BATLEY, England (AP) Police charged a 50-year-old man withmurdering his young son, who vanished 25 years ago and whose remainswere discovered last week.
William Jennings was charged in the death of Stephen Jennings,3, …
Thursday, March 15, 2012
U.N. to Mediate Israeli Soldier Release
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Monday he would appoint a mediator for indirect talks between Israel and Hezbollah on the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers, the first public word of negotiations between the bitter enemies since fighting in Lebanon ended.
The announcement raised the possibility of a prisoner swap to win the soldiers' release, an exchange which Israel has repeatedly rejected, at least in public. Until now, Israel had insisted that it would not hold any contacts with Hezbollah, but its government has been under increasing domestic pressure to bring the two home.
The agreement on the mediation effort could mark a breakthrough on an …
Honduran interim government reinstates curfew
Honduras' interim government suggested that backers of ousted President Manuel Zelaya were taking up arms to return him to power and it reinstated an overnight curfew it had lifted only days earlier.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti said Wednesday that forces he didn't identify "were handing out some guns" to foment rebellion.
A day earlier, Zelaya said Hondurans have the right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government _ referring to a clause in the country's constitution _ and warned he would pull out of talks to solve the crisis if the interim government does not quickly leave.
"There are reports, I don't know if they are real, I haven't been …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
HOW TO HELP
Area residents who wish to help the Luster children can make adonation to: The Luster Children's Trust Fund, the Suburban Bank ofBarrington, 1680 W. Algonquin Rd., Hoffman Estates. (800) 207-4200. ; Here are two other efforts to help victims in Oklahoma City: Garfield's Restaurant & Pub in west suburban North Riverside ishosting a fund-raising …
Burnermag.com
CLICK WEB REVIEWS
This Toronto-based arts and culture journal is all over the map with contributors ranging from Milan to Victoria to Buenos Aires. That's a good thing: one of the strengths of this magazine is its range. This isn't a magazine featuring the usual suspects. 1 was particularly taken with Fabrizio Caliguri's insect/pop star mashups, and 1 was also struck by AJ. Kandathil's memoir-esque short …
AP Enterprise: Free counseling from private psychiatrists amid shortage of military therapists
Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists.
On this Memorial Day holiday weekend, America's armed forces and its veterans are coping with depression, suicide, family, marital and job problems on a scale not seen since Vietnam. The government has been in beg-borrow-and-steal mode, trying to hire psychiatrists and other professionals, recruit them with incentives or borrow them from other agencies.
Among those volunteering an hour a week to help is Brenna Chirby, a psychologist with a private practice in McLean, …
Drug czar: No impact from effort in Colombia
SANTA MARTA, Colombia -- After flying over blackened coca fields,White House drug czar John Walters conceded that seizing cocaine,destroying coca crops and locking up drug traffickers in Colombiahave had little impact on the flow of cocaine on American streets.
But Walters nevertheless insisted that Washington must stay thecourse with so-called Plan Colombia, a $3.3 billion, five-yearprogram mainly to train, equip and provide intelligence to Colombianforces spearheading the war on drugs.
"We have a history in the United States of not following throughon programs like this," Walters said late Wednesday.
During his three-day visit, Walters also met with President …
A private bank at war: J.P. Morgan & Co. and France, 1914-1918
This article examines the relationship between J.P. Morgan & Co. and France during the First World War. It argues that the dealings between the French government and the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. from 1914 to 1918 were characterized by personal difficulties between successive French representatives and the partners of J.P. Morgan & Co. Contributing to a strained relationship was the place of Morgan, Hales, the French affiliate of J.P. Morgan & Co., within the House of Morgan. Herman Hales, the senior partner in Morgan, Harjes, though a proponent of Franco-American amity, became disenchanted with his New York partners as the war continued. The feeling was shared by …
Wildfire near LA's Getty museum contained
A wildfire burned 100 acres of brush and grass near the world-famous Getty art museum before it was doused early Thursday without causing any damage or injuries, fire officials said.
Nearby Interstate 405 was closed for about four hours but reopened at 6 a.m., as the morning rush was getting underway. Even so, traffic on freeways and surface streets throughout Los Angeles were clogged, jammed with motorists who had sought ways around the fire.
The fire erupted around 12:50 a.m. on a steep urban hillside about two miles from the Getty Center.
The center, which houses one of the world's richest art collections and a research institute, was closed for …
Clampdown on school parking
Vehicles are being restricted from parking outside two highschools.
Staffordshire County Council has made a Traffic Order to preventvehicles parking outside Cheadle High and Painsley Catholic High,both in Station Road, Cheadle.
The order, made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 andthe Traffic Management Act 2004, prevents vehicles parking at anytime on the road from its junction with …
Va.Tech to Engrave Memorial Stones
ROANOKE, Va. - Virginia Tech will replace the temporary memorials on the campus lawn with 32 engraved stones for those killed by a student gunman, officials announced Thursday.
The temporary memorials, large stones, were placed in a semicircle near the administration building by student group Hokies United immediately after the April 16 shootings by student Seung-Hui Cho. They will be offered to the families of victims, president Charles Steger said.
The new stones will be an intermediate memorial while officials look for a permanent site elsewhere on the Blacksburg campus, Steger said.
The new memorial will be embedded in an arc of crushed gravel and surrounded …
Israel captures Palestinian who masterminded hotel bombing in 2002
Israeli soldiers on Wednesday arrested the Hamas mastermind of the bloodiest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising, an attack that killed 30 people and wounded 143 others during a Passover dinner celebration in 2002, the army said.
Omar Jabar planned the attack and dispatched the suicide bomber to the hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, the military said. He was arrested early Wednesday in the West Bank, the army said.
The attack became known in Israel as the "Passover Massacre" and spurred the military to launch "Operation Defensive Shield," a broad …
Was it fowl play?: ; Boy suspended for pointing chicken strip
JONESBORO, Ark. - An 8-year-old boy was suspended from school for3 days after pointing a breaded chicken finger at a teacher andsaying, "Pow, pow, pow." The incident last week apparently violatedthe Jonesboro School District's zero-tolerance policy againstweapons.
Kelli Kissinger, mother of first-grader Christopher, said shebelieved the punishment was too severe.
"I think a chicken strip is something insignificant," Kissingersaid.
"It's just a piece of chicken. How could you play like it's agun?"
South Elementary principal Dan Sullivan said he was prevented bylaw from discussing Christopher's suspension. Sullivan said theschool has zero-tolerance rules because the public wants them.
In March 1998, four students and a teacher were killed and 10others wounded when two youths opened fire on a schoolyard atJonesboro's Westside Middle School.
"People saw real threats to the safety and security of theirstudents," Sullivan said.
A school discipline form provided by the boy's mother and signedby Sullivan says the child was suspended because he "took a chickenstrip off his plate, pointed it at (a teacher) and said 'Pow, pow,pow,' like he was shooting her."
Sullivan said punishment for a threat "depends on the tone, thedemeanor and, in some manner, you judge the intent. It's not theobject in the hand, it's the thought in the mind. Is a plastic forkworse than a metal fork? Is a pencil a weapon?"
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
TEESEE'S TOWN
Magic Music - A favorite Chicago blues icon, the legendary harmonica-playing Billy Branch, hosts Monday evening's "Blues/Hip-Hop Intersection," a performance combining the two genres of music. Directed by Chicago Public Radio's Sylvia Ewing, this one-night-only performance is part of Steppenwolf Theatre's Traffic series. This celebration of Chicago blues and Chicago hip hop will explore our town's rich blues legacy and its parallels to hip hop, combining performance, poetry and perspective to reach a multi-generational audience. The program was originally produced by and aired on Chicago Public Radio.
The evening celebration will showcase the talents of such luminaries as Billy Branch's group, The SOBs (Sons of Blues), hip hop poet and singer Avery R. Young, poetry slam vets Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin, emcees Beatmonstas, Butter, FM Supreme, Itch 13 and Sense, vocalists Mae Koen and Ugochi and harmonicist Russ Green. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.steppenwolf.org or by calling (312) 335-1650. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. and Steppenwolf Theatre is located 1650 N. Halsted.
Radio Rocks - An assortment of local media will be in WCGI/107.5 studios on Friday beginning at 2 p.m. as guest host Doug Banks passes the afternoon drive baton to Tony Sculfield in preparation of the debut of "Riot Radio" on Monday. Now, that ought to be a real "sho nuf" riot! . . . WVON's Jon Alexander Daye, the host of On Target from 10 p.m. to midnight, just received confirmation of a two-hour, one-on-one interview with a former Black Panther Party member, Flores A. Forbes, who was the personal security for BPP founder Huey P. Newton. His hot new book, Will You Die With Me?, just hit the book stores. "We'll explore the demise of Fred Hampton, Mark Clark along with the fall and failures of other BPP leaders," Daye says, "and compare what the BPP did then with what Black leaders are doing - or not doing - now." Listen in tonight (Thursday). It promises to be "explosive," he says.
Happy B'day - wishes go out to our esteemed and beloved U.S. Senator Barack Obama, WVON/1450-AM Radio's Melody Spann-Cooper, Sen. (and Rev.) James Meeks (I-15th), U.S. Cellular's Greg Hinton, the Chicago Urban League's Derrick Baker, Ch. 32's Robin Robinson, Min. Bamani Obadele, Syreeta Wright, Johnny Graham (of Earth, Wind and Fire fame), Dr. Franchot Thompson III, Susanna Beavers Chavers, Hugh Allen and Mari-Annie Price Vincent.
Family Fun - The Eta Xi Sigma Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. hosts its Eighth Annual Sigma Round-Up Picnic, "A Family Affair," on Aug. 20 in Grove #10 of Dan Ryan Woods (enter @ 87th and Western) from noon - 6 p.m. Bookbags filled with school supplies will be given to the first 20 young folk in attendance. Other school supplies will also be available. The fun festivity is designed to highlight the sorority's commitment to youth in its national program, "Operation Big Bookbag." For any additional information, you may contact Sydney Stewart at (773) 405-1244.
Congratulations - to Eboni C. Howard, Ph.D. on being named the first director of Erikson Institute's Herr Research Center for Children and Social Policy after a year-long nationwide search. Erikson Institute is one of the nation's leading graduate schools in child development. As director, Dr. Howard, 35, holds the Frances Stott Chair in Early Childhood Policy Research. A researcher at the Center since January, she received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1992 and a doctorate from Northwestern University in 2000.
The new appointment will give Dr. Howard the responsibility of advancing the mission of the Center, which is to produce applied research and analysis that will inform and support the development of public policies throughout the Great Lakes region that support the healthy development of children birth to age 5 and their families.
Before joining Erikson, Dr. Howard led evaluation studies at the University of Chicago in the areas of childhood education, early intervention, child abuse prevention, and foster care practices. As a research associate at the Joint Center for Poverty Research at Northwestern University and UCLA, she was the lead ethnographer in a large welfare reform evaluation study. She has received numerous awards, including a Minority Graduate Research Award from the National Institute of Health. She also served as a graduate fellow at the Joint Center for Poverty Research, Northwestern University/University of Chicago, and received the Scholl Fellowship at Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. A native of Madison, Wis., Dr. Howard resides in Chicago.
Save the Dates - The folks over at ABJ Center for the Arts want us all to "red circle" our calendars or highlight our Palm Pilots and Blackberrys -or whatever - for Sept. 15-16 when they present and host the Silver Year Celebration (that's 25 years!) of Dream Girls, the phenomenon that took Broadway by storm. The showcase at the DuSable Museum is being produced by ABJ Center of the Arts, ABJ Community Services, Inc, and Men of Heritage Productions. Tickets at $30 are already available for sale. Call (773) 947-0447.
Special, Special Guest - Janet Jackson, Virgin Records recording artist and a singer-songwriter, producer, dancer and actress, visited Clear Channel Radio's WGCI and WVAZ-103 FM studios on Wednesday to promote her new album, 20 Years Old, which is scheduled to hit stores Sept. 26. The youngest child of the Jackson music family, who is on a nationwide promotional tour, was the in-studio, on-air interview guest of Troi Tyler, Ramonski Luv, Joe Soto and guest host Doug Banks. While there she also visited Clear Channel's program director Elroy Smith.
[Author Affiliation]
Theresa Fambro Hooks
teesee@chicagodefender.com
Amazed by bid to teach PC English
With reference to your article "Unfit for duty" (Evening Express ,June 20), it amazes me that pounds25,000 is to be used to trainpolice officers to use standardEnglish.
I was brought up speaking Doric. My "mam" used to say I was"broad as the day was lang." Then I became a National Serviceman.
The regiment I was sent to had its major uptake on the west coast.You can imagine at Stirling Castle you learned quick, becauseif you spoke broad Doric, they either ignored you or made fun of you.
You learned how to speak quickly, at no extra expense to the taxpayer.
I'm utterly amazed.
W McClusky Peterhead
Dollar 3-month interbank lending rate down again
The cost of three-month dollar loans between banks fell to a new record low on Friday after the publication of the U.S. government's stress test results for the country's top 19 banks.
The tests showed that nine banks have enough capital to withstand a deeper recession, but that ten must raise a total of $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses.
Though the results were more or less as anticipated following a series of leaks earlier in the week, there was a notable sigh of relief that they were out in the open after weeks of speculation.
"The market seems to like the added certainty of knowing the state of the bank balance sheets and doesn't seem particularly concerned about where the money comes from," said UBS analyst Benedikt Germanier.
The British Bankers' Association said the rate on three-month loans in dollars _ known as the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor _ fell 0.02 of a percentage point to 0.94 percent.
Meanwhile, the three-month sterling rate fell 0.01 of a percentage point to 1.42 percent a day after the Bank of England kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent and raised the amount of money it was pumping into the economy to 125 billion pounds ($188 billion) from 75 billion pounds.
The equivalent rate for three-month loans in euros _ known as the European Interbank Offered Rate, or Euribor _ fell 0.01 of a percentage point to a new record low of 1.31 percent after the European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate to a new low of 1 percent and unveiled some new measures to boost the money supply in the 16-nation single currency zone.
Interbank lending rates affect the wider economy by determining the costs of loans to households and businesses. They had spiked higher since the start of the financial crisis, and have only been falling gradually as governments and central banks around the world announced a raft of measures to stimulate the global economy and financial sector.
All three rates are well down on their peaks after big interest rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. As well as falling sharply, the spread between the Libor rates and the market's expectations for the benchmark rates in three months time have narrowed sharply, indicating that banks are more willing to take on risks. All three spreads are now below one percentage point.
Though the U.S. Federal Reserve cannot reduce its rate from the current 0-0.25 percent range and the Bank of England has indicated that its rate-cutting campaign has ended with the benchmark rate at 0.5 percent, the European Central Bank may cut further, though many economists think that it will keep borrowing costs on hold for a long while yet.
Before the financial crisis became most acute in the wake of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, the spreads were around 0.75 percentage points. And before the credit crunch started, they were well below 0.5 percentage points.
Briefly
BASEBALL
- Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn, a 300-game winner and one ofthe fiercest competitors of his time, has died in Florida at anassisted living center, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported. Hewas 79.
- Andy Pettitte, who has won 55 games for the New York Yankees inthe last three seasons, was been placed on the 15-day disabled listretroactive to March 26.- The Cincinnati Reds' limited partners, led by financier CarlLindner, reportedly have offered to match Cleveland lawyer LarryDolan's $65 million offer to buy control of the team from MargeSchott.- Hideki Irabu returned to the New York Yankees on and apologizedfor his absence. He took part in a drill covering first base. Itwas Irabu's failure to cover the bag last week that prompted ownerGeorge Steinbrenner to call him a "fat toad" on Thursday.- One week after announcing his retirement, Mark Langston signed aminor-league contract with the Cleveland Indians.BASKETBALL- Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski underwent successful hip-replacementsurgery and should be released from the hospital within five days.FOOTBALL- Quarterback Jeff George, who has spent the last two seasons withthe Oakland Raiders, was expected to sign a one-year contract withthe Vikings today for $400,000, two newspapers reported.- Graham Marsh won The Tradition after spring snowstorms forced acancellation of play for the second time in four days. He shot a 3-under-par 69 Thursday and 67 Saturdays.- Juli Inkster shot a 2-under-par 70 to finish at 8-under 279, fora four-stroke victory in the LPGA Long Drugs Challenge in Lincoln,Calif.Schott, 70, owns 61/2 shares in the team, including the generalpartner shares. The limited partners own the other 81/2 shares andhave the right to match any outside offers.Steve Schott, a cousin of Marge Schott's late husband, heads agroup that has made a rival offer, the papers said.
At Journey's End // `Last Orders' Hooks Into Universal Experience
Swift's book chronicles the adventures of a group ofworking-class Englishmen, most of them from the World War IIgeneration, as they follow the final instructions of their deceasedpal, the butcher Jack Dodds. Jack requested that his ashes bescattered off the pier at Margate, on the southeast coast of England.But he probably didn't count on getting the kind of detour-filledfinal ride he gets, as his three buddies, along with Vince, hisadopted son who works as a car dealer, set off in a big, blue,borrowed Mercedes.
Though written well before his nation's "mad cow disease" scare,Swift's story, already deeply resonant in its depiction of a dyingbreed, now seems marbled with yet one additional streak of pathos."It's a sort of meaty book, in more senses than one, I hope,"said Swift, groaning slightly at his own pun as he poured himself acup of tea during a recent interview. "In fact, the beef problem athome is very sad. This is one of our best industries, and a greatmany lives are going to be ruined."The choice of a butcher as a pivotal character in his book wasdeliberate. Last Orders is, in part, a novel about death. And allthe images of slaughter and dead flesh associated with butchers comeinto play, as did the notion that "butchers are traditionally thoughtof as cheerful, jovial people, which Jack is, in part. And of coursethere's an element of black humor here, too, because what Jack reallywanted to be was a doctor."In fact, nearly all of the characters in this book are shaped bytheir trade, either directly or in terms of rebellion. Ray, theinsurance clerk with a passion for betting on horses, wanted to be ajockey. Lenny, the produce seller, was briefly a boxer. Only Vic,the undertaker, and the most contented man in the book, settledeasily into the family profession.Swift believes that one of the keys to forming character in anovel is livelihood. And too many contemporary novels, he says,"are filled with people who never seem to work, despite the fact thatwe are formed by our work, or by the dream of what we might havedone."Swift's desire to become a writer was formed in his early teens.And by his early 20s, after graduating from Cambridge, he was doingsomething about it, getting his short stories into print. He wasonly 28 when his first novel, The Sweet-Shop Owner, was published.The writer, who will turn 47 next week, has carved out adistinguished reputation with work that is marked by an exceptionalspiritual and historical depth and lyric power. Waterland (1983),his best-known book, is a haunting tale set against the history ofEngland's boggy Fen country. (It is now being made into a filmstarring Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack.) Next came Out of This World(1988), about the estranged relationship between a Britishphotojournalist who has covered some of the horrors of the 20thcentury, and his daughter, and Ever After (1991), a look at the oddlyparallel lives and loss of faith of two scholarly men from differentcenturies.Swift grew up in south London and still lives there - not farfrom Bermondsey, the run-down neighborhood that stretches south ofthe Tower of London and that is home base for the men in Last Orders.His father, a civil servant "of fairly junior station" in theNational Debt Office, served in World War II as a pilot."He was trained to fly in Pensacola, Fla., so for a while he hadit easier than my mother, who was in London while the bombs wereraining down every night," said Swift. "After the war, he returnedto the same job and stayed at it until he retired on a pension."But it's that generation, which survived the war, that is nowdwindling, and that is at the heart of my book.""The direct passage of history through memory is coming to anend now," said Swift, who admitted his dad was, like many veterans,rather close-mouthed about his experiences. "We celebrated the 50thanniversary of the war last year, and I think a lot of peoplethought, `O.K., now we can pull the curtain down on all that.' Butit was such a massively important, catastrophic event - withrepercussions that will be with us forever - that I think it's wrongto just draw the line."Swift described the beginnings of novels "as mysteriousthings.""I don't get the idea for a novel very often," he confessed."Writing has a great deal to do with waiting, with being patientuntil something happens. So it wasn't a particular conversationoverheard in my local pub that got me started on this book, althoughI do go to pubs, and I do listen. I just envisioned a group ofpeople going on a very specific journey of the living and the dead.And I knew their voices. I'd heard them nearly every day of mylife."Swift said he wasn't consciously thinking of William Faulkner,either, although he greatly admires him. But in a sense, Last Ordersbecame a homage to the American writer's As I Lay Dying - stronglyechoing the structure and soul of that book, which also follows atragi-comic burial rite."Both books are about laying to rest the dead and about how theliving come to terms with it," said Swift. "But this is theperennial, mythic story - one that Homer and Shakespeare andcountless other writers have dealt with.""Funerals are curious things, too. They're often strangelymechanical, yet they carry an immense burden. A lot of what thecharacters in my book are trying to do is make something big anddignified and respecting out of this event, despite the extraordinarybanality of the actual process. And what's funny and wonderful inall of it is that in the midst of such sobering, awe-inspiringcircumstances these people don't just suddenly lose their essentialnatures and become less obstinate or mean or selfish. The journey toMargate almost threatens to become a pub crawl at one point, and itcontinually erupts with all the latent antagonisms and secrets thesemen (and the women in their lives) possess."In one of the book's loveliest passages, the quartet of mournersmake a stop at the imposing Canterbury Cathedral, and each, in hisown way, tries to match the grandeur and solemnity of the place."They feel a sense of something beyond time and beyond theindividual struggle," explains Swift. "Ray's thoughts vault into theother world, but he fails to see it, but I think there is comedy andgreat sadness and compassion in that flawed attempt to glimpse whatis transcendent."Although he does not practice any religion, Swift said he has"the residual and fragile religious feelings that artists tend tohave. Words like `the soul' and `the spirit' do have a meaning forme. The whole purpose of writing books has to do with reconcilinglife and death and coming to some transcendent view of humanity."I grew up reading the typical boys' adventure books of mygeneration, and they sowed the seeds of my ambition to write.Whatever their literary value, they suggested that you could getpeople excited with words. And that's still magic to me. I supposeI still believe in the primal appeal of telling a story. It's aprimitive compulsion, deep in our nature. A kind of magic. Everywriter wants to cast a spell and every reader wants to be underone.
Where to send your check
Hard as it may be to believe, some people who shortchange the IRSon income taxes later get pangs of conscience. The government makesit easy to assuage that guilt. You can write a check-with no fear ofretribution-and send it to:
The Conscience Fund
U.S. Department of Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Rm. 6D37
Hyattsville, Md. 20782
And some people-maybe those who dumped their dot-com stocks beforethey tanked-just want to do something extra to help pay off thenational debt. If you're one of those, you can send any amount ofmoney to:
Bureau of the Public Debt
Attn. Dept. G
P.O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, W. Va. 26106-2188
In the memo field of the check, just write: "Gift to reduce thedebt held by the public."
Alcohol Consumption: A Different Kind of Canadian Mosaic
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To determine the way Canadians consume alcohol beyond drinking amounts and to verify if the drinking act is similar across provinces given that, in Canada, alcohol policies come under provincial jurisdiction.
Methods: Subjects were 10,466 current drinkers (5,743 women and 4,723 men) aged 18 to 76 years, who participated in the GENACIS Canada study.
Results: In Canada, there are three main patterns of consuming alcohol. Maritimers tend to drink more per occasion, report more binge drinking and largely prefer beer. In the Prairies, people tend to drink less, to drink less often during a meal and to favour spirits. Finally, drinkers from Qu�bec, Ontario and British Columbia drink more often, drink wine more often, drink spirits less often, and drink more often during a meal than drinkers from the other provinces. The same patterns are observed in both sexes, although the differences across provinces are less pronounced among women.
Conclusion: Knowledge about these three drinking groups should be used to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of alcohol policies in general.
Key words: Culture; alcoholic beverages; Canada; gender
La traduction du r�sum� se trouve � la fin de l?article.
Can J Public Health 2010;101(4):275-80.
In Canada, health and social problems resulting from alcohol consumption are becoming a concern. Over the last decade, both the annual volume of consumption and high-risk drinking have increased.1-4 Consequently, in order to avoid a proliferation of alcoholrelated damages, effective recommendations are needed. While commonly reported numeric measures of alcohol consumption are accurate predictors of various problems, they are limited in their scope to help understand the drinking act and its relationships to alcohol-related harm.5,6 Yet, this could be improved if more thought were given to the qualitative dimensions of drinking such as the types of beverages consumed and the circumstances surrounding the drinking act.
Drinking occasions, characterized by relational, temporal, circumstantial and locational dimensions, represent a distinct social world that has its own norms and, as such, influence drinking outcome. 7-10 For instance, the probability for heavy drinking is generally higher in bars, discos or taverns than in restaurants or homes.11-16 Accordingly, drinking in a bar is associated with acute social consequences such as suicide, violence, motor vehicle and other accidents.17,18 By contrast, light drinking with meals may be associated with improved cardiac functioning and reduced risk of heart attack.19
While damages from alcohol are strongly related to total volume of alcohol consumed and heavy drinking episodes, some studies have shown that beverage choices can also be associated with drinking outcomes. Beer drinkers are more often involved in alcoholrelated accidents than other types of drinkers,20 whereas wine drinkers have a lesser risk of alcohol-related problems,21 morbidity and mortality from all causes.22,23 While these differences can be explained by the health-promoting components of different alcoholic beverages,22,24-27 they might also be an artifact of the qualitative ways a standard dose of alcohol is taken,6 the personality of the drinker and his lifestyle,28-32 or the circumstances in which drinkers find themselves.33,34 Beverage choice is also a significant indicator of social status, a fact that may also impact on drinking consequences.10
To develop effective alcohol recommendations, alcohol consumption needs to be considered as a social behaviour and each and every dimension of the drinking act must be analyzed. Hence, this paper's key questions are:
1) What are Canadians? drinking patterns in terms of drinking amounts as well as beverage and drinking context preferences?
2) Are Canadians? drinking patterns similar across provinces?
This paper aims to be a first step toward finding out whether Canadians share a drinking culture.
METHODS
Survey
The GENACIS* survey was developed to study the influence of social and cultural variation on gender differences in alcohol use. Between January 2004 and January 2005, telephone interviews were performed and responses from 14,067 Canadians between the ages of 18 and 76 originating from ten provinces were collected. The overall response rate was 53%. Although provinces with smaller populations were over-sampled to allow provincial comparisons, there were still an insufficient number of respondents from the Maritime provinces to carry out the present analyses. Consequently, these provinces were grouped together as preliminary analyses revealed that they shared very similar drinking practices.
The analytical sample includes 10,466 current drinkers (5,743 women and 4,723 men). The age distribution of respondents was not statistically different across provinces. Data were not weighted, in accordance with the GENACIS technical report's suggested protocol when comparing provinces.35
Measures
Analyses are based on the annual frequency of drinking, the occurrence of a binge drinking occasion (5+ drinks on one occasion), the usual daily quantity and the annual volume. We further calculated the percentage of the total volume due to each type of beverage as well as the percentage of the annual frequency attributable to specific drinking contexts, by dividing beverage-specific/contextspecific responses by the general ones. Details about variables and relevant questions are shown in Appendix 1.
Analyses
Analyses were conducted to reveal drinking patterns and verify whether these patterns vary across provinces. Descriptive analyses and pairwise comparisons based on estimated marginal means were performed using SPSS 12.0. Analyses were stratified according to gender and were conducted separately for each drinking measure, each beverage type and each drinking context. Level of significance was set at p?0.05.
RESULTS
Men's drinking amounts and drinking patterns
On average, a Canadian male drinker has 432 drinks a year. This average varies from 486 drinks in the Maritimes to 318 drinks in Manitoba and these two extremes are significantly different from one another. The average annual drinking frequency for Canadian men is 95 occasions. The highest number is observed in Qu�bec where men report 109 drinking occasions, i.e., significantly more occasions than the number reported in the Maritimes (84), Alberta (82), Saskatchewan (78) and Manitoba (71). Canadians? usual daily quantity is 3.3 drinks whereas Maritimers? intake is significantly higher than that observed in every other province, with a usual daily quantity of 4.1 drinks. Accordingly, while 64% of Canadians binge drink at least once a year, 73% of Maritimers do so - a significantly greater proportion than everywhere else in Canada except Alberta (64%) and Saskatchewan (64%).
Men's beverages and context preferences
Beer - the preferred alcoholic beverage in every province - accounts for 51% of men's annual volume, though the annual intake of Maritimers is significantly more (59%) than in any other province except Qu�bec (53%). While wine constitutes 26% of Canadian men's annual volume, Quebecers have a distinct preference for this beverage. More than one third (36%) of Quebecers? annual volume is wine, a proportion that is significantly greater than in all other provinces. Spirits constitute 19% of Canadians? annual volume, but these beverages are significantly more appreciated in the Prairies. In Saskatchewan, the annual volume attributable to spirits (32%) is significantly higher than in the Maritimes (24%), British Columbia (19%), Ontario (19%) and Qu�bec (8%). Notably, Quebecers? percentage of the annual intake consisting of spirits is significantly lower than everywhere else in Canada. Finally, coolers are not popular among men. Yet, Ontarians (5%) drink significantly more coolers than both Quebecers (2%) and Maritimers (2%).
With regards to drinking contexts, results indicated provincial differences. Drinking during a meal is more prevalent in Qu�bec (58%) than in Alberta (45%), Saskatchewan (41%) and the Maritimes (40%). Drinking at a restaurant is less frequent in the Maritimes (23%) than in Alberta (30%) and Ontario (29%). Drinking at a party is significantly more popular in Manitoba (46%) than in BC (37%) and Qu�bec (37%). Finally, Quebecers report significantly less drinking occasions at a bar (24%) than men from other provinces except BC and Ontario. Quebecers also report less drinking with friends (37%) than drinkers from Alberta (44%), Manitoba (48%) and Ontario (42%).
Women's drinking amounts and drinking patterns
On average, a Canadian female drinker has 183 drinks annually. It is in British Columbia that women drink the most (207 drinks), followed by women from Ontario (190), and those numbers are significantly higher than that observed in Saskatchewan where women drink the least (134). The average annual drinking frequency of Canadian women is 62 occasions. The highest number is observed in BC where women report 71 drinking occasions, i.e., significantly more occasions than that reported by women in Alberta (56), Manitoba (51), the Maritimes (45) and Saskatchewan (39). While Canadian women usually have 2.2 drinks per day, the highest average is found in the Maritimes where women usually have 2.5 drinks per day, i.e., significantly more than in Qu�bec (2.2), British Columbia (2.1), Alberta (2.1) and Ontario (2.1). Finally, 37% of women report binge drinking at least once a year. This proportion is largest in the Maritimes (43%) and significantly higher than that observed in Ontario (35%) and Qu�bec (35%).
Women's beverages and context preferences
Among women, wine is the preferred beverage (47%) and the proportion of the annual intake that is attributable to this beverage is significantly higher in Qu�bec (59%) than in every other province. Beer constitutes 20% of Canadian women's annual intake and again, it is in Qu�bec that we observed the largest proportion of the intake attributable to this beverage (25%) - a significantly larger proportion than in the Maritimes (19%), BC (18%), Ontario (18%) and Manitoba (17%). Spirits are preferred in the Prairies. Manitoba women report that 31% of their annual intake consists of spirits. This proportion is significantly higher than in every other province except Saskatchewan (31%). Finally, while coolers represent 13% of Canadian women's annual intake, in the Maritimes they represent 18%, i.e., significantly more than everywhere else in Canada except Manitoba (15%).
With regards to drinking contexts, data indicate that drinking during a meal is more prevalent in Qu�bec (70%) than in Saskatchewan (56%), Manitoba (53%) and the Maritimes (51%). It is in Alberta (41%) that the highest percentage of drinking in a restaurant is observed and this number is significantly higher than that observed in the Maritimes (28%) where women drink significantly less in a restaurant than women from every other province except Manitoba. Maritime women drink significantly more often during a party (57%) than women in Ontario (49%), BC (48%), Alberta (48%) and Qu�bec (47%). Women from Qu�bec report significantly fewer drinking occasions at a bar (18%) than women from other provinces, and they also report the lowest proportion of drinking occasions with friends (44%), one that is significantly lower than in the Maritimes (52%) and Ontario (50%).
DISCUSSION
In the alcohol field, it is commonplace to treat nation states and their drinking culture as congruent. However, by looking beyond drinking amounts and paying attention to the qualities of the drinking act, present analyses reveal that in Canada, a large country with ten provinces, there may not be just one single way of consuming alcohol. Preliminary analyses presented in this paper suggest the possibility of three main patterns among Canadian drinkers.
At one end of the spectrum, Maritimers tend to drink more per occasion and report more binge drinking, and Maritime men largely prefer beer. Men and women from the Maritimes drink less often during a meal than elsewhere in the country.
A second way of drinking is observed in the Prairies where men and women tend to drink less, to drink less often and to strongly favour spirits - a type of beverage that constitutes one third of their annual intake.
Finally, there is a way of drinking typified by Quebecers and to a lesser extent by male and female drinkers from Ontario and British Columbia. Actually, given the pronounced preference of Quebecers for wine - a preference which impacts the proportion of volume associated with every other beverage - we could justify putting Quebecers in an exclusive category. However, recent longitudinal data indicate that the value of wine sales increased more noticeably in BC and Ontario than in Qu�bec3 and therefore, we expect that in the future, drinking practices in these three provinces will grow even more similar. Overall, drinkers from Qu�bec, Ontario and BC show a drinking style that is closer to the Mediterranean culture, i.e., men and women in these provinces drink more often, drink more wine, drink less spirits, and drink during a meal more often than drinkers from the other provinces.
Overall, this paper prepares the ground for further development of a Canadian alcohol consumption typology, as we were able to identify three distinct ways of consuming alcohol in Canada. We argue that awareness about these three subgroups of Canadian drinkers could be taken into account in the development of alcohol recommendations. This knowledge can be used to strengthen the links between alcohol-related problems and prevention strategies such as low-risk drinking guidelines, which in turn can contribute to increasing the legitimacy of alcohol policies in general.
[Sidebar]
R�SUM�
Objectif : Cet article d�crit de quelles mani�res les Canadiens consomment de l?alcool au-del� des quantit�s consomm�es. �tant donn� qu?au Canada, les politiques relatives � l?alcool rel�vent d?une juridiction provinciale, les profils individuels de consommation � travers les provinces sont pr�sent�s.
M�thodologie : Les sujets de cette �tude sont 10 466 consommateurs d?alcool (5743 femmes et 4723 hommes), �g�s entre 18 et 76 ans, qui ont particip� � l?enqu�te GENACIS Canada.
R�sultats : Au Canada, il existe trois grandes fa�ons de consommer de l?alcool. Les r�sidents des Maritimes pr�f�rent la bi�re, ils boivent de plus grandes quantit�s par occasion et ils sont plus nombreux � rapporter une consommation �pisodique et abusive. Les r�sidents des Prairies pr�f�rent les spiritueux, ils boivent moins et ils boivent moins souvent lors d?un repas. Finalement, les Qu�b�cois, les Ontariens et les r�sidents de la Colombie-Britannique boivent plus de vin et moins de spiritueux, ils boivent plus fr�quemment et ils boivent plus souvent lors d?un repas que les r�sidents des autres provinces. Ces profils sont les m�mes selon le sexe, mais les diff�rences r�gionales sont moins prononc�es chez les femmes.
Conclusion : La connaissance de ces trois groupes est utile pour l�gitimer et am�liorer l?efficacit� des politiques relatives � l?alcool.
Mots cl�s : Culture; boissons alcoolis�es; Canada; genre
* GENder Alcohol and Culture: an International Study
[Reference]
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11. Clapp JD, Reed MB, Holmes MR, Lange JE, Voas RB. Drunk in public, drunk in private: The relationship between college students, drinking environments and alcohol consumption. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 2006;32:275-85.
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13. Kypri K, Paschall MJ, Maclennan B, Langley JD. Intoxication by drinking location: A web-based diary study in a New Zealand university community. Addict Behav 2007;32:2586-96.
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19. Giesbrecht N, Russell M, Rehm J. Background paper for the National Alcohol Strategy Working Group. Alcohol and chronic disease: Implications for policies and prevention strategies in Canada. Toronto, ON: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2005.
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Received: September 8, 2009
Accepted: April 5, 2010
[Author Affiliation]
Catherine Paradis, MSc,1 Andr�e Demers, PhD,1 Elyse Picard, MSc2
[Author Affiliation]
Author Affiliations
1. D�partement de sociologie, GRASP, Universit� de Montr�al, Montr�al, QC
2. GRASP, Universit� de Montr�al, Montr�al, QC
Correspondence: Catherine Paradis, GRASP, Pavillon 7077 av. du Parc, Universit� de Montr�al, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montr�al (Qu�bec) H3C 3J7, Tel: 514- 343-6193, E-mail: catherine_paradis@yahoo.ca
Acknowledgements: Funding for this research was provided through an operations grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Kate Graham (PI) and Demers (Co-PI)). We are grateful to the staff at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at York University and to Jolicoeur for their assistance in implementing the survey, especially David Northrup and Ren�e Elspett-Koeppen of ISR for their contributions to the design of the survey. This research was conducted as part of the GENACIS project, a collaborative multinational project led by Sharon Wilsnack and affiliated with the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol.
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
Appendix 1. Relevant survey questions on drinking patterns, beverage preferences and drinking context preferences
Four dimensions of drinking patterns were studied: the annual frequency, the prevalence of five drinks or more per occasion, the usual daily quantity and the annual volume.
For the annual frequency of drinking, respondents were asked: ?During the last 12 months, how often did you usually have any kind of drink containing alcohol?? Possible responses were 1) every day, 2) five or six days a week, 3) three or four days a week, 4) once or twice a week, 5) one to three days a month, 6) less than once a month, or 7) never. Those categories were recoded into absolute average numbers, i.e., 365, 286, 182, 78, 24, 6 or 0 annual drinking days. The same procedure was used for the annual frequency of 5 drinks or more per occasion.
The usual daily quantity is a continuous variable where respondents were asked the following question: ?In the past 12 months, on those days when you had any kind of beverage containing alcohol, how many drinks did you usually have??
The annual volume is a continuous variable derived from multiplying the annual frequency of drinking by the usual daily quantity.
Questions regarding the annual volume were then asked again but specifically for each type of beverage (wine, beer, spirits, coolers). Afterward, proportions of the total volume due to each type of beverage were calculated.
Regarding drinking contexts, respondents were asked how often they drank in various circumstances, i.e., during a meal, at a party, at home, with friends, at work, at a bar/pub/disco/nightclub, at a restaurant, alone. Again, the percentage of the annual frequency of drinking that occurred in each of those contexts was calculated.
Christian comment
Like many readers, I have taken my summer holidays recently.
I chose to visit the ancient city of Krakow in southern Polandwith a priest friend.
Following advice, we decided to visit the State Museums atOswiencim. This town is over 600 years old and yet is infamous for aname it bore for just six years of Nazi occupation, Auschwitz.
Like the vast majority of visitors, I was moved to tears. As abeliever in God, I was challenged to ask where God was in all ofthis.
It was very plain to me that the SS guards and officers weretotally indoctrinated with the Nazi ideology, one which excludesbelief in a supreme being. They had no belief in ultimate justice orin conventional morality.
As a result, they had no qualms to stealing the property of theirvictims or realisation that they were systematically murderingthousands of innocent victims.
The atheist, Communist regimes, which we once saw in Russia andEastern Europe had a similar difficulty in respecting human rights.It seems to me that most of the value of man, to say nothing ofhuman values, is rooted in belief in the Creator.
Rejecting God does not liberate mankind but puts us at risk ofself-destruction.
As a result, I am determined to resist the secularisation ofsociety.
Fr Philip Thomas
SS Joseph and Teresa Catholic Church
Monday, March 12, 2012
Ikea Loves Its Customers Too!
On Thursday, November 14, Lisa Bryant wrote to the Evening Postexpressing her love for IKEA. This is our response: Dear Lisa Bryant,Thank you for your kind and generous expression of your affection forIKEA.We love you too.
We are aware that our weekends are a busy time and we continue tosearch for ways in which we can improve the flow of customers andtraffic in and around the store.
Twenty per cent of our customers come from Wales.We are confidentthat these will shop in Cardiff when the new IKEA store opens therebefore Christmas 2003.
We have introduced the use of a mobile pre-scan unit at peak timesin order to reduce queuing time.
We are also actively working with coach tour operators to promotegroup visits to the store by coach in order to reduce traffic in thelocality and free up more car-parking spaces.
If you have any more ideas on how we can improve a weekendshopping experience, please drop us a line.
PS. Because we love you we are going to share with you a specialsecret. Midweek late afternoon during term-time offers the mostpeaceful and speedy opportunity for an IKEA shop." A.SpokespersonIkea
French Socialists to choose presidential nominee
PARIS (AP) — France's Socialists and sympathizers on Sunday are choosing their nominee for next year's presidential election — an expected showdown with embattled conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The main opposition party is holding a runoff to choose its standard-bearer as many French people worry about high state debt, cuts to education spending, anemic economic growth and lingering unemployment.
The contest pits current party boss Martine Aubry against her predecessor, Francois Hollande. Aubry is best known as the author of France's fabled 35-hour workweek law passed in the late 1990s; Hollande is seen as a party moderate who favors greater integration with Europe.
Aubry and Hollande were the survivors as the six-person Socialist field winnowed down last week in the first phase of the unprecedented party primary in which more than 2 million people cast ballots.
Starting with Charles de Gaulle in 1958, France has had a string of conservative presidents over the past half-century, but only one Socialist: Francois Mitterrand.
The U.S.-styled primary, the first of its kind in France, has been designed in part to help the Socialists overcome years of dissension in their ranks. It is open to voters beyond those in the party, though some conditions apply.
Early this year, most polls showed that the Socialists' best hope for toppling Sarkozy was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who led the International Monetary Fund until he was jailed in May in the United States on charges he tried to rape a New York hotel maid. Prosecutors later dropped the case, but Strauss-Kahn's reputation and presidential ambitions came crashing down.
Hollande, the top vote-getter in the first round, has received expressions of support from all four candidates who lost out last Sunday — a tacit sign that a Socialist victory in the presidential election is their highest priority.
Recent polls suggest Aubry or Hollande could beat Sarkozy in the presidential election next spring. The incumbent's favorability ratings have hovered near the 30-percent level for months, but he is a strong campaigner and senses a rightward-majority tilt in the French electorate.
Sarkozy, who was elected to a five-year term in 2007, has not announced whether he will run again, but most political observers expect that he will.
Hollande, 57, voted in the central Correze region, whose regional government he heads and which he represents in the National Assembly — parliament's lower house. Aubry, 61, cast her ballot in the northern city of Lille, where she is mayor.
Both Aubry and Hollande say trimming state debt is a priority, but have kept to Socialist party dogma on issues such as shielding citizens from the whims of the financial markets and raising taxes on the rich.
The party's nominee will face questions about how to keep France competitive at a time when sluggish growth has reined in state spending and emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil keep booming.
Hollande — the former partner of the Socialists' last presidential nominee, Segolene Royal — is little-known outside of France and has provided no dramatic proposals for saving the euro, shrinking debts, solving tensions with immigrants or other French woes.
Aubry has repeated her hopes for "a strong left" to face Sarkozy — seen by many as a jab at Hollande — and insisted she would unite ideological allies such as Green Party supporters for the presidential race finale.
In an interview published Saturday in Le Parisien newspaper, Aubry said the phrase "soft with the weak, and hard on the powerful" was one that fits her well.
In Paris' touristic and bohemian Montmartre neighborhood, voters streamed steadily into one polling station at an elementary school near the Sacre Coeur basilica. Several said their priority was getting Sarkozy out, but personality and gender also counted.
"It'd be great to have a woman president," said Michelle Joly, 44, an unemployed former human resources director, who voted for Aubry. "The programs of Aubry and Hollande are a bit 'six of one, half a dozen of the other.' And in fact. I'd probably have more negative things to say about Aubry, but I still voted for her."
Joly's husband, Jean Audouard, however, voted for Hollande.
"I like his ability to unite, his humor, and feel he's less left-leaning than Martine Aubry: I'm center-left," said the 50-year-old school director, while agreeing that the incumbent president needs to go.
"I think Sarkozy isn't suited to France today — he's not a unifier at a time when we need cohesion," he added. "I think Francois Hollande is good. He is a bit soft but he's really nice, and quite funny — and that counts."
Canadiens top Bruins in OT
Stephane Richer's second goal of the game 27 seconds intoovertime ended a shootout that gave the visiting Montreal Canadiens a4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, tying their Adams Division finalat one game apiece Friday.
Brian Skrudland passed the puck from behind the net to the leftof Bruins goalie Andy Moog to Richer behind the other side of thenet. Richer passed it to Shayne Corson, whose shot went wide, butRicher collected the puck and beat Moog from the left corner of thecrease. The Bruins were 5-0-12 in overtime during the regularseason.
Penguins 7, Capitals 6: Kevin Stevens scored his second goal ofthe game at 8:10 of overtime as host Pittsburgh blew a two-goal,third-period lead and then rallied to beat Washington and even thePatrick Division final at one game apiece. The Penguins ended theCapitals' streak of six consecutive overtime playoff victories.
Barbara Enters The Minefield
Thumb'suck er n. journalistic sl. Article or report that setsthe stage for a major event by filling the space or air time normallyallocated for news with inconsequential details, speculation andblather, esp. by spin doctors. (Also: Situationer, Filler,Curtain-raiser).
Heavens to Betsy! Have you heard what Barbara Bush said aboutthe A-word? Of course you have - thanks to a barrage of perfectlytimed and masterfully spin-doctored thumbsuckers.
Every newspaper, TV anchor and radio talk jockey in America istalking about it, as the Republicans converge on Houston thisweekend, for what promises to be a sharply divided convention. Thefirst lady has a teensy, weensy bone to pick with the RepublicanPlatform Committee about its planks on "personal things" that shedoesn't think are any of Big Brother's business, she disclosed.Things like oh, for example - are you sitting down? - abortion.
"I'm not being outspoken or pro or con abortion," she said,tiptoeing through a minefield in a White House interview last weekwith a carefully selected group of reporters. "I'm saying abortionshould not be in there, either pro or con."
But in saying abortion should not be "in there," she alignsherself with the overwhelming majority of women who recoil at thenotion of government intruding in such private decisions as whetherto carry a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest to term.
So the cat's out of the bag. The popular first lady, who willhave a major speaking role at this convention, is a pro-choicesympathizer, just as many of us suspected all along. She willprobably use her moment in the spotlight to urge pro-choicers to keepthe faith, leading to speculation about the length of her coattails.Are they long enough to carry George Bush and Dan Quayle, who havealso admitted to timely misgivings about the party line on abortion,to victory over the emphatically pro-choice Bill Clinton and Al Gore?
It's worth a try, with popular support for legal abortionsmounting daily and reflected in every poll. Look for one more,coming Tuesday from a group headed by Chicagoan J. B. Pritzker, todemonstrate the depth of pro-choice sentiment among18-to-40-year-olds, a critical constituency.
Only 12.4 percent of likely Republican voters surveyed byRobinson Muenster last week for Pritzker's Democratic Leadership forthe 21st Century agreed with the official GOP position on abortion,Pritzker said.
Asked to decide which view about abortion comes closest to theirown, a staggering 61.9 percent of all likely voters selected"Abortion should be permitted so a woman can make her own choice,"27.6 percent chose "Abortion should be permitted only in cases ofrape, incest or danger to the woman's life" and 3.6 percent wereundecided. In other words, 89.5 percent shunned the extreme GOPposition that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. Only7 percent of all likely voters, Democratic and Republican, called theview, "Abortion should never be permitted" closest to their own.
Having taken the hard line, Republicans have their work cut outfor them: to persuade voters to just trust them - a ploy all tooreminiscent of Bush's promise of "no new taxes" four years ago. Aspolitical consultant Ted Muenster sees it, no amount of sweet talkfrom Mrs. Bush can suggest that her husband was only kidding when heimplemented the "gag" rule or appointed abortion hard-liners to theSupreme Court.
Bush "is trapped in the Faustian deal Republicans made withfundamentalists 12 years ago, and he's paying a heavy price for it,"Muenster said. And Bush's wife's opinion in the matter hasn't madea difference yet.
Carole Ashkinaze is a member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorialboard.
ON THE MOVE
Big Spring School District bought a 63-acre tract in West Pennsboro Township near Newville from the Rook Estate for future expansion. Wolfe & Company of Carlisle represented the buyer; the Carlisle office of Prudential HomeSale Services Group represented the seller.
JEM Group signed a contract with Elwyn Inc. for interior renovations to its 2003 N. Third St. facility in Harrisburg. The project includes painting, flooring, electrical upgrades and modifications to existing units.
York County-based Osterberg Chiropractic Centre opened a second office, at 2217 Carlisle Road in West Manchester Township.
Pinnacle Health Medical Services leased 11,500 square feet of office space from Waterford Med Partners LP in the Waterford Business Center at 21 Waterford Drive in Silver Spring Township. The building is scheduled for completion in the spring. Campbell Commercial Real Estate Inc. of Lemoyne represented both parties.
East Pennsboro Township-based Boyer & Ritter Certified Public Accountants and Consultants relocated its Chambersburg office to 1137 Kennebec Drive.
Hampden Township-based Graystone Tower Bank opened a full-service Tower division branch on Norland Avenue in Chambersburg.
Bath Fitters Inc. leased 2,000 square feet of storage space at 265 Sipe Road in Newberry Township from Matthew Sentman. Landmark Commercial Realty Inc./Oncor International of East Pennsboro Township represented the tenant.
Pfizer Inc. will merge its New Jersey and Philadelphia operations into 31,000 square feet of warehouse space leased from Cozen Realty at 543 Industrial Park Drive in Fairview Township. Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant; NAI CIR represented the owner.
FP+A Inc. of Lower Paxton Township will develop plans and specifications for interior renovations for the andCulture Inc. office at 200 Locust Street in Harrisburg.
SUBMITTING ITEMS
Please e-mail your announcements of business openings, contracts, real estate transactions or relocations to onthemove@journalpub.com. Releases should include the municipality in which the company is located.
To pledge or not to pledge
God, money and me
Ministry costs money. Good ministry costs more!
If you have ever assisted your church in planning an annual budget, you know how difficult it can be, especially when planning revenue amounts is reduced to guessing. Encouraging people to consider annual pledges not only helps with planning the budget, it fosters better ministry in the church.
Consider this scenario. It is Sunday morning with only a few weeks left before budget year-end. In the bulletin you read an announcement that says a major shortfall in giving is projected unless people open their wallets widely and soon! To ensure the severity of the situation is not lost on anyone, a member of the finance committee makes a pulpit announcement that morning of the impending "tale of woe."
Sound familiar? Sundays like this make everyone squirm and for all the wrong reasons. It makes giving to the ministry of the church something that happens out of guilt, fear and probably a lack of planning.
Now consider this scenario. Several months before year-end you receive an invitation in your mailbox asking you to participate in the financial ministry of the church. "Just as God has shared blessings with you, you have the opportunity to share with the ministry of the church." You are asked to prayerfully consider what you and your family would give to the church during the following year. The invitation goes on to highlight the various programs of your church and denominational body. It mentions missions programs your church is involved with and highlights ministry opportunities that could happen provided adequate funding is received.
Over the next few weeks the bulletin and pulpit announcements do not sound like doom and gloom for the church, but rather talk about mission and possibilities. The link between the mission of the church and the budget is clearly articulated. You are told of an upcoming Sunday when people will have opportunity to offer their completed pledge forms in a special offering of celebration. Your pledge information will be held in confidence and will be used only by those individuals given the task of drafting the church budget.
Ministry costs money. Good ministry costs more! If our churches are left to guess at annual revenue amounts for the coming year, planning for the future will always prove difficult and the ministry of our churches will never reach its full potential.
[Author Affiliation]
Darren Pries-Klassen is a stewardship consultant at the St. Catharines, Ont., office of the Mennonite Foundation of Canada (MFC). For stewardship education, and estate and charitable gift planning, contact your nearest MFC office or visit mennofoundation.ca.
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