Monthly Archives: June 2012

Pondexter leads Liberty past Dream

Posted: June 20, 2012 at 10:23 am

ATLANTA The Libertys awful performance in their last game embarrassed Cappie Pondexter.

She was determined not to let it happen again.

I brought a great deal of energy tonight, which has been inconsistent with us, Pondexter said. I feel like when we play with a lot of energy it allows us to play both ends of the floor the way we really want to.

Pondexter had 14 points and a season-high 13 assists and Essence Carson added 14 points in the Libertys 73-60 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night.

The Dream dropped their second straight game with Angel McCoughtry, the WNBAs leading scorer and shot blocker, injured and unable to play.

Sancho Lyttle and Lindsey Harding each finished with 13 points for Atlanta (4-7). Lyttle pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

The Liberty (4-7) had plenty of incentive after last Fridays debacle at Connecticut, a 42-point loss that was the worst in team history and included 34-point halftime deficit that was the largest in league history.

The Liberty, who snapped a two-game skid, never trailed after Leilani Mitchell pulled up for a 15-foot fast-break jumper to make it 13-12 late in the first.

We were so hungry for a win, Mitchell said. We were just playing harder. We were taking it easy in the last couple of practices trying to save our legs for this game.

The Liberty went up 36-30 on Pondexters 19-foot fadeaway in transition in the final minute of the second period.

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Pondexter leads Liberty past Dream

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Liberty 73, Dream 60

Posted: at 10:23 am

UpdatedJun 19, 2012 10:24 PM ET

The New York Liberty's awful performance in their last game embarrassed Cappie Pondexter.

She was determined not to let it happen again.

''I brought a great deal of energy tonight, which has been inconsistent with us,'' Pondexter said. ''I feel like when we play with a lot of energy it allows us to play both ends of the floor the way we really want to.''

Pondexter had 14 points and a season-high 13 assists and Essence Carson added 14 points in the New York Liberty's 73-60 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night.

The Dream dropped their second straight game with Angel McCoughtry, the WNBA's leading scorer and shot blocker, injured and unable to play.

Sancho Lyttle and Lindsey Harding each finished with 13 points for Atlanta (4-7). Lyttle pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

New York (4-7) had plenty of incentive after last Friday's debacle at Connecticut, a 42-point loss that was the worst in team history and included 34-point halftime deficit that was the largest in league history.

The Liberty, who snapped a two-game skid, never trailed after Leilani Mitchell pulled up for a 15-foot fast-break jumper to make it 13-12 late in the first.

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Liberty 73, Dream 60

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Pondexter, Carson lead Liberty past Atlanta 73-60

Posted: at 10:23 am

ATLANTA (AP) The New York Liberty's awful performance in their last game embarrassed Cappie Pondexter.

She was determined not to let it happen again.

''I brought a great deal of energy tonight, which has been inconsistent with us,'' Pondexter said. ''I feel like when we play with a lot of energy it allows us to play both ends of the floor the way we really want to.''

Pondexter had 14 points and a season-high 13 assists and Essence Carson added 14 points in the New York Liberty's 73-60 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night.

The Dream dropped their second straight game with Angel McCoughtry, the WNBA's leading scorer and shot blocker, injured and unable to play.

Sancho Lyttle and Lindsey Harding each finished with 13 points for Atlanta (4-7). Lyttle pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

New York (4-7) had plenty of incentive after last Friday's debacle at Connecticut, a 42-point loss that was the worst in team history and included 34-point halftime deficit that was the largest in league history.

The Liberty, who snapped a two-game skid, never trailed after Leilani Mitchell pulled up for a 15-foot fast-break jumper to make it 13-12 late in the first.

''We were so hungry for a win,'' Mitchell said. ''We were just playing harder. We were taking it easy in the last couple of practices trying to save our legs for this game.''

New York went up 36-30 on Pondexter's 19-foot fadeaway in transition in the final minute of the second period.

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Pondexter, Carson lead Liberty past Atlanta 73-60

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The Cult of Clever Clothes

Posted: at 10:22 am

Clothes? How can clothes be clever? They arent sentient, they do little but unfurl messily over your floor and(lamentably) they dont write your essays for you. Cynicism may make you wonder: wheres the connection between buying material objects and flexing brain matter?

Somewhere in Australia a cult fashion label called Black Milk creatively labour to make the traditionally lofty realms of art, astronomy, history, geography and culture accessible through their combination of maverick, breathtaking design and cutting edge use of social media.

My favourite example is their recent addition of the art of Vincent Van Gogh to their leggings collection. Arguably, the only thing more fulfilling than gazing upon Starry night is having the work on your body. Imagination cant do them justice, so Ive served up a picture from their Facebook fanbase:

Black Milks Starry Night leggings: $75.00 AUD (Approximately 50 GBP.)

Crafting fashion from one of the most evocative impressionist paintings isnt enough for this missionary label, who have pressed ardently on with their mission to make masterpieces of ladies legs, with twists on Le Cafe, The Great Wave, Der Kuss and the art of Mucha.

Black Milk have also taken inspiration from the Hubble project. I took the bold decision to bravely go where no financially sensible person has ever gone and invest in a pair of galaxy leggings. Still, 50 is a worthwhile price to have the satisfaction of the universe on your legs although it leaves you vulnerable to the inventively lecherous creep who tells you that your ass is out of this world.

Black Milks Galaxy leggings, $75.00 AUD (Approximately 50 GBP)

Securing proud ownership of a pair takes effort and expense. At approximately 50 each theyre extravagant, particularly when the more easily copied designs can be found in The Marlands for a tenth of the original cost. So why on earth would anybody, let alone students, want to invest in these items?

One reason is the sheer quality. Theyre thick enough to stop my legs from getting cold and the designs are so detailed and precise that I stare in to my thighs a little too often (is there ever a good time?) But much of Black Milks success owes to the way they integrate social media into their business. Facebook fans face a daily barrage of girls wearing their clothes in a variety of quirky ways (free advertising in other words.) A combination of high demand and the length of time it takes to craft them means that many items sell out quickly, leading to a frenzy, a frenzy that you increasingly want to be a part of. Its all rather like a cult. Fittingly theyve even made leggings that tap in to the theme of conspiracy, with Illuminati symbols.

Girl in Skeleton Swimsuit, $99 AUD (Approximately 65 GBP) and Suspender Black Leggings, $125 AUD (Approximately 80 GBP)

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The Cult of Clever Clothes

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Judge strikes down part of Chicago gun law as unconstitutional

Posted: at 10:21 am

By NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter nkorecki@suntimes.com June 19, 2012 2:19PM

U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan | Al Podgorski~Sun-Times

storyidforme: 32356304 tmspicid: 11802822 fileheaderid: 5394098

Updated: June 20, 2012 2:17AM

A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday struck down a portion of the citys firearm ordinance, calling it unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan ruled in favor of a Chicago man who challenged a section of the citys gun law after he was denied a permit because of a misdemeanor conviction.

Der-Yeghiayan, in a 30-page ruling, called that part of the Chicago Firearm Ordinance unconstitutionally void for vagueness, and said it violated Shawn Gowders right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Gowder had filed a federal lawsuit challenging a portion of the ordinance that bars a person from obtaining a Chicago firearm permit if that person has been convicted in any jurisdiction of an unlawful use of a weapon that is a firearm. Under Chicago municipal code, it is unlawful for someone to possess a firearm without a Chicago firearm permit.

In Gowders case, he had been convicted in Illinois in 1995 with the unlawful use of a weapon. He was not accused of discharging a weapon illegally, however, but only with the possession of a firearm. At the time, the charge was a felony. But that law was challenged, according to the federal court opinion, and Gowders conviction was downgraded to a misdemeanor.

The only thing that Mr. Gowder did was to own a firearm as he was entitled to do under the Second Amendment. As a result of that he was treated as a criminal by the City of Chicago when all he did was exercise his fundamental Second Amendment rights, said his attorney, Stephen A. Kolodziej. We think the City of Chicagos actions in denying Mr. Gowder a firearm permit were punitive and draconian as well as violative of his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

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India: the dangers of an assault on free speech

Posted: at 10:21 am

A day after Google announced a 49 percent increase in censorship requests from India, an Indian member of parliament spoke out against the country's moves to police the web in an interview with the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog.

As mentioned in GlobalPost's report on the so-called "Internet Hindus" earlier this week, in April last year India framednew rules for implementing the 2000 Information Technology Act, which required companies like Google and Facebook toremove any content which could be deemed offensive or objectionable within 36 hours of receiving a complaint.

Dangerous?

"The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) rules that are being proposed, represent a serious risk to our democracy and they could be seen as legal intimidation of citizens and entrepreneurs by the government, established political and business interests and religious and cultural bigots," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, an independent member of parliament, told the Journal. "They also violate the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression of the Internet users in the country, by providing for a system of censorship or self-censorship by private parties."

According to Chandrasekhar, the risk is that either the government or internet companies will be too zealous in censoring political speech, just because a particular group doesn't like it, rather than because it meets any legal definition of defamation or hate speech. When, for instance, should the government step in to censor so-called "blasphem?"

"India has a due process of law," Chandrasekhar says. "With a legislation like the Information Technology Act that explicitly provides for actions for defamation and obscenity, the courts or tribunals should decide who is right or wrong and not a bureaucrat or politician. Most of the categories specified under the rules are ambiguous and undefined. For example, grossly harmful is not defined."

Unfortunately, despite a robust legal system, India's political structure has never really separated church and state. Instead, the idea of secularism developed by Jawarlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, endeavors to protect and propogate India's various religions, going as far as to enshrine different laws for people born into different faiths.

And that will make dealing with a sticky subject like blasphemy very politically incorrect -- whether the gods in question are Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-assault-free-speech

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Freedom School program enriches summer learning for students

Posted: June 19, 2012 at 6:13 pm

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CHARLOTTE -- A national organization said they hope to stop the summer brain-drain by keeping kids in school.

The Freedom School Partners is a six-week educational enrichment program designed to help kids not only maintain what they learned the past school year, but help them learn more. Monday was the first day of this summer program at 25 sites around Mecklenburg County.

Parents said they might be more excited than their kids.

"This morning I woke up so early because I was so excited about having them here. I was like, oh you know! They thought I was going to work and I was like, 'Oh, I'm not going to work, you're going to school!'" said Alicia Brewton, whose two sons are attending the Providence Day Freedom School.

Chanting and cheering, the kids are engaged, empowered and educated through the program.

"I'm at home and I know it'd be much funner for them to be with somebody else, in a different learning style than I am, because I'm just drilling. I'm like, hey, read this book, do this, do that, so they will probably love it here, said Brewton.

Freedom Schools serve children who are most at risk of summer learning loss, but are least able to afford the opportunity of quality summer learning.

"Freedom School helps meet that challenge with literacy and self-esteem and fun and engagement for children who have the most to lose in the summer, said Mary Nell McPherson, Executive Director of Freedom School Partners.

Studies have shown the program is effective.

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Harper Government Moving Forward on Marketing Freedom

Posted: at 6:13 pm

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -06/18/12)- The Harper Government is moving forward on its long-standing commitment to give Western Canadian wheat and barley farmers marketing freedom. Today, a panel of three judges ruled in the Harper Government's favour and overturned the declaration issued by Federal Court Justice Douglas Campbell on December 7th, 2011.

"We are very pleased that the declaration has been overturned as we always expected it would be," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "Today's decision reinforces our belief that we must focus on the future opportunities that marketing freedom affords Western farmers, instead of trying to turn back the clock."

The Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act will end the monopoly of the CWB as of August 1, 2012 and give Western Canadian farmers the ability to sell their wheat, durum and barley to the buyer of their choice, including a voluntary CWB.

"Marketing Freedom is good for Western grain farmers and good for all Canadians, " said Minister Ritz. "As we have always said marketing freedom will build a stronger economy by attracting investment, encouraging innovation and creating value-added jobs."

The Harper Government's top priority remains the economy. Modernizing grain policy in Canada will allow the Western Canadian grain industry to fully contribute to Canada's economic growth and long term prosperity.

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Harper Government Moving Forward on Marketing Freedom

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Freedom of Speech and Your Office

Posted: at 6:13 pm

Once you enter a private workplace, freedom of speech protections technically go out the windowwhether you are a business owner or employee. However, your employees can, and will still voice their opinions on everything from President Obamas stance on immigration to the L.A. Kings Stanley Cup victory.

So as a business owner, how do you strike the right balance of expression and protection for your workers and your company?

Carolyn Hughes, vice president of People for SimplyHired.com, said the rule of thumb for her company is that the minute a persons freedom of speech becomes offensive to others in the workplace, it must be curbed.

At that moment you have crossed the line, Hughes said. And your response should be more values-driven than rules-driven.

That being said, an employers response to this issue should be to address complaints or actions in a way that speaks to your companys values. Its not necessarily having set rules in place about what can and cannot be said or done in your business.

We have respectful workplace policies, Hughes said. We expect all employees to use their best judgment.

When a worker does violate this policy, Hughes said the result rarely ends in that person being terminated. Stepping in to discuss the violation is a common practice and good protection for your business in terms of harassment lawsuits, she said. This respectful workplace policy should be outlined in your employee handbook, and distributed to workers on day one of their employment.

Polly Wright, senior consultant for HR Consultants, Inc., said its important to allow your own views as well as those of your employees to creep into your companys culture. The smaller a company is, the more flexibility it has in terms of establishing a culture.

This can even contribute to your employees understanding of the value of the organization, Wright said. But there is a difference between expressing your opinions, and forcing those opinions on someone else.

Both business owners and employees should gauge their behavior and expressions on those around them, Wright said. See if others are expressing themselves similarly, and also consider your colleagues reactions.

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Liberty Mutual Insurance Celebrates Responsibility In Youth Sports By Awarding $2,500 Grants To 15 Sports …

Posted: at 6:12 pm

BOSTON, June 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Youth sports organizations and schools appreciate every penny when it comes to shoestring athletic budgets. For many organizations, a lack of funding has resulted in poorly maintained facilities, aged and possibly unsafe equipment, or insufficient resources to enable all families to participate. To address this local need, Liberty Mutual Insurance created the Responsible Sports grants program with Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) in 2007, offering organizations and school athletic programs the opportunity to earn funds by championing a community-wide commitment to sportsmanship and responsibility in youth sports.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110607/NE15669LOGO )

Today, Liberty Mutual announces 15 schools and youth sports teams or leagues to each earn $2,500 Responsible Sports grants. These organizations successfully rallied their communities to participate in an online course on mentoring and responsibility in youth sports for coaches and parents at ResponsibleSports.com. Each successful course completion earned a credit for a designated organization and these groups garnered the highest level of participation, based on population size, to earn $2,500 grants:

Large Organizations (100+ players)

Small Organizations (Less than 100 players)

School Athletic Programs

"Liberty Mutual Insurance celebrates these 15 organizations and schools for the values and positive experiences of youth sports they are promoting in their communities," said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual Insurance senior vice president, Consumer Marketing. "Responsibility in sports at this level is crucial to shaping youth experiences and teaching life lessons, and we applaud these groups for their commitment and dedication."

Liberty Mutual Insurance now has awarded more than $500,000 in Responsible Sports funding to more than 150 organizations and schools since 2007. Liberty Mutual will make another round of 15 grants available this fall; with youth sports groups eligible to compete for $2,500 in funding beginning September 1.

Nominate a Responsible Sports Moment of 2012

For the second year, Liberty Mutual and PCA are searching for demonstrations of the power, impact and inherent goodness at the youth sports and amateur sports levels with the "Top 10 Responsible Sports Moments" of 2012. Now through November 15, coaches and parents can nominate a moment that celebrate the positive values that sports instill in young people at http://www.ResponsibleSports.com or by visiting program's Facebook page, http://www.Facebook.com/ResponsibleSports.

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