Florida's new $70 billion spending blueprint slashes payments to needy patients' health-care providers, boosts public schools but slams Florida universities and pledges no new taxes while pushing counties to contribute millions more.
In the latest rendition of the budget passed Friday, 2012-13 breaks down into a mixed bag for Treasure Coast state budget stakeholders. The GOP-led Legislature stayed steadfast in its no-new-taxes creed and followed Gov. Rick Scott's marching orders to scrape together about another $1 billion for public schools — in tough budget times, two clashing goals.
Schools reeling from cuts last year will use the added money to stay sturdy in 2012-13. But district officials said another billion doesn't solve public schools' long-term funding woes.
"I think this budget reflects the economic challenges in Florida, yet funds our key priorities," said Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart.
Where lawmakers made up the money is hit or miss. Local hospitals will lose millions with slimmed-down payments for taking in Medicaid patients, but money for tourism advertising doubled and economic development programs went up 13 percent.
Counties will pay millions in potentially faulty Medicaid bills to balance Florida's budget, while pet projects in lawmakers' backyards line up for state money. Even a few Republicans voted against the budget because of the special deals. Sarasota Rowing Center and a Major League Soccer training camp, for example, would get $1 million each. Scott actually vetoed money for the same regatta center last year, and within the next two weeks he can do it again for any line item.
Amid the headline-grabbing bump to schools and backyard member projects, more environmental dollars also will flow into the Treasure Coast, rounding out a budget that has big implications all over the board.
2012年3月11日星期日
2012年3月8日星期四
The clutch from Pretty Ballerinas becomes It Bag: Angelina Jolie to wear and Kate Middleton
Mysterious dynamics of the fashion biz: a handful of stars suddenly begin to wear the same accessory, Which becomes a cult in the blink of an eye. It happened with Jimmy Choo shoes and Christian Louboutin, Which has extremely niche brands have become the dream of millions of women around the world right thanks to the red carpet; Happened with the'Iconic camel coat by Max Mara, That celebrities love to show off for the Gala but also for moments of relaxation, strolling in the park and being duly photographed by the paparazzi.
But are the accessories (We have already mentioned the shoes) to be protagonists of this marketing mechanism more or less unconscious: the bags, Especially, often become the object of desire by virtue of the stars who wear them. We think the love of many actresses for the unstructured Yves Saint Laurent (Madonna and Lady Gaga) or for matelasse Miu Miu (Keira Khnightly) or the LV logo of Louis Vuitton craze showed off more than one occasion by Angelina Jolie. Just her, the most beloved of Hollywood, together with the Princess Royal Kate Middleton, Is at the center of a new phenomenon It Bag: This time we speak of a brand more accessible to us mere mortals, or Pretty Ballerinas.
First of all, we clarify the concept of clutch: Does not have the minimal domensioni a clutch but it is not like a large bag classic. Carried by hand, without a shoulder strap and handles, hips, and preferably not with both hands. This of Pretty Ballerinas, Let's face it, is delicious: it has a reasonable size and we can put in something more than a pack of gum and tissues, is black velvet, But from the rectangular soft corners and, especially, has a staple maxi that enhances the front. The model is called the M / Hillary Black Velvet Clutch.
But are the accessories (We have already mentioned the shoes) to be protagonists of this marketing mechanism more or less unconscious: the bags, Especially, often become the object of desire by virtue of the stars who wear them. We think the love of many actresses for the unstructured Yves Saint Laurent (Madonna and Lady Gaga) or for matelasse Miu Miu (Keira Khnightly) or the LV logo of Louis Vuitton craze showed off more than one occasion by Angelina Jolie. Just her, the most beloved of Hollywood, together with the Princess Royal Kate Middleton, Is at the center of a new phenomenon It Bag: This time we speak of a brand more accessible to us mere mortals, or Pretty Ballerinas.
First of all, we clarify the concept of clutch: Does not have the minimal domensioni a clutch but it is not like a large bag classic. Carried by hand, without a shoulder strap and handles, hips, and preferably not with both hands. This of Pretty Ballerinas, Let's face it, is delicious: it has a reasonable size and we can put in something more than a pack of gum and tissues, is black velvet, But from the rectangular soft corners and, especially, has a staple maxi that enhances the front. The model is called the M / Hillary Black Velvet Clutch.
2012年3月7日星期三
Women's Day 2012: 4 types of bags to give away
And here's to you dear friends fashionistas the perfect gift ideas for Women's Day 2012 , the most beautiful and attractive bags that every woman dreams to have in your wardrobe. Buy a bag for a woman to give her a surprise is not an easy task, each of us has different needs and tastes, but it is also true that there are scholarships dream that put all agree, as it bag, bags by birth despite having a certain age, continue to be the most desired in the world. Here are lots of gift ideas, do or have us do, for the celebration of women.
The Women's Day is full of yellow and then the gift is definitely a classic bag in a beautiful yellow mimosa. The yellow bags in the spring and summer are always strong, so it might be interesting to have one to match with floral dresses , denim garments or put in pastel tones. The yellow bags have been proposed by many designers, ranging from Mulberry to Chanel, Versace through which the gold has played the entire new collection .
The more welcome gift of the moment is definitely the it bag of the season, a bag to show off the latest fashions for every occasion! A bag is very interesting and promising to join us for a long time is the fabulous Pyramid bag Prada, but there are also the Dolce Bag Dolce & Gabbana , the Raffia Bowling Bag Burberry and then the new Fendi bags: Chamelon and fans that are really very beautiful and versatile. To our friends there is also the most extravagant Chanel bag-shaped shell.
If your funds are limited you can opt for the beautiful but more democratic models, such as a Furla bag, the Candy bag with crystals is absolutely adorable. Noteworthy is also the Celeste Coccinelle bag which is available as a tote that clutch , some model of the line Red Valentino, Marc by Marc Jacobs McQ Alexander McQueen have more affordable prices than the main lines.
The gift that every woman wants to receive it is a bag, the bags of the stars, expensive, beautiful and glamorous. it bag the most beautiful of all time are the Chanel 2.55, the Birkin or Kelly Hermes but also the Fendi baguette. If we want to keep at prices more acceptable one could also think of jaws amatissime but less unattainable such as Bayswater or the Alexa Mulberry or PS1 of Proenza Schouler, some model of Louis Vuitton as the Neverfull or the Speedy. If you are rated on eco friendly bets Falabella bag by Stella McCartney found in various models, styles and colors.
The Women's Day is full of yellow and then the gift is definitely a classic bag in a beautiful yellow mimosa. The yellow bags in the spring and summer are always strong, so it might be interesting to have one to match with floral dresses , denim garments or put in pastel tones. The yellow bags have been proposed by many designers, ranging from Mulberry to Chanel, Versace through which the gold has played the entire new collection .
The more welcome gift of the moment is definitely the it bag of the season, a bag to show off the latest fashions for every occasion! A bag is very interesting and promising to join us for a long time is the fabulous Pyramid bag Prada, but there are also the Dolce Bag Dolce & Gabbana , the Raffia Bowling Bag Burberry and then the new Fendi bags: Chamelon and fans that are really very beautiful and versatile. To our friends there is also the most extravagant Chanel bag-shaped shell.
If your funds are limited you can opt for the beautiful but more democratic models, such as a Furla bag, the Candy bag with crystals is absolutely adorable. Noteworthy is also the Celeste Coccinelle bag which is available as a tote that clutch , some model of the line Red Valentino, Marc by Marc Jacobs McQ Alexander McQueen have more affordable prices than the main lines.
The gift that every woman wants to receive it is a bag, the bags of the stars, expensive, beautiful and glamorous. it bag the most beautiful of all time are the Chanel 2.55, the Birkin or Kelly Hermes but also the Fendi baguette. If we want to keep at prices more acceptable one could also think of jaws amatissime but less unattainable such as Bayswater or the Alexa Mulberry or PS1 of Proenza Schouler, some model of Louis Vuitton as the Neverfull or the Speedy. If you are rated on eco friendly bets Falabella bag by Stella McCartney found in various models, styles and colors.
2012年3月6日星期二
A Dutch Angel's Cellphone Number Is in Demand
'S HERTOGENBOSCH, the Netherlands — High on the cathedral in this trim Dutch town, amid a phalanx of stone statues of local noblemen, crusaders, saints and angels, one figure stands out. Smiling faintly, with lowered eyelids, one of the angels wears jeans, has a laptop bag slung over one shoulder and is chatting on a cellphone. The angel gets about 30 calls a day on the phone.
That is because, shortly after the statue was unveiled last April, a local couple, the parents of two children, set up a number so people could call the angel. Business cards soon appeared in pubs, restaurants and hotels with a picture of the angel and the number. So successful was the line that the couple opened a Twitter account, @ut_engelke, managed by the husband, which now has about 2,700 followers.
"The telephone is ringing all day," said the wife, who like her husband agreed to meet a reporter on the condition that they not be identified. "It was a fairy tale," she said over beer and snacks. "Now, it's real." To identify them, she said, would end it.
What began as a joke continues because the cellphone number has become something of a hot line, dialed by people of all ages, some in need of help, others just because they are lonely.
At the holidays, the calls became so frequent and so pressing that the couple was tempted to give up. "Between Christmas and New Year's, that was an emotional time frame, it was so heartbreaking," she said. A small girl called begging the angel to pray for a grandmother who had just died; a woman asked help to celebrate her first Christmas without her parents. A widow sought prayers for her dead children.
The statue of the Little Angel arose out of a 1997 competition, won by the Dutch sculptor Ton Mooy, to create 40 statues, including 14 angels, to replace those on the cathedral that time and pollution had ruined. The Little Angel was the only unconventional one.
"You can make a phony Gothic statue," Mr. Mooy, 63, said in his studio in Amersfoort, about an hour north of here. "That's not what I wanted. It had to fit in with what was always on the church, namely, refinement, emotion. Angels are there to guide, to protect people, they get messages from above. How do you show that? With a cellphone."
"I tell kids, 'There's one button on that cellphone,' " he said with a chuckle — a direct line to heaven. "So she doesn't get naughty, calling other angels."
The cathedral, which dates to 1220, has a centuries-old tradition of unusual, sometimes bawdy, art. One medieval statue is of a bricklayer bending over and baring his bottom. Some is tragic. A stained glass window over the main entrance depicts the apocalypse with a panel showing the Sept. 11 attack on the twin towers.
Catholic Church officials who administer the immense Gothic cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, are not entirely amused. "Success has many fathers," said Pieter Kohnen, a cathedral board member. "And maybe exploiters."
The couple do not charge a fee for calls to the Little Angel, and insist they are not profiting from its spreading fame. But in December the church set up an official number for the public to phone the angel — for $1.07 a minute. Now, a sign next to the cathedral invites passers-by to "Call the Angel." A man's voice answers, giving the caller several options: "Dial 1, for a history of the church; dial 2, to learn what Christianity is about," and so forth.
That is because, shortly after the statue was unveiled last April, a local couple, the parents of two children, set up a number so people could call the angel. Business cards soon appeared in pubs, restaurants and hotels with a picture of the angel and the number. So successful was the line that the couple opened a Twitter account, @ut_engelke, managed by the husband, which now has about 2,700 followers.
"The telephone is ringing all day," said the wife, who like her husband agreed to meet a reporter on the condition that they not be identified. "It was a fairy tale," she said over beer and snacks. "Now, it's real." To identify them, she said, would end it.
What began as a joke continues because the cellphone number has become something of a hot line, dialed by people of all ages, some in need of help, others just because they are lonely.
At the holidays, the calls became so frequent and so pressing that the couple was tempted to give up. "Between Christmas and New Year's, that was an emotional time frame, it was so heartbreaking," she said. A small girl called begging the angel to pray for a grandmother who had just died; a woman asked help to celebrate her first Christmas without her parents. A widow sought prayers for her dead children.
The statue of the Little Angel arose out of a 1997 competition, won by the Dutch sculptor Ton Mooy, to create 40 statues, including 14 angels, to replace those on the cathedral that time and pollution had ruined. The Little Angel was the only unconventional one.
"You can make a phony Gothic statue," Mr. Mooy, 63, said in his studio in Amersfoort, about an hour north of here. "That's not what I wanted. It had to fit in with what was always on the church, namely, refinement, emotion. Angels are there to guide, to protect people, they get messages from above. How do you show that? With a cellphone."
"I tell kids, 'There's one button on that cellphone,' " he said with a chuckle — a direct line to heaven. "So she doesn't get naughty, calling other angels."
The cathedral, which dates to 1220, has a centuries-old tradition of unusual, sometimes bawdy, art. One medieval statue is of a bricklayer bending over and baring his bottom. Some is tragic. A stained glass window over the main entrance depicts the apocalypse with a panel showing the Sept. 11 attack on the twin towers.
Catholic Church officials who administer the immense Gothic cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, are not entirely amused. "Success has many fathers," said Pieter Kohnen, a cathedral board member. "And maybe exploiters."
The couple do not charge a fee for calls to the Little Angel, and insist they are not profiting from its spreading fame. But in December the church set up an official number for the public to phone the angel — for $1.07 a minute. Now, a sign next to the cathedral invites passers-by to "Call the Angel." A man's voice answers, giving the caller several options: "Dial 1, for a history of the church; dial 2, to learn what Christianity is about," and so forth.
2012年3月5日星期一
Brothers of missing EastEnders actress from Bethnal Green are seeking help from East End community
Brothers of Gemma McCluskie, aged 29, of Bethnal Green, are desperate for information about their younger sister, who has been missing for four days.
Her brother Danny will be taking part in the search for Gemma, who played Kerry Skinner in 30 episodes of EastEnders back in 2001, while her other brother Tony will stay at their home on Hackney Road in case she returns.
Tony said her disappearance is "completely" out of her character and that she has never been missing before.
"We are going out of our mind with worry. She is a bubbly, outgoing, strong and independent woman," he said.
The search-group will set up from the Bird Cage pub on Columbia Road this evening at 7pm to hang up missing persons posters. They will also be handing posters to shops and knocking on the doors of homes asking if anyone have spotted Gemma.
Tony last saw his sister at home last Thursday afternoon. He remembers her wearing a mustard coloured top, blue leggings, dark brown UGG boots and big sunglasses. She is also believed to have had her small Louis Vuitton handbag with her.
Her brother Danny will be taking part in the search for Gemma, who played Kerry Skinner in 30 episodes of EastEnders back in 2001, while her other brother Tony will stay at their home on Hackney Road in case she returns.
Tony said her disappearance is "completely" out of her character and that she has never been missing before.
"We are going out of our mind with worry. She is a bubbly, outgoing, strong and independent woman," he said.
The search-group will set up from the Bird Cage pub on Columbia Road this evening at 7pm to hang up missing persons posters. They will also be handing posters to shops and knocking on the doors of homes asking if anyone have spotted Gemma.
Tony last saw his sister at home last Thursday afternoon. He remembers her wearing a mustard coloured top, blue leggings, dark brown UGG boots and big sunglasses. She is also believed to have had her small Louis Vuitton handbag with her.
2012年3月4日星期日
Nigeria: Igbede Canoe Mishap - How 12 Children Lost Their Lives
As the people of Ojota community in Otto/Awori Local Council Development Area of Lagos State still grapple with the tragedy that befell the community couple of weeks ago after a rainstorm caused a canoe carrying several children to school including market women to the neighbouring community to capsize, killing eight of the children and the market women, more facts on how it happened have emerged.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the canoe which was about 12ft long, had 21 children on board and two market women left the shores of Ojota community about 6:30am for Igbede community aboard the canoe without any safety measure in place. The paddler who resides in Igbede would be at Ojota community as early as 6:00am to carry children and market women to Igbede town.
At 6.30 am that fateful day, 21 children, two women including the wife of the Baale of Ojota boarded the canoe and they were paddled out of the precinct of their community bidding farewell to their parents and families. The children who were pupils of different primary schools were apparently used to the terrain since it was a daily routine to go by canoe to their various schools.
Their village, a very small community is separated by a river which they had to cross to reach their various schools. They were almost at the bank of the river after 30minutes paddling in the canoe when the tragedy occurred.
The hitherto calm atmosphere changed, following an unprecedented dark cloud which hampered vision. The violent wind which lasted for few minutes wrecked havoc and the canoe was thrown back into the middle of the river. All the children, the women and the paddler went down the river but a few of them are alive to tell the story.
Amazingly, Fawas Ayuba, a 6-year old boy of Caritas Biachi Nursery/Primary School, Igbede was saved by his school bag hanging on his back which prevented him from drowning.
This gives an indication that the pupils would have been saved if they had life-jackets on them. However, Yusuf Rufai, a 9-year old pupil on board swam through the river to the shores of his community. Yusuf who broke the news of the incident to the people of his community said he was trained on the techniques of swimming by his father and those were the things that came to his mind at the time of the mishap.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the canoe which was about 12ft long, had 21 children on board and two market women left the shores of Ojota community about 6:30am for Igbede community aboard the canoe without any safety measure in place. The paddler who resides in Igbede would be at Ojota community as early as 6:00am to carry children and market women to Igbede town.
At 6.30 am that fateful day, 21 children, two women including the wife of the Baale of Ojota boarded the canoe and they were paddled out of the precinct of their community bidding farewell to their parents and families. The children who were pupils of different primary schools were apparently used to the terrain since it was a daily routine to go by canoe to their various schools.
Their village, a very small community is separated by a river which they had to cross to reach their various schools. They were almost at the bank of the river after 30minutes paddling in the canoe when the tragedy occurred.
The hitherto calm atmosphere changed, following an unprecedented dark cloud which hampered vision. The violent wind which lasted for few minutes wrecked havoc and the canoe was thrown back into the middle of the river. All the children, the women and the paddler went down the river but a few of them are alive to tell the story.
Amazingly, Fawas Ayuba, a 6-year old boy of Caritas Biachi Nursery/Primary School, Igbede was saved by his school bag hanging on his back which prevented him from drowning.
This gives an indication that the pupils would have been saved if they had life-jackets on them. However, Yusuf Rufai, a 9-year old pupil on board swam through the river to the shores of his community. Yusuf who broke the news of the incident to the people of his community said he was trained on the techniques of swimming by his father and those were the things that came to his mind at the time of the mishap.
2012年3月1日星期四
State should ban plastic shopping bags
With the State of Rhode Island boasting hundreds of miles of coastline, thousands of acres of public and state parks, and prized waterways such as Narragansett Bay and the Blackstone River, the beauty of our environment is a precious resource to everyone here; protecting it should be a top priority.
However, our state's natural beauty is threatened by plastic waste that gets into our waterways, parks, yards, and roadsides, and that clogs our landfills; with the help of plastic, the Johnston landfill is now the highest point in the state.
Far too much of this trash comes from an unnecessary product used for just five minutes before being thrown away: disposable plastic grocery bags that threaten to take hundreds to thousands of years to photo-degrade. Nothing we use for just a few minutes should tarnish our state and pollute our treasured natural places.
Luckily, the solution is simple: ban plastic bags. This movement is gaining exciting momentum around the country, and it's time for the Ocean State to protect its environment and join the effort.
Towns and cities up and down the Blackstone Valley can lead the way by enacting bag ban ordinances.
However, our state's natural beauty is threatened by plastic waste that gets into our waterways, parks, yards, and roadsides, and that clogs our landfills; with the help of plastic, the Johnston landfill is now the highest point in the state.
Far too much of this trash comes from an unnecessary product used for just five minutes before being thrown away: disposable plastic grocery bags that threaten to take hundreds to thousands of years to photo-degrade. Nothing we use for just a few minutes should tarnish our state and pollute our treasured natural places.
Luckily, the solution is simple: ban plastic bags. This movement is gaining exciting momentum around the country, and it's time for the Ocean State to protect its environment and join the effort.
Towns and cities up and down the Blackstone Valley can lead the way by enacting bag ban ordinances.
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