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February 24 More Stupid PeopleHello everyone!
I still don't know what's going on with everyone but I found more stupid people to share. Please don't lurk, let me know that you stopped by okay?
Regional agency head suspended after DUI arrest in Martin County
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Woman robs store to cover gambling losses |
 A 52-year-old woman admitted to police that she robbed a gas station and convenience store on Tuesday in order to hide gambling losses from her husband.
According to a court document, Margaret Garcia had lost $80 gambling at Sandia casino. She was on her way home when she pulled into the gas station at Alameda and Rio Grande. The cashier at the station said that he initially thought the woman wanted to redeem a lottery scratcher and buy another one until she leaned toward him, hand in her pocket, intimating she had a gun. “I was really scared,” said the clerk, who didn’t want to be identified. “I felt like a candle melting as soon as she asked for all the money.” Garcia told detectives that she has a gambling problem and was mad at herself for losing her husband’s gas money at the casino. Officials with the New Mexico Council of Problem Gambling say they see a lot of Hispanic woman in the state with gambling problems.
Man wears stolen jacket to interview with police
A Sheboygan man was charged Thursday with retail theft after a police supervisor recognized him on a surveillance tape, according to a criminal complaint.
Felipe M. Medina, 18, wore a stolen jacket to the Sheboygan Police Department when asked to come in for an interview, and later admitted to taking the jacket and other clothing from Kohl's Department Store, the complaint said. He faces up to nine months in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor offense.
According to the complaint:
Medina, of 2109 N. 11th St., stole a pair of blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a black jacket from Kohl's, 3347 Kohler Memorial Drive, on Nov. 27. Capt. James Veeser identified Medina as the culprit after viewing the store surveillance tape.
A loss prevention officer at the store said Medina changed into the items in a dressing room, and then fled when confronted by the officer outside the store.
A detective asked Medina to come to the police station on Feb. 20, and he admitted during the interview that he had stolen the clothes and was currently wearing the stolen jacket.
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Interesting article about the IRS vs FedEx
Are you paying your boss's taxes?
Payroll taxes that companies ought to pay may be getting dumped on independent contractors, but a case involving FedEx gives workers new ammunition
Just before Christmas, package-delivery company FedEx was slammed with a $319 million tax bill. The Internal Revenue Service ruled the company had misclassified about 13,000 drivers as independent contractors when, the IRS said, they really were employees.
For FedEx, this could get a lot more expensive. The penalties and back taxes are just for 2002. The IRS is still auditing FedEx for 2004 through 2006 (the status of 2003 is unclear). The Teamsters union, which has been pushing this fight, thinks it could ultimately cost FedEx $1 billion.
Perhaps. But FedEx plans to fight this ruling for as long as it takes.
What got the IRS and FedEx into a tussle was the package company's assertion that drivers were contractors who operate their delivery routes as independent businesses, even though the drivers use FedEx equipment, wear FedEx uniforms and work under explicit FedEx rules.
This fight bears watching by employers and workers alike. Big money is at stake.
The government will argue that misclassification of workers deprives it of billions of dollars of tax revenue annually. The Government Accountability Office has estimated the amount at $4.7 billion a year.
The bosses will argue that the ruling upsets precedents in place since the 1990s.
Workers will argue that employers have gone too far in pushing taxes and payroll costs onto them, effectively forcing workers to subsidize their bosses. If the IRS wins, you can bet many more workers classified as independent contractors will try to change their classifications.
Companies save big on taxes
Why do companies like independents? Simple. It saves them a bundle of money.
If you're an independent contractor, the company doesn't pay state workers compensation or federal unemployment and disability taxes. It is released from matching your 7.65% Social Security and Medicare taxes; an independent contractor pays the full 15.3% load.
In addition, the employer is saved the burden and cost of income-tax withholding. The worker has to remit the appropriate payments.
Independent contractors don't qualify under minimum-wage laws and have no government rights to a safe work environment. And they can't qualify for employee benefits.
Microsoft (the publisher of MSN Money) suffered a stinging judicial slap several years ago when it misclassified employees as independent contractors and denied them benefits granted to other employees. It proved to be a $97 million lesson.
Before I could start writing tax columns for MSN Money, I had to sign a mountain of documents proving I was an independent contractor. I even had to get a Washington state business license as a contractor, even though I have never physically worked there.
Say you have one worker making $102,000. Just in Social Security and Medicare taxes, the company saves $7,803 (7.65% of $102,000). Multiply that by the number of real "employees," add other payroll-tax savings plus a little interest, toss in a few penalties, and it becomes a $319 million kick in the wallet.
Why misclassifications are an IRS priority
Money is the reason that John Tuzynski, the IRS' chief of employment-tax operations, made worker classification "a major focus" for fiscal 2008, which ends Sept. 30.
Migrant workers and many illegal immigrants are misclassified as independent contractors, never have any withholdings taken out and don't file or pay income taxes. That magnifies the tax gap -- the difference between what the government is due and what it collects in taxes.
The IRS, to coordinate enforcement, has entered partnerships with the Department of Labor, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, the Federation of Tax Advisers and the agencies that administer state employment and unemployment taxes.
For employers who are caught misclassifying, monetary pain is just the beginning. They can be criminally charged with evasion of payments, filing of false tax returns and conspiracy. Another tax code section, Section 7202, makes it a felony to willfully fail to collect or pay tax to the government.
And it should be. In such cases, the employers are stealing from the employees. If workers are treated as independent contractors, they are responsible for 100% of their payroll taxes. They're paying twice what they truly owe for Social Security and Medicare. The difference goes into the employers' pockets.
What's an employee?
There is a big problem, however. That is determining if a worker really is an employee. The National Labor Relations Act, Civil Rights Act, Fair Labor Standards Act and Employee Retirement Income Security Act each use a different definition for the word "employee." Even more confusing, each has different criteria for distinguishing independent contractors.
In May 2007 testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, Sigurd Nilsen of the Government Accountability Office complained that "no definitive test exists to distinguish whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor."
The Internal Revenue Code has never been a model for clarity. Worker classification is both complex and subjective.
In the Revenue Act of 1978, Congress created a safe harbor for employers (referred to as Section 530) by prohibiting the IRS from collecting employment taxes when workers were "reasonably" misclassified as independent contractors. That provision includes only a $50 penalty for employers who file the wrong forms. Compare that to the thousands of dollars of potential payroll-tax savings, and you have a legislative incentive to push the envelope.
That's lawyer talk for "cheat the government."
IRS guidelines
The IRS has a 20-factor test for determining whether you're really an employee. These tests, contained in Form SS–8, Determination of Worker Status (.pdf download), boil down to three main categories:
- Behavioral control.
- Financial control.
- Relationship of the parties.
Does the employer control not only the nature of the work performed but the circumstances under which it is performed? If the employer contracting for services has the right to control not only the result of the services but also the means by which that result is accomplished, you're an employee. If your boss tells you not only what to do but how to do it, the game is over. You're an employee.
Do you have a stake in the action? Do you have a personal risk of loss? If not, you're probably an employee.
Most importantly, if you don't make your services available to more than one person or company, you're likely an employee.
What can you do about it?
If you think you're being misclassified, file Form SS-8 and have the IRS make a determination of your status. Remember, it's a 20-factor test, so the final resolution will be subjective.
If you have been misclassified, Form 8919, Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages (.pdf download) should be filed to ensure that the proper Social Security and Medicare taxes are credited to your account. Don't use the older form, No. 4137.
In September, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and three other senators filed legislation aimed at closing what was termed the safe-harbor Section 530 "loophole." The Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act is pending.
Published Feb. 20, 2008
Remember Jim Bakker? He's Back!
 Jim Bakker and his wife Lori greet the crowd on the first day of taping of The Jim Bakker at Morningside in Branson. (Emily Rasinski/P-D) |
"It’s a little like Disneyland," one stunned visitor says.
"A miracle," says another. "It is God’s work." They stand surrounded by a surreal indoor streetscape of Italianate store facades and condo balconies. A grand chapel sits at one end and a portico at the other, the entire color-bursting scene playing out under a ceiling painted like a cloudless blue sky. It looks so real one woman decides to keep her coat on. This is even more than Jim Bakker promised them. For months they had heard Bakker on his TV show touting his impending move here. Bakker, the disgraced TV minister of PTL-and-Tammy-Faye fame, said the day was coming when he would no longer broadcast his bare-bones show from inside a converted restaurant in nearby Branson, as he had for five years. He talked about moving to a sprawling complex being built for him as the new headquarters for his television ministry, the heart of a 600-acre development named Morningside.
Now, on a chilly morning in late January, that day is here. The debut of "The Jim Bakker Show" from Morningside is one hour away. Visitors pour in. Construction dust floats in the air. Backstage, Bakker waits. His shot at redemption approaches.
What a stunning reversal of fortune for a man who fell so spectacularly in the late 1980s when his $129 million-a-year religious empire crumbled; prison time and personal shame followed. A return to the airwaves seemed impossible.
Yet no one here tries hiding Bakker's past. They openly acknowledge the striking similarities between Morningside and Heritage USA, the Christian theme park and resort in South Carolina that was the linchpin of the PTL empire. Bakker designed both, giving them the feel of dense European villages. Real estate, once again, is part of the mission.
But this time will be different, Bakker's supporters say. He has changed. Morningside will prove it. And inside these walls, at least, the doubters are few.
CONTINUING FAITH
Visitors stream in, and Darylene Howard eagerly greets them.
"Welcome to Heritage!" she calls out. She realizes her mistake and laughs. "Oh my, I mean Morningside!"
Howard, who also works as a Wal-Mart greeter, is a chipper woman with a quick smile and bright blue eyes. She has been a fan of Bakker's since his glory days with the Praise The Lord ministry. And she, like many people here, lost money when the PTL collapsed. She and her husband each paid $1,000 for "lifetime partnerships" granting them limited free lodging at Heritage USA. Bakker spent almost five years in prison for diverting millions of dollars in partner fees for his personal use and promising more free lodging than the PTL ever could have provided.
But Howard dismisses Bakker's conviction as "a miscarriage of justice." And when a court settlement granted each of the 165,000 lifetime partners a check for a paltry $6.54, she and hundreds of others signed those checks over to Bakker in a show of support.
"There's a lot of love left for Jim Bakker," Howard says between greetings. "There is."
Bakker could not have gotten this far without these supporters. They have forgiven him — or argue his prosecution was unfair. Bakker has admitted that he made mistakes while heading the PTL Club, which at its peak claimed 13 million viewers on 180 television stations and 1,300 cable outlets across the nation. He even wrote a book titled, "I Was Wrong." He has renounced the "prosperity gospel" he once preached. He claims a change of heart.
Beyond the front door, a woman samples the pink Spikenard Magdalena hand cream being sold to support the ministry. Rubbing her hands, she remarks how excited she is to be here. But her husband is cautious.
"We invested our money with them and lost everything," he grumbles.
"Oh, don't say that!" she says.
"Well, we did."
"I don't feel that we lost anything," she responds, walking ahead to find a table.
"Norma is head over heels on this thing," her husband whispers as he follows behind. "I tell her, 'Tread easy.'"
A few tables away, Rex Lorence acknowledges that he was slower than his wife, Wanda, to warm to Bakker.
"I still have some resentment for his past actions," Lorence, 75, says. "But I've pretty much forgiven him."
SHOWTIME
More than 150 people sit at tables scattered in front of the show's stage.
Each table is decorated with a spray of plastic flowers and a framed photo of Jim Bakker posing with his wife, Lori, and their five adopted children. There are two white envelopes for cash and check offerings. Five TV cameras are stationed around the stage. A show manager runs around closing doors to the unfinished shops, hiding interiors of wood studs and insulation.
The show's announcer, a heavy-set man with a quick wit named Kevin Shorey, reminds the audience to smile. "If you don't have teeth, just gum it for God," he jokes. He then turns solemn. "Remember we are here to do one thing and one thing only — glorify the Lord."
Then he lets loose.
"Live from the Morningside Studios in the heart of the Ozarks, it's 'The Jim Bakker Show'," Shorey shouts, yet barely audible over the rapturous applause.
Jim Bakker bounds from behind the portico's doors with his wife and children.
"Whoa!" Bakker shouts, laughing. "Hello, everybody!"
"Hello, everybody!" Lori Bakker says.
"Whoa! Thank you. What a great crowd!"
"Wow," she says.
"What a moment!"
"This is awesome," she says. "Awesome."
"Wow," he says, scanning the crowd. "Welcome to Morningside!"
Bakker is 69 now. He looks fit. His large head is smooth with TV pancake makeup. He is partially bald, the graying hair along the sides dyed brown. He sports small gold, rectangular eyeglasses. He wears blue jeans and a black T-shirt under a khaki blazer. He bears the informality popular with evangelical preachers today. The PTL suit and tie are long gone.
Lori Bakker plays his sidekick, a role once held by Jim Bakker's first wife, Tammy Faye, whose heavy mascara and self-deprecating humor made her a pop culture icon before her death from cancer last year. Tammy Faye Bakker divorced Jim Bakker in 1992. Six years later he married Lori.
On stage, Lori seems to take her stylistic cues from Tammy Faye, with a leopard-print blazer, black pants and blouse with a strand of pearls dangling.
But fans of the show see differences between the two.
"This lady he's got now, she's not like Tammy," says Dave Shaffer of Girard, Pa., a longtime fan who watched the PTL in the mid-1980s and drove to the taping with his wife. "I know Tammy loved the Lord and all, but she was — what do you call it? — flamboyant."
A few minutes into the show, Lori Bakker turns to her husband.
"This is your dream," she says. "You never stopped dreaming, and I want to thank you for not giving up on your dream. It would've been so easy to give up."
They hug. The audience applauds. The show plugs along with a variety-show mixture of singers, guests and religion-flavored banter.
In the coming weeks, this episode will be beamed out across two satellite networks and 36 stations across the nation, plus one in Canada.
'I DON'T OWN THIS'
Bakker is too busy for interviews, his staff says. He declines repeated requests to talk with the Post-Dispatch.
But in his debut show, Bakker acknowledges the interest in his return to the limelight.
"I don't own this," Bakker says, gesturing to the building. "Don't let anybody say I own this. There are reporters here, I understand. Don't you say I own this."
Almost nothing is held in his name these days. He has no registered ownership interest in Morningside. Bakker's name is nowhere to be found on his church and TV show nonprofit registrations with the state. (They were registered by Lori Bakker's mother, Charlene Graham.) The Bakkers rent a house in Branson. Public records show the Bakkers own two vehicles: a 2006 Dodge Durango and a 2006 Chrysler 300.
Bakker still owes the IRS more than $6.1 million, accumulated income taxes and penalties after his PTL ministry was stripped of its tax-exempt status, according to court records. He completed his federal parole in 1997, so there are no restrictions on his activities. The financial details of his church, including how much he earns, are not public record. His staff declined to provide that information.
Ole Anthony, founder of the Dallas-based nonprofit Trinity Foundation, which monitors TV ministers, says he is surprised to hear Bakker had been set up with a project such as Morningside. "All those people giving him money again," Anthony says with wonder. "I hope they don't get taken."
BIG PLANS
The man behind Morningside is Jerry Crawford.
Crawford credits a PTL seminar he attended in the 1980s with saving his marriage. He has supported Bakker ever since. In 1987, after Bakker resigned as PTL chairman because of an affair with a church secretary, the ministry auctioned off the outlandish items accumulated under Bakker's term, such as gold-plated bathroom fixtures. Crawford, a housing contractor then living in California, bid $4,500 for one of the most notorious items: the Bakkers' air-conditioned doghouse. Crawford then donated it back to be resold.
Crawford kept tabs on Bakker for years, finally meeting him face-to-face at a revival in Branson, where Crawford had moved. The Bakkers were living in Florida at the time, trying to develop property there. That deal fell apart. Crawford suggested they do something together. In 2003, Crawford bought a restaurant in Branson and bankrolled Bakker's return to television. They began talking about doing a bigger project together.
Crawford is a large man who cuts a gentleman cowboy figure, favoring cowboy boots, blue jeans, a blazer with leather shoulders and a Cadillac Escalade pickup. He says he is foremost a businessman. He brushes off any suggestion he is being suckered by Bakker. In fact, he says, he is using Bakker by making him Morningside's main attraction.
Crawford estimates he has invested $25 million in the project. The development has its own sewer and water treatment plants. The main building, with the domed sky, is 200,000 square feet of mixed retail and housing. It holds 115 condos, going for $80,000 to $350,000. About 40 condos already have sold, Crawford says. He also is building single-family homes and small apartment buildings nearby; many are near completion. He hopes to have 2,000 families living here one day.
Crawford says the parallels between Morningside and Heritage USA are no accident. "It was modeled a whole lot on that. That model worked."
Bakker is expected to move into a 2,500-square foot, 3-bedroom condo just behind the portico. Crawford plans to sell it to Bakker at cost: about $250,000. Crawford says he wants the ministry to be supported by donations, paying its own rent on its 40,000 square feet inside the Morningside complex.
"The purpose of this place is to minister to people, to make affordable living for people, for people to come for fellowship and seminars," Crawford says.
Harriette Hursh, a retired nursing director from Wisconsin, purchased a three-bedroom home at Morningside for $300,000. Hursh, 71, was attracted by the chance to live in a Christian community. She has faith things will work out.
"A lot of people said, 'Oh, you're going to lose your money,'" she recalls. "I'll trust God with that."
A FAMILIAR PLEA
Jim Bakker waits 41 minutes into his one-hour show to make his plea.
He begins by noting they have been off the air for six weeks.
"We have really gotten behind financially," he says, fingering a crease in his khakis. "So we really need a miracle. The cost of moving, just to get the stuff you need — and we needed to get a few more microphones, we didn't even have enough time to get the bugs worked out of things. It just takes a lot of money."
He is talking directly to the camera now. He says he has a music CD for "a love gift of $30" and a DVD about marriage for a $55 donation. He decides to offer a recording of his sermon about prison, just $20.
Off to the side in the audience sits Gloria Elliott. Few people have stood with Bakker longer. A singer, she began working with Bakker in 1969 when he was on "The 700 Club." She was there when Bakker was on top of the world, when Heritage USA was a place of "total class from the moment you pulled onto the driveway." She was there when Bakker tumbled. She now sings on his TV show once a month.
She knows there are skeptics. "Some folks say he's doing the same old thing again," she said.
The show band begins playing louder, forcing Elliott to nearly shout.
"But I'm telling you — and you don't have to believe me — his heart is right," she said. "It is in the right place."
Happy President's Day!
We cannot tell a lie: Not even the president of the United States is exempt from being the subject of myth and urban legend. Take this quiz and sink your wooden teeth into some choice tales about our chief executives!
Story out of Cleveland but it could be anywhere
Some homeless squat in foreclosed houses
Vacant dwellings prove inviting to street people
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A boarded-up building in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant section.
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Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images
- The nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses. Some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters.
Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working. "That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses. While no one keeps numbers of below-the-radar homeless finding shelter in properties left vacant by foreclosure, homeless advocates agree the locations — even with utilities cut off — would be inviting to some. There are risks for squatters, including fires from using candles and confrontations with drug dealers, prostitutes, copper thieves or police. "Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (FREE!) with some privacy," Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said in the summary of the latest census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland. The census had dropped from 40 to 17 people. Davis, a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless, cited factors including the availability of shelter in foreclosed homes, aggressive sidewalk and street cleaning and the relocation of a homeless feeding site. He said there are an average 4,000 homeless in Cleveland on any given night. There are an estimated 15,000 single-family homes vacant due to foreclosure in Cleveland and suburban Cuyahoga County. In Texas, Larry James, president and chief executive officer of Central Dallas Ministries, said he wasn't surprised that homeless might be taking advantage of vacant homes in residential neighborhoods beyond the reach of his downtown agency. "There are some campgrounds and creek beds and such where people would be tempted to walk across the street or climb out of the creek bed and sneak into a vacant house," he said. Bertan, who doesn't like shelters because of the rules, said he has been homeless or in prison for drugs and other charges for the past nine years. He has noticed the increased availability of boarded-up homes amid the foreclosure crisis. In search of a ‘fresh building’ "You can be pretty comfortable for a little bit until it gets burned out," he said as he made the rounds of the annual "stand down" where homeless in Cleveland were offered medical checkups, haircuts, a hot meal and self-help information. Shelia Wilson, 50, who was homeless for years because of drug abuse problems, also has lived in abandoned homes, and for the same reason as Bertan: She kept getting thrown out of shelters for violating rules. "Every place, I've been kicked out of because of drugs," she said. Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, hasn't seen evidence of increased homeless moving into foreclosed homes but isn't surprised. He said anecdotal evidence — candles burning in boarded-up homes, a squatter killed by a fire set to keep warm — shows the determination of the homeless to find shelter. Davis said Cleveland's high foreclosure rate and the proximity of downtown shelters to residential neighborhoods has given the city a lead role in the homeless/foreclosure phenomenon. Many cities roust homeless from vacant homes, which more typically will be used by drug dealers or prostitutes than a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, Stoops said. Police across the country must deal with squatters and vandalism involving vacant homes:
Bertan and Wilson agreed that squatting in a foreclosed home can be dangerous because the locations can attract drug dealers, prostitutes and, eventually, police. William Reed, 64, a homeless man who walks with a cane, thumbed through a shoulder bag holding a blue-bound Bible, notebooks with his pencil drawings and a plastic-wrapped piece of bread as he sat on a retainer wall in the cold outside St. John Cathedral in downtown Cleveland. He's gone inside empty homes but thinks it's too risky to spend the night. Even the inviting idea of countless foreclosed empty homes didn't overcome the possible risk of entering a crack house. "Their brains could be burned up," said Reed, who didn't want to detail where he sleeps at night. Difficult to track In Philadelphia, the risk is too great to send case workers into vacant homes to check for homeless needing help, said Ed Speedling, community liaison with Project H.O.M.E. "We're very, very wary of going inside. There's danger. I mean, if the floor caves in. There's potential danger: Sometimes they are still owned by someone," Speedling said. William Walker, 57, who was homeless for seven years and now counsels drifters at a sprawling warehouse-turned-shelter overlooking Lake Erie, has seen people living in foreclosed homes in his blue-collar neighborhood in Cleveland. He estimated that three or four boarded-up homes in his neighborhood have homeless living there from time to time. Sometimes homeless men living in tents in a nearby woods disappear from their makeshift homes, Walker said. "The guys who were there last year are not there now. Are they in the (foreclosed) homes? I don't know. They are just not in their places," Walker said. |
31 Days of Oscar
Monday, February 18
Theme of the Day: History
6:00 AM Rasputin and the Empress (’32)
8:15 AM Taras Bulba (’62)
10:30 AM Quo Vadis (’51)
1:30 PM The Fall of the Roman Empire (’64)
4:45 PM Raintree County (’57)
‘20s/’30s
8:00 PM Gone With the Wind (’39)
12:00 AM Wuthering Heights (’39)
2:00 AM Intermezzo: A Love Story (’39)
3:15 AM The Garden of Allah (’36)
4:45 AM The Great Ziegfeld (’36)
Tuesday, February 19 Theme of the Day: Westerns 7:55 AM San Antonio (’45)
9:45 AM Arizona (’40)
12:00 PM Cimarron (’31)
2:15 PM Cimarron (’60)
4:45 PM Hondo (’54)
6:15 PM The Tin Star (’57)
‘40s
8:00 PM The Ox-Bow Incident (’43)
9:30 PM Duel in the Sun (’46)
12:00 AM Samson and Delilah (’49)
2:15 AM Since You Went Away (’44)
5:15 AM Mrs. Miniver (’42)
Wednesday, February 20 Theme of the Day: Communists 7:30 AM The Red Danube (’49)
9:30 AM Comrade X (’40)
11:00 AM Ice Station Zebra (’68)
1:45 PM The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (’66)
4:00 PM Ninotchka (’39)
6:00 PM One, Two, Three (’61)
‘50s
8:00 PM Some Like it Hot (’59)
10:15 PM Stalag 17 (’53)
12:30 AM The Caine Mutiny (’54)
2:45 AM The Buccaneer (’58)
5:00 AM On the Waterfront (’54)
Thursday, February 21 Theme of the Day: War Movies 7:15 AM From Here to Eternity (’53)
9:15 AM Strategic Air Command (’55)
11:15 AM Action in the North Atlantic (’43)
1:30 PM The Commandos Strike at Dawn (’42)
3:15 PM Sergeant York (’41)
5:45 PM King Rat (’65) ‘60s 8:00 PM The Dirty Dozen (’67)
10:45 PM The Great Escape (’63)
1:45 AM The Thomas Crown Affair (’68)
3:30 AM Pocketful of Miracles (’61)
Friday, February 22 Theme of the Day: Sports 6:00 AM Million Dollar Mermaid (’52)
8:00 AM This Sporting Life (’63)
10:30 AM The Pride of the Yankees (’42)
12:45 PM Champion (’49)
2:30 PM Grand Prix (’66)
5:45 PM The Fortune Cookie (’66)
‘70s
8:00 PM Heaven Can Wait (’78)
9:45 PM The Goodbye Girl (’77)
11:45 AM Manhattan (’79)
1:30 AM Love Story (’70)
3:15 AM Equus (’77)
5:45 AM Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (’73)
Saturday, February 23 Theme of the Day: Alfred Hitchcock 7:30 AM Shadow of a Doubt (’43)
9:30 AM Notorious (’46)
11:15 AM The Man Who Knew Too Much (’56)
1:30 PM North by Northwest (’59)
4:00 PM Psycho (’60)
6:00 PM The Birds (’63)
‘80s
8:00 PM Poltergeist (’82)
10:00 PM Ordinary People (’80)
12:15 AM Raging Bull (’80)
2:30 AM Breaker Morant (’80)
4:30 AM Yes, Giorgio (’82) Sunday, February 24 Theme of the Day: Orphans 6:30 AM The Unsinkable Molly Brown (’64)
9:00 AM Bachelor Mother (’39)
10:30 AM Boys’ Town (’38)
12:30 PM The Bells of St. Mary’s (’45)
3:00 PM Oliver! (’68)
5:45 PM Annie (’82)
‘90s/’00s
8:00 PM Mr. Holland’s Opus (’95)
10:30 PM Men in Black (’97)
12:30 AM Contact (’97)
3:15 AM The Bodyguard (’92)
Monday, February 25 Theme of the Day: Crime 5:30 AM Little Caesar (’30)
7:00 AM Hide-Out (’34)
8:30 AM G-Men (’35)
10:00 AM Key Largo (’48)
12:00 PM Naked City (’48)
1:45 PM White Heat (’49)
3:45 PM The Asphalt Jungle (’50)
5:45 PM In Cold Blood (’67)
‘20s/’30s
8:00 PM Stagecoach (’39)
9:45 PM Only Angels Have Wings (’39)
12:00 AM The Public Enemy (’31)
1:30 AM The Buccaneer (’38)
3:45 AM The Cowboy and the Lady (’38)
5:30 AM There Goes My Heart (’38)
Tuesday, February 26 Theme of the Day: Small Town Life 7:00 AM Smart Money (’31)
8:30 AM The Magnificent Ambersons (’42)
10:00 AM Tortilla Flat (’42)
11:45 AM Kings Row (’42)
2:00 PM Johnny Belinda (’48)
3:45 PM Some Came Running (’58)
6:15 PM Cheers for Miss Bishop (’41)
‘40s
8:00 PM The Talk of the Town (’42)
10:15 PM The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (’44)
12:00 AM To Be or Not to Be (’42)
1:45 AM Hamlet (’48)
4:30 AM Portrait of Jennie (’48)
Wednesday, February 27 Theme of the Day: The High Seas 6:00 AM The Princess and the Pirate (’44)
7:45 AM The Spanish Main (’45)
9:30 AM Captain Caution (’40)
11:00 AM Captain Kidd (’45)
12:30 PM Captain Blood (’35)
2:30 PM Mutiny on the Bounty (’35)
4:45 PM Mutiny on the Bounty (’62)
‘50s
8:00 PM On the Beach (’59)
10:30 PM High Noon (’52)
12:00 AM Seven Samurai (’54)
3:30 AM Rashomon (’50)
5:00 AM The Greatest Show on Earth (’52)
Thursday, February 28 Theme of the Day: Weddings 7:45 AM The Member of the Wedding (’52)
9:15 AM Father of the Bride (’50)
11:00 AM The Philadelphia Story (’40)
1:00 PM High Society (’56)
3:00 PM Royal Wedding (’51)
4:45 PM Fiddler on the Roof (’71)
‘60s
8:00 PM A Man for All Seasons (’66)
10:15 PM Doctor Zhivago (’65)
2:00 AM Séance on a Wet Afternoon (’64)
4:00 AM Summer and Smoke (’61)
Friday, February 29 Theme of the Day: Courtroom Dramas 6:00 AM Libel (’59)
8:00 AM Trial (’55)
10:00 AM The Letter (’40)
12:00 PM I Want to Live! (’58)
2:15 PM Fury (’36)
4:00 PM The Paradine Case (’47)
6:15 PM 12 Angry Men (’57)
‘70s
8:00 PM The Day of the Jackal (’73)
10:30 PM Three Days of the Condor (’75)
12:30 AM Marathon Man (’76)
2:45 AM The Boys from Brazil (’78)
5:00 AM Kotch (’71)
Saturday, March 1 Theme of the Day: Show Business 7:00 AM The Actress (’53)
9:00 AM Stage Door (’37)
11:00 AM Singin’ in the Rain (’52)
12:45 PM Funny Lady (’75)
3:15 PM The Barefoot Contessa (’54)
5:30 PM All About Eve (’50)
‘80s 8:00 PM Crimes and Misdemeanors (’89)
10:00 PM Radio Days (’87)
11:30 PM My Life as a Dog (’87)
1:15 AM Children of a Lesser God (’86)
Slice of the future from Disney
Weird stuff
An employee of a Valparaiso Wal-Mart has been charged with theft for repeatedly making purchases to get change from a self-service cash register that was dispensing $20 bills instead of $1 bills.
Police say 24-year-old Christopher Sheets made 10 purchases in 4 1/2 hours Tuesday morning and got about $600.
A store security official said $20 and $1 bills were loaded in the wrong slots of the self-service register. The mistake wasn't noticed until a customer complained that the machine gave a $1 bill in change instead of a 20.
Porter County Jail officials said Sheets was not in custody Friday. It was not known if he had an attorney and there was no listing for Sheets in the Valparaiso telephone directory.
Doc Gets 18 Months for Removing Prints
02-13) 12:18 PST Harrisburg, Pa. (AP) --
A plastic surgeon who replaced the fingerprints of a man involved in a drug ring with skin from the bottom of his feet was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane called the crime "horrific" when she imposed the sentence on Dr. Jose Covarrubias.
Covarrubias, a U.S. citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Ariz., and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to a federal charge of harboring and concealing a fugitive.
He apologized to Kane for his conduct, and said he had learned his lesson.
Covarrubias, 50, has been held in Adams County Jail for about 10 months and can be released in eight months. After that, he faces three years probation.
Covarrubias' lawyer, Joseph Metz, said the sentence was fair.
The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who didn't believe the stories of drug ring operatives without fingerprints — until Marc George was arrested in September 2005 at the Nogales border crossing, bandaged and limping badly from the painful procedure.
Covarrubias was indicted in May by a grand jury in Harrisburg. Prosecutors say the drug ring moved cash and drugs from Tucson and elsewhere and distributed more than a ton of it in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and other areas.
Covarrubias could have faced a sentence that was about twice as long, said William Behe, a federal prosecutor.
But Kane ruled that prosecutors couldn't prove Covarrubias knew about the specific crimes being committed by George, who has pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy.
Kane took another six months off the sentence because Covarrubias has cooperated with authorities who were investigating some of his other clients.
That's It for Today. You Guys Gotta Walk
02-15) 19:28 PST Corsicana, Texas (AP) --
A driver who apparently took her work rules very seriously abandoned a bus full of former prisoners along a highway because her hours for the day were over, police said.
The 40 passengers had been paroled or released from the state prison in Huntsville. Some wore ankle bracelet monitors.
They were aboard a charter bus that was headed Thursday to a terminal in Dallas but wound up 60 miles short.
"In 31 years in law enforcement I've never seen anything like this," Corsicana Police Sgt. Lamoin Lawhon said.
Police said the bus was chartered from Greyhound Bus Lines Inc. The driver pulled over in front of a convenience store around 4 p.m. and told the passengers her allotted driving time was up and another driver was on the way.
A clerk in the convenience store called police. Officers arrived to find the former prisoners milling around the bus. Dispatchers exchanged several phone calls with Greyhound and prison officials while Lawhon and two other officers stayed with the bus and the passengers.
Just before 7 p.m., a second bus arrived with three drivers — including the one who had abandoned her passengers in the first place, Lawhon said.
Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark said company officials were investigating the incident. "It is a very serious matter," he said.
Clark said drivers have to follow strict guidelines on consecutive working hours and rest periods.
Police said there were no incidents involving the passengers while they were stranded.
"Their behavior was exemplary," Officer Travis Wallace said.
Lost laptop? Sue for millions!
Is your laptop worth $54 million? Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C., is suing Richfield-based Best Buy for that amount after it lost her laptop computer while it was in for repairs.
By Jackie Crosby, Star Tribune
Last update: February 13, 2008 - 3:00 PMyour laptop worth $54 million?
Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C., is suing Richfield-based Best Buy for that amount after it lost her laptop computer while it was in for repairs.
Campbell, who could not be reached Tuesday, filed a negligence lawsuit suit against the company in Washington Superior Court on Nov. 16, seeking fair compensation for replacement of the $1,100 computer and extended warranty, plus expenses related to identity theft protection.
Best Buy spokeswoman Nissa French said in an e-mail that Campbell "was offered and collected $1,110.35" as well as "a $500 gift card for her inconvenience."
According to Campbell's blog at bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com, Geek Squad employees spent three months telling her different stories about where her laptop might be before finally acknowledging that it had been lost.
Campbell said that she doesn’t really expect to get $54 million, but chose the amount to attract attention to her case. It’s the same amount a D.C. judge sought against a dry cleaner last year that lost a pair of his pants.
Melissa Ngo , senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., wasn’t familiar with Campbell’s case but said consumers need to get smart about protecting their data to avoid such situations.
“As more of our lives get put into electronics, these issues of privacy and security are going to become more common,” said Ngo. “People don’t want to take the few extra minutes of inconvenience, but they need to encrypt their data and back it up.
About Paul McCartney's divorce if you care
Miss Mills, 40, is to receive a £20million lump sum with further £2.5million annual payments until their four-year-old daughter Beatrice reaches 18.
She could not contain her joy as she walked from the High Court in London smiling broadly yesterday. 
Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills arrive at the High Court yesterday.
As part of the deal, which was predicted in the Daily Mail last week, Miss Mills has agreed to be bound by a confidentiality order which means she will never be able to speak publicly or write in detail about the breakdown of the four-year marriage.
The estranged couple have faced each other over five days at the High Court this week.
Beatrice's main carer will be Miss Mills, but Sir Paul, who has an estimated £825million fortune, will have equal visitation rights in the settlement they are said to have reached.
Miss Mills will live with Beatrice between Britain and Eastern Europe, where she plans to set up another home.
She will also benefit from a four-man security team working in shifts to give her 24-hour cover whether she is with her daughter or not.
Miss Mills wants to be able to flee to a new home she is looking for in Poland or the Czech Republic after recently claiming she had become a hate figure in Britain following the split from Sir Paul in May 2006.
Sir Paul, 65, has also agreed to make a separate special provision for a £1million trust fund which will steadily accumulate each year until Beatrice can access it when she turns 18.
He and Miss Mills have been debating a range of complex issues during their week in the High Court.
Both sides finally verbally agreed to all parts of the deal just before lunchtime yesterday, the Daily Mail has learned.
"They have go the settlement," a source said. "They have agreed on all points. Nothing much has changed this week. There was a deal at the beginning, but it was a complex one.
"There have been a few tweaks to the agreements, but those have been mostly changes Heather wanted made."
Mr Justice Bennett, who is presiding over the case, has set aside Monday in the Royal Courts of Justice for a continuation of the hearing.
A legal source said: "Heather has had no legal representation throughout recent weeks. If a deal has been reached, Mr Justice Bennett has to be sure of a few things to bind Miss Mills to the settlement. He needs to be sure she knows of and understands all the details of the agreement.
"He also must be sure that she not feel under duress to sign it.
"Also, despite Heather having been guided legally in court all week, Mr Justice Bennett will want to give Heather the weekend as one final chance to take legal advice on the final settlement. Whether she does is another matter. It all seems fairly cut and dry. But the judge will want to offer her this final opportunity."
A spokesman for the Royal Courts of Justice confirmed: "They have booked the court for Monday but we have been told they will probably not need it beyond then."
The £55million exceeds the £48million businessman John Charman was told to pay his former wife last year.
Heartwarming Marine story to share
For Maj. Brian Dennis, the Semper Fidelis credo extends beyond his fellow Marines.
The story began with a few e-mails Dennis sent home about a dog his unit had met while looking for insurgents along the border of Iraq and Syria. If all goes as planned, it will end with a man and a dog he grew to love reunited on American soil.
A pack of desert dogs lived at one of the Iraqi border forts the unit patrolled. A wiry German shepherd-border collie mix was the alpha dog. Maj. Brian Dennis took a liking to the animal, whose nubby ears had been cut off as a puppy. Dennis, a 37-year-old Marine serving his second tour in Iraq, saw the dog about each time they visited the fort. He named him "Nubs."
At first, Nubs wouldn't give the Marine the time of day. "Nubs wouldn't have anything to do with him," Marsha Cargo, the Marine's mother, told ABC News. "Brian just kept working on him and working on him."
The time came, however, for Dennis' unit to relocate 70 miles from Nubs' home fort. He may have wanted to take Nubs with the unit, Dennis wrote in one one of his e-mails home, but there were too many dogs to rescue and keeping a canine was against the rules. As always, Nubs sprinted alongside the Hummers as they pulled away for what Dennis assumed was the last time he would see the dog.
Two days later, Nubs wandered inexplicably in below-freezing conditions into Dennis' new camp, shocking the Marine unit. "I won't even address the gauntlet he had to run of dog packs, wolves, and God knows what else to get here," Dennis wrote. "When he arrived he looked like he'd just been through a war zone.
"Uh, wait a minute, he had," Dennis wrote.
Nubs' miraculous journey forced the Marine's hand, and Dennis and his fellow Marines unanimously decided to keep the animal, building a doghouse at the camp. When two military police officers told Dennis the dog could not stay at the camp, he decided the only way to properly keep the animal was to get it to the United States.
"This dog who had been through a lifetime of fighting, war, abuse, and had tracked down our team over 70 miles of harsh desert was going to live the good life," Dennis wrote.
In early February, the dog crossed the border out of Iraq and into Jordan, where friends of Dennis were waiting for the animal. The dog currently is receiving the proper vaccinations and will soon be transported to an F-18 pilot at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, the American base where Dennis, also a fighter pilot by training, is stationed. The Marine has received permission to keep Nubs with him at work.
Nubs is not the only dog befriended by an American soldier to earn a trip out of Iraq. Army Sgt. Peter Neesley found two dogs while on patrol during his second tour of duty in Iraq — Mama, a Labrador mix, and her puppy, Boris.
The soldier claimed the dogs, building a doghouse for them and sending photos to relatives in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. "They were his family away from home," Neesley's sister, Carey, told ABC News.
But tragedy struck when the 28-year-old sergeant died in his Baghdad barracks in Christmas, the cause of which remains unknown. His family decided one way to ease the grief would be to transport the dogs home, something they reached out to their homestate senator, Carl Levin, the ranking member of the House Armed Services committee, to help arrange. An airline and animal organization helped coordinate the 6,000-mile trip.
"It's second to having Peter come home on his own," the soldier's sister said. "If we can't have Peter, then at least we can have his dogs."
Dennis could be home from Iraq as early as March, his mother said. The dog no longer will have to contend with fighting to survive in the war-torn country, Dennis wrote in an e-mail, but instead will get to bask in the sun on the sunny beaches of San Diego.
It's a day Dennis' mother said she can't wait to see.
"He's always been a big dog lover," she said. "He's supposed to be this big, tough Marine, but he's really a softy."
You must read this!
In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later, he had an apartment, a car, and a small savings.
But Shepard's descent into poverty in the summer of 2006 was no accident. Shortly after graduating from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., he intentionally left his parents' home to test the vivacity of the American Dream. His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.
To make his quest even more challenging, he decided not to use any of his previous contacts or mention his education.
During his first 70 days in Charleston, Shepard lived in a shelter and received food stamps. He also made new friends, finding work as a day laborer, which led to a steady job with a moving company.
Ten months into the experiment, he decided to quit after learning of an illness in his family. But by then he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved close to $5,000.
The effort, he says, was inspired after reading "Nickel and Dimed," in which author Barbara Ehrenreich takes on a series of low-paying jobs. Unlike Ms. Ehrenreich, who chronicled the difficulty of advancing beyond the ranks of the working poor, Shepard found he was able to successfully climb out of his self-imposed poverty.
He tells his story in "Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream." The book, he says, is a testament to what ordinary Americans can achieve. On a recent trip to the Boston, he spoke about his experience:
Becoming a mover and living in a homeless shelter – that hadn't been part of your life before. How much did your lifestyle actually change?
Shepard: It changed dramatically. There were simple luxuries that I didn't afford myself. I had to make sacrifices to achieve the goals that I set out. One of those was eating out. I didn't have a cellphone. Especially in this day and age, that was a dramatic change for me.... I was getting by on chicken and Rice-A-Roni dinner and was happy. That's what I learned ... we lived [simply], but still we were happy.
But surely your background – you're privileged; you have an education and a family – made it much easier for you to achieve.
I didn't use my college education, credit history, or contacts [while in South Carolina]. But in real life, I had these lessons that I had learned. I don't think that played to my advantage. How much of a college education do you need to budget your money to a point that you're not spending frivolously, but you're instead putting your money in the bank?
Do you need a college education? I don't think so. To be honest with you, I think I was disadvantaged, because my thinking was inside of a box. I have the way that I lived [in North Carolina] – and to enter into this totally new world and acclimate to a different lifestyle, that was the challenge for me.
Still, there was that safety net. Were you ever tempted to tap your past work, education, or family networks?
I was never tempted. I had a credit card in my back pocket in case of an emergency. The rule was if I used the credit card then, "The project's over, I'm going home."
So what did you tell people when they asked what you were doing?
That was the only touchy part of my story. I had this great back story on how I was escaping my druggy mom and going to live with my alcoholic dad. Things just fell apart, and there I was at the homeless shelter. I really embellished this fabricated story and told it to anyone who would listen.
The interesting thing is that nobody really cared.... It wasn't so much as where we were coming from, it was where we were going.
Would your project have changed if you'd had child-care payments or been required to report to a probation officer? Wouldn't that have made it much harder?
The question isn't whether I would have been able to succeed. I think it's the attitude that I take in: "I've got child care. I've got a probation officer. I've got all these bills. Now what am I going to do? Am I going to continue to go out to eat and put rims on my Cadillac? Or am I going to make some things happen in my life...?" One guy, who arrived [at the shelter] on a Tuesday had been hit by a car on [the previous] Friday by a drunk driver. He was in a wheelchair. He was totally out of it. He was at the shelter. And I said, "Dude, your life is completely changed." And he said, "Yeah, you're right, but I'm getting the heck out of here." Then there was this other guy who could walk and everything was good in his life, but he was just kind of bumming around, begging on the street corner. To see the attitudes along the way, that is what my story is about.
You made it out of the shelter, got a job, and opened a bank account. Did you meet other people who had similar experiences?
Oh, absolutely. We don't need "Scratch Beginnings" to know that millions of Americans are creating a life for themselves from nothing.... Just as millions of Americans are not getting by. There are both ends of the spectrum.
To meet that guy [in the wheelchair] at the shelter, [makes you wonder] 'Can he get out and go to college and become a doctor?' Maybe, maybe not. I think he can set goals..... You can use your talents. That's why, from the beginning, I set very realistic goals: $2,500, a job, car. This isn't a "rags-to-riches million-dollar" story. This is very realistic. I truly believe, based on what I saw at the shelter ...that anyone can do that.
Something to ponder
The Questions of Life
- Why can't we just spell it 'orderves'?
- Is there really a difference between 'fat chance' and 'slim chance'?
- Why do they call it political 'forum' when most of us againstum?
- How come wrong numbers are never busy?
- If time heals all wounds, how come the belly button stays the same?
- If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?
- If Americans call ice-cream sandwiches Eskimo Pies, what do Eskimos call them?
- Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?
- Why does your nose run, and your feet smell?
- After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?
- Could some Chinese food be so spicy that it'll Szechwan fire?
- If the world is getting smaller, why do postal rates keep going up?
- If what goes up must come down, why is it so hard to lose weight?
- When you drop a peanut butter sandwich, why does it always land face down?
- What does Geronimo yell when he jumps out of a plane?
- If you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?
- Do babies think adults are cute?
- If you melt a pool full of dry ice, can you swim in it without getting wet?
- If con is the opposite of pro, is congress the opposite of progress?
- Why must you hit you 'Start' button to 'shut off' your computer?
- If necessity is the mother of invention, then why does so much unnecessary stuff get invented?
- No matter how many TV channels you switch to, why do you always get a commercial?
- Have you ever noticed that when someone asks if you have a minute, they are really asking for twenty?
- If fingers get all wrinkled when you stay in the tub too long, why doesn't the rest of your skin?
- Why is laughter pronounced 'lafter' but by just adding an 's' at the front for slaughter, it sounds like 'slawter'?
- Why does it take all of that lighter fluid to start your barbecue when it only takes one little spark to start a raging forest fire?
- Why does such an inspiring sight as sunrise always have to happen at such an inconvenient time?
- Why do we spend 18 months trying to get our kids to stand up and talk, then the next 18 years trying to get them to sit down and listen?
I'm back now!
Hello everyone!
I know that it’s been a long time since I’ve been here but there have been so many things that have happened here in the last month and a half.
First, beloved needed to have some oral surgery that took a while to heal enough to go back to work but all should be well in the next few weeks. Then I got sick with this crazy flu/cold that’s going around here and I’m still sick but haven’t missed any work, lots of hot tea and over the counter meds have helped but I’m so tired of being sick!
Pound Puppy and the girls (our cats) have done their best to keep it light and have us laugh. The new baby has doubled in size since we got her and we can now see that she’s actually three cats in one; the one that died so suddenly, the one that we had before and her own. That may not make much sense to anyone but us but it’s great. She has three names as well and answers to all of them which are pretty funny considering one of them is “bad ass” for chasing Pound Puppy around and having no fear. Pound Puppy isn’t allowed on the bed and “bad ass” knows it so she will run to the end of the bed, scratch the dog's nose and then lay down showing Pound Puppy her belly. We laugh out loud every time because the dog knows that the kitten is just playing and hasn’t ever put a mark on her and then to see this tiny kitten show this huge dog her belly, we know that we made the right choice at the pound. The terrible thought that creeps into my mind at that time is the guilt that we have less grief for our baby that we lost so suddenly but then I look at the new baby and realize that she’s still here in spirit and it makes me happy again.
On the work front, our boss suddenly left the company two weeks ago and the senior counselor stepped up to be our boss AND the senior counselor to our adults. She doesn’t get any more money to do this but our company didn’t have a choice but to cut our former boss’ job because the great state of CA cut a portion of the funding for programs like our company due to the market. Remember we are a non-profit organization so there really was no choice. The weird thing is that our new boss in the last two weeks has been so open to all of us and made it so easy for both the job coaches and the adults. I was the first coach that was brought into the office to ask what my feelings were to make this new streamlined version of this great company could go forward. I suggested in part keeping the monthly meeting the same so we could all meet together and let her know when it normally takes place. So we met last week and rather than sit at the head of the conference table, she chose to have the job developer and another member of management who is our second in command sit there and she sat on the side. She had the job developer start off to let us know that the month of February should be the last month of low hours and March is going to be exciting for our adults and us. She then asked us questions about the adults that she doesn’t know as well and not one of the other coaches spoke up so I took the lead and had my notes ready about every adult that I worked with over that last month that I had minor issues with. That started the discussion that didn’t stop and the meeting actually was fifteen minutes longer than was scheduled so we all had to hurry to get back to our adults.
Please stop by to leave a comment, I miss all of you!
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