Olivia's New Puppy (as yet, unnamed)

Click on pictures to enlarge

Jason's Graduation

Jason and the Mamma (Linda)

Jason and Derrick

Comfort food in the "Stroke Belt" of the South (from the Chicago Tribune):

One of the more popular items on the menu at Mulligan’s Bar in suburban Decatur, Ga., is the "hamdog," a half-pound of hamburger meat wrapped around a hot dog, which is deep-fried and served on a hoagie topped with chili, bacon, and a fried egg. The bar also offers the "Luther," a half-pound burger served with bacon and cheese on a Krispy Kreme doughnut, and, for dessert, fried Twinkies, two deep-fried Cap’n Crunch-coated Twinkies topped with chocolate and cherry sauce.

Pictures of Jan's son Jon graduating with his masters degree

CNN.com - Soldier finds winning lottery ticket - May 30, 2006

BAY SHORE, New York (AP) -- A U.S. soldier and his girlfriend found a winning lottery ticket on the ground at a convenience store Monday and turned it in to police, who were able to find its owner -- a $2,500 winner with no idea her lucky ticket was missing.

Full Story

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Dobbs: Bush, Congress tell working folk to go to hell

Lou Dobbs says President Bush and Congress are part of an "elitist war on the middle class"



By Lou Dobbs
CNN

Wednesday, May 24, 2006; Posted: 9:46 a.m. EDT (13:46 GMT)


NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bush says that the installation of the new Iraqi government was a "watershed event," but at the same time warns Americans of the challenges and loss as we continue to prosecute the war against Iraqi insurgents. Sen. Harry Reid declares that legislation that would render English the national language is racist.

Thirty-seven Democrats vote for full amnesty for all illegal aliens in this country, even though nobody really knows whether the number is 11 million, 12 million or 20 million. The Senate Republican leadership demands that a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan must be passed before this Memorial Day weekend. And the president signs into law a tax cut that raises taxes on the educational funds of teenagers saving for college.

Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials.... and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital.

George W. Bush's approval ratings have slumped to the lowest of his presidency. The approval rating for Congress is even lower, and nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

But what is our government doing about that? The president is staying the course in Iraq and apparently demanding little of his generals to create a new, far more effective strategy for urgent success. Of course, he also wants a guest-worker program and amnesty of millions of illegal aliens. And Congress, faced with midterm elections in just over five months, is intent on giving the president what he wants and telling working men and women and their families, American citizens all, to go to hell.

Illegal aliens are more important to this Congress than securing our borders and our ports, more important than those legal immigrants who have waited in line and who follow the law. The Senate has added to the litany of lunacy that makes up what it calls reform: Illegal aliens would only have to pay back taxes on three of the past five years, they will not be prosecuted for felonies such as identity theft or purchasing or using fraudulent Social Security cards, and unlike millions of visa holders who have to leave the country to have them renewed, they may simply remain in the United States while this Congress and this president give away all the benefits and privileges of American citizenship.

This is an outright assault in the elitist war on the middle class. And working men and women who've already borne the pain of losing good-paying manufacturing jobs and having middle-class jobs outsourced to cheap foreign labor markets are faced with the onslaught of more illegal immigration and cheap labor into the American economy. This president and Congress talk about bringing illegal aliens out of the shadows while they turn out the lights on our middle class.

President Bush and his most trusted advisers tell us how well our economy is doing, how many jobs have been created and how so-called free trade will enrich the lives of the same people whose livelihoods these policies are destroying.

It's hard not to think of the trusted adviser to Catherine the Great who sought to hide from her the embarrassing and shoddy condition of Ukrainian and Crimean villages by having elaborate facades built to divert her attention and to mask an uncomfortable reality. I don't know whether Karl Rove is President Bush's Grigori Potemkin or whether George Bush has created Potemkin villages all by himself. But the facades are cracking, and phony fronts of failed policies are quickly crumbling.

Six thousand unarmed National Guardsmen working as adjunct rear support to our undermanned, under-equipped Border Patrol is not border security. Three million illegal aliens continue to cross our borders and depress wages by hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The millions of manufacturing and middle-class jobs lost over the last five years have been replaced by lower-wage employment.

The president's faith-based commitment to so-called free trade will likely lead to a $1 trillion U.S. current account deficit this year and a trade debt of $4.5 trillion after 30 years of trade deficits. And while the president and Congress point to No Child Left Behind as a solution to our educational crisis, we're failing an entire generation of Americans whose test scores continue to fall and whose high school dropout rates would be embarrassing to a third-world country.

And a third-world country is what we will be if our elected officials don't soon come to their senses.

Update

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving

Unwed couple, children barred by Missouri town law

By P.J. Huffstutter

Los Angeles Times

BLACK JACK, Mo. — The last of the moving boxes has been put away, and the basketball hoop is installed next to the garage door. The refrigerator is covered with vacation snapshots and notices of an upcoming PTA meeting. Yet Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving and their three kids are not yet settled into the sprawling five-bedroom home they bought in January.

In this middle-class suburb of St. Louis, about 14 miles north of downtown, city leaders have ruled that because the couple are not married, they and their children don't belong.

Last week, the Black Jack City Council.... rejected a measure to change the law prohibiting more than three people from living together in the same house if they are unrelated by blood, marriage or adoption. To help enforce the law, anyone moving into a house in Black Jack, as an owner or renter, is required to go to City Hall, show identification for every resident and obtain an occupancy permit.

Shelltrack and Loving, who have lived together for 13 years, said they did not know about the law when they bought their two-story yellow house early this year. The couple have two children together, and Alexia, Shelltrack's teenage daughter, has called Loving her father since infancy.

"I don't get it," said the couple's middle child, 10-year-old Katarina Loving. "My mom and dad love each other. What's the big deal?"

The debate over how to define "family" has become increasingly heated after decades of changing social norms. And a growing number of urban and suburban communities are turning to housing and zoning laws to say what is — and isn't — a family, said Frank Alexander, interim dean of Emory University's School of Law in Atlanta.

"It's a not-so-veiled attempt to control who lives down the street and [to] legislate relationships," said Alexander, who teaches a course on how housing laws define America's families.

Black Jack Mayor Norman McCourt noted that no federal or Missouri law bars housing discrimination based on marital status. Missouri does not recognize common-law marriage.

Advocates say communities are just defending local standards.

"They have the right to protect and restore a marriage-based moral order," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, a public-policy organization based in Washington.


Shelltrack, a 31-year-old stay-at-home mom, and Loving, a 33-year-old customer-service manager for a payroll company, said their families had asked whether the couple wouldn't be better off putting the house up for sale and finding a different city to call home. But they have decided to stay and fight.

The ACLU is helping them file a lawsuit against the city, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched an investigation into whether the city ordinance violates federal fair-housing laws.

If they lose, the couple could be assessed a fine of $500 for every day they live in their home in Black Jack.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Timeline of Mandan recall effort

May 18th Second Mandan recall bid progressing


April 6th Mandan recall effort is rebuffed


March 15th Fraud alleged in recall petition

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make some small talk with the Navajo woman. But, the old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally. "What's in the bag?" asked the old woman. Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."
The Navajo woman was silent for a moment or two. Then, speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said...... "Good trade."

You can't make it up

CELL PHONE RADIATION NEWS:

CNET RANKS 10 HIGHEST CELL PHONE RADIATION LEVELS

============================================================





To read the entire article, visit http://tinyurl.com/qvvfv

1. Motorola Slvr L6 1.58
2a. Motorola V120c 1.55
2b. Motorola V265 1.55
4. Motorola V70 1.54
5a. Motorola C290 1.53
5b. Motorola P8767 1.53
5c. Motorola ST7868 1.53
5d. Motorola ST7868W 1.53
9a. Motorola A845 1.51
9c. Palm Treo 650 GSM 1.51
9b. Panasonic Allure 1.51

The site also contains a link to the list of the 10 lowest radiation emmiters.

Last Will and Grace Tonight

Click on T.V. listings to see larger version

Town won't let unmarried parents live together

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Posted: 11:41 a.m. EDT (15:41 GMT)

BLACK JACK, Missouri (AP) -- The City Council has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together, and the mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction.

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a home in this St. Louis suburb because they have three children and are not married.

The town's Planning and Zoning Commission proposed a change in the law, but the measure was rejected Tuesday by the City Council in a 5-3 vote.

"I'm just shocked," Shelltrack said. "I really thought this would all be over, and we could go on with our lives."

The current ordinance prohibits more than three people from living together unless they are related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The defeated measure would have changed the definition of a family to include unmarried couples with two or more children.

Mayor Norman McCourt declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that those who do not meet the town's definition of family could soon face eviction.

Black Jack's special counsel, Sheldon Stock, declined to say whether the city will seek to remove Loving and Shelltrack from their home.

Olivia and Stella Bella

Posted by: Sara

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) returns to recording

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Yusuf Islam returns to recording

Jessica's Graduation

Monday June 12th
Northrop Memorial Auditorium -- University of Minnesota East-Bank Campus
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
For more information and directions click here