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Related Topics: North Africa \| Denis MacEoin \| Spring 2010 MEQ receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and orig...
What’s Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie? Instead of opting for store-bought, here’s a recipe that’s quick and easy to reduce your time in the kitchen. And there’s no doubt all of your guests will love it!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients except the pie crust in a large bowl. Beat by hand or electric mixer for two minutes until blended well.
Carefully pour pumpkin mixture into unbaked pie crust. Evenly spread the mixture using a spoon or spatula.
Put the pie on a baking sheet and place it in the preheated oven. Allow it to bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of the pie; if it comes out clean, the pie is done.
Let the pie cool completely on a wire rack. You can place it in the fridge to speed up the process after letting it cool on the rack for 10 minutes.
Present your perfect homemade pie to the dinner table. Slice it into pieces and don’t forget to add the whipped cream on top!
From the outside, this ultra-modern home in Brentwood unfolds in layers, with sleek geometric lines and countered shapes rising and falling across its landscape. The Z-shaped layout, which spans multiple levels, was designed to maximize the privacy of the rooms while bringing in light and expansive views. Forward-think...
About the area: In the 90049 ZIP Code, based on 24 sales, the median price for single-family homes in February was $3.4 million, a 19.7% increase compared with the same month last year, according to CoreLogic.
Matt Damon in Costa Rica: Who will find him?
Last week we heard the incredible story of bored study abroad student Erin Faulk, who skipped class and tracked down Matt Damon in Morocco. Her hilarious series of tweets on the endeavor were immortalized on Storify and finally Gawker, where they cracked up and inspired us all.
Now, says La Nación, Damon has come here. Also, Terrance Howard. So. Here are your clues.
Damon and Howard came through customs on July 15 at 3:59 p.m. Howard was recently spotted in Santa Teresa, on the Nicoya peninsula, riding an ATV. Go!
Another Tax Day is behind us, but negative media coverage of President Trump’s signature tax-cut legislation continues.
Many reporters and pundits didn’t even wait until the tax cut was signed into law in December 2017 to begin mischaracterizing it. Of course they called it a sop to the rich, but they went one better than that old chestnut, insisting it would shaft the middle class and the poor. According to many, it was designed to do ...
Never mind that the real-world experience of most Americans in the wake of these articles contradicted these gloom-and-doom predictions.
Almost immediately, numerous employers — including Boeing, AT&T, FedEx, CVS, and others — began offering bonuses to their employees. Nearly 200 companies, including Walmart, announced wage hikes due to the 2017 tax cut. Still others enjoyed higher contributions to their retirement plans.
The benefits soon went beyond that, however. The tax cut contributed to the strong economy we’ve been enjoying, leading many businesses to hire more and more workers. The United States added more than 2.6 million new jobs in the year following the passage of the tax cut — nearly a 25 percent increase from the previous ...
Unemployment is way down, with jobless claims at their lowest since 1969, thanks in large part to the tax cut. There’s something you don’t hear on CNN and other media outlets.
The media have continued to claim the tax cut was entirely too narrow — that it helped wealthy Americans at the expense of others who are less well-off. So The Heritage Foundation used IRS data to produce a special report last year that shows how widespread the tax benefits truly are.
They found that in 2018 taxpayers would save an average of $1,400. Even better, married couples with two children would save more than twice that: $2,917.
And the good news was truly nationwide. Their report showed that every U.S. congressional district would enjoy these tax benefits.
That’s not to say that every last taxpayer would get a break. A lot depends on an individual’s circumstances — his job, deductions, credits, withholdings. But the data plainly showed that most Americans would be better off directly. And obviously everyone benefits in some measure from the effects of a stronger economy.
So as tax season got underway a few weeks ago, the media tried a different tack. They highlighted how some taxpayers had been surprised to discover their refunds were lower than they were expecting. Worse, some who had anticipated a refund wound up with a bill to pay.
All such reports did, however, was illustrate the fact that many Americans don’t understand how refunds work.
It’s nice to get that refund check, of course, but it’s not really a cause for celebration. You’re not getting extra money from the government. You overpaid your taxes, and they’re returning the overage. You essentially gave Uncle Sam an interest-free loan, and now he’s paid it back.
The fact that your refund check is smaller doesn’t mean you’ve enjoyed no benefit from the 2017 tax cut. If you’re like many Americans, you got a bonus, a raise, and your employer started withholding less in taxes.
The fact that you wound up months later with a smaller refund check is unfortunate, but it’s simply not evidence that the tax cut didn’t help you. On the contrary, you experienced those benefits even sooner — which is a good thing.
What we should be concerned about instead is that the tax cut has an expiration date of 2025. Unless Congress extends them, Americans will be in for some serious sticker-shock.
Lawmakers should make it priority this year to make the 2017 tax cut — which has already done so much good — permanent. There’s no time to lose.
• Ed Feulner is founder of The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org).
In a major step toward controlling the spread of tree-destroying gypsy moths, China has agreed to allow scientists to inspect forests near shipping ports to gauge the risk of the pests there hitching rides on ships to the U.S.
In exchange, the U.S. agreed to share its expertise on exterminating other invasive bugs, such as fire ants. Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say the move could help prevent the international transport of a faster-spreading and particularly destructive Asian gypsy moth variety.
The deal with China is the fourth the U.S. has cut in an attempt to get a handle on the problem; it has more extensive agreements with Russia, Japan, and South Korea. Mike Simon, an offshore pest mitigation expert with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), says scientists in China are set to be...
The North American gypsy moth is blamed for defoliating trees in national forests and residential areas in at least 20 states as well as across southeastern Canada. U.S. Forest Service officials say that aerial pesticide spraying of hundreds of thousands of acres each summer has slowed but not stopped the moths. They a...
The Asian moth made two minor incursions into U.S. ports during the 1990s, but both times were quickly eradicated. Over the past year, inspectors have again found Asian egg masses on foreign ships arriving in U.S. ports. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents are authorized by law to bar entry to foreign vessels carryin...
The main concern: that the virulent strain of Asian gypsy moth, if introduced to the U.S., could exacerbate damage to North American forests.
"The west coast states are basically terrified; it would be devastating to their timber resources, both for industry and recreation," Simon says. That's because, other than a few isolated and quickly squashed outbreaks, the U.S. west coast is generally free of gypsy moths. Without competition from local populations, an...
At least 10,000 cargo containers and 100 ships arrive daily in the Port of Los Angeles, most of them from Asia, which poses a real risk, he adds.
The North American strain, Lymantria dispar, now stretches from Canada into North Carolina, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with pockets of infestation beyond its contiguous range. It is currently expanding its reach by about five miles (eight kilometers) a year, according to ecologist Patrick Tobin, head of the technical adv...
As its name suggests, the program, which was first funded by Congress in 2000, is trying to decelerate the expansion of the gypsy moth's range. It monitors 10 states along the region's leading edge for outbreaks and decides which ones to combat with insecticides. It also educates truckers, plant nurseries, the timber i...
At the peak of its migration, in the 1980s the gypsy moth was spreading southward and westward across the U.S. by about 13 miles (20 kilometers) per year. But dead trees aren't the sole concern: Gypsy moths' hair and scales contain histamines, which can cause allergic reactions in humans sensitive to them.
As it turns out, L. dispar females cannot fly (because they lack the muscle strength and wing length of their Asian cousins); they advance when larvae suspended on strands of silk are carried by the wind—or even farther and faster by cars, trains and trucks. The adult males, meantime, are long-distance flyers that esta...
The adult female's inability to fly has helped limit the spread of gypsy moths across North America. An L. dispar egg also requires a long winter chill and the hatched caterpillars generally eat the foliage of oak, poplar, and birch trees. Their Asian cousins can hatch more quickly and have a more eclectic diet that al...
In experiments that began more than a decade ago (after minor incursions of flying strains were quickly eradicated in the southern and western U.S.), Keena and her group demonstrated for the first time that, when Asian and North American gypsy moths mate, the offspring female develop the ability to fly. That could help...
Gypsy moths are believed to have been introduced into North America in 1869 after an amateur entomologist brought larvae back with him from Europe, most likely from France. He accidentally allowed some larvae, presumed to have been L. dispar, to escape from his backyard outside Boston, where he was keeping and studying...
Now, it appears Asian strains are gradually moving across Europe and interbreeding with L. dispar there. Resulting hybrid females in Croatia, Portugal, France and Greece still cannot fly, but major populations in Lithuania, Poland and Germany can, according to Keena.
Although Keena and other scientists say that suggests a scenario in which L. dispar interbreeding with Asians might produce flying offspring that could accelerate the spread, Tobin notes that their dispersal could be limited by still larger populations of native L. dispar.
If there were to be an influx of Asians, the areas most affected would likely be those where the L. dispar population is scarce—west and south of the Virginia–North Carolina border, eastern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota—and especially in the west where it's nonexistent, Tobin says. In those places, where the Asian t...
Vic Mastro, director of the APHIS research lab in Otis, Mass., says agriculture officials have set around 350,000 traps in the western part of the country. But there's a hitch: Baited with pheromone, they only attract males and leave scientists guessing whether any flying females are in the area. So the traps alone are...
"Right now, if we find egg mass on a ship, we assume the worst," he says.
The current agreement calls for scientists to set similar traps in forests around Chinese ports. The traps could confirm large populations, providing the evidence U.S. officials need to back up arguments for cargo inspections.
Past studies have shown that gypsy moths are attracted to light; they swarm from infested forests to the bright lights of nearby port cities and docked ships. Once an infested ship docks in the U.S., its infested containers can also disperse quickly.
This summer, the U.S. is seeing massive gypsy moth outbreaks in Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. But nowhere is the gypsy moth's attraction to light more apparent than in far eastern Russia, which is in the second year of its worst outbreak since the early 1990s, says Steven Munson, the U.S. Forest Service’s team ...
A naturally occurring virus helps structure gypsy moth infestations into cycles: An outbreak may last three years before the virus sends a population into dormancy for more than 10 years, Munson says. By mid-August, when the female Russian moths typically emerge from pupae and start laying eggs, researchers should know...
*Note (7/14/08): Patrick Tobin's title has been modified since the original posting.
Sommers T20 Cup cricket played at the Leisure park at Coffs Harbour.
Cricket GLADIATORS and Rebels go into today’s Sommers T20 Cup deciding round on top of the table.
Cricket OPPRESSIVE humidity didn’t stop the anticipated thrills and spills at the opening weekend of Sommers T20 Cup cricket at Coffs Coast Sports and Leisure Park.
Ratifying the UN Arms Treaty is worse that allowing the fox to guard the hens. It is like unloading a pack of hungry wolves on a herd of fenced in sheep. The outcome is predictable… or at least that’s what some in the U.N. might think, however these sheep are in America, which just might put a kink in their plan.
Passage of the U.N. Arms Treaty by a bunch of nations that are hostile to the liberties enjoyed by Americans, is not a surprise. What is most repulsive, however, is the fact that the President of the United States would even consider giving this Treaty a second glance.
I ask, what is there to review?
The U.N. claims that the purpose of this Treaty is to “combat illegal arms trafficking around the world.” That notion is as ridiculous as the idea that more gun control laws reduce crimes. What the U.N. and all gun grabbers either do not comprehend or refuse to acknowledge is the fact that statistics have proven that g...
So…. lets examine from the perspective of the United States what we have to gain from this Treaty if ratified versus what we have to lose.
* The Treaty includes “foreign governments that have shown hostility to the kinds of constitutional liberties guaranteed to Americans.
* All Americans are harmed when unaccountable international bodies like the UN are empowered to interfere with our protected freedoms.
* the treaty could draw law-abiding gun owners and gun operators “into a complex web of bureaucratic red tape created by a new department at the UN devoted to overseeing the treaty.
The Senate recently approved a nonbonding amendment opposing the Treaty. I hope they will continue to stand by that position.
In the meantime, there is one minor technicality I thing the President and his dictator buddies in the U.N. have overlooked that could stop this ravenous attack on our Bill of Rights before it even gets started….LIBERTY versus Democracy.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner. Liberty is a well armed sheep contesting the vote.
While America may be full of defenseless, clueless, liberal sheep, there are approximately 90 million armed sheep with over 300 million guns, prepared to contest the vote… Those sheep are surrounded by sheepdogs that do not know fear, are fiercely protective of the flock, and willing to die to defend it.
Thanks to Jan Morgan of Jan Morgan Media for this article. Take the time to visit Jan’s website by clicking here.
A former fireman from Peterborough is looking forward to seeing the Flying Scotsman steaming between London and York again this month as he recalls shovelling hundreds of tonnes of coal into its firebox.
John Morgan (77) is sharing his experiences of riding on the footplate of the world’s most famous locomotive as an appeal is launched for anyone with connections to the engine to come forward with their memories.
The Flying Scotsman is returning to the tracks after a decade-long, £4.2 million refit.
stages of the work at a nearby yard.
And on Saturday, the Flying Scotsman ventured onto the mainline network for the first time as it pulled the West Cumbrian Mountain Express.
But the big date in the engine’s diary is its triumphant return to the line which was its home during the golden age of steam on February 25.
London King’s Cross to York - the home of its owners, the National Railway Museum (NRM).
for memories called My Scotsman.
Mallard, the world’s fastest steam train.
“I have a lot of very good memories of 60103 (Flying Scotsman’s British Rail number),” he said.
“I did a lot of trips on the footplate and shovelled a lot of coal.
Mr Morgan said that even in the 1950s enthusiasts would swamp the crew with questions about the famous engine.
He said: “I always remember one driver said to them: ‘I only drive the bloody thing, I didn’t build it’.
“I’m not surprised there’s so much interest in it.
The pensioner said he would shovel up to 10 tonnes of coal on some round trips.
driver - although he said that, as a fireman, he did get to drive the engines at times.
given that it went into public ownership in 2004 thanks to a massive public appeal with the help of Richard Branson and the Heritage Lottery Fund, it really is the case that it belongs to all of us.
“As we’ve been planning our highly anticipated Scotsman Season, many people have already approached us with their special connections to the iconic steam locomotive and the famous train it was named after.
People can share their memories of Flying Scotsman at www.flyingscotsman.org.uk or on social media using the #MyScotsman hashtag.
Snow at the beginning of the season and heat at the end contributed to the decrease in turkeys in Wisconsin.
Preliminary totals show turkey hunters registered 38,885 birds during the 2018 spring turkey hunting season in Wisconsin, a 10 percent decrease from the spring 2017 season.
Weather this spring played a significant role in the decreased harvest numbers. With much of the state covered in snow at the beginning of the season, we saw a steep decline in the number of turkeys registered during the Youth Hunt and Period A. The remaining time periods had similar harvest to last year, with a slight...
"Unfortunately, turkey hunters experienced less-than-ideal conditions during the Youth Hunt and first period," said Mark Witecha, upland wildlife ecologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "We saw declines in hunter participation in all zones early in the season, so it appears many were deterred by la...
A total of 138,544 harvest authorizations were awarded through the drawing and 74,237 were sold over the counter. Overall, 325 more harvest authorizations were issued this season than in the 2017 spring season.
Zone 1 produced the highest overall turkey harvest at 11,235 birds, followed by zones 2 and 3, where hunters registered 9,471 and 8,699 turkeys, respectively.
Overall, the statewide success rate was 18.3 percent, compared to 20.4 percent in 2017.
The 2018 spring season started April 14 with the Youth Hunt. The regular season ran April 18-May 29 with six separate time periods. Having separate time periods allows for maximum hunter opportunities, with a minimum amount of interference while ensuring that harvest does not lead to population declines.
Biologists in Wisconsin closely monitor harvest, hunter interference rates and hunter satisfaction, along with other information to track turkey populations through time to maintain a successful and enjoyable spring turkey hunt, and are always vigilant that harvests be sustainable.

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