Freedom Industries Execs Indicted Over Elk River Spills

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By Sara Jerome @sarmje

Freedom Industries, the company behind the chemical spill that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians this year, found itself in the spotlight again this monthand once again, it's not from a flattering angle.

In December, "the FBI added a criminal case against the former president of Freedom Industries, Inc.," CNN reported.

"Gary Southern, an executive of Charleston, West Virginia-based Freedom since 2009, was arrested and accused of lying during bankruptcy proceedings in hopes of protecting about $8 million in personal assets," Bloomberg reported.

According to an FBI complaint, the allegations against Southern range from fraud to lying under oath. He "was charged with bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, and lying under oath during the companys bankruptcy proceedings following the massive spill," Think Progress reported.

FBI Special Agent James Lafferty "said in a sworn affidavit that Southern, in an attempt to protect his personal fortune of nearly $8 million and shield himself from lawsuits, developed a scheme to distance himself from the company and 'deflect blame' to other parties," the report said.

After the leak was found, Southern "engaged in a pattern of deceitful behavior, which included numerous false and/or fraudulent statements" about his role, Lafferty said, per Bloomberg.

Southern is not the only one in trouble for what happened to the Elk River.

Also in December, the U.S. Attorney Generals office filed "an indictment against four executives of the company that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians this past January, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act," including Southern, Think Progress reported.

Along with Southern, ex-president Dennis Farrell, former secretary William Tis, and former vice president Charles Herzing are also named in the indictment.

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Freedom Industries Execs Indicted Over Elk River Spills

Freedom Rider brings civil rights story to Chandler

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Carol Ruth Silver and Claude Liggins stand by a plaque commemorating the efforts of the Freedom Riders who challenged racial segregation in public places throughout the South more than 50 years ago. Silver and Liggins, two of the Freedom Riders, will share their stories during a panel discussion at the Chandler Center for the Arts on Jan. 10.(Photo: Chandler)

The memories Claude Liggins carries with him from more than 53 years ago are vivid. What triggered them remains essential to who he is today. Their message also remains as relevant now as in 1961 in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Liggins was among hundreds Black and White who hopped aboard buses and trains in 1961 to challenge lingering segregation in public places throughout the South. They became known as Freedom Riders, many of them encountering violence and arrest, hoping to force changes to long-established racial separation in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and other Southern states.

Liggins, 74, who is Black, will be in Chandler Jan. 9-10 , along with San Francisco attorney Carol Ruth Silver, who is White and also among the Freedom Riders. They will appear at the panel discussion "The Road to Freedom" at the Chandler Center for the Arts on Jan. 10, reliving threats, violence and legal repercussions they encountered in the name of racial justice. The forum is co-sponsored by the arts center, Chandler, East Valley Jewish Community Center and Chandler Unified School District. The two will meet the previous day with hundreds of high school and middle school students.

MORE HISTORY : Chandler historical photos | 10 hidden history spots in Mesa, Gilbert and Tempe | 5 things to know about the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Liggins, in an interview with The Republic, recalled how he got involved in what would become among the most memorable and important events during the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

"I had been looking for the opportunity to do something," he said, recalling that at the time, he was enrolled in Los Angeles City College, landing there after leaving his hometown of Lake Charles, La.

In the spring of 1961, he got his opportunity after he learned through news reports about a group that was embarking on a bus trip from Washington, D.C., though Southern states to peacefully challenge racial segregation that was continuing in public places, such as bus and train stations. The effort was organized by Congress for Racial Equality, and inspired Liggins to head to the area to join similar efforts the group was organizing. Before he left, Liggins remembers hearing that one of the buses from the Washington group had been firebombed in Alabama.

The Freedom Riders' bus was firebombed by an angry mob in Alabama.(Photo: Chandler)

"I remember saying, 'Damn, I should've been on that bus,' " he said. "I wanted to participate to make a change."

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Freedom Rider brings civil rights story to Chandler

Survival of freedom, democracy

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This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the postwar period of Japan. After Japan lost the war, the shape of its postwar regime was prepared and arranged mostly by the victor, the United States, which occupied Japan. The ideal of freedom and democracy served as the core principles during the Occupation.

The Japanese Constitution was also established along the lines of this ideal, which was a noble cause for the Americans. During the war, they answered the question of Why we fight? by playing the role of the worlds police against fascist and totalitarian evils.

The ideal also accorded with postwar Americas general strategy as the hegemonic power leading all liberal countries, or the West.

We Japanese have struggled to find our own way of living under this regime. But it was only with the constraint of imposed freedom and democracy the command to be free, independent and self-governing even if it sounded contradictory as a concept.

In this sense, we were congeners of postwar Europeans under the Marshall Plan, of Latin Americans and Asians under the Point Four Program, and even of the Afghan or Iraqi people in more recent years.

In many of these countries, the ideal was internalized in due course and its original imposition lost its meaning. But we Japanese seem to have somehow failed to digest this history of imposition until now, even though the governments white paper on the economy stated as early as 1956 that the Japanese no longer lived in the postwar period.

This statement was issued only in connection with the economic growth of Japan, without referring to any political consideration or discussion among people of the ideal of freedom and democracy of American origin.

Although the economic growth of Japan, as well as of Germany and Europe in general, was what America intended, Japan, Germany and Europe in general have outgrown much more than Americas original expectations.

In the political arena, the ideal is not fully upheld. For example, the conclusion and renewal of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the U.S. and Japan the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty was done over relatively strong opposition among the people.

The treaty was signed between two mutually independent nation-states on equal footing as far as the institutional viewpoint is concerned. But in substance, thats not the case. The treaty was signed under circumstances in which the U.S. was overwhelmingly strong politically, economically and militarily vis-a-vis Japan.

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Survival of freedom, democracy

Freedom Focus on Local Talent

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January 5, 2015 - Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) Trenton Freedom LANGHORNE, Pennsylvania- The Trenton Freedom arena football team heads into the new year with 23 of the 35 players signed to the training camp roster being from 60 miles or less from Trenton. Head Coach Kevin O'Hanlon stated, "If you told me a year ago when I took this job that I could fill my roster with guys from the NJ and Philadelphia area I would have disagreed, but the fact is that there is an extremely high level of talent here and we are lucky to be so fortunate." Most notably the Freedom have signed:

FB/DL Melik Brown (6-5 280; Camden, NJ) starred at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, NJ before going on to play collegiately for the University of North Carolina from 2003-2006. Brown began his pro career in 2008 with the BC Lions of the CFL, then played 4 season with the Philadelphia Soul (AFL), before joing the Freedom last season. He was voted the PIFL's "Iron Man of the Year," which is awarded to the top performing two-way player.

LB Jerome Hayes (6-2 250; Bayonne, NJ) won a 2002 state championship for Bayonne High School alongside St. Louis Rams wide receiver Kenny Britt, and former Nebraska quarterback Jamal Lord. He earned Army All-American status and was one of the highest recruited linebackers in the country before deciding to play at Penn State from 2006-2010 under legendary Coach Joe Paterno. Hayes played arena football with the Philadelphia Soul from 2011-2012 before joining the Freedom last season. He is a Pilot 1 elementary teacher in his hometown teaching reading and math.

WR Nijha White (6-3 220; Wayne, PA) played at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, PA before signing with the University of Delaware. A four-year starter under former coach K.C. Keeler, White was an All-CAA receiver from 2010 to 2012. His streak of 42 consecutive games with at least one reception is a school record and his 188 career catches are good for third all-time in Blue Hens' annals. After college, White worked out for various NFL teams before signing with the Arizona Rattlers and Orlando Predators of the AFL. 2015 marks Whites first year with the Freedom. White's father Whitney, was the Head of Security for former President, Bill Clinton.

WR Shawney Kearsey (6-3 220; Woodbury, NJ) starred at Woodbury High School and captured New Jersey state championship honors in the 100, 200, 400, and 4x400 from 2007-2009. The track champ signed with Penn State out of high school and went on to play under current Texans Head Coach Bill O'Brien from 2010-2011. Kearsey earned letters as a wide receiver and kick returner from 2010-2011 before transferring to Marshall. He ended his career playing in 3 bowl games (Capital One, Outback, and Insight Bowls), and was found at an open tryout held by the Freedom last November.

DL Michael Atunrase (6-4 265; Yardley, PA) played high school football at Conwell-Egan up until his sophomore season where he transferred to Lawrenceville Prep Academy in New Jersey. At Lawrenceville Prep, he earned All-State and All-Maple honors in 2006. Atunrase then signed with University of Delaware where he starred on the opposite side of the ball from teammate Joe Flacco. He was a pre-season All-American, and two time All-Conference CAA selection during his career earning Defensive Most Valuable Player his senior season. Atunrase participated in two FCA championship games in 2007 and 2011 while at Delaware. 2015 marks his first year playing in the PIFL.

The Trenton Freedom is a professional arena football team that plays in the Professional Indoor Football League. The PIFL (www.proifl.com) is a eight team league with franchises in six states located throughout the east coast. The league holds a 12-game regular season schedule that runs March through June with playoffs culminating in early July. Season ticket packages start as low as $15 per game (or $90 for the full season). The fast passed, hard hitting, family football games are played at the Sun National Bank Center which is centrally located for fans of Bucks, Mercer, Burlington, Middlesex counties and the City of Trenton, NJ to attend on Saturday evenings.

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Freedom Focus on Local Talent

Turns Out the Internet Is Bad at Guessing How Many Coins Are in a Jar

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A few weeks ago, I asked the internet to guess how many coins were in ahuge jar (below). For more than 27 years, my parents had saved their spare change. My mother recently trucked the whole load to a bank to cash in, and in so doing finally learned the stockpiles actual value, or at least the value as calculated by that particular coin-counting machine. The update from Mom got me wondering: Might someone be able to guess that amount? What about our collective estimateis the crowd really as wise as some say it is?

The mathematical theory behind this kind of estimation game is apparently sound. That is, the mean of all the estimates will be uncannily close to the actual value, every time. James Surowieckis best-selling book, Wisdom of the Crowd, banks on this principle, and details several striking anecdotes of crowd accuracy. The most famous is a 1906 competition in Plymouth, England to guess the weight of an ox. As reported by Sir Francis Galton in a letter to Nature, no one guessed the actual weight of the ox, but the average of all 787 submitted guesses was exactly the beasts actual weight.

Galton, who also happens to be the inventor of eugenics, was shocked to find such value in democratic judgment.

The notion that the hive is more intelligent than the individuals comprising it is a seductive one, and a keystone of todays bottom-up Big Data revolution. Its democratic ideology, open-source goodness, the invisible hand, and New Age humility all wrapped into a big networked hug.

But is it true? The results of the coin jar experiment offer some clues. I wont bore you with the finer points of asymmetric non-parametric one-sample T tests, but lets put it this way: The crowd was waaaay off.

The actual value of the coins was $379.54. The mean value (x) of the 602 guesses submitted was $596.12, about 57 percent too high. Whats more, a massive (by crowd-wisdom standards) 40 percent of the individual guesses were closer to the actual value than that of the crowd.

After looking at the histogram above, keen observers will notice that the data are highly skewed. In these cases, how do you summarize what the crowd thinks?

The mean, or average, is still considered the gold standard for aggregating crowd wisdom, although Francis Galton himself recommended using the vox populihis term for median, or the middle-most guess where half of the other guesses are higher and half are lower. In our case, a weighted mean might be the most appropriate value, giving more influence to guessers who reported having actually done the math.

The problem is, people who claim to have done some math were far less accurate (x =$724.81) than those who made a snap judgment (x =$525.02). This may explain why estimates submitted from .edu or gmail addresses were less accurate than guesses submitted from hotmail and yahoo addresses. (Here are the data.)

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Turns Out the Internet Is Bad at Guessing How Many Coins Are in a Jar

Wheatbelt tourism takes eco-route

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Michael and Mary Nenke at Mary's Farm Cottages in Kukerin. Picture: Toyah Shakespeare

A $1 million eco-tourism village officially opened in Kukerin last month is the first new tourism accommodation in the Wheatbelt for more than 10 years.

Marys Farm Cottages, owned by Mary and Michael Nenke, is also believed to be the first eco-friendly tourism village in the Wheatbelt and has the largest independent solar system in the area.

More than 50 people including representatives from the Shire of Dumbleyung, building contractors, Australias Golden Outback and friends and family attended the official opening by Member for OConnor Rick Wilson and blessing from Father Gayan Thamel.

The eight tourist dwellings on Dumbleyung-Lake Grace Road can host 48 guests at a time, expanding the Nenkes broadacre farming and Cambinata Yabbies enterprise.

Mr Wilson said the opening of the accommodation, which was supported by a $250,000 tourism industry regional development fund grant, was a major win for regions tourism.

Cambinata Yabbies (is) already a destination (this means) yet another reason to stay in Kukerin and the Golden Outback, he said.

The investment made by the Nenke family in Marys Farm Cottages is an example of how a small business can create a world-class tourism experience.

Mrs Nenke said the region lacked quality accommodation and the dwellings would cater for the existing visitors using their shearing shed function centre, as well as attract more tourists.

She said a delegation of Chinese tour operators recently visited the cottages.

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Wheatbelt tourism takes eco-route

Eco-Friendly Car Franchise Detroit Supports Women-Owned Businesses

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Detroit, MI (PRWEB) January 06, 2015

According to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) more than 9.1 million firms are owned by women in the United States. These businesses employ nearly 7.9 million people and have generated $1.4 trillion in sales this year alone. Local car franchise company, DetailXPerts Automotive, is working to empower local women interested in entrepreneurship and starting their own business.

This past year DetailXPerts Franchise signed its 50th franchise unit since launching its franchising operation in 2008. The newest franchisee, Katrina Forster, 34, was born in Detroit, Michigan and traveled the world with her younger brother and military parents.

Forsters initial franchise car wash and auto detail shop launched in November in her birthplace of Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is a city that has been riddled with turmoil in recent years, from filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy last year to this years water shut-off crisis. Yet, companies like DetailXPerts Car Franchise, serve as a beacon of hope to the city and its young entrepreneurs.

The fourth annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report published in 2014 stated that women are starting 1,288 new businesses a day. That rate is double the rate from three years ago.

I chose this franchise because I know the franchisors are determined individuals that are willing and eager to help people succeed, says Forster, Your businesss success depends on your level of effort and skill. The franchisor will help you develop the skills; and the rest is up to you.

Forster has plans to open a second franchise location in Indianapolis, Indiana soon.

DetailXPerts is the first eco-friendly auto detailing and car wash company with franchises in the United States. Since the inception of the companys franchising operations in 2008, DetailXPerts has grown and gained international reach, with franchises in countries like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. DetailXPerts Car Franchise is an entrepreneurial advocate and the company has long-term goals of having more than 1,100 franchises open and creating 30,000 jobs in the next 10 years.

In 2015, DetailXPerts Car Franchise will be launching new, creative financing options that will help women and men alike start an eco-friendly automotive franchise.

For more information, call 877-317-9737, or visit their car franchise website at http://www.detailxpertsfranchise.com/why-car-franchise/

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Eco-Friendly Car Franchise Detroit Supports Women-Owned Businesses

Imaginext Cyborg Mech & Blue Beetle & Vehicle Mr. Freeze Clay Face Spider-man freeze chamber – Video

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Imaginext Cyborg Mech Blue Beetle Vehicle Mr. Freeze Clay Face Spider-man freeze chamber
Just4fun290 Imaginext Cyborg Mech Blue Beetle Vehicle Mr. Freeze Clay Face Spider-man freeze chamber ----Check out these fun Videos by Just4fun290---- Imaginext Tentaclor Alien eats Toy...

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Scarlett Johansson will head up Dreamworks Ghost In The Shell remake

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Dreamworks long-anticipated remake of Ghost In The Shell looks to have found itself a leading lady, with Variety reporting that Scarlett Johansson has signed on to join the project.

Johansson will be playing Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg woman with a human soul, who heads up a covert ops unit specialising in thwarting cyber-terrorists.

It had initially been suggested that the studio were going to offer the role to Margot Robbie, and indeed, even when the offer did come her way, Johansson was reportedly unsure of whether to accept. However, the deal has finally now been done

The adaptation was first mooted by Dreamworks some five years ago, but appeared to have stalled until the appointment of director Rupert Sanders last year.

The project still doesnt have an official green light, but with Johansson now fully on board, we dont imagine theyll have to wait much longer

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Scarlett Johansson will head up Dreamworks Ghost In The Shell remake

Maui Reviewed Intro – Maui Restaurants, Maui Activities, Maui Beaches and much more – Video

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Maui Reviewed Intro - Maui Restaurants, Maui Activities, Maui Beaches and much more
http://mauireviewed.com Visit Maui Reviewed for your Maui reviews on: - Things to do in Maui - Maui Restaurants - Maui Activities (like Maui snorkeling, Maui zipline, whale watching Maui,...

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Lego pieces still washing ashore on UK beaches almost 20 YEARS after cargo fell off ship

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Pieces of Lego are still washing up on Britain's beaches 18 years after 62 containers with 4.8 million pieces inside fell off a ship 20 miles off the coast of Cornwall.

A quirk of fate meant many of the colourful plastic toys were marine-themed kits, including miniature cutlasses, flippers, spear guns, seagrass and scuba gear.

Tracey Williams has been combing the beaches of her native Cornwall in the years since containers fell off the Tokio Express in February 1997.

And she has set up a Facebook page to map where the iconic items have been spotted.

Although most of them have washed up in Cornwall, some have been found as far away as the Gower and Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, hundreds of miles from where the containers were washed overboard.

Tracey is certain there is yet more to be found around the Welsh coastline.

Last year she received an email from someone in Melbourne who found a flipper they think could be from the spillage of 18 years ago, reports WalesOnline.

She said pieces now drift up on an almost daily basis.

I am delighted that this has captured the imagination of people visiting our beaches, she said.

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Lego pieces still washing ashore on UK beaches almost 20 YEARS after cargo fell off ship

Cultural Astronomy in the Torres Strait (10th ISAAC Meeting, Cape Town – Video) – Video

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Cultural Astronomy in the Torres Strait (10th ISAAC Meeting, Cape Town - Video)
Talk by Dr Duane Hamacher (UNSW Australia) given at the 10th annual meeting of the International Society of Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture at the South African Astronomical ...

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Cultural Astronomy in the Torres Strait (10th ISAAC Meeting, Cape Town - Video) - Video