Daily Archives: March 4, 2012

'Freedom's Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War'

by Guy Gugliotta

Hill and Wang, 512 pp., $35

The United States Capitol, as everyone knows, is where Congress meets and does nothing. It wasn't always that way; before the Civil War, Congress actually voted to do something: expand the Capitol to its present size

Former Washington Post reporter Guy Gugliotta tells how it happened in this fascinating new book. It's a tale of political intrigue, famous personalities, technological innovations and bitter feuds, all under the pervasive shadow of slavery and the threat of secession and Civil War.

The original Capitol, dating to 1800, was reconstructed after the British burned it during the War of 1812. By 1850, Gugliotta writes, it was a wreck: "Walls were cracking, roofs sagged, timbers rotted." The Senate sweltered in summer and froze in winter. Acoustics were so bad in the House that members couldn't hear one another. Something had to be done, and the man who got it started was the junior senator from Mississippi Jefferson Davis.

From April 1850 until he left Washington 11 years later to become president of the Confederacy, Davis was the new Capitol's "political champion, benefactor, and shepherd," Gugilotta writes

Bringing it into existence involved battles with presidents, other congressmen, architects and contractors. It didn't help that the man in charge of the project, Army Capt. Montgomery Meigs, a Davis protg, was arrogant and stubborn and clashed with the principal architect, Thomas U. Walter. But Meigs also was something of an engineering genius who devised many new construction techniques, especially for the Capitol dome. Meigs later became quartermaster general of the U.S. Army, ironically playing an important role in the eventual defeat of Davis' Confederacy.

Gugliotta tells the story well. But meanwhile, comfortably situated in the expanded Capitol, Congress continues to do nothing.

Originally posted here:
'Freedom's Cap': the U.S. Capitol's big remodel

by Billy Todd Staff Writer The Sampson Independent

Courtesy photo The Freedom From Smoking program offered by CAPRI, has only limited space for 16 people. Class begins Tuesday, March 13 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Have you tried to quit smoking? Do you want to kick the habit? If so, the Cardiac & Pulmonary Rehabilitation Institute (CAPRI), offered through Sampson Regional Medical Center, has a plan for you the Freedom from Smoking program.

The American Lung Association produced the program that has been around since 1980. Research has proven that this class is very beneficial in the cessation of smoking and has been called Americans gold standard in smoking cessation programs.

CAPRI manager Frank Bray, RRT, CPFT, RCP, HFS, is a registered respiratory therapist and certified pulmonary function technologist who instructs the Freedom From Smoking class at the Center for Health + Wellness. Class begins March 13 and continues through April 24. The class meets from 6 to 8 p.m. each Tuesday evening with the exception of the fourth week when it meets on Tuesday and Thursday.

Bray explains that there are three phases for the class. The first three weeks we prepare the class members to stop smoking. The Tuesday of the fourth week is Quit Day. We even have a service where we bury the habit. The Thursday class is for reinforcement. The last three weeks we spend time on maintaining our new habit of not smoking, explained the instructor.

The Freedom From Smoking program focuses on behavior change. Bray asserts, You have got to want to quit to do it. The program has a positive focus. It emphasizes the benefits of better health and improved lifestyle habits, as well as mastery of ones own life. The activities and assignments provide the class members who smoke with proven strategies for changing their behavior and lifestyle.

The instructor shared that he felt the area needed a proven smoking cessation program that was medically and ethically sound, cost-effective and evidence-based and able to be replicated, something the Freedom From Smoking program has been shown to accomplish.

In 1975, the leadership of the American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society, and Congress Lung Association staff launched a project to develop a smoking cessation program. Each organization offered a unique contribution: The ALA had the concerned and committed volunteers, ATS supplied scientific research and expertise, and the CLAS provided practical experience as health education professionals.

Bray stresses that it is vitally important to understand that as a result of this research and development, the Freedom From Smoking self-help manuals were introduced nationwide in 1980. The Freedom From Smoking Clinic Program was first introduced in 1981, and has helped hundreds of thousands of smokers quit since then. The newest intervention approach designed by the American Lung Association, Freedom From Smoking Online, was first offered in 1996 as an Internet chat room. It was redesigned and launched in 2001 and now offers 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access to intervention sessions and message boards at http://www.ffsonline.org. All Freedom From Smoking products are regularly reviewed and updated to make sure Freedom From Smoking remains the gold standard in smoking cessation programs.

More here:
CAPRI to offer second Freedom From Smoking class

Sgt. Luis Alfonso Beltran has endured 14 years of jungle prisons as a captive of leftist rebels while three of his aunts and uncles died and eight new nieces and nephews have been born.

Now, finally, he is expected to be freed.

Beltran, 43, and fellow Sgt. Luis Arturo Arcia are the longest-held captives of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, taken in a March 3, 1998, rebel ambush that killed more than 60 soldiers.

The FARC announced last weekend that it will shortly release all remaining "prisoners of war" and halt all ransom kidnappings, which along with the cocaine trade have funded its nearly five-decade-old insurgency.

No one could be happier than Beltran's 70-year-old mother, Virginia Franco, who keeps vigils in a small, concrete home with light green walls in a poor barrio in Bogota's south that she shares with another son and his family of four.

"There hasn't been a single party in my house in 14 years, because all the happiness died," said Franco. "All that keeps me alive is the hope that my son returns, and my grandchildren."

This past week there was more heartache. Beltran's favorite aunt died.

In contrast to such celebrated FARC hostages as former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was freed along with three U.S. military contractors in 2008 and went on to write a highly praised memoir, few Colombians know the faces of the plebeian Beltran and Arcia.

The last proof of life for both men, who were bachelors at the time of their capture, came in September 2009 in video obtained from a captured FARC courier.

Cristina Arcia says her brother, who is now 41, barely speaks in the video and looks "mistreated, aged, ruined because they didn't let him enjoy his youth and have a dignified life."

More here:
In Colombia, Freedom Nears After 14-Year Captivity

GREENSBORO --

The Freedom boys basketball team had been known for its decisive scoring runs this year.

But Friday's 3A boys West Regional semifinal was decided mostly during a 24-5 outburst by Hickory that lifted the Red Tornadoes out of an early deficit and into a 27-12 lead by the beginning of the second quarter in a 81-63 victory.

The Tornadoes' ability to stay in front by double digits (they led 38-28 at halftime) despite center Gavin Huffman picking up his third foul at the 5:56 mark of the second quarter was paramount.

"That spurt right there at the end of the second quarter, we felt like if we could continually put pressure on them, we could do that," Hickory eighth-year coach Shawn Johnson said.

Freedom (26-3) cut the lead to 35-28 and had a 3-point shot just before half that could have trimmed the lead to four points, but got no closer.

"There were a couple of sequences like that," Freedom coach Casey Rogers said. "We had a chance to do something to get back in it, did not, and they did on the other end."

Hickory (27-3) scored the most points of any Freedom opponent this year, and things went no better on the offensive end, where Freedom was held below 70 points for just the second time in 14 games. The point total was the Patriots' lowest since December.

Freedom had lost its only two games by nine combined points.

Hickory shot 46 percent for the contest while limiting Freedom to a 21-for-65 performance (32 percent). Freedom was also just 17 for 40 from the free throw line.

Link:
Freedom goes cold as Hickory runs away