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First Presbyterian continues efforts to clean up the Gulf
Even before they returned home from a mission trip to the Gulf Coast in fall, a group from Neenah's First Presbyterian Church knew it wouldn't be the last time they'd see that region.
"On the way back, we all said, 'We've got to go back.' People feel a call to go back," associate pastor the Rev. Paul Huxtable said. "Progress is being made, albeit very slowly. The important thing is that we don't forget there's going to be continued need on the Gulf. It's important to continue to focus on the people. It's the people we're working for."
Huxtable is the leader of the Presbyterian mission group, which has made five trips to the storm-ravaged area. Their first visit was just a month after Katrina hit in August 2005. The group departs again on Feb. 24 for yet another trip to work alongside residents helping rebuild homes in Mississippi as part of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, an outreach of Presbyterian Church USA.
Golf: Doble returns home for top job
ANDREW DOBLE has returned home to take up the post of clubhouse manager at Gower Golf Club.
Originally from Three Crosses, the village next to the Gower course, Doble takes up the position after 18 months as assistant general manager of the bar and brasserie at Machynys Peninsula. "I moved away to Shropshire to work as a fine-dining chef, but I really feel that I've come home now," said Doble. "It's very exciting to be a key part of the management team here at such an exciting time. It's a friendly club, and there's a great buzz about the place - you can just sense it's going from strength to strength." The club, home to the Gower Gauntlet order of merit tournament, is now a designated Welsh Golfing Union championship venue for 2007, and also hosts the annual West Wales Open event on the Dragon Tour, Wales' first pro golf tour.
The Tougher Standards Fad Hits Home
In the 1830s, Dr. [Pierre-Charles Alexandre] Louis studied the effect of bloodletting, or bleeding — the standard treatment of the time — on pneumonia.
The data showed that bleeding didn't work
...but Dr. Louis rejected this as terrifying and absurd.
So he made a recommendation:
Bleed earlier and bleed harder.
— Statistician and historian
David Freedman, paraphrased in the New York Times The colorful brochure called "Homework Tips for Parents" that was produced by George W. Bush's Department of Education offers a combination of familiar advice ("Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework"), unsubstantiated assertions presented as fact ("Homework . . . can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility"), and a request for parents to "be positive about homework" rather than thinking critically about its value.
Mayor wants help for teachers
Mayor Willie Weatherford wants Manteca to make it possible to give firefighters, police officers, teachers and nurses who are hired to work in Manteca the chance to buy a home in the community as well.
Realtor, former Planning Commission member and Manteca Mural Society founder Tom Wilson agrees. But he believes before anything can happen first-time home buyers need a reality check and that the culture of "can't do" needs to change at City Hall.
"We have a Community Development Department that drags its feet so much on projects that they push up the cost of housing with delays," Wilson said. "They won't think out of the box. There's a lot of lip service to being business friendly but that's about it."
The mayor shares some of Wilson's frustrations.
"We've had our problems with the Community Development Department and staff over the past few years," Weatherford said referring in part to the inability for the city to fill planner spots.
New York Mets GC, David Cohen
Let's go Mets!: Since 1962, the New York Mets have represented Major League Baseball's National League in New York. Founded in 1962, they have morphed from Casey Stengel's lovable losers to 2006's Eastern Division champions. The team is based in the Flushing, Queens, neighborhood of New York City and is owned by real estate magnate Fred Wilpon. Approximately 200 full-time employees are bolstered by "hundreds" of part-timers, players and game-day workers, Cohen said. He declined to discuss revenues of the privately held company.
Dreams of field: The Mets' longtime home at Shea Stadium will fade into history with the debut of a new stadium planned for Opening Day 2009. The closing of the old facility and the deals for the new one, to be named Citi Field, are the fruits of a decade's effort.
Employee wins second discrimination claim after employers fail to ...
An employee has received an undisclosed settlement from the Home Office after she took it to tribunal for reneging on an agreement, reached after an earlier claim, to let her work part-time. Prison worker Olubunmi Idowu-Ajeigbe was claiming £200,000 in damages after her employer failed to honour an agreement that said she could work part-time.
An Employment Tribunal upheld her sex discrimination claim and had been due to award her compensation this week when Idowu-Ajeigbe accepted what is believed to be a substantial five-figure sum from the Home Office.
The payment was made on condition that she sign a confidentiality agreement banning her from talking about the case.
The agreement that Idowu-Ajeigbe could work part-time stemmed from a previous case she took against the Home Office, making this the second time it has settled a sex discrimination claim brought by Idowu-Ajeigbe.
Franklin County Nursing Home makes comeback
Within the Franklin County Nursing Home is a committee of residents who represent the interests of all who call the facility home.
People from "the outside" — even those who work in the Nursing Home — cannot attend their meetings unless the committee extends them an invitation.
So the wise pay attention when this committee makes a recommendation.
When Franklin County legislators needed to hire an administrator — someone the state Health Department would approve of — the committee made its wishes known.
Just days later, Interim Administrator Donna MacPherson was hired for the full-time job.
And no one can argue with the choice.
Since she began filling the position when Mary Palmer left the post in June, MacPherson has gleefully thrown herself into transforming the Nursing Home into a real home for its residents.
