Dozens killed as Egypt unrest worsens

Egyptian soldiers fired on hundreds of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Mursi before dawn Monday as they were praying outside the facility where he was believed to be detained, dozens of witnesses said. Egypt’s military said armed assailants fired on the soldiers first.

Separately, former finance minister Samir Radwan has emerged as the favourite to become Egypt's interim prime minister, senior political sources said on Monday, as the military-backed transitional administration seeks a way out of political deadlock.Radwan said he had not yet been approached. Interim head of state Adli Mansour has been trying since last week to form a temporary government that can guide the country towards fresh elections at a time of iPhone headset.

In Monday's clash in Cairo, at least 51 civilians were killed, all or most of them shot, and more than 300 wounded, doctors and health officials said.Security officials said one police officer died as well.The shooting was the single deadliest episode of violence since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s longtime autocratic leader.

It immediately escalated the nearly week-old confrontation between the generals who forced out Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, and Mursi’s Islamist supporters in the streets.In an early sign that the mass shooting had undercut important support for the military’s ouster of Mursi, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the country’s top Muslim cleric, threatened to go into seclusion until the violence ended.

The grand imam, who participated in talks on a post-Mursi transitional government, said in a statement broadcast on Egyptian state television: "I might be forced to enter into a retreat in my home until everyone takes responsibility for protecting the sanctity of blood and preventing the country from a civil war."The military said its soldiers had fired in response to an attack by gunmen from a "terrorist group" who had attempted to storm the facility, according to Ahram Online, the website of Egypt’s leading newspaper.

Dozens of Islamists who had gathered in vigil for Mursi denied there was any provocation for the attack. Two bystanders who had supported Mursi’s ouster also said that the demonstrators were unarmed and ran in terror as the attack began.Bullet holes in cars, lampposts and corrugated metal barriers indicated that gunfire was coming from the top of a nearby building where the sandbag barriers around makeshift gun emplacements were visible. Bullet casings on the ground and collected by Islamist demonstrators bore the stamp of the Egyptian army.

But Egyptian state television showed film of a pro-Mursi protester firing what appeared to be a homemade handgun at advancing soldiers from behind a corner about 250 yards away. The footage was in daylight, hours after the initial attack began.Another video broadcast on state television, also in daylight and so hours after the attack had begun, showed a masked man among the pro-Mursi demonstrators.

The protesters, witnesses and video footage all appeared to portray the pro-Mursi demonstrators as attempting to fight back against the soldiers by throwing rocks.Early in the morning, Egyptian state media sent out a news alert saying that an army lieutenant had been killed and 200 "armed individuals" were captured, then hours later reported that there were also dozens of civilian casualties.

There were pools of blood on the pavement. Some of the blood and bullet holes were hundreds of yards from the walls of the facility’s guard house, suggesting that the soldiers continued firing as the demonstrators fled.The officer was hiding in a car in the parking lot of a building in a side street that the Mursi supporters were using for shelter. Video footage taken from a window above showed gunfire from the advancing soldiers hitting the car.

El-Sheikh, who signed a petition and joined protests for Mursi’s ouster, said he and others carried the officer’s body out of his car. "He did not have a head any more," he said.The Nasr City hospital, a few minutes’ drive from the scene of the shooting, began receiving hundreds of victims around 4 a.m. and at least 40 were dead, according to Bassem al-Sayed, a surgeon. The doctor said all the victims he saw were men with gunshot wounds.

The emergency wards and the intensive care unit were full of patients and distraught relatives. Near the emergency room, two dozen men lined up to donate blood.The survivors, who were shot in the head, chest or arms, or who had been hit in the face by birdshot pellets, all told roughly the same story. They were attacked without warning with tear gas and gunfire near the end of morning prayers.

Some said soldiers and police officers attacked from opposite sides. Others said that because of the dark, they were not sure which security branch their attackers belonged to."We were praying," said Mahmoud Gomaa Ahmed, 33, who was wounded in the chest. "Before the prayer, nothing had happened at all," he said, responding to accusations by military officials that a group of "terrorists" had attacked the Republican Guard officers’ club.

The killings came a day after the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies vowed to broaden their protests against the president’s ouster and U.S. diplomats sought to persuade the Islamist group to accept his overthrow, its officials said. But the killings Monday seemed certain to inject perilous new factors into the country’s fragile political calculus.

Continuing a push for accommodation that began before the removal of Mursi last week, the U.S. diplomats contacted Brotherhood leaders to try to persuade them to re-enter the political process, an Islamist briefed on one of the conversations said on Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Although by morning some people carried sticks or makeshift clubs, all said that the demonstrators were unarmed. El-Sheikh and another neighbor who opposed Mursi and supported his ouster said the ear cap."Our only weapons were bottles of water and prayer rugs," said Gamal Ali, 37, a teacher.

Even as both sides continued their street demonstrations on Sunday, Egypt’s new leaders continued their effort to form an interim government. Squabbles about a choice for prime minister spilled out into the open on Saturday, exposing splits among the country’s newly ascendant political forces.

The military said its soldiers had fired in response to an attack by gunmen from a "terrorist group" who had attempted to storm the facility, according to Ahram Online, the website of Egypt’s leading newspaper.Dozens of Islamists who had gathered in vigil for Mursi denied there was any provocation for the attack. Two bystanders who had supported Mursi’s ouster also said that the demonstrators were unarmed and ran in terror as the attack began.

Bullet holes in cars, lampposts and corrugated metal barriers indicated that gunfire was coming from the top of a nearby building where the sandbag barriers around makeshift gun emplacements were visible. Bullet casings on the ground and collected by Islamist demonstrators bore the stamp of the Egyptian army.

But Egyptian state television showed film of a pro-Mursi protester firing what appeared to be a homemade handgun at advancing soldiers from behind a corner about 250 yards away. The footage was in daylight, hours after the initial attack began.

Why Mombasa Is Tourist Magnet and Kampala Is Not

At a risk of sounding like one given to resurrecting tried and tired clichés, I will say this: culture is everything.And also culture shapes our perception and informs our investment decisions. A child, who is brought up in a culture and tradition of not respecting other people's property, would not have manners to return a dropped wallet to the rightful owner.

For such a person, stealing is a cultural issue. It is done with pride and ease to the gratification of his peers. Moral decadence becomes a way of life.Therefore, I am often not surprised when street urchins gorge out our side mirrors. That is the life they have known.When some of the victims of the Namungoona inferno chose to steal fuel other than deter the thieves from someone else's property, for me it clearly illustrated that stealing had become a cultural matter that brought a lot of pride to some families in Uganda.

President Museveni also once intimated to the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, that Uganda is full of iPhone headset. Last week, I was in Kenya's coastal area. While in Mombasa, I had a cultural shock which made me change my perception about some parts of Kenya. It also gave me a clue as to why Mombasa is more attractive to tourists than other areas of Kenya.

Granted, Mombasa has some of the best beaches and a well-developed hotel industry. But that is not the reason in my view why tourists flock there. It is culture. The Mombasa people abhor thieves.While in Nairobi one is worried about being attacked on the street with knife wielders, losing the wallet or having your drink spiced with drugs, especially if you patronise dingy bars, in Mombasa when your wallet drops and it has the identification papers, it will be returned to the owner with all its contents intact.

Why? The reasons are partly linked to the puritan culture of Muslims. Muslims are not raised to own wealth fraudulently. That is mali ya haramu or biashara ya haramu (forbidden wealth or forbidden business).

They believe that one must work for his wealth and in doing so he must not infringe on the rights of others. In fact, those who possess wealth are urged to lend money interest-free (bila riba) to their brethren, and when the borrowers prosper, then they are supposed to pass on the profits to the needy so as to uplift their lives as well.

Filming the Ballarat edition of the show commenced yesterday at Craig’s Hotel, where preliminary takes of the contestants entering the hotel could be seen by pedestrians.Curious passers-by stopped to take photos and catch a clear view of the remaining contestants, some taking to Twitter to spoil the surprise.

MasterChef Australia executive producer Margie Bashfield said the rich history of Ballarat was in line with the theme of the episode’s challenge.“When Masterchef moved from Sydney to Melbourne one of the things we wanted to do – which we weren’t able to do in Sydney – was get out of the city and into the regional areas of the state,” Ms Bashfield said.

“The beauty of being based in Melbourne is that there are numerous incredible regional areas all about an hour from our base at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds.“I had heard Craig’s Hotel being spoken about on Melbourne radio and thought we needed to check it out. “We came up and looked at a couple of locations and Craig’s Hotel was perfect. “It had all the necessary requirements for filming and it is a magnificent building with its own great history.”

Celebrity judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan will be in town today for filming.With clear, free eyes Bloodsworth has since campaigned against capital punishment and is now head of advocacy for Witness to Innocence, a coalition of exonerated death-row inmates who campaign against capital punishment.

Bloodsworth's most recent success was his leading role in the movement to end the death penalty in Maryland, the state that once tried to kill him. Governor Martin O'Malley signed the law abolishing that state's death penalty on May 2 this year.

Bloodsworth's ordeal began in 1984 when a neighbour saw on TV an identikit sketch of the suspect in the particularly savage rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl near Baltimore. The neighbour thought it looked like Bloodsworth and called the police.

Another eyewitness later incorrectly placed him with the victim. Despite his clean criminal record he was soon convicted and sentenced to death.''I was accused of the most brutal murder in Maryland history,'' Bloodsworth, now 52, told an audience during the Maryland campaign earlier this year. ''It took the jury 2? hours to send me to the gas chamber.''While on death row he read about a conviction secured by the use of DNA, a science the public had barely heard of in the early 1990s, and with the help of his lawyers and supporters he had his case thrown out.

The Puerto Rican-born fruit picker was convicted of murdering a beauty school owner in 1983 largely on the evidence of two suspect witnesses, one of whom was a paid informant who negotiated a deal in exchange for his testimony.

Melendez was on death row for 16 years before a defence lawyer found transcripts - not presented to the jury - of another man, Vernon James, confessing to the crime.Other defence lawyers soon found another 20 witnesses who heard James, who has since died, either discussing or confessing to the custom keychain, reported The Florida Bar News in 2009.

In December 2001, an appeals court judge granted a new trial and criticised the prosecutor for withholding evidence from the defence and jury about James' incriminating statements.Were the Timely Justice Act in place earlier, ''I would be dead today,'' Melendez says.About three years ago, Melendez was attending an anti-capital punishment conference in Pennsylvania when he locked eyes with the man who was to have executed him, Ron McAndrew, the former warden of Florida State Prison.

Ideas for keeping your data safe from spying

Phone call logs, credit card records, emails, Skype chats, Facebook message, and more: The precise nature of the NSA's sweeping surveillance apparatus has yet to be confirmed.

But given the revelations spilling out into the media recently, there hardly seems a single aspect of daily life that isn't somehow subject to spying or surveillance by someone.

Using anonymity services and encryption "simply make it harder, but not impossible," said Ashkan Soltani, an independent privacy and security researcher. "Someone can always find you -- just depends on how motivated they are."

Emails sent across the Web are like postcards. In some cases, they're readable by anyone standing between you and its recipient. That can include your webmail company, your internet service provider and whoever is tapped into the fiber optic cable passing your message around the globe - not to mention a parallel set of observers on the recipient's side of the luggage tag.

Experts recommend encryption, which scrambles messages in transit, so they're unreadable to anyone trying to intercept them. Techniques vary, but a popular one is called PGP, short for "Pretty Good Privacy." PGP is effective enough that the US government tried to block its export in the mid-1990s, arguing that it was so powerful it should be classed as a weapon.

Like emails, your travels around the internet can easily be tracked by anyone standing between you and the site you're trying to reach. TOR, short for "The Onion Router," helps make your traffic anonymous by bouncing it through a network of routers before spitting it back out on the other side. Each trip through a router provides another layer of protection, thus the onion reference.

Originally developed by the US military, TOR is believed to work pretty well if you want to hide your traffic from, let's say, eavesdropping by your local internet service provider. And criminals' use of TOR has so frustrated Japanese police that experts there recently recommended restricting its use. But it's worth noting that TOR may be ineffective against governments equipped with the powers of global surveillance.

Your everyday cellphone has all kinds of privacy problems. In Britain, cellphone safety was so poor that crooked journalists made a cottage industry out of eavesdropping on their victims' voicemails. In general, proprietary software, lousy encryption, hard-to-delete data and other security issues make a cellphone a bad bet for storing information you'd rather not share.

An even bigger issue is that cellphones almost always follow their owners around, carefully logging the location of every call, something which could effectively give governments a daily digest of your everyday life. Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum has described cellphones as tracking devices that also happen to make phone calls. If you're not happy with the idea of an intelligence agency following your footsteps across town, leave the phone at home.

The Wall Street Journal says the NSA is monitoring American credit card records in addition to phone calls. Some cybercriminals can use the same methods. So stick to cash, or, if you're more adventurous, use electronic currencies to move your money around if you want total privacy.

Disadvantages: Credit cards are a mainstay of the world payment system, so washing your hands of plastic money is among the most difficult moves you can make. In any case, some cybercurrency systems offer only limited protection from government snooping and many carry significant risks. The value of Bitcoin, one of the better-known forms of electronic cash, has oscillated wildly, while users of another popular online iPhone headset, Liberty Reserve, were left out of pocket after the company behind it was busted by international law enforcement.

US companies are subject to US law, including the Patriot Act, whose interpretations are classified. Although the exact parameters of the PRISM data mining program revealed by the Guardian and The Washington Post remain up for debate, what we do know is that a variety of law enforcement officials - not just at the NSA - can secretly demand your electronic records without a warrant through an instrument known as a National Security Letter. Such silent requests are made by the thousands every year.

If you don't like the sound of that, your best bet is to park your data in a European country, where privacy protections tend to be stronger.

Disadvantages: Silicon Valley's internet service providers tend to be better and cheaper than their foreign counterparts. What's more, there's no guarantee that European spy agencies don't have NSA-like surveillance arrangements with their own companies. When hunting for a safe place to stash your data, look for smaller countries with robust human rights records. Iceland, long a hangout for WikiLeaks activists, might be a good bet.

Former officials don't appear to contradict him. Ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden described it as "commuting to where the information is stored and extracting the information from the adversaries' network." In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he boasted that "we are the best at doing it. Period."

Malicious software used by hackers can be extremely hard to spot. But installing an antivirus programme, avoiding attachments, frequently changing passwords, dodging suspicious websites, creating a firewall, and always making sure your software is up to date is a good start.

That’s Why They Call it Hardware

Tony Fadell, father of the iPod, was right. “There is a reason they call it hardware—it is hard,” he said at the LeWeb conference in Paris last year. But that hasn’t stopped many tech entrepreneurs from eschewing software for physical products.

What is behind the renaissance in hardware? According to entrepreneurs, a number of things have coincided to lower the barriers for hardware startups and speed up development: the growth of the silicone bracelet, the rise of 3-D printing and, to a lesser extent, the impact of new funding models.

In much the same way that mobile devices have disrupted the desktop, they have liberated hardware products from having their own interfaces, allowing companies to create devices that can communicate with a smartphone. Shamus Husheer is chief executive officer of Cambridge Temperature Concepts Limited, which offers a service to help women detect the moment of ovulation. The company was founded in 2006, before the smartphone revolution. “We had to build a hand-held wireless device. But for unregulated sectors it is just obvious that you use a smartphone. The speed of development is blinding and the quality of interface is so far beyond anything you could hope to produce yourself.”

The smartphone also hints at one of the big changes in what someone somewhere has almost certainly christened “hardware 2.0″: while they are physical products, their real value lies in the software that drives them and the data they produce, rather than the device itself. The “quantified self” movement—the idea that people record every aspect of their lives from how long they sleep to how many steps they take—has driven a whole new category of health-data related devices.

The other big technology enabler is the availability of 3-D printers. These devices work a bit like a bubble-jet printer, but instead of squirting drops of ink on paper from a printer head, they exude plastic, building up a 3-D object a layer at a time and allowing highly accurate prototypes to be made in well under an hour. “I don’t know how many iterations we made of our card reader but 3-D printing was essential for us,” said Jacob De Geer, CEO of Stockholm-based iZettle AB, which allows retailers to take card payments either through a device plugged into a smartphone, or a stand-alone CHIP and PIN reader. “In just a couple of minutes we can have a new version just to look at a new surface texture, or changing the roundness of a corner.”

The role of crowdfunding site Kickstarter, which lets the public buy products before they have been built, has had some impact on the growing popularity of hardware. Sweden’s Memoto AB—which is making a miniature camera worn on the lapel that takes a picture every 30 seconds—received $550,189 on Kickstarter last year, after asking for $50,000. However, the company’s CEO Martin K?llstr?m said its importance should not be overestimated.”It is a very good channel for getting information from the market about how it will receive your product but it doesn’t solve all the problems. You need to have a finished prototype before you can launch your campaign. That means you need to already have the funding to build a prototype before you can use Kickstarter.”

But what do the investors make of this hardware renaissance? Unfortunately, not a lot. [Mike Volpi], a partner at London venture capital firm Index Ventures, which has a number of hardware investments, said most hardware startups just don’t have a compelling business case. The conditions for success, he said, are rare. “While it is trendy to do hardware at the moment, we are not super positive on the category.”

Mr. Volpi was skeptical about Kickstarter’s significance. “The problem is none of the success stories are at a scale I would feel good about. A couple of million in orders is really nothing in the custom keychain. You really need to think in the tens of millions.”

He said there were three things Index looked for in a hardware product. “The first is it must be more than just a connected device. There have been a lot of things that just connect to your phone. That is not very exciting. It is easy to copy and commoditize. We look for things that may be embodied in hardware, but have a very significant software component.

“The second thing we look for is that it is not a single unit, but a system of some kind. The business model that follows from that is that the more of them you buy, the better off the system is. We are looking for a platform, not a one-off buy.”

“The last thing we look for is some kind of cloud-based service that sits behind it. The way we think of it is that the hardware is our monetization method—where you get the charge, but a lot of the virtues of the product actually come from the software.”

So why focus on hardware at all? For many the hardness of hardware is a reward in itself. Mr. K?llstr?m said “the main attraction comes from the uniqueness you get from creating a physical device. In software now there is very little innovation.” This point is echoed by Jon Bradford, CEO of Springboard, the U.K.’s first program dedicated to helping hardware startups grow their business. “The smartest people in the room are trying to create something different—and hardware represents the manifestation of that.”

Smart ID plan for Suvarnabhumi

Thai citizens represent no more than 5% of all international travellers passing through the airport. They would still need passports once they left the country and critics will say it could cause confusion. Some travellers may assume they will not need a passport at all.

The proposal is on the luggage tag, but far from finalised. The airport has installed automatic passport checkpoints for Thai citizens, a system that is now working efficiently. There was a long learning curve and a reluctance to use the unmanned gates, but the immigration bureau hired personnel to assist passengers.

The TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader is a flexible solution, offering a variety of security options including biometric, PIN and optional PKI challenge-response authentication for increasing or decreasing the assurance level of site security, depending on the user’s requirements. It is the only solution of its kind that is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) compatible, using a design that is made to authenticate Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials and mitigate electronic cloning.

“The coupling of AccessNsite with the innovative technology behind Bridgepoint’s TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader will provide a high assurance, biometrically authenticated security system,” said Rick Foster, director of marketing and sales for Quintron’s Security Systems Division.

AccessNsite is a Java-based application that is built on a modular, object-oriented design, providing unlimited system scalability, flexibility and reliability. The software supports real-time credential evaluation at initial enrollment and full-time authentication via TrustPoint 3-factor biometric readers and compatible control panels that are installed at one location or many sites worldwide. This leverages Quintron’s enroll local-access global advanced data sharing capabilities between globally distributed systems and sites.

According to Tom Corder, president and CEO of Bridgepoint Systems, the collaboration with Quintron will facilitate efficient enrollment by taking advantage of AccessNsite’s open architecture to offer an intuitive, user-friendly application. “In designing our product with the latest PKI standards in mind,” said Corder, “we created an authentication mechanism that is not only impenetrable, but easy to administer and manage. We are pleased to unveil this latest innovation in smart card reader technology, offering the highest level of security and access control.”

Foster also pointed out that “the 3-factor Bridgepoint reader makes it possible for security personnel across town, across the country or across the globe to deny access -- one badge, one face, one fingerprint at a time.” By coupling the AccessNsite system with Bridgepoint’s cryptographic PKI challenge-response technology, he added, the TrustPoint 3-factor biometric reader offers efficient data entry as well as image and signature capture from any location in real-time.

When a user enters his or her PIN, the solution performs a “one-to-one” match between the biometric template stored on a PIV credential and the “live-scan” of a user’s finger. When the sensor is ready for a scan, it lights up with a bright red glow and the LCD display then guides the user through the authentication process. The reader can also be configured to work automatically or manually with the PKI challenge-response in the ON or OFF mode. This feature allows the customer to use the reader with PACS in security levels I and II, and later implement higher security including levels III and IV.

Bridgepoint, a pioneer in the physical access field, was the first U.S. company to develop smart card readers for use by the Department of Defense in a physical access system. It was also the first to integrate the Department of Defense’s CAC with biometrics in a real world deployment and the first to install an interoperable personal identification reader in a government, multi-tenant facility. Some of the nation’s largest government contractors and systems integrators use the company’s technology.

I think it’s getting there. I would not say it’s ready yet. And that’s really for two reasons: Atlanta and the South in general is a particularly car-centric culture. Now, one of the interesting things about bike sharing is that it’s been proven in other places that just putting the program out there is an effective tool of education and cultural change. If you sort of throw it at people, they’ll say, “Oh, there are just bicycles everywhere, I have to respect them as a driver.”

The bigger issue is making sure the proper infrastructure is there, and there is some work to be done, but there’s also been a lot of positive development. Josh Mello over at the City of Atlanta has been awesome since he joined that organization. The city just approved $2.5 million for bike infrastructure funding, new lanes. The BeltLine is a custom keychain. So it’s happening.

I’ll be the first to tell you there are pros and cons to each solution, and what we’re doing is not perfect yet. It was a little surprising to see the focus on convenience. I think some of that came from the fact that they looked at smart-bike systems almost a year before the final results came out, and the technology was at a much earlier stage.

[With ViaCycle] you can still put a kiosk in high-traffic areas. We’ve gone out and designed that. At the risk of oversimplifying, it’s basically an iPad on a stand with a credit card reader. You can put it anywhere, that way if you have a station Downtown or in a place with a lot of tourists, they have access to all that same functionality.

But I agree with you. Mobile is where the world is going, and while the need for a physical presence in advertising is still very strong, there’s no reason you need things controlled by heavy, standalone, stationary equipment.

Absolutely. When we started the project I’d say half the people we talked to would shake their head at us and go, “Bike sharing, what’s that?” Now almost three years later, people know what it is and they know the value it can have, and for us it would mean so much. We want to make Alanta a better place. It’s what gave us our start, and it would be really awesome to see that come full circle in moving toward a more connected city.

Something that’s been really interesting to watch has been the rise of collaborative consumption startups. Broadly you can apply that label to Airbnb (a website for travelers seeking non-hotel accommodations), which is probably the largest and best known. Companies like Uber doing shared ride services. The founders are based out of Atlanta of a California company called InstantCab doing the same thing—sort of disrupting the taxi industry. There’s a company called Scoot doing electric scooter sharing.

Live Local Live Small

The Marketplace Fairness Act cleared a major hurdle last week when it passed the Senate 69-27. Introduced by Senator Mike Enzi, in NC both of our senators, Richard Burr and Kay Hagen, voted in favor of the iPhone headset. I don’t know which I was more surprised by: the measure passing the Senate or that both senators approved a bill that would positively impact their constituency, thereby demonstrating bi-partisan support for a measure that the White House is behind.

The Marketplace Fairness Act is the latest attempt to get online retailers to pay sales tax. The discussion has been around since 1992—at that time the Internet was just staring to come into common use. Of course, it was not the widespread and successful seat of commerce that it is today. An attempt to pass a similar bill was made in 2011.

It may come as a surprise to many consumers to discover they actually are responsible to pay the sales tax on purchases they make over the Internet or from mail-order companies, that is if the company doesn’t collect and remit it themselves.

Who actually does that? There must be someone out there, because there are people who make voluntary contributions to pay down the national debt! But let us agree that the voluntary sales tax payers are few and far between.

The sales-tax argument has been framed as targeting online retailers and causing havoc in the commerce system. Honestly, that is misleading. What it’s really about is the long-term defunding of local and state infrastructure. Forty-five states currently have sales tax; however, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana and Alaska do not.

In North Carolina those monies are remitted to the area they are collected: county, city, and part is retained by the state. This is why our library and other county agencies were lobbying so hard a few years ago for the quarter of a cent sales-tax increase. Yet ,the librarians’ and public school teachers’ love of Amazon continues to baffle me. With their jobs dependent upon local tax dollars, it’s perplexing to see them show love for a company that actively attempts to undermine the very thing necessary to pay them. OK, it’s beyond confusing.

It’s also another blind spot for the middle-class about the realities of poverty. Online shopping is an exclusive experience. In order to partake in this opportunity to avoid sales tax, one must have a credit or debit card of some sort. They also must have access to the Internet. It would probably shock many members of the middle-class to know how difficult both can be to attain. For a brief insight into the marketing demographics of the lower-income strata of America, I recommend spending an afternoon watching non-cable, non-satellite broadcast television. The commercials shock. The sheer number aimed at pre-loaded plastic payment methods that can be charged at corner-type stores is surprising. It also an interesting indication of what the struggles to get a credit card can look like to many people.

Opponents of the measure claim it would be prohibitive to collect and remit sales tax to the various states, each acquiring a different amount. The measure is not aimed at small eBay sellers that operate out of their rec rooms. Companies and sellers not making $1 million dollars a year in out-of-state online sales are exempt from the legislation. There are already large online retailers collecting and remitting sales tax; Target comes to custom keychain.

This legislation actually offers a business opportunity to market this software to the newly compliant companies. In addition the bill calls for states to make free software available to companies in order to comply with the proposed sales-tax provisions.

There is a fascinating project (OK, fascinating to geeky people like me), called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. It was put together by the National Governors Association. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reported in January that D.C. and 44 states had signed on to the project, including North Carolina. We do currently have a rubric that requires online retailers with a physical presence in North Carolina to collect sales tax.

Supporters of the measure claim it would be a big step toward a level playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers, which are at a disadvantage because they collect sales tax; therefore, consumers already pay more money up front. This seems strange to me since shipping is usually more than the sales tax. Going beyond a level playing field, what it would do is make business.

According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Kira Trevino complained about her marriage to friends and family in the weeks prior to her death and explained that she was contemplating divorce. In fact, on Jan. 31, she, her husband and the roommate, who occupied the basement of the home, gave notice that they intended to move by April 1.

Investigators say Kira Trevino was looking at an apartment for herself, was staying with friends houses and did not include her husband in social and family events. Her friends told police she was trying to get away from her husband, but said Jeffery Trevino "didn't get it" and kept trying to find ways to stay together.

Jeffery Trevino met his wife at the Mall of America on Thursday Feb. 21 after she got off work, and the two had dinner and went bowling at the mall. Surveillance video shows the two left the mall together, with Jeffery Trevino wearing an Arkansas Razorbacks sweatshirt. That was the last time Kira Trevino was seen alive.

Friends of Jeffery Trevino told investigators he often complained about his relationship with his wife and had no plans to move aver April 1 because he hoped the two would reconcile; however, one friend told investigators Jeffery Trevino grew increasingly suspicious and began checking up on her before she was killed, describing him as stressed and consumed with what she was doing.

That friend told police Jeffery Trevino would drive by the gym his wife used to see if her car was there and poured over Kira Trevino's credit card statements. In doing so, he learned she had gone to a bar instead of where she told her husband she would be, according to the friend.

According to police, Jeffery Trevino said his wife left the morning of Feb. 22 between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to go to the gym in New Brighton, go tanning in Roseville and make a deposit at the bank before interviewing potential employees at work. When asked where he was during that time, Jeffery Trevino explained he was home all day until he left to pick up his daughter in the afternoon.

The amended charges also show that Jeffery Trevino called his wife's mother, Marcie Steger, on the same day, beginning the conversation by asking her, "Are you sitting down?"

Steger also called police, and uniformed officers who responded to her call arrived at the home while police investigators were there speaking with Jeffery Trevino. Those officers observed he was upset more police had arrived.

As officers were leaving, Trevino asked what he was supposed to do with his wife's belongings. Investigators found the question odd since Kira Trevino had been missing just over 48 hours and the couple was not expected to vacate until April 1. Prosecutors believe the question suggests Jeffery Trevino did not expect his wife to return.

Gift ideas for Mother's Day

Come spring, shoppers often ask, "What gift should I get Mom for Mother's Day?" How do people transform the sentiments they have for their mother into gifts that represent love and devotion? Buying a Mother's Day gift is no easy task, especially for those who wait until the last minute to do their shopping.

Beginning early can ease the pressure of Mother's Day shopping. Research gift options at least a month prior so that you can read reviews on luggage tag and services to guarantee quality. You also want to make sure the gift will arrive on time if you will be ordering your gift online. Here are other ways to shop in a smart manner.

Do some sleuthing. Play detective and take inventory of what Mom likes to do the most. If you ask your mother what she wants, she will likely brush off the question and tell you nothing. It is up to you to do the investigative work. Pay attention to conversations and see if there is anything she mentions wanting to try or something around the house that may need updating. Practical gifts are less likely to end up unopened in the basement or attic.

Check expiration dates. Gift certificates and cards for particular stores or services are popular come Mother's Day. But it is essential to check expiration dates on the certificates or find gifts, as there is a good chance Mom will put off pampering herself and you would not want the gift to expire before she has a chance to use it. In compliance with the law, chain restaurant gift cards don't expire for at least five years from purchase. Those might be your safest bet.

Verify a business. Although Mom may love a cute boutique that just opened, verify the business before buying a gift card from it. An unpredictable economy has made it even harder for new businesses to succeed, and you don't Mom to be stuck with a worthless gift card should the new business not thrive. If she really likes a particular new business, take her on a shopping spree at the store instead.

Skip the chocolate overload. Flowers and chocolates are traditional Mother's Day gifts. However, calorie-conscious women may not want to be faced with the temptation of a warehouse-sized box of chocolate treats. If Mom truly loves chocolate, treat her to a gourmet piece or two, but don't make that your main gift.

Avoid "final sale" items. It can be tempting to peruse the deep-discount rack at Mom's favorite store when retailers cut prices on items in anticipation of a new season. However, these sales may come with restrictions on returns or exchanges. Unless you know Mom will like what you pick out, avoid the "final sale" racks in favor of items that can be returned or exchanged.

Ask for a price match. In an effort to keep a loyal customer base, many stores will price match against competitors' ads. Therefore, if you feel more comfortable at a certain store, print out the advertised price and bring it to your favorite store. There's a good chance they will give you the item for the same price. This works particularly well for tech gifts that typically go on sale in the days leading up to a holiday or special event.

Joseph Park was the last gasp for the TNA locker room. After the Aces & Eights chased James Storm and the Bad Influence pair of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian from the ring - where they had again failed to sway AJ Styles to their side - Park tried to make a stand against the club and ended up being stretchered out for his valor.

Bully Ray made it clear that he still wanted to talk to Hulk Hogan. The Immortal one looked concerned about a face-to-face, but an offered bargain from Matt Morgan and the pleading of his daughter Brooke weren't enough to sway him.

In the Knockouts division, champion Velvet Sky retained her title in a match against Mickie James, but may have injured her knee in the process. Newcomer Taryn Terrell continued to rise up the rankings with a victory over former champ Tara.

Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez were able to successfully defend their tag team championship due to Daniels and Kazarian's second failed intervention of the evening. A pitch to Bobby Roode to reunite Fourtune went unanswered but overheard by Roode's Dirty Heels partner Austin Aries, and an attempt to assist the It Factor in the Heels match to unseat the Tex-Mexicans backfired.

Finally, Hogan's solo stand against Bully Ray looked to be his last one. He was able to fight off the TNA champ, but the champion's brothers outnumbered him. The lights went out and came back, the familiar calling card of The Icon, Sting. There were tense moments between the two legends. They cleared the ring of Aces & Eights, but left no clue if their alliance was to be an ongoing concern or a one-shot deal.

 Take it from a Western PA native, everybody loves a hometown boy, but we're talking about an Olympic freakin' hero. The Indiana crowd will roar when Kurt's music hits, and holding him off until the second show was one of the few smart decisions TNA made last week. The Pittsburgher will keep the crowd amped up into the later hours of the taping. And while it's probably not something that his doctors approve of, he's still good for an above average match every time he goes out there. He may keeps working with the inexperienced members of the heel faction, but I'm kind of hoping for Anderson. The two have great custom keychain, and the asshole seems re-charged since getting his kutte.

Chris Sabin. I've never been a huge fan of the guy without his Motor City Machine Guns partner, but it's pretty damn impressive that he's back. The X-Division has been coasting on the triple threat gimmick without any real stories behind the matches. It'll be nice to see the fresh match-ups that the returning Sabin makes possible, and a good old-fashioned "I'm coming for my belt" story between he and Kenny King would seem refreshing amidst all the alliances and factions surrounding the other two men's title scenes.

IFFCO Chowk stalking victim empowered by new Anti

Though it led to a jurisdiction argument between the Gurgaon and Delhi Police, hers is one of the first cases to be registered under the new law, for which she's glad.

Four men following a group of girls and passing lewd comments in the vein of 'isko leke chalte hain' is a regular occurrence in a iPhone headset life in this part of the country, and one that may have prompted just a gentle slap on the wrist from the authorities (if the authorities chose to take any action at all, that is) in the pre-anti-stalking law days. The brand new section in the Indian Penal Code - section 354D - finally accounts for stalking women as a real crime that could land a person in jail for three years. Meena (name changed), who was recently harassed by a group of men on the Metro when she and her friends were returning home from Gurgaon, where they work as dancers in a theatre company, filed a complaint under this section. Calling the law 'empowering' but its execution still shabby, Meena describes the whole ordeal that began at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station at 9.30pm, from where they boarded the Metro going towards Central Secretariat.

On Friday, we decided to stay a little longer and rehearse for our performance. We didn't inform our office that we were staying till late. If we would have, we could have got an office cab that would've dropped us safely back home, but since we had a male friend for company, we decided to take the Metro. After reaching the Metro station at 9.30pm, a group of guys inside the station started passing comments like 'Arre, yeh sahi hai, isko leke chalte hain'. We didn't react. But near the X-ray machine, when my friend was putting her bag inside the machine, one of the guys tried to talk to her.

Her bag had a badge which said 'Lose weight now. Ask me how' and that guy started asking her for tips to lose weight. She just asked him to mind his own business. Angry, he crossed the Metro gates and along with his friends, started waiting for us, all this while I was at the counter, getting my smart card recharged. Sensing some trouble, I informed a CISF personnel at the station and he came with us to talk to the guys.

The CISF cop came with us and asked the men what the issue was. They replied that 'these girls are exaggerating things'. However, the CISF officer didn't listen to them and threatened to take them to the police station. One of the guys, who was supposedly elder to the others, apologized and took them away, saying that they are going to board the Metro. To be on the safe side, the CISF officer asked us to wait and take the next Metro.

After we boarded the Metro, sensing that they weren't around, we relaxed a little. But we were surprised when we saw them coming towards us. We were in the compartment next to the ladies' coach and those guys came and sat in weird positions in front of us. At that point of time, the compartment was almost empty. Again, they started saying things like 'Abhi dikhayenge power' and this really irked me. The guy who had apologized at the station was staring at me from top to bottom. He had a cut on one of his cheeks and his eyes were red, and he looked completely drunk. It was then that we decided to call a CISF helpline number, 011-22185555 (my friend has emergency numbers saved on her phone). We told the helpline about everything and the CISF officer came looking for us at the Arjangarh station. As soon as he asked the guys what was wrong, they started fighting and a huge crowd gathered. Those guys questioned us 'Why are you not in the ladies compartment?' and I told them 'We can't take our male friend to the ladies compartment and hence we were travelling in the general compartment'. It was then that we were taken to the Metro control room.

There was a lot of fighting happening and one of the Metro employees asked us to dial 100 and I did. The PCR van came and took our names, our permanent addresses, and other details. After a while, they told us that they couldn't do anything as this case should be reported to the local police (the police station that covers the Arjangarh area). After they left, the local police was called and they again repeated the entire process of taking down all the details. Thereafter, a fight ensued between the Metro employees and the local police over the question of 'Whose jurisdiction was this?' The local police asked them to call the Gurgaon police because this incident had happened at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station in Gurgaon. I scolded the cops, saying, 'It was because of this fight over jurisdiction that the December 16 rape victim couldn't get help on time' and it's only then that they agreed to do something against the four guys (we didn't complain about the fifth person in the group because he didn't do anything).

While all this was happening between 10.30 and 11pm, I called up my boss and informed her about the situation. She then told her husband about it, who called up senior IPS officers. While the police was talking to us, we could see them getting calls from their seniors. Finally, the guys were held and we were told that they would be taken to the police station.

DataWind, the company behind the $40 tablet, this week finished shipping 100,000 devices to the Indian Institute of Technology. It’s been quite a journey. But DataWind’s founders are already working on the next iteration, called Aakash 3, and it has one significant upgrade: a place to stick a SIM card, so it can connect to cellular networks.

DataWind’s pitch for the new Aakash 3 goes like this: “An internal cellular modem at no additional cost, which allows the device to be used both as a mobile smart phone and also for ubiquitous internet connectivity with a basic SIM, will help herald India’s internet ear cap.”

That may well be true. Access and price are two of the main factors driving the growth of mobile broadband. Cheap devices and data plans are increasingly the only way to gain market share in India—and, indeed, in much of the world. A recent report about the use of Opera Mini, a web browser for mobile phones, found that 9 of the top 10 handsets using the software, mostly from Samsung, cost less than 10,000 rupees ($185). That’s still a high upper limit, but domestic firms such as Micromax and Karbonn dominate the sub-$100 market and are rapidly gaining overall market share.

Better, But Not Best

Since it arrived last year, the Galaxy S III has been the world's best-selling smartphone that wasn't born in Cupertino. An impressive feat, but one that—along with Samsung's Megatron-sized hype-machine—has made for sky-high expectations for the sequel.

Our first impressions of the S4 left us a little cold, but we've now spent a full week getting to know it better. It's definitely one of the best phones you can buy. It's just shame it couldn't stay out of USB flash drives wholesale own way.

Samsung's next great hope of a superphone. It's got a 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen, a superfast quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, LTE, NFC, and a 13MP camera. It also has a beefy 2600mAh battery, and an IR blaster for controlling your home entertainment system. It comes running Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's heavy TouchWiz skin on top of it. It should be available on every major U.S. wireless carrier in the next few weeks.

If you're familiar with the Galaxy S III, the S4 will look strikingly familiar. It retains the same rounded-rectangle look, with metal edges and a slippery, finger-print-trapping plastic back that looks like it belongs on a far more downmarket phone. It's at least functional, though; the back is removable, so you can swap out the battery or expand your storage capabilities with a micro SD card. A lot of people prefer that added utility over the more solid-feeling, and more beautiful unibody design of, say, the HTC One.

One place Samsung does manage to score design points is growing the screen from 4.8 inches on the Galaxy S III to a full 5.0 inches on the S4, while still making the phone thinner, narrower, and easier to grip. The side bezels are shrunk down to nearly nothing, and the screen takes up almost the entire front of the device. Speaking of the screen, it is easily the nicest Samsung has ever made. The colors (especially blues and greens) really pop, and the 441 pixels per inch ensure that text is super-clear. It's also bright enough to be clearly readable on a bright, sunny day, and the Super AMOLED screen makes the blacks like staring into the abyss.

While Nexus phones are moving away from physical buttons for navigation, Samsung has opted to include three of them here. The S4 has capacitive buttons for Menu and Back, and a physical, clickable button for Home. It's wasted space. But worse, the capacitive buttons don't light up until you actually touch them, so if you forget which side is Menu and which is Back you might end up closing out of something unintentionally. Annoying!

As we noted in our original hands-on, the S4 comes packed full of "features." There's Air View, which allows you to hover your finger over the screen to see some information without actually clicking. There's Air Gestures, which allows you to wave your hand over the phone to change between tabs or photos. There's Smart Scroll, with which you tilt your device to scroll, instead of using your finger. There's Smart Pause, which will pause a video when you look away from the screen. And there's Group Play, which lets you play a handful of selected video games with friends on the same Wi-Fi network, or use several S4 phones as Sonos-like speakers.

The most important thing you need to know about these features is that you will never use any of them. Ever. Never ever. The end.

Why not? Oh, lots of reasons. Air View only works with Samsung's customized apps—not Gmail, not Chrome—and even then it doesn't work very well. Air Gestures are less accurate and less convenient than just touching the screen. Smart Scroll is totally unreliable, and Smart Pause is totally useless. The only, only justification for any of these features is that you can wave your hand over the phone to answer a call while driving, or, again, maybe if you're addicted to buffalo wings and have an aversion to moist towelettes.

The good news is that you can turn off and/or totally ignore most of these extraneous "features," and when you do, there's a very good phone underneath. It's generally very fast, and HD games like Temple Run: Oz, Inertia HD, and Naught all ran smoothly. The pre-installed sliding keyboard is better than most manufacturer keyboards (looking at you, HTC), with plenty of space between keys and a dedicated number row, but auto-correct has a lot of issues, and we still prefer the keyboard on stock Jelly Bean or SwiftKey 4. The unit we tested was on T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network (no T-Mobile LTE in NYC, yet, though this phone will work with it when it rolls out); data speeds were good, and it connected reliably.

There will be a cadre of S4 accessories available (TV adapters and such) at some point, but the only one available at launch is the S View Flip Cover. It's a good-looking cover that adds almost no thickness to your phone by completely replacing the back. The phone can sense when the cover is closed, and it will only light up one little (plastic) window on the front, which should save you a little battery power (when an AMOLED pixel is black it doesn't use any power). You can swipe to accept or dismiss calls even when the cover is closed.

Battery performance on the S4 is among the best we've seen from smartphones this year, though it's still not anywhere near as everlasting as the RAZR MAXX HD. It's important to note, though, that our testing took place on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, and not the more power-hungry LTE of Verizon and AT&T. With that advantage, it slightly edged out the HTC One by an hour or so on average (which itself does pretty iPhone headset).

The S4 did, though, make it to the end of the night without additional charging fairly often, thanks to both the larger battery (2600mAh vs. 2300mAh on the One) and the more economical AMOLED screen, though the processor's higher clock speed taxed it somewhat.

Speaking of which: that screen really is leaps and bounds better than the one on last year's S III. It's very sharp, pretty, and easy to read. The camera app is laid out very nicely, and the included OCR (optical character recognition) software, which can translate written words on the fly, are both examples of app actually done right. Overall, the S4 is definitely a sizable upgrade over the S III. But it's still got its issues.

The Forgotten Genius of Moms Mabley

When people are asked to list the legends of comedy, the same names tend to come up: Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, and so on. Every so often a female comic gets mentioned—Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller. One person who doesn’t get talked about nearly enough by comedy lovers and contemporary comedians alike is Moms Mabley. In her directorial debut, I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Whoopi Goldberg tries to correct this, profiling the beloved comedienne who made a name for herself in an old house dress, floppy hat, and iPhone headset.

First, a short primer on Moms. Born Loretta Mary Aiken, she was a pioneer in her field—a black woman who pushed the boundaries of taste, politics, and race as far back as the 1920s, while performing on the Chitlin’ Circuit. Very little is known about Moms Mabley’s life off the stage—even her birth year is disputed—but it’s widely known that she was a lesbian who also went by the name “Mister Moms.” (In the film, a holiday card is shown with an image of Moms dressed in men’s attire.) She earned respect from her (mostly male) peers and from audiences with her ribald humor about her (apparently fictional) love for younger men, her admittedly frumpy appearance, and smart—but somehow never bitter—takes on racism. Her career extended well into the ’70s, leaving behind a legacy of over 20 albums, and memorable appearances on many of the popular variety and talk shows of the day, including Ed Sullivan and The Smothers Brothers.

Yet since her death, Moms—a woman who, at the peak of her national fame, performed at the White House—has been all but forgotten. At a talkback following a screening of I Got Somethin’ to Tell You, Goldberg expressed her initial disbelief at learning that for decades Moms was the only woman doing what Diller, Rivers, and others would become famous for years later. “How come I didn’t know this?” she wondered at the time, adding last night, “Why is there no Moms Mabley Award for comedy?”

It’s a good question, especially considering all of the comedians, male and female, Moms influenced. (The likely and perhaps unsurprising answer is that comedy is still largely dominated and curated by men and by a very small group of women, most of whom are white.) Kathy Griffin, whom Goldberg interviewed, talks about watching Moms perform on The Ed Sullivan Show when she was a kid, and how her costume reminded her of her own mother. Eddie Murphy notes that the Grandma character in The Nutty Professor (played by Murphy himself) is a direct tribute to Moms. Arsenio Hall recalls sneaking a listen to the comedienne’s risqué albums during his childhood when his parents weren’t home.

Goldberg herself has a very personal connection to Moms: Early on in her career, Goldberg portrayed the comedienne in a one-woman show. Part of the reason she admires the legend, Goldberg explained last night, was because Moms wasn’t afraid to look or talk in a way that women weren’t normally expected to. “It took a long time for people to get used to the way I look,” Goldberg said of her own persona. “But now, lots of people look like me.”

Before seeing this film, I had heard of Moms, but had never actually heard Moms—and there is plenty to be heard in I Got Somethin’ to Tell You. Because there isn’t much to say about her personal life, the film focuses on her material, showcasing footage and fun cartoons for routines that Goldberg could only find the audio of. The material speaks for itself: Moms’ sense of humor and perspective feels as fresh and funny as it must have then. (The audience I saw the film with laughed heartily throughout.) HBO has acquired the documentary, and it will air on the network later this year.

Towards the end of the discussion, Goldberg said she hopes her next project will be a 10-part documentary chronicling black entertainment from the mid-1800s to the present. I Got Somethin’ to Tell You is just the “tip of the iceberg,” she said. It’s an ambitious project, to be sure, but if she’s able to pull it off, she’ll be doing a great service for the history and memory of black contributions to American culture, so many of which have been lost or forgotten.

The PDS-ST420-VP is easily small and light enough to fit in a laptop bag or briefcase, at 1.6 by 10.6 by 2.6 inches (HWD) and just over 1 pound 1 ounce complete with batteries. As is typical for the breed, there's almost nothing to set up. Just insert the four supplied AA batteries and plug in a microSD or microSDHC card. Note that VuPoint Solutions doesn't include a memory card, however, so if you don't have extras around, be sure to order one with the scanner. The microSD card slot supports cards with up to 32GB memory.

You don't have to install the software, but you can if you want to. VuPoint Solutions supplies three programs and a fully automated installation routine that will let you install any or all of them.

The choices are Abbyy FineReader 9.0 Sprint for optical character recognition (OCR), as the only applications program, plus an Evernote connector for sharing files on Evernote, and a Direct Scan utility. The utility lets you scan documents directly to computer files over a USB connection as an alternative to saving them to a memory card and then copying them to your computer later. In my tests, it worked as promised, with no difference in speed compared with scanning to a memory card.

Scanning with the PDS-ST420-VP is also easy, and typical for the category. Straightforward commands on the scanner's front-panel menus let you choose between color and black and white modes; JPG or image PDF format; and 300 pixels per inch (ppi), which is the scanner's optical resolution according to VuPoint Solutions, and 600 or 900 ppi interpolated resolution.

The default when you turn the scanner on is color, JPG, and 300 ppi. To scan, you turn the power on, make any changes you want in the settings, and insert a page into the scanner's front slot. Wait a second or two, and the scanner will sense the page, grab it, and ear cap.

Timing for manual-feed scanners isn't very meaningful, since you can spend more time manually feeding the pages than waiting for the actual scan. But it's worth noting that the PDS-ST420-VP is relatively fast. Using color mode and JPG format, I timed it at 8 to 10 seconds for the actual scan of a document page, with the same speed regardless of resolution.

Hope delivers

Si had always had high hopes for the success of his family farm in Pennsylvania. Si was a hard worker, but hard times seemed to always weigh more on the balance scale than work. Farming in the Keystone State was certainly a challenging and difficult task. The growing season is only about three months long, a little less time than the Pirates take to meander through the baseball season.

Pennsylvania farmers mostly grew mushrooms. It was the state’s number one cash crop, and Pennsylvanians produce more than any other state — an annual yield of about 443 million pounds. Si dabbled in mushrooms, but also worked barley, winter wheat and potatoes. The effects of the economy during World War II were taking its toll on the family farm. Si was barely keeping his head above water, and the tide was rising with each year. His hopes — and his love for his wife — kept his spirits going and his work ethic fueled.

Effie Musser had strong hopes for Si as well. She hated to see her husband struggle so. Effie stirred the hope deep within her that afternoon in the kitchen as she continued a family tradition. Her mother had taught her to take the farm’s leftover potatoes and turn them into deep-fried fun for the children. Effie finished sprinkling seasoning on the chips and thought that perhaps she could bag some and sell them for extra cash at the nearby farmer’s market.

“Nearby” was Lancaster and the “farmer’s market” was not a small card table on the side of the road. Central Market in Penn Square in heart of Lancaster is the nation’s oldest, continuously operated farmer’s market. Founded in 1889, the market became known for its unique Amish goods. Effie’s chips were a hit and she sold out every time she delivered the bags to the ear cap.

An entrepreneur in Baltimore loved them so much he contracted Effie to deliver the chips in bulk to him. He repacked the chips into his branded tin can and renamed them Charles’ Chips after Charles Street in downtown Baltimore. While the potato chip business thrived, his other ventures did not. Owing Effie a great deal of money, he sold the brand to her to avoid bankruptcy.

By 194, production had grown from the kitchen in Effie’s home to a large warehouse in Lancaster. Si was only growing potatoes and had to hire workers to handle the farm as he assisted Effie in marketing and sales. Effie was producing private label chips for Fritos and A&P Groceries while developing the concept of the home delivery of the chips. Warehouses and truck delivery units were set up in several states. Effie’s hopes were fulfilled beyond her wildest imagination.

To a 10-year-old boy on the west side of Indianapolis in the mid-60s, every other Thursday brought bright rays of hope and a big can of barbeque potato chips to the door. During the summer, baseball games and bicycle rides had to be over by two o’clock in time to greet the delivery truck that looked just like the can of chips. During the school year, there was the assurance of hope that the large can of chips would be on the counter when the 30-minute bus ride was over.

Hope fuels our lives - whether to keep us going at work when things get difficult, to be the glue to hold the marriage together, or for a small boy longing for his favorite snack. Hope buoys our spirits to dream dreams and chase them, to envision greater things than are currently available, and to find meaning and purpose for life. Hope becomes the anchor when we hear bad news from the doctor, when we are shaken by a terrorist’s bombs, or when we stare death in the face.

here’s nothing quite like the excitement of Cowboys Week in Philadelphia. These two teams have a history of bad blood, and the Eagles will get their first crack at their rivals in Week 7 when those Cowboys come to town.

It’s been an unusual offseason in Dallas. The cash-strapped Cowboys were forced to cut several of their players to create cap space, but did find the funds to extend quarterback Tony Romo, who has thrown nine touchdowns and three interceptions against the Eagles over the past three years.

With new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin in tow, the Cowboys will be switching from a 3-4 defense to a Tampa-2 look. It’s a matchup head coach Chip Kelly knows well – Kiffin spent the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator at USC, and in those three years, Kelly’s Oregon squads averaged an eye-popping 601 yards of total offense against Kiffin’s defenses. Last season, Oregon’s high-powered offense put up 62 points and 730 yards of total offense.

Last season’s meeting in Philadelphia is perhaps best remembered as the game in which quarterback Nick Foles saw his first NFL action. Foles threw his first touchdown in that game, a 44-yard strike to Jeremy Maclin in the end zone. Unfortunately, the Eagles weren’t able to come away with a win in that game, but the team knows just how important it is to shut the Cowboys down when they visit Lincoln Financial Field. Look for the home team to come out with energy against their hated division rival.

The Eagles-Cowboys rivalry might be among the most glamorous in the NFC East, but when the Eagles and Giants meet, the only certainty is a gritty, hard-fought game. Over the past several years, the Eagles and Giants have met late in the season in games that often mean the difference between winning the division and staying home in January.

But in an unusual twist, these teams will wrap up their season series in Week 8 in Philadelphia. This Week 8 contest will be the second consecutive division game for the Eagles, who will have welcomed in the Cowboys the previous USB flash drives wholesale.

Both teams know each other extremely well, and that familiarity factor will be kicked up another notch this season. The Giants signed defensive tackles Mike Patterson and Cullen Jenkins, both of whom spent time with the Eagles, in the offseason. However, the Eagles signed former Giants’ first-rounder Kenny Phillips, who will battle for a starting safety job this summer.

Though the Giants failed to make the playoffs last season, they were by no means a team to cast aside. Quarterback Eli Manning and company posted 26.8 points per game, which ranked sixth in the NFL last season. And for the first time since 2008, Manning failed to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, but still tossed a respectable 26 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Massively's Darkfall launch week diary

See, I'm one of those sandbox carebears who could not care less about PvP. I'll attempt to defend myself if attacked, and I'll add another body to the zerg if I'm in a clan or whatever, but I don't seek out conflict with other players. I mention this because that attitude obviously informs everything I write about Darkfall, which, at its core, is a great custom keychain fantasy murder simulator.

Yes, the game has crafting, harvesting, player housing, and better PvE than it's given credit for, but on some level all of this stuff exists to power the FFA PvP meatgrinder that in turn attempts to satiate the bloodlust of Aventurine's target demographic.

I'm going to attempt to use the rest of this week's Darkfall Unholy Wars launch diary series to explain why a player like yours truly loves a game like this. I don't know if I'll manage it because on paper it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Anyway, let me backtrack on something I said yesterday. Aventurine hasn't completely blown up Darkfall after all. My first hour or two with the title was full of WTF-is-this moments, mostly due to the UI and the skill/prowess system. And the racial avatar regression remains a bit off-putting. Once I got acclimated and got out into the world, however, I realized that in a lot of the respects that matter, this is the same old Darkfall.

Let's talk first about the presentation. Darkfall Unholy Wars won't be winning any visual awards, and yet I find myself deeply satisfied to be back in Agon and filling up my screenshot folder with reckless abandon. Objectively, the new game is a marginal improvement over the old game in terms of aesthetics. The water effects seem spiffier, for example, and there's a bit more detail on the avatars.

Subjectively the world feels very much the same, which is fantastic. Agon still reminds me of a graphically updated Morrowind mod: It's got that 2002 vibe about it, and the animations are flat-out terrible. That said, there is a lot of hand-crafted detail, and for lack of a better word, atmosphere. Atmosphere and its cousin immersion are hard things to define, but I know them when I see them, and I see them in DFUW just as I saw them in classic Darkfall.

Agon is vast and largely seamless, and the game's limited quick travel and realistic movement speeds accentuate the sense of an actual world as opposed to a series of quest hubs. The terrain and topography varies greatly as you travel around the continent, and the day/night cycle is something all MMOs should have by default. Night in Darkfall is actually dark, and given that it's a challenge to spot players and some mobs in the daytime if they don't wish to be seen, Agon after dark is a thrillseeker's dream.

The only real negative in terms of presentation comes courtesy of the new GUI. While Darkfall's interface is much improved over its predecessor's, my enthusiasm is dampened by a chat box implementation that is, at best, inept. It functions, but it also lacks most of the niceties that made their way into MMO chat systems around the turn of the century.

In terms of my itinerary for day two, I logged around four hours, during which I completed a bunch of newbie feats. These feats are basically quest/achievement hybrids, and the first few you encounter do a passable if somewhat uneven job of introducing you to the game's major systems. I also did a bunch of harvesting, crafted some items, and farmed many a mob spawn for gold and items. These were all well off the beaten path, of course, as my objective was to both avoid random PvP and scratch my exploration itch.

In terms of mechanics, DFUW's PvP -- and really combat in general -- feels very similar to the original game mechanics even with the presence of the new skill and ability wheels I mentioned yesterday. Once you've wrapped your brain and your muscle memory around the ALT-RMB or ALT-LMB actuators, your survivability will increase enormously. It never feels easy, though, and that's by design. Darkfall's combat has always been a challenging mixture of RPG stats and action dexterity that rewards mechanical knowledge, situational awareness, and smart tactics moreso than most other MMORPGs.

If you're a curious carebear like me, or you're a hunter-killer salivating at the prospect of my kind running around your playground, it's worth taking note of the game's new safe zone mechanics. They seem to be tied to major cities, and your presence in them is denoted by a green shield below and to the right of your minimap. Exiting the safe area gives you a warning that you'll be attackable in short order, and the icon changes to a white sword on a red background two seconds after you cross the invisible line. Re-entering the protected area isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card either, as you'll have a 20-second cooldown period after re-entering during which you're still fair game.

Anyhow, apart from my harvesting and wholesale goblin slaughter, I spent most of day two wandering the wild. Agon is an explorer's paradise, and to be honest I'm already toying with the idea of staying on after this week's launch coverage is done because I never get tired of living a fantasy nomad's life. There's something relaxing and almost therapeutic about stockpiling resources and occasionally venturing back into town to craft, salvage, or deposit my stuff and sell some of the bounty.

And Darkfall's FFA stylings occasionally make pedestrian MMO tasks like going to the bank or calling to a bind point into a white-knuckle process. While my gameplay tendencies likely bore the bejesus out of most of the people reading this article, the fact that Darkfall supports them along with the more common FFA PvP lifestyle is a feather in Aventurine's ear cap.

Phillip’s original plan was to vote off either Reynold — a strong threat in every physical challenge — or Malcolm. Reynold foiled that plan by winning a demanding immunity challenge.

This one called for speed and endurance, with players diving off platforms, racing along an underwater rope and climbing back up on platforms to transfer hoops from one post to another. Phillip, to Probst’s astonishment, pulled himself out of the challenge. He had been spooked by a water incident as a child, he claimed, although the way he had dogged it at some earlier challenges one had to wonder if he just felt untouchable.

With their necks on the line, Reynold and Malcolm gave it their all and finished one-two in the competition.

Malcolm, however, still had one big card left to play in this game — his immunity idol. With some panic setting in before tribal council, a scramble was on to see if there was another one hidden around somewhere in some rock. There was, and who lucks into it but Malcolm — right in front of Andrea and Dawn.

SRU now knows Malcolm has an idol, but Phillip councils the others to stick to the new plan — four votes Malcolm, three to Eddie — to chip away at the dudes.

The castaways head to tribal council. Reynold is safe, he has immunity. Malcolm is safe, he has immunity. Then Malcolm reveals he has a second idol and gives it to Eddie. Checkmate!

Heads explode. Audibles are called. The remaining Favourites scramble to huddle up.

Then Malcolm flat out announces: the Three Amigos are taking out Phillip. “It’s just not fun anymore,” Malcolm says of Phillip’s annoying Stealth banter. “Phillip is the fun sponge — he sucks it all out of the group.”

Scott Piercy has rocketed up the World Ranking and finally

It’s the final round of the 2008 Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic. Piercy, a 29-year-old Nationwide tour rookie, spent the first three rounds letting clubs and curses fly. “I was acting like an idiot, so angry at myself for not playing to my custom keychain,” he says. After shooting himself out of the tournament with a Saturday 74, he decides to turn Sunday into an anger-management experiment. “I refused to hit a single shot while mad. I even drew a smiley face on my ball, as a smart-aleck reminder.”

Eventually, it works. The anger subsides on number 7, and Piercy swings. He proceeds to birdie nine of the final 12 holes, shooting a 64.

Within two months he had won two Nationwide events and secured his PGA Tour card for 2009. “I realized the biggest thing holding me back was my attitude,” Piercy says. “It was a huge stepping stone. And yeah, I still draw happy faces on my ball.”

The sun is setting over Doral Resort on the eve of the 2013 WGC Cadillac Championship. Piercy sits in a clubhouse lounge, which has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Blue Monster. He sports laceless Converse sneakers and moussed hair. He looks older than 34. It’s the eyes. Their surrounding creases convey a “man, I’ve seen some s---” weariness that you don’t see on the Rickie Fowlers of the world -- wrinkles acquired over the course of six years battling debt and doubt on golf’s mini-tours.

Nearby, Luke Donald is chatting with a reporter. One week earlier at the Accenture Match Play, Piercy throttled Donald, 7 and 6. Says Piercy, “I don’t want this to sound like ‘poor me,’ but every person who won that week got interviewed right then and there on the green. And I beat the No. 3 golfer in the world handily, and there’s nobody there to talk to me.” He waits a beat. “Then again, they probably weren’t ready for it to end on the 12th hole.”

A wallet that a group of textiles, apparel and merchandising students created received runner-up honors in a contest by Natril Gear, a company that produces backpack-like bags for bicycles known as Luggers. The students in a class taught by Edie Wittenmyer created a design for a wallet that utilizes Natril Gear's leftover material from designing Luggers.

"As a class, we were proud of what we came up with," said Rassan Ridley, a sophomore textiles, apparel and merchandising major from Fort Wayne. "It was a good design, and a good representation of what we as students do here. It was a good team effort."

Wittenmyer approached the students about entering the contest, which was on top of their coursework for the semester. The sewing class students agreed to enter, and students each created separate designs for a wallet before coming together and creating a singular contest submission.

"It was fun. Everybody made an agreement together. There was no bickering or anything," said Jayna Eckerson, a freshman textiles, apparel and merchandising major from Indianapolis. "We just thought about what was good and how it satisfies the customer."

Natril Gear officials wanted to be able to utilize the scrap materials left from creating the company's trademark Luggers, which are "saddlebags for a bicycle" that attach to a bike rack.

"Part of the reason we wanted to have the contest was to find creative wallet designs, and the other reason was to spark interest in responsible consumption of resources in other peoples' lives," said April Reinhard, co-owner of Natril Gear. "The students in ISU's Clothing I class did a great job on both fronts!"

The group dynamic helped make the project unique, said Brooke Reed, a freshman family and consumer sciences major from Walkerton, Ind. Different aspects of multiple designs created by students were incorporated into the final design.

"Normally with some contests, you're just by yourself, and this one, it was actually a group thing and we all could get involved," Reed said, "and it was actually really nice to get other ideas and have more ideas flowing."

The students created a draft of their prototype, and then created their final version in material similar to Natril Gear's fabric in Luggers. They submitted the creation, along with the design specifications.

Since Natril Gear's Luggers are intended for cyclists, the Indiana State students approached the contest with the intention of creating a wallet that cyclists would use. Their submission included a variety of different elements, including a coin holder that separates from the wallet and a cell phone pocket.

The Undertaker-CM Punk match stole the show as many people expected it might, with the Deadman being his usual incredible self and Punk (along with Paul Heyman) doing an outstanding job reacting to what was happening. Triple H and Brock Lesnar waged an appropriately hard-hitting affair, while The Rock and John Cena gave their all to restore the energy level of the crowd after it hit some lulls.

No, what held back WrestleMania 29 from going down as one of the best shows ever was that the whole thing felt a little safe. There were no real surprises in terms of the finishes or how they came about. Some of the matches hinged on the most predictable possible actions, like Big Show turning on Randy Orton and Sheamus. It was all very straightforward and by the iPhone headset.

But as a symbol of the WWE's strengths, namely creating a spectacle, merchandising and promoting its brand, this was an event worthy of the hype around it.

The most obvious signs of that were the visual ones. Seeing over 80,000 fans packed into MetLife was amazing by itself, and the set design people outdid themselves. First revealed a few days before the show by Vince McMahon himself on Twitter, the replicas of the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the 67-foot Statue of Liberty perched high above the ring were breathtaking in person.

Consumers Energy to begin installing 'smart' meters

The installation of digital “smart” meters affecting approximately 43,800 homes and small businesses in Allegan and Ottawa counties is scheduled to begin later this month, a Consumers Energy spokesperson told The Sentinel on custom keychain.

The “smart” devices  are supposed to be more efficient, help consumers optimize their electrical usage, expedite service teams to specific areas after power outages resulting from storms and eliminate the need for manual meter reading.

“This is smart-phone technology,” said Dennis McKee, Consumers Energy communications director for Smart Energy. “We live in the information age, and this is attractive to most of our customers. A lot of folks like new technology, but what they’re concerned about it is privacy. Our meters do not store any personal data.”

Opponents of smart meters suggest privacy, security and health issues aren’t being fully explored and utilities are passing on the hidden costs of these devices  to the public.

“I tell them, ‘You’re not losing control of your energy use,’ ” McKee said of skeptics of the new technology. “We’re not part of some conspiracy to control people’s use of energy through government agencies. That’s ridiculous. It’s just not the case. As these become more commonplace, I’m sure those fears are going to be allayed.”

“It isn’t going to reduce costs for the individual. These ‘smart’ meters are costing millions and millions of dollars and Consumers is passing along these costs to users in the form of rate increases,” said Chiodo, 68, a Park Township Trustee and president of Ottawa County Patriots that advocates on behalf of Tea Party issues.

He said just 1.27 percent of customers surveyed have objected to the installation of smart meters, which began in Muskegon County last summer. Almost 60,000 homes have been equipped with “smart" meters and Consumers Energy plans to install 1.8 million devices around the state through the end of 2019.

It’ll be installing meters in Ottawa County south of the Grand River and the northern portion of Allegan County before the end of April or early May. Some meters already have been installed in parts of Ottawa County north of the Grand River.

The installation process will interrupt service for about 3 minutes, but Consumers Energy notifies residents and small-business owners 30 days in advance of the procedure and sends a reminder notice 14 days prior to showing up, he said.

He has met with 138 different groups, including 90 last year alone, to help dispel myths about public health concerns and privacy issues resulting from the new devices.

He also pointed out Consumers Energy took no stimulus money from governmental agencies to implement its program. It is installing encoded and encrypted meters that are more “passive” than other utilities since they transmit usage data once each day to cellular towers and keep no credit card or personal information.

“We are convinced these are perfectly safe devices,” McKee said. “This is the device that is going to help us save money. We believe these ‘smart’ meters are going to help keep our rates from rising as fast as they would without installing them.”

DTE Energy has been criticized for accepting subsidies to install its “smart” meters in the Detroit area, Chiodo said. Twenty-four municipalities or groups in Michigan have passed resolutions or moratoriums on ‘smart’ meters until they’re investigated ear cap, he added.

With a population of 24 million, the Republic of Ghana is experiencing rapid expansion of cross-border travel. Recognizing the need to improve the security and efficiency of its existing procedures, the country’s immigration service has turned to Gemalto to deliver the benefits of a country-wide electronic border management system based on biometric authentication.

Gemalto acts as prime contractor and will take responsibility for integrating the advanced visa and border management solution, including change management, transitional training and maintenance services. The company will deploy border management systems at Ghana’s main ports of arrival and will implement a fully computerized system for visa and permit applications processing and issuing, with the collaboration of Avalon Biometrics. The project also covers the set up of an online portal service for visa application, and the implementation of electronic gates at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport, for rapid, convenient and automated border control of arrivals and departures.

This mission-critical solution will streamline processes, reinforce national security and provide the GIS with enhanced border information and intelligence. Aided by biometric data, the authorities will be able to account accurately for everyone entering and leaving the country. The system will also improve the traveling experience, delivering faster and significantly more convenient border control procedures for visitors.

“To maintain Ghana’s economic development, we need an immigration system that can meet the challenges of rapid growth in international travel,” said Commissioner of Police Dr. Peter A. Wiredu, Director of Ghana Immigration Service. “Gemalto contributed to over 80 successful government programs worldwide and has all the required project management skills, reputation and expertise to deliver the country’s new IT infrastructure”.

“This advanced electronic identity management system is fundamental to the whole eGhana project,” said Ari Bouzbib, Senior Vice President for Government Programs at Gemalto. “It will put the country’s border control processes on par with the latest, cutting-edge practices worldwide. In addition to helping to transform Ghana, it can serve as a template for modernization across many other countries in Africa.”

Santa Monica Housing Discrimination Complaints Surge

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office reports there has been a surge of housing discrimination complaints by tenants or housing applicants seeking reasonable accommodations for their disabilities.

The City of Santa Monica's CPU will host a new housing seminar April 29 in recognition of national Fair Housing Month that will focus on reasonable accommodation issues.

The CPU accepts complaints for housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, family status, sexual orientation, and age. However, disability-based fair housing complaints and inquiries usually exceed all other types.

Despite a range of difficult issues, the CPU manages to help the parties resolve most of these disputes without litigation--disputes such as the one that arose when Santa Monica tenant Zelda Alvarado was diagnosed with a serious respiratory disability.

"First, I talked with several staff members at G & K, which is a fairly large management company," said Varady, who is retiring in April after 34 years at City Hall. "They admitted the denial of Zelda’s request, and they pointed to their wait-list system, saying that Zelda could not cut in line ahead of other tenants and applicants.”

Varady discussed the case with Deputy City Attorney Gary Rhoades, and they considered the facts of Zelda’s case in light of the fair housing laws requiring landlords and managers to make reasonable accommodations in their rules and policies so that tenants with disabilities have equal enjoyment of their units.  Did Zelda’s request for a smoke-free apartment qualify as a reasonable accommodation to G & K’s wait-list rules?

First, the accommodation must be needed in response to the nature of the tenant's disability. The doctor's statement had confirmed that Zelda needed this accommodation. Second, the accommodation request must be reasonable. This means it does not cause an undue burden, either administrative or financial; small or modest burdens or costs for the owner are considered reasonable. As long as the accommodation first requested by the tenant is reasonable, the tenant may reject alternatives, such as the small air filter that G & K proposed.

Varady and Rhoades didn't see any evidence of an undue burden on G & K in allowing Zelda, a current tenant, to move into a vacant apartment.

Making exceptions to wait lists is a classic example of an accommodation needed to help disabled tenants get the apartments and amenities they need, whether it's a smoke-free unit, a unit with a ramp, or a parking spot that's accessible or near the unit.

So Varady requested a meeting at the property with G & K.

"The meeting Gary and I had with staff at the property was very productive,” said Varady. “It came with a tour of the building and a brief meeting with the tenant.  We discussed the fair housing law, Zelda’s dire situation, and G & K's wait list rules.”

“At that meeting,” Rhoades added, “the staff began to see how broad and protective reasonable accommodations are supposed to be.”

Two days later, Zelda called Varady to say that her request for the new vacant apartment  had been approved and that she was moving that weekend.

"Zelda got her reasonable accommodation without having to resort to litigation," said Rhoades, “That’s our goal every time.”

Lockbox installation: A 91-year-old disabled tenant had twice fallen in her rented condominium unit, requiring break-ins by emergency responders.  The tenant and Santa Monica Fire Department's request to install a lockbox with a unit key next to her front door was rejected by the homeowner's association.  After a letter from and phone conversations with the CPU, the HOA voted again, this time to allow the lockbox.

Service animal for child: The disabled child of a tenant required a service animal. The management company and owner had already rejected the tenant’s request for a waiver of the building’s no-pet policy and pet deposit requirement.  The CPU wrote a letter and emails and persuaded the owner to allow the pet and to return the deposit.

Emotional support animal: A tenant’s request for an emotional support animal had been rejected based on the fact that the doctor’s note supporting the request was not specific enough.  The CPU persuaded the owner and owner’s attorney that such medical requests did not have to name the disability or get into the specifics of how the animal would help.

The burden of relocation to another unit:  Numerous severely disabled persons using Section 8 vouchers were in deed-restricted units that were now suddenly  subject to unaffordable rent increases and had been pressured by the owner to move  to other buildings with units restricted to lower rents.  The CPU and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) persuaded the housing provider to grant over twenty reasonable accommodation requests to delay the changes until the tenants left the units of their own accord.

Caregivers for tenants: A tenant with severe disabilities needed a caregiver. She submitted a caregiver candidate to her landlord, but the landlord refused to respond and then threatened eviction if the caregiver moved in. The CPU stepped in and along with LAFLA and persuaded the owner and his attorney that if he failed to respond to a caregiver request within a reasonable timeframe, he would waive his right to object to the caregiver.

Number of emotional support animals: A landlord with a no-pets building called the CPU. An applicant for one of her vacancies had two animals that he claimed were emotional support animals. The landlord was inclined to reject both under the mistaken belief that she only had to grant accommodations to in-place tenants. However, she soon agreed to consider the applicant with the animals and the applicant agreed to get separate medical letters for each animal.

Religious accommodation: A Jewish family was interested in a new vacancy at a local  apartment building. However, the open house for viewing apartments and getting applications was limited to certain evenings where the family’s religion prohibited such trips. After the family’s request for a religious accommodation was rejected, the CPU sent an email that persuaded the housing provider to extend new open-house times.

Children playing in the common area: The owner and management of a large apartment building had banned children (and adults) from playing in the building’s small courtyard. After the families filed a complaint with the CPU, the office persuaded the owner that this policy had a discriminatory impact on children and that it had in fact been implemented to keep children out of the courtyard. The policy was changed to reflect that most activities in the courtyard could resume.

The Consumer Protection Unit’s seminar on fair housing and reasonable accommodations is set for April 29, 2013 from noon to 1:30 pm at the Santa Monica Main Library in its multi-purpose room on the second floor.  Participants are invited to bring a brownbag lunch.