How much secrecy do you want?

Local governments use the word “executive session” when they meet in secret, because it just sounds better. But it’s still only a closed-door meeting where the public isn’t welcome for various reasons.

The Chippewa Falls City Council met for about 90 minutes Tuesday night in one of those sessions, talking about the city’s plans to redevelop the entrance areas to downtown.

The council went into the secret session about 7 p.m. Several people associated with the development plans were excluded and waited outside in the adjoining hallway.

At 7:26 p.m., they were invited into the meeting. Twenty-three minutes later,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, they left again. Another man connected with the development project who had been waiting in the hallway was called into the meeting.

The discussion went on, with City Planner Jayson Smith doing much of the talking.

At 8:27 a.m. the public was called back into the council chambers. “We took no action,” Council President CW King said.

With that, the council resumed in open session, taking a voice vote and approving submitting a state community block grant application for the redevelopment project.

Not much has changed about the secret meeting process at City Hall over the last few decades. People sitting in the adjoining hallway can still hear snippets of the debate, if they are really interested enough to care to listen.

When he served on the council, Jack Covill routinely voted against going into secret session, saying they weren’t needed and the discussions should be public. He seldom won that argument with his fellow council members.

When then-Herald-Telegram editor Holly Meier covered council meetings from the 1940s through the ‘80s, the council would occasionally kick him out while they gabbed in what the council thought was secrecy.

Only the council chambers weren’t air conditioned then and in the summer the council would open the transoms above the doors to the council chambers to improve ventilation.

One of Meier’s favorite tales was how he would stand by the door and be able to hear every word said in the “secret” sessions. .Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings? .

The college football system has gotten to be such a joke that even teams that failed to muster a winning record now go to bowl games.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, But that’s an argument for another day.

There is a good reason, however, to tune in to a bowl game next Friday: You might be able to see a Chippewa Falls man making an unusual entrance.

Ben Arneberg is part of the "Wings of Blue," the parachute team at the Air Force Academy that consists of cadets who are full-time college students at the Academy. Before they are allowed to parachute into a stadium they must have 500 jumps under their belt.

Arneberg reached that milestone a couple of months ago, and on Friday, he will be one of six parachuters at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,, preceding the Insight Bowl between Iowa and Oklahoma. Kickoff is at 9 p.m. Central Time on ESPN. Arneberg will likely be carrying a Hawkeyes flag.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , . .

Maybe it’s the lack of snow or the still-struggling economy. Or perhaps a holiday song has been repeated one too many times.

The Story of Vesper: Yikes! An unexpected playdate

Vidalia, Veronica and Vincent had been playing thistle-thistle-who's-got-the-thistle in the hay field at the bottom of the hill near the bluebird house where they lived with their dad and mom, Vesper and Valeria.

It was a nice sunny day at the end of the fall, and they could hear rumbling and feel the ground shake, but they didn't know what it was.

The two sisters and their little brother — all northern white-footed mice — were suddenly snatched and bundled into a pile of hay. They didn't see this part, but the hay was squeezed and a string was tied around it and then placed on a wagon with other piles of hay.

As mice do, they started tapping their feet,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, which is how they talked. They were squished into the middle of the pile, and could just move their paws to tap, and had to pull their tails over their backs. "What in the woods," they tapped, "is happening to us? Where are we going?"

By the time the wagon stopped, they had wiggled some space for themselves inside the bale of hay. They felt the bale being picked up from the wagon and tossed. It was a little like being on a swing, but they couldn't see anything.

The bale landed in a corner of a little stall in an old shed that was used as a stable. From inside the bale, all the mice could do was listen, and tap,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, and scratch because the hay made them itchy.

"At least," tapped Vidalia, as she nipped a seed from a weed, "we have something to eat."

So they ate the seeds in the hay, and because it was dark in there anyway, they slept.

They awoke to a clomping sound, followed by a crunching sound, then more crunching.

"Something," tapped Veronica, "is eating."

The mice wiggled, yawned, stretched out their tails, and shivered. Each mouse was scared, and Veronica and Vincent cuddled close to their big sister Vidalia.

Three very old cats and a black and white pony gathered around the bundle of hay.

The cats were Edam, Yikes and Uh-oh. They were barn cats, two brothers (Yikes and Uh-Oh) and a sister (Edam).

The pony was Adeline, Addie for short. It was Addie who had pulled the wagon with the hay to the stable,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , and it was Addie who was eating the hay and paying no attention to the cats.

The cats were paying attention to the tapping noises they heard coming from the bale of hay.

"What's that tapping?" wondered Yikes.

"Something's in there," said Uh-oh.

"I'm hungry," said Edam.

Addie just continued chomping on her hay. Her ears came up and she shook her shaggy head, because she heard the tapping, too, but did not tell the cats.

This was happening in Addie's stall, which was full of things that should have been put away or thrown out. There were frayed ropes too short to tie on to anything, old leaky water pails and buckets, broken boards, mismatched soft leather work gloves and a moldy harness. Spider webs were in all the corners and the air was thick with cat hair and dust. The boards had grooves chewed by Addie when she got bored.

This shed, placed handily next to a pasture and a stream, was her home. The shed was isolated in the farthest field from the rest of the farm. Addie was on her own most of the time, with the cats, of course.

She could come and go as she pleased to get food and water because there was no door on the shed, only a greasy blanket nailed along the top to keep out the wind.

The three cats lived there, too. Somehow,Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings?The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, they managed to keep fluffy — not fat. They entertained themselves by never hurrying, by watching things for hours at a time without moving, and by finishing each other's sentences. Right now, though, they were staring very hard at Addie's bale of hay and listening.

"Tappety-tap-tap, achoo!" is what they heard. That was Veronica telling her sister Vidalia that she could see light, which meant the mice were getting near the outside of the bale of hay. They had managed to wiggle and stretch and push and eat their way to edge. The "achoo" was Vincent sneezing. He had allergies.

The three cats were watching when the three mice stuck their heads out of the bale of hay and took big breaths.

The Metropolitan Museum Honors Indian Master Painters

The exhibit Wonder of the Age, currently at the Met, illustrates highly disciplined Indian artistry from the 12th to the 19th century. Using a magnifying glass given by the Met, we observe the colored detailing of an elephant’s skin and remain in awe about the level of craftsmanship that went into creating thousands of painted leaves for landscape scenes.

The Wonder’s historically earliest installments date back to the 12th century. The exhibition displays an unprecedented creative execution of a mystically endowed element with the rendering of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara by a Bengali artist named Mahavihara Master by art historians.VulcanMold is a plastic molds and Injection mold manufacturer in china.

Art historian D. White came along with me to provide insights into the exhibition, which shows timeless religious motifs in juxtaposition to a politically changing backdrop. “I don’t talk politics nor religion. It’s a tricky subject,” he said.

I agreed as we waxed poetic over the underlying political dynamics of the Buddhist monastic tradition in eastern India at that time. “Unfortunately, there are not a great deal of paintings that depict the story of the Buddha because most of those depictions were in caves,” he said.

After mentioning that Buddhism began around the 5th century B.C., he said, “The Islamic factions had conquered those parts of India that were predominately Buddhist and in their wake destroyed many Buddhist images.”

The exhibit’s historical background, with its fusions of Sultanic, Iranian, Egyptian, as well as European influences that characterize early Hindu art, is nevertheless a most perplexing subject because of the inherent inconsistencies of religion and politics in themselves.

“This is why you’ll find with the Muslim paintings either images of war, courtly depictions, or veneration of royalty,” White said, explaining how Muslims adapted Hindu influences into the totality of their artistic lexicon while destroying Buddhist iconography.

The 15th century’s golden age of Mughal sees the aesthetics shifting—introducing more European influences. Of particular interest is the piece titled “Chameleon” with its delicate mint green and antiqued brown color scheme and a harmonious compositional dictation.

As we further explore the wonders of the ages, we find that as the centuries advance,Why does Plastic moulds grow in homes or buildings? the illustrations become progressively lush and arrestingly graphic. For instance, Master Ruknuddin’s “Ladies of the Zenana on a Terrace at Night” pop out with bold golden, muddy brown,Wholesaler of different types of Ceramic tile for your kitchen, and flesh-colored hues.

Heading into the 16th century,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, we discover the artist called Hada Master and the Kota school with its lucid, wet color, saturated images of elephants. The illustration “An Elephant Combat,” attributed to Hada Master, and “Ram Singh I of Kota Hunting Rhinoceros,” attributed to the artist known as Kota Master A,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , capture the highly realistic embodiment of motion.

Moving into the 16th and early 17th centuries, we find Bahu masters’ stylized, conceptually rich world of bright-colored landscapes. The intricacy of such painting’s as “King Dasaratha and His Retinue Proceed to Rama’s Wedding” and the variations on style suggest that there were many hands at work on these pieces—possibly father and son or two brothers.

DIY solar panel maker heads to Africa for charity

A second glance reveals a bunch of solar panels stacked against the wall and a man, busy breaking them up and reassembling them in a very home-made fashion.

The end result is DIY solar kits that can recharge phones and batteries. They look makeshift but they have the potential to make a huge difference to people thousands of miles away in Kenya.

As the director of KnowYourPlanet,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Mark Kragh's day job is to resell solar panels to small businesses and hobbyists.

But in February he will travel to Kenya to distribute specially-made kits he is giving away as charity, and to show local people how to make more.

For many in Africa there is little access to electricity due to mains power shortages. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the explosion in mobile phone ownership so it is not unusual for people to walk for several hours just to charge their phones.

"Often, charge points are driven by petrol or diesel generators, which are dangerous to operate and of course emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants. A daily phone charge can cost a considerable amount relative to people's wages," said Mr Kragh.

He was inspired by a chance conversation with a friend to experiment with using solar power as an alternative method to charging phones and batteries.

"The project started a few years back when my friend in Senegal asked me if I had any cheap options for solar power for Africa. I told him that PV [photovoltaics] was way too expensive and not a viable option,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. it required batteries and many other components and he should just forget about it.

"I kept thinking about this, could this really be true? Why could we not use a renewable energy? So I did some research and realised there was an entire community of people who already make solar panels from scrap," he said.

He was also inspired by his grandmother Dr Elisabeth Svendsen,Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, a lifelong charity worker who founded the UK's Donkey Sanctuary.

"She passed away this year but my granny travelled in Africa for 40 years, hands-on with all the good and bad that brought with it. She made a huge impact on the local people's lives and I hope that I will be able to carry on this work in my own way," he said.

The kits he creates are made from solar panels that manufacturers have rejected.

"There are very strict rules,They become pathological or Piles when swollen or inflamed." said Mr Kragh.

Slight chips in the corner render the panels useless for traditional solar energy use but perfect for the DIY kits Mr Kragh has designed.

He aims to make them deliberately makeshift, creating a fairly crude circuit of solar panels on plywood.

The panels also require some more sophisticated kit.

"Initially we will bring specialised materials with us such as voltage regulators, UV stable encapsulants, solar cells and PV ribbon," said Mr Kragh.

But over time he hopes to be able to source components locally.

"To start with that would be glass, LEDs, batteries, wood and metal, wires and connectors. A great part of the pilot is simply testing and trying lots of non-solar materials to see what works,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high ," he said.

"Our main concern is the intense sun which causes degradation due to the high levels of heat and UV rays," he added.

Armed with a 5,000 grant from charity World in Need, Mr Kragh aims to build at least 1,000 kits when he arrives, training local people along the way so that they can build new ones and service old ones.

The ultimate goal is to create a $1 (64p) solar charger which has at least a five year lifespan.

"We aim to train local people in these techniques to create cottage industries, giving people locally the opportunity to generate income and keep currency in the community, rather than pay European and Chinese manufacturers and distribution chains and retail networks," said Mr Kragh.

Vacuum Cleaner Distributor Sentenced to 130 Months in Ponzi Scheme

Today United States District Judge Garr M King sentenced Johnny “Mickey” Brown, 59, of Beaverton, Oregon, to 130 months in federal prison following a jury trial that concluded on May 11, 2011. The federal jury found Brown guilty of all 14 counts in an indictment charging him with wire fraud, false statement to a financial institution, and tax evasion. After release from the Bureau of Prisons, Brown will serve five years on supervised release.

“The office of the United States Attorney will prosecute those who prey on the elderly and other vulnerable victims to the full extent of the law,” stated United States Attorney Amanda Marshall. “Brown is a con man who abused the victims in this case, both financially and emotionally.

Many of the victims lost their life savings and some lost their homes.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, All of the victims experienced a loss of dignity and trust.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, We are pleased that he will be spending the next ten years in prison where he won’t be able to take advantage of anyone for a very long time.”

The evidence presented at trial proved that Johnny “Mickey” Brown fraudulently obtained credit cards from unsuspecting victims, many of whom were elderly or financially naive, who believed they were investing in vacuum cleaner inventory for a profitable business. Once he secured the victims’ cards through false promises of no-risk dividends based upon the sale of the vacuum inventory, he immediately obtained all the available credit balance from each card.

Brown did this by running the cards through a United States Bank Merchant Point of Sale terminal and falsely disguised each transaction as a sale of merchandise when, in fact, he didn’t sell anything at all. Each of these pretext or “fake” sales caused United States Bank to automatically deposit the amount of the fraudulent sale entered in the credit card machine into defendant Brown’s business bank account.

Brown used the money he obtained from his scheme for personal and business expenses. The largest business expense was the monthly debt service on 596 credit cards and payments of “dividends” to the many victim investors. These payments had to be made in order to extend the life of the Ponzi scheme.

While some of the money was used to pay regular business expenses, the vast majority went to fund the scheme and for Brown’s personal use, including an elegant home and wardrobe, private education for his children, high-end vehicles, and large donations to the Living Water Christian Assembly in Albany, Oregon.

United States Bank froze Brown’s business accounts in March 2003. The account was frozen, not due to the credit card activity, but in response to United States Bank’s recognition that Brown was receiving the proceeds of, and making monthly payments on, United States Bank loans in excess of $232,000 to 17 customers.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Brown then frantically attempted to run $1,000,000 in fake refunds on many of the hundreds of victim credit card accounts he had improperly charged. United States Bank’s credit card processing office detected this activity and reversed the fraudulent refunds.

At that point, Brown orchestrated a massive campaign to dispute over 1,000 prior fake sales by submitting false “credit slip” documents to the various credit card companies.

Some victims cooperated with Brown’s credit slip effort, while some did not. Brown succeeded in charging back a total of $4,241,941 in fake sales to United States Bank. Ordinarily, merchant charge backs would have been charged against the merchant’s business account. But since Brown’s account had long since been depleted and closed, United States Bank was forced to absorb the full loss.

Individual victims also lost significant sums of money when their credit card companies refused to credit the victim’s accounts.

While carrying out this scheme, the evidence proved that Brown was also evading the payment of federal taxes due on 1993-1995 tax returns he had signed and filed, self-assessing a total tax due of $130,871. He never paid any part of that tax.An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , In order to evade payment of the tax debt, Brown conducted his business and bought and sold assets through nominees. In order to further hide income from the IRS, Brown ran his credit card fraud scheme by use of a credit card processing agreement and bank accounts set up in the name of an employee.

He directed the employee to set up a business entity, open bank accounts and set up a merchant credit card processing agreement for his use. The employee was listed as the owner of defendant Brown’s finance company and those bank accounts as well. All of his business was done through bank accounts in the name of the employee and others.

The case was investigated by the Portland Office of the FBI, the Eugene Office of the IRS,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. Criminal Investigation, and by the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities.

Water sales contract still hot topic

The main topic on Toledo the past few weeks continues to be the new water sales contract by the Sabine River Authority of Louisiana.

I have tried to stay on top of the very heated issue as we wrote a fairly lengthy column last week on the matter.

I have been writing fishing columns and Toledo Bend news columns since 1998, and I have never had the volume of feedback this subject is receiving. My inbox is stuffed with emails from interested, concerned Toledo property owners, lake business owners, area wide anglers and people who just enjoy visiting the lake who are heart-broken to see the lake in its present condition.

The responses vary from those who express their concerns in a civil manner to those who are very angry at what many feel is a man-made situation when it comes to the present historic low water levels in the lake.

It appears the SRA is slowing down the water sales contract process and allowing more time for the public to let their legitimate concerns be made known. I think that is the best step for all concerns. Water sales may be the answer,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and portions of the contract that need to be revisited.

It is fairly safe to say that there is a lack of trust of the SRA on behalf of many in the general Toledo area public. Part of the trust issue might be justified, while some is not, which is the case with most heated issues.

One way to increase trust is to allow public input in the form of hearings and public forums where both sides can meet, discuss and understand each other’s position.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin,

One prevailing, genuine,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. deep-seated fear is that many think that Toledo may never see lake levels above 170 feet again. When these folks who have no water under their docks and hear of a 99-year contract to sell Toledo’s water to another state, there is a predicable negative response.

One question I have, and plan to find the answer to, is whether Texas SRA will have another separate water contract or will it share with Louisiana? I mention that because Toledo Bend is governed by two authorities, Texas and Louisiana. One political governmental agency would be challenging enough, but having two governing bodies, at times, proves interesting.

However, we must remember that both states did cooperate beautifully to build the lake in the late 1950s and 1960s. The Louisiana SRA board (12-13 members) are all appointed by the governor, so we can make our positions known to Gov. Jindal as well as to board members. I did contact the governor’s office this week to let him know my concerns.

I will say that SRA Louisiana Director,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , Jim Pratt, has been willing to discuss the issues with me and others who have contacted him. There are several sections of the contract where we are worlds apart, but Pratt continues to be open and addressing concerns.

In looking further at the contract this week, the lack of SRA overseeing the water outtake meters needs additional consideration as the buyer is doing 90 percent of reading and recording stats. Not a good practice!

Everyone needs to be accountable,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, and it is just a good business practice. A standing-room only public input meeting convened Tuesday at Toledo Town and I was present for that meeting.

I will give a report on the meeting in my next week’s column.

Combat engineers tear down patrol bases throughout Helmand province

Firebase Saenz has been destroyed. Its defenses have been torn down and its walls have been completely leveled. This destruction was not caused by insurgents – it was the handiwork of Marines from the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward).

With the recent reduction and reorganization of troops, Saenz is the first of several forward operating bases being demilitarized in Helmand province.

The firebase, which covered a little over 11 acres of Afghan desert, was built more than a year ago and named after Sgt. Jose Saenz III who was killed in action, Aug. 9, 2010. During its existence, Saenz housed Marine artillery units armed with M777 Lightweight Howitzer cannons that provided indirect fire support for coalition ground forces operating in the northern half of Helmand province.

After convoying north from Camp Leatherneck, the Marines of 9th ESB worked diligently from Dec.Hand-painted Chinese porcelain tiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, 13-15 to properly dismantle the base and ensure that there was little, if any, footprint from the Marines.

“Even though it can be difficult [demilitarizing the base], you kind of just want to wreck the place, you know, have some fun with it,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Fassett, commander of 1st Platoon, Alpha Company,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, 9th ESB, and a native of Princetown, N.Y. “But [the Marines] have been doing a good job taking everything down and making sure to keep it neat so it fits on the truck. We did the right job in terms of cleaning up after ourselves here in Afghanistan.”

Doing the right job included emptying sandbags, pushing down berms and coiling up hundreds of yards of razor-sharp concertina wire surrounding Saenz.

One of the more challenging tasks was dismantling the numerous HESCO barriers that made up the guard posts at each corner of the base. HESCO barriers (named after the British company HESCO Bastion) are military fortifications that have seen extensive use in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A typical HESCO is 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide and is made of a collapsible wire mesh container with a heavy-duty fabric liner that is usually filled with sand.

The Marines used tractors,Our company focus on manufacturing Plastic mould , forklifts,An offshore merchant account is the ideal solution for high , electric saws, shovels, pick axes, bolt cutters, knives and their hands to rip apart the HESCO barriers that once protected the Marines at Saenz from explosive blasts and small arms fire.

“It’s pretty tedious work for myself and the other Marines,” said Lance Cpl. Zachary Couch, a combat engineer with Alpha Co. and a native of Alton, Ill. “Using all the power tools, especially the bolt cutters - those get hard after a while…after at least two or three 7-foot HESCO’s, chopping them down from top to bottom. It gets pretty tough.”

The Marines that were equipped with the electric saws were able to cut through the wire mesh with relative ease compared to the bolt cutters. The sparks they produced lit up the evening sky and resembled fireworks that could be seen on the Fourth of July.

As darkness fell, the Marines used the headlights from the tractors to aid them in their disassembly of the HESCO’s. As they continued working deep into the night, the temperature dropped below 20 degrees, forcing them to put on more and more warming layers.

A little bit before midnight, the Marines called it a day. There were no tents to house them in so they slept inside of the armored vehicles that brought them up to Saenz. Several Marines would cram into one vehicle and sleep in some very awkward and uncomfortable positions on top of their packs and body armor. The more Marines that crammed into a vehicle, the warmer it got inside.

The Marines woke up the next morning, the sun shone on their weather-beaten faces that were still covered with sand from the day before. They grabbed their tools and slowly made their way back to where they had left off the night before.

During the night, the bulldozers had pushed over and flattened the berms that made up the walls of the base, thereby removing protection from any possible insurgent fire. From then on, the Marines had to wear their helmets and body armor. Although it made it slightly more difficult for the Marines to accomplish their duties,MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, it did increase their protection against any possible enemy fire.