Author: Serkadis

SPRINGFIELD — When the medical malpractice reform that was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday was enacted in 2005, downstate lawmakers of both parties were the ones who largely supported it.

Those lawmakers expressed disappointment about the ruling to overturn caps on some lawsuit damages and wondered what their next step might be.

“I would think that you would see other attempts because it’s such an important issue,” said state Rep. Dan Brady,R-Bloomington.

Some lawmakers at the time argued high medical malpractice rates were causing doctors to leave the state and go where rates were lower, so they capped how much victims could win in some cases.

Opponents of the caps claimed victory Thursday, saying victims have the right to recover damages if wronged by a doctor.

They argue someone who has suffered substantially from medical malpractice has the right to be fairly compensated by a jury.

Those caps were eliminated by the Supreme Court on Thursday, much to the chagrin of people who thought they were helping.

“I think it had a dramatic effect on doctors staying in Illinois,” said state Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville.

Lawmakers looking to draft new legislation will have to tread carefully, as the state’s highest court has now thrown out limiting medical lawsuit damages three times since the 1970s.

“I think we can’t rule out a constitutional amendment,” said state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon.

Amending the Illinois Constitution takes more steps than approving a typical change in law, and the last time lawmakers took on medical malpractice reform, the fight took months of debate. Another change could take the same amount of time and effort.

“Bottom line, I definitely think it’s a step back,” said state Rep. Bob Flider, D-Mount Zion.

By Mike Riopell, [email protected]

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Monday’s “Dear Mark” sparked a great discussion about raising healthy kids, but the conversation really got going (in the comment board and forum) when readers lamented the hard-headedness of their parents.

Yes, we too often paint younger folks as the impulsive, devil-may-care madcaps or hapless Pied Piper targets. Truth is, there are plenty of those qualities in every age demographic. Kids aren’t the only ones who can dig in their heels after all. So, to take on the flipside of Monday’s question, what’s a Primal child (of any age) to do when Mom and Dad are the ones whose health needs a major overhaul?

I venture to say that many more people find themselves in the role of concerned progeny than those who commented Monday. Far too many of us, I imagine, have been grudging witnesses over the years to our parents’ destructive health habits – whether it be crummy diet, complete lack of physical activity, smoking, workaholic lifestyle, chronic stress, or – who knows –  compulsive use of household insecticides. Sometimes it’s ignorance on their part. Other times it’s denial. In some cases, it’s flat out apathy.

We drop hints at dinner. We drop pamphlets, articles or whole books on their coffee tables. At turns, we find ourselves lecturing. We argue. We offer to help – to make dinner, suggest some relaxation techniques or pay for a gym membership. In the midst of the back and forth, some of us deal with the frustration better than others. Perhaps those of us who recently moved out or are in the process of doing so are just glad to be on our own, away from the influence for a while. However, for many of us it’s an ongoing source of disappointment and even an emotional roadblock in the relationship.

The questions nag at the back of our brains and maybe tug at the heart strings a little. Why won’t they listen to reason? Why don’t they value their own health? Don’t they want to live to be there for their grandchildren – for me? How can it not bother them to be giving up decades of their lives or at least the hope of some additional active and independent years? What am I supposed to do here? Will anything I do or say make any difference whatsoever?

Step Back

As difficult as it is, maybe the first step in dealing with the quandary is this: we should all take a step back. (A big breath helps too.) There’s a certain freedom in accepting that you aren’t responsible for another person’s choices. Although you certainly have a big stake in their health, in their independence, in their well-being, in their being in this world period, the fact is and will always remain that you don’t run their lives. If you genuinely worry for them, it’s a painful realization, but at least it can stop you from beating your head against the wall. It’s not your fault. It’s not under your control. It’s sad and horribly unfortunate that they stand a big chance of missing out on some of their good years as well as your life and your kids’, but there it is. Ultimately, it’s out of your hands. Que Sera isn’t a comforting concept, but it can be a liberating one.

Don’t Apologize for Your Lifestyle

Just as they are going to live their lives the way they want, make no bones about doing the same for yourself. Stop feeling guilty for refusing your mother’s pie at Thanksgiving if you don’t want it. Stop apologizing for bringing your own food to their house or turning down Sunday night get-togethers if that’s a good workout night for you. Stop caving to their pushing treats on the grandkids. Maybe the more you stand by your lifestyle, the more seriously they’ll take it. If not, you’ll at least feel more in control of your own life and less swept up by their choices.

Appreciate Small Changes

Just because you accept that you don’t control the ultimate outcome doesn’t mean you can’t leave the door open for them to change or that you can’t make the adjoining room all the more inviting. I’d never say give up encouraging your parents to get healthy. Nonetheless, it’s all about perspective. When you take yourself out of the role of health director or even rescuer, you’re in a much better mindset to encourage, see and appreciate smaller changes. You’re not caught up in the vision of deep and desperate change for them. Once you take the pressure off, they might soften up a bit and surprise you.

Offer Some Healthy Bonding Opportunities

So, your dad probably isn’t going to ever accompany you to a PrimalCon event, but maybe you can convince him to go for a walk on a nice spring day. Though your mother will never give up her carbs, she’ll love spending Sunday brunch at your house (with your food) when she can have fun with the grandkids. Invite your parents to participate in your life – and the lifestyle that goes along with it. Find things that both of you can enjoy and get something out of.

Finally, however frustrating or unchanging your parents’ choices are, enjoy your time with them. Live life to the fullest with them as much as you can. Show them you care and that you enjoy their company. Let them know they’re an important part of your life. In the best or worst circumstances, you’ll be glad you did. There’s an old fable in which the sun and wind compete to see who can get the coat off a man passing by. In the harshness of the wind, the man simply clutches his coat more tightly. In the sun’s warmth, he happily casts it aside. In the best circumstances, perhaps warmth and love provide the best inspiration for healthy change.

Have your own stories and strategies for prodding your parents or other family members toward a healthier lifestyle? Thanks for reading.

Get Free Health Tips, Recipes and Workouts Delivered to Your Inbox

Related posts:

1. Reader Response: Practical Advice for Parents
2. Have You Decided to Be Healthy?
3. Healthy Options for Seedlings

It’s been nearly ten years since we first heard the idea that there should be some sort of driver’s license for the internet, and it’s no less ridiculous a concept now than it was then. However, it’s still brought up every now and then. The latest, as sent in by Marcus Carab is that Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, is suggesting an internet driver’s license and a special WHO for the internet, as a method of fighting back against bad actors online:

Mundie and other experts have said there is a growing need to police the internet to clampdown on fraud, espionage and the spread of viruses.

“People don’t understand the scale of criminal activity on the internet. Whether criminal, individual or nation states, the community is growing more sophisticated,” the Microsoft executive said.

“We need a kind of World Health Organization for the Internet,” he said.

“When there is a pandemic, it organizes the quarantine of cases. We are not allowed to organize the systematic quarantine of machines that are compromised.”

He also called for a “driver’s license” for internet users.

“If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance.”

These are the kind of ideas people have when they haven’t bothered to think through the consequences of what they’re saying. It’s unlikely any kind of WHO would be particularly effective. We already have various security companies that have a strong profit motive to do the same thing, and they’re failing (miserably). Setting up some sort of government agency to do the same thing? That sounds like a bureaucratic mess.

And an internet driver’s license is even more ridiculous. Unlike a car, the internet is something that people have to use all the time. No driver’s license is going to stop people from getting suckered by scammers. Sure, more education could be helpful, but any sort of requirement that they need to pass a test won’t stop people from getting on the internet and doing something stupid. If anything, it will give people a false sense of security online. Yes, there are issues with scammers online, but we’re not going to fix them with some bureaucracy and forcing people to take a proficiency test.

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EVERETT, Washington — Coffee shops in the Seattle area introduced “bikini baristas” three years ago, hiring attractive young women to serve up steamy espressos and lattes while wearing as little as a G-string and pasties.

But cities are now taking a closer look at the “sexpresso” stand craze after police investigations revealed that some baristas were serving coffee with a side of something not even legal at many strip clubs.

Five bikini baristas in Everett, north of Seattle, are accused of charging up to $80 to let customers fondle or photograph them as they put on erotic shows — sometimes in view of passing traffic.

They face court dates on prostitution charges this month.

In images so graphic that officials were reluctant to release them under public disclosure requests, undercover officers photographed them spreading their legs while wearing crotchless panties or licking whipped cream off each other’s exposed pubic regions.

While such acts may not constitute traditional prostitution, authorities say they met the legal definition of engaging in sexual conduct for a fee.

“This is not Malibu Barbie standing at a coffee stand selling coffee,” said City of Everett spokeswoman Kate Reardon. “We had citations for prostitution. That’s totally different.”

The bikini barista trend emerged in recent years as some espresso stands sought to stand out amid the heavy competition for coffee business in a region that is home to Starbucks.

There are now dozens of such shops in the region, with names like Brewlesque, Twin Perks and Java Juggs.

They’re typically stand-alone shacks along roadsides or in parking lots, often noticeable for their come-hither signs — “some like it hot,” for example — and a long line of pick-up trucks at the window.

The bikini shops have always stirred up controversy, with some cities threatening to shut them down unless their employees covered up. But communities have changed their laws in recent months in response to growing complaints that the bikini baristas aren’t actually wearing bikinis anymore.

Snohomish County north of Seattle last month began requiring coffee stand employees to wear at least the equivalent of a bikini or face regulation under adult entertainment ordinances.

That would mean tougher zoning restrictions and rules requiring customers to all be adults.

The city of Lynnwood has updated its laws to require employees to wear more than pasties and a G-string, and Yakima in central Washington directed its city attorney to draft similar laws.

Everett still allows pasties, but has clarified that drive-through businesses are public places, where the caressing or fondling of the genitals or breasts is considered lewd conduct and can be prosecuted.

Bill Wheeler, who runs four Grab-N-Go espresso stands in the Everett area, said the new ordinances and negative publicity generated by the charges against his employees has cut his business by about 80 percent, and he has let go one-third of his staff.

“You have a bunch of church groups that got together and decided they just don’t like women in bikinis,” he said.

But at Java Juggs just outside Everett city limits, barista Jade Layng insisted business isn’t down since Snohomish County started requiring the equivalent of a bikini. Employees there still make $100-$150 in tips during a six-hour shift, she said.

“We just wear lingerie, or bras and panties instead of pasties and thongs,” she said.

“We have a lot of regulars. They don’t really care too much.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

When the city ordered its workforce to take-off unpaid days last year, Mayor Daley said he would never ask an employee to do something he would not, and the same goes for the top brass of his administration.

A new report given first to FOX Chicago shows, however, that nearly half of all aldermen took fewer furlough days than the city’s rank-and-file workers.

Whether it be a snow plow driver or a secretary, city workers were forced to take off as many as 15 unpaid days last year to help Chicago plug a budget hole of more than a half billion dollars, but a new report reveals 22 aldermen took fewer than those 15 days.

Aldermen Frank Olivo (pictured above and right), Brendan Reilly, and Joann Thompson took none.

“This is another case, where you see clout has it’s benefits,” said Dan Mihalopoulos, of the Chicago News Cooperative, who put together this story for Friday’s New York Times.

His examination of city records also revealed aldermen most commonly took their unpaid days on holidays and that they gave up a smaller percentage of pay compared to city employees.

“They get deducted 1/365 of their salary, while rank-and-file, average city workers are giving up 1/261 each time they give up a furlough day, and they are being treated as if they work a five day week,” Mihalopoulos said.

A city spokesman suggested in a statement that aldermen work year round and are paid accordingly.

“Elected officials do not have a set work week, so their salaries are based on a calendar year,” Peter Scales said.

Aldermen are not required to take furloughs, but Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, says that as part of the labor deal signed last year with the city, aldermen assured they would take unpaid days.

“The working men and women as a city are making the sacrifice. We were told that everyone in the city, whether you’re an aldermen or the mayor, would feel the same pain.

It is insulting to me as the head of the labor movement here in the City of Chicago, to know and look at something that people aren’t living up to,” Gannon said.

City records show Mayor Daley took 16 unpaid days off last year.

Of the three aldermen who took no furlough days, Brendan Reilly was the only one who said he refused the city’s salary hike the last two years.

The others did not return calls when the report was put together.

If you want to know how many furlough days your alderman took last year, go to chicagonewscoop.org.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

As the winter months keep on keepin’ on, there is a little event that turns snow, ice, and cold into something beneficial: The Winter Olympics.

OK, I know what you’re thinking: the Winter Olympics could never hold a candle to the excitement of Beijing in 2008, or any summer games for that matter. Even if figure skating is pretty fun to watch, we also have to sit through Curling, Bobsledding and the Biathlon. Snore.

But what choice do we have? We’re already down Gossip Girl and Glee, and with the Olympics running for 2 weeks on NBC, there won’t be anything else to watch except guys in spandex speeding down a frozen water slide.

We need something to watch for and we need something now.

Luckily, no matter the sport, the Olympics always provide one thing we can all appreciate: hot pieces of well-toned man meat. We already know we’ll be watching Short-Track Speed Skating (which we didn’t really know existed until now….) to root on American hottie, J.R. Celski, and now I’m bringing you just a few more reasons to tune into (and enjoy) the 2010 Winter Olympics.

If this doesn’t make you proud to be an American, I don’t know what will. Let’s just hope all this hotness doesn’t affect the ice.

Dearborn Mid-West Conveyor (DMW) has been a major system supplier to industrial customers for 60 years. With our newly expanded product line, expertise, experience, and Project Management, we are able to provide solutions to any industrial project. DMW takes pride in being able to manage projects from conception through validation. This starts with an experienced team of Project Managers, who work directly with Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing and Installation to not only fulfill the Customer’s expectations but exceed them. DMW Project Managers are also experienced in working with the Customer’s representatives in identifying system cost savings and innovative solutions.

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The Brokk 400 is the largest machine in the Brokk range and the most powerful demolition robot available on the market today.

As with all Brokk machines, the capacity in relation to size and weight is unsurpassed. The Brokk 400 weighs 4800kg without attachment and can handle tools of up to 600 kilo weight. Compare these figures with the weight of a conventional excavator equipped with the same type of breaker!

The difference is that a Brokk machine is designed and built specifically for demolition purposes, thus optimised for this particular kind of job. And it does it better than any other equipment available.

Bono Energia enhances its presence in the Russian market through the supply of an important heating complex in Saint Petersburg Oil Terminal.
Petersburg Oil Terminal (POT) provides the services of transhipment and storage of oil products for export, as well as bunkering vessels.
The Terminal complex is equipped to accept delivery of both clean and dirty oil products, including high viscosity fuel oil. The annual throughput capacity of the terminal is 12 million tons. and the volume of the total investment will be approximately USD 160 million.
The Current technology of heating systems makes use of thermal fluid for the correct handling and maintenance of the system. The main advantages of this technology, compared to the steam heating, are:
-The removal of the water treatment system and of its related maintenance (scale deposit, corrosion, conditioning, etc.)
-No problems related to possible freeze of distribution pipelines due to particular weather conditions.
-Easy repair in case of leak of fluids

Bono Energia has innovative and technological advanced solutions in this segment with the OMP model.
These thermal fluid heaters can serve capacities from 1 to 40 MW and it allows up to a 94% thermal efficiency. One of the main strengths of the OMP is the limited pressure drops that allows for a lower energy consumption of the fluid circulation pump and lower operation costs.
The heaters are entirely manufactured in Bono’s manufacturing facilities and tested before delivery.
Moreover they are equipped with thermal insulation as well as combustion and automation systems OPTISPARK type, which avoid the complex practice of reassembling the unit on site.
Bono has many references in the tank farm sector including bitumen, heavy fuels, crude oil heating, in particular in cold areas where this kind of service is extremely important.
The BONO Energia penetration in the Russian market started some years ago with the set up of small marketing and commercial organization within the wider CANNON existing structure in Moscow.
Nowadays this small unit is actively working to further develop this market with good success thus enhancing the BONO presence in this country that, despite to the economic crisis, is still offering interesting business opportunities to CANNON Group in the plastic and “Oil & Gas” sectors.

Wendy Norris of RH Reality Check conducted an interview with Marie Wilson, the founder and president of The White House Project and former president of the Ms. Foundation.  We’ll post the White House Project’s Denver panel
discussion on leadership with women in business, academia, media and faith as
soon as it becomes available. 

Marie
Wilson is calling a spade a spade. As she sees it, the overheated debate over
abortion is being used as a convenient foil for healthcare reform in order to
avoid a much more controversial cultural issue — the role of women in
contemporary American society.

That unspoken and still radioactive debate 77
years after the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1923
continues to fuel traditional notions of a woman’s place in the boardroom and
the bedroom.

Wilson, the founder and president of nonpartisan The White House Project, was
in Denver, Colo., recently to discuss the organization’s new comprehensive
study, Benchmarking
Women’s Leadership.

But to achieve the critical mass of women in
positions of authority, we need to move beyond the artificial restrictions of
gender stereotypes to a nation that fully benefits from the talents of its best
and brightest in the executive suite, at the lectern and in the pulpit.

RH Reality Check sat down with Wilson to talk
about the challenges of nurturing women’s leadership in the wake of the
divisive Congressional healthcare reform debate.

RHRC: The
concept of healthcare reform has been so mutilated by politicians, religious
interests and the media that it’s not even recognizable to the American public.
Essentially, it’s become a debate about abortion over any other issue. But what
strikes me is that we really haven’t heard from women in leadership positions
other than the pro-choice caucus. How can we bring in more women’s voices to
broaden the dialogue around healthcare reform?

MW: Part
of why we haven’t heard from more women is for years — and it’s not an accident
— choice was chosen as the issue to unravel. It was chosen because of the
concern that Americans don’t address [gender roles], which is what Kristin
Luker wrote about years ago, in Abortion
and the Politics of Motherhood.

Instead
of looking at the areas of most importance to all of us on healthcare, the
conversation is hijacked by this central concern about whether women are going
to continue to choose to be mothers. In my experience, political men don’t
understand this. They really think it is about unborn life. That is not the
truth. This is really about the role of women in America. We’re not seen as
important enough people to have had the right wing revolve around us. But we
are.

I studied family therapy for awhile and the most
important time you spend with a family if you want to change that system is in
identifying the problem correctly.

Ninety percent of healthcare is provided by women
in the home. So, perhaps, the experts on this issue should actually talk to the
American public about pre-existing conditions and whether we should have a
universal payer system because we’re the ones doing it. We need to tell [those
hijacking the real issue] to step aside.

RHRC: Who do
you think is an authentic voice to deliver that kind of message because
Americans are not getting it?

MW: I
don’t think it’s a "who" but a how many of us are willing to say
this. Motherhood is sacred. How many of us are willing to get out and say this
is not at all about abortion. This is about whether we’re going to be mothers.
For men to understand this all of us need to join in on it. Too much of the
rhetoric is about abortion and not enough about women and our roles in this
country. And we better get off of it or we’re not going to have a country left.

RHRC: While
the debate was completely diverted to abortion we’re not talking about equity
in the workplace, academic opportunities, business leadership and all the other
cultural expectations that are still crystallizing around the concept of
motherhood. But we fail to recognize that women have juggled multiple roles all
day, everyday.

MW: Most of the women in this country have never had an
opportunity to do anything but juggle. They just don’t have good places to be
mothers and fathers as long as we avert the real issue — the social-cultural
ideal of women as wife and mother. Going back to Tocqueville’s visit to America
where he said the American people owe their great strides to women but I’ve
never seen women so confined to private life. And it still exists.

Let’s get this thing identified rightly so we can
move on. Nobody calls that spade. It’s not an issue I think women are willing
to deliver.

Show me a woman without guilt and I’ll show you a
man. Guilt has never helped us in the area of race. Guilt has never helped us
in the area of women and childbearing. We’ve got to get over our guilt so we
can get the policies for our children and our nation right.

RHRC: What
is the biggest take away from The White House Project’s Benchmarking Women’s
Leadership report in terms of moving the nation forward from a policy
and political perspective?

Marie Wilson: I think
the biggest take away is how much we really need to focus on holding companies
and communities accountable. And holding ourselves accountable for how we
invest our money, how we buy things. The problem for me, at least, is we need
to have enough women in. [The report found that a critical mass of women in
leadership by achieving board/executive compositions of] 33 percent
makes it normal and allows change to happen. But in order for us to get those
women in we have to have support from men and we have to have women to join.

Those are not small issues. The take away is that
we know what to do but it takes the political will to do it.

RHRC: Now
that the report is complete, what’s the one industry or two that you really
want to dig into a little further? Is there something that stood out that makes
you say I want to know more about this?

MW: Because of the economic crisis, I continue to think
getting more women into leadership in business and finance is crucial.

We have to get global companies that are leaders,
even in their weakened state, to take this on. If we don’t get more women into
these businesses to change what profit is and what bottom lines are we won’t
change what happens in international security and all the other sectors.

I think politics, business and media are the three
[sectors] where we have to keep digging in.

RHRC: American
society — primarily politics, business and the media — have always considered
"women’s issues" as a ghettoized topic. Now with the economy in
tatters these issues are more important than ever. How do we turn those tables
and get people to take healthcare, family leave, education and economic equity
more seriously?

MW: Obama
is being criticized around healthcare reform because he didn’t make it an
economic issue. Frankly, women have always known it was an economic issue
because we have borne the brunt of healthcare. So part of what happens when a
sector becomes important — whether women have been the leaders in it or the
people who have most cared about it, like education, health and the environment
— the things that are now coming up are the things that have been "women’s
issues" for years.

And now they are the economic issues. Women have
to continue to say we’re the experts. You’re seeing it in these Pew Surveys
that are coming out on how they trust women as much or more than men on some of
these issues. Economic security is one that women have had to take on for
years. We just have to own them.

RHRC: So
why does the president appear to be retreating from the bold leadership many
Americans expected of him?

MW: I
really feel part of this issue is his attempts to bridge this really divisive
partisan gap. That has been what’s both inspiring and his downfall.

What you want to do in any course of action is
choose the action with the most promising outcomes. I think what action he
committed to and chose was one of being hands off and not going in and muscling
[legislation] through. And giving both parties the chance actually do this
together. I’m afraid betting on the most interesting and positive outcomes cost
him. I really do. But it was a good try.

When you have people on one side saying "Ah,
this will kill our president. This will ruin our president" and people on
the other side saying "Well, I’m not voting for this I won’t get
elected" you have lost the whole meaning of what it means to be a public
servant.

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Google Earth is a great tool for exploring our planet and beyond with the new Mars and Moon data. Yet, some of the most remote and inaccessible places aren’t in space but right here on Earth in the depths of the oceans. Luckily, Google opened up those places too, enabling anyone to be an undersea explorer. Floating around scannin… (read more)

Si hace cuestión de unos días pudimos ver las primeras imágenes oficiales del Renault Wind, hoy Renault ha publicado el primer vídeo oficial de dicho modelo que recordemos será presentado en el Salón de Ginebra.

En este vídeo podremos ver el funcionamiento del sistema de plegado de la capota del vehículo, que se realiza en sólo 12 segundos. Aun seguimos sin poder ver el interior y tampoco se han dado a conocer las motorizaciones.

A continuación os dejo con el vídeo publicado:

Related posts:

1. Renault Mégane CC, vídeo disponible
2. Renault Wind, imágenes oficiales
3. Renault Fluence, nuevo vídeo

Oil just dropped 4.5% and almost all commodities are sinking. Check out the chart below.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Pre-market: Stock Futures, Commodities Down Across The Board
• The Stock Rally Peters Out As Equities End A Mixed Bag, Oil Prices Drop Over Increased Supply
• Pre-market Roundup: Equity Futures Now Down, Commodities Weak

WOODSTOCK – Police charged two Walworth, Wis., teens today in connection with three Harvard area armed robberies after they allegedly held up a store in Geneva, Wis.

Ryan T. Severt, 19, and Seth D. Woodhouse, 18, were stopped by Delevan, Wis., police in a vehicle after the Handy Mart in Geneva was robbed about 9:35 p.m. Wednesday.

They admitted to being responsible for robberies last month at convenience stores in Harvard, Alden and Chemung during interviews in Walworth County, Wis., according to a McHenry County Sheriff’s Office press release.

They each will face three counts of armed robbery in McHenry County after the Walworth County charges are resolved, said McHenry County Sheriff’s Lt. Andy Zinke.

Zinke complimented the cooperation between his office, Harvard police, and police agencies in Wisconsin. He said authorities in Wisconsin contacted McHenry County police during the traffic stop.

“We flooded all the surrounding police agencies with bulletins [describing the suspects and the car involved in the first three robberies,]” Zinke said.

“Thankfully, it all matched up.”

A subject wearing an orange mask and dark sunglasses used a black semi-automatic pistol to steal about $200 and five or six packs of cigarettes from the Lil Corner Store in Harvard on Jan. 24, according to the press release. The suspect specifically demanded Newport 100 cigarettes.

A subject wearing the same clothing stole about $800 from the Alden Quick Mart on Friday and about $200 and a carton of Newport 100 cigarettes from the Chemung Country Store on Saturday, police said.

In Illinois, armed robbery is typically punishable by between six and 30 years in prison.

By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI, [email protected]

Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.

As regular readers know, here at Art Scatter World Headquarters we’re contemplating a visual overhaul.

A facelift, if you will. A little cosmetic plastic surgery to bring the fresh bloom of youth back to our chubby literary cheeks.

After an online lifetime of presenting ourselves in the guise of the Artsemerging Web design, we’re ready to move on, and we’re considering three candidates. Yesterday we slipped inside the skin of Veryplaintext 3.0. We like its serif type design a lot. Today we’re trying on something a little racier, the zippy Copyblogger design, which has (brace yourselves) red headlines and a slightly tabular, hot-off-the-presses feel. Tomorrow we’ll give you a shot at the sleek Modern design.

Help us, O Brave & Loyal Scatterers. Show us the path. Take a look at these three possibilities and tell us what you like and dislike about them. We’re committed to shedding our wrinkly old skin. But which new skin should we slip into? And does our insurance plan cover this procedure?

Darpa, the Pentagon’s crazypants research arm, is taking shit to a whole new level: they’re pumping money into developing synthetic organisms immune to death. Oh, except for the built-in genetic kill switch. Yikes.

Danger Room reports that Darpa is investing $6 million into the project, called “BioDesign.”

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work – so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch.

Of course, this is no small task. Not only do you have the laws of nature to contend with, but you’ll have an angry God tossing lightning bolts down upon you for trying to do his job for him. But really, this is some crazy ambitious science we’re talking here. Be sure to read the full piece at Danger Room for the entire story. [Danger Room]