Shutdown Diary: Hope Turns Into Wall Street Warning

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, walks to a GOP meeting Tuesday.

Evan Vucci/AP

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, walks to a GOP meeting Tuesday.

Evan Vucci/AP

Day 15 of the government shutdown started with as much promise as any recently: There was a bipartisan proposal by Senate leaders to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.

But any hopes were quickly dashed when leaders of the Republican-controlled House said they would offer a competing proposal because of their dissatisfaction with the Senate effort.

The Senate's Bipartisan Proposal

The Senate agreement between Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., came after weekend negotiations.

It would reopen the government until Jan. 15, 2014, and extend the debt ceiling until February. Among its provisions, it would require income verification for individuals and families seeking subsidies in health care exchanges through the Affordable Care Act.

The House Responds

That Senate agreement was viewed as weak tea by House Republicans, however, particularly those affiliated with the Tea Party: They wanted more to show for the political hits they've taken in the fiscal fights. Yet it was clear early Tuesday they weren't sure what they wanted.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters: "Our leadership team met with our members today trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way that would continue to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare. There are a lot of opinions about what direction to go. There have been no decisions about what exactly we will do."

Eventually, House Republicans coalesced around a proposal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit with some Obamacare-related features to which Democrats hotly objected.

For instance, it would ban members of Congress and the White House staff from receiving the same employer-paid tax subsidies for health insurance received by other U.S. employees. And it would stop a fix in the Senate proposal meant to placate unions whose members must pay a fee under the new health care law.

Perhaps most objectionable to many, and not just Democrats, was a provision in the proposal that would limit the power President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew would have to take extraordinary measures to prevent a future default. In recent months, the Treasury has taken such financial steps to remain under the debt ceiling.

"Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate's bipartisan progress with a bill that can't pass the Senate ... and won't pass the Senate," said Reid.

It wasn't just Democrats who opposed the House proposal. The conservative advocacy organization, the Heritage Action for America, said it would score the proposal as a "key vote," thus dinging the conservative credentials of any Republican who didn't vote "no."

House leadership had scheduled a Tuesday evening vote on its proposal, despite the fact that it had no chance of passing in the Senate. After it became clear it also had no chance of passing in the House following Heritage's grenade, it appeared to be another instance of sound and fury in the House, signifying nothing.

Obama Meets Democratic Leadership

President Obama met with House Democratic leaders at the White House Tuesday afternoon. Following the meeting, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House minority leader, struck an optimistic tone. Vaguely echoing something Winston Churchill once said of Americans, she said: "I have confidence, and I'm optimistic, because I believe that at the end of the day, they will do the right thing even if they have to have a — do contortions to get to that place. That's unfortunate, because it doesn't inspire confidence, but if that's how they have to get there, that's a path."

Wall Street Sounds An Alarm

Pelosi's optimism wasn't universally shared. The Wall Street credit rating service, Fitch Ratings, placed the U.S.'s AAA rating on a negative watch because of the debt ceiling uncertainty.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/15/234931879/shutdown-diary-hope-turns-into-wall-street-warning?ft=1&f=1006
Category: Healthcare.gov   diana nyad   college football scores   Hannah Davis   amc  

These 230-Year-Old Charts and Graphs Were the Very First Infographics

The Enlightenment gave us many foundational ideas: Gravity! Democracy! Infographics! Wait, what? Yep. One of the age's lesser-known byproducts was the niche field of "graphical statistics," aka data visualization. And it's made more of an impact on our world that you might imagine.

William Playfair was a Scottish inventor and engineer (and reported scoundrel) who would've celebrated his 254th birthday at the end of September. It's hard to imagine, but before Playfair's time, words and drawings were two distinct ways of communicating that rarely converged. But as the burgeoning Enlightenment gave birth to modern science and the first traces of the Industrial Revolution, economists, engineers, and historians found a need for a new language: One that could quantify data visually. Playfair, a voracious writer who roamed in the same circles as many of the day's important thinkers, happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Playfair was often involved with transcribing or interpreting the work of others—which, incidentally, gained him a reputation as a plagiarist. But to convey the data other scientists were publishing, he started to turn to graphics. Beginning in the 1750s, he published a series of charts that represent the first instances of line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and circle graphs. Below are some of the earliest known data graphics.

---

The Line Graph

It was Playfair's older brother—who required him to record every day's temperature and record them a la the naturalists of the day—who inspired the line graph. It was simply a matter of tallying up each date's number and connecting the dots.

S

This chart shows imports and exports from America during the 18th century—that crux in the middle? That's the Revolutionary War.

S

It looks complicated, but this 1824 line graph is actually fairly simple: It compares the price of bread and stocks, as well as national expenditures and debt, against wars fought by England between 1770 and 1824.

---

The Bar Chart

The provenance of the bar chart is less clear. Many scholars attribute it to the fact that Playfair had seen the work of Joseph Priestly, the creator of the first timeline chart—in this case, the biography of a single person.

S

This 1821 bar chart—quoted by many as one of the first—show a simple but powerful thing: How much a quarter of wheat cost over three centuries, show both in shillings and the days' wages of a (good) mechanic. The cost in shillings goes up (presumably due to inflation), but the cost in wages goes down as workers' rights improve.

---

The Circle Graph and Pie Chart

No one really knows how Playfair dreamt up the pie chart. Some wonder whether it'd always been around—and if Playfair was just the first to actually publish one. "Familiarity has dulled our sense of the importance of Playfair's diagrams and it is easy to underestimate the ingenuity that was required to invent them," argues historian Ian Spence in his concise 2005 paper on Playfair (PDF).

S

This is one of Playfair's most well-known charts, though it's tough to find a good scan of it. It shows population size versus land area—all compared to taxation.

A pie chart showing each state in the United States, part of Playfair's translation of A Statistical Account of the United States of America by D. F. Donnant.

To us, pie charts hearken back to bad PowerPoint slides of yore (in fact, even data visualization expert Edward Tufte says they should never be used). But the pie, along with the bar chart, were revolutionary in Playfair's time.

And they've had a massive impact on ours: Today, these prototypical forms are almost universal, allowing us to perceive meaning (or non-meaning) in a single glance. It also was a precursor to modern UI design, since it provided a common vocabulary for expressing information visually.

Sources: Princeton | PTAK | No Humble Pie: The Origins and Usage of a Statistical Chart by Ian Spence. Lead image by PTAK.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/these-250-year-old-charts-and-graphs-were-the-very-firs-1445388576
Similar Articles: ny giants   Preachers of LA   january jones   houston texans   Jonathan Ferrell  

TV Ratings: Alec Baldwin Builds MSNBC's Friday Audience in Debut

Alec Baldwin's first episode of Up Late did not blow anyone out of the water, but it proved a solid start for the incoming MSNBC personality.

Nielsen shows the actor's interview series averaging 654,000 viewers and 172,000 adults 25-54 in its 10 p.m. debut. Viewership, up 53 percent from MSNBC Investigates the week prior, marked an even more considerable 71 percent improvement from the last four weeks. The demo showing, while down 7 percent from the previous week, was still up 18 percent from the hour's monthly average.

The night also marked Sean Hannity's first Friday in his new 10 p.m. slot, scoring an expected win with 1.5 million viewers and 338,000 adults 25-54. The series was up in viewers from Greta Van Susteren's last showing in the Friday hour and virtually even in the demo.

CNN seemed to suffer against the new competition. Anderson Cooper shed 52 percent in total viewers, down from 717,000 to 347,000, and 58 percent in the demo to just 111,000 adults 25-54.

Baldwin's ratings watch will prove a bit different from the current barrage of cable news shifts and launches, as MSNBC is taking a stab at destination viewing with the non-nightly program.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/live_feed/~3/D7rWTf2pKHE/story01.htm
Category: Under the Dome   Michael Girgenti   Cyclospora  

The Fix: Poll: Republicans losing no-win game (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334101400?client_source=feed&format=rss
Tags: aapl   alyssa milano   Mary Lambert   jimmy fallon   Garrett Clayton  

The Michigan Experiment

The justices, minus Elena Kagan, will be hearing Schutte v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.

Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

Lucky Elena Kagan. She gets to sit out this year’s affirmative action case at the Supreme Court, probably because she worked on a related matter when she was solicitor general. Part of me wishes I could skip it, too.  This is a case that liberals will lose, and probably deserve to lose.

Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action is not about whether states can continue giving race-based preferences to black and Hispanic applicants to state universities. That was the subject of last term’s Supreme Court challenge Fisher v. University of Texas. In that one, the court allowed affirmative action to continue in the name of promoting diversity (though it also made it harder for schools to do it).

The new case is the upside-down version of the last one: It’s about whether states may ban schools from using affirmative action. That’s what Michigan did by passing a ballot initiative in 2003 called Proposal 2. I wouldn’t have voted for it. But should the Supreme Court say that when voters decide to restrict the use of affirmative action, they have violated the constitution? There is no way that the conservative majority of the Supreme Court will answer yes. And that is probably the correct outcome in terms of policy. To say so deviates from the usual liberal line on affirmative action, laid out today in a New York Times editorial. And yet: The current huge fairness problem in university admissions isn’t race-based. It’s class-based. And it is at the schools of the 10 states across the country that have banned affirmative action where the most interesting socioeconomic alternatives are unfolding. The Supreme Court won’t stand in the way of those experiments. And it shouldn’t.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, the lower court in Schuette, struck down the ballot initiative banning affirmative action, in an 8-7 split. The majority relied on a couple of previous Supreme Court rulings. Neither are about affirmative action. In one of the cases, decided in 1969, the voters of Akron, Ohio, got rid of a fair housing ordinance passed by their city council and amended the city charter to make it harder for any other such ordinance to take effect. The Supreme Court said the change to the political process was discriminatory because the impact fell only on black residents. In the second case, after the Seattle school district announced it would start busing students in 1978, to desegregate the city’s schools, voters passed a ballot initiative to block the busing. The Supreme Court struck down that initiative for “moving the power over bussing for purposes of integration to state control.”

You can see why these older cases appealed to the 6th Circuit as a route to striking down Michigan’s voter ban on affirmative action. Michigan’s voters also messed around with the political process. They also took discretion away from local officials —this time, university administrators.

The problem is that the goal of busing plans and fair-housing laws is to treat everyone equally. So the voter initiatives blocking them in Akron and Seattle flew in the face of equal treatment. Michigan’s Proposal 2, by contrast, involves taking away a means of preferential treatment, based on race. Affirmative action, formally speaking, isn’t about treating all applicants equally. It’s about introducing a different set of standards for some applicants. A more equal society may be the broader long-term goal of affirmative action. But the way you get there is by treating people differently, based on race.

As University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein points out, it’s not clear what’s wrong with Proposal 2 that wouldn’t also be wrong with other formally colorblind laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race (or sex or religion or ethnicity).

Epstein proposes that the real problem with Proposal 2 is the same thing that was wrong with the Defense of Marriage Act. In striking down the key provision of DOMA that prevented the federal government from recognizing the state-approved marriages of gay couples, Justice Anthony Kennedy said for the majority, essentially, that what really motivated Congress was prejudice against gay people. "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Kennedy wrote.

The parallel to the Michigan affirmative action case would be this: There’s no legitimate reason to ban affirmative action. It’s just white voters venting their spleen. You can also weave in, as this brief by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in the Schuette case does, an old but dear footnote from a 1938 Supreme Court case called Carolene Products: “prejudice against discrete and insular minorities ... which tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political process ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities ... may call for a correspondingly more searching judicial inquiry”

But does it really make sense to say that there’s no legitimate reason for a state to eliminate race-based preferences in admissions? The current reality is that it is all poor students who are terribly, shockingly under-represented in universities. One reason is that they are also shockingly underserved by their K-12 schools. As Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation shows, the cost of socioeconomic disadvantage is an average of 399 SAT points. The SAT gap between African-American and white students of the same socioeconomic status, by comparison, is  just 56 points. Yet the economically disadvantaged get no affirmative-action-like admissions help at most schools.

Schools have said for years that they’re doing all they can to attract high-achieving poor students. A well-publicized study last spring proved otherwise. As I wrote then, “the difference is information and your sense of the possible—what you know about, what you learn from the experiences of people around you.” A few selective schools have stepped up recruitment. Plenty of others have not. This is about money: Financial aid costs more if you admit more poor kids. And it’s about incentives: The colleges with shamefully small numbers of low-income students pay no political price. Their all-important U.S. News and World Report numbers don’t suffer. Here are the rankings, for a change, in terms of which schools are better or worse about low-income admissions.

Kahnlenberg has found that in seven of the 10 states with affirmative action bans, the leading public universities figured out how to maintain the previous level of African-American or Hispanic representation in the student body and admit more low-income students. Some of the schools have taken income and wealth and neighborhood into account. Some have plans that admit the top 10 percent of high school graduates statewide. Three have banned legacy preferences.

At the University of Michigan, on the other hand (along with UC-Berkeley and UCLA) minority enrollment has dropped with the affirmative action ban. Maybe that’s because the admissions process doesn’t take into account family wealth or the neighborhood a student comes from. Or maybe it’s because the University of Michigan is the kind of elite school that competes with other national elite schools, which do still deploy affirmative action. Indeed, one concern about the Supreme Court’s general skepticism about affirmative action is that it will turn racial diversity into a luxury only wealthy elite schools can afford.

For the Supreme Court, though, the question is still this: Does the Constitution require every public university to have the option of using race-based preferences in admissions? That’s a stretch for the meaning of equal protection. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court won’t make it. That’s OK, as long as the court encourages states to work on getting more low-income kids of every race into higher education. That’s the fairness we need most.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/10/supreme_court_s_michigan_affirmative_action_case_liberals_deserve_to_lose.html
Category: Cameron Bay   NFL Network   neil armstrong   Selena Gomez   Huntington Beach riot  

Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Michael Barker to Deliver London Keynote

LONDON – Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics, is to deliver this year’s keynote address at the Film London Production Finance Market (PFM).

Opening the seventh PFM in London on Oct. 16, Barker promises to give the 200 plus delegates and industry guests an insight into producing and distributing independent feature films.

PHOTOS: 11 British Actors Invading Hollywood's 'It List'

With awards season in full swing, Barker will assess the role of Sony Pictures Classics, its objectives, achievements and its role in ensuring indie movies including foreign language films access the North American market.

Taking place over two days (Oct. 16-17) in association with the 57th BFI London Film Festival, this year’s PFM will see 52 producers and 57 financiers from the international marketplace conducting over 800 meetings.

Barker will also be part of a senior financiers panel alongside Doug Hansen (Endgame Entertainment) and Ben Browning (Start Motion Pictures), who will discuss how the emerging online market is changing the shape of film finance, covering digital disruption, social media, SVOD and the changing marketplace in North America and its implications for producers and financiers across the rest of the world.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission described Barker as being "admired throughout the international film industry" and said "he will provide a keen insight into the world of independent film production and distribution. His expertise in successfully selling films to international audiences, as well as underpinning multi-territory finance will ensure a fantastic start to this year’s market."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/business/~3/cuvbNa823ug/story01.htm
Related Topics: torrie wilson   Scandal   Sydney Leathers   Sloane Stephens   mila kunis  

McDonald's President Was Caught Off Guard By Low Wage, Single Mom

A video of a McDonald's worker confronting the president of the fast-food behemoth has gone viral this week with the help of a fast-food workers' campaign aimed at raising hourly wages to $15.

In the short clip, the worker, Nancy Salgado, a single mother of two children from Chicago, shouts out to Jeff Stratton, president of McDonald's USA, who was standing at a podium of a hotel ballroom giving a talk.

"It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day. Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I have worked for McDonald's for 10 years?" Salgado shouts out from the back of the room.

Stratton's response? "I've been there 40 years."

As Salgado called out that she needed a raise, she was escorted out of the room, and in the video you can hear a voice say, "You're going to be arrested." Later, police reportedly issued her a ticket.

In bringing attention to this video, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, which is helping to build the campaign for $15 per hour wages, has circulated a press release highlighting the disparity between McDonald's corporate profits - which the group estimates at $5.5 billion last year — and workers wages. According to WOCC, the median wage of cooks, cashiers and crew is $8.94 an hour.

According to an MIT living wage calculator, an adult with one child needs to make $20.86 an hour working full time in the Chicago area to afford the basics.

There's been suggestion on social media that Stratton's response was curt and insensitive. So we reached out to McDonald's to ask him if he would have responded differently to Nancy Salgado had the circumstances been different — say, if she had not barged into a private event and interrupted him.

"Yes, Jeff Stratton was caught off-guard at this church-based event," a McDonald's spokeswoman told us by email.

And why did Stratton bring up his 40 years at McDonald's? Well, it turns out "his 40-year anniversary was that very week, so it was top of mind for him," the spokeswoman said.

The company points out that Stratton first joined McDonald's back in the '70s as a restaurant crew member and has worked his way up.

McDonald's says its history is full of examples of individuals who worked their first job with the company and went on to have successful careers both within and outside of McDonald's.

As for the push from workers for higher hourly wages, McDonald's says it "does not determine wages set by our more than 3,000 U.S. franchisees," according to the company spokeswoman.

At the restaurants run by McDonald's USA — less than 10 percent of the roughly 14,000 outlets in this country — the spokeswoman explains, "we pay salaries that begin at minimum wage but range up from that figure, depending on the job and employee's experience level."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/11/232077122/mcdonalds-president-was-caught-off-guard-by-low-wage-single-mom?ft=1&f=1053
Tags: What Does Government Shutdown Mean   Joy Covey   powerball   Eiza Gonzalez   Chobani Recall  

Victoria Sports Hall of Fame to induct YMCA's Big Four track stars

They were the stars of the city, Victoria?s top athletes during a time of depression.

The YMCA?s track team from the 1930s was tops in the country.

Coached by YMCA physical director Archie McKinnon, the group of short and middle distance runners was led by 220-yard sprinter and quartermile (440-yard) specialist Joe Addison. (Races were done in yards and miles then.)

Half-mile runner Bill Dale and mile specialist Chuck Cunningham made up the core three with Addison, while a list of short-distance sprinters each spent time as the team?s fourth man.

It?s been a long time coming, but the Y team are finally going into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame, part of the 2013 inductee group to be celebrated on Oct. 26.

?We originally wanted to put Bill Dale in about 12 years ago. He was still alive then, but when we sat down with him and told him our intentions, he refused,? said Dave Unwin, a Victoria sports archivist.

Unwin has long snooped out the history of athletes in the city. Dale sent Unwin on a new hunt, one that finally ended with a phone call last year.

?At first Bill told us about his brother Vic Dale and said Vic was more deserving, his brother being a great basketball player and all-around athlete. Then Bill explained that it was Addison who was the (Y team) ringleader.?

The only problem was Addison?s story ended in the Second World War.

Unwin knew he was a policeman and a truant officer whose pay was split between the City of Victoria and the school district. He wasn?t with the Victoria police department for long. He signed up with the army, transferred to the air force and was shot down in a bomber during the war.

Until a lucky turn of events, Addison?s story had disappeared from history.

But the word was out around Victoria that the GVSHOF was on the lookout for Addison?s family descendants, and in 2012 Addison?s nephew Ross Williams called Unwin.

?Just prior to Christmas I had a visit from Williams. He ... brought two boxes of Addison?s scrapbooks, photos and awards,? Unwin said.

The newspaper stories and information, most of it from the 1930s, suggested the Y team deserved to be in the hall of fame.

Among many news articles was photos of Addison playing other sports, including a soccer photo from high school, representing Saanich school district at the city school soccer championship Fragment?s Cup.

This year is the first time Addison has been enshrined in the hall, though many of his teammates are already inducted. (Inset photo of 1912 Olympian Hal Beasley from Victoria and Addison, on right, at MacDonald Park, current home of the James Bay Athletic Association.)

The Y team were generally known as a group of four, with a frequently changing sprinter.

It?s believed Lynn Patrick was the team?s first sprinter, son of Lester and brother of Murray (Muzz), but Lynn left for the New York Rangers where he won the Stanley Cup as a player, with Muzz on his team and dad Lester behind the bench.

Navy man Owen Bentley also took a turn as the sprinter, as did Paul Rowe, who went onto win the Grey Cup with the Calgary Stampeders. There was?Noel Morgan, an all-around sportsman, and lastly, Bruce Humber, who went to university in Washington state and was the only member to represent Canada at the Olympics when he went to the 1936 Berlin Games.

Addison had been to the 1934 Empire Games, and should have qualified for the 1936 Olympics, as well as Dale, Unwin found.

?Addison, Dale and Humber went to the Canadian qualifying championships in Toronto on the way to Olympics (in 1936). When they got there it rained all weekend,? Unwin said.

?Addison did both the quarter and hurdles but had bad luck though he could have qualified for both events based on his previous times. For the 220 (yards) Addison drew the inside track which was flooded with puddles and he didn?t make (the time).?

During the era, Canada only financed so many athletes (about 100) to attend the Games, though additional athletes who qualified were welcome to pay their own way.

?I believe Bill Dale and Joe Addison both had the opportunity to pay their own way to the Olympics, but during the depression, the money wasn?t available,? Unwin said.

For tickets to the Oct. 26 banquet at the Pacific Institute of Sports Excellence, contact GVSHOF president Nick Tuele at 250-652-1455 or ntuele@shaw.ca.

? with files from Dave Unwin

Kjeld Brodsgaard (Builder)

Brodsgaard was chairman of the organizing committee for the 1993 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships and sport chair of wrestling for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Keith Dagg (Builder)

Dagg chaired the 2005 and 2013 Ford Men?s World Curling Championships and helped bring the PGA tour to Victoria in 1981.

Michael Edgson (Athlete)

Edgson, a visually impaired swimmer, is one of Canada?s most successful athletes with 18 gold, three silver medals and nine world records from three Paralympic Games in the 1980s and 1990s.

Derek Porter ? Athlete (Rowing)

A three-time Olympian, Derek Porter captured a gold medal with the men?s eight rowing team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. For the 1996 Summer Games, Porter made the transition to single sculls and finished in second place to win silver. The 1993 single sculls World Champion also captured two silver medals with the men?s eight at the 1990 and 1991 World Championships.

Alison Sydor (Athlete)

A former UVic student, Sydor won silver at the 1996 Summer Olympics in mountain biking, and three World Mountain Bike championships.

Gillian Thomas (Athlete)

A multi-sports athlete who toured with the national field hockey team in 1965-66, won several batting titles at the Canadian Softball Championships and was a national-level squash, badminton and tennis player.

1930s YMCA Track Team (Team)

Under the coaching of Archie McKinnon, the team comprised Bill Dale, Joe Addison, Chuck Cunningham and variously, sprinters Lynn Patrick, Noel Morgan, Owen Bentley, Paul Rowe and Bruce Humber. The team excelled throughout the decade and finished fifth at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

1976-1984 Vic West Soccer (Team)

The same core Vic West players won four national senior men?s soccer titles from 1976 to 1984, six B.C. championships and six Jackson Cup Island titles.

?

Source: http://www.vicnews.com/sports/217678631.html

Summer solstice 2013 drew brees drew brees usps Ola Ray Ginobili miley cyrus

7 new members set to enter NFL Hall of Fame

The past meets the present this weekend at the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Enshrinement Festival.

Seven new members will be welcomed into the institution on Saturday headlined by the outspoken Cris Carter, who will speak last despite being the only enshrinee in the year's group without a Super Bowl championship on his resume.

Carter will be joined by offensive lineman Larry Allen, defensive tackles Curley Culp and Warren Sapp, left tackle Jonathan Ogden, linebacker Dave Robinson and head coach Bill Parcells in making up the 2013 class.

Carter was unceremoniously dumped by the Philadelphia Eagles and Buddy Ryan back in 1989 with Ryan firing off his now famous quip "all he does is catch touchdowns." In truth Carter was having off-the-field problems with drugs and alcohol, but turned his life around in Minnesota, which picked up the Ohio State product for a paltry $100 waiver fee.

"Minnesota fans didn't judge me when a lot of bad things were being said about me," Carter said on Friday as the gold anniversary festivities for the Hall of Fame kicked off. "They always cheered for Cris. The only thing I really wish is we could've won that championship for those people. What they did for my life, every day I went out there, I played for those people."

Carter now credits Ryan's decision to cut him from the Eagles for helping him turn his life around and has said the Vikings helped him kick a cocaine addiction and get his drinking under control.

"That day, September 19, 1990, when I stopped drinking, that life choice I made on that day is the most significant thing to getting here," an emotional Carter said. "I just started on that day trying not to have a drink for one week ... and here I am, August 1, 2013, and I still haven't had that drink. And I could have ended doing so many different things than what I am right now."

Parcells, who was the coach of the New York Giants at the time, was actually the first to contact Carter after he was released by the Eagles, but Minnesota was ahead of "Big Blue" in the waiver process. When Carter retired after the 2002 season he was behind only Jerry Rice in all-time receptions and touchdowns.

Some claim Carter was even better than Rice.

"The guy I knew would never drop a ball," Chris Spielman, who played with Carter at Ohio State and against him for 10 seasons as a linebacker with the Detroit Lions, told the Akron Beacon Journal. "If I saw it going his direction when we were playing the Vikings, I said, 'Hopefully we'll knock it down before it gets to him.'"

Carter's college roommate William White, an 11-year NFL player, added: "If you put Cris Carter with Joe Montana for 15 years, what do you think he would have done?"

Two of this year's inductees have Dallas Cowboys connections. The 'Boys and Miami Dolphins will help culminate this weekend's festivities at the 50th Hall of Fame Game at Fawcett Stadium on Sunday night.

Allen was a 10-time Pro Bowl selection and seven-time All-Pro with Dallas after being drafted by the club in the second round of the 1994 NFL Draft out of tiny Sonoma State. The Los Angeles native was so dominant he's was named to both the NFL's 1990s All-Decade Team as well as the 2000s All-Decade Team.

Parcells, meanwhile, although better known for being the two-time Super Bowl- winning coach of the Giants, coached the Cowboys from 2003 to 2006, compiling a 34-30 mark with the team and piloting Dallas to two postseason appearances. Parcells, though, is probably most respected for his willingness to take on rebuilding projects.

"I hate routine. I really do, even it's a successful routine, I don't like it," Parcells said. "I'm just a little ... impatient for the next challenge. That grew as I went along. It did. I can't say that's a great quality."

Ogden was one of the elite left tackles of his generation. He was the first draft pick ever by the Baltimore Ravens and now the franchise's first Hall of Famer after earning a Super Bowl ring in 2000.

"It's somewhat overwhelming," said Ogden. "You look around and there's Joe Greene and Joe Namath. You can't stop naming names."

Sapp, meanwhile, was a standout defensive tackle, who captured a title in 2002 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Robinson was a big part of Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packer teams and was a part of the first two Super Bowl winning teams. Culp was a pass-rushing marvel at defensive tackle for Kansas City who brought home a championship with the Chiefs in 1969.

Source: http://chicagotribune.feedsportal.com/c/34253/f/622872/s/2f84aa90/sc/13/l/0L0Schicagotribune0N0Csports0Cbreaking0Cchi0Enfl0Ehall0Eof0Efame0E20A130Eclass0E20A130A80A30H0A0H8161930Bstory0Dtrack0Frss/story01.htm

smokey robinson smokey robinson USA VS Mexico Alexis DeJoria Tubby Smith opm passover

Surprise! This is the least productive Congress ever. (VIDEO) (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/323729968?client_source=feed&format=rss

beltane ryan o neal dark knight rises trailer dark knight rises trailer vince young vince young evan longoria

RadioShack, Dell and Lockheed are big movers

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE

RadioShack Corp., down 32 cents to $2.57

The retailer's shares tumbled after Standard & Poor's said the company could default within a year and downgraded its credit rating.

Weight Watchers International Inc., down $9.04 to $37.99

Fewer people are signing up for the company's programs, which drove second-quarter net income down 16 percent. It also booked costs related to paying down debt early.

Cablevision Systems Corp., up 97 cents to $19.61

In response to questions about a possible sale of the company, executives on a conference call did not reject that possibility outright. CEO James Dolan said Cablevision would do what is best for shareholders and customers, and added "you never say never."

Lockheed Martin Corp., up $1.60 to $123.77

The Defense Department stressed that there are no plans to scrap the F-35 program or a project for a new long-range stealth bomber. Lockheed's F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons acquisition program, and an aircraft with a troubled testing record.

Nasdaq

Dell Inc., up 73 cents to $13.68

Dell's board agreed to an increased offer from founder Michael Dell that would add a special dividend for shareholders. Michael Dell is in a battle to buy the slumping computer maker he founded nearly 30 years ago.

Mylan Inc., up $2.42 to $36.40

The generic pharmaceutical company's stock hit an all-time high on an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. Analyst David Risinger said that Mylan had "crystallized future growth opportunities," which should increase investor confidence.

Body Central Corp., down $3.86 to $8.10

The trendy women's clothing company saw traffic at its stores decline and it was forced to make deep markdowns on its merchandise during the second quarter.

Alaska Communications Systems Group Inc., up 60 cents to $3.15

A recent acquisition, lower costs, more customers and higher roaming revenue translated into a major turnaround in the second quarter for the broadband provider.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/radioshack-dell-lockheed-big-movers-203936097.html

neighborhood watch dodgers sale tami roman jetblue captain los angeles dodgers christie brinkley seattle mariners

Golf-Struggling Park's grand slam hopes fade at British Open

Fri Aug 2, 2013 8:59pm BST

Aug 2 (Reuters) - World number one Inbee Park's hopes of a fourth successive major were dealt a blow when the South Korean shot a one-over-par 73 to finish eight shots off the lead after the second round of the women's British Open on Friday.

Park, aiming to become the first player of either gender to win four majors in a calendar year, is two-under par for the tournament adrift of compatriot and leader Na Yeon Choi at St Andrews in Scotland.

"A little bit of everything wasn't really working well out there today, but it was tough conditions," the 25-year-old, who has never won the tournament, was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"I think I grinded (it out) really well out there."

Former U.S. Open champion Choi, hit six birdies on the way to matching her first-round 67 on the Old Course with her only bogey coming at the seventh.

She is one shot clear of Japan's Miki Saiki (66) and a further stroke ahead of overnight leader Morgan Pressel of the U.S. who is third on eight under after a 70.

Park has won the first three majors of 2013 - the Kraft Nabisco title, LPGA Championship and U.S. Open.

Officially, victory this weekend would not constitute a grand slam, since the Evian Masters in September has this year been granted the status of the fifth major.

But securing a fourth successive major in a calendar year would be heralded as an unprecedented achievement.

Park has already matched the feat of Babe Zaharias in 1950 of winning the first three majors of the year. (Writing by Alison Wildey in London; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/UKGolfNews/~3/yEPefryC7s8/golf-open-women-idUKL4N0G346R20130802

Colorado shooting suspect Finding Nemo 2 Provigil dez bryant Kitty Wells Marissa Mayer Jon Lord

Japan Deputy PM Aso Refuses to Resign After Comments About Weimar Constitution Interpreted as Praising Nazis

Taro Aso. Photo: Wikipedia.

Jerusalem Post / Reuters ? Japan?s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Friday he has no intention of resigning over comments he made, but were later retracted, that were interpreted as praise for Germany?s Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler?s rise to power.

The comments by Aso, who is also finance minister and a former premier, drew criticism from a US-based Jewish rights group as well as in media in South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan?s World War Two militarism run deep.

?I have no intention of resigning,? Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

Read full story.

Source: http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/08/02/japan-deputy-pm-aso-in-hot-seat-as-comments-about-weimar-constitution-interpreted-as-praising-nazis/

downton abbey season 3 2013 Calendar chris christie American Horror Story Patti Page anonymous texas chainsaw massacre

Tony Nominee Susan Egan to Bring The Belle Of Broadway to Canada

---

Tony Nominee Susan Egan to Bring The Belle Of Broadway to Canada

By Carey Purcell
02 Aug 2013

Tony nominee Susan Egan (Beauty and the Beast) will perform her concert The Belle Of Broadway at Le Centre Pierre-Peladeau in Montreal.

---

Advertisement

---

The concert will be performed Sept. 7 at 8 P.M.

"The Belle Of Broadway is a hilarious, anecdotal journey through Egan?s career in two acts, in which she revisits her beloved characters, her favorite Broadway composers such as George & Ira Gershwin, Kander & Ebb, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Jason Robert Brown and more," press notes state.

Egan's stage credits include Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret, Triumph of Love and State Fair. She has voiced the characters of Meg in Disney?s "Hercules," Lin in "Spirited Away," Gina in "Porco Rosso" and Angel in "Lady and the Tramp II."

In addition to the concert, Egan offer master class the morning of Sept. 7, which will involve an open Q&A with all participants and one-on-one sessions with five young artists. Professional actors or students who wish to participate, must submit their headshot and resume to casting@tiltcorp.net.

Audience members attending The Belle Of Broadway at 8 PM have free access to the master class at 10 AM with the same ticket and seating location.

More information can be found by visiting broadwayincanada.com. Tickets are available by visiting admission.com.

---

---

Keyword: Features/Location: Writer: Date From: Date To: ?

	?	Playbill Club Featured Offer Thuzio Broadway Experiences Book a memorable and unique Broadway experience with Thuzio and save 15%! Click here for details.

Source: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/180775-Tony-Nominee-Susan-Egan-to-Bring-The-Belle-Of-Broadway-to-Canada

JJ Abrams New Orleans Pelicans chris brown hillary clinton apple stock Pro Bowl 2013 Kick Ass Torrents

Verizon XOOM 4G LTE getting Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

The Motorola XOOM 4G LTE is far from the newest tablet available at the moment. In fact, at this point it is probably more accurately described as being one of the oldest. But even with that, it looks like the updates will continue. In this case we are looking towards those who happen to sporting the Verizon branded XOOM 4G LTE.

It seems Verizon has approved an update to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. More to the point, Big Red has detailed the update on the support pages. Those sporting a Verizon XOOM 4G LTE will want to be on the lookout for an update notification to arrive, but otherwise ? here is what can be expected. The update will arrive as Android 4.2 with build JZO54M.

That being said, aside from the perks of Jelly Bean, the changelog isn?t all that long. This means goodies such as Google Now and Notifications. More to the point with those notifications, they are actionable. That means users are table to take direct action from the drop down notification shade with things such as email and text messages. You can also expand these notifications to get additional details.

Otherwise, aside from the Google Now and Notifications mentions there were only a few items mentioned under the ?device improvements and fixes? category. Those items are as follows;

• Voice Search speed has been improved
• Keyboard adapts over time and predicts user?s next word
• Settings application has been revised for clearer options
• ?Accounts & Sync? has been moved from the Personal group to an independent group called ?Accounts?
• Enhancements to modem stability to improve data connectivity
• Search Option has been added in YouTube Application

Perhaps more important here is the history. While the XOOM 4G LTE is probably not a tablet that many will call wonderful ? it is hard to deny that it is one that seems to have been taken care of. With this Android 4.2 update, that means XOOM users have gone through two major system upgrades. After all, if you remember back, the tablet received Ice Cream Sandwich back in June 2012.

SOURCE: Verizon Wireless

', enableHover: false, enableTracking: true, buttons: { twitter: {via: 'androids'}}, click: function(api, options){ api.simulateClick(); api.openPopup('twitter'); } }); jQuery('#facebook').sharrre({ share: { facebook: true }, template: '

{total}

', enableHover: false, enableTracking: true, click: function(api, options){ api.simulateClick(); api.openPopup('facebook'); } }); jQuery('#googleplus').sharrre({ share: { googlePlus: true }, template: '

{total}

', enableHover: false, enableTracking: true, urlCurl: 'http://androidcommunity.com/wp-content/themes/ac/js/sharrre.php', click: function(api, options){ api.simulateClick(); api.openPopup('googlePlus'); } }); });

Source: http://androidcommunity.com/verizon-xoom-4g-lte-getting-android-4-2-jelly-bean-20130802/

labor day college football scores khan academy Espn College Football Eddie Murphy died Suzanne Barr Clint Eastwood speech

Apple Reportedly Ramping Up For New iPad Mini With Retina Display Later This Year

Apple is indeed gearing up to put a Retina display in next version of the iPad mini, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The new version of Apple's smaller, 7.9-inch tablet will have a high-resolution screen provided by Samsung's display supply wing, as well as LG and Sharp. Originally, per the report, Apple wanted to skip Samsung for this round but wanted to ensure it could meet buyer demand.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/k4HVp1Bee5A/

rodney king Webb Simpson Fathers Day Quotes Stevie J mothers day 2012 osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy

NBA free agency 2013: Winners & losers

Chris Paul was the biggest free-agent name on the market, and once the Clippers were able to secure coach Doc Rivers?who could go down as the best coach in franchise history?Paul was on board, signing a max deal.

Rivers, also taking the reins when it comes to personnel moves, showed himself to be adept in that regard, bringing in shooters Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick, while also adding veteran backup guard Darren Collison. They did have to give up guard Eric Bledsoe, but it was unlikely the team would have been able to afford him anyway.

Source: http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2013-08-01/nba-free-agency-winners-losers-rockets-clippers-nets-dwight-howard-chris-paul

Ned Rocknroll Norman Schwarzkopf Avery Johnson kennedy center honors boxing day iTunes Alfred Morris

Will urbanization save energy?

If urbanization trends continue, American cities have the potential to become far more sustainable, Chahar writes, rather than continuing the 20th century trend of sprawling further and further away from the city with an ever-increasing carbon footprint.

By Bharat Chahar,?Guest blogger / July 31, 2013

The Chicago skyline is shown. If the perils of automobile traffic follow residents into the city centers from the suburbs, we may lose an opportunity to have more livable and sustainable urban areas in the US, Chahar writes.

Carolyn Kaster/AP/File

Enlarge

The signs of great movement back to the city center from suburbia can be found in most major cities of America.? New apartments, condos, townhouses seem to be sprouting up in the previously abandoned or dilapidated sites all across the US.? A recent issue of Fortune magazine talked about how majority of the new housing construction today is happening in the heart of the cities rather than the suburbs. I see evidence of this in our great city of Houston every time I drive to downtown.? The appeal of living in the city seems to be catching on with the younger generation? ? who are willing to give up a big house and yard for the convenience of living close to work.? From an environmental perspective, if these trends were to continue, American urban areas have the potential to become far more sustainable rather than continuing 20th century trend of sprawling further and further away from the city with an ever-increasing footprint.

Skip to next paragraph Cleantech Blog

A premier site for commentary on clean tech, energy, and the green economy, Cleantech Blog is edited by longtime clean-tech industry investor and executive Neal Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners LLC, and venture capitalist and industry analyst Richard Stuebi. For more clean-tech news and analysis, click?here.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; // google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

I think this is great and hope the trend continues.? But, I worry that public transportation or lack thereof may become the roadblock to making our cities more desirable and sustainable.? As more people move in closer and the population density rises, it will put an increasing burden on the cities? infrastructures.? Most of these demands could be met by investments from the increasing tax base as the population increases, but the development of adequate public transportation may not be as easy.?

Ariel Castro victim Michelle Knight: 'Your hell is just beginning'

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight faced down her captor in court on Thursday as her fellow captives spoke through family members at Ariel Castro?s chilling sentencing hearing.

?I cried every night, I was so alone,? Knight said. ?Years turned into an eternity.?

?I spent eleven years in hell, where your hell is just beginning,? she said to Castro, with her back turned to him at the defense table. ?You deserve to spend life in prison.?

?After eleven years, I am finally being heard, and it is liberating,? Knight said.

Gina DeJesus was represented by her cousin Sylvia Colon, who said DeJesus lives ?not as a victim, but as a survivor.?

Amanda Berry?s sister Beth Serrano said the family did not want to continue to talk about their ordeal, and even if she did, ?it is impossible to put in words.? Berry is concerned that her daughter will hear versions of her story before she is ready.

Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight delivers an emotional statement to the courtroom, telling Ariel Castro, "I spent eleven years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning."

?Amanda did not control anything for a long time,? Serrano said. ?Please let her have control over this so she can protect her daughter.?

The appearance of Knight and the representatives of the other victims came after prosecutors revealed photos from inside Ariel Castro?s Cleveland house of horrors on Tuesday, showing a house modified on the inside to keep his captives in and the rest of the world out.

Some of the photos showed the bedroom, including stuffed animals and other children?s toys, where Berry and her daughter spent much of their time, FBI Special Agent Andrew Burke said. Others showed chains hanging from walls where two of the women endured their nightmarish captivity.

Handcuffed and in an orange prison jumpsuit, a bearded Castro appeared to smile as he entered the courtroom where he could come face to face again with the three women he has admitted imprisoning for a decade?in his Cleveland home, and seemed to laugh as the court took a brief recess around noon.

Asked by the judge whether he would like to speak, Castro said at the beginning of the hearing that he ?would like to apologize to the victims,? and made a longer statement at the end of the hearing.

?These people are trying to paint me as a monster. I?m not a monster, I?m sick,? Castro said. He described himself as addicted to masturbation and pornography, and claimed that he was ?a victim of sex acts? when he was a child.

Of the young girl who was born in captivity, Castro said: ?She?ll probably say, ?My daddy is the best daddy in the world.? Because that?s how I tried to raise her in those six years. So she wouldn?t be traumatized or anything like that.?

?I am not a violent person. I simply kept them there without them being able to leave,? Castro said.

?To this day I?m trying to answer my own questions. I don?t know why a man that had everything going on for himself ? I had a job, I had a house, I had vehicles, I had my musical talent,? the confessed kidnapper and rapist said.

?We had a lot of harmony going on in that home,? he said.

Prosecutors used a model of the confessed kidnapper?s house of horrors and diary entries from victims to describe his atrocities at a sentencing hearing on Thursday, as witnesses including police officers and medical experts revealed the terrifying details ? including that more than 90 pounds of chains, measuring nearly 100 feet, were recovered from the home.

Ariel Castro told the court during his sentencing that he "would like to apologize to the victims" whom he captive in his Cleveland home for a decade.

The judge said the chains would not be displayed in court.

Castro, who pleaded guilty to charges related to his decade-long confinement of the women, stands to get life in prison plus an additional 1,000 years.

Cleveland Police Department Patrolwoman Barb Johnson was the first witness on Thursday. She was one of the first officers to arrive at Castro?s house as Amanda Berry kicked through the front door of his house on May 6, and described entering the darkened house with a flashlight attached to her firearm.

She and another responding officer heard the ?pitter-patter? of steps as they entered the house and went to the upper level. Then, a woman who turned out to be Michelle Knight emerged from the darkness.

Knight ?launched herself? into the other officer?s arms, Johnson said.

Detective Andy Harasimchuk of the Cleveland Police Department?s sex crimes unit described how the victims were physically restrained for periods by Castro, and were chained and locked in rooms of the house.

The doctor who saw the three women after they were first removed from the house, Dr. Gerald Maloney, said the women were ?very much emotionally fragile? when they first arrived at the hospital.

?All three of them looked fairly gaunt, all three of them related that they had been allowed minimal time outside the house at all,? Maloney said. ?They related information regarding sexual assaults to us and also to the sexual assault nurse examiner.?

The interior of the house featured modifications that enabled Castro to keep the women in and inquiring eyes out, FBI Special Agent Andrew Burke said, including modified doors, extra partitions and the conversion of the dining room into a bedroom. A porch swing was positioned at the base of the stairs going to the house?s upper floors as an obstacle, he said.

?There were a number of modifications to the interior of the home to fortify certain areas,? Burke said. ?There were divisions between spaces in the house that were again designed not only to make the house more secure for its occupants but also to hide, I think, the existence of additional rooms in the house.?

Other photos showed the cluttered basement with its white center pole where the women were restrained ?in the early stages of captivity,? Burke said, as well as a laundry machine full of money. Investigators also found a note in which Castro wrote ?I am a sexual predator,? according to the agent.

Prosecutors ask FBI special agent Andrew Burke to describe the pictures from inside Ariel Castro's Cleveland home, particularly the chains used on the three women he kept captive for a decade.

Castro?s victims said he played a version of ?Russian roulette? with them, giving the women an unloaded revolver, pressing it against his head, and daring them to pull the trigger, said Cuyahoga County Sheriff?s Deputy Dave Jacobs, who interviewed the man in the days after the women were freed. Castro told him he didn?t specifically remember the incident, but said if the women said it happened, it probably had, according to Jacobs.

In opening remarks, Castro?s defense attorneys objected to the presentation of any photographs or other exhibits to demonstrate the extent of their client?s offenses. Attorney Craig Weintraub said that the highly unusual case has ?facts that are incomprehensible? and that his client suffered from ?significant, undiagnosed mental illness? that did not rise to the legal definition of insanity.

Court officials have said that the sentencing on Thursday could take as long as four hours, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors, the victims, Castro and his attorneys will all be given an opportunity to speak.

A team of sheriff?s deputies carried in a massive model of the home on Seymour Avenue where the women were chained, raped, and deprived of food and access to toilets and showers.

A sentencing memorandum filed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty on Wednesday included accounts of how Castro abducted Berry, Knight, and Gina DeJesus between August 2002 and April 2004.

Knight ?was spotted by the Defendant in need of assistance in getting to an appointment regarding her son,? according to the sentencing memorandum. ?The Defendant lured her into his vehicle with promises of a ride. The Defendant then took Ms. Knight to his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue and enticed her to go inside with promises of a puppy for her son.?

The women?s daily life was recorded in diary entries, which were reflected in the more than 900-count indictment against Castro.

?The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war, of missing the lived they once enjoyed, of emotional abuse, of his threats to kill, of being treated like an animal, of continuous abuse, and of desiring freedom,? according to the memorandum.

At one point, from Aug. 23, 2005 to the end of October 2005, Castro "forced the three victims into the garage behind his house," the memorandum states. "For three days, they were kept physically restrained in a vehicle in the garage, while the Defendant had a visitor at his house."

If any of the three women tried to escape, the memo said, Castro would assault her and force the other two to watch. He sexually abused the women on a regular basis, according to the memo, and when one of these assaults resulted in Knight becoming pregnant, Castro starved and beat her in a successful her in a successful attempt to terminate the pregnancy. That formed the basis of the aggravated murder charge to which Castro pleaded guilty.

Berry became pregnant after another assault, and gave birth to a child without medical care.

Tony Dejak / AP

Sheriff's deputies set in place a model of the house on Seymour Ave. where Ariel Castro held three women Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing for kidnapping three women and subjecting them to years of sexual and physical abuse.

The women suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from their prolonged torment, Dr. Frank Ochberg, a clinical psychologist who is an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, said on Thursday.

All three endured ?repeated episodes that were terrifying, the kind of trauma that we meant when we define the post-traumatic stress disorder,? Ochberg said. ?The kind of trauma that you don?t escape for years and sometimes for a lifetime.?

?You are being infantilized, then little by little you?re given what it takes to survive,? Ochberg said. ?You deny that this is the person who did all of this to me, and you start to feel as you did as a little baby, with your mother.?

The women survived in part because of extraordinary, and simple, acts of human kindness between them, the doctor said, even if they will never be entirely free of the damage done them by Castro.

Knight, he said, is ?an extraordinary human being. She served as doctor, nurse, pediatrician midwife ?. She?s a very courageous and heroic individual.?

"Little by little, you are allowed 'the gifts of life,'" Ochberg wrote. "You are like an infant, totally dependent on your mother for survival. As you receive these gifts of life, without consciously realizing what is occurring, you feel some warmth ? even love ? toward that life giver."

Castro?s son Anthony Castro told the TODAY show on Monday that he did not think he would visit his father in prison.

?I think that if he really can?t control his impulses and he really doesn?t have any value for human life, the way this case has shown, then behind bars is where he belongs for the rest of his life,? the son said. ?I have nothing to say to him.?

Berry, 27, made a surprise appearance at a Cleveland concert on July 27. The Cleveland police received a handwritten note from Knight, 32, this week in which she declared, ?Life is tough, but I?m tougher!?

?I am overwhelmed by the amount of thoughts, love & prayers expressed by complete strangers,? Knight said in the note, which was posted on a Cleveland police Facebook page and confirmed as authentic to NBC News. ?It is comforting.?

Castro pleaded guilty to 937 counts including rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder. Prosecutors dropped 40 more counts that were considered redundant.

?He?s never coming out except nailed in a box or in an ash can,? McGinty said after Castro agreed to the plea deal on July 26.

NBC News? Kate Snow, Cate Cetta and Alison Kartevold contributed to this report.

?Related:

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

This story was originally published on Thu Aug 1, 2013 7:38 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2f70b41b/sc/8/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A80C0A10C198139770Eariel0Ecastro0Evictim0Emichelle0Eknight0Eyour0Ehell0Eis0Ejust0Ebeginning0Dlite/story01.htm

Walking Dead Season 3 Richard III Superbowl Commercials 2013 Grammy nominations 2013 Lynsi Torres Fall Out Boy Alabama hostage