Dear Santa

Library event a big success

We would like to acknowledge and thank the many groups and individuals who made our Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) painted-chair project such a success.

We recently raffled off 43 painted chairs to 43 lucky winners. We made over $9,000 for the Santa Maria Library.

To name everyone who helped make this happen would take much more space than allowed, but we wanted the community to know how successful we were and how grateful we are to all who supported this undertaking. Our sponsors, Altrusa International Inc. of Santa Maria, Friends of the Library, and People for Leisure and Youth were instrumental in the early planning stages and were always available when needed. To the chair sponsors, artists and those who donated chairs to be painted, we can only say thanks. Your belief in us and our project made such a difference.

The 43 chairs represented so many books and were created with such imagination by over 30 local artists.

All in all, it was a very successful first-time event and we look forward to an even more successful one next April, to raise funds for Friends of the Library to give to the Santa Maria Public Library.

Donna Cota

Event chairman

Jackie MacNeil

Library board trustee

Santa Maria

Read more »

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Service at Houston VA National Cemetery May 28

In addition to Halferty’s remarks, the event will feature a parade of colors and wreaths by numerous local veterans’ organizations, ROTC units, and Boy and Girl Scout troops. All Boy and Girl Scout organizations in southeast Texas are invited to attend.

There will also be many symbolic highlights including a flyover by the U.S. Coast Guard; a performance of Taps; a cannon salute; a riderless horse procession by the Houston Police Mounted Patrol; Amazing Grace performed by Ian Martin; and a rifle salute by the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines. Peggy Slay, president of the Houston Gold Star Mothers, will lead the pledge of allegiance.

The Memorial Day Service, honoring deceased United States servicemen and women, is free and open to the public.

Visit the Houston National Cemetery Administration Web site at http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/houston.asp for construction information. Guests who wish to visit gravesites are encouraged to arrive prior to 8 a.m. or after 1 p.m. following the Memorial Day service.

Metro Service: The 108 Veterans Memorial will provide special service to the Houston National Cemetery in honor of the national holiday. Park for FREE at the North Shepherd Park & Ride for convenient connection to the 108 Veterans Memorial. The route will run from 7 a. Read more »

Kings

Daredevils knock Kings XI out of IPl, top group stage

Dharamsala, May 19 — David Warner played an electrifying knock to take Delhi Daredevils to a six-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab here Saturday and top the group stage in the Indian Premier league. Kings XI were knocked out of the tournament.

Warner smashed 79 off 44 balls as Daredevils chased down the 142-run target with 10 balls to spare. Umesh Yadav (3/19) and Morne Morkel (4/20) made good use of the seaming conditions in the Kings XI innings, which ended at 141 for eight.

Daredevils wrapped up the league stage with 22 points from 16 games and will get two chances in the play-offs for making the final May 27. Kings XI, who needed to win to stay alive in the competition, ended their campaign with 16 points.

It seemed like a tricky chase for Daredevils but Warner single-handedly got the team over the line at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium here.

The Australian hammered four sixes and 10 fours during his stay at the crease. The southpaw was particularly severe on speedster Parwinder Awana, slamming him for 23 in an over.

Earlier, Siddharth Chitnis (38), Azhar Mahmood (36) and Gurkeerat Singh (26) led Kings XI’s recovery after they were reduced to 20 for four in the first six overs. Read more »

If I Die Tomorrow

Fort Bliss soldier from Las Cruces killed in Afghanistan

›› Guest book: Offer condolences to family and friends
›› Photo gallery: Fallen Las Cruces solider, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Israel P Nuañes, remembered

LAS CRUCES — For more than two hours Friday night, Army Staff Sgt. Israel P. Nuañes spoke with ex-wife Rosina Nuañes Rodriguez on a Skype chat from Afghanistan.

They laughed and joked. Rosina teased him about his “combat mustache.” Just before ending their conversation, he told Rosina something she will never forget.

“Just know, if I die tomorrow, I die a happy man because I had you to love, and I had you to love me,” he said, before closing with: “Good night, my everything.”

That was the last conversation they would have.

Nuañes, 38, of Las Cruces, died the next day of wounds caused by an enemy bomb in Kandahar province.

Nuañes, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, was assigned to the 741st Ordnance Company, part of the 84th Ordnance Battalion, 71st Ordnance Group, at Fort Bliss.

Rodriguez said Nuañes, who was her husband for more than five years, had “a strong support. She added that she is still receiving messages from people who knew and worked with Nuañes.

“If he knew how many lives he touched, he’d be in awe,” Rodriguez said.

Nuañes was born in Silver City and graduated from Casa Grande Union High School in Arizona. He left the active-duty Army for a while and earned an associate degree in computer network technology in 1999. Read more »

Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown dies: King of D.C. go-go music, influential sample …

When the funk music known as "go-go" comes up in casual conversation — and that's not nearly often enough — it's inevitably accompanied by the mention of one man's name: Chuck Brown. The Washington, D.C. funk band leader and composer, whose biggest hit was the 1978 song "Bustin' Loose," died Wednesday at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at age 75. He was the king of an East Coast subgenre that rose alongside New York funk and hip-hop in the 1970s and '80s.

Featuring remarkable Afro-Cuban polyrhythms via pounding congas and rototoms, punctuated bursts of brass and Brown shouting out call-and-response phrases alongside grooves that extended many songs to over eight minutes long — and, more importantly, almost two or three times that in a live setting — Brown's music was for partying. Though it flirted with mainstream success in the '80s, the music has remained a regional phenomenon, a uniquely American strain of dance music.

But that doesn't mean its influence hasn't spread. The rhythms he built were some of the earliest tracks sampled by electronic dance music producers, especially when rave culture was being born in England. Coldcut's influential 1987 jam "Say Kids What Time Is It?" is built on the back of a Chuck Brown rhythm from "Bustin' Loose" — as is the Farm's breakout rave-pop anthem "All Together Now" from 1990. Read more »

South America W A N T S Bieber Again

JB&UR: Billboard Music Awards Cover Story « Bieber Army

“Ustin!” Usher and Justin Bieber are hanging out in a quiet corner of Milk Studios in West Hollywood on a break from a Billboard cover shoot when a stylist enters and utters the SNL-worthy gaffe above. A silence falls over the room and a look of mock horror registers on the stars’ faces—before laughter breaks out.

It’s an understandable slip, as the pair are linked in the public’s mind for good reason: the famed R&B icon took the then-14-year-old Canadian budding singer under his wing, mentoring him into becoming one of the world’s most recognizable superstars. Usher and Bieber also collaborate creatively, having joined forces on a number of hit songs. Their most recent duet, “The Christmas Song,” on Bieber’s holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, helped propel sales of the album to 1.2 million in the US—qualifying   this year. And both of their hotly anticipated forthcoming new albums are said to contain new collaborations with each other.

Seeing the two interact in the same room, their vibe proves playful but protective. Usher still embodies the role of big bro—a lighthearted question about Bieber’s rapping skills elicits a word of caution: “Easy”—and he clearly gets a kick out of Bieber’s mugging for the camera. Born entertainers, neither can stop himself from dancing on set and singing along to whatever comes blasting out of the speakers, from Michael Jackson hits to Usher’s own songs. Read more »

Richard Mourdock

Bill Clinton on Richard Mourdock: Likable, but Disturbing

Former President Bill Clinton says Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock is a likable person, but the tea partier’s views on compromise are “disturbing.”

Mourdock defeated six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in a Republican primary last week, unseating one of the Senate’s last bipartisan compromisers. The former president brought up Mourdock, unsolicited, in an interview with NBC’s Tom Brokaw about fiscal reform at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s 2012 Fiscal Summit in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

“The gentleman that just defeated Senator Lugar said something I found disturbing–although I like him personally, he’s a very appealing sort of person,” Clinton said. “But he said, ‘I am totally against any compromise, our worldviews are irreconcilable, and we just have to keep fighting till somebody wins it all.’

“And if that were the view, there would have never been a Constitution, there never would have been a Bill of Rights, the Capitol would never have been moved to Washington, D. Read more »

Richard Lugar

Statement by the President on Senator Richard Lugar | The White …

Statement by the President on Senator Richard Lugar

As a friend and former colleague, I want to express my deep appreciation for Dick Lugar’s distinguished service in the United States Senate.  While Dick and I didn’t always agree on everything, I found during my time in the Senate that he was often willing to reach across the aisle and get things done.   My administration’s efforts to secure the world’s most dangerous weapons has been based on the work that Senator Lugar began, as well as the bipartisan cooperation we forged during my first overseas trip as Senator to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.  Senator Lugar comes from a tradition of strong, bipartisan leadership on national security that helped us prevail in the Cold War and sustain American leadership ever since.  He has served his constituents and his country well, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Read more »

Zip Line

Zip-Line Injury: Aimee Copeland's Recovery Improves, But She Is …

What happened to Copeland is scary in its innocuousness- the 24-year-old grad student was out kayaking with friends and used a homemade zip-line (one of those things where you hang on a wheeled contraption and slide down a rope) when at some point during the process, she sustained a “gash” on her leg.

But the zip-line injury didn’t just get infected and land Aimee in the hospital- instead, she came down with necrotizing fasciitis, also known as the flesh-eating bacteria. The often-fatal infection is difficult for doctors to treat, and when it can be stopped, the damage it causes is frequently devastating.

Initially, doctors and her family believed Copeland wouldn’t survive the zip-line injury, and the student lost a leg and part of her abdomen already in an attempt by docs to halt the deadly infection’s spread.

And while it is likely that doctors will have to further amputate her limbs- her dad says that Copeland’s hands already “appear mummified”- the student’s father is cautiously optimistic that she will recover fully:

YOUR BEST WEAPON AGAINST MALIGNANT BACTERIA AND VIRUSES:

There is a highly effective remedy for whooping cough and any other ailment caused by bacteria or viruses, and this remedy is equally effective against anti-biotic drug resistant bacteria. Read more »

Lugar

Lugar’s legacy in Senate: Cooperation and security

WASHINGTON (AP) — Far from politics, six-term Sen. Richard Lugar is considered a visionary who looked beyond U.S. exuberance over the end of the Cold War and saw the dangers and opportunities in the collapse of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union.

In an age that worships whiz kids from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, the 80-year-old, soft-spoken Republican is widely described as a man ahead of his times, a thoughtful leader in the international arena who valued cooperation over partisanship. In 1991, he collaborated with former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn on landmark legislation to help the former Soviet states destroy and secure their weapons of mass destruction, a program still going full bore today with thousands of nuclear warheads eliminated and nearly a thousand long-range missiles destroyed.

That singular achievement in a 35-year Senate career focused heavily on foreign policy and national security made Lugar’s decisive defeat in Tuesday’s Indiana primary so painful for Republicans and Democrats alike. Read more »