Alabama terror case could hinge on relationships

FILE - This undated file booking photo provided by the Mobile County/Metro Jail shows Randy "Rasheed" Wilson. A federal judge on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 denied bond for Wilson, a 25-year-old Mobile, Ala., native charged with plotting to join violent international jihad. U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Nelson said Wilson should remain in jail pending further court proceedings. (AP Photo/Mobile County/Metro Jail via AL.com, File)

FILE - This undated file booking photo provided by the Mobile County/Metro Jail shows Randy "Rasheed" Wilson. A federal judge on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 denied bond for Wilson, a 25-year-old Mobile, Ala., native charged with plotting to join violent international jihad. U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Nelson said Wilson should remain in jail pending further court proceedings. (AP Photo/Mobile County/Metro Jail via AL.com, File)

(AP) ? The terrorism case against an Alabama man accused of planning to wage violent jihad in Africa may hinge on just how well he knew a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Randy Wilson as an Islamic radical who wanted to reunite with Omar Hammami, an American who also grew up in Alabama but has since become one of the most well-known jihadists in Somalia. Wilson and another American who lived in Alabama for the last year, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, are accused of plotting to leave the country to join Islamic radicals fighting in North Africa.

The two men were arrested separately about two weeks ago in Georgia. Abukhdair was taken into custody at a bus station; Wilson was arrested as he was about to board a flight to Morocco.

Wilson's attorney has described him as a devout Muslim who was taking his family to Mauritania to study Islam, not wage jihad. Public defender Domingo Soto also said Wilson didn't live with Hammami, 28, about a decade ago, as the FBI has said, and the attorney questioned how well the two knew each other.

FBI agent Tim Green confirmed in federal court earlier this month that the information in the charging affidavit that Wilson and Hammami were roommates was incorrect and he wasn't sure where it came from.

It wasn't clear whether Abukhdair has an attorney yet.

Wilson, 25, has a wife and two young children. He was known around his neighborhood in Mobile, along the Alabama coast, for his big yard sales. He was friendly and outgoing, neighbors said.

Court documents, interviews with acquaintances and a sworn statement by an FBI investigator paint a picture of Wilson's troubled childhood.

Debra Lynn Weaver and Randy Lamar Wilson married in Mobile in 1986 and had Randy Jr. nine months later. Wilson's father was arrested on drug charges in the first of a string of scrapes with the law, and his mother filed for divorce four months later, when he was 1.

Wilson's mother remarried an Egyptian man when he was 5. She converted to Islam with the marriage, and her son eventually became Muslim, too.

Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, remembered first meeting Wilson when he was attending an Islamic school.

"I knew him as a Muslim as a young boy," said Taufique. "He went by Randy and Rasheed."

Soto said Wilson client has never been in trouble. While attending a Muslim school in Birmingham, he was offered prestigious scholarships to study abroad at places including Saudi Arabia, Soto said.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he became roommates with Hammami, who was the president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of South Alabama, the FBI said.

He was quoted in a campus newspaper talking about the attacks.

"Everyone was really shocked. Even now it's difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this," he told The Vanguard.

Hammami later wrote in an online autobiography that he already had turned toward radicalism by that time and privately praised Allah for the attacks.

Hammami later went to Egypt and joined Islamic insurgents, becoming a spokesman in videos and blogs.

He has since fallen out of favor with leaders of the Somalian terror group al-Shabab, which issued a statement recently distancing itself from Hammami, whom it accused of "a narcissistic pursuit of fame."

In 2010, Wilson met Abukhdair online, according to the FBI. A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Abukhdair moved to Egypt in February 2007 to study Arabic, the FBI said. He was among a group of people arrested in Egypt in 2010, on suspicion of being involved with a terror group there.

He was put in prison for two months, and then he was deported to the U.S. last year.

He lived in South Carolina and Ohio, before coming to Mobile in late October 2011 according to an FBI agent's sworn statement.

Agents already were watching Abukhdair and Wilson by then. The FBI said Abukhdair moved in with Wilson's family and gave the Friday sermon at a mosque in Mobile about a year ago.

Leaders at the mosque didn't return telephone calls seeking comment, and a worker shooed away a reporter who visited.

The FBI said it kept tabs on the pair through an undercover operative. Wilson "described Hammami as a friend and showed the (undercover operative) an al-Qaeda video on his laptop praising jihad and the downfall of the West," the FBI said.

Wilson and Abukhdair began concocting ways to travel to Africa to join in jihad, an agent wrote.

Wilson, the FBI said, believed he would receive "special treatment" in Somalia because of his connection with Hammami.

"In addition to travel plans, they discussed their joy that Omar Hammami is now on the FBI 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list, and were excited that he is now even more famous," said the FBI statement.

Wilson lived next door to Tom Rothaar for two years. Rothaar said he was a friendly neighbor and who would have frequent yard sales with items he bought in bulk from big-box retail stores.

Rothaar said he was "staggered" by Wilson's arrest and tried to make sense of it during a 5-mile run.

"I couldn't," Rothaar said. "The only thing I can think is all the typical clich?s about how I cannot believe he was living next door and seemed so normal."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-23-Terror%20Charges-Alabama/id-355ef6e9b7404248af796a56024245f1

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Holiday music stops at Irving Berlin's NY door

(AP) ? A caroling group that for 35 years has performed the Irving Berlin classic "White Christmas" on Christmas Eve outside the New York City home where he lived has cancelled the tradition.

A group spokesman says the plans were abruptly cancelled last week for lack of space at the Manhattan home, which now serves as the Luxembourg consulate.

The tradition started in the late 1970s with one cabaret singer outside the home. In 1983, Berlin invited the singers inside for cocoa and cookies.

Berlin died in 1989 at age 99.

Luxembourg Consul-General Jean-Claude Knebeler tells the New York Post the ballroom where the group performed is filled with office equipment because the consulate expanded. He says he hopes the tradition resumes in another year in the consulate's library.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-24-Irving%20Berlin-Carolers/id-9a4e28d1e344425395dc40f38b2c264d

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5 Benefits of Intense Exercise on Anxiety | 4E Fitness

5 Benefits of Intense Exercise on Anxiety

One of the main factors standing in the way of good fitness is this idea that exercise is only for your physical health. Those considering some type of fitness regimen often put it off because they don?t feel they?re in a hurry to improve their physical health. They know they need to lose weight, and they know that exercise is important for their heart health, but they don?t otherwise feel that they need to rush, especially since exercise can be so tough in the beginning.

But the truth is that exercise is profoundly beneficial for your mental health as well ? especially anxiety. Those living with anxiety regularly need to make sure they?re exercising as often as possible, because the reality is that exercise ? and a lack thereof ? can have serious effects on how you deal with stress.

Benefits of Intense Exercise

The intensity of exercise does matter. Any and all exercise is beneficial, and even if you decide you can?t handle intense exercise you do need to stay as active as possible. But intense exercise has many benefits for those living with anxiety. These include:

Most people have heard of a ?runner?s high? but few people know what it is. A runner?s high is when your brain releases neurotransmitters known as ?endorphins? in an effort to control pain. But those same endorphins also improve mood as well. They genuinely affect your brain chemistry in such a way that you?ll have more positive thoughts and feelings, and they?re a great tool for controlling your anxiety.

Exercise also burns cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone released during stress that is responsible for many anxiety symptoms, especially mental symptoms. Exercise doesn?t burn cortisol completely, but it can cut down on the stress hormone dramatically.

Anxiety also represents a constant surge of adrenaline, which causes things like rapid heartbeat and tense muscles. Exercise ? especially intense exercise ? burns that adrenaline away, ultimately providing your body with relief that it was unable to get previously.

Tense muscles genuinely create a tense mind. That?s why when you?re inactive, your anxiety increases, because your muscles have tons of extra energy that ends up turning into anxiety. Exercise tires the muscles dramatically. Once your muscles are tired, it not only reduces physical symptoms (due to tired muscles) ? it also reduces mental anxiety as a result of the mind/body connection.

  • Healthy Time Consumption Strategy

Many people don?t realize this, but a part of managing anxiety is simply passing time as anxiety free as possible. The more time spent without anxiety, the easier it is to control it. Exercising regularly provides you with that time ? a break from the business of the world in a way that is mentally and physically healthy.

The Effects of Exercise on Anxiety

These benefits are not some new age alternative treatment either. The benefits of exercise on anxiety are extremely well-researched, and some doctors claim that exercise may be as OR more valuable than anxiety medications (although possibly for less time). Intense anxiety is incredibly powerful.

Reducing anxiety is not just about going to a doctor and seeing what medicines they can give you, or even going to therapy (though you should still strongly consider therapy as well). It?s also about making lifestyle changes that benefit your ability to cope with stress. Intense exercise can be extremely powerful as an anxiety management tool, and while it may not cure your anxiety completely, it can cut down on your anxiety dramatically.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera exercises every day as a way of fighting off his anxiety. He runs a website about anxiety which can be found at www.calmclinic.com.

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Source: http://www.4everfitlife.com/5-benefits-of-intense-exercise-on-anxiety/

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Why Boehner Needs House Democrats

With the spectacular and very public failure of a Thursday night vote to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire for millionaires, House Speaker John Boehner now faces a certain truth: any fiscal cliff deal he cuts will rely on Democratic votes.

It was always likely that Boehner was going to pick up some Democratic support if the deal included a de facto tax increase on the wealthiest Americans and the president supported it. The big question facing Boehner now is just how many Democrats he will need, and whether he can bring a bill to the floor that does not even have majority support from his own caucus.

Boehner did not rule out that possibility Friday and while he said he was proud of the conference for sticking by its principles, he disagrees, a sign he is not given up hope for a getting a deal.

"There was a perception created that that vote last night was going to increase?taxes. Now I disagree with that -- with that characterization of the bill, but that impression was out there. Now, we had a number of our members who just really didn't want to be perceived as having raised taxes," Boehner said.

Risks to Boehner's speakership be damned, Democratic leaders are anticipating they may have to join him in large numbers to pass a bill.

?There?s no rule preventing him from allowing the entire House to work its will, Democrats and Republicans together, and that may mean that we have to pass something that does not have 50 percent of Republicans on board,? Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told National Journal.

Van Hollen said the only question that remains is whether a deal gets struck now or within the first two weeks of the New Year ? meaning the door is open to cutting a deal after the leadership election, which could be a saving grace for Boehner. But, Van Hollen added, ?I think we should do it immediately.? He declined to delve into the prospect of working with a Republican other than Boehner at the helm of the House.

One GOP member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could speak openly, predicted the country "would go through the cliff, [President Obama] will figure out what deal he can cut, it'll go through the Senate and we'll have to pass it out," he said.?

That may force Pelosi and Boehner to collaborate, a task for which they have shown little appetite up until now. In an encouraging sign, they had a short meeting in the corridors of the Capitol today as they left the House floor after a pro-forma session.

?Neither one is going to want to force more colleagues than is absolutely necessary to support it,? said Steven Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis. ?Both sets of leaders will have their reputations on the line and it?ll be interesting to see how that works out.?

While Boehner is taking his lumps now in the media, there was a strategy at work, designed to gauge what the Republican conference could stomach. It's too early to say if the gambit will pay off, but Boehner has an idea of where his members stand now.

"I think what they were doing here with Plan B was a vote-counting operation. Intelligence gathering," said John Feehery, a one-time aide to former Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Hastert said he was puzzled by Boehner's strategy and said his own greatest successes came when he worked behind the scenes.?

"I don't know what his game is. ? John is doing what he thinks he has to do," Hastert said in an interview.

Pelosi has been publicly urging Boehner to cut a deal, saying that the job they have both held requires sacrifice and tough votes. Last week, she likened the fiscal cliff deal to a vote to fund the Iraq War she brought to the floor in 2007 as a newly elected speaker. To gain the support of her caucus, she had to separate the war funding measures from the rest of domestic spending so that many Democrats, herself included, could vote against it (the measure passed with Republican support).

?Do you know what it was like for me to bring a bill to the floor to fund the war in Iraq, a war predicated on a misrepresentation to the American people?" Pelosi said, adding that some members have still not forgiven her.

?So it's tough, but you have to do it,? said Brendan Daly, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's former communications director,?who now works at Ogilvy Public Relations.?Ultimately, he said, it did not damage her speakership.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-boehner-needs-house-democrats-060003261--politics.html

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First goat genome sets a good example for facilitating de novo assembly of large genomes

Dec. 23, 2012 ? In a collaborative study published online today in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, BGI, and other institutes, have completed the first genome sequence of domestic goat by a robust approach integrated with next-generation sequencing (NGS) and whole-genome mapping (WGM) technologies. The goat genome is the first reference genome for small ruminant animals and may help to advance the understanding of distinct ruminants' genomic features from non-ruminant species. This work also yields a valuable experience for facilitating the de novo assemblies of large, complex genomes in the future.

Goats are recognized as an important member of the world livestock industry, and with many unique biological features. They are an important economic resource in many developing countries around the world, especially in China and India. However, despite their agricultural and biological importance, breeding and genetic studies of goats have been hampered by the lack of a high quality reference genome sequence. The goat genome sequence will be useful for facilitating the identification of SNP markers for marker-assisted breeding, and improving the utility of the goat as a biomedical model and bioreactor.

With the availability of next-generation sequencing (NGS), draft assemblies are easy to generate nowadays. However, to finish a sequence to the chromosome level remains a hard nut to crack. In this study, the results show that a single NGS platform, when combined with whole-genome mapping technology, could produce a finished assembly much faster and with high quality than other currently available mapping strategies such as BACs or FISH. Through this integrated approach, researchers obtained the ~2.66 Gb goat reference genome from a female Yunnan black goat.

Transposable elements (TEs) are major components of mammalian genomes and contribute to gene and/or genome evolution. The TEs in goat genome are similar to those of cattle, and contain large numbers of ruminant-specific repeats, such as SINE-tRNA and SINE-BovA. It is reported that SINE-BovA repeat expanded primarily in the cattle genome. However, in this study, researchers found the SINE-tRNA repeat expanded specifically in the goat genome.

Through constructing a phylogenetic tree among goats, cattle, horses, dogs, opossums and humans, researchers found the goat shared a common ancestor with cattle about 23 million years ago. Further comparison analysis revealed 44 rapidly evolving genes under positive selection, seven of which are immune-related genes and three are pituitary hormone or related genes. The immune-related genes identified also exist in cattle. The findings suggest that the rapid evolution of pituitary hormones may be related to the different features between goat and cattle in milk production, development rates of the fetus and/or hair variation.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays an important role in the immune system. In this study, the goat MHC was found to be located on chromosome 23 and contains two regions with length of 2.25 Mb and 360 kb, respectively. With the high quality genome assembly, further understanding of the goat MHC will be useful for immunological studies and vaccine development.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of mammals is the protective growth known as hair. It is produced by hair follicles within the skin, which could provide either protection (guard hairs) or insulation (underfur). The two major hair follicles include the primary hair follicle that produces only coat hair in all mammals, and the secondary hair follicle that can produce the cashmere or "fine hair" in certain mammals, including goats and antelopes. Despite a 2,500-year history and the extent of raw cashmere production, people are lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cashmere formation and development.

Researchers conducted transcriptomic analysis on the primary and secondary follicles of a cashmere goat, revealing 51 genes that are differentially expressed between the two types of hair follicles. Keratin and keratin-associated proteins are the main structural proteins of hair fibers, determining the quality of fiber together. In the study, 29 keratin genes and 30 keratin-associated protein genes were detected in both types of follicles. Interestingly, they found two keratin genes and ten keratin-associated protein genes were consistently differentially expressed between primary and secondary hair follicles, suggesting that the keratin-associated protein genes may be more important in determining the structure of cashmere fibers. In addition to the keratin genes and keratin-associated protein genes, researchers also found several enzymes of amino acid biosynthesis, with implications in regulating primary hair growth and hair cycle.

Xun Xu, Deputy Director of BGI, said, "The goat reference genome is an important stepping stone in the molecular breeding of cashmere goats, and will help to advance the comparative studies on ruminants. The transcriptomic analysis on the primary and secondary follicles will open a new way for better improving the quality cashmere wool."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BGI Shenzhen, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yang Dong, Min Xie, Yu Jiang, Nianqing Xiao, Xiaoyong Du, Wenguang Zhang, Gwenola Tosser-Klopp, Jinhuan Wang, Shuang Yang, Jie Liang, Wenbin Chen, Jing Chen, Peng Zeng, Yong Hou, Chao Bian, Shengkai Pan, Yuxiang Li, Xin Liu, Wenliang Wang, Bertrand Servin, Brian Sayre, Bin Zhu, Deacon Sweeney, Rich Moore, Wenhui Nie, Yongyi Shen, Ruoping Zhao, Guojie Zhang, Jinquan Li, Thomas Faraut, James Womack, Yaping Zhang, James Kijas, Noelle Cockett, Xun Xu, Shuhong Zhao, Jun Wang, Wen Wang. Sequencing and automated whole-genome optical mapping of the genome of a domestic goat (Capra hircus). Nature Biotechnology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2478

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/CNn97tXK9DU/121223152629.htm

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These Last-Minute Christmas Gifts Are Your End-of-the-World Deal of the Day

If you were counting on the end of the world to save you from Christmas gift giving, Hypothetical Straw Man, you're an idiot. And you're in a tricky situation, because—spoiler report!—the world's not ending, and you've got nothing for next week. Either you can go to a mall this weekend (ugh) or you can get your act together and buy some stuff online in the next few hours. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/57yYXsjw2U8/these-last+minute-christmas-gifts-are-your-end+of+the+world-deal-of-the-day

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Strength training improves vascular function in young black men

Dec. 21, 2012 ? Six weeks of weight training can significantly improve blood markers of cardiovascular health in young African-American men, researchers report in the Journal of Human Hypertension.

The researchers measured blood markers associated with inflammation, immune response or the remodeling of arteries that normally occur after tissue damage, infection or other types of stress. They found that levels of two of these markers dropped significantly in African-American men but not in Caucasian men after six weeks of resistance training.

"This suggests that resistance exercise training is more beneficial in young African-American men than in Caucasian men of the same age," said Bo Fernhall, the dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Fernhall led the study as a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at the Urbana-Champaign campus. The 14 African-American and 18 Caucasian study subjects were matched for body mass index, cardiovascular fitness and age. None had previously been trained in endurance or resistance exercise.

African-Americans are known to have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than Caucasians, Fernhall said. In particular, "hypertension, stroke and kidney disease are much, much higher in the African-American population," he said.

Some of these problems start young.

"Higher blood pressures in African-American children have been shown as young as 8 to 10 years of age," Fernhall said. "So there's obviously something going on that predisposes the African-American population to end stage disease, hypertension and stroke and the more debilitating diseases later on in life."

A previous study led by Fernhall and his doctoral student Kevin Heffernan (an author on the new paper as well) found that resistance training reduced levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood of African-American, but not Caucasian, men. This protein is a reliable marker of systemic inflammation. Levels of CRP rise after injury or infection, and chronically elevated levels are sometimes associated with heart disease and cancer.

The new study looked at other markers that could signal trouble in the arteries: MMPs, which help remodel blood vessels after injury or infection; and 8-isoprostane, a marker of oxidative stress involving chemically charged ions or molecules called reactive oxygen species. Both markers went down in the African-Americans, but not the Caucasians, after resistance training. The researchers were surprised to see that initial levels of MMP-9 were lower in African-Americans before the weight training.

"It may be that MMP-9 has a different effect on the vasculature of African-Americans than it does on Caucasians," said Illinois doctoral student Marc Cook, who conducted the new analysis. "We don't know."

The decrease in MMP-9 was significantly correlated with the increase in muscle strength in the African-American men, Cook said. He sees the reduction in MMP-9s and 8-isoprostane as a positive outcome in the African-American men.

Previous studies showed that "aerobic exercise actually reduces oxidative stress, and reduces iosprostane," Cook said. "But nobody had a clue about resistance training."

Cook said he now knows what to say to African-American men who ask him why they should exercise.

"If you don't like cardiovascular exercise, if you don't like running on a treadmill, if you can't play basketball or you're not good at it, you can lift weights and improve your health, especially when it comes to high blood pressure, which happens to run in our family," he said. "If you just want to lift weights and you do it on a regular basis, you could improve your function."

"The overall goal of our departmental research here at the U. of I. is to explore the use of exercise as adjunct therapy for disease, while providing a public health message and evidence about how exercise is beneficial, even at an early age," said Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Jeffrey Woods, a co-author on the study.

This work was partially funded through the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. M D Cook, K S Heffernan, S Ranadive, J A Woods, B Fernhall. Effect of resistance training on biomarkers of vascular function and oxidative stress in young African-American and Caucasian men. Journal of Human Hypertension, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/jhh.2012.48

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/D0RHWwlQbv0/121221123506.htm

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Assistive Technology TDSB: School Regions Special Education ...

School Regions?Special Education Partnerships

In addition to the PD projects and initiatives coordinated by the SEA Assistive Technology team, itinerant resource teachers are also available to partner with Special Education Consultants to co-create/co-present at Family of Schools Special Education PD sessions. During these collaborations, the assistive technology itinerant teacher and the FOS consultant aim to provide teachers with meaningful information on available software, specific tools/features and the ways in which assistive technology can be successfully integrated as a means of promoting access to curriculum and student achievement.
This term, special education teachers of WR5 participated in a presentation on the new features of Read and Write Gold Version 10. The session provided MARTS, HSP, ISP and resource teachers with current information on the software advancements of Read and Write Gold and its applications within the classroom.


The Read and Write Gold Picture Dictionary can serve as an excellent tool for creating visual supports for visual learners, as well as students within the low-incidence and autism populations.

Read and Write Gold?s Vocabulary List Builder is a tool for building vocabulary specific to a particular unit/area of study. Vocabulary charts can be digitally edited, saved and printed in order to serve as a quick reference guide to support students during subsequent written/oral tasks.
Read and Write Gold flash
See our Read and Write Gold flash lessons created by the A.T. team teachers?for ideas to use the Vocabulary list Builder and Picture Dictionary and other assistive technology tools:

Curriculum connections using Read Write Gold.

Source: http://assistivetechtdsb.blogspot.com/2012/12/school-regions-special-education.html

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Immigration Clearinghouse - Controlled Demolition of the United ...

by William Gheen
President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
www.alipac.us

This is it. This is not a drill. The globalists who have compromised the top tiers of America?s media and government superstructure are going for broke with their plan which has been in the making for many years.

Speaking of broke, they are broke.The entire political system responsible for governing us and protecting us should have ceased to financially exist long before now as they are out of money again. They no longer have the money to pay their salaries, their staff, or the light bill for the White House. Even though they just doubled the national debt in slightly more than a year, they have spent all of that already.

Just as the math of the global financial apocalypse unwinds, this same unfunded mandate of a government is trying to pass Amnesty for illegal aliens by trying to compromise the first two protections of the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. Does this surprise any of our long standing supporters?

After the 2008 elections, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) tried to warn the nation that we had to fight against the ?Three Nation Killers? to make it to the 2010 elections. We fought those three nation killers successfully giving the public another chance, but the 2010 political revolution was stalled west of the Mississippi river by large numbers of illegal alien voters who kept Senator Harry Reid and the Democrats in control of the US Senate.

Please remember that it was ALIPAC that warned Americans first about the three prongs of this nation destroying cabal?s plans which you now see manifesting all around you at once. We predicted this and now you should be able to see it clearly.

The three ?Nation Killers? that the globalists want in place in order to bury traditional America beneath their new super state that will fall under global control are: 1. Amnesty for over ten million illegal aliens in America; 2. Restrictions on freedom of speech to prevent future grassroots political rebellions against their plans and rule; 3. Gun bans and confiscation to assure that the American public is defenseless to fight any future atrocities, enslavement, or whatever they decide they want to do to the once free and self governed people of America.

There has now been a very small swing to the left in Congress, with Democrats picking up a whopping 8 seats in 2012 compared to the 60 seats the GOP gained with candidates coast to coast running hard against illegal immigration in 2010. Most of the gains by the globalists were achieved by skullduggery and redrawn district lines when they tried to destroy the people who were not under their control, like Michele Bachmann, Allen West, and Mike McIntyre. West fell as did several true patriots in California who were redistricted out of office by the elites. In ALIPAC?s home state of North Carolina, we helped save Mike McIntyre by a few hundred votes.

From what we can tell in the news reports being collected in our archives at www.ALIPAC.us, our runaway government will probably agree to double or quadruple the debt again to buy themselves another year or two of authority and making sure all the components are in place for their nation building to succeed.

Some of the first bills that will be filed and rushed will be for Amnesty for illegal aliens and restrictions of gun rights. Prohibitions on free speech on the web may be further legislated, or they may just crack down on us using Google and Facebook to remove speech they don?t like.

If you are one of our supporters on Facebook, please join our email alerts at www.ALIPAC.us because news has just reached us that Facebook has begun suspending accounts and deleting posts due to political content. InfoWars and others are reporting conservative bloggers who use Facebook are having their accounts shut down, or are receiving warnings from Facebook that their political views will not be allowed. Our ability to share information is under duress.

We need each of you to understand that this Amnesty fight is going to be very different. Do not expect to see honest coverage of what is happening on any of the major news networks, including Fox News.

While many of you have known for a long time that CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS have all been singing the same pro Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty supporting song for years, while excluding reports of illegal aliens killing Americans, taking jobs from Americans, and stealing taxpayer resources and election votes.

Now, Fox News has stopped having guests from ALIPAC, NumbersUSA, or FAIR on their show at all and many of their show hosts like Bill O?Reilly, Sean Hannity, Mike Huckabee, and Geraldo Rivera all support Amnesty for illegal aliens.

For the last two years, Fox News owner and notorious billionaire Rupert Murdoch has been working hand in hand with gun grabbing billionaire Michael Bloomberg to pass a form of Amnesty for illegal aliens. Now Fox News mirrors their owner?s bias on this issue.

So, in effect, those of us fighting for American citizen interests against this invasion have been almost completely silenced on the national networks. The elites know that many of our American citizens will not stand up or motivate unless they see or hear about it on TV. Some are just not motivated or just don?t believe anything real is happening, unless they see it on their TV. With Glenn Beck and Pat Buchanan off the TV now and Lou Dobbs converted to an Amnesty supporter, fired from CNN, and stuck in the back waters of Fox News, all of these who would oppose Amnesty have been silenced from our televisions as the elites prepare for this new assault on our nation.

On talk radio, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage will stand against Amnesty. Sean Hannity whom we have always suspected as a globalist asset has shown his true colors and claims to have ?evolved? to the level of his boss Rupert Murdoch and now supports a ?path to citizenship? for illegal immigrants. The big companies have also restructured talk radio so many of the smaller shows run by local hosts are now off the air, replaced by Spanish language stations and broadcasting other content.

On top of preparing you for a steady stream of disinformation from the globalists on TV, you need to be prepared to see some of their ?deep assets? turn on you in the final days of this national betrayal. The globalists have had many people in their pockets, both Democrats and Republicans, and up to this point it has been advantageous for them to pretend they are loyal to you, the American public. Sean Hannity?s recent conversion to an illegal alien Amnesty supporter and Joe Scarborough?s 180 degrees on American gun rights are just the beginning. Prepare yourselves for disappointment as the elites expose their deep assets as they go for broke with their plan.

The good news for the side of American Defenders like us is A. We will now have better mapping of who all of the traitors are; and B. We can make a list and if we can defeat their plans once again, we can move forward to begin educating Americans about who truly represents We The People, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and who actually works for the billionaires engaged in what I call ?The Controlled Demolition of the United States of America!?

So you need to be prepared to motivate to defend America and our communications on the web, and if you are waiting for someone on TV to tell you to mobilize, it is just not going to happen. You will simply turn your TVs on one day to find that illegal aliens are on their way to becoming legal voters, your ability to own guns has been restricted, and new hate speech laws are going into place to prevent you from speaking out when future waves of illegal aliens push you and your descendants into the streets, swamps, and mountains.

Finally, we have to warn you about their propaganda. According to the recent letter from turncoat Congressman Ted Poe sent to the Amnesty supporting publication POLITICO, not only are deep assets for the globalists like Ted Poe are not really on the side of Americans who are facing off against illegal immigration, but instead, they are going to use three primary propaganda strategies, two of which we have seen already.

Strategy #1 ?It?s not Amnesty?

We have seen this first strategy before that Ted Poe and others are using. John McCain and George Bush swore up and down that their ?Guest Worker? plan to legalize millions of illegal aliens was not ?Amnesty.? They believed that they were so powerful with their friends in the media helping that they could actually change the definition of Amnesty just by saying so. In fact, these people announce on CNN and Fox News and say, ?My plan is not Amnesty,? and a certain percentage of Americans will say, ?Oh, I heard it was not Amnesty, I?ll go back to the home shopping network now.?

During recent calls to Ted Poe?s office, a few of our new ALIPAC supporters were told our alert to them about Ted Poe supporting Amnesty was ?disinformation,? and that he did not support Amnesty and even says in his letter he is against Amnesty. So, once again we find ourselves fighting that old strategy of the ?not an Amnesty? Amnesty.

Strategy #2 ?Hidden Amnesty Within Language You Like?

There is one small poison pill that America needs to swallow to slumber forevermore and it is a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens that would turn them into voters whom you will watch dominate American politics should we fail. While sellout Republicans will try to convince you that you have a lot in common with illegal immigrants. This is a lie ! You will not enjoy watching what they do to your country, your workplace if you still have one, and your neighborhood in the future.

Just like the Ted Poe letter to Politico shows us, they are going to bury the ?path to citizenship? poison pill Amnesty under lots of things you like to hear such as ?Secure the border first,? ?immigration reform,? and ?send the criminals home,? etc. The toy they want will be buried in a box of Cracker Jacks and you won?t see it unless you read the whole thing or look in the least read section of the letter (around the 75% mark) to see it.

While Ted Poe ordered his staffers to lie to our ALIPAC callers and claim that his plan was not Amnesty, their claims fell apart when some of our activists confronted them with the news that the path to citizenship was indeed in the letter. US Law states that illegal aliens currently in the US are prohibited from applying for citizenship unless they return home to apply first.

Poe?s letter states, ?Those (illegal aliens currently in the US) who receive documentation may eventually apply for citizenship, and those who have served in our military should be placed ahead of the line.? Obviously, this most important point of his plan that would change the law to accommodate 10-20 million illegal immigrants should be in the opening and closing of his letter. However, it is not, it?s only mentioned once in paragraph 4, sentence 7, immersed in other language you would like.

After all, that appears to be what Ted Poe is. He is a hidden traitor immersed in pro enforcement clothing. We checked today and NumbersUSA still has Ted Poe listed as an ?A? grade with full merits for ?Opposing Amnesty.? How long will that bit of fiction remain up on the web, and are all of the different illegal immigration fighting groups going to react as ALIPAC has to Poe?s betrayal? We hope to hear from the other groups about Poe soon, but for now ALIPAC will lead the way into the fray.

This is certainly a fight with Ted Poe that none of us wanted. We are aware of the impact it will have on the morale of our movement to see traitors like Ted Poe in our own ranks exposing themselves as assets of the globalists as the Amnesty trap is sprung.

Strategy #3 The New One: ?It?s not citizenship Amnesty?

The new strategy we face in 2012 from the Amnesty supporters is being presented by US Senator Marco Rubio, Congressman Ted Poe, and others.

They claim that their legislation will legalize illegal immigrants without conveying citizenship rights. To many Americans who are intimidated by the power of the elites and uncomfortable with their backs against the wall they will say, ?Well, I guess that sounds reasonable since they won?t be able to vote.?

Well, guess what?!?! Illegal aliens are already able to vote and voting! Many Americans apparently have not been reading the ALIPAC email alerts about the confirmation of illegal alien voters in many states!

Furthermore, we are quite certain that if you are a big enough sucker or desperate enough to swallow this promise that lifting the current penalties under law for illegal aliens will not lead to citizenship, then what you will get next will be all of the pro illegal alien groups immediately pushing for the vote.

Once you remove the current laws requiring deportation, they can take their sweet time with all the rest and they won?t stop. They will never stop. What will have changed is that you will never have a chance to peacefully get them out of America forevermore.

Also, you do not have to be a lawyer to know that the courts will not allow Congress to establish a permanent underclass by law.

Republicans like Rubio and Poe know that the courts will finish the Amnesty job they start, allowing them to confuse voters even more by coming out against what the courts do. These sellouts have met with their lobbyist handlers and true masters and created this plan we are seeing in several different locations at once.

Lie to Americans to assure them the illegal aliens will not become citizens like the 1986 Amnesty under Reagan accomplished, then let a few activist judges handle the rest. The elites do not care how they get to where they want to go, just that they get there.

One thing they certainly don?t care about is you. Your job, your life, your future. If we are lucky they just don?t care. If we are unlucky, these plans we face are meant to be our undoing and destruction.

In closing, the last time ALIPAC helped defeat Amnesty, they sent 4 US Senators out against us. It was McCain, Graham, Reid, and Durbin. We took Lindsey Graham off the negotiation table with Obama in 2010 sending their plans into disarray. Graham?s support fell to catastrophic levels after my speech at a South Carolina Tea Party rally heard coast to coast thanks to the mass media reaction. Now Graham is up for reelection and Fox News is helping rebuild his brand by appearing to be a fighter against Obama.

This time they are coming at us with 8 US Senators.

So it is clear that the globalists have regrouped after the defeats we have helped to hand them, and they are going for broke.

Please remember that our revolution will no longer be televised. They want Amnesty for illegals, along with your guns, and your free speech. The Amnesty components will be hidden! They plan to lie to you extensively, and bury the Amnesty within language of which you approve. Be prepared to fight the Amnesty that is not an Amnesty and the Amnesty that is not a path to citizenship. They will all lead to millions of illegal aliens permanently replacing you in American politics.

Be ready to stand up and fight harder than you ever have before. If the elites want America submerged and their new nation building to succeed, let?s force their hand into the open by preventing our lawmakers from rubber stamping their dirty deeds.

Source: http://immigrationclearinghouse.org/controlled-demolition-of-the-united-states-the-non-citizenship-amnesty-lie/

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English Department Profile ? BHS Devil's Advocate

By Catherine Han

Students in Ms. Stuart class

Students in Ms. Stuart class

The English Department at Burlington High School wants to provide students with the ?best learning atmosphere, so there have been changes and will be future improvements within the department.

The English Department focus is to ?unify what we teach in our writing component, increase our grammatical study in grades 9 and 10, introducing new texts across all four years at BHS, and providing better support for students who request more assistance with reading and writing? stated Department Head Mr. Lally.

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With a new school year, there is always a change. Mrs. Ford and Ms. Graham have returned from their maternity leave absences. Unfortunately, Mr. Field, a Public speaking and Creative Writing teacher, retired at the end of last year. After the long use of Word Wealth and the Sadlier Oxford books, this year freshmen are being introduced to an online vocabulary textbook. ???Also, the vocabulary textbook in in the process of being translated into an iTunes app was released called Exploros, and this text will be extended to the sophomore classes starting next year.

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?????????Also, there has been a variety of books added to the core classes. Some of the books included are Hamilton?s Mythology ( gr 9), The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (gr 10) and Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (gr 11) as well as units on Media Literacy and Eastern European Fiction to our British and World Literature class (gr12).

The core courses offered at BHS is Introduction to Literature I during Freshmen year, Introduction to Literature II during Sophomore Year, American Literature or AP Language & Composition during Junior Year, and British and World Literature or AP Literature & Composition.

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The English Department is the largest department at BHS. The Department itself has 16 teachers. Also, it is one of only two departments that requires all ?four full years to graduate. The first two years focus on a broad range of literary styles, with a greater stress on grammar and vocabulary acquisition, while the last two years are studies in American Literature during junior year, and British/World Literature during senior year.

There will be two new classes in January, Young Adult Fiction and Creative Writing: Poetry. The Creative Writing Course has existed at BHS for many years, but it has never had a class dedicated entirely to writing poetry.

If students want to focus their studies in the subject of English, they can take electives or clubs along with their current English course. The English electives and clubs offered here at BHS are Collab, Idle Hands, Poetry Club,Debate Team, Future Teachers of America, and Factahalon.

Collab is a national award-winning literary magazine published by the students of BHS, Idle Hands is BHS Improv Club, Poetry Club is where students can make poems and recite them, Debate Team is where students prepare for and participate in formal competitive debates and sponsors forums and open discussion to the student body, Future Teachers of America is where students explore careers in education , and Factahalon is where volunteer students make teams of four to compete, using a quiz show format.

The upcoming events for this year is Poetry Out Loud, and Collab writing contests for seniors ?For the first time, the Poetry Out Loud finals will be treated as an in-house field trip for all seniors,? explained Mr. Lally, the head of the English Department. In the past, a lot of seniors were not able to see the entire final round because of schedule conflicts. This year, BHS will invite all senior down to watch the finals in their entirety.

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Overall, the English Department is creating new changes to improve students here at BHS, Lally states ? The English Department is a pleasure working with such a dedicated and energetic group of peers.?

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Source: http://bhsdevilsadvocate.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/english-department-profile/

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