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The city of Modesto is a short drive away from a diverse array of camping options in central California. From the remote tent camps of Yosemite National Park to the full-hookup sites around Modesto Reservoir, you can choose among dozens of campgrounds within two hours of the city. Whether you want to disappear into the...
Stanislaus County Parks and Recreation manages campground facilities on the shores of Modesto Reservoir and nearby Woodward Reservoir, both of which are less than 40 minutes from Modesto. Modesto Reservoir Regional Park includes 150 campsites with full water, sewer and electric hookups for tents and RVs as well as an u...
Nestled along a quiet stretch of the Stanislaus River, Caswell Memorial State Park offers 65 shady, secluded campsites with picnic tables, campfire rings and food storage lockers. The sites are open to tents and RVs up to 24 feet, but hookups are not provided. During your stay you can canoe, kayak or fish on the river,...
Yosemite National Park and the neighboring Stanislaus National Forest are each about an hour and a half from Modesto, and both provide some of the most rugged and remote camping options in the region. A few areas are open to RVs, but most camping options range from primitive tent campgrounds to dispersed backcountry ca...
The Pacific Ocean is nearly 2 hours from Modesto, but several beachfront campgrounds make it well worth the trip. If you prefer to camp with a full range of modern amenities, Fan Francisco RV Resort is home to more than 180 paved, level RV sites that can accommodate motor homes up to 45 feet in length. The sites sit at...
The Harrisburg Area Riverboat Society, Inc., is a 501-c-3 non-profit community service organization headed by a voluntary board of community leaders that operates the Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat as a service to the people of the region. The Riverboat Society’s mission is simple: to serve the people of the Harris...
"The Pride" an authentic stern-driven paddle wheeler, built 20 years ago as a community service project by the Harrisburg Area Riverboat Society for the benefit of the people of and visitors to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area.
A variety of cruises are available from May to October aboard the Pride of the Susquehanna, an authentic stern paddlewheel riverboat owned and operated by the Harrisburg Area Riverboat Society. Public cruises usually last 45 minutes.
Posted on September 02, 2011. Brought to you by discoverourtown.
Democratic nominee Richard Cortez and Republican nominee Jane Cross.
Hidalgo County judge candidates will face off today in front of a group of students thirsty for civic involvement, and the public is invited to attend.
Democratic nominee Richard Cortez and Republican nominee Jane Cross will participate in a forum organized and run solely by students at the International Baccalaureate Programme.
The debate, comprised of IB Lamar Academy students of all grade levels, will begin at 6 p.m. at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, 1200 Ash Ave., and will run until 7:30 p.m.
The chamber and Futuro RGV — a nonprofit formerly known as Futuro McAllen — partnered with the students to sponsor the event.
“They not only believe the IB debate forum is full of leaders of the future, but they encourage them to be leaders today,” school officials said about the nonprofits.
Students hope to openly discuss issues affecting the community and nation with the candidates.
“They are committed to presenting these issues with integrity, impartiality, and in a respectful manner,” a news release stated.
Event organizers said they hope the forum fosters and promotes student involvement in the electoral process.
“It is important to realize even though we cannot vote, we should still have the ability to speak for what we believe in,” Ramirez said.
Where: McAllen Chamber of Commerce, 1200 Ash Ave.
REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--During select college football games this season, there might be rivalries playing inside and outside the stadium. Fans could see Mario vs. Bowser, or Zelda vs. Ganondorf, or the Inklings vs. Ridley, or frankly any of the thousands of combinations that can be formed with a roster of mor...
Seven years ago, Gertrude Butler turned 90 and found herself alone in the world.
The widow”s only child, Frank Jr., had died three years earlier. Suffering from macular degeneration, Butler”s eyesight then started failing her.
She no longer could read, watch television, knit, crochet, paint, show her Pekinese dogs across the state, all activities she loved.
One day, Butler reached her limit. “I wondered what to do with my day. I said to the Lord, ”Give me something to do or take me home, because I”ll go crazy if I just have to sit here,” ” Butler said.
Later that day, seven years ago, Butler found three kittens abandoned in her backyard shed.
She had found her calling ? and some pets.
Since then, Butler has become quite the prolific foster parent. The sprite 97-year-old has fostered 231 cats, all of which were adopted out. She bottle-fed 66 of them.
“It”s given me something to live for. If I get kind of lonely or down a bit, I can get a kitten and play with it,” said Butler from a chair in her living room, as a grey kitten purred silently in her lap.
During a recent interview, the soft-spoken Butler switched between holding Robert and Roberta, a brother-and-sister pair rescued from a Vallejo yard. The pair came to Butler only a couple weeks old and the foster parent has bottle-fed them since. That”s no easy task – kittens need to eat every three hours, even at nigh...
“I just set my alarm and wake up and feed them,” Butler laughed.
Butler has fostered as many as 20 kittens at once and has been a member of Solano County Friends of Animals for five years.
“There aren”t that many foster homes available and certainly not many willing to bottle-feed babies,” said Nancy Akiyama, a Friends of Animals member who met Butler two years ago.
“People like to adopt her kittens because they get so much love and attention. They tend to make better pets,” Akiyama said.
Butler”s kitty care went on hiatus in June when she fell in her yard and broke her hip. She had hip surgery, which led to an infection and a second operation – two months in the hospital.
It was a bad two months.
Fortunately, the former Sunday School teacher for 60 years had a 12-year-old former student bring her a stuffed kitten to keep her company.
After her release from the hospital, Butler spent another month-and-a-half in a nursing home.
And, of course, the felines have kept her spirits up.
In addition to her fostering, Butler has three cats of her own. There”s Joker, a Siamese mix, and O”Malley, an orange-and-white striped short-hair, who were born under her neighbors” house three years ago. She fostered both to health.
Charlie Brown, an orange-and-white long-hair, was one of the original kittens she fostered seven years ago.
Cats wander in and out of Butler”s modest blue single-story house in central Vallejo, which has numerous cat food dispensers on the porch and cages in the living room.
Butler was born in Kansas, one of nine children. Her father worked as the town”s water and light superintendent.
When she was 12, her family cat died shortly after giving birth to a litter of kittens. Butler”s mother handed a kitten to each of her daughters, including Butler, to nurse back to health.
It was the start of a life full of animals. “I love all animals. In my life I”ve had rabbits, canaries, I had a horse, I”ve always had dogs and my house has always had cats,” she said.
She moved out to Vallejo with her late husband Frank Sr. in 1944. Her husband worked as a painter on Mare Island Naval Shipyard, while Butler spent 44 years as a tailor, running Crown Taylors in Vallejo near the end of her career.
Now fostering is her life, which can be emotionally tough.
And there”s no slowing down for Butler, whose hip has already healed, allowing her to maneuver around her makeshift cat shelter.
E-mail Matthias Gafni at mgafni@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6825.
Mark Miller and Anne Cousineau with some of their photo booth holiday cards Dec. 11, 2018, in their Evanston home.
Twenty-five years ago — before marriage, before kids, when they were just a couple of young lovebirds who met at a show at Links Hall on Western Avenue — Mark Miller and Anne Cousineau sat down in a vintage photo booth in the old Woolworth department store in downtown Evanston and grinned for the camera.
The results — a strip of boxy, black-and-white pictures — became the first holiday card they sent out as a couple.
When the holidays rolled around the following year, the couple headed to Ed Debevic’s, the now defunct shake-and-burger place on Wells Street where folks used to stand in line for hours to experience the pleasure of being insulted and maligned by the faux-surly wait staff.
They sneaked a fully lit menorah and a string of holiday lights into the restaurant’s photo booth.
There was a Santa hat and a yarmulke.
One of which was in actual flames.
“We got a lot of looks,” Miller said.
That became their second holiday card.
This year — 22 years married, two kids, still a couple of lovebirds who met at a show at Links Hall — Miller and Cousineau will send out their 25th annual holiday card, each of which incorporated a vintage photo booth.
“It’s our family’s history,” said Cousineau, an artist and home stager.
Every year, as December approaches, the couple and their kids — Eli, a sophomore at the Chicago Waldorf School, and Zoe, a freshman at Oberlin College — go to breakfast at a nearby cafe and decide on a theme.
“We’ve tried to make them tell our story,” said Miller, an architect.
For years, Eli had his heart set on the family dressing up as the members of Kiss — the crazy black-and-white face paint, the hair, the whole nine yards.
“So that’s what we did,” Miller said.
For year 20, the family did a "Merry Kiss-mas" theme.
They’ve shot the photos at the Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park, Schubas Tavern, a hot dog place in Arlington Heights, the Double Door, Waveland Bowl.
This year, year 25, got tricky. The Heartland had sold its photo booth. Double Door had closed. More and more photo booths, if you can even find them, use digital prints, which don’t lend themselves to the sort of art projects the couple like to create.
Plus Zoe’s at Oberlin, adding another logistical hurdle.
The family, including Zoe, spent Thanksgiving at Cousineau’s parents’ home in southeast Michigan, so Miller logged onto photobooth.net, a comprehensive resource for photo booth enthusiasts that includes a map of vintage photo booths around the United States. (The Miller/Cousineaus are mentioned on the site.) He found o...
Miller contacted the owner to ask if he’d allow them to set up a rather elaborate “The Wizard of Oz”-themed photo shoot in his bar. He said no. No kids allowed.
Miller offered to bring in his family 30 minutes before the place opened. He offered to bring some frozen Lou Malnati’s. The owner said yes.
Cousineau contacted her photographer friend who lives in Ann Arbor to shoot photos of the family — dressed as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion — entering and exiting the photo booth.
“We got ready in a Starbucks around the corner,” Miller said.
“I think Mark just really wanted to dress up like Dorothy,” Cousineau said.
“To show off my legs,” Miller replied.
When Miller was 2 years old, his dad died of a heart attack. He was 36, the age Miller was when Zoe was born.
One year, they made the card look like a photo booth strip turned on its side — four images of the family painting graffiti (not really) on a Metra embankment with an actor friend dressed as a cop reprimanding them.
Miller had that one blown up and framed for Zoe to take to college.
One year, the photo strip came with 3D glasses, which made the photo strip pictures of Eli doing capoeira and Zoe playing volleyball pop out at you.
They send out 220 cards. Some of their friends save every card.
Whatever decision they make, it will be rooted in a tradition of joy and affection and laughter. An awfully good road map for the holidays.
The Western Cape High Court has ruled that consumers should be protected against legal enforcement by credit providers while proceedings for a court order are pending. This means that credit providers will not be able to terminate consumer debt reviews after 60 business days have expired and the matter has been referre...
The case that produced the ground-breaking judgement found that Wesbank was not entitled to terminate the debt review process of customer Deon Papier because 60 days had lapsed from the day he approached a debt counsellor to restructure his debt.
Under the National Credit Act (NCA), consumers’ assets are protected from credit providers during the debt review process.
This judgement will put an end to major credit providers terminating a debt review after the expiry of 60 days regardless of whether the consumer and debt counsellor had followed the correct process.
According to Paul Slot, the director of debt counselling at Octogen, this is good news for consumers, who have had their debt reviews terminated precisely when they have most needed protection. According to the judgment, this akin to “providing the consumer with an umbrella then snatching it back the moment it starts t...
The court agreed with the National Credit Regulator (NCR) that a literal interpretation of Section 86(10) of the NCA would be absurd and consumer protection should be paramount.
The judgement is welcome news for debt counsellors, too.
“In practice, this means that a consumer can apply for debt review and the debt counsellor must follow the process as per the NCA, which includes the referral to a magistrate’s court within 60 business days. The consumer has to continue with payments as per the proposal of the debt counsellor until the matter has been ...
“This is a victory for the debt counselling industry and more so for financially stressed consumers,” said Octavia Hlatshwayo, managing director of Mzansi Debt Counselling.
Peter Setou, NCR senior manager of education and strategy, agrees. “The premature enforcement of credit agreements in the high courts also drives up the costs of litigation at the expense of those least able to afford it,” he said.
There about 30 000 debt review cases on the roll at courts throughout the country and about 7 000 consumers apply for debt review every month.
According to Slot, the implementation of the NCR task team restructuring rules should result in a reduction of opposed cases referred to courts, but there’s still a need to expedite cases already on the roll at the courts.
Quibbles aside, though, this ruling will allow consumers who are serious about repaying debt to have a fair chance of doing so. All too often, credit providers don’t give consumers a chance to reach settlement with the help of debt counsellors, which runs contrary to the spirit of the law, so the judgement is a real vi...
In its 20-year history, Netflix has grown from a DVD rental website with 30 employees to a global streaming service with over 5,000 titles, 130 million subscribers and $11 billion annual revenue that has drastically transformed the entertainment industry.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings launched the service in more than 130 countries.
"While you have been listening to me talk, the Netflix service has gone live in nearly every country of the world," he announced on the Las Vegas Convention Centre stage. "Today, right now, you are witnessing the birth of a global TV network."
This was all made possible by a radical transformation of a previously traditional IT operation, as Dave Hahn, a senior engineer in Netflix's cloud operations and reliability team, explained recently at the Service Desk and IT Support Show in London.
"We flipped on the service for another 130 countries, and millions of new customers that we hadn't previously been servicing," said Hahn.
"I think you can imagine the amount of work and thinking and architecture design we had to do to open up to 130 countries, and millions of new customers just in that moment; the technical architecture, the research, the billing systems, the kind of people that we needed and the thinking about these kinds of problems in...

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