner) and hit the roof and was 13th in the first run. Then I had a track record run. This year I told myself to stay away from the roof. I made a mistake in the first run that threw me off a bit and went into Horseshoe nervous but came out okay. The second run today I laid it dow...
"This result is huge. I definitely thought I'd have a better season this year and was questioning a lot of things. It hasn't been very enjoyable and tough mentally, so it is good to have a that little confidence boost going into the North American portion of the tour and the world championships in Whistler."
Russia's Elena Nikitina was second and Germany's Jacqueline Loelling was third.
North Vancouver's Jane Channell was 13th and Calgary's Elisabeth Maier was 15th.
In the men's race, Olympic champion Yun Sungbin of South Korea got his first World Cup skeleton win of the season on Friday, moving him back into the overall lead by the slimmest of margins.
Note: From Vincenzo Marianella, Providence's consulting mixologist. For a simple syrup, dissolve sugar in an equal amount of water over medium-high heat.
Step 1Place 2 of the coffee ice cubes in an Old-Fashioned glass. Add the cherry brandy, simple syrup and bitters.
Step 2With a potato peeler, peel 2 strips from the orange over the glass (so any oil from the orange skin falls into the glass). Twist the peels and drop them into the glass. Stir for 15 to 20 seconds.
Step 3Add 1 ounce rum and 2 coffee ice cubes and stir for 15 to 20 seconds. Add the remaining 1 ounce rum and 2 coffee ice cubes. Stir for 15 to 20 seconds to slightly melt the ice cubes. Add 2 to 4 coffee ice cubes to fill the glass.
Step 4Garnish with a Grand Marnier-soaked cherry, if using, and serve.
156 calories; 0 protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 6 mg. sodium.
Thomas Marion and Llanelle Hughes celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary recently with a reception at White Springs Baptist Church.
Thomas Marion and Llanelle Hughes celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary recently with a reception at White Springs Baptist Church. The event was hosted by their children, Tommy (Joyce) Hughes and Sandy (Nancy) Hughes, their five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Mayor Megan Barry's administration approved a $409,000 increase to its lobbying contract with the law firm Adams and Reese on Feb. 8.
Mayor Megan Barry's administration on Feb. 8 approved a $409,000 increase to the law firm that lobbies on behalf of city government.
The city hired Adams and Reese, which has offices across the Southeast — including Nashville — to handle its lobbying on state government issues last year, replacing Windrow Phillips Group.
Metro Director of Law Jon Cooper said the increase, which raised the annual payout to $1.1 million, was because the city needs Adams and Reese to lobby at the federal level as well.
Cooper said the city began discussing increasing the contract with Adams and Reese in November, well before Mayor Megan Barry revealed she was having an affair with the head of her police security detail. WSMV first reported the increase to the contract.
According to a letter from Adams and Reese lobbyist Gif Thornton, the firm will be doing work related to securing federal funding for the mayor's $5.4 billion transit proposal.
Adams and Reese came under scrutiny last week when a partner in its Memphis office wrote a letter asking District Attorney General Glenn Funk to recuse himself from the criminal investigation into Barry’s affair.
Attorney Lucian Pera said Funk has a conflict of interest because his office relies on the city for funding.
But at-large Metro Councilman John Cooper blasted Pera’s opinion, and said it’s the law firm that is biased because of its lobbying work.
Pera did not respond to a request for comment.
A former Superior Court judge, who won a multimillion dollar libel suit against the Boston Herald, does not qualify for a disability pension because he could not prove that he was handling judicial tasks when he received a written death threat, the state’s highest court ruled today.
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court said former Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy was properly denied a disability pension by the state’s Contributory Retirement Appeal Board.
Writing for the SJC, Justice Francis X. Spina said that under state retirement law and earlier SJC rulings, Murphy had a legal burden to prove that he was performing some task related to his job as a judge when he read the death threat.
“Judge Murphy has not presented any evidence to support a conclusion that he sustained a personal injury during the performance of his judicial duties,’’ Spina wrote.
Murphy, according to the SJC, subsequently received hate mail, death threats, and “threats of violence directed at his family’’ and for a time received protection from State Police, especially after a copy of the Herald containing his photograph was slipped under the door of his judicial office with a bullet hole drawn...
Murphy was diagnosed by his psychiatrist with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression as a result, and was diagnosed by other doctors with a variety of physical ailments.
He sued the Herald for libel and won a multimillion dollar slander judgment, which was eventually paid by the newspaper. Murphy was also sanctioned by the Commission on Judicial Conduct for sending a letter on court stationery to Herald Publisher Patrick Purcell to settle the case before appeals.
In 2007, Murphy sought a disability pension, but was eventually denied the pension by Contributory Retirement Appeal Board because it concluded the Herald stories and the death threat contributed to his poor mental and physical conditions, but were not the “proximate cause’’ of his disabled condition.
Today, the SJC sided with retirement board and against Murphy.
’’We examine the evidence from two perspectives — whether Judge Murphy was engaged in judicial work (such as preparing for a trial, doing legal research, or the like) during the time that he opened and read the death threat, and whether the act of opening and reading his mail was, in itself, a judicial duty,’’ Spina wr...
“Assuming that Judge Murphy read this death threat in his chambers, there was no evidence whatsoever as to what he was doing when he opened and read it. The mere fact that an employee is in his office during regular work hours does not necessarily mean that the employee’’ is working as defined by the law, Spina wrote.
In this instance, the SJC said, Murphy failed to prove his claim.
Seattle’s middle linebacker received 40 percent of the vote to best Russell Wilson and Chris Carson.
It was the defensive player who captured the voters’ attention this week.
With the NFL regular season coming to an end, this week’s Seattle Sidelines poll asked readers to weigh in on the Seattle Seahawks. Specifically, who was the team’s most valuable player this season. Was it quarterback Russell Wilson? Running back Chris Carson? Linebacker Bobby Wagner? Someone else?
Who was the Seahawks’ most valuable player this season?
Add it all up and Wagner was deemed Seattle’s MVP with 40 percent of the vote. Wilson was a close second at 35 percent. Carson finished third with 21 percent, and just 4 percent selected the “other” option.
This is an interesting result. In football there’s so much focus on the quarterback that it seems the vast majority of credit or blame falls on the quarterback’s shoulders, and as a result the quarterback tends to be the choice in these types of polls.
Then you add on that by most measures, the Seahawks were a better offensive team than defensive team this season. Seattle ranked sixth in the league in points scored, but 11th in points allowed. In Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric the Seahawks had the ninth-best offensive efficiency in the NFL, but the 14th best defensi...
Yet the voters went for the defensive player.
But numbers can only tell so much of the story, and in this case I agree with the voters. This offseason was an incredibly traumatic one for Seattle’s defense. The Seahawks had the league’s dominating defense from 2012-16, but in the offseason there was a mass exodus of players from that defense — Richard Sherman, Kam ...
Wagner was the last man standing from the glory days, and therefore the Seahawks needed him to be like the Dutch kid who stuck his finger in the dike to prevent the town from flooding, except the hole was a foot wide. Somehow Wagner did that, preventing the deluge by carrying Seattle’s defense early in the season while...
It’s also telling how few votes the “other” option received. There are other defensive players whose numbers warrant attention — Frank Clark’s 14 sacks, Jarran Reed’s 10.5 sacks from the defensive tackle position. But just about all the voters deferred to Wagner. That’s how good a season he had.
Wilson, who had a highly-efficient campaign and set a franchise record for passing touchdowns in a season, finished comfortably ahead of Carson among the offensive candidates. Wilson didn’t have the overall volume of stats as he’s had in recent years, in large part because of Carson helping the Seahawks finish with the...
When I became a Christian, I thought all my problems would go away, and God would take care of everything with a snap of His fingers.
The truth is, my life fell apart within weeks of being baptized. Suffice it to say, accepting Jesus and asking Him to be Lord of my life didn’t obliterate the garbage I’d pressed down in the compactor of my heart.
In His mercy and grace, God didn’t bring up all my sins, sinful habits and sinful ways of thinking at one time. I’d have likely despaired if He had.
Instead, He opened my eyes over time. Through His Holy Spirit, I saw the painful truth. I agreed with God about my sins. Even before I was a Christian, I knew when I did wrong. My conscience told me. But the heart is deceitful, and the mind can rationalize and justify any behavior. And we tend to surround ourselves wit...
Thankfully, God created us as His masterpiece — His work of art — and He has destined us to accomplish great things in our lifetimes: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). God knows who and what we are. He offers...
Coming to Jesus opened my eyes to who I am. I am a sinner. I am human. I am weak. I stumble and fall, even now that I am saved. I am also a daughter of the King. I am loved by God. And He is strong. He is faithful. He keeps His Word. He will never abandon me. He helps me stand again. He gives me the will to keep walkin...
Friends, the faith journey isn’t easy. Believing is only the first step onto the narrow pathway. The next steps put a believer on the road of trial and blessing as we walk out a new life as a disciple of Christ. We must stick close to Jesus, read His Word, lean in and listen. We need to obey, even when it means persona...
Dear Lord, sometimes I wish this journey of faith were easier. But I know You are with me, guiding each step I take. Nudge me back onto Your path when I wander off. And give me strength to continue pressing on every day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
In The Masterpiece, two lost souls, bound by guilt to their pasts, discover the very wounds which hold them captive can lead to the incredible grace needed to set them free. This unexpected, redemptive love story from The New York Times’ best-selling author Francine Rivers is a probing tale that reminds us mercy can sh...
Stop by Francine’s website, for a complete listing of her books and to follow her blog. You can also find her on Facebook.
Where are you in your spiritual journey today? Take some time to examine your life and confess any sins to our heavenly Father, who is faithful to forgive.
© 2018 by Francine Rivers. All rights reserved.
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Anti-poverty advocates say they're hopeful the new Pallister government will make positive changes for Manitobans in need.
"I'm actually hopeful and excited," said Mitch Bourbonniere, a social worker who works mostly with kids who are born into poverty.
"The inner city is going to be well-represented. We have Nahanni Fontaine, Wab Kinew and Kevin Chief elected — all indigenous, all folks I've worked side-by-side with in the inner city doing community activism, supporting people, getting out there."
Bourbonniere wants the PCs to commit to a guaranteed annual income, although there has so far been no sign that it's in the party's plans.
Pallister made specific references to investing in education to address child poverty in his victory speech on Tuesday.
The PCs will invest in early-years reading, he said, and increase bursaries and scholarships for students pursuing post-secondary education.
"We will be, in our first term, Canada's most improved province in reading, in math," promised Pallister.
Bourbonniere said he's more interested in the people who get elected than the party. He's particularly impressed with PC MLA Kelvin Goertzen in Steinbach and PC MLA Ian Wishart in Portage La Prairie.
"These are good people, and I think that's what our province needs," he said. "Open your mind, open your heart. Let's see what this new government is going to be."
Wishart spoke on behalf of the PCs at a candidate debate about poverty organized by Make Poverty History Manitoba on March 23.
Wishart said he wants to improve the basic needs budget so people living on employment and income assistance have more money for food, clothes and transportation.
Wishart also said the PCs are interested in creating new co-op housing.
"We didn't get specific commitments about a lot of the areas that we were pushing them on, so now that they're in government and the election campaign is over with, we're hoping to nail them down to some more specific commitments on those areas," said Josh Brandon, chair of Make Poverty History Manitoba.
PC candidate Ian Wishart, Green Party Leader James Beddome, Liberal candidate Althea Guiboche and NDP candidate Sharon Blady participate in the Make Poverty History Manitoba debate on March 23.
The coalition presented platform ideas to all the political parties during the campaign, including policies around affordable housing and minimum wage.
Brandon said the NDP was successful in speaking to the needs of people living in poverty in Winnipeg's inner city this election, which is why New Democrats won many constituencies in those areas.
Even so, Brandon said Manitoba still has high rates of poverty after almost 17 years of NDP government.
"I think the election results are a reflection of that. People did demand change and part of that change is a concern that we haven't done enough to address poverty in this province," he said.
"We'll be sending them a congratulations letter promptly. We'll try to set up a meeting as soon as possible."
OSLO (Reuters) - Europe’s bottled water producers set a goal on Tuesday of raising collection rates of plastic bottles to 90 percent by 2025 from 60 percent to improve recycling and cut pollution.
“Our packaging today is part of the unacceptable phenomenon of littering alongside other discarded items,” the European Federation of Bottled Waters said in a statement.
The Federation, which represents national associations and several major companies, said the new industry goal was to collect 90 percent of all PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles by 2025, as an average across the European Union.
Almost 60 percent of PET bottles are now collected for recycling, although with big national variations. The Federation did not say exactly how the goal would be achieved, nor did it give costs.
Some countries such as Germany impose high deposits on bottles to encourage recycling. Britain plans this year to introduce a deposit return scheme for single-use drink containers.
The Federation also said it would work with the recycling industry “to use at least 25 percent recycled PET in its water bottles by 2025, as an EU average”. It says that the average EU citizen drinks about 110 liters of bottled water a year.
Data Computer Corp. of America has won a $12 million contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to design, develop and maintain the new Medicaid Drug Program.
The MDP system will consolidate and replace the current Medicaid Drug Rebate system, Federal Upper Limit calculation for generic drug processes, as well as the Drug Data Reporting for Medicaid system of the Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Solution, the company said in a release.
Under the contract, DCCA will provide a modernized system using an open architecture to minimize vendor dependence, as well as open source COTs products to reduce costs.
Gananath Obeyesekere’s The Doomed King: A Requiem for Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, Sailfish, Colombo, 2017.409 pages. SL Rs. 1500, US$20, £16, €20.
This fascinating book opens with the anonymous quotation: "In order to survive as a nation people have to truthfully invent falsehoods."
This reminded me of my own article from April 2013 on "Heritage Histories." We create false histories to define who we are in superior light – our caste, race, religion, language, schools etc. – and when these are questioned, it is soul wrenching. This is such a book. It is gratifying to have a Sinhalese Emeritus Princ...
Lankan school texts unflinchingly claim that the Sinhalese came to Sri Lanka as settlers and the Tamils as invaders. Tamils cry foul, but cannot see that we do the same to our minorities – claiming that Muslims are low caste Tamils, that the Tamil Bible was translated by the Hindu Leader Navalar, who taught Tamil at th...
My wife had already read our daughter’s copy with all footnotes. When I got my copy she wanted to re-read it and we literally fought for our turns and finished it in a day. Such is the gripping nature of Gananath’s narrative.
Gananath terms the deposing of SVR as the most momentous event in Lankan history because it marked the end of independence. Nayaka rule begins with the death of the childless Narendrasingha (1707-1739) who had appointed his Nayaka brother-in-law Sri Vijaya Rajasinha as Yuva Raja (sub-king). The Nayakas were warriors fr...

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