Daily Archives: September 6, 2012

Liberty Market in Gilbert in the running for best-restroom title

Posted: September 6, 2012 at 3:15 pm

by Srianthi Perera - Sept. 5, 2012 10:26 PM The Republic | azcentral.com

The restrooms at the bustling Liberty Market in Gilbert's Heritage District are candidates in another kind of national election as they vie with nine others across the country for the title of best restroom in the U.S.

People can vote for Arizona's only entry in the 2012 Cintas' America's Best Restroom Contest until Oct. 26.

Liberty Market restrooms | Best bathrooms in Valley

"I think it's a tiny thing for the state of Arizona. But it would be a nice thing if we won," said Gilbert restaurateur and entrepreneur Joe Johnston, one of four partners of the restaurant.

Once a grocery store that played a major role in the town when Gilbert was called "the alfalfa-hay shipping capital of the United States," the Liberty Market is now an urban bistro that blends retro with modern. Its espresso bar, dessert case with multilayered cream cakes, pizza oven and full kitchen draw the crowds. Liberty Market is open 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.

The five restroom stalls -- four of them unisex -- also see a lot of traffic, but they remain very clean.

"We clean them very, very frequently," Johnston said. "They were designed first of all to be very clean and maintainable."

Johnston, his partners and his older son James each got a crack at designing the stalls with their own creativity.

Johnston's design incorporates his love of Vespa scooters and the native Italian lifestyle they represent. There's a Vespa tire on the wall and behind the door is a photoshopped picture of his wife, Cindy, and his son riding a Vespa on a street in Italy.

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Liberty rip Mercury, move into playoff spot

Posted: at 3:15 pm

The Liberty jumped out to a big lead and coasted to a needed win against the injury-plagued Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday night. The Liberty were also able to rest their starters and give the reserves some valuable playing time.

Plenette Pierson scored 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting to lead a balanced attack as the Liberty beat the Mercury 87-59.

Kara Braxton and Alex Montgomery added 12 points each, Nicole Powell had 11 and Cappie Pondexter 10 to help the Liberty (11-16) move a half-game ahead of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty play host to the Sky on Friday night.

We talked about Phoenix is out of the race, so two things could happen, Liberty coach John Whisenant said. We could let them go out and play loose ... or we could attack them defensively early and try to get them down, and thats what we did. I thought our players maintained their intensity pretty much throughout.

The Liberty got off to a fast start and led 21-5 less than six minutes into the game. After Phoenix cut the deficit to 10 by the end of the first quarter, the Liberty took control with a 10-0 run that doubled the lead to 33-13 less than three minutes into the second. The lead was 22 at halftime and swelled to 32 in the third.

The Liberty finished shooting 47 percent (36 for 76) from the field, including 9 for 22 (41 percent) from 3-point range. The Liberty outrebounded the Mercury 40-34 and finished with a season-high 27 assists led by Pondexters eight.

The Liberty have won two of three on their six-game homestand. After facing Chicago, they play host to Los Angeles on Sunday and Washington next Wednesday. The Liberty then have three road games before finishing at home against Tulsa on Sept. 22.

Were trying to make a playoff push and our focus right now is to win the home games that are coming up, Pondexter said. We did a great job tonight. We came out in the game, everyone had an opportunity to play and everyone scored. It was a great team effort.

DeWanna Bonner scored 20 points for the Mercury (6-20), who fell into a tie with the Shock for last place in the West. Diana Taurasi and Alexis Hornbuckle added 10 points each.

Were going to have to do a better job on every side of the basketball, Taurasi said. If you have bad possessions, you try to get back on defense. If defensively you dont get rebounds, its hard to get a good offense going. Its a combination of things so hopefully we do a better job of that.

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News boss says reforms limit free speech

Posted: at 3:14 pm

News Limited chief Kim Williams has hit out at proposed media reforms, claiming they threaten free speech and devalue media companies.

Mr Williams says he fears that media reforms proposed by the federal government's Finkelstein and Convergence reviews threaten press freedom and the economic value of media companies.

The Convergence Review has called for a new communications regulator as well as a controversial public interest test for prospective media company owners to help protect diversity.

But, Mr Williams argues, Australia's media diversity in the past decade has increased because free-to-air networks and the ABC had launched digital channels, Foxtel had 13 independent news channels and there was a large array of internet news sites.

He said delays, while the government considered the public interest of any new acquisition, devalued media assets and the test could be abused by politicians seeking to control the media.

"Such tests are subject to political control and the very real possibility of politicians stopping people acquiring media assets just because they don't agree with them or even just don't like them," he told the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association (PANPA) forum in Sydney on Thursday.

Mr Williams also accused the federal government of setting up the Finkelstein Review into media practices because it did not like reporting from his company's newspapers.

"I find it, as I hope all of you do, deeply concerning we have reached a place where words like government, journalist and jailing can all appear in the same sentence when describing a report by a retired judge," he said.

He added that he was concerned political motivations were behind the review headed by Ray Finkelstein, QC, which was established in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal in the UK.

"For our overseas visitors, it may strike you as odd that there are two reports into the media at the same time," he said.

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Obama’s free speech record

Posted: at 3:14 pm

As Barack Obama gets ready to rally his troops at the Democratic National Convention, Mark Rumold says his administration has cast free speech aside in its pursuit of file sharers and whistleblowers

Four years ago, President Obamas campaign platform didnt include sweeping promises about promoting free speech. He wasnt elected because he swore to vigorously defend the First Amendment, and to protect speakers no matter the content of their speech.

In contrast, the President did campaign on a platform of government transparency. As a transparency advocate, I can confidently say that, by almost any measure, the President failed to live up to those lofty guarantees.

But what about free expressiona value so roundly cherished in the United States that a promise to support it would almost seem unnecessary? Without a clear benchmark or unambiguous campaign commitment on the issue, its not so simple to assess his record. But sadly, like his commitment to transparency, the Presidents commitment to free speech was often collateral damage in his pursuit of other policy objectives.

This was most evident in the administrations actions in two areas: intellectual property and national security.

The administrations often misguided attempts at combating online copyright infringement frequently resulted in harm to protected expression. For example, in 2010, working in close cooperation with industry trade groups like the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, the administration began seizing the domains of websites that government officials deemed to contain infringing material. Except that wasnt always the case: in at least two instances, the government seized and refused to return domain names without any apparent connection to copyright-infringing material. The seizures resulted in complete censorship of the sites for over a year.

The same is true of the administrations heavy-handed treatment of Megaupload, an online file-hosting service. In January 2012, the Department of Justice seized Megauploads domains and servers, froze its assets, and attempted to have the sites founder, Kim Dotcom, extradited to the United States to face criminal charges. While the site undoubtedly hosted some infringing content, there was also a vast amount of non-infringing content stored on the sites servers family photos and videos, personal documents, and other protected expression. All this unquestionably protected speech was swept up in the name of combating online copyright infringement.

While the administrations pursuit of intellectual property enforcement caused collateral damage to protected expression, the administrations biggest tests and, subsequently, biggest failures in its commitment to free speech occurred in the national security arena.

National security concerns caused the Administration to investigate and charge government whistleblowers under the Espionage Act and led to the questionable prosecution of alleged terrorists for crimes as innocuous as translating YouTube videos and writing vulgar and hateful poetry.

Yet nowhere were the administrations First Amendment failings more evident than in its handling of Wikileaks. After Wikileaks published thousands of confidential (and, in some cases, classified) State Department diplomatic cables, the administrationembarked on an unprecedentedintimidation campaign. In particular, the Department of Justices long-running grand jury investigation of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, stands as a press-chilling stain on the administrations First Amendment record. The message the administration sent through its investigation is clear: if you publish classified information and, in particular, classified information that portrays the government in an unflattering light we may prosecute you. Classified information is published almost daily in the countrys most reputable newspapers and magazines. Punishing the publication of truthful information about the government, absent a clear and present danger posed by the informations disclosure, is intolerable under the First Amendment. Yet this was precisely the administrations extraordinary approach. Indeed, the most enduring legacy of the Obama administrations commitment to free speech may be the long shadow in cast upon national security reporting.

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Ennis to get freedom of Sheffield

Posted: at 5:19 am

5 September 2012 Last updated at 12:29 ET

Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis is to be awarded the freedom of Sheffield after councillors unanimously approved the honour.

Ennis, 26, from Sheffield, was crowned champion heptathlete on 4 August.

Ennis would now be consulted over when she was able to officially sign the scroll granting her the honour, Sheffield City Council said.

Freedom of the city did not carry any special privileges and was purely ceremonial, a spokesman said.

Julie Dore, Labour leader of Sheffield City Council, said she believed Ennis had been "overwhelmed" by the reaction her Olympic win had sparked in her home city.

She said she hoped the heptathlete would be proud to accept the honour of freedom of the city.

The award comes just days after Sheffield United renamed one of its stands after Ennis.

Club owner Kevin McCabe said it was a fitting tribute to honour Ennis' achievements during the London Games as she was "probably Sheffield's biggest ever star".

Since her Olympic victory, Ennis has received a number of accolades - of varying kinds - including becoming the cover star of children's comic the Beano and having a lion cub named after her.

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Freedom Institute launches 'Getting Detroit Back to Work'

Posted: at 5:19 am

DETROIT -

Freedom Institute will host a career conference on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, designed to help get Detroiters back to work.

The career conference will take place at Fellowship Chapel Campus located at 7707 W. Outer Drive in Detroit, and will include Career Boot Camp, a Job Expo and a Senior Wellness Law Day.

"Freedom Institute continues to be dedicated to providing the community with quality events," says Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, Founder and Chairman, Freedom Institute. "Detroit cannot move forward until Detroiters get back to work. This career conference will serve as a resource to all who attend."

The Freedom Institute for Economic, Social Justice and People Empowerment is 501c3 organization created to impact and enhance the quality of life for individuals with a particular emphasis on people of color.

Over a decade ago, Freedom Institute began Freedom Weekend as a vehicle to help uplift the local Detroit community with hopes of making an impact statewide and nationally.

"We are excited to have our first career boot camp," says Monica Anthony, Executive Director, Freedom Institute. "The boot camp will guide those who are looking for work and/or who have been unemployed for a long time onto path of success. We are also pleased to have the return of several of our core activities with the Senior Wellness Law Day and the Career Expo."

All activities are free and open to the public. For more information call (313) 347-2834.

Thursday, September 6. 2012

Career Boot Camp -- "Getting Detroit Back to Work"

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Liberty 87, Mercury 59

Posted: at 5:18 am

UpdatedSep 5, 2012 10:45 PM ET

New York jumped out to a big lead and coasted to a needed win against the injury-plagued Phoenix Mercury. The Liberty were also able to rest their starters and give the reserves some valuable playing time.

Plenette Pierson scored 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting to lead New York's balanced offense and the Liberty beat the Mercury 87-59 Wednesday night.

Kara Braxton and Alex Montgomery added 12 points each, Nicole Powell had 11 and Cappie Pondexter 10 to help New York (11-16) move a half-game ahead of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty host the Sky on Friday night.

''We talked about Phoenix is out of the race, so two things could happen,'' New York coach John Whisenant said. ''We could let them go out and play loose ... or we could attack them defensively early and try to get them down, and that's what we did. I thought our players maintained their intensity pretty much throughout.''

The Liberty got off to a fast start and led 21-5 less than 6 minutes into the game. After Phoenix cut the deficit to 10 by the end of the first quarter, New York took control with a 10-0 run that doubled the lead to 33-13 less than 3 minutes into the second. The lead was 22 at halftime and swelled to 32 in the third.

New York finished shooting 47 percent (36 for 76) from the field, including 9 for 22 (41 percent) from 3-point range. The Liberty outrebounded the Mercury 40-34 and finished with a season-high 27 assists - led by Pondexter's eight.

The Liberty have won two of three on their six-game homestand. After facing Chicago, they host Los Angeles on Sunday and Washington next Wednesday. The Liberty then have three road games before finishing at home against Tulsa on Sept. 22.

''We're trying to make a playoff push and our focus right now is to win the home games that are coming up, Pondexter said. ''We did a great job tonight. We came out in the game, everyone had an opportunity to play and everyone scored. It was a great team effort.''

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Pierson scores 17 as Liberty cruise past Mercury

Posted: at 5:18 am

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- New York jumped out to a big lead and coasted to a needed win against the injury-plagued Phoenix Mercury. The Liberty were also able to rest their starters and give the reserves some valuable playing time.

Plenette Pierson scored 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting to lead New York's balanced offense and the Liberty beat the Mercury 87-59 Wednesday night.

Kara Braxton and Alex Montgomery added 12 points each, Nicole Powell had 11 and Cappie Pondexter 10 to help New York (11-16) move a half-game ahead of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty host the Sky on Friday night.

''We talked about Phoenix is out of the race, so two things could happen,'' New York coach John Whisenant said. ''We could let them go out and play loose ... or we could attack them defensively early and try to get them down, and that's what we did. I thought our players maintained their intensity pretty much throughout.''

The Liberty got off to a fast start and led 21-5 less than 6 minutes into the game. After Phoenix cut the deficit to 10 by the end of the first quarter, New York took control with a 10-0 run that doubled the lead to 33-13 less than 3 minutes into the second. The lead was 22 at halftime and swelled to 32 in the third.

New York finished shooting 47 percent (36 for 76) from the field, including 9 for 22 (41 percent) from 3-point range. The Liberty outrebounded the Mercury 40-34 and finished with a season-high 27 assists - led by Pondexter's eight.

The Liberty have won two of three on their six-game homestand. After facing Chicago, they host Los Angeles on Sunday and Washington next Wednesday. The Liberty then have three road games before finishing at home against Tulsa on Sept. 22.

''We're trying to make a playoff push and our focus right now is to win the home games that are coming up, Pondexter said. ''We did a great job tonight. We came out in the game, everyone had an opportunity to play and everyone scored. It was a great team effort.''

DeWanna Bonner scored 20 points for the Mercury (6-20), who fell into a tie with the Shock for last place in the West. Diana Taurasi and Alexis Hornbuckle added 10 points each.

''We're going to have to do a better job on every side of the basketball,'' Taurasi said. ''If you have bad possessions, you try to get back on defense. If defensively you don't get rebounds, it's hard to get a good offense going. It's a combination of things so hopefully we do a better job of that.''

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Liberty Interactive Corporation to Present at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Media, Communications …

Posted: at 5:18 am

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Liberty Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB, LVNTA, LVNTB) announced that Greg Maffei, President and CEO of Liberty Interactive Corporation, will be presenting at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference on Wednesday, September 12th at 4:00 p.m., Pacific Time at The Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, CA. During his presentation, Mr. Maffei may make observations regarding the company's financial performance and outlook.

The presentation will be broadcast live via the Internet. All interested persons should visit the Liberty Interactive Corporation website at http://www.libertyinteractive.com/events to register for the webcast. An archive of the webcast will also be available on this website for 30 days.

About Liberty Interactive Corporation

Liberty Interactive Corporation operates and owns interests in a broad range of digital commerce businesses. Those interests are currently attributed to two tracking stock groups: Liberty Interactive Group and Liberty Ventures Group. The Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB) is primarily focused on digital commerce and consists of Liberty Interactive Corporations subsidiaries Backcountry.com, Bodybuilding.com, Celebrate Interactive (including Evite and Liberty Advertising), CommerceHub, MotoSport, Provide Commerce, QVC, Right Start, and Liberty Interactive Corporations interests in HSN and Lockerz. The Liberty Ventures Group (Nasdaq: LVNTA, LVNTB) consists of Liberty Interactive Corporations non-consolidated assets, including interests in AOL, Expedia, Interval Leisure Group, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Tree.com (Lending Tree), TripAdvisor and various green energy investments.

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FB dark side, in the light

Posted: at 5:18 am

Facebook still thinks pedophiles are funny. So today Im going to show you and, more important, Facebooks advertisers some of the other nasty stuff the social-network giant allows to co-exist alongside your childrens profiles.

Readers of this column know that my gripe with Facebook started about two weeks ago when Mark Zuckerbergs company refused to shut down a page on its site titled Pedophiles are people too.

Instead, Facebook allowed the person who posted the page to insert the phrase Controversial Humour in front of the title.

The pedophile page was still up and running on the Facebook site yesterday.

Facebooks manager of public policy, a guy named Andrew Noyes (noyes@fb.com), said the pedophile page did not violate the companys policies.

In general, pages or groups devoted to jokes, even disgusting and distasteful ones do not violate our policies, he said in an e-mail to me.

So Facebook and Mr. Noyes think that pedophilia sex with children, for those of you who arent familiar with the sicker side of humanity is funny.

Heres what one reader had to say about that.

Dear Mr. Crudele: I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your articles going after both FB and its willing advertisers for not paying attention to the sick Web page that is on the FB site.

I have a different take on this whole thing as I was sexually abused from the time I was 8 to 10 years old. Without boring you with all of the details, I will tell you that it was and still is the most horrific experience anyone can ever imagine.

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