Filed under: Coupe, Budget, Sedan, Honda

Typically, most automakers stick to a relatively strict five-year product cycle for their highest-selling, most important products. The Honda Civic, for example, debuted in September of 2005, so realistically, a new model should be just around the corner, right? Not exactly.

In an interview with AutoWeek, American Honda executive vice president John Mendel said that changing market conditions and tougher fuel economy and emissions regulations have strongly affected the development of the next-generation Civic, meaning that the new model won’t come until sometime in 2011. AW also reports that the Civic’s redesign has been altered along the way – the new model was supposed to be larger than the current model, but now it has been redesigned to be closer in size to the current one (pictured above).

What’s more, with hot new products like the 2012 Ford Focus on deck, Honda will certainly have to up the ante on the Civic’s level of equipment, style and refinement. The Civic is still one of the world’s best-selling cars: about one million are moved each year. And with the U.S. accounting for approximately one-third of those sales, Honda would be wise to ensure that the next-generation Civic will be attractive enough to keep it in the top tier of high-selling vehicles in the States.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Next-generation Honda Civic may be delayed originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 May 2010 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Do you have a nook or the less elegantly named iRex DR800SG? If so, get thee to a Barnes & Noble store to participate in the new Fun and Free e-books promotion. It’s a pretty simple concept: you waltz into a Barnes & Noble store, get an access code, then download a free e-book. Done and done.

The promotion runs for the next five weeks, and is also compatible with the B&N e-reader software that runs on your laptop, BlackBerry, or iPhone (or whatever).

The first free book is “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series #1)” by Alexander McCall Smith.

Nothing wrong with free summertime reading.

Add one more to the list of environmental factors that could contribute to the rise in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): pesticides. A new study out in Pediatrics argues that there’s a connection between high exposure to common pesticides and increased risk for children developing ADHD.

Maryse Bouchard and colleagues looked at more than 1,100 children aged between 8 and 15. All of them had been sampled by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2000 and 2004, and 119 had been diagnosed with ADHD. Bouchard’s team studied their urine samples for chemicals called dialkyl phosphates, which result from the breakdown of organophosphate pesticides used to protect fruits and vegetables.

For a 10-fold increase in one class of those compounds, the odds of ADHD increased by more than half. And for the most common breakdown product, called dimethyl triophosphate, the odds of ADHD almost doubled in kids with above-average levels compared to those without detectable levels [Reuters].

According to the researchers, there are about 40 organophosphate pesticides in use in the United States, the most famous of which is malathion. It was heavily sprayed in California in the early 1980s to try to kill the Mediterranean fruit fly, and also about a decade ago to try to stop the spread of West Nile virus.

In 2008, detectable concentrations of malathion were found in 28 percent of frozen blueberry samples, 25 percent of fresh strawberry samples and 19 percent of celery samples, a government report found [MSNBC].

Using the large sample of children from NHANES allowed the researchers to adjust for location, race, and other factors that have confounded studies like this trying to link an environmental factor to a particular condition. However, the scientists admit, the weakness of their study is that using NHANES data allowed them to see just one urine sample taken at one point. Thus, they couldn’t determine the source of contamination, nor could they see how levels of the chemicals in question built up over time. And since that buildup over time is what would spur the potential neurochemical changes that would increase ADHD risk, Bouchard and colleagues write, their study shows correlation but not causation.

Bouchard’s analysis is the first to home in on organophosphate pesticides as a potential contributor to ADHD in young children. But the author stresses that her study uncovers only an association, not a direct causal link between pesticide exposure and the developmental condition. There is evidence, however, that the mechanism of the link may be worth studying further: organophosphates are known to cause damage to the nerve connections in the brain — that’s how they kill agricultural pests, after all [TIME].

So there’s a lot left to be proven. But Bouchard’s study is another reminder in favor of the old stand-by: wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Vital Signs: There’s Hyperactivity… And There’s Hyperactivity
DISCOVER: Vital Signs: Misdiagnosing ADHD
80beats: Scientist Smackdown: Are Environmental Toxins a Huge Cancer Threat?
80beats: Herbal Remedy Doesn’t Help Kids with Attention Deficit Disorder
80beats: Why ADHD Kids Have Trouble with Homework: No Payoff
80beats: Bee Killer Still at Large; New Evidence Makes Pesticides a Prime Suspect

Image: iStockphoto

Of all the terrible sexual scandals the hierarchs in the Vatican find themselves tangled in, none is likely to do as much institutional damage as the astounding and still unfolding story of the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel. The crimes committed against children by other priests and bishops may provoke rage, but they also make one want to look away. With Father Maciel, on the other hand, one can hardly tear oneself from the ghastly drama as it unfolds, page by page, revelation by revelation, in the Mexican press.

Father Maciel, who was born in Mexico and died in 2008 at the age of eighty-seven, was known around the Catholic world. Against ordinarily insurmountable obstacles, he founded what was to become one of the most dynamic, profitable, and conservative religious orders of the 20th century, which today has 800 priests, and approximately seventy thousand religious worldwide. The Legion of Christ, nearly 70 years old as an order, is comparatively small, but it is influential: it operates fifteen universities, and some 140,000 students are enrolled in its schools (In New York, its members teach in eleven parish schools); and its leadership has long enjoyed remarkable access to the Vatican hierarchy.

A great achiever and close associate of John Paul II, Maciel was also a bigamist, pederast, dope fiend, and plagiarist. Maciel came from the fervently religious state of Michoacán in the southwest of Mexico, and grew up during the years of the Cristero war (1926–1929), a savage conflict that pitched traditional Catholics (Cristeros) in provincial Mexico against the anti-clerical government in the capital. One of his uncles was the commanding general of the Cristeros. Another four uncles were bishops. One of them, Rafael Guízar y Valencia, brought him into a clandestine seminary in Mexico City, where as a 21 year old who had not even taken his vows, Maciel created a new religious order that was intended to be both cosmopolitan and strict.

Given its founder’s age and general lack of education, it is not surprising that its aims were poorly defined, although in a fascinating study of Maciel by the historian and psychoanalyst Fernando M. González we learn that one of the order’s statutes specified that priests should be decenti sint conspectu, attractione corripiant, or graceful and attractive. At the age of 27 the young Father Maciel had an audience with Pope Pius XII, who, according to the Legionaries’ official history, urged him to use the order “to form and to win for Christ the leaders of Latin America and the world.” This has been the order’s unwavering mission for six decades, and with remarkable speed it emerged as a conservative force to rival even Opus Dei.

Maciel was evidently a man of some magnetism; dozens of wealthy women contributed generous amounts for the Legionaries’ good works, and the Mexican magazine Quién, normally known for its society pages and not for its investigative reporting, recently had a story about one of Mexico’s wealthiest widows, Flora Barragán de Garza, who donated upwards of fifty million dollars during the years of Maciel’s glory. “She gave him practically all our father’s fortune,” Barragán’s daughter told the Quién interviewer, adding that the family finally had to intervene so that the by then elderly woman would not be left destitute. Her generosity allowed Maciel to travel first-class throughout his peripatetic life, but it also provided the wherewithal for the network of private schools to which wealthy Mexican conservatives dispatched their children.

In 1997, a Mexican woman who was living in Cuernavaca looked at the cover of the magazine Contenido—a Reader’s Digest-y sort of publication—and saw on it the face of her common-law husband. She had been his partner for 21 years and borne him two children, and she knew him as a private detective or “CIA agent” who, for understandable work-related reasons, put in only occasional appearances at home. Now she learned that he was a priest and and that his real name was Marcial Maciel. He was, the magazine said, the head of an order whose strictness and extreme conservatism appeared to hide some vile secrets: the article, picking up information first brought to light in an article by Jason Berry in the Hartford Courant, revealed that nine men, one a founder of the Legionaries, another still an active member, and the rest all former members of the order, had informed their superiors in Rome that Maciel had abused them sexually when they were pubescent seminarians under his care.

The accusations were not new, nor would they be the last. In 1938 Maciel was expelled from his uncle Guízar’s seminary, and shortly afterward from a seminary in the United States. According to witnesses, Maciel and his uncle had a gigantic row behind closed doors, and one witness, a Legionary who had known Maciel since childhood, told the psychoanalyst González that the bishop’s rage had to do with the fact that Maciel was locking himself up in the boarding house where he was staying with some of the younger boys at his uncle’s seminary. Bishop Guízar died of a massive heart attack the following day.

Later, it would become known that Maciel had his students and seminarians procure Dolantin (morphine) for him. This led to Maciel’s suspension as head of the order in 1956. Inexplicably, he was reinstated after two years. Much later still, someone realized that his book, The Psalter of My Days, which was more or less required reading in Legionary institutions, and was a sort of Book of Hours, or prayer guide, was lifted virtually in its entirety from The Psalter of My Hours, an account written by a Spaniard who was sentenced to life in prison after the Spanish Civil War.

Uneducated and mendacious, Maciel nevertheless had a genius for politics, and for personal relations. According to a former Jesuit with good knowledge of the story, one of the very first sizable donations that the Polish Solidarity movement received came from Maciel, who raised the money among the conservative Mexican elite he had so steadfastly cultivated. No doubt the Polish Karol Woyjtiwa heard about this act of generosity and appreciated Maciel’s ideological stance. The priest was at John Paul’s side throughout the first three of the Pope’s five visits to Mexico: Legionary money, its priests, and its very active laypersons’ movement, the Regnum Christi, strengthened the Polish Pope’s campaign to remove socially radical or liberal priests from positions of power and give ascendancy to his conservative Catholicism.

It is hard not to think that these are the reasons the Vatican ignored the detailed and heartwrenching letter sent in 1998 by Maciel’s eight accusers (the ninth member of the group having died.) Even as the public first became aware of the accusations through the Hartford Courant and the Mexican press, which picked up the story immediately, the Vatican refused to act. Instead, Pope John Paul II put forward the beatification of Maciel’s mother and of his uncle, Bishop Guízar. (The bishop is now Saint Guízar. Maciel’s mother is still going through the beatification process.) It was only in 2006, after John Paul’s death, that a Vatican communique announced that Maciel had been “invited to lead a reserved life of prayer and penitence.” He lived out his final years quietly and died in the United States. The Legionaries, however, have continued to grow in numbers and in wealth.

It’s risky for a nonbeliever to try to evaluate how the Maciel narrative will affect the Church’s standing as a whole, because an outsider can understand so little of how a faith is lived among its rank and file. No doubt many Latin American believers know a parish priest who had a “housekeeper” and perhaps a “niece” living with him, because these things have never been uncommon here—or elsewhere, probably, although the effort to hide them may be greater. But Paraguayans have not abandoned their cheerful president, former priest Fernando Lugo, despite the fact that he is known to have fathered at least three children (he seems to think there may be more) while he was still a bishop.

Homosexuality has also been tolerated and to some degree almost expected of skirt-wearing priests in this macho part of the world. It is possible, perhaps, that for many Catholics baptism, confession, and weekly mass are almost bureaucratic procedures, like voting or getting a driver’s licence, and that true faith is something that happens at home-made altars and through the magical pathways of ritual, leaving priests to live their own lives as long as they do a creditable job with the sermons and the burials. The sexual abuse of children and its cover-up are a different matter entirely, one suspects.

As it turns out, Maciel’s common-law marriage to Blanca Estela Lara Gutiérrez was not exclusive. Some ten years after he met her, he began a long-lasting relationship with a 19-year old waitress from Acapulco, to whom he introduced himself as an “oil broker.” He had a daughter with her, and, according to a recent article in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, several more children with other partners.

After she found out that her husband was not a CIA agent but a child-molesting priest, Blanca Estela Lara did not come forth with the news that she was married to him. Perhaps she was terrified unawares of the man she believed “was her God,” as she would say a decade later. Perhaps she was simply ashamed. At any rate, she kept silent while some of Maciel’s victims and a few journalists—notably the late Gerald Renner and Jason Berry, now of the National Catholic Reporter—kept producing more evidence. And then, last March, two years after Maciel’s death, Lara appeared with her three sons on one of Mexico’s most well-regarded talk shows and listened quietly while her children testified that their biological father, Marcial Maciel, had made them masturbate him, and had first attempted to rape them, the older one said, when he was a boy seven years old. (This testimony has been tarnished somewhat by the revelation that the sons had earlier demanded millions of dollars from the Legionaries of Christ in exchange for their silence. The order has not attempted to deny the accusation, however.)

Quite apart from the damage to Maciel’s victims, there is the pressing question of why the Catholic Church, as an institution, did not condemn him when he was ordained as a priest, or when he founded the Legionaries, or when the story of his pederasty made the cover of magazines, or when enough evidence was found to conclude that Maciel should live out the rest of his life in seclusion, or even when the rumors grew strong enough to warrant a Vatican investigation of the order as a whole. The answer surprises no one: at a time in which churches are emptying, the Legionaries have been a rich source of conscripts, money and influence; in Mexico everyone from Carlos Slim to Marta Sahagún, the wife of former president Vicente Fox, gave money to or asked favors from Maciel.

It was not until last year that Karol Woyjtiwa’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI, at last authorized a visitation—churchspeak for investigation—of the entire order of the Legionaries of Christ. As usual, the press and some disaffected religious have been way ahead of the Vatican. Now we learn from the press that the order kept some 900 women under non-binding vows as consagradas, or quasi-nuns, in conditions of emotional privation and subjugation that violated even canonical law.

In the end, the scandal of Marcial Maciel, gruesome and ribald as it is, will turn out to be of much greater significance to the Catholic Church than the isolated terrors inflicted on their victims by one or another European or U.S. bishop or priest. There is the distressing question of the Church’s last Pope, the popular John Paul II, and his relations with the demonic priest. There is the not unimportant fact that the Legionaries—along with Benedict XVI and indeed John Paul—represent the most morally conservative part of the Church, and that they now appear enmeshed in the most squalid moral scandal it is possible to imagine. There is, above all, the fact that an entire, large, wealthy, international institution is now under suspicion (what did Maciel’s fellow Legionaries know, when did they know it, and who was complicit?) and that the greatest institution of all, the Roman Catholic Church, appears to have engaged in a cover-up for decades on its behalf. Catholics who always assumed that a priest and Bing Crosby were more or less identical will need some time to adjust to this knowledge.

But there is the also the question of the future of the Church and of its priests and nuns as sexual beings. It is not necessarily cheap psychology to speculate that extreme sexual repression of the sort imposed by the Church on its members leads to perversion, an issue that has surfaced importunately for the last millenium. Many religious, it would seem, opt to “obey” rules but not comply with them, as the Spanish formulation has it (“obedezco, pero no cumplo”). I offer this simply as anecdotal evidence, but in my casual, friendly, and often admiring acquaintance with members of the Catholic orders—all from the social activist branch of the church, for whatever it’s worth—a remarkable number have been involved in some sort of couple relationship.

I once attended a major church festivity in a small town at which several of the priests and nuns who arrived to concelebrate Mass were openly, and even defiantly, there with their partners, either homosexual or hetero. In 1979, at the time of John Paul’s first visit to Mexico, I had a conversation with a progressive Spanish priest who lived with his partner, a middle-aged woman, about the split life he lived. Why, I asked, didn’t he leave the Church if so many of its norms violated his own convictions and desire for honesty? I remember his saying, in effect, that the possibility of doing good within an institution as enormous and influential as the Church was greater that the chances for doing good outside of it. Perhaps that equation is changing.

David Hefty may be the hottest uber-bear on the planet right now.

The CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management obviously scored off-the-dials ratings when he appeared on CNBC last week, so they invited him back to explain why the Dow is headed to 5,000.

His reasoning?

There’s $17 trillion worth of leverage in the financial system, and if just a few hedge funds get margin calls, the whole thing will come tumbling down.

Join the conversation about this story »

Metal Slug XXX (1200 points)  and Aqua (800 points) will be avaoilable this Wednesday on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Nothing like a good ole near death experience to inspire a new reality show.

Bret Michaels is teaming up with the producers of his defunct reality dating challenge Rock of Love for a new docu- series — titled Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It — “giving viewers an insider’s look at Bret’s home life when he isn’t touring, shooting, partying, and rocking out,” the network announced in a release issued Monday The celebreality-centered network will air a half-hour special first look at the show this Memorial Day Monday, May 31, with a full series set to premiere next fall.

The former Poison frontman and ex-Rock of Love star miraculously recovered from a life-threatening aneurysm last month, and is set to return to the stage in a live performance next week.

“After Bret’s recent appendectomy and life threatening brain hemorrhage, we’re so happy that he is on the road to recovery and coming back to VH1 in Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It,” says Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Production. “Bret is family to us and has always been a huge hit on the network, headlining several series and specials that have garnered record breaking ratings and made a strong connection with our audience. We have temporarily halted production on the series with Bret’s health as our primary concern. Production will resume when it is cleared by his doctors. If anyone can fight off illness and get back on his feet, it’s Bret. But in the meantime, in response to the flood of well wishes the network has received from Bret’s fans, we’d like to celebrate Bret’s recovery with this sneak peak special featuring the next chapter in Bret’s story on VH1. It’s a never-before-seen look into Bret’s family life- the real center of his world from which he draws his unsinkable strength.”

Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today.  These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.  

State News  

Most District 205 teacher applicants worked there before
Rockford WREX (NBC) – Most of the people applying for District 205 used to work there. Rockford Education Association President Molly Phalen thinks about 400 people have applied for teaching positions with the district.  She says while some are from other districts, a vast majority

2 dozen Illinois school districts to get long-awaited construction funds
Chicago WGN (WB) 9 – The money was earmarked in 2002, but budget issues and political maneuvering kept it from being doled out. Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration made the decision to finally distribute the money without comment. In Du Quoin, the money will help pay for a new high school, while in Johnston City the $500,000  

District 186 struggles to divvy up funds to low-income schools  The Springfield School District expects to receive at least $5.8 million in federal Title I funds for low-income schools next year. But dividing up the ever-changing annual allocation is getting more difficult.  

Schools dealing with budgets: Responses range from layoffs to cuts to business as usual
Dixon Telegraph –  is so bad right now that Whiteside County’s top education official has asked his bank for a business loan application. The state is $425,000 behind on a promised $1.4 million in education funding to the Whiteside County Regional Office of Education. That’s 30 percent of Gary Steinert’s budget, and there’s a chance he won’t be able to make payroll   

Pay freezes OK’d by board
Lincoln-Way Sun – the 2010-11 school year in an effort to compensate for lost education funding from the state. The state owes the district $6.3 million, according to Wyllie. The administration also had asked the teachers union to accept a freeze but the union refused. The Lincoln-Way Education Association, which represents 480 teachers, signed a three-year contract in September.   

New principal for Plainfield school
Joliet Herald News – Sorg’s salary will be $85,302, including benefits. Sorg will replace Donald McKinney, who is resigning at the end of this school year. Sorg began his education career as a third grade teacher at Wesmere Elementary School, serving from 2001-2005. He then was named assistant principal at Creekside Elementary School in 2005. He was one of 10 candidates considered

Five more years and salary cut approved for Siebert
Harrisburg Daily Register –  But I think I need to set an example as superintendent since we’re in tough times with negotiations,” Siebert said. The board is in negotiations with the Eldorado Education Association and the Teamsters Union. Siebert said there are differences between the groups, but said the negotiations remain civil. 

Saluting excellence in the classroom
Chicago Daily Herald Editorial –  Few would disagree that these are tough times for education in Illinois. Thousands of teachers have been laid off in recent weeks as area school districts trim expenses amid the state’s threatened $1.3 billion cut in education funding for the coming academic year.  

Teachers are pension scapegoats
Chicago Daily Herald – Letter – other things like the state did, and the bank would accept that? Of course not. Can you imagine what your current balance would be? This is what the state has done, and now wants to blame it on the teachers, saying their pensions are exorbitant. Had the state made its legal payments into the fund, there wouldn’t be a problem today. Remember, the teachers paid 10 percent of their salary into  

Hogan very excited for opportunity as new UI president
Champaign News Gazette – the table to help restore trust and integrity? I have a lot of experience in academic administration. I also think I have, forgive me for saying so, a very strong background as an award-winning teacher, an award-winning scholar. Those are the two things universities are supposed to be all about, teaching and learning, research and discovery.  

Incoming U. of I. president gets nod from Quinn WBBM Reporting
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio –  The University of Illinois board of trustees is slated to approve a new president this week and Governor Pat Quinn is giving his approval to their pick. Quinn replaced seven of the nine trustees who have chosen Michael Hogan as U of I’s new president. The governor asked for the resignation of the board   

CPS Budget Cuts in One Small School
Chicago Now – As it stands, in the proposed budget for the next year, the state of Illinois plans cut $1.3 billion dollars in funding for education. In Chicago, that means a $368 million dollar cut to the Chicago Public School system. Statewide the jobs of 30,000 teachers will be eliminated, in Chicago 2,700 teachers will be without jobs this September. As proposed by Governor Quinn and itemized by Ron Huberman   

Gov. to abolish regional schools office
Chicago Daily Southtown – Gov. Pat Quinn is expected today to sign into law legislation that abolishes the scandal-plagued Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education. Quinn is scheduled to sign the measure   

Money woes and SIU
Belleville News-Democrat – The good news for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students is that tuition is not going up. The bad news is that fees are. The bottom line is that students soon will pay more for their education.  A primary reason is that the state is paying less. SIUE’s allocation is expected to be 7.8 percent less next fiscal year than this.     

A race, or a crawl?  Chicago Tribune Editorial – Second-round applications for Race to the Top, the $4.35 billion challenge grant program that is the…

Political News

Illinois lawmakers assess their session
Peoria Journal Star – Even though the Illinois General Assembly has yet to decide how to deal with a $13 billion budget deficit, area lawmakers were able to get some of their proposals approved during the legislature’s spring session. Here’s what they had to say about the measures that made it through, and those that didn’t.   

State lawmakers beginning to agree on one thing
Southern – Michael Boland told us. “I think we haven’t met our obligations. I think we’ve pushed off things into the future.” For years, Boland, an East Moline Democrat, has aligned himself with Gov. Pat Quinn, casting himself, like Quinn, as a populist fighting for the little guy. His views on Quinn, however, have changed. “I would have hoped that Gov. Quinn would have been more of a leader,”   

Statehouse Insider: Quinn’s ‘answers’ tend to meander
Springfield State Journal Register – A while ago, a reporter based in the Capitol who covers Gov. PAT Quinn observed that Quinn doesn’t answer questions so much as he filibusters. Case in point occurred last week, when Quinn was fielding questions about the state budget impasse and what 

Bill Brady Launches First TV Ad In Chicago
Chicago WBBH (CBS) 2 – his first ad of the general election campaign Friday. His campaign says it will air on broadcast and cable TV in the Chicago area. In the 30-second spot, Brady blasts Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for wanting to raise the state income tax. He says Quinn wants to “feed big government.” Quinn maintains Illinois needs the money for education because the state faces a $13 billion deficit   

Edgar knows what it will take to fix state mess
Bloomington Pantagraph – Editorial – Gov. Jim Edgar seems to be among the few voices of reason concerning our state’s finances. During a recent appearance in the Twin Cities, Edgar said the plans offered by incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, fall short. Edgar said it will probably take a combination of spending cuts and a tax increase to get the state out   

Lawmakers must return, finish the job
Chicago Daily Herald –  Stop gap measures will not provide for those who depend on state services and keep them from falling through the cracks. Stop gap measures will not give local governments and schools the funds they need to do their jobs. Stop gap measures will not address the $13 billion deficit. The borrowing and other measures the Emergency Budget Act proposes will only worsen   

Pick your pension poison
Chicago Tribune – When lawmakers return to Springfield to finish the budget later this month, they’ll be greeted by the same major holdup that caused them to head home in frustration last week — how to make a nearly $4 billion state worker pension payment.   

Police, firefighters may be next for pension changes
Arlington Heights Daily Herald –  But negotiations called for cutting that in half to match the members’ contribution at about 10 percent. Earlier this spring, state lawmakers set new limits on pensions for teachers, state and university workers, judges and lawmakers, and raised the retirement age to 67, but cops and firefighters were left out in part to avoid having 67-year-olds in such active jobs.   

Simon, Madigan like their partys chances in election
Champaign News Gazette – URBANA – This could be a tough year for Democrats, party candidates acknowledged Sunday, but there’s still time to overcome the bleak outlook. About 200 Democrats attended the local party’s spring dinner, headlined by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and lieutenant governor candidate Sheila Simon, at Kennedy’s at Stone Creek   

Brady’s ’semantics’ on ‘across the board’
Chicago Tribune –  And that you don’t know what “semantics” means. In that same interview, Brady made seven references to indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, each one adjacent to the name of current Gov. Pat Quinn, Brady’s Democratic opponent in November. Brady spoke of “Blagojevich/Quinn appointees,” complained that “Quinn and Blagojevich have racked up in excess of $10 billion in unpaid bills and short

Enough with ’semantics’; give detailed plan
Bloomington Pantagraph – Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady should stop trying to explain away the “semantics” of when a call for a 10 percent across-the-board cut isn’t a call for a 10 percent across-the-board cut. Instead, the state senator from Bloomington should get specific — real specific — about where he thinks the 10 percent cut in state spending should be made. 

Springfield’s lost boys  Chicago Tribune Editorial – The real Illinois fiasco isn’t that legislators have failed to pass a budget. The real fiasco is…

Other Views: Stop delaying and start leading in Springfield
Rockford Register Star Editorial – a complex, cobbled-together spending blueprint in the dead of night, fully analyzed and understood by virtually nobody. It cut around $2 billion off last year’s budget, again leaving Gov. Pat Quinn the power to decide where the cuts would come. … The remaining $11 billion gap would be dealt with — certainly not solved, not by a long stretch — through massive borrowing,   

Lawmakers’ job still not done; we shouldn’t be home
Elgin Courier News – In ancient Sparta, Spartan mothers commanded their soldier sons, “Come home victorious, or come home on your shield.” This was the old version of the British Empire’s declaration, “Victory or death.” The modern Illinois version of this refrain was contained in hundreds of recent e-mails, letters and calls to my office from recently concerned Illinois constituents. Citizens and editorial boards warned, “Don’t leave Springfield until you produce a responsible balanced budget!”   

GUEST EDITORIAL: State Budget: Too Much Power At Top
Hillsboro Journal News – One of the things that became crystal clear during the Illinois Senate’s debate over a new state budget was that the Democratic legislative leaders have completely broken the budget-making process.It’s no big secret that more and more power has been concentrated into the hands of the leaders, the House Speaker and the Senate President.   

Scott Lee Cohen: Top Democrat threatened me CHICAGO (STMW)
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio – They would make something up to put me in jail. They did not want me on that ticket,” Cohen said. No, it was not party Chairman Michael Madigan or Gov. Quinn, he said. After Cohen’s victory in the Democratic primary, allegations surfaced that the pawnbroker held a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend, allegations he denied but that made Democrats   

Giannoulias poll shows him even with Kirk
Chicago Sun Times – A poll taken by Alexi Giannoulias’ Democratic Illinois Senate campaign last week shows Giannoulias even with GOP rival Rep. Mark Kirk, making up for ground lost after the failure of the Giannoulias family-owned Broadway Bank. Giannoulias, the state treasurer, is even with Kirk, according to his campaign pollsters, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.   

Legislators are pretty unhappy, too
Decatur Herald and Review – Before legislative leaders abruptly adjourned May 7, we surveyed a number of lawmakers for their thoughts on how the 2010 spring legislative session had turned out. The frustration was pretty evident. “I think it’s been really terrible, to tell you the truth,” state Rep. Michael Boland told us. “I think we haven’t met our obligations. I think we’ve pushed off things into the future.”   

Gov. Candidate Brady on Highland Park School Arizona Boycott
Chicago Now – Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady was cornered by NBC Chicago News and asked his reaction to the shameful misuse of power by the Highland Park schools that last week announced that they were banning a girls basketball team from attending a tournament in Arizona. His first comment was a good one, one I’d like to see more often from our politicians  

Blago’s Lawyers Expected to Release List of Tapes
Chicago WFLD (Fox) 32 – Chicago – The Blagojevich corruption case is back in court Monday. The former governor’s legal team is expected to give the court a list of which tapes they want played in court. Meanwhile, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Chicago) is the latest person to be subpoenaed in the case. According to a criminal complaint, Blagojevich tried to shop President Obama’s senate seat to Jackson.

National News

 

School that fired all teachers to rehire them – Education
WMAQ-TV (MSNBC ) –  and it opted for the mass firings after a breakdown in talks with teachers about other reforms that would have required more work, some without extra pay. Obama, during a national address on education in March, said the firings were an example of the need for accountability over student performance. “So if a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers

 Bad teachers a touchy subject in W.Va. education debate
Daily Mail – Charleston
The West Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, have each appealed to the Legislature as the special session …

 Madison teachers agree to a salary freeze for coming school year
Madison Eagle – … the negotiations between the Board of Education and Madison Education Association (MEA), the teachers’ union, regarding the next school year’s contract. …

TIME.com Today’s Top Stories

 

Both Dems and the GOP Could Suffer a Primary Backlash

The Tea Party may be wreaking havoc with the best-laid plans of the Republican leadership, but many Democrat incumbents are also under fire from challengers angry at Obama

 

Mexico Shaken by Abduction and Feared Murder of Top Politician

Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, a leading figure in Mexico’s ruling party, disappeared last Friday, leaving the violence-battered country’s political establishment in shock

 

How Britain’s New Coalition Will Govern on Key Issues

Compromise will be the key to determining how the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will answer major policy questions

 

Financial Reform Inevitable? Don’t Bank on It

In a bill this complex, with this many moving parts, the litany of potential financial-reform deal killers is virtually endless

 

Study: A Link Between Pesticides and ADHD

A new study by American and Canadian researchers associates exposure to pesticides to the rising rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children

In the gulf, a gusher of lawsuits
On April 21, with the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig still in flames, John W. Degravelles and a group of other lawyers sued for damages. In the first of at least 88 suits filed since the disaster, they were seeking compensation for the widow of a Transocean worker who went missing and is presumed…
(By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post)

With Solar Valley, China takes bold step on energy
DEZHOU, CHINA — Uprooting the last traces of rural life on the edge of this northern Chinese city, laborers with chain saws spent a recent morning cutting down trees to make way for a hulking factory. A big red banner trumpeted the future for what used to be farmland: “The Biggest Solar Energy…
(By Andrew Higgins, The Washington Post)

‘This has the potential to work’
NARAY, AFGHANISTAN — Last November, Lt. Col. Robert B. Brown received an enticing offer from a mysterious enemy.
(By Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post)

Financial overhaul’s approval likely
The Senate this week could hand President Obama his second major legislative victory of the year, both on administration priorities that seemed in doubt not long ago.
(By Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)

Iran to ship uranium to Turkey in nuclear deal
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has agreed to ship much of its enriched uranium to Turkey in a nuclear fuel swap deal reached with the help of mediation from Brazil and Turkey.

Word of the Day for Monday, May 17, 2010

majuscule \MAJ-uh-skyool\, adjective:

1. Of letters written either as capitals or uncials.

noun:
1. A large letter, either capital or uncial, used in writing or printing.

So now that the pre-trial hearing in Omar Khadr’s military commission has recessed while the government conducts a mental-health exam of the 23-year old detainee, when will Khadr’s proceedings actually resume? July and August, just in time for the most oppressively baking temperatures that Guantanamo Bay has to offer!

According to the judge in the case, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, the final phase of the pre-trial “suppression” hearing — to determine whether Khadr’s statements to interrogators are sufficiently voluntary for the government to use against him — will begin on July 12. That’s when the government’s assessment of Khadr’s mental state as a 15 and 16-year old detainee in American custody, raised by the defense, will square off against Khadr’s attorneys’ experts, who will contend that a teenager under military interrogation is inherently under duress. It emerged during the first phase of the hearing that Khadr’s first interrogator told him a “fictional story” about a young detainee raped and killed for not cooperating with his captors.

The actual trial phase of the military commission, in which the government will seek to prove that Khadr threw a grenade in 2002 that killed U.S. Army Special Forces Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, will commence on August 10. That’s the first military commission of the Obama era. And it may not even happen: both the government and Khadr’s attorneys have publicly acknowledged seeking a plea deal to settle the government’s case against Khadr. But if they can’t reach one, it’s back to Guantanamo on August 10 for a hot and tense trial.

As a badge of pride or a piercing insult, “fanboy” is wielded too lightly. We must understand its history, its context, and its gravity! We must know its provenance! We must respect the (word) fanboy. More »










Arts – World War II – Apple – NASA – Wired

Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:18 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley this morning helped launch a new program — funded with $25 million in city money — to retrain unemployed workers so they can get full-time jobs in the technology based economy.

The city plans to tap proceeds from the long-term lease of city parking meters to help fund the Chicago Career Tech program over the next three years, during which the city hopes to retrain thousands of people.

“There are no old businesses left,” Daley said, after addressing the first 175-person class about to start in the program. “They are all changing through technology. And those that change survive. . . . We have a great work force, and we just have to give them the opportunities and the training and the retraining.”

CNA, Microsoft, Northern Trust Bank, the Joyce Foundation, the United Way and other groups are providing support and services. The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is providing a $300,000 grant.

The program’s participants range in age from 25 to 63, said Marie Lynch, its executive director. The average age is 46. All are city residents, earned between $25,000 and $75,000 at their previous jobs and have at least a GED.

During the six month program, they will work six days a week: two days in the classroom, two days at job shadowing and two days of “service learning” at not-for-profit groups.

The next class, which starts in October, is expected to have twice as many students, Daley said.

Zombie ShootAR (get it…AR as in Augmented Reality) is a fun and innovative first-person shooter for Smartphone that pits you against a legion of virtual zombies. You play the game by using your phone’s camera and screen to search for, shoot, chop-up or otherwise destroy the virtual zombies that appear integrated into your surroundings via augmented reality. Just watch the video below of me playing the game at my local library if you don’t understand. Good thing it’s AR—bystanders everywhere in the library. But before you get your hopes up for rocking this little blast-fest on your iPhone, let me get this out of the way right now. This game, which officially launches today, is currently available ONLY for Nokia N95 phones via the Ovi Store. Owners of phones with operating systems like iPhone, Android or Windows Phone, will have to wait a bit longer to play. But it will be worth the wait! The game creator, a Munich based company called Metaio, plan to release this game on other platforms soon. Check back for exclusive information about that.

Why only on the N95? I’ll come back to that.

While Zombie ShootAR is definitely not the first AR game out there (see other titles like Sky Siege, and Pandemica), its concept will appeal to any enemy of the undead. Who wouldn’t want to walk around your house, street or office shooting zombies as they spawn all around you? And when I say zombies, I don’t mean the casual pre-coffee co-worker who closed down the local pub the night before. I mean actual blood thirsty, doll-eye-having, pasty, vicious zombies, visible only in the augmented reality of your Smartphone’s screen. (I guess the first version of the game was a little TOO gory and actually had to be toned down a bit. Too bad.) But what else have you got going on that you can’t spare a few moments of your time in service of all humanity with this excellent mobile “shoot-em up” game?

On a side note, as cool as Zombie ShootAR is, games like this are totally going to wreck my “gaming on the throne” column concept, because you just have to move around a lot to play them. Definitely don’t try this one on the office throne—it might get weird. At least mute the phone. I digress.

Game Dynamics
To reiterate, virtual zombies spawn all around you and as they do, you aim your phone view finder and use the phone controls to shoot them with a variety of weapons. Gradually more and more attack at the same time, so you have to pick up the pace while conserving your bullets.

There is also a convenient 360 degree targeting radar in the lower left corner to keep you informed of the whereabouts of other zombies about to attack.

Interestingly, you can’t run away from the zombies. What I mean is, once they spawn, if you back away from them, they don’t seem to get further away in space. But I guess that is just like in the movies. No one seems to be able to get away from them there either, no matter how slow they are.

User Experience
This has pros and cons. The concept is solid and honestly, it’s how we really want to play games—play them as though we are actually in the environment of the game. But from a user experience standpoint, I worry as much about looking like an idiot while playing in public as I do about arm fatigue from holding the phone up. Even considering those negatives, this concept of game play is undeniably compelling. It’s a first step in a new direction. When integrated eyewear comes along, game play will become more natural and even less transparent to others. So all your friends who irritatingly text 5 people while they are talking to you will soon be shooting zombies over your shoulder at lunch, visible only in their glasses. Nice.

Since this game has actually been available as a private, unadvertised demo for a month or so you may have seen some of the concept videos floating around out there, but today it becomes “officially” available in the Ovi store. Why the Ovi store? Originally, I postulated that it must have something to do with reach. It’s important to remember that, while we are so focused on the iPhone and Android platform here in the U.S.A, Nokia still commands 34% of worldwide handset market share. But after having a last minute conversation with Metaio CTO Peter Meier this morning, there seems to be more to it than that. This is not just a traditional mobile game launch. It’s actually bigger than that. Metaio is, admittedly, not a game company. They are a technology company first and foremost and are focused mostly on pioneering Best of Breed AR techniques. And while Zombie ShootAR may have originally been developed only for N95, due to technical reasons related to image recognition and keeping the zombies firmly planted on the ground, the game really represents an invitation for developers to take Metaio’s Junaio and Unifeye SDKs and use them to create even greater gaming experiences. We’ll see where that goes, but know that they still plan on bringing this game to iPhone and other platforms soon.

Metaio sent me a phone with the demo on it and I have to say IT ROCKED! Zombie ShootAR is the coolest mobile game I have played in some time! I can’t wait to see what’s next for this kind of mobile gaming.

Additionally, I have to admit that the immature part of my personality finds comic value just in seeing zombies alongside people in the real world. It makes me think there is still an awesome opportunity yet to be exploited by this kind of technology. The “have-your-picture-taken-with-a-Zombie” app.
Who’s with me on this one?

Anyone? Hello? Is this thing still on? Hello…

Palm has agreed to pay HP (NYSE: HPQ) $33 million if it terminates the $1.2 billion merger between the two companies, but the likelihood of Palm finding a better suitor or a more intriguing deal is highly improbable at this point.

According to documents filed with the SEC, Palm conducted an exhaustive search for the right partner. Out of 16 companies it reached out to, the list was narrowed down to five serious candidates that showed varying levels of interest in Palm (NSDQ: PALM). Almost all made a serious offer, some for cash and offers to purchase intellectual property or rights to its webOS operating system.

On April 13, HP made its first offer to acquire the company for $4.75 a share in cash, or roughly $1 billion. A competing offer by an unnamed company totaled $5.50 a share, which ultimately led to HP increasing its offer to the final price of $5.70 a share.

None of the other five suitors were named in the document, however, the back-and-forth negotiations make sense because at the peak of speculation, HTC, Dell, HP, Intel (NSDQ: INTC), Lenovo and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) were all named as potential acquirers. Whether the companies that made bids—reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars—are still serious and would look at other buy-out targets, it’s unknown.

Honda se encuentra en estos momentos dedicando gran parte de su atención al CR-Z (del cual hemos asistido a su presentación en Amsterdam), mientras el Civic tenía en veremos algunos planes de rediseño para renovar la ya superada generación actual que debutó hace casi cuatro años. A pesar de contar con algunos años encima, el Civic no deja de ser uno de los coches vendidos más numerosos de Honda, por ejemplo en EEUU, en donde acapara un tercio de ventas de la marca.

Y en EEUU, es donde más interesados están en recibir un nuevo modelo del eterno Civic. John Mendel, Vicepresidente de Honda America, ha anunciado que la presentación del nuevo modelo se va a atrasar un año más, ya que se han decidido nuevamente por un coche más compacto, en contra de los planes originales que mostraban un Civic más grande que el actual.

De manera que el nuevo Civic, al menos en EEUU, será casi igual en dimensiones que el Civic que se puede comprar hoy en cualquier concesionario. Mendel dice que las condiciones cambiantes del mercado, han obligado a poner al Civic nuevamente en los tableros y pantallas de dibujo, para crear un coche que no por ser más grande (y seguramente pesado), vaya a ir en contra de las próximas regulaciones de consumos y emisiones.

Junto con la nueva generación del Civic, será lanzada también la nueva generación de otro peso pesado de la marca: el CR-V. Este popular crossover será similar en diseño al Civic (de hecho es un Civic crossover) y también será enviado de regreso al departamento de diseño de Honda para limar algunos puntos dudosos en su diseño. Ambos modelos saldrán al mercado el año que viene, primero en EEUU.

Vía | Automotive News

El vicepresidente de marketing y ventas de Nissan en Europa, Simon Thomas, acaba de dar a conocer los primeros precios de los cuatro primeros países europeos que recibirán el nuevo vehículo eléctrico Nissan Leaf.

Para el resto de países, tendremos que seguir esperando hasta que se acerque la fecha de lanzamiento en dichos lugares. Por el momento, el Nissan Leaf tendrá los siguientes precios:

• El precio en el Reino Unido será de 27.471€ , tras restarle los incentivos del gobierno.
• El precio en Holanda será de 32.839€ . Los compradores holandeses se beneficiarán de un ahorro en impuestos de entre 6.000 y 19.000€ durante cinco años.
• El precio en Irlanda será de 29.995€, incluyendo incentivos gubernamentales.
• En Portugal, el precio será de 29.955€, incluyendo ayudas del Gobierno.
• Todos los precios incluyen la batería

Related posts:

1. Nissan Leaf será fabricado en el Reino Unido
2. Nissan Leaf, precio disponible
3. Nissan presenta el Leaf, su primer vehículo eléctrico

Once, when I was on a flight, I had what seemed to be the bright idea of ordering a can of Mr. & Mrs. T Bloody Mary for my beverage/lunch by proxy. Full flavored, filling, healthy — right?

If only.

That one 12-ounce can contained 1560 mg of sodium, or nearly two thirds of the daily allowance. I was shocked.

Health.com has recently posted a fascinating graphic of 25 Surprisingly Salty Processed Foods. The big surprise is that so many of these foods are purportedly healthy options: 1% milkfat cottage cheese, bran muffins and a Lean Cuisine frozen entree, among others.

I was disheartened to find out that Raisin Bran has twice the sodium of some other popular cereals.

The accompanying story about “salt addiction” is here.

Have you ever had the experience of eating a food that you think is healthy, only to find that “healthy” is a relative term?