Reading the news about the untimely death of 17-year-old Tameika Jordan, I was at first upset that such a young life had to end. I wanted to know if there could have been another way for this standoff to conclude. Did police have to kill her? I hurt for the mother. And I wondered why there was so little information about the case. Knowing how police killings always draw a lot of attention, I expected this to get quite a bit of coverage. When I realized that Tameika was African American, I knew there would be outrage in the community. There would be cries of racism and excessive force. Many African Americans don't trust the police, some rightfully so because they are law abiding citizens who have had unfortunate encounters of racial profiling. Others have no reason to complain because they frequently run afoul of the law and draw the attention of law enforcement. I know about the distrust of law enforcement. I covered crime quite a bit during my 20 years as a journalist. I've been to hundreds of crime scenes and written about more murders than I can count. I have even written about a police shooting that ended up with an African American male driver dead.

It is unfortunate that we have had so many bad cases in the news, cases where police appear to have misused their force. Rodney King's case still comes to mind, but there are many others. The images and the news get played over and over again. They are burned into our memories. The problem is, not every case is the same. And not every police shooting is the same. But I knew there would be charges of racism and unnecessary force in Tameika's case. I was right.

Reading some of the story comments on the newspaper web site, I believe some people see what I see here. There is so much more to this than how it ended. Something went terribly wrong in this child's life. Let's remember that police were called to the scene because of a hostage situation. A situation that Tameika created. And she had a gun.

The easy thing to do here is to say: "What was this child doing with a gun?" And we would want answers from the mother or parents. I have a teenager and my wife and I do our best to stay on top of everything he does. He knows that he has no privacy, at least not while he is living under our roof. As a parent you need to know what is going on with your child. But more than that, you have to also admit when you are overwhelmed and cannot handle the situation on your own. You need to admit when you need help.

I am not a professional psychologist, but I know that counseling is still considered a taboo subject amongst African Americans. I do not know why, but I believe it is because people are too proud to admit that something is wrong with them or their child. For whatever reason, the thought of talking to a psychologist means that you are "crazy." That just isn't so.

I wonder if Tameika was troubled and didn't get all the help that she needed.

Something about this whole thing just doesn't add up for me. Why would a young lady who was headed to college and ready to embark on the greatest years of her life throw it all away like this? We are not talking about someone who was a thug or deadbeat. This young woman appeared to have a future. Despite that, what demons was she facing inside? We all have them. Maybe hers were too tough for her to handle.

I feel sorry for the mother and I mourn the loss of a young woman who had so much ahead of her.

But I also mourn for the police officer who shot her. I cannot be judgmental and accuse the officer of excessive force. I am not a trained police officer and I have not had to deal with an armed person. I hate guns and have only held one once. It gave me the creeps. I cannot say what I would have done in that situation. But I feel for the officer because, no matter what, they have to carry this burden with them for life. They killed a teenager. That is enough to keep any God fearing person up at night. Yes, officers are trained to kill to protect themselves, their brethren and the public, if need be. But, still, killing is the ultimate. It is a sin. The Bible does not say: "Thou Shall Not Kill Unless Someone Has A Gun Pointed At You.'' There are no such qualifiers that would perhaps absolve someone in this case. The officer might forever second guess himself. And, what happens the next time? That's if the officer stays on the force as there is a next time. Might he hesitate to do as trained? Might he be haunted by Tameika? Will he die at the hands of an assailant? And, then, does that make up for Tameika's death? I don't think so.

BARB HAS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED ME WITH THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Lucy Jane Hurrell married Frederick Sanders. Lucy was descended from JOHN HURRELL and his second wife. JOHN HURRELL was born in 1828 in CAWSTON NORFOLK, to MARK and ELIZABETH HURRELL according to his immigration record. He also had cousins called JOHN HURRELL. Our JOHN died on 14 January 1908 on the MACLEAY RIVER NSW. 

John's father was MARK HURRELL. Mark married twice. Elizabeth was his first wife.  Mary Warner was his second. He was an Agricultural  labourer living in Eastgate, Cawston in 1851 census. aged 53, widower with his son Thomas and Mark's brother John aged 60 (pensioner- from services - Chelsea Hospital ) widower and John's children Susanna and Ann M. I don't know how many other children Mark had with either of his wives.

John married firstly to HARRIET TENPENNY ABBOTT in Holbeach Lincolnshire England in Mar 14 1849 ( Folio XIV page 561) then living at SUTTON CROSSES, SUTTON ST MARY LINCOLNSHIRE in 1851. Occupation Farm Labourer. Came to Australia on the BEEJAPORE in 1853 with Harriet. Dreadful conditions on this ship with many deaths and illnesses. Harriet died in 1853. John could read and write and paid two pound for his  and his wife's passage to Australia.  On immigration records at State records NSW he was living in LONG SUTTON, Lincolnshire prior to emigration and knew noone in the colony. Mother Elizabeth deceased prior to his departure for Australia. No children of marriage to Harriet.

John remarried : ELLEN CROWE 26/11/1854 in Parish of St Lawrence in the County of Cumberland NSW. (C of E ) 677/41B. Witnesses: FREDERICK LOUIS WILLIAM HERRMANN of Castlereagh St Sydney, and JANE HERRMANN of Castlereagh St Sydney. Age 37. Occupation Farmer at time of Thomas' birth in 1865. Buried FREDERICKTON CEMETERY McLeay River NSW Row M C of E Section.  ELLEN CROWE was the daughter of MICHAEL CROWE and was born in DUBLIN IRELAND in c 1831. She died at at McLeay River on 12/2/1899.

JOHN AND ELLEN HURRELL HAS THE FOLLOWING CHILDREN:

BARB MILLER TELLS ME THAT THE INFORMATION BELOW WAS GIVEN TO HER FROM YVONNE SZWEDYE'S WEBSITE "FOR THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE" ON ROOTSWEB. I WOULD PROVIDE A LINK BUT HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO LOCATE THE PAGE.  ( LET ME KNOW IF I CAN FIX THIS ONE UP )

THIS GENERATION BELOW IS MY OWN GRANDFATHER JOHN GEORGE'S .

THESE ARE THE CHILDREN OF LUCY JANE AND FREDERICK SANDERS.

]]> http://uncommonagent.wordpress.com/?p=153 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:35:42 +0000 Mike Lefebvre http://uncommonagent.wordpress.com/?p=153

Below are links to market reports for the month of July for Franklin, Holliston, Hopkinton, Medfield, Medway, Millis and Norfolk, MA. If you'd like more specific information on any of the individual transactions, or if you'd like the honest opinion of a real estate agent WHO IS ALSO a certified residential real estate appraiser, drop me a line. I'd be happy to talk with you more about what's going on in your market! (August reports will be available first week of September, I promise!)

Franklin Market Insider: July 2008

Holliston Market Insider: July 2008

Hopkinton Market Insider: July 2008

Medfield Market Insider: July 2008

Medway Market Insider: July 2008

Millis Market Insider: July 2008

Norfolk Market Insider: July 2008

We did beach days, walks, barbecues and day trips, and T got to indulge his passion for board- and cardgames with a willing (and sometimes captive) audience of six children. No major disasters, only one argument, and my in-laws decided not to crash the party at the end of the week, despite threatening to turn up and muscle in. There was much rejoicing (by me, in secret).

Things I've learned this week:

1. I don't like queuing for a cold shower.
2. I'm not really a beach person.
3. I'm slightly scared of crabs.
4. I'm good at putting tents up in a high wind.
5. I'm not good at taking tents down in torrential rain.

Home to the Midlands on Thursday, or whenever my parents get fed up of me hogging the washing machine and kick us out. More then.

I am writing this blog retrospectively.  You know I am a hard taskmaster when it comes to blogging and the nuns will get me if I take a day off.  We have been home since about half past four this afternoon.  Since then, and indeed, on the way home from Norfolk in the car, I have been cogitating how I would summarise my weekend away in the most positive terms I can think of.  Here are the highlights:

The children stayed with their granny and were very happy to do so indeed.  Well done children! Well done granny!

The trip to Norfolk was reasonably quick and we only got stuck behind four caravans, two tractors and three lorries.

I didn't have my breakfast at McDonalds where the coffee tastes of melted plastic.

I had my breakfast at Cambridge services on the A14, unfortunately the coffee there tastes like melted tyres, but the vanilla Danish was passable.

Roy has not taken over any more small villages since last weekend.  Perhaps he's on holiday.

Tesco's in Stalham have sourdough bread.  It doesn't taste like sourdough bread, but I suspended disbelief and pretended I was in Canada instead of Norfolk.

We had Thai curry for dinner from the takeaway. in Norfolk they make it with cucumber in.  We live and learn.

That is all

IMMIGRATION REPORT FOR 1852 INCLUDING STATISTICS FOR THE WHOLE PERIOD OF EMIGRATION.

VERY DETAILED PROFILE OF IMMIGRATION IN AUSTRALIA.

(The following year 1853 sees the arrival of the CRAIGS, HURRELLS and JACKSONS. )

WILHELMINA MCLEOD

WHERE HAVE WE COME FROM ?

The Norfolk office will be at 9647 First View Street and will provide volunteer opportunities every day.

• Phone banking: Mon - Thurs 10am - 9pm,  Sat - 10am - 6pm, Sun Noon - 9pm
• Canvassing: Sat 10am - 8pm, Sun Noon - 5pm

We are in the process of finalising our speaker for the next event and we will post details as soon as we have them.

Bon Secours Health System is on the move again, this time hoping to relocate another one of its urban Virginia hospitals to the suburbs.

The above quote comes from a Modern Healthcare magazine article published July 12, 1999. Sounds eerily familiar to those of us who are watching the company's initiatives on Norfolk's DePaul Medical Center.

The Bon Secours Health System was, according to their website, established in 1983. The company went on a spending spree, acquiring hospitals in a number of states, from Michigan to Florida. Many of those hospitals - like Richmond Community Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News - serve an inner city population. According to a 2005 article from the same magazine, the health care system struggled to make the acquisitions work.  Since 2004, Bon Secours has sold operations in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. The company now operates 18 acute care hospitals along with other medical facilities in seven states.

It seems that, as the 1999 article points out, Bon Secours has a pattern of "seeking greener pastures for some of its urban facilities." The company sought, and gained approval, to move Stuart Circle Hospital from the Fan District in Richmond to "the affluent and growing suburb of Midlothian in Chesterfield County."

Just prior to their application to move Stuart Circle, they closed the 95-bed historically black Liberty Medical Center in Baltimore, which, according to a Richmond Free Press article from September 1999, had "survived independently for a century, but died three years after it was purchased" by Bon Secours. From that article:

Bon Secours, founded by Catholic nuns in 1824 to provide care to the indigent, has been sowing doubts about that statement with its record of locating area medical operations outside the city..

[...]

...every time Bon Secours makes its changes, it appears to relocate to areas with a smaller presence of poor people and definitely fewer African-Americans.

A couple of earlier moves by Bon Secours:

• in 1996, St. Francis Xavier Hospital in downtown Charleston SC was moved to West Ashley, SC, a "burgeoning suburb"
• In 1998, Richmond Memorial Hospital was moved to Hanover County.

I understand that every entity - even non-profit ones - have to make money in order to survive. And if one reads their 2007 Annual Report to the Community (pdf), you get the impression that they are making money. From page 4:

With the achievement of positive financial indicators this year, our financial future is a bright one. Our bond rating has been upgraded to A by Fitch Ratings. These improvements will allow us to pursue focused growth, take advantage of ministry opportunities, and reinvest in our
communities and key growth markets.

So why the need to downsize DePaul so significantly? Norfolk needs a right-sized hospital and 64 beds just isn't it. Please let your voice be heard on this issue. The public hearing will be Monday, August 18 at 10am. For more information, check out DePaul Emergency 134.

Earlier posts on the DePaul saga:

• DePaul Emergency 134
• DePaul removes 30 beds from service
• DePaul hearing rescheduled
• Who says we need more beds at DePaul?
• Video of discussion on DePaul

Confused me too to be honest...

Here is what I have to say on the matter:

FUCKING NORFOLK

That's it in a nutshell.

Here is the slightly extended version.

Got up at six a.m.  Rounded up the troops.  All in car, fed and watered with our entire lives packed around us by 7 a.m.  Feeling very, very cross, rather owlish and yet strangely impressed by our own competence.

Drive like maniacs for hours and hours until we arrive at Jason's mother's house at half past ten in the morning.  We were so early and so fast that the pensioners of Wroxham were still curled up like dormice in their brown, corduroy boating caps.  Did manage to see that Roy has advanced his plans by building a garden centre.  What next? The Bookies I expect.

Spend most of the day at nana's house being good and dutiful.

Set off from nana's house at 3.15 p.m.  Have to arrive at holiday cottage by 4.30 or they bugger off with the keys.  We are confident.  We have sat nav.  We have crisps.  We have maltesers without moles in.  Everyone has had a wee.

We drive around a small patch of Norfolk in the hammering rain.  Get stuck behind several people driving large sandwich boxes on wheels, none of whom believe in looking through the windscreen at the road in front of them.  Our average speed is 32 miles per hour.  Jason is beginning to get white knuckles and hair rage.

We arrive at our destination.  Through the driving rain we can see that it is a small country lane near a Bovis housing estate.  No cottage, no lake.  Nothing.  We drive about.  It is now 4.15 p.m.  Eventually at 4.20 p.m. we give up and ring the office.  The man berates us for trusting the stupidity of Sat Nav technology.  Explains that they don't do things like that round here.  Apparently there are two roads with the same name within the same postcode bracket, as any fule 'no'.

I hate Norfolk.  The children are getting restless and shouting 'out' and 'biscuits' and 'grrrhhhhh!' at the top of their lungs as an irate Norfolk person directs us up a crease in the map.

We arrive at our destination and are given keys and instructions.  We drive to our 'cottage'.  Jason says, and I quote: 'I have a bad feeling about this.'  This is what people say in Scooby Doo.  I have to say that I agree.  We leave the children in the car, in the drive and go and look at the house.

It is hideous.  It is a series of tiny, box like rooms leading off of tiny box like corridors.  The only bathroom is by the front door.  It has a bath the size of Tallulah.  It looks like the bathrooms in the PE block of my middle school but with less charm.  Bits of it are broken.  It smells, not bad, but institutional.  It is freezing.  The kitchen is the size of the cupboard under the stairs in our house.  It is a symphony of beige formica.  It has two inches of work surface space and room for one person as long as they don't have sticky out elbows.  The lounge has a suite that should be in a museum and a television that looks like you have to stick money in the back to get S4C in the snow.

Upstairs is the coup de grace.  There is no upstairs loo.  Turns out PE bathroom is the only bathroom in the whole house and it is right at the other end of the house on a different floor.  There are indeed three bedrooms as advertised.  What it didn't advertise was that you could only get to the third bedroom through the master bedroom.  It didn't say that the only double bed is in the master bedroom.  This means that when Mum and Dad come on Monday they will either have to sleep with the children en suite, or in twin beds.

The whole house is decorated in wood chip.  The electricity runs on a pound coin meter.  There are no creature comforts.  The cupboards are, and I kid you not, so narrow that you cannot even insert a suitcase, sideways in the bottom.  You can hang nothing.  You can put away nothing.  There are no bedside tables.  There are no lamps.  The most comforting thing in the house is a kettle.  It turns out that there is a washing machine.  Unfortunately it is twenty yards down the garden in an out house.  There is no drier, and nowhere to dry things.  There is not even a towel rail in the bedroom.  It is lashing it down with rain.  You cannot see the lake out of the window.

We look at each other.  I say: 'We could manage.'  I want to cry.  He says, 'Shall I take you home now?'  I love him.  I say: 'Yes please!' 

We take our keys back to the shouty man.  He isn't so shouty now.  We explain our dilemma.  We point out that if he had told us how the cottage was configured we would have known it was not suitable for our needs and that we would never have paid £600 up front for a week of hell.  He agrees that this was very naughty.  He apologizes and gives us our money back.

We drive home.  The children cry, but are very good about it.  We drive through the gloom ringing other possible places.  There is nothing. Even the Little Chefs are all closed and abandoned.  We are starving.  We finally find a Little Chef in Suffolk, near Bury St Edmunds.  We are so hungry and miserable we eat all the table mats.  I call a very chi chi luxury family hotel I know near Bury, somewhere we used to stay when we were richer.  They have an apartment available.  We can only have it until Thursday morning.  It is £320 per night.  This is after she feels sorry for us and knocks it down from the usual rate of £500 per night.  If we want to stay until the weekend and there is availability it goes up to £500 per night from Thursday.  It is ridiculous.  I say no.

We get home at 9.00 p.m. and unpack.  We throw the children into bed with promises of treats next week.

I fucking hate Norfolk....

the archbishop of caterbury's 'gay marriage' letters

HAMPTON

project scientist to speak on nasa's messenger mission

NORFOLK

• michelle obama and the first ladies club
• norfolk, va residents to benefit from verizon wireless network expansion

VIRGINIA BEACH

virginia beach landowners propose mixed-use development on the oceanfront

So - no blog posts for about ten days. It says something about T's present state of mind at work that a week in a tent with the kids seems like a relaxing option - I just hope he's allowed to take the holiday he booked weeks ago. His project is nearing competion, but with deadlines all next week it's not the best time for him to be away (although to be fair, the deadlines have all moved since we booked the holiday, so it's not our fault).

Back to the packing. The tent is in the car, but right now no-one has any clothes packed except wellington boots. And it ain't that kind of campsite... Bye all, see you in ten days.

My mother tried to cheer me up.  She rang me and announced that there was a whole page article in the Telegraph about the hidden delights of the North Norfolk Coast.  I asked her if she had read it.  She said: 'No. It was too depressing...'This is not a good sign.

I have started making small lists (listettes) and squirreling them away in various corners.  Things like:

• Don't forget to take your life with you.  They may not have one.
• Think about ringing them and asking them if they could have broadband fitted by tomorrow afternoon.
• Could they build a Waitrose within twenty miles by Monday? Failing that, do Ocado do airlifts in an emergency?  Must check this out (underlined twice in red biro).
• Be positive.  Perhaps Norfolk will have turned into Venice since you last went.
• Don't be too negative.  Roy has probably got assassins primed and ready.

One of my big worries is that our house is by a lake.  At the time I booked it I was desperate.  The only things that were available were Dickensian hovels or castles with hot and cold running moats.  Budgetary restraints did not allow for castles.  Then this came up and I thought: 'How lovely. A lake.'  Now I am thinking: 'How retarded am I?  I have paid for a cottage next to a lake with three small children in Norfolk. I must have a death wish.'  I want to know if there is some kind of barrier between our house and the lake.  I dare not ring up and ask the nice lady in case she says no.  What am I going to do about it?  It's not like I can take a crash course in dry stone walling and nip out and erect one while Jason is making the beds.  I've just got to make the best of it.  I'm going to look on Multimap and plot a route to the nearest hospital (probably in Colchester).  I'm going to lie in a darkened room and try and remember what that chap said on the first aid course I went on.

To be honest, we'd probably be better off without my tender ministrations.  I did the first aid course when I was eight and a half months pregnant with Tallulah.  I was a whale.  The chap was terrified that I was going to go into labour, so he wouldn't let me practice the Heimlich Manoeuvre or get into the recovery position.  In fact, looking back on it, the only thing I have any recollection of at all was having to role play a constipated woman to two complete strangers who had to assess what my condition was and whether I needed an ambulance.  They were so mesmerized by my vast and shimmering girth that all they could do when he said: 'Well, what's wrong with her then?' was say: 'Ummmm...we think she might be pregnant!'  You don't say.

My main misery is that I won't be able to blog.  Blogging is my lifeline.  It stops me from killing the children.  It stops me from killing myself.  It reminds me to be positive (believe me, compared to how I feel a lot of the time, these blog posts are positive).  When you reach out to me from the blogosphere, even if it's to wave two fingers or ask me if Celine Dion really is dead (NO! NO! NO! Not today.  Go Away NOW!) It makes me feel like I am really, tentatively connected to some form of reality that does not involve wiping bottoms or discussing which rides we went on at Gullivers Kingdom.  This is good.

I am not sure now what made me sign up for a week in Norfolk, given that next to Lincolnshire it is one of the most godforsaken holes on the face of the earth.  What made me sign up for Norfolk when I cannot even virtually pretend I'm not there is baffling the few brain cells I have left, clinging to the wreckage of my head.  I am a fool to myself.

Still, you never know.  Norfolk might be fabulous.  It might open my eyes to the wonder of the waterlogged flatness of East Anglian paradise.  After all, Stephen Fry has a house there, and I want to adopt him, so it can't be all bad can it?  Mind you, he does travel a lot...

I am reading Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly.  Her blog is on my blogroll or here.  She is one of the yummy mummy bloggers that got a book deal for her blog, and which has now just come out in paperback.  She even went on Richard and Judy about it. I did not see this happen, as I have never watched Richard and Judy in my life, despite my inordinate fondness for the virtual diary of one Dick Madeley which you can reach here.  Nevertheless, you know you have arrived in book circles when you get to chat to the dynamic duo on the sofa of lusciousness.  Apparently if they recommend your book you are pretty much guaranteed a pension and a second holiday home.  I mention this book, in a very long winded way because a) I am envious of her success and b) because it seems that Wife feels about Northumberland rather like I feel about Norfolk.

I am about half way through the book.  I am somewhat bewildered.  The soundbyte on the cover by the chick lit author, Jenny Colgan says, and I paraphrase: 'I wet my pants laughing.  Every page guarantees pee coming out of your eye sockets it's so hilarious.'  I  was quite pleased about this.  I picked it up as an emergency read when I had finally finished watching the box set of Cold Feet and had made myself hysterical with crying, and given myself a nasty case of hiccups.  I needed something heart warming and funny to read.  I took Wife to bed with me (in a literary sense).  I read two chapters, went to get some toilet roll to blow my nose and streaming eyes, drank some water for my hiccups and mentally wrote a note to Jenny Colgan which said:

Dear Ms. Colgan

I read your blurb about Wife in the North.  I believed you.  I put my trust in you.  I had a very harrowing experience and decided to take your advice and laugh until pee came out of my eye sockets by reading this book as a pick me up.  I have just finished reading the first thirty pages and I think that either:

• You are lying
• You are insane
• You are a horrible person who likes laughing at other peoples misfortune
• All of the above

Please check yourself in to the nearest mental hospital.  I believe you live in London.  They may have vacancies at Colney Hatch.

Yours sincerely

Traumatised of Glenfield

It is tragic.  It is truly tragic.  It is funny in parts, but funny in that, 'I'm only laughing because if I don't I'm going to hurl myself onto the bread knife and the children will find me impaled over the dishwasher in a weltering heap of gore.' type way.  I was feeling rather like that myself after thirty pages and had to get up and make myself a cup of tea and read a bit of Brave New World to cheer myself up.  It comes to something when Aldous Huxley brings a smile of relief to a girl's face.

It's good.  It really is good, Wife I mean.  Not Aldous, although Aldous is good too in his own special and quite bonkers type way, but it is far too poignant and sad to be 'funny' in the way it is marketed.  Anyway, my main concern is that Wife is getting quite a lot of flack for being mean about Northumberland in the media and in public responses to the media.  I'm just wondering if I'm laying myself wide open to a rollicking by the 'We love Norfolk and its watery ways' brigade by hymning my despair over the airwaves.  Will I get there tomorrow to find my holiday cottage is a heap of gently smouldering stones where they have torched it and left a note saying 'Mwahahhahahhha' on top?  Although if that is the case I'm more likely to think it's the evil Penguins of yesterday.  Perhaps they should write it in a different font to avoid confusion.

I don't think people are being very fair to wife.  It's not that she doesn't love Northumberland.  It's just that she doesn't want to live there.  I can understand that.  There are lots of places I like to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there, the Co-op for example.  Plus, she seems to be traumatised about the fact that she has uprooted her whole life more than anything else.  Let's face it, if Jason said to me tomorrow, 'Come on love.  Pack up your stuff.  We're going to live in two ramshackle, unmodernised terraced cottages in the arse end of nowhere with no shops for miles.' I'd be more than dubious.  Not only that, but if I happened to be the mother of two small children with another one on the way I'd be even more dubious than that.  By the time you add in the fact that it's all husband's idea but he's never going to be there except for one weekend in every three and the money for the building work is going to run out before the building work has even started, I'd be in Colney Hatch myself.'  Mind you, if Jason did say those things to me, I'd run him straight up to our nearest psychiatric unit first.

So, lovers of Norfolk be warned.  Just because I don't want to live in Norfolk, and I'm not too keen on visiting it, doesn't mean that it's not lovely and fluffy and special in its own, unique and impenetrable way.  I cannot help the fact that I'm a bright lights, big city, 24 hour shopping kind of girl.  I wouldn't expect you to be nice about my desire to go and live on a busy road in Islington, so please don't expect me to wax lyrical about the hell mouth that is Wroxham.  If it makes you feel better, I promise never ever ever to move there.  I will only moan about it from afar and prod it with a cautious finger now and again.

408 speeds up 460
no longer will you have to slow to 55. a relief to those headed to blacksburg, i'm sure.

richmond super smoggy
at least the smoggiest in va.

more

• rail revival

HAMPTON ROADS

dismal swamp fighters down to 20
the fire is 90% contained and the hot spots "have diminshed in size." pumping from lakes and streams have stopped, too. enough water was irrigated to "fill nearly 3,200 olympic-size pools."

$4.3 million grant from fema
to be used to plan for hurricanes. what will it be used for? to study chesapeke and suffolk schools to be converted into shelters.
is that all the money can bring us? why does it seem like so much money is wasted on studying? the answers are usually what i figured before the study and i could have given it to them for a fraction of the price.

HAMPTON

teen center construction begins
and is planned to be completed in early 2009. the center will include a food court, meeting room, art center, tranquility garden, recording studio, wireless internet and a dance/concert area.

NEWPORT NEWS

what irritates me most about this
is when the people running the lights are causing me to have to wait longer and sometimes have to sit through another round of lights. as much as i'd like to pretend about safety, i can't. i really just care about myself and my destination.

NORFOLK

m. obama avoids veterans hit on mccain

PORTSMOUTH

senior alert

more

• townebank portsmouth va newly added by research affiliates llc

VIRGINIA BEACH

alertnow to be used in all beach schools
ten schools tried it out last year and it went well. you know what i always did to block school calls? sign up on my dial up internet. not so practical these days.
more: alertnow

more

• booklet features 50 sites to preserve in virginia beach

"Since it's inception in 1995 The Norwich Print Fair has become one of the best loved independent shows selling contemporary, original, hand-made prints in East Anglia. It is an exhibition of Artists' Original Prints
at St Margarets Church, St Benedict's Street, Norwich.

Jules Allen, And Tears do fall

Louise Bird, Bombus Pratorum XIV

Ernst Nicol, Memento Moray

Rita Kearton, Sunflowers

Mon 8th Sept. to Sat 20th Sept. 2008

Open Mon to Sat - 10.00am to 5.00pm
Admission Free

Open Portfolio Days - Sat 13th & Sat 20th

Mrs. Obama unveiled Barack Obama's campaign "Plan to Support Virginia Military Families" outlining policies he would implement in the White House and the available resources dedicated to assisting military families in Virginia; she plans on introducing similar state-oriented military family resource guides to the areas she visits in the future. She also launched "Blue Star Families for Obama," a grassroots organization of military families who are supporting Barack Obama because of his pro-military, veterans, and military families policies.

Michelle began a series of roundtable discussions early in the primary season to hear firsthand the concerns of women about the challenges of balancing work and family particularly in a troubled economy, and to help communicate Senator Obama's vision to support America's families. In recent months Michelle Obama has focused her efforts on military spouses because of their additional challenges of maintaining their family life when their spouse is serving in the military.

"If there's one thing I've learned from these roundtables, it's that when our military goes to war or deploys at sea - their families go with them. They become everything at home while their spouse is away. They're Mom, they're Dad; they're the disciplinarian. They're making dinner and doing homework; and when the bills keep piling up, and that list of chores seems endless, they find themselves with yet another job: worrying late into the night," said Michelle Obama.
Out of these roundtable discussions came the unique stories of military spouses struggling to find good paying jobs, mortgages and educational opportunities they can afford to provide for their families. Not only are these military spouses enduring the steep economic downturn that has forced all Americans to deal with high gas prices, food and health care costs, but they also deal with the continuous demand of relocating which requires major adjustments and child care necessities when their spouse is deployed, which requires flexible work hours. They often bear a deeper impact from the housing crisis by facing difficulty in building equity and home ownership with their frequent moves. They also face financial obstacles in pursuing their education, such as out-of-state tuition and problems transferring credits.

"I hear these stories everywhere I go, from women doing everything that's asked of them and more. I've heard from mothers struggling to make ends meet because their salaries aren't keeping up with the cost of groceries. But if they take a second job, they can't afford the additional cost of childcare. And they don't just struggle with the economic downturn like everyone else; it's often more difficult for you to find jobs. And I am amazed at how military spouses do it all," continued Mrs. Obama.

"If Barack has the distinct honor of serving as your President, and I have the privilege of serving as your First Lady, I'm going to keep taking your stories to him. Because the Commander-in-Chief doesn't just need to know how to lead the military; he needs to understand what war does to military families, and what he can do to make their lives better.

At today's roundtable in Norfolk, Michelle was introduced by Claudia Kennedy, a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army. Kennedy was the first women ever in the U.S. Army to hold a three-star rank, she is also a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame - to honor soldiers and civilians who have made exceptional contributions to Military Intelligence.
Former President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and decorated Vietnam War veteran Paul Bucha participated in the program where he shared with Virginians why Barack Obama has the judgment to be Commander in Chief.

Six local military wives also joined Michelle at the roundtable discussion and spoke about their concerns: Amanda McBreenAmanda is 47 year old military wife who has been married to her husband for 16 years. Their military life started with the first Gulf War and they have been through six formal and two non-formal deployments. They have three children, two of which who are gifted. Amanda worked as a volunteer, coordinator position for military spouse groups on the base especially in Parris Island where her husband trained men and women at the boot camp. She is currently working but had to accept a job for far less pay than she was making before so that she could take time to care for her children.

As a mother, she is concerned about her children's education which has been a patchwork process since they move very often. Her children require special educational programs that local school systems do not always provide so she provides their education through home schooling which places an added burden on her and does not allow her to work and provide monetarily for their family.

Beth Robinson Beth is a 33-year-old active duty military spouse, college graduate, and a stay-at-home mother of an 18-month-old toddler with another child on the way. She is also living with the disabling disease, Multiple Sclerosis. Beth and her husband Matt are high school sweethearts and have been married for 12 years. Matt proudly serves as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and has done so for over 13 years. His family is committed to a lifetime of service with the Marine Corps. In fact, at the pivotal halfway point in his career he renewed his commitment to serving his country and the USMC family. He hopes that his commitment to the USMC will guarantee job security, retirement benefits and health care coverage for his entire family. Matt served on a MEU deployment in 2001; in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003; and has returned to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once since 2006 in addition to other national and international assignments as part of his current job in Norfolk. Within the next year he will likely be deployed to the Middle East again. Beth is concerned about the uncertainties and availability of military heath care in the future; the impact of the housing market's decline on future relocations; adequate housing, pay and military benefits for all military service members, veterans, retirees and their families; and raising a family as a single parent while her husband is deployed.

Elaine GuishardElaine is a 46 year old military spouse and mother of teenagers. Her husband was prior enlisted and recently became a commissioned offer in U.S. Navy active duty. Elaine is a breast cancer survivor - she was diagnosed two years ago and worries that if her husband retires, she will not have proper health care insurance available for her full recovery process.
Sandra StockardSandra is a 43 year old military wife and a mother of two children ages 8 and 20. Her 20 year old daughter is serving in the Navy as a hospital corpsman, stationed in Annapolis. Her husband has retired from the Navy where he served for 22 years. He now works for the Coast Guard.

Sandra works at the Naval Station in Norfolk in support role at Personnel Support Activity Detachment. When she was traveling with her husband to Navy bases she came to value the community of military wives that helped her adjust to her new situations.

Stephanie MarushiaStephanie is a 31 year old military wife and a veteran. Her husband and she have a four year old son. Her husband served in the Air Force as a military police officer, he has since retired from the Force as a Staff Sergeant. Stephanie comes from a military family where both of her parents served in the Army.

Stephanie served in the US Army. While training for the Army bomb squad she suffered a minor injury during exercises, which was not properly diagnosed. Due to the misdiagnosis, she suffered systemic damage to her nervous system. She is disabled and was medically retired from the Army. Because of the overcrowding and lack of availability at local military treatment facilities, Stephanie has had to pay 25 percent of her medical costs to use civilian care.

Tammy LintonTammy is a 34 year old military wife and veteran whose husband is an Air Force maintenance officer, stationed at Air Combat Command Headquarters at Langley Air Force Base. He served in Iraq from January -June 2005; has also gone on deployment to United Arab Emirates, Sept 2006- Jan 2007. They have two boys, ages 2 and 8.

Tammy served in the Air Force for four years as an Operating Room Technician, she now works as an Operating Room Nurse. She understands the difficulty of managing the home front while her husband is away. One of her chief concerns has been finding adequate daycare for her young children.

Mrs. Obama announced the creation of the "Blue Star Families for Obama" organization of military families who will expand their efforts to connect with military families through local events and volunteering opportunities. The use of a blue star by a military family is to signal that they have a family member serving in the U.S. military. Military families interested in joining can visit this website: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlueStarsForObama.

Michelle Obama released the Obama campaign's "Plan to Support Virginia Military Families", a pamphlet that includes local resources that can be useful for our military and veteran families in Virginia. It also lays out Barack Obama's commitment and plan to support the health care, employment and other needs of active duty, Guard and Reserve and veterans families. To name a few, Obama's plan will:

Support Family Readiness Groups: One of the most inspirational aspects of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is how military spouses have stepped up to care for each other in volunteer Family Readiness Groups. These are networks whose jobs range from day care to counseling to legal help to instruction in military basics, household finance, and counseling for stress. In 2005 alone, volunteers with Army family programs logged 632,897 hours of service. As president, Obama will provide better support for these networks, including services and training that are more realistic for the challenges spouses face, and paid support staff to help volunteers support one another.

Work to Bring Pay Parity: Early in his first term, President Ronald Reagan increased military pay by double-digit percentages. Since then, military pay has lagged behind civilian wages. As president, Barack Obama will make military pay more in line with that of the private sector, as measured by the employment cost index (ECI).

Help Military Spouses Cope with Deployments: When a Guardsman or reservist is called away for active duty, their spouses have to make a tremendous transition and often struggle to balance work and family obligations. Currently, the Family Medical Leave Act requires employers to give their workers six months of unpaid leave if an employee has a new child, has a serious medical condition, or has a severely ill family member. Barack Obama would extend job protection for Guard and Reserve spouses who are facing mobilization. This will allow workers whose spouse is called to active duty to take time off work and get their affairs in order.

Let Our Reservists Train and Rest Between Deployments: Since September 2001, more than 580,000 reservists have been mobilized in numbers not seen since World War II. These uncertain and repeated deployments have strained Guard and Reserve families. Barack Obama would ease this deployment tempo by beginning an immediate redeployment of American troops from Iraq. Barack Obama supports plans to increase the end strength of the Army and Marines, including the reserves. Increasing our end strength will allow units to retrain and re-equip properly between deployments and decrease the strain on military families.

Fully Fund VA Medical Care: As president, Barack Obama will fully fund VA healthcare so that the VA has all the resources it needs to serve the veterans who need it, when they need it. The current administration did not adequately plan for the true costs of this war. It has consistently underinvested in health care for our heroic veterans. Currently, veterans face delays and long wait times in seeking VA health care appointments. Without assured funding year after year, our veterans are forced to make do with the VA they have rather than the VA they deserve.
Reduce the Claims Backlog: There are currently over 840,000 claims pending at the VA, including both initial claims and appeals. VA error rates have also grown unacceptably high: more than 100,000 cases each year contain significant errors. As president, Obama will hire additional claims workers and convene our nation's leading veterans groups, employees, and managers to develop an updated training and management model that will ensure that VA benefit decisions are rated fairly and consistently and result from adequate training and accountability for each claims adjudicator.

Remarks of Michelle Obama
Roundtable Discussion with Virginia Military Spouses Norfolk, VA
August 6, 2008

As prepared for delivery

"Well, it's not every day I'm introduced by a three-star general. Thank you, Claudia Kennedy, for those generous words. We are all so grateful for your service.

"And I'm joined up here by a true American hero - Medal of Honor winner, and my friend, Bud Bucha. He's been advising my husband, and he'll be actively participating in our discussion today.

"I'm so glad to be here in Norfolk. I knew it was big; I knew hundreds of thousands of military personnel and family lived and worked here; but I wasn't prepared for just how big it is. It goes on forever!

"I wanted to come here because one of the things I've enjoyed and found so important over the course of this campaign is traveling from city to city and holding these roundtables with women, sharing our stories, and listening to their concerns. So my job here today is easy - I'm going to be doing a lot of listening.

"I'm humbled to be joined up here by six remarkable military spouses, some of whom served as well. They each have their own deeply personal idea of the way things should be - a VA system or TRICARE without red tape, a better education for their children, or improved resources for returning servicemen. But they all know what it's like to balance a career and raising children while having their husbands away much of the time. And they are all united in their vision for a system that does more to support its families when a spouse is deployed - and long after he or she returns.

"I'm honored to be here with all of you. We are so grateful - Barack and I and all Americans - for the sacrifices you make as you serve this country that has given us so much.

"In my life, I know I've been blessed by all I've been given. This is a country that allowed my father to provide for his family on a single salary as a shift worker on the South Side of Chicago, and still send my brother and me to college. This is a country that allowed my husband to be raised by a single mom of meager means, and still grow up with the chance to run for President.

"And that's why we've tried to serve people the best ways we can. Early in my career, I left my job as an attorney because I wanted to give back to my community - to ensure that people like my father received the opportunities they deserved, and young people enjoyed the same opportunities I did.

"That same desire to give back led Barack to enter public service more than two decades ago - to turn down more lucrative jobs so he could work for a group of churches on the South Side of Chicago to give job training to the jobless and hope to the hopeless after local steel plants closed down and jobs dried up.

"But few sacrifice more to serve their country than you. And I know that too often, it seems like you're doing it on your own. I've heard stories all over this country of families trying to hold it together with insufficient support.

"I've heard from mothers struggling to make ends meet because their salaries aren't keeping up with the cost of groceries. But if they take a second job, they can't afford the additional cost of childcare. Moms who are nervous about taking time from their jobs to care for a sick child. Moms-to-be who are scared of getting fired if the boss finds out they're pregnant. Women who work hard every day doing the same jobs as men, but earning less.

"And I am amazed at how you do it. You struggle with all this and more. If there's one thing I've learned from these roundtables, it's that when our military goes to war or deploys at sea - their families go with them.

"You become everything at home while your spouse is away. You're running the checkbook. You're Mom, you're Dad; you're the disciplinarian. You're making dinner and doing homework; and when the bills keep piling up, and that list of chores seems endless, you find yourself with yet another job: worrying late into the night.

"And you don't just struggle with the economic downturn like everyone else; it's often more difficult for you to find jobs. I've heard from military wives who enter the job market with solid resumes, but find themselves fighting for jobs that pay seven dollars an hour. Employers look at your resume and wonder why you can't keep a steady job - even though it's only because you're already doing your job as a military spouse by moving from base to base.

"One spouse, former military herself, told me she gave up looking and went back to school to become a nurse - but now faces staggering student loans and $500 in monthly child care costs. Others have children stuck on base waiting lists, or face rules that don't allow them to use on-base child care.

"And I know your marriages face unique challenges. Your husbands or wives may be deployed for months at a time, working 16 hour days or more, in the toughest conditions imaginable. They sometimes come home with problems you're simply not equipped to deal with, and there can be a stigma attached to asking for help. Or they come home, life is good, but it's a readjustment period - and as soon as you get back to where you were before he or she left, the bags are packed for another deployment.

"One woman told me, 'For better or for worse, in sickness and in health...but it is tough sometimes.' Another said that during the day, she puts on her pretty clothes and her bold face and holds her head high and holds the fort down. But at night, she lies in bed and cries.
"You end up taking care of each other on base - from babysitting to delivering bad news - but you're rarely trained or prepared for any of it.

"I hear these stories everywhere I go, from women doing everything that's asked of them and more. These women aren't asking for much. They're not asking for government to solve all their problems. They're just asking for a Washington that understands what's happening to our military families, and the variety of challenges they face as part of their extraordinary commitment to our country.

"My husband deeply understands that commitment - and the commitment America must make to our military families. Because without that commitment, he might not be here today.

"His grandfather enlisted after Pearl Harbor and went on to march in Patton's Army. His grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line while he was gone, and his mother was born at Fort Leavenworth.

"When his grandfather returned, it was to a country that gave him the opportunity to go to college on the GI Bill; to buy his first home with a loan from the Federal Housing Administration; to move his family west, all the way to Hawaii, where he and Barack's grandmother helped raise him.

"And so Barack is determined to see that America makes the same commitment to today's military families that it made to his grandfather's generation.

"That's why when he arrived in the Senate, he sought out a seat on the Veterans Affairs Committee - so he could fight to serve our returning heroes as well as they have served us. He led a bipartisan effort to improve facilities at Walter Reed, because recovering servicemen should go to the front of the line - and they shouldn't have to fight to get there. He helped pass laws that give family members health care and a year of job protection - so they never have to choose between caring for a loved one and keeping a job.

"But he knows there's more we must do. Washington talks a lot about family values, but he believes it's time we had policies that value families - and especially our military families. That's why today, I've brought along copies of a new brochure containing my husband's plan to support our military families. It's also a resource guide of the services currently available to you here in Virginia -- to help you find a job, get the health care you need, or the family support you deserve. I'm sure we'll get to a lot of it in our discussion, but I encourage each of you to read through it and share it with others.

"Barack's plan will ensure predictable deployments, so that units have proper time to retrain and re-equip, and families have time to reconnect. It creates healthier families, healthier troops, and a healthier military. And Barack will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act so that it covers reserve families - so that when a reservist is called up, the spouse can take time off work to get their family's affairs in order.

"He'll expand the Vet Centers that provide critical services like counseling, mental health care, and employment assistance. And he'll create a 21st century VA that offers world-class care and rejects the idea that we should only treat combat injuries instead of those sustained in training or on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

"And when our loved ones return home, we will offer them the same opportunity Barack's grandparents had under the GI Bill - the guarantee of a real chance to afford a college education. That's why Barack was such a strong supporter of our friend Jim Webb's 21st Century GI Bill - legislation that allows servicemembers to share their benefits with their families and achieve the American Dream.

"After all, that's the very idea that's at the core of my husband's campaign - that we are all in this together. And what has touched me, what has inspired me so deeply at these roundtables, is seeing these amazing support networks you've created while your loved ones are deployed. You're helping one another - with finances, with day care, with counseling, with babysitting - you're taking care of one another. That's what America's story has always been about.

"At one of these roundtables, a woman talked of her struggles to make it all work. As she finished, another woman stood up and said, "I don't know her. But when she leaves here, she will have my phone number. And she will be able to call me anytime. She's got the support of this friend right here."

"That is the America we believe in. That's the America we are working to restore.

"And if Barack has the distinct honor of serving as your President, and I have the privilege of serving as your First Lady, I'm going to keep taking your stories to him. Because the Commander-in-Chief doesn't just need to know how to lead the military; he needs to understand what war does to military families, and what he can do to make their lives better.

"So we're going to keep having these conversations about what we need to do as a society to make sure our military families aren't just surviving - they're thriving. That's why I'm here, and that's why I'll keep doing this.

"And with that, I thank you - and I want to turn it over to all of you."

Source: State & National Election News

HAMPTON ROADS

brown bagging is finally back in
even better, buy a cool vintage lunch box.  you'll save on money and waste.

recycling pays
sure, it's not a direct pay.  but it's a good pay none-the-less.

over 10,000 jobs added
almost half of those "were in the education and health services sector and professional and business services.

less gas = bad news for transportation projects
because we're getting less taxes from gas hampton roads is receiving 40% less money from the state for transportation projects.  some solutions that are "being tossed around are public-private partnerships and increasing tolls."  brilliant.

fire ants invasion
kinda.  it seems as though fire ants have been transported through "infested nursery stock, or soil, sold, something of that nature."  we don't get many, but not having fire ants was one of the perks of this area.

nye with a different gas idea
his plans include "more drilling on lands leased to oil companies, more regulation on oil speculators, and more investment in alternative energy."

want to live on the moon?
we're getting closer to making that a reality.  nasa is working on a lunar surface manipulater system which is "a kind of crane/forklift combination with a scientific twist."

buy, don't rent
it's "still a sensible option" in hampton roads.

$4 million used for energy-efficient projects in school
bayside high school, plaza and brandon middle school and red mill, indian lakes, providence, kingston and rosemont elementaries will have "brighter, more efficient lights and low-flow techinology for sinks and urinals."  rosemont will also have a "geothermal heat pump that used deep groundwater to heat and cool the school."  plaza middle will have a solar panel installed for electricity and can be monitored for a class lesson.

more

• hof game tailgating:  redskins' fans enjoy trip
• virginia has well-performing highways?
• wheels of justice grind slower over shortage of judges
• virginia's ties to beijing games
• database:  south hampton roads campaign contributions
• va.'s first female finance secretary stepping down
• virginia launches "find the one you love" wine month sweepstakes
• hampton roads fire chiefs meeting with congressmen today

CHESAPEAKE

• baby peregrine falcon dies in fall from jordan bridge
• amputees on cross-country bicycle tour stop in berks

NEWPORT NEWS

don't be an idiot
it is never a good idea to give your account number over the phone when an automated message asks for it.

more

• east end 'no snitching' culture feeds on isolation:  a project highlights the extent of not talking to police in the east end
• fort eustis soldiers deploy
• merritt ready for another showdown with wariner
• plastic grocery bags become hooked rugs
• symantec sells newport news facility for $11m

NORFOLK

michelle obama to stump in norfolk

PORTSMOUTH

portsmouth says cox broke terms of cable tv franchise

SUFFOLK

4 day school weeks
are you kidding me?  i didn't even know i could dream about this.
more:  pros and cons

VIRGINIA BEACH

the church is corrupt
who knew?

i've always said it
and now, several years later, it keeps popping up in the news.

more

• beach's half-marathon will pay fees to strengthen field
• 99 percent of beach schools projected to earn full sol accreditation
• for beach, money to save open land is dwindling