It will give $500,000 to a wildlife fund to help restore damaged habitat after pastor is convicted of illegally catching and selling fish to pet stores.
The Unification Church's payment — part of a "non-prosecution agreement" with the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco — will go toward a $1.5-million fund to undo the environmental damage inflicted by the pastor's bizarre scheme.
Kevin Thompson, 48, pastor of the Bay Area Family Church in San Leandro, pleaded guilty in January to enlisting church members in an 11-year operation to illegally catch and sell the undersized leopard sharks to pet stores.
He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and ordered to pay $100,000, which also will go toward the wildlife restoration fund.
You know how I have been saying that I am drowning in my work and how much I hate working under these conditions? Well, today I heard the BEST news. I heard from the Vice Presidents secretary that my boss made an ASS out of herself at the meeting while talking about my program. She made it very clear to ALL the deans on campus that she does not know anything about what I do or about how the program is run. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
BEIJING - North Korea agreed Tuesday after arduous talks to shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its atomic weapons program, just four months after the communist state shocked the world by testing a nuclear bomb.
The deal marks the first concrete plan for disarmament in more than three years of six-nation negotiations. The plan also could potentially herald a new era of cooperation in the region with the North's longtime foes — the United States and Japan — also agreeing to discuss normalizing relations.
The country has sidestepped previous agreements, allegedly running a uranium-based weapons program even as it froze a plutonium-based one — sparking the latest nuclear crisis in late 2002. There are believed to be countless mountainside tunnels in which to hide projects.
Under the deal, the North would receive initial aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, north of the capital, within 60 days, to be confirmed by international inspectors. For irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs, the North will eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid. The total is worth $250 million. (this is ridiculous! we dont have enough for our country and now we are going to give them 50k tons of oil??)
One million tons of oil would be equivalent to more than two-thirds of North Korea's entire oil consumption in 2004, according figures in the CIA Factbook.
But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo that his country would not contribute aid to the North until the issue of the abductions of its citizens by North Korea is resolved. North Korea has admitted to abducting Japanese citizens, but not to Japan's satisfaction. (The abductions are pretty bad. I really doubt they will confess to all of them.)
SALT LAKE CITY - A man with a shotgun fired randomly in a historic shopping mall Monday night, killing five people and injuring several others before he was killed, police said.
Hours later, police still were searching stores for shocked shoppers and employees who were hunkered down awaiting a safe escort from the Trolley Square mall.
"We have six fatalities and multiple victims at hospitals," police Detective Robin Snyder said. "They were found throughout the mall. I don't know male or female or ages."
At least four people were hospitalized, three in critical condition and one in serious condition, hospital spokesmen said. Two of the critically injured were a 16-year-old man and a 50-year-old man, a spokesman said.
Authorities offered few details about the shootings but said the gunman entered the mall about 6:45 p.m. MST.
The two-story mall, southeast of downtown, is a refurbished trolley barn built in 1908, with a series of winding hallways, brick floors, wrought-iron balconies and about 80 stores, including high-end retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe.
Matt Lund, whose wife manages a clothing store, said he saw a woman's body face-down at the entrance to Pottery Barn Kids. He locked himself and four others inside a storage room for about 40 minutes, isolated but still able to hear the violence.
"We heard them say, 'Police! Drop your weapon!' Then we heard shotgun fire. Then there was a barrage of gunfire," Lund, 44, said. "It was hard to believe."
Marie Smith, 23, had the day off from Bath & Body Works but stopped there during an errand and saw the gunman shoot a woman in front of the store.
"He was ahead of her, standing still. I don't think she saw that he had a gun," said Smith, who dashed to a bathroom and locked the door.
Outside the mall, streets were blocked as police swarmed the two-block scene. Dozens of people lingered on the sidewalk, many wrapped in blankets, as they talked about what they had seen inside.
Antique store owner Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trenchcoat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman, he said, was backed into a children's clothing store.
"I saw the cops go in the store. I saw the shooter go down," said Dodds, who watched from the second floor.
Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington, D.C., was in another antique shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.
"Then we heard shot after shot after shot — loud, loud, loud," said McKeown, saying she heard about 20. She and three other people hid under a staircase until it was safe to leave.
Many employees and shoppers — "a lot of scared people" — were still inside the mall hours after the shootings, waiting to leave, Snyder said.
"This is a huge area to cover," she said.
An off-duty officer from Ogden was in the mall and involved in the shooting, said Ogden police Sgt. Blaine Clifford, who declined to release the officer's name. The officer was not injured, Clifford said.
Ok so both kids were sick within the past 5 days. High fevers (103) coughing, and some barfing. I on the other hand have been healthy to care for them.
Just awhile ago I started coughing and feeling like crap. I cant be getting sick! Not now!!!
Today is the first day of the semester at the community college where I work. Parking is so super bad! You have students parking in staff spaces and blocking traffic on the street because they want to save money on parking.
I am in my office today by myself and I feel like I am tumbling in a washing machine. ha ha!
Darren McCarthy runs into some trouble trying to deliver Morris to Fayed, and those dissatisfied with President Palmer's handling of the crisis begin to align. Vice President Noah Daniels: Powers Boothe. Marilyn: Rena Sofer. Darren McCarthy: David Hunt. Rita: Missy Crider. Reed Pollock: Chad Lowe.
BEFORE YOU START LIFTING YOU SHOULD KNOW THE BASICS. YOU CAN COPY AND PRINT THE INFO ON MY BLOG IF YOU WISH. I WANT A TONE BOD. HOW ABOUT YOU?
Weight Training 101
The Basics
If you're setting up your own program, you'll need to know some basic strength training principles. These principles will teach you how to make sure you're using enough weight, determine your sets and reps and insure you're always progressing in your workouts.
Overload: If you want to get stronger, you need to use more resistance than your muscles are used to. This is important because the more you do, the more your body is capable of doing, so you should increase your workload to avoid adaptation. In plain language, this means you should be lifting enough weight that you can ONLY complete the desired number of reps. You should be able to finish your last rep with difficulty but also with good form.
Progression. In order to avoid plateaus (or adaptation), you need to increase your intensity. With strength training, you can do this by increasing the amount of weight lifted, increasing the sets/reps, increasing or changing the exercises you're doing and/or change the rest intervals between sets. You can also change the order of your exercises. This means increasing your intensity every week.
Specificity. This principle states that the way your body adapts to exercise depends on the type of exercise you're doing. That means, if you want to increase your strength, your program should be designed around that goal. To gain strength and mass, you want to train with heavier weights closer to your 1 RM (1 rep max). If you want to build endurance and strength, you'll want to stick with lighter weights and a rep range of 8-12.
Rest and Recovery. Rest days are just as important as workout days. It is during these rest periods that your muscles grow and change, so make sure you're not working the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.
Before you get started on setting up your routine, keep a few key points in mind:
Always warm up before you start lifting weights. This helps get your muscles warm and prevent injury. You can warm up with light cardio or by doing a light set of each exercise before going to heavier weights.
Lift and lower your weights slowly. Don't use momentum to lift the weight. If you have to swing to get the weight up, chances are you're using too much weight.
Breathe. Don't hold your breath and make sure you're using full range of motion throughout the movement.
Stand up straight! If your mother could see you now, she'd probably slap a book on your head. Pay attention to your posture and keep everything straight. Engage your abs in every movement you're doing to keep your balance and protect your spine.
