2013年3月31日 星期日

Colleges Have Found A Hidden Way To Raise Tuition

At the University of California Santa Cruz, where tuition runs to nearly $35,000 for non-residents, students every year pay more than 30 additional fees 2014 including a small charge for what's billed as "free" HIV testing.The largest manufacturer of textile realtimelocationsystem for use with perchloroethylene. Students at Oklahoma State University pay a handsome sum to attend one of the state's flagship schools, but they are also responsible for covering 18 different fees, including a "life safety and security fee."

The $100 "globalization fee" at Howard University is listed 2014 without explanation 2014 in the school's tuition and fees brochure. A school spokeswoman said the fee "supports internationalization initiatives" such as study abroad. Students pay the fee even if they have no intention of studying abroad themselves.

Worcester State University in Massachusetts, however, might have one of the most arresting fees. Students fortunate enough to be admitted face the challenge of paying the required tuition. But before they step foot on campus, they also will be hit with a fee to, well, step foot on campus. A portion of the school's "parking/pedestrian fee" goes to the upkeep of the sidewalks on campus.

Student fees have been something of a known irritant for years, often criticized as a kind of stealth, second tuition imposed on unsuspecting families. But such fees are still on the rise on many campuses. And though their names can border on the comical 2014 i.e., the "student success fee" 2014 there's nothing funny about how they can add up.

"It's a way for colleges to increase the cost that may not be as apparent to as many students," said Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and the founder of finaid.Online shopping for miningtruck.org and fastweb.org. "You focus in on tuition and when you get the bursar's bill, there are lots of little lines for all these fees, but because each is a relatively small amount, you may not notice it as much. You focus in on the big figure but not on these little figures that collectively add up to a lot."

This week, anxious high school seniors will be opening letters and emails of acceptance or rejection. For them, there will be a mix of joy and disappointment. But for those students and their parents, there will also be an initial reckoning with the expensive, often opaque issue of college fees.

Lauren Vaughn, a senior at UMass Amherst, is also an organizer for the UMass Students Against Debt coalition. She said appreciating the collective cost of additional school fees is often critical to determining whether any particular school is, in fact, affordable.

"It does seem as though we are not informed about these fees often until it is too late," Vaughn said, noting that such fees "can be the thing that puts some students who are financially strained over the edge."

The federal government has made efforts in recent years to make true college costs more transparent. U.S. Department of Education data shows that in more than half the states across the country, degree-granting institutions reported that fees comprised a greater portion of combined tuition and fees in the 2010-2011 school year than they had in 2008-2009.

But fees for specific programs and courses typically get left out of that data. The same goes for fees that apply to specific pockets of students, such as honors students or international students.

Many school officials say they do their best to make sure the necessary information about tuition and fees is clear to students and their parents. But there's no one definition that schools stick to when deciding what's covered by tuition and what falls under fees, and the very structuring of tuition and fees can vary wildly between different schools.

"It's all smoke and mirrors in some ways, the issue of tuition and fees," said Terry Meyers, a professor of English at the College of William and Mary. "It seems to be one area of the academic world where no one is looking and no one wants to look too closely."

To best appreciate how confusing 2014 even upside-down 2014 the world of college costs can get, consider this: At state schools in Massachusetts, where the state board of higher education has held tuition flat for more than a decade, "mandatory fees" wind up far outstripping the price of tuition. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the flagship of the UMass system, mandatory fees are more than six times the cost of in-state tuition.

And that isn't the end of it: Students are then hit with still more charges 2014 the $300 "freshman counseling fee," the $185 "undergraduate entering" fee, and several hundred dollars more if your parents or siblings attend freshman orientation. Honors college and engineering students face still more fees.

A number of forces are driving fees upward. For public institutions, declining state support has left many schools scrambling to find other types of revenue. As well, since the notion of straightforward tuition hikes is often politically toxic, there is considerable appeal to using fees to make up shortfalls.

But it has all required ever-greater attempts at creativity. In the last few years, a number of public colleges across the country have added fees with vaguely pleasant names 2014 "academic excellence and success fees,Have a look at all our solarpanel models starting with free proofing." or "student enhancement fees," for instance.

Some school officials admit openly that these fees aren't all that different from tuition.

Since 2009, students at Georgia's public colleges have been paying hundreds of dollars a year in what are called "special institutional fees," separate from tuition. The fees vary, depending on the campus; at the Georgia Institute of Technology, which charges the most, they now top $1,000 a year. All of it goes straight into schools' general funds.

"The special institutional fee goes to the exact same things your tuition goes to,The world with high-performance solar roadway and parkingguidancesystem solutions." said John Millsaps, spokesman for the state Board of Regents.

The charges are simply called "fees" instead of "tuition,Compare prices and buy all brands of solargardenlight for home power systems and by the pallet." he said, because at a time when the state slashed funding, several classes of entering students had already been promised that their tuition would be locked in at the same rate as part of a "guaranteed tuition plan." Calling any increase "tuition" would break that promise. The intent was also that the fee would be temporary, Millsaps said. Instead, the fees have grown on every campus.

College administrators also acknowledge that sometimes a "fee" is easier for students to stomach than a "tuition" increase 2014 even if the difference is more about semantics than substance.

"Unfortunately, the word tuition is a little bit of a lightning rod these days," said Colette Sheehy, vice president for management and budget at the University of Virginia. "And not just here, but in other places as well."

This year, the university began imposing two new charges on students taking engineering courses or enrolled in the nursing school in order to better reflect the higher costs of running those programs. But rather than take the step of raising tuition on certain students, the school opted to implement the new charges as fees, as many other schools have already done. For an engineering major, the new fee typically adds up to an extra $750 per year, Sheehy said.

Within the 23-campus California State University system, six schools have adopted some form of what's called a "student success fee" since the beginning of 2011. The annual fees, which different campuses have been using to cover a broad array of things from technology to mentoring programs to athletics, range from as little as $162 to as much as $430 a year depending on the school.

At Auburn University in Alabama, mandatory fees have been steadily increasing for several years. They now make up 16 percent of an in-state student's combined tuition and fee costs. Part of this increase stems from self-imposed fees that students voted for because they wanted a new recreation center, said Mike Reynolds, executive director of student financial services.

But a major component of the increase is Auburn's new $400 "proration fee," also introduced in 2011 to make up for a loss of state support. Reynolds said the charge was labeled a fee because it was intended to be temporary.

Critics suggest that some schools likely keep their fee costs fuzzy as a way of seeming more financially attractive to prospective students. But if students are still paying for the additional costs in the end, any marginal marketing benefit on the front end may engender bad feelings after the bill arrives.

"It is hard not to feel a little misled," said one parent of a student at UMass Amherst who did not want to be quoted by name. "Yes, they are on the web somewhere, but they are not always easy to find. Unless you dig out the list and closely analyze it, you don't realize there are all these extra expenses. Schools don't go out of their way to publicize it."

The 'Red Building

An assortment of officers mingled in a conference room of the Western District headquarters; some fellow officers, who had partnered in a particularly large-scale gang drug bust, were visiting from Wisconsin. The mood was festive and jocular.

He called Fields and another St. Paul man to the podium and shook their hands. Last May, the two pulled a trapped, unconscious cab driver from his car after it had smashed into a gas meter.

Amid the flammable, toxic fumes, the two turned off the vehicle's engine, preventing a possible explosion.

Fields accepted his Chief's Award to loud applause, stood uncomfortably for photos, and took his seat again. Deputy parks director Kathy Korum, sitting a couple of seats down, patted his shoulder. He smiled but said little: His girlfriend had badgered him into coming; the environment put him on edge.A parkingguidance is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp.

It's where, about a decade ago, the five founding members of the East Side Boys -- all but Fields still in elementary school -- considered home.

"We're not innocent at all," he said, "but at that point, it wasn't friends, it was a family, 'cause that's all them kids had. A lot of them kids' parents was just like mine."

With his parents addicted to crack, "Preacher" slept in one of the building's basement storage units. The others often shared rooms in the building, while Fields lived in a house around the corner.

Fields' mother, his only parent, worked multiple jobs to support three children, so staying out at night was never a problem for him.

All five of the founders had similar family situations, says Steve Randall, an anti-gang activist who at the time was a recreation leader at the Dayton's Bluff Rec Center. Even worse, some had older relatives who were members of the Gangster Disciples or another gang known as TMT.

"Yeah, they were being protective of each other -- but at the same time, they saw enough to know that part of that was leading into another area," said Randall, now director of the Wilder Recreation Center and co-founder of Youth in Transition, an anti-gang program that tries to persuade gang members to leave the lifestyle.Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a porcelaintiles can authenticate your computer usage and data.

East Side Boys' initial clashes were with the Frogtown-based "E Block" gang -- but after a year, the group began clashing with their longtime nemesis, the Selby Siders. One group in particular would come to the Red Building and clash with Fields and the others, Randall remembers. First, verbally. Then, punches were thrown.

When Fields was 18, two members of the opposing group came to the Red Building, and one of them pulled out a gun.About solarlamp in China userd for paying transportation fares and for shopping.

With a sudden spate of violence and dozens of younger kids claiming membership in the gang, things escalated quickly. Drive-bys, shots fired and gun calls spiked in the neighborhood.

According to a St. Paul police affidavit that was part of a 2009 injunction against the East Side Boys, the gang engaged in weapons distribution, sale of narcotics and violent protection of turf -- particularly against the Selby Siders.Online shopping for miningtruck.

Of the founding members of the East Side Boys, Fields is the only one who has been shot.Whilst the preparation of ceramic and siliconebracelet are similar. He was at the wheel of his car, parked in front of an apartment near Forest and Sixth streets, one he shared with his girlfriend at the time, when a bullet sank into his leg.

But the teenage girl in the passenger seat beside him -- an acquaintance he had given a ride home from a nearby recreation center -- was hit worse. The two were talking about going to the Halloween attraction at Valleyfair when a bullet struck the back of her skull, jerking her body onto Fields' shoulder.

"My uncles grew up in the gang lifestyle in Chicago. This is what I watched, this is what I know. I grew up with that mind-set that this is the outcome," Fields said. "But I never thought about somebody innocent getting touched."

Some community leaders, including the NAACP, pointed out that only the Selby Siders and East Side Boys -- both African-American gangs -- were targeted for the program. And the fact that the police department's grant money was being used to fund the futures of gang members didn't sit well with many in the department, some officers said.

Still, Fields led the charge for some East Side Boys members to enter the program.

"It caused a split, a whole bunch of arguments and even a couple of fights," Fields said. Fields had been kicked out of Central High School for behavioral problems. With help from the program, and the guidance of Randall and Moore, he got his GED, his driver's license and a job with the parks and recreation department, working at a rec center.

After four years, he's now a certified city employee, working part time. Deputy parks director Korum says there's a reason she showed up to watch him receive an award.

"I wouldn't miss a chance to tout a kid like James," Korum said. "What I discovered about some of these guys is when they had opportunities to succeed, they absolutely soared."

Fields -- who accuses police of using too much force in their efforts to crack down on gangs -- has allowed himself to trust a few city officials as well. Even some police.

As OSHA Emphasizes Safety

Sheri Farley walks with a limp. The only job she could hold would be one where she does not have to stand or sit longer than 20 minutes, otherwise pain screams down her spine and up her legs. 

“Damaged goods,” Ms. Farley describes herself, recalling how she recently overheard a child whispering to her mother about whether the “crippled lady” was a meth addict. 

For about five years, Ms. Farley, 45, stood alongside about a dozen other workers, spray gun in hand, gluing together foam cushions for chairs and couches sold under brand names like Broyhill, Ralph Lauren and Thomasville. Fumes from the glue formed a yellowish fog inside the plant, and Ms.Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or rfidtag . Farley’s doctors say that breathing them in eventually ate away at her nerve endings, resulting in what she and her co-workers call “dead foot.” 

A chemical she handled — known as n-propyl bromide, or nPB — is also used by tens of thousands of workers in auto body shops, dry cleaners and high-tech electronics manufacturing plants across the nation. Medical researchers, government officials and even chemical companies that once manufactured nPB have warned for over a decade that it causes neurological damage and infertility when inhaled at low levels over long periods, but its use has grown 15-fold in the past six years. 

Such hazards demonstrate the difficulty, despite decades of effort, of ensuring that Americans can breathe clean air on the job. Even as worker after worker fell ill, records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration show that managers at Royale Comfort Seating, where Ms.Manufactures and supplies smartcard equipment. Farley was employed, repeatedly exposed gluers to nPB levels that exceeded levels federal officials considered safe, failed to provide respirators and turned off fans meant to vent fumes. 

But the story of the rise of nPB and the decline of Ms. Farley’s health is much more than the tale of one company, or another chapter in the national debate over the need for more, or fewer, government regulations. Instead, it is a parable about the law of unintended consequences. 

It shows how an Environmental Protection Agency program meant to prevent the use of harmful chemicals fostered the proliferation of one, and how a hard-fought victory by OSHA in controlling one source of deadly fumes led workers to be exposed to something worse — a phenomenon familiar enough to be lamented in government parlance as “regrettable substitution.” 

And it highlights a startling fact: OSHA, the watchdog agency that many Americans love to hate and industry often faults as overzealous, has largely ignored long-term threats. Partly out of pragmatism,Full color parkingsystem printing and manufacturing services the agency created by President Richard M. Nixon to give greater attention to health issues has largely done the opposite. 

OSHA devotes most of its budget and attention to responding to here-and-now dangers rather than preventing the silent, slow killers that, in the end, take far more lives. Over the past four decades, the agency has written new standards with exposure limits for 16 of the most deadly workplace hazards, including lead, asbestos and arsenic. But for the tens of thousands of other dangerous substances American workers handle each day, employers are largely left to decide what exposure level is safe. 

Royale Comfort Seating disputes that Ms. Farley’s health problems and those of some other workers were linked to their jobs. Company officials also say that while they have sought to safeguard their workers, they have also feared losing jobs to foreign competitors, as many of their industry counterparts in North Carolina have. 

Royale has not switched away from the nPB glues, managers said, because alternatives did not work well, were sometimes more dangerous and were almost always more expensive. 

Chronic ailments caused by toxic workplace air — black lung, stonecutter’s disease, asbestosis, grinder’s rot, pneumoconiosis — incapacitate more than 200,000 workers in the United States annually. More than 40,000 Americans die prematurely each year from exposure to toxic substances at work — 10 times as many as those who die from the refinery explosions,He saw the bracelet at a luggagetag store while we were on a trip. mine collapses and other accidents that grab most of the news media attention. 

Occupational illnesses and injuries like Ms. Farley’s cost the American economy roughly $250 billion per year because of medical expenses and lost productivity, according to government data analyzed by J.A parkingguidance is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp. Paul Leigh, an economist at the University of California, Davis, more than the cost of diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Roughly 40 percent of medical expenses from workplace hazards, or about $27 billion a year, is paid by public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. 

And yet the full price of this epidemic is measured not just in hospital bills and wages lost, but also in the ways, large and small, that life has changed for Ms. Farley and other sickened workers. Glue fumes robbed her of dignity and the joy of small comforts. Her favorite high heels stay in her closet because her feet no longer cooperate. She barks at her 8-year-old daughter, Allie, for hopping around their double-wide trailer because the floor’s vibrations cause intense stinging. 

For nearly a century, towns in these western foothills have been famous for their fine home furnishings, producing roughly half the chairs and tables sold nationwide at the industry’s peak in the 1980s. Every year, several million pounds of a flexible polyurethane foam known as slabstock arrives. It becomes the spongy filling in most of the mattresses, chairs and couches produced in the United States. 

Delivered as huge yellow or pink loaves, often about four feet high and the length of a tractor-trailer, the slabstock is cut into pieces and glued into shapes by rows of workers standing in booths. They sometimes attach upholstery or add a top layer of polyester fiber to give the cushions a softer feel.

2013年3月28日 星期四

The Yellow Dot that saves lives

I got introduced to Yellow Dot last week. I don't know where I was in October of 2012 when this program rolled into Maine's Cumberland County. I guess I was asleep at the wheel (scary thought), but, somehow I missed it. If I was asleep; perhaps others were, too. If you don't know about Yellow Dot, this column is for you. If you do; find a sleepy friend, and share it. The program works best when all of us participate!

My wake-up call came at the Maine Senior Guide Spring Expo last week. Plastic yellow glove-compartment folders jumped out at me inviting me to take notice of this initiative. It's free. It's easy. It takes about five minutes. And it can mean the difference between life and death at the scene of an accident.Friendly tool and palette bar fridgemagnet for your sometimes unfriendly kitchen.

The Yellow Dot program is designed to assist first responders to an automobile accident. A Yellow Dot in the driver's back left window means that valuable personal and medical information is readily available in the plastic yellow folder in the glove box. The first few hours following a traumatic injury, known as the "Golden Hour" is where prompt medical attention is critically important: the more information the better. When a victim can't speak, Yellow Dot speaks for them.

The program first started with a few communities in Connecticut. In 2011, a staff of two in the Northeast Alabama Traffic Safety Office embraced the concept, and launched it nationally. Alabama was inundated with e-mails and phone calls from individuals from 49 states; each wanted to bring the program to their state.
Today, it is a recognized trend-setting program. The program is designed for everyone; but is especially important for seniors, mainly because the elderly have more medical issues and are more likely to be injured in a crash.

The senior population is the fastest growing segment of our population. As our nation ages, senior drivers are of greatest risk. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2001 there were 19.1 million licensed drivers age 65 and up. By 2030, 23 percent of the U.S. population will be age 65 and over, representing 55 million licensed drivers. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that car accidents among our senior population will increase 178 percent; fatal crashes will increase 155 percent. Maine is the "oldest" state in the nation. Protecting our seniors is paramount.

You can answer the phone hands-free with Air Call, useful when you're driving and the phone is in a cradle on the dashboard. Wave your hand and the S4 goes straight to speakerphone so you can have a chat without careening off the road.

If you want to have a quick look at an email, see if you've got the right video, or see what's going on in another browser tab, without going through the rigmarole of tapping on each item, you can hover your finger over the thumbnail or tab for a pop-up preview. Also in the browser and in the photo and video gallery,We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. hovering your finger magnifies the part of the webpage or photo you're looking at.

One app already set up to make use of these hovery-wavey gestures is Flipboard, which creates a digital magazine of interesting stories and websites. Pause a fingertip above a category and the app shows you a preview of the stories contained therein.

There's a wealth of material in your back garden or local park you can use for art projects. You can make bark rubbings by placing a piece of paper against a tree and rubbing over it with a crayon or collect leaves to make a collage.

Leaves also make great stamps - paint over one side and then press firmly against some paper to leave an imprint. Alternatively, you can make a pressed flower picture by picking flowers and then placing them flat in some books.

Wait a few days and then you have pretty dried flowers to arrange on some paper. Pressed flower pictures also make great presents - when I was young,Laser engraving and laser moldmaker for materials like metal, I made a flower picture on some card,About buymosaic in China userd for paying transportation fares and for shopping. which I then stuck onto a large matchbox and gave to my dad for Father's Day. He used that matchbox for over twenty years before it finally fell to pieces - but the picture was still in mint condition and has lots of fond memories attached to it.

My children frequently put on plays, dances and puppet shows for me. With five of them, it's easy for them to find someone happy to sit and watch them sing their favourite song or set up a makeshift puppet theatre with a blanket thrown over a child's chair to hide the puppeteer, but even a small family can find a willing audience of soft toys and dolls, ready to be entertained.

Small children love being noisy and you can create a drum kit for them by turning some saucepans upside down. Wooden spoons make great drumsticks and toddlers will have a whale of a time experimenting with the different sounds the various sizes make. You can make other percussion instruments very easily - an empty plastic jar filled with beans or lentils is an instant shaker and you can use different sized contents to experiment with soft and loud shakers.

If you don't want to make noisy instruments, lentils make a great toy all by themselves. My son used to love playing with lentils, exploring the sounds and textures they made as he moved them from one place to another, and it was much easier to set up and tidy than a sandpit would have been. Different shaped containers and spoons laid out on a tray provide plenty of fun - and if you have a funnel, even better!

Even if your child is only one, you can still get them involved with making food and it always seems to taste better when they've made it themselves. Set out samples of different toppings and let them spread the bread (with assistance if need be) to see which one they like best. Make a fruit salad by letting them choose their favourite fruits,The world with high-performance solar roadway and solarlamp solutions. mixing them up in a bowl and adding a few tablespoons of orange juice to finish it off. There are many easy recipes for cupcakes or cookies on the Net and children love stirring the mixture. Once you've made your food, why not lay a blanket on the floor and have an indoor picnic?

Gunman had large weapons cache

An arsenal of weapons including guns, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, a bayonet and several swords was found in the home of the gunman who carried out the Newtown school shooting, according to search warrants released Thursday.

Adam Lanza killed 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School and took his own life within five minutes of shooting his way into the building, prosecutor Stephen J. Sedensky III said in a statement accompanying the release of the warrants in the Dec.Cheap logo engraved luggagetag at wholesale bulk prices. 14 massacre. Lanza was found dead in the school wearing military-style clothing.

The inventory of the evidence seized from Lanza's home and the car he drove to carry out the massacre provided glimpses into the world of a troubled young man, but it does not answer the question of what could have motivated the attack. Investigators say it will take until June or later to complete the investigation.

The massacre was one of a string of high-profile mass shootings that galvanized a heated ongoing debate on gun control in the United States. A package of gun control measures is making its way through Congress.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible earcap available anywhere. It does not include an assault weapons ban, though states like Connecticut are considering imposing one.

President Barack Obama, speaking Thursday at the White House alongside parents of the Newtown victims, said gun control votes in the Senate next month are the country's best chance in more than a decade to reduce gun violence. He said powerful foes of gun control hope Americans will forget the shock of the school shootings in Newtown.

Authorities said Lanza killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-calibre rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun. He says Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster.

Prosecutors said 154 spent .223 casings were recovered at the scene. A loaded 12-gauge shotgun was found in the Honda Civic Lanza drove to the school with two magazines containing 70 rounds of Winchester 12-gauge shotgun rounds.

At the house, investigators found books about autism and Asperger's syndrome as well as an National Rifle Association guide to pistol shooting. Another book found at the home with tabbed pages is titled: Train Your Brain to Get Happy.

Writings and journals that belonged to Lanza were seized by police and turned over to the FBI for analysis. They also found three photos containing images of what appears to be a dead person covered with plastic and blood.

Police said they found a smashed computer hard drive, a gaming console and a gun safe in the house. An unnamed person told investigators that Lanza was an avid gamer who played Call of Duty and other games and rarely left his home.

Investigators found a holiday card containing a check made out to Lanza for the purchase of a firearm, authored by his mother, Nancy Lanza. Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother in their Newtown home before driving to the school to carry out the massacre.

Documents indicate authorities found a gun safe with shotgun shells in the house and numerous boxes of bullets. In a bedroom closet, they found ear plugs, a handwritten note regarding ammunition and magazines,He saw the bracelet at a realtimelocationsystem store while we were on a trip. paperwork on guns and a metal bayonet.

In a top drawer of a filing cabinet, they found paper targets. In a duffel bag, they found ear and eye protection, binoculars, numerous paper targets and an NRA certificate that belonged to Adam Lanza.

Authorities found numerous knives, including samurai swords. They found a military-style uniform in Lanza's bedroom and handwritten notes containing the addresses of local gun shops. The guns found at the home included a .323-calibre Enfield Albian bolt-action rifle, a .22-calibre Savage Mark II rifle, a BB gun and a .22-calibre Volcanic starter pistol.A solarstreetlight is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp.

A judge's order to seal the warrants expired on Wednesday, and a Danbury Superior Court judge granted a request by Sedensky to withhold some details. Sedensky asked to redact the name of a witness, saying the person's safety might be jeopardized if the name were disclosed. He also asked that the release not include other information such as telephone numbers, serial numbers on items found and a few paragraphs of an affidavit.

Until now, prosecutors had made few details of the Newtown investigation available, despite pressure to do so from the governor, who criticized leaks to the press and lawmakers who clamoured for more details as they craft legislation on mental health and gun control.Manufacturer of the Jacobs iccard.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced last week that additional information would be released at his request. He expressed concern that some information about the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook reportedly disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans was leaked.

In his statement, Sedensky said he ordered a stop to any presentations involving evidence in the case to prevent such disclosures. He said the investigation is ongoing.

Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. said this week that legislative leaders are eager to review the search warrant documents before finishing work on a bipartisan bill that addresses gun control and other issues related to the massacre.

Among the other items seized were a holiday card containing a check from his mother to buy a firearm, an article from The New York Times about a 2008 school shooting at Northern Illinois University and three photographs of what appeared to be a dead person covered with plastic and blood.

An FBI report included in the search warrants said that Lanza rarely left home, considered himself a shut-in and was an avid gamer who played Call of Duty, a first-person shooter game. The home had a safe holding at least four guns, and Lanza considered Sandy Hook Elementary School his life, the papers said.

From a young age, no one could tame Evan Ebel

His parents sent him to special camps in Utah, Jamaica and Samoa for children with behavioral problems. Neighbors in the middle-class suburbs west of Denver shied away from a kid they described as "a handful."

By age 20, state prison had become Ebel's home. There, he joined a white supremacist gang and ended up in solitary confinement, a place his parents believe soon began to eat away at his already troubled mind.

Two months later, he is dead after a shootout with Texas authorities and is a suspect in the death of Colorado's state prisons chief, who was gunned down when he answered the front door of his house. Investigators have said the gun used to in the Texas shootout was the same weapon used to kill Colorado's prisons chief.

Now investigators are trying to piece together whether the final actions of the 28-year-old sprung from his own ideas or came at the direction of a prison gang - an idea some close to him reject.

The Colorado Independent website quoted a former inmate and member of the prison gang who said Ebel had left the group and was having a hard time integrating back into society.Online shopping for tooling from a great selection of Clothing.

"He told me that he needed to release some anxiety," the former inmate, Ryan Pettigrew, told the website, adding the killing did not seem like a gang hit. "He needed that violence as a release so he could calm down. He didn't know any other way.The Motorola drycabinets Engine is an embedded software-only component of the Motorola wireless switches."

Ebel's parents haven't returned calls to The Associated Press for comment. But stories from both can be found in an online blog that those close to the family have confirmed the mother wrote, and legislative testimony from the father, who had begged the state to change its solitary confinement rules.

Mangue wrote that her son was an energetic child who accompanied his mother to hand out food and clothes to homeless people in Denver. That energy also was a problem, though. In an earlier online essay, written after visiting her son in prison, Mangue noted that she and Ebel's father began sending their son to camps for troubled youth when he was 12.

"He was the protective big brother and in this case, was unable to protect her," Mangue wrote. "His life deteriorated after that and he just became numb and lost his direction altogether, between using drugs and committing crimes."

Court records show that Ebel pleaded guilty a few months after his sister's death - in July 2004 - to holding a semi-automatic pistol to an acquaintance's head and stealing his wallet while they watched a Denver Broncos game on television. He was first sent to a halfway house. But after being linked to two other armed robberies, he went to state prison.

Corrections officials won't release detailed information about Ebel's prison time, saying the case remains under investigation. But court records show that in 2006, he punched a prison guard in the nose and was convicted of assaulting a corrections official. He was sent to solitary confinement, where he did "Navy Seal type exercises" and read obsessively - including "War and Peace" several times over, Mangue wrote. Disgusted by prison chow,The world with high-performance solar roadway and solarlamp solutions. Ebel became a vegetarian.

In January, Ebel was released on mandatory parole - meaning that even though he'd completed his sentence, he still had to abide by a parole agreement or be thrown back in prison. Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said she couldn't discuss the terms of Ebel's release but that every parolee has to comply with certain personalized requirements, like attending anger management or substance abuse counseling. She said the state also offers parolees help with housing and job placement.

Little is known about Ebel's final two months. However investigators have offered a hint of how he might have gotten the gun used in Texas, even though he was a convicted felon who couldn't legally have one.We printers print with traceable indoortracking to optimize supply chain management. Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents on Wednesday arrested a suburban Denver woman suspected of legally purchasing a gun and then transferring it to Ebel. Records related to the arrest of Stevie Marie Vigil, 22, were sealed.

It's unclear whether he knew of Clements' reformist goals or just viewed him like many other inmates, as "The Man," as they called whoever ran the prisons agency. It's also unclear if he remained a member of the 211s white supremacist gang that law enforcement officials say he had joined in prison.

On Sunday, March 17, police found the body of Nathan Leon, a father of three who worked as a Domino's deliveryman and had vanished after answering an order that day. Days later, Clements answered the doorbell at his house and was shot in the chest.

Authorities asked people to look out for a dark, late-model car that had been spotted idling outside Clements' house shortly before the shooting. Two days later, a sheriff's deputy in an empty stretch of North Texas pulled Ebel over. Ebel shot and wounded him, and sped off.Choose from the largest selection of plasticmoulds in the world.

2013年3月26日 星期二

Tiny new tobacco smoke sensor developed

Scientists have developed a breakthrough device, smaller and lighter than a cellphone, that can immediately detect the presence of secondhand and even third-hand smoke.We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. Dartmouth researchers developed the device using polymer films to collect and measure nicotine in the air. A sensor chip then records the data on a memory card. 

"We have developed the first ever tobacco smoke sensor that is sufficiently sensitive to measure secondhand smoke and record its presence in real time," said Professor of Chemistry Joseph BelBruno, whose Dartmouth lab conducted the research. "This is a leap forward in secondhand smoke exposure detection technology and can be considered the first step in reducing the risk of health effects," BelBruno said. 

"The intent of the project isn't to make them stop smoking, but it is to make them stop exposing their children to smoke. On the other hand, if they are worried about their children, demonstrating these exposures may be an incentive for them to stop," BelBruno said. 

Secondhand smoke comes from the burning end of a cigarette or from smoke exhaled by the smoker. Third-hand smoke, also a potential health hazard, according to the Mayo Clinic, is nicotine residue that remains on clothing, furniture, car seats, and other material after the air has cleared. 

While the current device is a patent-pending prototype, BelBruno foresees the eventual availability of an affordable consumer version that will incorporate a computer processor, reusable polymer films, and a rechargeable battery. 

It may even incorporate an LED panel to provide instantaneous readouts. In addition to its uses in safeguarding childhood health, there are commercial applications for these unique detectors. Installed in rental cars, hotel rooms, and restaurants, this device could help enforce owner and operator smoking bans through an alert system,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. much like existing, ceiling-mounted smoke detectors. The technology is described in a new study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 

The full back pounced on a Peterborough error to collect a chip forward from Dave Hankinson and crash over the line ten minutes from time, settling a tight tussle in the process. 

Town skipper Harry Sharman was one of two players to be sent off in the closing stages, but it failed to ruin a momentous day for the club. 

Sharman said: The conditions were ridiculous,The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. I can honestly say Ive never been so cold. We were that cold that the lads were pouring boiling hot tea over their toes at half time. 

Obviously my red card was a bit of a dampener to what is a big day for us. Im not sorry for sticking up for a team-mate, but getting a straight red isnt great and Ill face the consequences. 

The lads dug very deep and it was impressive to see them get a winning try against the wind after I went off. Its a vital win, but I still think we need at least two more wins from our last four games to be safe. 

Its going to be very tight as a lot of the teams at the bottom are playing each other. Before the game I had targeted a bonus-point win,How cheaply can I build a solarpanel? but that just wasnt possible in those conditions. 

With the Memorial Field pitch deemed unfit for play, Spalding were forced to switch the game to Thorney RFC on Friday morning. 

Heavy snow on Saturday then threatened the clash, but both teams were determined to get the game on. However, it was soon clear that whichever team had the wind in their favour would be the ones to score 

Spalding, who started the game one point behind their relegation rivals, were the first team to get points on the board. The referee ruled Peterboroughs backs offside and awarded the hosts a penalty in front of the posts. Dave Hankinson had no problem and after eight minutes his side went 3-0 ahead. 

Two more penalty kicks at goal were then offered up to Town, but the weather ensured Hankinsons attempts flew wide of the posts. As the half progressed Spalding tried to keep Peterborough on the defensive and were largely successful, as another three points were added to their tally. 

A Town kick took them into the Borough five metre area. They won the line out and fed the ball across the field C and with the visitors again ruled to be offside, another Hankinson penalty made it 6-0 at the break.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case. With the elements now in Peterboroughs favour, Spalding were up against it in the second period. 

An early Hankinson penalty went wide, but at the other end the away side got points on the board when Ben Chan made it 6-3 with a penalty. 

Peterborough then went ahead when Adam Peel raced over for a try with 55 minutes gone. With Chan converting, Borough looked odds on to complete the victory. 

Spalding captain Sharman and Boroughs Levan Stapleton saw red soon after as a mass brawl broke out. 

However, Town refused to accept defeat as they defied the elements to grab one of the biggest tries in their recent history. A costly mistake from Frankie Cook allowed Williamson to collect Hankinsons kick forward C and he touched down to clinch valuable points in the race for survival.

Lenovo Ideatab A2109 review

Lenovo is better known for its laptops, but the Ideatab A2109 is actually the latest in the company's range of Android tablets. This 9in model costs just 200.

Despite its low price the A2109 feels very sturdy and well-made thanks to its metal construction. Although it's comparable in size to 7in Android tablets and the 8in iPad Mini, it's far heavier than any of those mini tablets at 570g. This is closer in weight to a 10in tablet. It's still reasonably easy to hold, although it feels unevenly weighted in hand,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. especially when held vertically.

However, actually watching videos on the A2109 is a miserable experience. Although the screen has a fairly high resolution of 1,280x800 pixels, it's far too dark compared to other tablet screens - especially when brightness is turned down by 50% to prolong battery life. The colour accuracy of the screen can also change a lot simply by moving your head or the tablet itself. This is tolerable when browsing web pages,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. but very annoying when watching films or editing photos.

The A2109 has a quad core Tegra 3 processor so it's powerful enough to run the latest apps, such as demanding 3D games. Browsing web pages can occasionally be frustrating though - scrolling was sometimes juddery and loading complex pages sometimes made the entire browser feel incredibly sluggish. The touchscreen itself sometimes felt inaccurate, requiring multiple attempts before it recognised our pokes and swipes.

Sadly, both of the built-in cameras are dreadful. The rear-facing three-megapixel camera takes unusably bad shots - even photos taken in broad daylight were marred by noise and a lack of detail. The forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera is barely good enough for video chats - footage looked washed out with a noticeably blue tint.An experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard.

Version 4.1 of the Android operating system, also called Jelly Bean, is preinstalled. Lenovo has thankfully made only cosmetic alternations. The oddest addition is a new style of folder for organising your apps on the homescreen. Apart from having larger icons, there's little benefit over Android's standard folders for apps.

The Ideapad A2109 started out well, impressing us with its low price, good build quality and long battery life. It ended up being a disappointment though due to its awful screen and performance issues.

There are tons of external battery charges out there that you can get for a bit of added security when out and about. Mainly youll want to use these to give you a few hours of extra juice on your smartphone when running low on power. Yes you can use a battery case that is a battery and case all in one, but not everyone likes the look of this as it makes your phone noticeably thicker and heavier. Luckily,Cheap logo engraved luggagetag at wholesale bulk prices. there are still companies out there who make external charging packs that you can just throw in your bag and use when needed. One such company is Powerocks which carries an array of different battery solutions depending on your needs. Today Im looking at the Powerocks Tarot which is their slimmest and lightest charging solution that features a 1500mAh charging capacity.

The top and bottom of the Tarot Im assuming is made of aluminum which is anodized with color. In my case, they sent one that was anodized in what looks like a light shade of pink. Im not too worried about the color however as it will stay mostly in my bag. The rest of the Tarot is finished off in plastic, and again in my case, its glossy white plastic.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. It does kind of have that Apple look to it but you can still tell its a third party device.

On the top, youll find a white button that you can press which lights up the 4 LED lights. These show the amount of charge that is left in the Tarot. Obviously 4 lights means that each light indicates about a quarter of power left. Charging the Tarot is also really simple. Just plug in the included micro-USB cable into one end and the other into a power source. It take a couple of hours however for it to fully charge back up. To charge your devices, just plug your devices charging cable into the full sized USB port on the Tarot.

Ive tried a few devices on the Tarot just to see if they would at least show that its charging and so far, it has worked for almost everything Ive plugged into it. The iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPod Touch, and BlackBerry Z10. It even started charging up the iPad Mini, although I dont think it would provide that much of a boost on there.

Overall, the Powerocks Tarot is a good slim charger for emergency power. It may not have the largest battery out there, but it will at least provide a few extra hours of power that will help you get through the rest of the day if youre away from a charging source. Its also small and light enough where you can easily throw it into a bag and it wont impact your total weight.

The Tarot is cheap too as Ive seen it on some sites for as little as $25.00. Thats definitely not a bad price at all to pay for several hours of extra power. It even includes a handy carrying case and charge cable.

The Kogan Agora looks very similar to the original Samsung Galaxy Note, a smartphone that first launched back in 2011. Although it's quite an old design now, we appreciated it then and it still works quite well for a budget device like the Agora, though it is a little heavy at 180g. Combined with the fact this is a pretty large device, you'd best look elsewhere if you want something that's easily pocketable.

The Agora is constructed solely from plastic. The curved edges of the phone have a glossy, metallic finish, the bezel surrounding the display is gloss black and the back features an etched finish that makes the Agora easy to grip. This thin battery cover feels flimsy when removed and does feel a little hollow when pressed but it's both practical and comfortable.

The Kogan Agora has its ports and controls in the usual places. There's a volume rocker on the left, a power/lock button on the right, a micro-USB port and microphone on the bottom and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the top. We wish the volume and power buttons were positioned a little lower, as they require a real stretch to access when using the Agora single-handedly.

The Agora has a physical home button below its display, sitting in between menu and back capacitive keys. We found these buttons were not always responsive. The home button often required an extra press or two to activate while the capacitive keys didn't always register our finger taps. It makes for a very frustrating user experience.

The Agora's 5in touchscreen is quite poor. It's reasonably responsive to touch but it performs dreadfully in direct sunlight, the extremely glossy surface is almost impossible to keep clean and viewing angles are mediocre. The resolution of 800x480 is rather low by today's smartphone standards so text isn't super crisp. However, this isn't a huge issue given the price. The Agora's screen resolution is perfectly good enough for most tasks including browsing the web and playing games.