Tropical Storm Rafael threatens Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico

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By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 12:16 AM EDT, Sun October 14, 2012

On Bay Road in Basseterre, St. Kitts, two taxis were washed down to the shoreline when they tried to cross the flooded road.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Rafael unleashed heavy rain and powerful gusts to the Virgin Islands and threatened more areas in the Caribbean Sea late Saturday night.

With sustained winds of 50 mph, Rafael could get even stronger as it bears down on several islands popular with tourists.

"Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Rafael could become a hurricane by late Monday," the National Hurricane Center in Miami said at 11 p.m. Saturday.

At that time, the tropical storm was centered about 40 miles west-northwest of St. Marten and 95 miles east of St. Croix. Rafael was moving north at 14 mph.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for a number of Caribbean isles, including the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, St. Marten, Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts and Guadeloupe. Dousing rains and steady winds in excess of 39 mph are expected in 12 to 24 hours in these places, according to the hurricane center. Puerto Rico is under a tropical storm watch, meaning such conditions are possible.

College Street, which runs through the middle of Basseterre, is filled with floodwaters.

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Tropical Storm Rafael threatens Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico

Foxx, Motsinger clash on most issues

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The United States, four years after the devastating collapses of the real estate and financial sectors, shoulders a national debt of $16 trillion, maneuvers through vast changes in the health-care system and braces for possible changes to safety-net entitlement programs.

Against this backdrop, Virginia Foxx, a four-term Republican incumbent in northwestern North Carolinas 5th Congressional District, and her Democratic opponent, Elisabeth Motsinger, a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, seek to deal with those national issues, among others.

Last week, in separate interviews, they answered questions about five key national issues, including military spending, the Affordable Care Act and illegal immigration.

Entitlements

Programs such as Medicare and Social Security should be strengthened and preserved so that they may continue to benefit future generations, Foxx said in an email.

Motsinger gave a similar response.

But they have different views on how these programs should be preserved.

Motsinger opposes proposed reforms that have in the past been favored by Foxx and recommended by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the GOP vice presidential candidate and chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee.

Ryan, in 2005, recommended a plan that would offer a privatization option for Social Security for younger people, and the 2010 budget he proposed had a privatization option, though his latest plan does not, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

Motsinger said she is opposed to privatizing Social Security or creating individual accounts.

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Foxx, Motsinger clash on most issues

Health care: Who has to pay

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John Crudele

DEAR JOHN...THE ANSWER MAN

Dear John: I am a registered nurse who has been working in a major trauma center in New York City for the past 20 years.

I have a son who is 22 years old and does not have a job that provides health insurance. Before he was covered on my plan (under ObamaCare) we had to pay out of pocket for doctor visits.

The doctor visits are $150, and the procedures are more. We found it hard to pay the $150. I prayed every day that he was not a victim of trauma because where would we come up with the money to pay the hospital?

I would have to sell my house.

When is the right time for ObamaCare? Ever since I could remember, both Republican and Democratic presidents have promised some type of universal health care, and nothing has materialized.

I understand that the new health- care bill is not perfect, but we need to start somewhere.

Too many people are uninsured and are not getting medical care. And when they get medical care, the bill is never paid.

When the president, congressmen and senators get sick, they have access to the best health care in America.

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Health care: Who has to pay

Memorial works on efficiency to improve care, avoid health-reform penalties

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A 59-cent sterilizing sponge and an additional minute to draw each patients blood have helped Memorial Medical Center save at least $2 million in health-care costs over the past two years.

More important, the modification Memorial adopted for testing patients blood for dangerous infections such as sepsis has meant quicker and more appropriate medical responses to those infections. Patients have suffered less as a result, and its likely that some lives have been saved, Memorial officials say.

Its provided physicians with the right information sooner, said David Neff, a Memorial project leader for operations improvement.

The effort to hone in on certain types of blood tests to make them more accurate the first time around is one of dozens of projects the Springfield hospital has undertaken to improve care at a time when the federal government and private insurers are starting to reward hospitals for quality rather than quantity.

Memorial recently learned it performed well in the first year of one of the first large pay-for-performance programs set in motion by the federal Affordable Care Act. The hospital also expects to receive a financial bonus in December through another such incentive in the health-reform law.

Readmissions low

Memorial was one of 17 hospitals in Illinois, out of about 130 ranked, that will receive no financial penalty over the next 12 months based on readmission rates for patients treated for heart attack, congestive heart failure or pneumonia.

Weve been working hard on this, and we track this, and weve done a number of initiatives, so we were certainly gratified to have this result, said Charles Callahan, vice president for quality and operations at Memorials parent organization, Memorial Health System.

Readmissions are one focus of the governments health-care reform efforts because they often result from uncoordinated care, both inside the hospital and after a patient is discharged. Almost one in five Medicare patients return to the hospital within a month, and until now, hospitals have been financially rewarded for that with additional Medicare payments.

Memorial could have faced a penalty of up to 1 percent of its base Medicare rates, or about $1 million annually, based on the percentage of patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge, with adjustments made for patients age, gender and medical history. The not-for-profit institution annually posts about $480 million in patient-service revenues; about $192 million of those revenues come from Medicare.

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Memorial works on efficiency to improve care, avoid health-reform penalties

Doctors disagree on health-care laws effects

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Voters at a recent rally for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney cited not just disagreement, but outright fear of the new health-care law.

I dont think theres going to be enough money, said Karen Albright, a nurse from Parker, on a warm autumn evening waiting in line to hear the candidate. I expect rationing. They will say you are too old.

Armeda Freel, who traveled from Scottsbluff, Neb., to a rally in Lakewood, is on Medicare, the government health-insurance program for people 65 and older. She said she hurried to have surgery on the carpal tunnel problem in her hands this year because she fears it would be denied after the health-care law takes full effect in 2014.

I thought there was a chance they would say, Live with the numbness. Youre not going to die. Freel said.

Charles Patricoff, also in line, looked tanned, strong and younger than his 60 years, yet said he had suffered a major heart attack just three months earlier. He believes he might have been denied treatment under the new law.

They might have looked at me and my age, and said, Youve lived a full life. he said.

Romney and most Republican congressional candidates have promised to overturn the health-care law if they are elected. The law, passed in 2010, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. If left intact, it will go into effect in 2014.

Colorado Public News asked two leading physicians in Colorado on opposite sides of the political fence whether these fears of the federal government interfering with treatment of their patients were justified. The answers were enlightening, and very different.

Dr. William G. Plested, president of the American Medical Association from 2006 to 2007, retired as a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon in Santa Monica, Calif., to Bayfield. He is a severe critic of the health-care law.

In stark contrast is Dr. John Bender, president-elect of the Colorado Medical Society and a family medicine doctor with Miramont Family Medicine in Fort Collins. He does not see anything in the health law that would cause interference in the daily practice of medicine.

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Doctors disagree on health-care laws effects

Local residents divided over ‘Obamacare’

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Health care reform is a key issue in the November presidential election. We asked readers what they think it should look like.

Cady Gebhardt, 22, Dayton

I would like to see people who need health care be able to get it. But the people who dont need it shouldnt have to buy it. I dont feel like I need it, so I dont want to have to buy it, and I dont want to be taxed for it.

Jared Stephens, 23, Dayton

For the most part, I definitely agree with Obamas health care plan, but there should be more of an option in it, with different levels so that if Im making this much, this is the health care you get, so people at the younger end of the spectrum, who dont need all that health care, theyre not paying as much if theyre not earning as much. They should tailor it per the generations.

Colleen Wells, 63, Springboro

What I know about Obamacare scares me to death. I think theres a happy medium between Obamacare and what we need. I cant believe no one can figure it out. I dont think its fair theyre burdening small businesses with health care. Its keeping my son, who owns a small business, from wanting to hire more people because he doesnt know what hes going to be taxed with.

Asia White, 26, Dayton

As a single parent who works part-time, I qualify for Medicaid. It does play a major role for me. As long as the Democratic Party continues to see fit that low-income families can afford health care, then Im definitely for that. If the other party would make known that it has a better option, Id be forced to weigh my options. If I was middle class, then I could afford to have a different option, but right now, I cant.

Beverly Rowell, 49, Dayton

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Local residents divided over ‘Obamacare’

Access to affordable, quality health care has Central Illinoisians concerned

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DECATUR Iris Lewis-Beasley knows all too well about the importance of health care.

Beasley, a trust administrative officer at Hickory Point Bank and Trust in Decatur, has had multiple surgeries on her knee, ankle and thumb after being involved in several car accidents.

Her daughter, Ilaina, recently had to have a benign tumor surgically removed after several visits to specialists.

But it was her experience with her 3-month-old-son in the mid-1990s that shaped Lewis-Beasleys views on health care.

What people care about this election season is the focus of a month-long series by Lee Enterprises reporters, who spent recent weeks talking to Central Illinois residents about what they want to see addressed by the presidential candidates. Lingering worries about health care, for instance, center on people concerned about both the availability and cost of appropriate care.

Lewis-Beasley was a teen in 1995 when she gave birth to her son, Caylin. Without access to quality health care, she received a medical card and relied on lesser care.

Caylin developed beta strep soon after being born, but the disease was not diagnosed or treated. It developed into meningitis and three months after he was born, Caylin was dead.

At that point in my life, I vowed never to be put back in that situation where I didnt have medical insurance again and that Id have to be dependent on the coverage you may or may not get because you dont have good insurance, Lewis-Beasley said.

Because of his death, Lewis-Beasley believes health care needs to change and focus on helping those in the community less fortunate than others.

I really worry about those people who are already in a high-risk situation, she said.

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Access to affordable, quality health care has Central Illinoisians concerned

Health care future hinges on presidential vote

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The signature achievement of President Barack Obamas term could be out the door if Mitt Romney wins in November, but the debate over the future of health care in America will continue and possibly dominate the next term no matter who gets elected.

The candidates competing visions could scarcely be more dissimilar, even though Obamas Affordable Care Act was closely modeled after the health care plan Romney signed into law while governor of Massachusetts.

If President Barack Obama wins re-election, he can be expected to fully phase in the 2010 law which is designed to extend health coverage to millions of Americans without insurance. And he likely will retain the basic structures of Medicare and Medicaid, the Great Society programs that provide health coverage to the elderly and the poor respectively.

Should Romney win the presidency, count him on him to try to repeal the 2010 law which has earned the nickname Obamacare, while launching a sweeping transformation of Medicare and Medicaid.

The competing roads on dealing with the millions of Americans without health insurance while simultaneously trying to restrain the growth of federal health programs has been a dominant dispute in a testy presidential race that is sure to get testier in the coming weeks.

During the first presidential debate this month in Denver, Obama complained that Romney wants to replace the 2010 health law but he hasnt described what exactly wed replace it with other than saying were going to leave it to the states.

By contrast, Romney argues that the health law has discouraged small companies from hiring people. During the same debate, he assailed Obama for spending his energy and passion during his first two years in office fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people. It has killed jobs.

No matter who wins the election, the grim reality of Americas health care system is not going to vanish. Even under Obamas health law, as many as 20 million Americans will still lack health coverage. If Romney either persuades Congress to repeal the law or allows states to ignore it, some predict that the number of uninsured people could climb to nearly 50 million.

In addition, the crushing costs borne by the federal government to finance Medicare and Medicaid only will grow more burdensome. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that combined federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid will increase from $822 billion this year to more than $1.6 trillion by 2022.

By contrast, the CBO calculates that by 2022, the government will spend just $647 billion on domestic discretionary programs such as housing, education, and transportation. In essence, the government will be devoting more financial resources to the elderly as opposed to the young.

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Live review: David Byrne & St. Vincent spellbinding at Segerstrom Center stunner

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David Byrne & St. Vincent plus horns in Costa Mesa. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register. Click for more.

You certainly notice right away the multitude of horns that punch up Love This Giant, the dizzying new result of a slow-soldered mind-meld between legendary innovator David Byrne and experimental upstart Annie Clark, who does business as St. Vincent. The expansive brass band gathered for the duos project announces itself from the get-go with introductory single Who, spitting forth the first of an array of squiggly riffs that 45 minutes later has run the gamut from heady Afropop and feverish JBs funk to mood-yoking motifs la Gil Evans.

Yet regardless of how dominant they may seem on record and even more so when you witness Byrne & Clark & Co. in concert, like their superb performance Friday night at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, which replayed tonight at the Greek Theatre you can just as easily get caught up by how the albums other forces sinuously helix with those horns into one multifaceted strand.

Those forces, to be exact: 1) Byrne, that restless musicologist, never less than intriguing since parting from Talking Heads at the end of the 80s, yet whose imagistic, philosophizing pop has rarely been so sublime and stately as it has been lately. 2) Clark, the curly-haired wisp from Manhattan, who via three remarkable St. Vincent discs (Marry Me, Actor and Strange Mercy) has emerged as one of todays most inventive and important new talents. And 3) drum programmer John Congleton, whose various stuttered patterns prove essential to making this synthesis so smooth.

Byrne (60) and Clark (30) are naturals together, like an eccentric, visionary godfather and his eclectic, virtuoso niece. You can feel their creative camaraderie even in Love This Giants iciest moments, but it was even more palpable in the gracious glances and gestures they gave one another inside the opulent Rene and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, a three-tiered jewel rarely used for amplified performances like this. Their voices are such a perfect blend of chilly and warm, futurism and earthiness, its a wonder they arent biologically related.

But Congletons beats, every bit as textured and syncopated as the adorning horns he helps propel, provides just as much punctuation to these organically developed tales of nature vs. technology, inner peace vs. outer cataclysm. Byrne believes every strain of it intertwines into something distinctly new. I think he might be right.

Whats arguably even more daring an enterprise, however, is what he and Clark achieve with this fusion on stage and with almost entirely different musicians from those who appear on the album.

Though its a minimalist, somewhat black-and-white night filled with stark shadows and martial choreography, people keep coming out of performances with minds blown because they dont often see such invigorating imagination at work, even in these supposedly more sophisticated times of so many other duos (the xx, the Kills, Sleigh Bells, Crystal Castles) concocting engulfing sounds out of sparse situations.

This, though, is an altogether more hypnotic experience, not least because of the mesmerizing eight-piece brass and woodwind ensemble that powers the group with layers of sweetly cacophonous trombone and alto sax, effective interjections of French horn and flugelhorn, all anchored by some of the heartiest Sousaphone blowing outside of New Orleans. Theres no electric bass involved, just those impressive horns, a keyboardist and drummer kept clear to the corners, and whatever guitars are added by Byrne (usually on acoustic) and Clark, whose shards of frantic, distorted leads on her Gibson SG are becoming a signature all their own.

Hello, people of Orange, Byrne deadpanned at the outset of what I believe is his first appearance in O.C. since his 1997 tour behind his fourth post-Heads effort Feelings, which played San Juan Capistranos Coach House.

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Live review: David Byrne & St. Vincent spellbinding at Segerstrom Center stunner

S.F. nudists say it's about the freedom

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A recent Tuesday, 2:24 p.m.: The "naked guys" who hang out at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro district have gotten a lot of attention since Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed legislation that would require them to put clothes on or be fined.

Opinions have been voiced. Stories have been written. Now, everybody knows how awful some find it to see naked people in the Castro - but what do the nudists think?

To find out, I decided to conduct a nudist fashion shoot of sorts. A casting call was made on a sunny afternoon in the plaza at the corner of Castro and Market streets. The only requirement was that participants give me an honest response to Wiener's proposed legislation - and, of course, agree to be photographed for all the world to see in the pages of The Chronicle.

Nine people showed without any clothes, four of them women, and only one had second thoughts about being photographed.

Wiener's proposal "is turning us into criminals, and it's criminalizing the human body," said Woody Miller, 54, a waiter working on his master's degree in history at San Francisco State who moved to the city in 1982 from Lancaster, Pa. "I think San Francisco has always been a place that has drawn people who've wanted to reimagine themselves.

"Very rarely do people ask me why I do this," Miller said. "I like the way it feels. I like the feel of the sun and air on my skin. I think it puts me closer in contact with who I am.

"A lot of people say we are too fat, too old, too hairy. But I consider my body to be a record of my lived experiences," Miller said, noting a dramatic scar from a heart operation that plunges down his chest and ends in a dimpled cross just above his abdomen.

Pete Sferra, 57, of San Jose locked arms with his wife, Laura Vaughn, 59. They smiled, wearing only their shoes and wedding bands.

"San Francisco sets the bar for tolerance of alternative lifestyles of all kinds," said Sferra, a technical writer at a large company in Silicon Valley. "The myth is that we're all sex-crazed. I'd like others to know that we're normal people.

"I'm very comfortable being nude," Sferra said. "There is nothing sexual about it. It's not really a statement; it's about comfort. ... It's about freedom, which is what San Francisco is about."

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S.F. nudists say it's about the freedom

Frank Denton: Freedom of speech versus fatwa

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The irony was blatant and disheartening and sad, but perhaps with a lesson for us.

On a London holiday last weekend, I took advantage of a walk somewhere else to cut between Westminster Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament, just for the experience.

What I actually found was a fiery, though mostly peaceful, demonstration of several hundred Muslims against the dumb, 13-minute anti-Islam Innocence of Muslims video that has provoked riots in Muslim countries around the world, with more than 50 deaths, as well as a fatwa against the filmmaker.

But this was in the very heart of one of the worlds great democracies, literally in the shadow of the House of Commons, where there is the renowned Question Time and the traditional exchange of shouted challenges and insults over public policies.

Yet one of the signs carried by some demonstrators said: Freedom of speech is not freedom to abuse.

Yes it is.

In the United Kingdom, the U.S. and democracies around the world, freedom of speech is the freedom to say almost anything (excepting the fire-in-the-theatre clear and present danger) with the democratic belief that such unfettered debate ultimately will produce the best understanding, ideas, solutions and outcomes.

Those protestors in Parliament Square raging against freedom of speech were enjoying the protection of British democracy. Hopefully, the religious zeal-fueled irony was not lost on the most thoughtful among them.

But the headlines and TV reports, of course, have been mostly about the least thoughtful, the angry, violent and hate-filled minority of Muslims in Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and some other Muslim and Arab countries.

Minority, you ask? These mobs?

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Frank Denton: Freedom of speech versus fatwa

Freedom ties Liberty 1-1 but wins division title

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Just moments after his Liberty boys soccer team tied Bethlehem rival Freedom 1-1 on Thursday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium, Hurricanes coach Jason Horvath received the score of the Nazareth-Northampton match.

It was not good news for Horvath and Liberty.

Northampton edged Nazareth 2-1 Thursday night, meaning the Konkrete Kids earned the Lehigh Valley Conference's wild-card berth and No. 4 seed for next week's conference tournament.

Liberty and Northampton both finished 8-4-2 in LVC action, but Northampton claimed the playoff spot over Liberty thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. The K-Kids defeated the Hurricanes 2-0 on Oct. 1.

"We wanted to control our own destiny, of course," Horvath said. "And we could've done that by winning. But we're not in the conference playoffs and now we need to focus on the District 11 tournament."

On Freedom's side, the double-overtime tie was terrific news. Rookie coach Michael O'Connell's Patriots completed an extremely successful turnaround (regular) season. Freedom is now 11-5-2 overall and 10-3-1 in the LVC, one year after finishing with a 4-13-1 record.

Freedom clinched the East Division title with Thursday's tie.

"This was a playoff-type environment and that's how I wanted our kids to treat it," said O'Connell, a longtime assistant coach at Lehigh University. "I thought we started slow but I'm proud of the way our kids responded down 1-0."

North Division champion Parkland will be the top seed and play Northampton on Tuesday at Whitehall High School in the LVC semifinals. Second-seeded Emmaus, the West Division champion, meets Freedom at J. Birney Crum Stadium in the other conference semifinal set for Tuesday. Both matches start at 5:30 p.m.

Liberty scored the first goal of the match on Senior Night with 14:13 remaining in the first half. Tresor Butoyi drilled a shot into the back of the net off a pass from Colin Muller.

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Freedom ties Liberty 1-1 but wins division title

In defense of academic freedom

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In August 2009, an Israeli academic and political activist by the name of Neve Gordon published an Op-Ed article in the Los Angeles Times in which he reluctantly called for a gradual international boycott against his own nation. Gordon felt that such dramatic action was required to overcome the deep structural inequities between Jews and Arabs in Israeli society and the occupied territories, and to force the government back toward the goal of a two-state solution.

Three years later, Gordon's academic home, the Department of Politics and Government of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is on the verge of being closed down by the Israeli Council for Higher Education, a highly unusual act in Israel. It is hard not to draw a direct line between Gordon's call for a boycott and the council's impending decision on Oct. 23.

A committee appointed by the council in 2010 to review all political science departments in Israeli universities arrived at a rather discordant set of conclusions regarding the department at BGU. On one hand, it made suggestions that one often finds in external reviews of university departments, proposing curricular changes, a more coherent undergraduate program and three to four additional faculty hires.

But the committee also trained its attention on the "community activism" of the department's members, many of whom, like Gordon, are highly critical of Israeli government policy. Following that, it made a vaguely articulated call for "a balance of views in the curriculum and the classroom." If changes were not made, the committee opined, "Ben-Gurion University should consider closing the Department of Politics and Government."

In fact, changes were made, to the satisfaction of the committee chair. But the Council for Higher Education appointed another committee that persists in recommending that the department be essentially closed down.

Why should this matter to us? First, academic freedom by which I mean not an approved set of pro/con views but rather tolerance in and outside the classroom for diverse perspectives argued logically and respectfully is an important foundation of democracy in the United States, in Israel and around the world.

Second, we in California are familiar with attempts to set limits on academic freedom. Over the last decade, self-anointed guardians of academic freedom have attempted to upend it by insisting on balance in university courses or on limitations on the right of free speech by faculty members and students. The most recent attempt is House Resolution 35, which was passed in the Assembly in August. This "nonbinding" resolution urged California's state universities to combat anti-Semitism on campus. That sounds good, but as framed, it could have the effect of censoring views critical of Israeli policy.

Efforts to infringe on academic freedom have deep roots in the state. At the dawn of the McCarthy era, California mandated that public employees, including UC professors, sign a loyalty oath requiring them to forswear any allegiance to the Communist Party. Famously, in 1949 the German-born medieval historian Ernst Kantorowicz refused to sign such an oath, though he was hardly a communist. Kantorowicz's grounding as a medievalist and his experience as a person of Jewish origin in Nazi Germany led him to conclude that "history shows that it never pays to yield to the impact of momentary hysteria, or to jeopardize, for the sake of temporary or temporal advantages, the permanent or eternal values."

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the importance of academic freedom in its 1967 Keyishian vs. Board of Regents decision, which overturned a New York law that required teachers to sign a loyalty oath: "Our nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom."

It is this very principle that is under siege in Israel. The country's universities, including Ben-Gurion, are internationally renowned for their research prowess and scholarly excellence. They aspire to be cutting-edge centers of research and teaching; to succeed in this task requires openness to a wide and diverse range of opinions, hypotheses and methods. But with the threat to close down the BGU department, that ideal is under assault by the very body entrusted with upholding it.

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In defense of academic freedom

Freedom blows out 3rd straight opponent as Burgess surpasses 3,000 yards

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Credit: James Lynch Jr. | The News Herald

Freedom defensive lineman Javairius Bennett (85) chases the East Rutherford quarterback out of the pocket and forces an interception in Friday's 42-14 win.

Freedoms gameplan was to control the clock while churning the ball via the rush. The Patriots accomplished that, galloping for 351 yards rushing en route to a 42-14 South Mountain 2A/3A Conference home triumph against East Rutherford on Friday.

We knew that they were a really good team only losing to Burns by five points, said Freedom coach Mike Helms. I thought this was one of the top three teams we have played up to this point. That is a credit to us. We played really well.

Freedom (7-2, 3-1) utilized the ground attack 52 times (80 percent) compared to 13 plays through the air. Running back David Burgess rushed 25 times for 206 yards and a touchdown, the sixth time this season hes gone for more than 200 all-purpose yards.

The senior standout also eclipsed the 3,000-yard barrier on the ground and now has 3,179 yards rushing in his three-year varsity career. This fall alone, hes at 195 carries for 1,736 yards (8.9 yards per carry)and 20 TDs.

Senior quarterback Shawn Fairchild completed 10 of 13 passes for 84 yards while also rushing 13 times for 46 yards and two touchdowns.

We were looking to come out and set the tone. I think we had a good gameplan coming in. The offensive line did a very good job, said Fairchild. We worked well around (East Rutherfords) blitzing. Coach Helms did a very good job of changing around the play calls. We had a lot of success with the read in the second half, which allowed us to run the ball well.

Freedom junior speedster Khris Gardin returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a score. The wideout also caught eight passes for 76 yards. ERs first possession was stopped when Patriot linebacker Cameron Storie picked off an Austin Hollifield pass at the Cavs 42. Freedom then put together a seven-play, 42-yard drive capped by Fairchilds 1-yard TD run.

ER (4-5, 2-2) produced a touchdown on a 39-yard pass from Hollifield to Lovell Robinson to make it 14-7, then moved near midfield on the potential tying drive in the second period before Freedoms James Caldwell returned an interception 30 yards inside the red zone. Chris Bridges pounded home a 9-yard run to put the Pats back on top by two scores.

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Freedom blows out 3rd straight opponent as Burgess surpasses 3,000 yards

Bud Wright: Hang in there — it will all be over soon

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As I was growing to maturity (OK, that ones debatable) the most subversive influence on Americas youth was MAD magazine. If you are a card-carrying Baby Boomer (and these days its an AARP card) then you harbor fond memories of Alfred E. Neuman (what ... me worry?), cartoonist Don Martins grotesquely comical creations and Spy vs. Spy.

This little slice of cultural chaos was a little pricey (50 cents ... cheap) so for me it was an occasional indulgence. But whenever I could scrounge up the four bits it made for a blissful afternoons lampooning of societal norms when that was far from common.

What made MAD special was the way it took ordinary facets of American life and turned them inside out. Generally speaking, it was stuff that otherwise went unexamined.

I still remember one parody from the early 60s wherein a reporter interviewed a pot-bellied cop who was a proud member of the John Birch Society. It was howlingly funny and enlightening. There were equally lacerating spoofs of the counterculture. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter once observed that MAD was ready to pounce on the illogical, hypocritical, self-serious and ludicrous.

Where is MAD when we need it? Oh, its still around but it no longer enjoys the cultural cachet it once did.

All of the following tidbits were found circulating about the inter-web. None were prominently reported in the mainstream media. They were not reported at all in the right-wing media. Thats because the media doesnt care, our politicians prevaricate and we-the-people disregard anything that gets in the way of our preconceived, predigested perceptions.

This week, Mitt Romney (who is vowing to repeal Obamacare which is the mirror-image of the health care bill Mitt himself pushed for and signed into law as governor of Massachusetts) stated that; We dont have people who die in their apartment because they dont have insurance.

Estimates vary, but even the most conservative guesstimate is that between 30 and 50 thousand people die each year in this country as a direct result of being uninsured. The most despicable aspect of Mitts remark is that he knows this. We often yearn for a cure for death by cancer. We could cure death by apathy with the stroke of a pen.

Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Roger Rivard made the observation, this week, that; Some girls rape easy. He was affectionately quoting his father. The point he was attempting to make is that rape is very often a simple case of buyers remorse. Did you ever wonder how ignorance and bigotry propagate so easily? Children are empty vessels and it is parents who fill them.

Former Republican Arkansas state Rep. Charlie Fuqua (who is running again) has called for the forced sterilization of negligent parents. Actually, we did have a brush with eugenics back in the early decades of the 20th century. Its one of the uglier chapters in our history.

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Bud Wright: Hang in there — it will all be over soon

Poor investment climate hurting Bengal, says Ronen Sen

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Kolkata, Oct 13:

Former Indian Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, said on Saturday that the lack of an eco-system is hindering West Bengals prospects in attracting investment. He was also critical of the Mamata Banerjee-led State Governments opposition to the Teesta water treaty.

Over the last one decade, I failed to find people who are interested to focus in Bengal. I honestly believe there is a very good potential in terms of skills in the State. But, everywhere there is a lack of eco-system, Sen said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion on the public private partnership model organised by the Kolkata Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce.

According to Sen, absence of domestic investments in the State will make it an uphill task to attract foreign investors. The prolonged lack of investment is likely to lead to a situation where the States demographic dividend will turn out to be a demographic disaster.

If domestic investors are not coming to West Bengal, no foreign investors will be interested, he said.

Criticising the State Governments opposition to the signing of the Teesta Water Treaty with Bangladesh, the former diplomat said, the treaty could have improved the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and India.

A transit-connectivity between the two countries is held up because of the Teesta Water Treaty, Sen added.

On the recent measures to attract FDI in multi-brand retail, aviation and insurance, Sen said, It is positive if you have some consensus. Unless we get our economy moving, our security is going to be affected. We should make decisions.

Responding to popular concerns he said, When foreign companies come to India through the foreign direct investment route, they are not going to replicate their business models in India.

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Poor investment climate hurting Bengal, says Ronen Sen

Clock ticking on federal funding for beach renourishment

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By Sheila Mullane Estrada, Times Correspondent Sheila Mullane EstradaTampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, October 14, 2012

TREASURE ISLAND

Residents here and in other beach towns have gotten used to the idea that every few years, federal taxpayers will cough up the money to renourish the beaches. It's an understanding between the federal and local governments that may not go on for much longer.

In seven years, Treasure Island's eroding beaches won't get any new sand unless Congress reauthorizes the city's 50-year-old beach renourishment program, set to expire in 2019.

City and county officials are working to make sure that does not happen.

Treasure Island is the second city in the country to be affected by the sunsetting of the federal beach renourishment program that began in the 1960s.

The first beach project, in Carolina Beach, N.C., will run out in 2015 and is expected to be a test case for what could happen in Florida.

Other Pinellas County beaches have more time before their beach renourishment could end.

Funding authorization for renourishment for St. Pete Beach will run out in 2030. Sand Key, encompassing beach cities from Madeira Beach north to Clearwater, will continue to be eligible through 2043.

Treasure Island received its first beach nourishment in 1969 and since then has been renourished 14 times, according to county records.

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Clock ticking on federal funding for beach renourishment

Captains corner: Shallow grass flats, beaches are active areas

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By Rob Gorta, Times Correspondent Rob GortaTampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, October 14, 2012

What's hot: The beaches are covered with baitfish such as threadfin herring and scaled sardines. Spanish mackerel, kingfish, cobia, bonito, sharks and jack crevalles are the prominent species on the prowl. Large redfish schools continue to invade shallow-water flats in search of crustaceans. Pinellas Point has several schools in the area. Seatrout, one of the easiest species to catch, are starting to show up everywhere on the grass flats with the cooler water.

Tactics: Slow-trolling threadfin herring off the beaches will entice all of the pelagic species. I start by locating schools of baitfish less than a mile from the beach and deploy baits on a light drag setting using light wire to prevent cutoffs from toothy fish. Stone crab season is also here, so keep an eye out for tripletail hanging out right next to the crab pots.

Tips: Redfish have been tailing on the low tides. I use a small piece of cut bait when targeting tailing reds; it lands softly and is one of the best presentations in shallow water. The east winds have made ideal conditions for drifting the flats for trout. A popping cork with a scaled sardine is one of my favorite presentations. This combination is deadly for trout and will produce lots of fish when drifting over grass flats.

Rob Gorta charters out of St. Petersburg. Call him at (727) 647-7606 or visit captainrobgorta.com.

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Captains corner: Shallow grass flats, beaches are active areas