Utah town pulls its mayor?s name from wicker basket

By Craig Giammona, NBC News

Sometimes a little luck goes a long way in politics. The new mayor of a small town in Utah was sworn in last week after his name was drawn from a wicker basket.

Ed Chavez Jr. took over as mayor of Helper, a town of 2,000 about 110 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, after his name was picked in a blind draw.

"I was kind of shocked that I was the one whose name was drawn," Chavez told NBC affiliate KSL.

Helper's current mayor, Dean Armstrong, resigned from office Feb. 23 after he was arrested in his second drunken driving offense during his term, KSL reported.

Helper's City Council tried to pick a mayor to complete Armstrong's current term Thursday night, but with Chavez and City Councilman Kirk Mascaro deadlocked at two votes each, the wicker basket came out.

KSL reported that each candidate's name was written on a slip of paper and placed in the basket. Helper's municipal attorney then made the pick, with Chavez coming out the winner.

KSL said he'll serve out the remainder of Armstrong's term, which runs until January 2014. Chavez retired from the Carbon County Sheriff's office recently after 25 years. He previously served on the City Council in nearby Wellington for 15 years and was chairman of the Carbon County Democratic Party for five years, KSL said.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/18/17357916-luck-of-the-draw-utah-town-pulls-its-mayors-name-from-wicker-basket?lite

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The plant based diet can relieve chronic pain - from ecomii blogs

You have only to look at how extensive the pain-relieving products section is at your local pharmacy to know that pain is big business.

The problem is that pain medications are often not effective enough, and certainly not over the long-term.? Pain-relieving medications often have dangerous side effects, as well.

If you are among the more than 100 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain, there are better ways to control pain than taking a daily painkiller.

Nutrition plays a larger role in chronic pain than most people realize.? The documentary, ?Fat, Sick and nearly Dead,? makes the case that switching to the plant-based, nutrient-dense diet will reduce inflammation and restore natural balance in the body.

In contrast, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is one of the most inflammatory diets in the world.? It?s no wonder so many Americans are overweight, fatigued and in pain.

The points made here may seem logical, but most of us live a life disconnected from the effects the typical Western diet has on our health.? We need to strike a balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory signals within our body.

To tip the scales in favor of anti-inflammation (anti-pain)

1. Avoid cane sugar. It stimulates reward centers in the brain, short term, in the long run it will increase pain sensation in the body and disrupts sleep, which is essential for reducing overall pain.? If you suffer from chronic pain, each time you eat sugar, it will set you back 3 to 4 weeks.

2. Avoid fruit juice., which contains fructose (a type of sugar). It will make you crave the foods that are bad for you!

3.Avoid artificial sweeteners, such as Aspartame and Splenda^?.

4. Avoid wheat and all its derivatives.? If you are in pain, this applies to you even if you are not gluten-sensitive.

5. Avoid hydrogenated oils, such as Margarine, because they pollute cell membranes with fatty acids that disrupt cellular communication and waste removal.? A toxic system is a system in pain, because lactic acid and other toxins are not removed efficiently.

6. Avoid any foods that you are sensitive to and if you don?t know where to start, begin with #1 through 5 above. Follow with other common allergens, such as dairy, eggs, corn and peanuts.

7. Eat leafy green vegetables, which help boost good bacteria in the gut.? This reduces inflammation in one of the largest surface areas of continuous exposure to inflammatory insults from food and the environment.? A healthy intestinal lining makes 95 percent of the serotonin in our body, the neurotransmitter of ?happiness.?

8. Boost your essential fatty acids (Omega-3?s) by eating foods such as avocados, almonds, walnuts, ground flax seeds, ground chia seeds and flax seed oil.

9. Boost the only anti-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acid by taking evening primrose oil or borage oil.? I have found this to reduce asthma symptoms, eczema, and inflammatory pain.

10. Engage in stress-reducing, low-impact activities, such as restorative yoga, swimming, meditation, Tai Chi or Qi Gong, as permitted by your condition.

11. Get at least seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

12. Release more endorphins, the natural pain-reducing protein signals in our bodies, by making time in your day for the ?Amazing Trio,? Awe, Movement and Gratitude.? Cultivate a positive attitude and be inspired by these three things on a daily basis and you will most certainly feel happier and in less pain.

Vincent Pedre, M.D. is an integrative, Holistic General Practitioner and Board-Certified Internist in private practice in New York City. Follow Dr. Pedre on Facebook and Twitter

Source: http://www.ecomii.com/blogs/food/2013/03/18/12-rules-for-controlling-chronic-pain-through-nutrition/

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GOP roadmap calls for immigration reform

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican National Committee formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups ? gay voters among them ? as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012.

In a report released Monday, the RNC says that the way the party communicates its principles isn't resonating widely enough and that focus groups perceive the party as "narrow minded," ''out of touch" and "stuffy old men."

"The perception that we're the party of the rich unfortunately continues to grow," Reince Priebus, the RNC chair, said in a Monday morning speech.

To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report: "We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink," it said.

Party leaders have crafted dozens of recommendations following a months-long self-examination prompted by last year's painful election losses. The report also calls on Republicans to take a harder line with corporate America, loosen political fundraising laws in Washington and in state capitals, and cut in half the number of candidate debates in a shortened 2016 presidential primary calendar.

"When Republicans lost in November, it was a wakeup call," Priebus said.

The Republican National Committee's shift on minority outreach may be the most visible change in the coming months.

Priebus plans to dispatch hundreds of paid workers into Hispanic, black and Asian communities across the nation by the end of the summer, a $10 million effort meant to rival President Barack Obama's national political machine.

The RNC will also push for a tone of "tolerance and respect" in the immigration debate, create "senior level advisory councils" focused on minority groups, and establish "swearing in citizenship teams" to connect with new voters immediately after swearing-in ceremonies.

"We need to go to communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case," the report says. "We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate that we care about them, too."

The recommendations will not be well received in all corners of the Republican Party.

Some Republicans, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among them, are working toward bipartisan immigration reform that is likely to include a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants ? sometimes called "amnesty." Conservative commentator Ann Coulter ripped the idea in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend.

"If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win another national election," Coulter said.

A veteran Republican strategist and one of the report's authors, Sally Bradshaw, acknowledged Monday that there would be opposition within the party, but said "other Republicans are starting to step up."

"There is not an easy path for this," she said. "These are difficult recommendations."

The RNC's recommendations follow an extensive look at what went wrong in 2012.

Priebus tapped a handful of respected party leaders to examine how the GOP could better talk with voters, raise money from donors and learn from Democrats' tactics. The report also suggests that party officials could lean more on independent groups such as super political action committees to fund television advertising campaigns, allowing the Republican National Committee to focus on strategy and contacting voters.

Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under former president George W. Bush, and Bradshaw, a top adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were among those leading the inquiry. Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour, a GOP strategist and nephew of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, was also part of the group. RNC members Zori Fonalledas of Puerto Rico and Glenn McCall of South Carolina rounded out the five-person committee that listened to Republicans' ideas and frustrations.

Those leaders heard from 50,000 rank-and-file members about how to respond to the nation's shifting demographics.

Priebus planned a full-scale rollout of their recommendations Monday, although the proposals ? particularly those affecting the presidential primary calendar ? are far from a done deal. They would have to win the approval of the 168-member RNC and then each state's election chief would have to abide by the party's proposed calendar.

The report recommends reducing the number of presidential primary debates to approximately 10 to 12, with the first scheduled no earlier than Sept. 1, 2015. It calls for the primary calendar to begin with the traditional "carve out" states ? such as Iowa and New Hampshire ? before moving to a major reorganization, such as a "regional primary system" finished by mid-May.

While there was much focus on the nuts and bolts of politics, the report also offers extensive recommendations for how Republicans communicate with voters.

The report also calls for the GOP to take a harder line with corporations.

"We have to blow the whistle at corporate malfeasance and attack corporate welfare," it says. "We should speak out when CEOs receive tens of millions of dollars in retirement packages but middle-class workers have not had a meaningful raise in years."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-roadmap-calls-immigration-reform-110123522--election.html

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'BioShock Infinite' takes artificial out of artificial intelligence

Winda Benedetti , NBC News ? ? ? 13 hrs.

Renowned game developer Ken Levine has spent the last few years trying to take the artificial out of artificial intelligence. The result of this effort has a name. It's Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth is an artificial intelligence that?s quite different from what you see in other games," the mastermind behind the forthcoming game "BioShock Infinite" told NBC News in a recent interview.

In this game, Elizabeth is the character that you, the player, have been sent to rescue from a mysterious turn-of-the-century floating city called Columbia. Elizabeth is also your partner ? a very powerful partner and, Levine hopes, an especially realistic partner despite the fact it is AI that governs her every move.

Levine has called Elizabeth the heart of "BioShock Infinite" ? the new installment in the beloved BioShock franchise and a game that will launch to much anticipation on March 26.

"It was a very difficult game to make," he says of "Infinite" which was originally scheduled to arrive back in October, before he delayed the launch to give the team at Irrational Games time to make it "into something even more extraordinary."

"This is certainly the largest game we?ve ever made, and there were many complicated elements to it," Levine says, explaining that one of the most complicated elements was Elizabeth, an AI character that doesn't just mindlessly follow the player about like some zombiefied ragdoll, backing you up in combat and feeding you tidbits of repetitive dialog.

Instead, Levine says the developers at Irrational have gone to great lengths to infuse her with life.

Levine describes Elizabeth as a "nerdgirl of 1912." She's a young woman who has been locked up in a tower her whole life. And though she has no worldly experience, she's had access to plenty of books and is plenty smart. (You can get a preview of her in action in the below trailer for the game).

In many ways, she is the opposite of the character gamers will play ? the cynical, world-weary Booker DeWitt sent to retrieve Elizabeth from Columbia. But how did the developers at Irrational go about making this AI nerdgirl different than the AI characters we've seen in countless other games?

"The first work with Elizabeth was figuring out, how do people act?" Levine says. "I said to the animators and the programmers, 'Go home and don?t tell your wife or your husband, but go watch them. Go creepily stare at them for an hour, and see how they do things.' Because, you know, if I said, 'Tell me how somebody washes their hands, specifically, exactly how does that work?' you might not be able to tell me exactly. But if you saw somebody doing it wrong, you would know."

The point, Levine says, is this: "Elizabeth has to behave in a way that we think is natural ? and she has to do it not just in the big dramatic moments, she has to do it all the time."

And it's that all the time bit that makes Elizabeth such an intriguing AI creation. As gamers know, AI characters spring to life when you interact with them and often then simply stand there woodenly waiting for your next move. But Levine says what they wanted with Elizabeth was for her to "never let her guard down and turn into a robot."

"What?s interesting about Elizabeth is what she's doing when you?re not in combat ? what she's doing when you?re just sort of walking through the space, exploring," Levine says. "We wanted her always to be engaged. We wanted to always give you the sense that she?s discovering things, that she?s finding things, that she cares about what?s going on. That she?s worried about something, she?s angry about something, she?s scared of something."

By way of example, Levine describes an early scene in which the player and Elizabeth find themselves at a resort beach inside the floating city.

"There are literally dozens of things that Elizabeth can interact with," he says. "There are people she can talk to. She can pick up rocks and skip them along the water. She can try to pick up a medicine ball that?s on the ground. She can look at the surfboards. She can want to buy cotton candy."

In short, she is at all times bubbling with life and engaged not only with what the player is doing, but with the environment around her.

Part of the point of doing this, Levine says, is that they wanted to get away from telling the game's story in cut scenes ? those moments in a game where the control is taken away from you the player and you are shown a brief movie-like cinematic detailing an important moment in the story.

"We don?t put up a cordon and say, OK, time for a narrative, step back. We just let the narrative happen as the player is going through the experience," Levine explains. "I guess the simplest way I can put it is, our goal at the company has been to make a player be a participant in the narrative, not an observer."

Ultimately, he says, "The story is a very personal story of Booker and Elizabeth and the changes they go through, and this journey that you?re on. And the fact that a lot of it is told in dialogue between these two, creates this connection ? this emotional connection ? that I think you?re going to feel."

Be sure to check out the IN-GAME FACEBOOK PAGE to discuss the day's gaming news and reviews. And for more from InGame check out:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/bioshock-infinite-takes-artificial-out-artificial-intelligence-1C8884902

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Beard Awards News! | Food and More with John Kessler

11:37 am March 18, 2013, by btownsend

The 2013 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award Semifinalists were announced live today at 11:30 a.m. from Charleston, S.C., where there was some very good news for a few Atlanta restaurants and chefs.

Steven Satterfield of Miller Union made the cut for Best Chef Southeast.

In the Book Awards American Cooking category, Southern cookbooks ruled, with ?Fire in My Belly? by Kevin Gillespie and David Joachim (Andrews McMeel Publishing), and ?Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking? by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith) among the three nominees.

Some major Charleston love went to Sean Brock of McCrady?s for Best Chef and The Ordinary for Best New Restaurant.

Check the complete list of nominees here:

www.jamesbeard.org/sites/default/files/static/additional/2013-jbf-nominees.pdf

? Bob Townsend, Food and More blog

Source: http://blogs.ajc.com/food-and-more/2013/03/18/beard-awards-news/?cxntfid=blogs_food_and_more

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Ladysmith Mayor Rob Hutchins and his brother recognized

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

Source: http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/news/197479031.html

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Egypt vigilantes hang 2 thieves in public

CAIRO (AP) ? Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta on Sunday, according to security officials. Both men died.

A witness said some in the crowd of about 3,000 people who watched the lynchings egged them on with chants of "kill them!"

The lynchings came a week after the attorney general's office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police.

It was one of the most extreme cases of vigilantism in two years of sharp deterioration in security following Egypt's 2011 uprising. The worsening security coupled with a police strike prompted the attorney general's call for citizen arrests last week.

The scene was emblematic of the chaos that is sweeping the country, mired in protests over a range of social, economic and political problems and with security breaking down to frightening proportions.

The state-run newspaper Ahram reported on its website that the two men were dragged in the street after being caught "red-handed" trying to steal a rickshaw. It said they were beaten but alive before they were hung.

Witnesses claimed the men had kidnapped a girl inside the rickshaw, but that she escaped unharmed.

A photographer who witnessed the scene told The Associated Press that some in the crowd of around 3,000 threatened to kill him if he took pictures of the lynching.

He said that women and children in the crowd watched the men being hung by their feet, and that some even chanted in support of the lynching.

Residents also threatened to lynch another two men accused of being involved in the rickshaw theft.

Photographs from the scene show the two men hanging upside down from a rafter in their underwear at an open-air bus station in the town of Samanod, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Cairo. They appear badly beaten. Some initial reports said they were hung from a tree but photos from the scene showed it was a rafter.

Other photographs show the men then lying on the ground dead in their underwear, with ropes around their feet. Their bodies are covered in dirt, bruises, blood and lacerations as a group of angry looking men gathered around them. One man in the crowd grasped a knife in one fist and another held up a bloodied wooden stick.

The witness said the crowd then took the bodies to a nearby police station and dumped them at the front door.

Ahram reported that police could not reach the site of the hangings because residents had cut off the roads to protest a shortage of diesel fuel, one of Egypt's many crises. Earlier in the day, residents of the nearby city of Mahalla had cut off a main train track to protest the fuel shortages.

"The lack of security has created a sense of terror here," the witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "The entire area is shut down because of protests against the fuel shortages."

Security officials said those who tried to help free the two men were pushed back by others in a crowd in the small town, which is in the Nile Delta province of Gharabiya.

They said they are preparing for possible blood feuds between residents of Samanod and the nearby village of Mahallahit Ziyad, where the two men were from.

The bodies were taken to the morgue for identification, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Similar attacks have happened elsewhere in Egypt, though vigilante killings are not frequent.

In 2012 in northern Sharqiya province, police said relatives of a man who was killed when muggers tried to steal his car lynched one of the thieves.

They then burned his body while it hung on a light pole. Another vigilante incident that year was in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura, where relatives of a victim took justice into their own hands and lynched two suspected killers.

Citizens have grown bolder in taking matters into their own hands following the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The country's once powerful and feared police force was left weakened after the revolt.

Egypt is embroiled in another wave of political unrest that has also engulfed the nation's police force. Thousands of officers and low-ranking policemen have broken ranks, staging protests and waging strikes against what they say is the politicization of the force by President Mohammed Morsi and his interior minister.

Some of the striking police officers allege that the Brotherhood group is attempting to control them. The Brotherhood denies that.

Opponents of the attorney general's call for citizen arrests fear that it is a prelude to the substitution of police by militias belonging to Morsi's powerful Muslim Brotherhood group and other allied Islamist groups.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who oversees the country's police, met with officers and low-ranking policemen to hear their demands.

A statement from the ministry said Ibrahim thanked the police for their efforts. Two days earlier, Morsi attended traditional Islamic prayers at a Cairo-based camp for riot police where he praised the force despite public criticism over their violent response to anti-government demonstrations.

Also on Sunday, dozens of journalists protested outside their syndicate in Cairo against what they claim were assaults on their colleagues by members of the Brotherhood.

Diaa Rashwan, the newly elected head of the syndicate who replaced a figure considered by most journalists as pro-Brotherhood, condemned the alleged assault Saturday evening outside the Brotherhood's headquarters where journalists were covering a meeting.

The journalists say that after activists sprayed anti-Brotherhood graffiti on the ground outside the headquarters, the Brotherhood guards attacked with sticks and chains.

The Brotherhood said in a statement that guards outside the building were provoked and insulted by the activists and journalists. Many of the group's offices were attacked across the country in December during violent protests over the drafting of the constitution.

Police fired tear gas and a police vehicle was torched during Saturday night's clashes. Al-Dustor opposition party, led by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, blamed the Brotherhood's leadership for allegedly encouraging "militias" loyal to the group to join the fight.

In other developments, the Supreme Administrative Court said a body of judges is reviewing an appeal against suspending parliamentary elections. The voting was slated to begin in April and be held in several stages through June.

Morsi's Islamist supporters and some in the public exhausted by the turmoil hope the elections will be a step toward bringing some stability, accusing the opposition of stirring up unrest to derail the voting.

But the mainly liberal and secular opposition has called for a boycott of the vote, saying Morsi must first find some political consensus first to ease the wave of popular anger.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-vigilantes-hang-2-thieves-public-133749206.html

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