A teenager said he is scared to go outside after he was portrayed on the Internet and on the front page of the New York Post as connected to the Boston Marathon bombings.

Photos of Salah Eddin Barhoum, 17, and friend Yassine Zaime were posted on websites whose users have been scouring marathon finish line photos for suspects. The two were also on the Post's front Thursday with the headline: "Bag men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon."

The Post reported later Thursday that the men weren't considered suspects, and the FBI has since identified two other men as suspects in the bombings Monday that killed three and injured more than 180.

But Barhoum, a track runner at Revere High School, said he is convinced some will blame him for the bombings, no matter what.

He was so fearful on Thursday that he ran back to the high school after a track meet when he saw a man in a car staring at him, talking into a phone, he said.

Barhoum added he received more than 200 messages online Wednesday, with one commenter from Oregon asking: "How could you do that? Did you even think about the consequences?"

Barhoum said he won't feel safe until the actual bombers are caught.

"I'm going to be scared going to school," Barhoum said. "Workwise, my family, everything is going to be scary."

Attempts to reach Zaime were not immediately successful.

Barhoum's father, El Houssein Barhoum, who moved his family from Morocco five years ago, said he is worried his son will be shot and also fears for his wife and two young daughters. He said he can't go to his job as a baker in Boston.

"Right now, we are not secure," he said. "So, the news (media), when they put something, they should be sure about the information."

A message requesting comment was left with a spokeswoman for the Post. In a statement to the Washington Post, New York Post editor Col Allan said, "We stand by our story. The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects."

The photos show Barhoum with a black Nike athletic bag, wearing a blue and black track suit. Zaime is carrying a black backpack, wearing a white cap and black track clothes.

Men with bags at the marathon have been a focus of Internet scrutiny, because officials believe that how the bombers carried in the explosives.

Barhoum said there are only two reasons he's been labeled a suspect: his bag and his brown skin.

Barhoum said he was at the marathon with Zaime, a friend from the running club, hoping to run a portion of it behind the official field. They took the subway, and Barhoum's bag was for his running gear.

But the pair got the address wrong and ended up at the finish line instead of the start. Barhoum said they decided to stick around to see the top runners, then left.

Barhoum said that late Wednesday, friends started flagging the online photos, and commenters started their work. He said he was so upset, he visited police early Thursday to clear his name. He said they him advised to restrict access to his Facebook account.

When the Post published the photo later Tuesday, a bad situation got worse, Barhoum said.

"It hurts because the person who did it must be happy right now, looking at the people who are getting blamed," he said. "And I'm one of them."

Workers at Sea-Tac Airport claim they're exposed to blood, vomit and worse every day, and they say they don't have procedures in place to keep them from getting sick.

The state recently levied a steep fine against a vendor that provides wheelchair service for Alaska Airlines, but the workers still aren't happy.

The people who wheel passengers to and from their planes say the stuff they deal with is not only disgusting, but potentially life-threatening.

Not everyone who flies can negotiate the airport on their own, and the ill and disabled often ride in wheelchairs. The workers who push them claim they're exposed to germs and pathogens and have no training or means to avoid contact.

"I had one passenger who threw up from the time I picked him up at the airplane to the time I dropped him off at the ambulance," said Carol Worman of Bags, Inc.

Afraid they or passengers might be exposed to hepatitis B or other life-threatening pathogens, employees of Bags, Inc. -- a vendor for Alaska Airlines -- took their complaints to the state.

"It saddens me to know that management and the CEOs of our corporations just aren't paying attention to what the workers are having to deal with," said Riverton Park United Methodist Church Rev. Jan Bolerjack.

The state found Bags, Inc. had no procedure to clean contained wheelchairs and keep employees protected. The state Department of Labor and Industries imposed a $12,000 fine.

"It was simply for training documents," said D'Anne Mica of Bags, Inc. "We have no reports of any exposure incidents or anyone coming in direct contact with that."

Officials from Alaska Airlines say they're pleased with the response from the vendor, but workers are not.

Supporters recently lined up to hand over complaints, and many passengers seemed to agree with them.

"It really surprises and upsets me that Alaska would contract with companies that treats workers so poorly," said passenger Nicki Olivier.

Duane Burge with Alaska promised the workers their complaints would reach the appropriate people.

Workers say they are now being supplied with wipes to disinfect the wheelchairs. The company has three weeks to correct the violations or face further penalties.

London, which is on alert as it prepares for Margaret Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday and the London Marathon on Sunday, long ago took steps that many U.S. cities and large corporations with huge campuses may be thinking about now.

Packages or bags placed on the ground or in trash bins are a major vulnerability.

London rid itself of trash bins decades ago as a security risk amid strife with Northern Ireland. The city is accustomed to extensive public safety planning and precautions surrounding major public events, such as the London Summer Olympics.

Boston police say there is no evidence the devices at the marathon blew up in trash cans, though they might have been placed in a nylon bag and set on the ground.

Kaveh Memari, CEO of Renew, said a "blast-mitigating" recycling "pod" his company developed can prevent some damage if a device was placed in one of these bins.

"It's exactly this kind of thing that this thing was designed to handle," Memari said of the unit, which is almost 5 feet tall.

"We don't use the word 'bin' at all as most times people would not envision a Renew Pod," Memari said. "It's like referring to an email as a message, an armoured transport a wagon, or a smartphone a telephone to someone who has never written an email, been in a tank nor used a mobile."

Renew is providing about 100 "bomb-proof" recycling pods in London that show advertisements and public service announcements.

"Renew is not just a hardened shell," said Memari. He said its built-in messaging system also fills the "informational black hole" that follows for people in the surrounding area, like that which followed the London bombings on July 7, 2005.

The company conducted blast testing at New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, which provides training approved by the Department of Homeland Security.

Stephen Vickers, account executive with Renew in London, explained that free newspapers and other material piled up in the streets after trash bins were eliminated.

As part of Renew's 21-year contract with the city, last year it began placing the pods in London's City Square Mile.

The company already placed one pod near the New York Stock Exchange in the spring of 2012 and hopes to have additional units in the city later this year. It also has four pods in Singapore.

For the upcoming London Marathon, the pods will provide information on road and subway closures, as well as advice on being safe and vigilant.

"Road closures will be in effect from 07:00 in the City on Wednesday as part of arrangements for Lady Thatcher's funeral," is one example of a message. London Underground subway status updates can also be shown on the bins.

The opening of the paper-only pod fits the size of a McDonald's disposable cup, said Vickers. There are also mixed recycling apertures which also allow for the collection of plastic and can beverage containers.

Ian Murison, director of engineering with Curventa, the industrial design firm that helped develop Renew's pods, adds that the openings to the bins can be locked remotely so people can't put anything inside in emergencies.

Murison said the internal area of the pod is designed to withstand the shock force of a bomb.

Previously, London had a number of cast iron bins that would cause additional damage if an explosive device broke away its pieces.

The city previously had over 1,300 waste bins before the IRA bombings but now has about 25 in some of the parks, Memari said.

Many cities are limiting garbage bins or only using clear plastic bags hung by simple wire or plastic stands, so the contents of the garbage are easily viewable.

Murison declined to reveal the bins' material for security purposes, but said they were made of a type of steel "joined together in the best way possible to withstand a substantial shock blast." The company also enlisted the help of a submarine engineer.

They are composed of a "Blast Module center," "which is four times stronger than steel and is designed to handle huge over pressures and blast waves emanating from an Improvised Explosive Device," Memari said.

"We learned that bombs placed inside of bins made better bombs," Murison said from Curventa's headquarters in London. "And when glass shatters, that's what causes the damage and a lot of lacerations."

The recycling bins are also designed so any potential explosion would blow the lid up in the air.

"The vast majority of the energy of an explosion is going into thin air. We do have to send the shockwaves somewhere and like a chimney it goes straight up but should protect people in the vicinity," he said.

While the technologies may assist in preventing some tragedies, Murison said public vigilance is a major factor.

"You can control something in an enclosed space like a stadium, but when it's outside like a marathon, it's extremely difficult," he said. "You hope the vast majority of the public is vigilant and report suspicious activity -- unless you lock down the whole city, which isn't going to happen."

In kitchens, they prepare food faster, but pressure cookers by their very nature help make good bombs, amplifying the blast and the carnage.

They don't just hold the explosives. The tightly sealed pot that speeds the cooking of beans and meat makes easier-to-obtain but weaker explosives faster and stronger. And they may also help investigators find out who built the deadly homemade bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Investigators found fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker, said Richard DesLauriers, the FBI agent in charge in Boston. He said the items were sent for analysis.

If a pressure cooker was used, it probably cost around $100 to construct, say former federal forensic and explosive investigators. It's like a pipe bomb but bigger and more powerful.

Pressure cooker bombs are more often used in Afghanistan, Pakistan India, and Nepal – where the pots are more commonly used for cooking. But they have also been prominent in bombings and attempts in the United States, especially in New York in Times Square in 2010 and Grand Central Terminal in 1976.

In Al Qaeda's online magazine, there's even an article titled: "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" by "The AQ Chef." It mentions, even recommends, pressure cookers, noting that weak explosives only work with the high pressure of a cooker or sealed pipe.

Low power explosives like black powder and smokeless powder – the most likely ones used in Boston – blow up at a slower rate and only deliver the big boom if they are confined and the pressure from the gas and explosion builds up, said Denny Kline, a former FBI explosives expert and instructor in forensics at its academy.

Kline and other ex-government experts who have no role in the investigation differ about what type of explosive may have been used and some refuse to even speculate what kind.

The pressure cookers are a key first piece in a painstaking detective process. The sound of the explosion is a clue. The color of the flash – yellow – and smoke – white – are clues. So is the size of any crater and the distance fragments flew. Even the smell can give a seasoned investigator a good idea of what explosive was used, Kline said.

"We basically try to create a model for what the bomb looked like," said Matthew Horace, a former special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Investigating bombs is like a puzzle."

Piece by piece, forensic investigators now have to put together what came apart with an explosive force of thousands of feet per second: The bombs themselves.

"It's going to change its appearance and its form, but it's going to remain," said Kline. "It'll be broken up into lots of little pieces, but it's not going to evaporate."

The job is to piece things back together and identify chemicals. But it happens slower than on TV crime shows. And it isn't as easy, Kline said.

"It takes a lot more intelligence to put it back together... from multiple pieces than to follow a simple set of instructions on the Internet," said Roy Parker, a retired ATF explosives expert.

Kline said once forensic investigators have something on the bomb itself, it is given to lead detectives to take the next big step

Take the pressure cooker. If the brand is determined, "investigators will track every store that sells that pressure cooker and when it was built and sold," Horace said. "This kind of investigation requires hundreds, if not thousands of leads to be followed up on."

Horace and others are confident that the pressure cooker identification can be a big help.

The pressure cooker can also help point to the type of explosive, Kline said. If it's a high powered explosive like dynamite or C4, the blast would have shattered the cooker leaving sharp edges. If it's the low explosive, it will merely blast through, leaving more squared off edges, he said.

Once everything is pieced together, investigators will look for the "signature" or style of a bomber. Often – but less so since the Internet was born – a signature can lead to a bomber, Kline said.

"It's like a piano player," Kline said. "You can give Dave Brubeck or Chopin the same piece of music and it will sound different."

With this type of bomb, it can be triggered with something as simple as an egg timer or alarm clock, Parker said. Experts doubt a cellphone was used.

The use of nails, shards of metals and ball bearings also amplifies the personal devastation, experts said.

"We've removed BBs and we've removed nails from kids. One of the sickest things for me was just to see nails sticking out of a little girl's body," said Dr. David Mooney, trauma chief at Boston Children's Hospital, which treated 10 blast victims.

Two men sit over a lunch of Vietnamese noodles in Virginia Beach and talk about a secret world they are leaving behind.

The restaurant is a big open room - good for men who speak intently to each other but make it a point to watch everything around them.

The younger man listens with a quiet focus. He is muscular and, at 31, has thick dark hair and a tattoo poking out from under his left shirt sleeve. There's an easy intelligence to him that gives little hint of the adversity he's overcome.

He's never met his lunch partner until today, but he knows of him. In their world, everybody does.

That man is 16 years his senior, bald, with piercing eyes and a commanding urgency. He walks briskly despite a pronounced limp, and he speaks with a fierceness that alludes to his world of experiences.

Though strangers, they have each earned the other's respect. They recognize in each other a rare resolve that stems partly from being a special breed of warrior and partly from being in that more obscure realm of survivor.

These two men were Navy SEALs, part of America's most secretive and elite group of fighters, serving their country at a time of war.

Both were in peak condition when they were wounded in Afghanistan 18 months apart. They were stripped of the very essence of their warrior creed - being "physically harder and mentally stronger" than the enemy.

For many people wounded in war, recovery is a quest to regain some sense of a normal life. But these two men discovered that they needed something more. Still burning within them, even though they could no longer run with the fastest or fight with the strongest, was an unyielding drive for excellence.

Over lunch, they relive the intensity of getting hurt and the difficulty of finding the right care. They describe the gaps in a system that's supposed to take care of them and of the abiding power of determination, generosity and love.

Robbie was standing on an embankment in eastern Afghanistan in October 2010 when two grenades misfired inside a launching canister right in front of him. Three years into his career with the SEALs, the job had been everything he'd envisioned: challenging, intriguing work that took him away from his desk position as a mechanical engineer and put him on the front lines.

The blast sent him flying off the embankment and back several yards. He stood up, reached his hand to his face to wipe the gravel out of his mouth. But it wasn't gravel. Those were his teeth, broken and loose.

Then he noticed blood pouring from the other hand, as if someone had run a can opener the length of his left arm, then pulled the sides apart.

Instinct - and adrenaline - kicked in. Robbie pulled out his tourniquet and wrapped it around his ravaged arm.

Robbie was taken to Bagram Airfield, the main hub for NATO and U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, with a sophisticated hospital. By chance, specialists on deployment included a hand surgeon and vascular surgeon. They spent 14 hours operating on him.

When he woke up, his arm was still there. It was still there after surgeries at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where doctors also cleaned up his shattered cheekbone, and it was still there at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

For six weeks, doctors operated frequently while the wound stayed open, filled with drains and tubes. His mother came down to be by his side.

In the blur of morphine and anesthesia, Robbie knew one thing: His arm was still there.

In July 2009, Jimmy's team - part of the Navy's Special Warfare Development Group - was on a search mission in eastern Afghanistan. The warriors landed in the dark and were hit with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades as they made their way across a field.

Jimmy was an old hand at this kind of mission. He'd become a SEAL in 1990 and joined his elite unit in 1994, back when there was no war. After six years, he left the unit to teach parachuting. When war broke out, he pushed hard to get back to Virginia Beach.

That was in 2004. Now, five years later, Jimmy was a senior chief, a leader of expert commandos, strong and alert and brimming with confidence. He was one of the toughest guys in the world.

The bullet that found his leg exploded through his femur just above the knee. It exited with pieces of bone and flung him through the air.

The pain was exquisite. In the seconds it took him to land, he told himself not to scream because that would give away the location of the men around him. Then his lungs filled with air, and he couldn't help it. He screamed in agony.

Two SEALs shot their way through the firefight, stabilized him and shot their way back out to pull him to safety.

A week later, Jimmy was at Bethesda. He underwent 17 surgeries - to clean the wound, to repair the damage, to clear out infection. Surgeons repaired his knee, reconstructed his femur and grafted nerves.

Lying in a hospital bed with a cocktail of powerful painkillers and too much time, Jimmy started to replay the moment, over and over.

He heard himself screaming in that Afghan night. He hated that sound. He hated himself for putting his buddies in danger to come to his rescue.

"The drugs, the inability to sleep - those things conspire against you," he says. "And I was embarrassed. I felt like I completely dishonored my crew."

Robbie is not a religious guy. Yet he couldn't help thinking it was more than coincidence that the day he arrived at the battlefield hospital in Bagram, hand and vascular surgeons were deployed there.

"They were able to take that," he says, pointing to a picture of his open wound, "and put it back together."

Most days at Bethesda, he'd walk down the hall to the physical therapy room and ride a bicycle or walk on a treadmill, using a table with a pillow to rest the arm.

It didn't take much to wipe him out - a tough adjustment for a guy who could once back-squat 400 pounds and run sub-6-minute miles.

As the weeks passed, Robbie's Navy doctors grew pessimistic. The arm is dead, they told him. It has to come off.

The young petty officer said no, defying the authority of his senior ranking doctors. He did his own research and learned that nerves can regrow, but that it could take months or even years.

A friend put him in touch with a doctor in Tucson, Ariz., who sent Robbie information about nerve regeneration.

Sometimes the bait is a small amount of cash in a stray wallet. Or a credit card. Even a pack of cigarettes can do the trick.

Police in New York City leave the items unattended - on subway platforms, on park benches, in cars - and wait to see if someone grabs them.

The New York Police Department says the practice has been a valuable tool for catching career criminals and deterring thefts in public places. But a recent court ruling throwing out a larceny case against a Bronx woman cast a harsh light on a tactic critics say too often sweeps up innocent people.

Judge Linda Poust Lopez found that there was no proof Deirdre Myers tried to steal anything - and that she was framed by a sting that took the tactic way too far.

Upholding the charges "would greatly damage the confidence and trust of the public in the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system, and rightly so," the judge wrote.

Myers, a 40-year-old single mother with no criminal record, has since sued the city, claiming she and her daughter were traumatised by a wrongful arrest in 2010.

 "You know how embarrassing and humiliating this was?" Myers said. "I'd never been stopped by the police for anything in my life."

The city Law Department is still reviewing Myers' lawsuit, city attorney Raju Sundaran said in a statement. But, he added, "undercover sting operations are lawful and help reduce crime."

The judge suggested that Myers' brush with the law had its roots in the so-called lucky bag operation that the NYPD began in 2006 to deter thefts of wallets, shopping bags, smartphones and other valuables in the subways.

A typical scenario was for a plainclothes officer to place a handbag with cash on a train platform and briefly look or step away. Anyone who took the bag, then passed up chances to return it to the undercover cop or to report it to a uniformed officer posted nearby could be locked up.

At the time, police credited the subway operation with driving down crime there. They say they still use the tactic when they see a spike in thefts of personal property in public places such as Grand Central Terminal or Central Park. But they now require more evidence of intent - a suspect trying to hide a wallet or taking cash out of it and throwing it away - before making an arrest.

Last year, police arrested a tourist from Atlanta in Central Park after he picked up a purse and took out $27 stashed inside, according to court papers in another pending civil case. He ended up paying a $120 fine as part of a plea bargain.

Authorities began using "bait cars" about six years ago in the Bronx to combat a chronic problem with car thefts and break-ins in working-class neighbourhoods. In most cases, police plant property - an iPad, a pack of cigarettes - in plain sight as the bait for thieves but make sure the car is locked so that a suspect would have to take the extra step of breaking in before being arrested.

But the strategy used in the Myers case "was certainly the most extreme version of the operation that we've seen," said her attorney, Ann Mauer.

According to court papers and to Myers' account, she and her daughter Kenya, then a 15-year-old high school student, were sitting on the stoop of their building when the sting unfolded

"It seemed like everybody in the Bronx was out that night," she said in an interview monitored by Vik Pawar, her attorney in her federal lawsuit.

The summer scene was interrupted by a bit of theater staged by police: A dark car raced down the block before stopping. Another vehicle carrying plainclothes officers wasn't far behind. When the driver got out and ran, the officers gave chase, yelling, "Stop! Police!" her suit says.

Myers' daughter, seeing that the driver left the car door open, went over and peered inside to see personal items that included what looked like a bundle of cash - in reality, a dollar bill wrapped around pieces of newspaper. The girl had called her mother over when another set of police officers suddenly pulled up in a van and forced them to the ground, according to Myers' account.

The officers took them into custody, even though they never touched anything inside the car, the suit says. While entering a stationhouse in handcuffs, Myers spotted the driver of the car standing outside, smoking a cigarette. It dawned on her that he was an undercover with a starring role in the sting - a suspicion supported by the court ruling.

The girl ultimately wasn't charged. But her mother spent more than two years fighting charges of petty larceny and possession of stolen property.

A spokesman for the Bronx District Attorney's office conceded that the bait car had been left unlocked and said prosecutors would not appeal the judge's ruling. He declined to comment further.

Though defence attorneys in the Bronx say there have been a few other cases involving bait cars and pretend police pursuits, the tactic hasn't drawn much attention outside the borough.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and a lucky bag critic, said she wasn't aware that police were using decoy cars until asked about the Myers case.

The 33-year-old son of a Howard County man on trial for allegedly killing his wife and burying her beneath a backyard shed two decades ago testified through tears on Thursday about waking up on the morning of her disappearance and wandering around the home looking for her.

Robert Jarrett III was 10 years old at the time, and it was a morning ritual for his mother, Christine, to wake him and his younger brother. On Jan. 4, 1991, he got up on his own and saw no sign of her. He checked her bed and the garage, and then called his aunt.

"She was a stay-at-home mom, and she was very loving," he said. "We were with her all the time."

Jarrett's father, Robert Jarrett Jr., 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christine Jarrett after a body was found in April 2012 on the Elkridge property they shared.

The discovery came after Jarrett left his second wife; she allowed police to search the shed.

Prosecutors allege that Jarrett killed his wife and disposed of her remains. He continued to raise their children in the home after her disappearance.

Testimony on the second day of the trial in Howard County Circuit Court came from Robert Jarrett III — the elder of Jarrett's two sons — and a nephew. Both said they had witnessed Robert Jarrett Jr. abusing Christine.

Though the body was found under a slab of concrete in the shed, Jarrett's attorneys say prosecutors have no evidence to link him to the killing, and they question whether the remains were hers. They say the decision by their sons to cremate the body after an autopsy prevented defense attorneys from conducting independent tests.

Also found with the body were personal items belonging to Christine Jarrett, including a ring, her purse and family photographs. Prosecutors say her identity was confirmed through dental records.

But the defense objected. Circuit Judge Richard S. Bernhardt instructed Robert Jarrett III not to describe the remains found as those of his mother.

Robert Jarrett Jr. told police in 1991 that he and his wife had agreed to separate weeks before her disappearance. He said they had had an argument, and that when he woke up she had left.

Two close friends of Christine's testified Wednesday that she had made comments about "walking out and never coming back."

Robert Jarrett III, who is now a licensed counselor, testified that the only conversation he had with his father about the matter after Christine's disappearance involved the father handing the boy a newspaper article about the case.

"He told me to read it, and if I had any questions to ask him," Robert Jarrett III testified.

He declined to be interviewed after testifying.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that the Jarretts' marriage was strained, but the defense said Robert Jarrett had no reason to kill his wife and actively looked for her after she vanished. Prosecutors say he was feigning concern.

Robert Jarrett III described his parents' marriage as "tumultuous" and marked by frequent verbal disputes. He testified that he twice watched from the kitchen as his father knocked his mother to the ground in the living room.

Christine Jarrett's nephew, David Mueller, testified that Christine once called him from a drugstore, where she said she had taken refuge after a beating that he said left welts and a gash on her face and neck.

"'I need you to pick me up," Mueller recalled her saying. "The son of a bitch just beat the [expletive] out of me.'"

Robert Jarrett III and a childhood friend both testified that they had access to the shed where the body was found. The family kept dirt bikes, tools and other items in it.

Not long after Christine's disappearance, Robert Jarrett Jr. rebuilt the shed, witnesses testified, with help from his brother and a next-door neighbor.

Looking for a new morning pick-me-up or a cup-a-Joe on the go? A new coffee shop in downtown Millburn has brewed up the right blend.

Light to dark roasts and blends using coffee beans from more than seven different countries, The Coffee Mill Roasters has everything for coffee lovers and roasts it all in house.

The brick walls, stand up bar and outside tables transports you into a Williamsburg-style coffee shop as you step off Main Street into the store not more than 50 yards from Starbucks and Rockn’Joes.

“It’s an urban-style New York coffee shop with roasting,” owner Gennaro Raimo explained. “And with an Italian flare of course with cappuccinos, lattes and espressos.”

Walking in, the first thing you’ll notice is Raimo welcoming coffee cravers into the store, recommending new blends — unless he’s roasting coffee beans downstairs— and his 27-year-old son, Daniel, who runs the shop with his dad, probably behind the counter.

Raimo, who was one of the owners of ASAP Photo next-door, said he wanted to bring a micro-roaster to Millburn so residents could get fresh coffee—by the pound or cup—without having to go to New York City.

“I’m 50-years-old, I just wanted to do something cool and hip,” Raimo said with a laugh.

The duo roasts the coffee in the basement with beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, Sumatra, Columbia, Timor, Kenya, and Guatemala. Originally, the roaster was upstairs, when the shop opened on Saint Patrick’s Day, but Raimo said it was too loud and smoky.

“Myself and my son are extremely passionate about coffee,” Raimo said.

The father-son business experiments with many different blends of coffee and its 4-bean espresso but also sell each country’s roasts separately by the pound.

Coffee isn’t the only fresh ingredient to Raimo’s idea of a boutique coffee shop. The store bakes crispy croissants daily— or cornettos, the Italian translation as the shop calls them—filled with chocolate, apricot, custard cream or just plain. It also gets shipments daily of other pastries from Balthazar in New York.

The small shop has a retro, urban feel to it with old diner-style stools, chrome with red cushions, at high-top tables and a stand-up bar with a large 1934 Coca-Cola sign on the wall. You won’t find any couches or comfy chairs in the coffee boutique either.

“Places are getting away from them [couches and chairs],” Raimo said as he rests his arm on the stand up bar, comparing it to pubs and coffee shops in Europe. “This is just more social.”

On a nice day, the shop opens the front café windows bringing in a relaxing breeze and has tables behind the shop and on Main Street for outdoor seating.

 “I love this place and the people,” coffee lover and town resident, Esta Steiger said. “It’s like our own little ‘Cheers’ in Millburn.”

Steiger told Raimo she recently bought a pound of his coffee and split it up into Ziploc bags. She walked the bags around to all her neighbors with the store information on it to spread the word.

“My neighbors didn’t even open the bag and they were saying, ‘Wow I can smell the beans through the bag,” she said.

Texting by the pilot of a medical helicopter contributed to a crash that killed four people, federal accident investigators declared Tuesday, and they approved a safety alert cautioning all pilots against using cellphones or other distracting devices during critical operations.

It was the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board in which texting has been implicated. And it underscored the board’s worries that distractions from electronic devices are a growing factor in incidents across all modes of transportation — planes, trains, cars, trucks and even ships.

While no U.S. airline crashes have been tied to electronic device use, the Federal Aviation Administration in January proposed regulations prohibiting airline flight crews from using cellphones and other wireless devices while a plane is in operation. The regulations are required under a law passed last year by Congress in response to an October 2010 incident in which two Northwest Airlines pilots overflew their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 100 miles while they were engrossed in working on their laptops.

Regulations already in place prohibit airline pilots from engaging in potentially distracting activities during critical phases of flight such as takeoffs, landings and taxiing. In some cases, however, pilots are allowed to use tablet computers containing safety and navigation procedures known as “electronic flight bags,” replacing paper documents.

The five-member board unanimously agreed that the helicopter crash was caused by a distracted and tired pilot who skipped preflight safety checks, which would have revealed his helicopter was low on fuel, and then, after he discovered his situation, decided to proceed with the fatal last leg of the flight.

The case “juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision making with a 21st century twist: distractions from portable electronic devices,” said board Chairman Deborah Hersman.

The helicopter ran out of fuel, crashing into a farm field in clear weather early on the evening of Aug. 26, 2011, near Mosby, Mo., a little over a mile short of an airport. The pilot was killed, along with a patient being taken from one hospital to another, a flight nurse and a flight paramedic.

One board member, Earl Weener, dissented on the safety alert decision, saying the cases cited as the basis for it — including the medical helicopter accident — were the result of bad decisions by pilots without a direct connection to the use of distracting devices.

Other board members disagreed. “We see this as a problem that is emerging, and on that basis, let’s try to get ahead of it,” said board member Chris Hart.

The pilot, James Freudenberg, 34, of Rapid City, S.D., sent 25 text messages and received 60 more during the course of his 12-hour shift, including 20 messages exchanged during the hour and 41 minutes before the crash, according to investigators and a timeline prepared for the board.

Most of the messaging was with an off-duty female co-worker with whom Freudenberg had a long history of “frequent, intensive communications,” and with whom he was planning to have dinner that night, said Bill Bramble, an NTSB expert on pilot psychology.
 

A former Minnesota airport worker charged with stealing 10 firearms and other valuables from checked bags targeted luggage being routed from one flight to the next, making it harder to uncover the thefts, an airport spokesman said on Tuesday.

David Vang, 23, worked for a private contractor at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and was captured on video taking items from bags last year, according to a state criminal complaint charging him with 11 felonies.

Airport police, who were investigating firearms thefts at the airport, placed hidden cameras in mid-October and reviewed security footage from a remote area where detectives had found about 100 broken baggage locks, according to a police report.

The review of security video found that Vang had removed what appeared to be gun cases on three consecutive days in late September and a case for a compound hunting bow in early October that a Michigan man had reported missing, the report said.

Vang was arrested and his apartment in St. Paul searched in mid-October after police witnessed him taking more items from the airport, according to the police report.

Authorities recovered more than 700 items in labeled boxes at the apartment including five shotguns, four handguns and a bolt-action rifle, the complaint said. The items recovered were valued at about $84,400.

Items recovered also included iPads, laptops, mobile phones, cameras, purses, clothing, boots, watches, jewelry, perfumes, cigars, fishing and hunting gear, backpacks and knives.

Vang initially said the items had fallen out of bags, but eventually admitted to taking them from about June or July until October, the complaint said.

Vang told police he had not given away any of the firearms taken and they were found in a living room closet along with the hunting bow and ammunition, the report said.

"He was taking everything from connecting bags, which is what really made it difficult," airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. "We didn't know for some time that the problem even existed."

In most cases, passengers would report items missing from inside bags to the airlines they flew on or to the airports where they started or ended their trips, Hogan said.

Firearms are checked separately in their cases and their disappearance raised alarms with airport police, Hogan said.

"We saw they had been scanned as arriving at this airport and had not been scanned as getting on to an aircraft, so we knew something was happening to them at this airport," he said.

Vang is accused of taking the items to a car in an unsecured employee parking ramp for his wife, Vue Xiong, 21, to transport away from the airport. Xiong faces a single felony theft charge.

No attorney was listed for Vang or Xiong on Minnesota court electronic records and attempts to reach them by phone on Tuesday were unsuccessful. They were charged in February and their first court appearances are scheduled for later in April.

Phil Mickelson has won three green jackets, and he was the one asking all the questions Sunday during a practice round at the Masters.

"Awesome," Mickelson said after playing 18 holes with his agent and Augusta members Rice and Lee Styslinger. "She's one of my favorite people to be around. She's so knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. I always learn so much. When I saw she became a member, one of the first things I did was schedule a game close to Masters time. The fact she's here, we were able to work it out. It was really cool."

Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore made history in August when they became the first women invited to join the home of the Masters.

Rice had lunch with Mickelson and then donned her green jacket to meet with other members on the practice range. Even though she has been a member for more than seven months, it was no less striking to see her in the elegantly tapered jacket that for eight decades had been worn only by men.

She slipped away without taking questions, which is not unusual. Members don't typically give interviews during the week of the Masters.

They played a $10 game in which they rotated partners every six holes, and it ended on a big note -- Rice made what Mickelson described as a 40-foot putt with about 18 feet of break on the final hole. That gave her a net birdie.

"Perfect pace," Mickelson said. "Her speed, touch, being able to read the greens. She one of the better members on the greens that I've seen."

"Every once in a while," Rice said as Mickelson gushed.

Sunday before the Masters is the last day members have the same access to the course as the players, and they occasionally play in the same group. Tiger Woods teed off with Steve Stricker and U.S. Amateur Public Links champion T.J. Vogel as Rice was finishing.

She walked over to the first tee to greet Woods, and they spent a few minutes chatting before Woods teed off. Woods spent two years at Stanford. Rice became the first black woman to be a Stanford provost in 1993, and she now is a professor of political economy at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She's also one of the Cardinal's biggest sports fans, along with being a member of the U.S. Golf Association's nominating committee.

This day was just about golf -- except for Mickelson's inquiring mind. Lefty was asked if their round ever reached a point that he hounded Rice with too many questions. Mickelson laughed and said, "She kept asking me about the golf course, and I kept asking her about countries."

"It was really fun," he said. "And she can really putt."

Told about what Mickelson said, Rice laughed and said, "He's such a good friend. I've known him for years."

Mickelson was thrilled to learn Augusta National had invited women to join, and he said it wasn't long before he called Rice to arrange a game.

"As soon as I saw she was a member, I called her to work up a game, just like I did Arnold (Palmer) back in the day as an amateur," Mickelson said. "She's just one of my favorite people to be around."

Rice on the golf course -- and later in a green jacket -- attracted the most attention on an otherwise lazy day before one of the biggest weeks of the year.

Zach Johnson gave his caddie, Damon Green, the treat of a lifetime by inviting him to play. Graeme McDowell played with his University of Alabama-Birmingham golf bag in a game with Brandt Snedeker and Toby Wilt, an Augusta member who was Snedeker's winning partner at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

The club's pro was on the tee, sending out members and players, just like any other country club. Masters week officially begins Monday, with the tournament starting Thursday. Yet, some players, like Mickelson and Adam Scott, have been around all weekend getting in their preparations before it gets too busy.

"My work is done," Scott said. "I've mapped out what I wanted to do. The course is the best I've ever seen it."

Mickelson did not plan to return to the course until Tuesday. Scott said he would putt for about an hour on Monday, and perhaps play nine holes Tuesday and Wednesday. He looked across the course, empty of fans, realizing it would be packed for the rest of the week.

He mixed with the well-to-do in the upscale suburb of San Marino, proclaiming himself an English baronet who taught film at USC.

He briefly settled in a wealthy Connecticut enclave, convincing locals he was a successful television producer. He talked his way onto Wall Street, persuading one firm to let him run a bond trading desk.

But it was his fraudulent claims of being a member of the famous Rockefeller family that led to his most lucrative success — and, ultimately, his downfall.

For the last three weeks, both the prosecution and defense in the downtown Los Angeles murder trial of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter have highlighted the German native's numerous fabrications. Both are using his history of deceit to their advantage in the case, which revolves around the 1985 killing of his landlady's adult son in San Marino and the victim's missing wife.

Gerhartsreiter's use of false identities has taken on added importance to the prosecution, which is hampered by a lack of DNA or other strong forensic evidence connecting him to the killing, as well as by the faded memories of witnesses. Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian has argued that Gerhartsreiter went to extreme lengths after the killing to hide his true identity from authorities, particularly when he realized detectives wanted to talk to him.

But defense attorneys point to their client's long history of fictional tales, saying they were part of a pattern that began as soon as he arrived in the United States, years before the killing.

"They've proven that he's a strange guy, an odd guy, a guy who may have tried to get things from other people, like meals and housing, but not much else," attorney Brad Bailey told jurors.

As closing arguments begin Monday, jurors have been left with two conflicting portraits of Gerhartsreiter: one as a simple fabulist, the other as a killer covering his tracks.

Gerhartsreiter was born in 1961 in the small Bavarian town of Bergen. His father was a sign-maker and his mother a homemaker, according to one witness who met them. As a teen, Gerhartsreiter talked of leaving Germany and his interest in the film industry.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1978 at 17, eventually enrolling at a high school in Berlin, Conn.

Edward Savio's family took him in. Savio said he liked the German student who wore tight jeans and claimed that his father was a wealthy industrialist who supplied parts for Mercedes-Benz.

Gerhartsreiter experimented with American accents, trying to perfect his speech, Savio said. Gerhartsreiter was kind to Savio and his sister, but he was dismissive of the rest of the family, telling Savio's mother her cooking was terrible and that he "would never live like this."

Gerhartsreiter soon enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he dated Elaine Siskoff, a student. Siskoff recalled how he asked her to be his bride in a "sham marriage" so he could get a green card. She refused, but her sister agreed.

After the wedding, Gerhartsreiter took off, telling Siskoff he was going to California for an internship with "Star Wars" director George Lucas, she testified.

He landed in San Marino, ingratiating himself with older parishioners at an Episcopal church and bragging that he was descended from British royalty. He passed out a business card with a family crest and a new name: Christopher Chichester, the 13th baronet.

He presented a friend from church with a paper bag filled with tea, saying it was from his family's plantation abroad. He hung around the USC film school, telling some he was a student and others he was a professor.

Though he boasted of wealth, he drove an old car and always seemed hungry, said a friend, Dana Farrar. Another friend said she could tell he was masking an accent and spoke like Thurston Howell III, the wealthy character on "Gilligan's Island."

Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest house at 1920 Lorain Road. The property's owner, Ruth "Didi" Sohus, lived in the front house with her son, John, and his wife, Linda.

In early 1985, the young couple disappeared. Around the same time, Gerhartsreiter lent a white truck to a USC student, the former student testified. The vehicle's description matched the truck the Sohuses had recently purchased.

There was other peculiar behavior, according to court testimony. Gerhartsreiter told a neighbor who complained about foul-smelling black smoke coming from his guest house chimney that he was burning carpet. He tried to sell an Oriental rug that appeared to have a small bloodstain.

DESPITE the shock of losing their jobs, the former CEO of Cork Film Festival, Mick Hannigan, and programmer, una Feely, treasure their memories of the 58-year-old event. Hannigan, who had helmed the festival since 1986, says there was the joy of “discovering talent, like Ken Wardrop. We took bags of DVDs home every night. I remember putting on Undressing My Mother and wondered who the guy behind it was. I went through my database and discovered that Wardrop had submitted about six other films. One was more interesting than the next. I knew this was real talent.”

Hannigan and Feely gave Wardrop a programme for his films.woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. Undressing My Mother, made in 2004, won the European Film Academy Award in 2005. Wardrop later made the charming documentary, His and Hers, about Irish women’s relationships with their men.

The Cork Film Festival was the first to screen Martin McDonagh’s short film, Six Shooter, which won at Cork, and at the Irish Film and Television Awards, before winning an Oscar for ‘best dramatic short.’

Kirsten Sheridan was a student filmmaker when she submitted her 1995 film, The Bench, to the festival. “I had no idea she was connected to Jim Sheridan. I thought her film was very rough around the edges, but I knew she had flair. It was only when she came to down to Cork, for the festival, that I realised who she was,” Hannigan says.

Last year’s opening gala, The Great Flood, directed by Bill Morrison, with live music by legendary classic and jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell, and his quartet, was an example of the festival “taking a chance. It’s a non-narrative, experimental film. But the audience really responded to it. The only other time I can remember a standing ovation of that significance was when we screened Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, with an original score performed by the RTé Symphony Orchestra.”

The Cork Film Festival was renowned for its celebration of the short film and was a platform for emerging Irish and Cork filmmakers. Such is the proliferation of local short films that last year’s ‘Made in Cork’ category was broadened into three programmes.

“This category started out with, maybe, 20 films being entered to something that became highly competitive,” says Feely. “It’s about nurturing the local film community and providing it with somewhere decent to show their films. The filmmakers had access to everything at the festival and they could meet industry professionals.”

Documentary makers were also championed, such as the maverick, John T Davis, who was a regular attendee. “You had people who are so dedicated to the documentary form that they came here especially for it. Documentary makers are the first people to pitch up at festivals. They found their audience in Cork,” Hannigan says.

Feely says that the philosophy of the festival was that “films had to earn their place in the programme. They had to be somehow unforgettable. You knew you weren’t going to please everyone, but, often, audiences wouldn’t get to see many of the films we showed. They weren’t going into mainstream distribution and they may not have been going into art-house distribution.”

Neither Hannigan nor Feely knows what they will do next. Their hearts and knowledge lie in film and they have a huge network, both locally and internationally. More than 3,000 films are submitted to the festival every year from all over the world.

Hannigan says that, at last December’s board meeting,woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. the board members were very complimentary about the festival.

“But they did say they wanted more red-carpet events. I think there is, perhaps, a fantasy that if only we asked for bigger films, the stars would come. The reality is that every main city across Ireland and England has film festivals. Film distribution is a commercial activity and people want to see a return on their investment. So there would need to be a motivation for the distributors to give their films to Cork, as opposed to Dublin.”

Dublin Film Festival has been graced by stars of the calibre of Al Pacino and Danny De Vito in the past few years. “But Dublin is major territory, second to London. We have a different focus, as a niche festival for young, emerging filmmakers.”

Hannigan says that, given the size of Cork and the cinema infrastructure, “it’s a moot point whether the Cork Film Festival can have the type of glitzy, glamorous event that the board thinks it can have. We laid all this out in a discussion document recently.”

With its broad-ranging programme, which includes education and the very popular Slow Food film event, Hannigan says he feels the festival was “ticking all the boxes, attracting young filmmakers and enjoying a great reputation internationally. The ordinary film buff is not going to travel to Cork to see the latest film that will be shown at their own festival, anyway, or will be in their own cinemas down the road.”

Directors, such as Lenny Abrahamson and Paul Duane, have contacted the board of the Cork Film Festival expressing their disgust at Hannigan and Feely being let go. Hannigan says that Duane will boycott the festival.

“I think there’s concern out there that by getting rid of Una and I, the festival will lose its way. It remains to be seen whether we can continue to work in film. We are obviously concerned about our own situations, but our heart is with the festival.

“We have built up credibility for it and my concern is that this may be frittered away now. I think that’s bad for Cork,” Hannigan says.

There has been renewed fight over the ownership of Bakassi Peninsula as Cameroon gendarmes launched an attack on Efot Ebot Ikot village in Bakassi with 11 persons feared dead and about 1,800 displaced. Early last month, there had been misunderstanding between the Bakassi people living in the Peninsula and the Cameroon Government. The Cameroon Government is accusing Nigerians of not paying tax while Nigerians are complaining of double taxation and all sorts of human indignities meted out to them by the gendarmes.

The development had led to series of confrontations between the Cameroonian authorities and the Nigerian nationals with over 300 fishing boats and nets seized by Cameroon security agents. Disclosing this while addressing newsmen during the visit to the displaced people of Bakassi at the camp at St. Mark’s Primary School, Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, former senator representing Southern Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, said it was a pity that Cameroon government was not respecting the Green Tree Agreement and rather took pleasure in engaging in all sorts of human rights abuses. Ita-Giwa described the situation as being unbearable as the people were living in deplorable condition.Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores.

She said children and pregnant women had no water, food or clothing with neither medicine nor good sanitary condition to produce succor to the displaced people. Ita-Giwa urged the Federal Government and the international community to take proactive steps to resettle the people at Dayspring Island where the refugees wanted to be resettled. “It is not their fault that the land was ceded to the Cameroons. Our people don’t want to remain here and continue to beg for alms.

They want to be resettled in a place they can become self-sustaining.” Confirming that 11 persons might have died in the process, the camp master for the displaced people of Bakassi, Chief Etim Okon Ene, said the Bakassi people needed restoration against the Green Tree Agreement. Also speaking, the paramount ruler of Bakassi, His Highness Etiyin Etim Okon Edet said he was happy that President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Resettlement of Bakassi People, which Senator Giwa was a member but lamented that the implementation process of resolution on the matter had been very slow.

To cushion their hardship, the Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aqua, had sent relief materials to the displaced people. The materials include mattresses, cartons of Indomie Noddles, bags of salt, rice, garri, blankets. Aqua urged the refugees to be calm as the state government was aware of their plight, stressing that very soon government was going to give directives to Akpabuyo and Bakassi Local Government Council authorities to come up with palliative measures that would alleviate the sufferings of the people.

Liason Officer, National Union for Nigeria and Cameroon, Prince Aston Joseph, lamented that his people who previously could fish within the length and breadth of the waters had now been restricted from going to those regions that were viable for making a big cash, as they were no longer allowed to go beyond a particular boundary. Aston complained that Bakassi people had so far lost over 300 fishing boats and nets to the gendarmes and urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue of three women who had so far given birth to babies at the camp.Find purses from our handbags and purses Collection in a variety of styles for every occasion.

Police walked into a makeshift drug "supermarket" at the invitation of the suspected dealers early Tuesday.

A pair from out of town were hit with an array of felony and misdemeanor drug charges after police officers entered their rented room at the Comfort Inn, South Transit Street, shortly before 4 a.m. and found quantities of suspected marijuana, cocaine and prescription medications, some packaged in tell-tale sandwich bags, resting on a night stand.

Charles E. Griffith, 30, 1642 Linwood Ave., Niagara Falls, is being held without bail, and Brianna J. Brown, 25, 281 Millicent Ave., Buffalo, is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, after they were both arraigned Tuesday in City Court on charges including third-, fifth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

Police were called to the Comfort Inn by the general manager after Griffith and Brown complained they were unable to get into their room and feared the room had been broken into.

Once police arrived,Incredible high quality Cheap Bottega veneta bottega handbag, the general manager used a key to open the door and asked the officers to enter and make sure the room was safe. Neither Griffith nor Brown objected to police entering the room, Police Chief Lawrence Eggert noted.

When the officers entered, they noticed a strong odor of marijuana immediately, looked around the room and saw a quart-size zip bag "stuffed" with marijuana, laying on a night stand. In an opened night stand drawer they saw sandwich bags holding quantities of cocaine, oxymorphone tabs and a medication normally prescribed to persons being weaned off of heroin, Eggert said.

Upon searching the room the officers found several sandwich bags containing individual packages of marijuana, plus two digital scales, a pair of rubber gloves, three cell phones, three intact White Tiger cigars, a box of sandwich bags and $2,500 cash.

"It was kind of like a supermarket for drugs," Eggert said. "Anything you wanted, they had."

It's relatively unusual for drug dealers to set up shop in a hotel room in the city, Eggert said.

When Griffith and Brown were charged, police did not ask how long they'd been renting a room. Investigation is continuing, Eggert said.

Samoa Air planned on Wednesday to start pricing its first international flights based on the weight of its passengers and their bags. Depending on the flight, each kilogram (2.2 pounds) costs 93 cents to $1.06.

That means the average American man weighing 195 pounds with a 35 pound bag would pay $97 to go one-way between Apia,Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores. Samoa, and Pago Pago, American Samoa. Competitors typically charge $130 to $140 round trip for similar routes.

The weight-based pricing is not new to the airline, which launched in June. It has been using the pricing model since November, but in January the U.S. Department of Transportation approved its international route between American Samoa and Samoa.

The airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, said Tuesday that "planes are run by weight and not by seat, and travelers should be educated on this important issue. The plane can only carry a certain amount of weight and that weight needs to be paid. There is no other way."

Travelers in the region already are weighed before they fly because the planes used between the islands are small, said David Vaeafe, executive director of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau. Samoa Air's fleet includes two nine-seat planes for commercial routes and a three-seater for an air taxi service.

Langton said passengers who need more room will be given one row on the plane to ensure comfort.

The new pricing system would make Samoa Air the first to charge strictly by weight, a change that Vaeafe said is, "in many ways... a fair concept for passengers."

"For example, a 12- or 13-year-old passenger, who is small in size and weight, won't have to pay an adult fare, based on airline fares that anyone 12 years and older does pay the adult fare," he said.

Vaeafe said the pricing system has worked in Samoa but it's not clear whether it will be embraced by travelers in the U.S. territory.

Langton said the airline has received mixed responses from overseas travelers since it began promoting the pricing on its website and Facebook page.

Ana Faapouli, an American Samoa resident who frequently travels to Samoa, said the pricing scheme will likely be profitable for Samoa Air.

"Samoa Air is smart enough to find ways to benefit from this service as they will be competing against two other airlines," Faapouli said.

Pago Pago-based Inter Island Airways and Polynesian Airlines, which is owned by the Samoa government, also run flights between the country and American Samoa.

The parties involved in a lawsuit filed last year over an ordinance that set up the city of Aspen's 20-cent grocery-store-bag fee have agreed to try to resolve the case through summary-judgment motions, according to documents filed last month in Pitkin County District Court.

The suit against the city initially was filed in August by the Mountain States Legal Foundation on behalf of the plaintiff, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers Foundation, a Boulder-based organization whose local members include Aspen mayoral candidate Maurice Emmer and frequent city critic Elizabeth Milias, who operates the Red Ant political blog. At a March 7 status conference, attorneys for both parties set up a schedule of summary-judgment motions.

The foundation filed its motion on March 21, asking District Judge Gail Nichols to strike down the city's 2011 ordinance that bans plastic-bag distribution at the city's two grocery stores, Clark's Market and City Market, and collects a 20-cent fee on each paper bag the shoppers purchase from the stores in lieu of using their own reusable bags. The city has until April 11 to respond. Other replies to motions and cross motions are due in May.

Opponents say the ordinance — which a majority of council members agreed to pass as an example of environmental stewardship — violates the state's Taxpayer Bill of Rights because city voters weren't allowed to decide the issue. They claim the bag fee is actually a tax.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights, commonly known as TABOR, is a provision of the state constitution requiring a public vote before any local government can create new debt, levy new taxes, increase tax rates or institute tax-policy changes directly causing a net tax-revenue gain.

Emmer could not be reached for immediate comment on Sunday, but he has commented on the city's action on The Aspen Times' website.

“The issue could have been avoided by putting the issue on a ballot instead of doing it by city council fiat,” he wrote in the days after the ordinance was passed 19 months ago. “City council was warned about that at the time but dismissed the issue as ‘tea bagger' whining. Not only did the city waste the legal resources of city attorney trying to make this work without a ballot, but now they will have to use the city attorney's time to defend the case and, if the city loses, pay the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees.

“Why is the city intent on using public resources to prove a legal point that nobody cares about? Just repeal the ordinance and put it on a ballot. Or is City Council afraid that the citizens wouldn't be enlightened enough to adopt this tax if given the choice, so omniscient city government should make the choice for the ignorant citizens?”

City Attorney Jim True has said he and former City Attorney John Worcester spent a lot of time researching the legality of the ordinance setting up the bag fee. He said it should hold up in court because the share of the revenue that the city receives through a split with the stores goes into a fund for specific environmental programs rather than the city's general fund.

Councilman Torre, who pushed for the measure in 2011, said Sunday that although he's not an attorney, he is confident the bag fee will pass judicial muster.

“Overall, I think the ordinance has been a success,” he said. “I think the community and visitors, as well, have embraced it.”

Torre, who also is running for mayor,Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores. said the bag fee is a “first step” in reducing plastic waste generated in Aspen and that he hopes the community will collaborate in support of other waste-management initiatives that further that goal.Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores.

For 400 million years the Barron River in Queensland has steadily carved out a deep gorge through hard granite, shaping spectacular waterfalls cascading from tropical rain forest.

For indigenous people the gorge is the home of Buda-dji the Carpet Snake who, in the dreamtime, cut out the Barron River from the coast to the tablelands.

Buda-dji travelled along the Barron Gorge with his beautiful Nautilus shells, bartered them with different clans along the river for dilly bags and eel traps.

Ambushed by baddies, he came to an untimely end. Fortunately, today he lives again, transformed by Aboriginal artist George Riley into an artistic masterpiece of rain forest indigenous art on the locomotive of the Kuranda Scenic Railway that runs daily from Cairns up the gorge to Kuranda, “the village in the forest”.

At Cairns station, we boarded the last heritage carriage on the train before Buda-dji started its journey. After a short stop at the heritage-listed Freshwater Station (the home of a museum dedicated to the story of the rail line) to pick up passengers, we set off.

Soon houses gave way to sugar cane fields before Jundara, the site of the largest field hospital in the southern hemisphere during World War II. American and Australian soldiers injured in the Pacific battles were flown here for treatment and recuperation. Housing now covers the area.

Soon afterwards the train slowed as we entered Horseshoe Bend, a spectacular 180-degree twist as the train looped back in a 100m curve and afforded great photographic opportunities from the furthermost carriages.

A short distance later, we entered the first of 15 hand-carved tunnels and the site of what was once a station at Stoney Creek. This remote spot is deserted now, but during the railway construction in the 1880s a busy township flourished with amusement halls and pubs for the 1 500 Irish and Italian navvies working here.

Construction on the line was born out of necessity in 1882 when the gold miners inland of Cairns desperately needed supplies and a reliable, safe route was sought.

Work on the line started in 1887 and the track was built in three stages, starting at the coast. It was not tackled with bulldozers and jackhammers,woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. but with hand tools, dynamite, buckets and bare hands.

Escarpments were removed above the track and every loose rock and overhanging tree had to be removed by hand.

The earthworks proved particularly difficult. Deep cuttings and extensive embankments were excavated – over 2.3 million cubic metres.

The Barron Valley earth was especially treacherous. Slopes averaged 45 degrees and the entire surface was covered with a 4m to 7m layer of disjointed rock, rotting vegetation, mould and soiI.

Eventually the engineers and navvies prevailed in what is still considered an engineering feat and in 1891 the line opened in high Victorian style with a banquet high up on Stoney Creek bridge with General Sir Henry Wiley Norman, governor of Queensland, the guest of honour.woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses.

Stoney Creek Bridge remains the most outstanding feature of the 35km line. The iron lattice construction stands on three trestle piers.

Soon after crossing the bridge, we enjoyed spectacular views from the carriage window of the Coral Sea and Cairns far below us to the east. Towards the end of the one hour, 45-minute trip from Cairns, the locomotive stopped to allow passengers to alight at a small siding which gave perfect views of the 265m Barron Falls.

It’s still a working station, and doubles as a refreshment stop for visitors with an added attraction the colourful tropical gardens throughout the length of the platform.

There are two departures from Cairns station, at 8.30am and 9.30am. The Scenic Railway now has a Gold Class service, with the bonus of drinks and snacks on board the Heritage Green carriage complete with brass insignia and plush Victorian-era interior.

When Hussein Mohamed, a resident of Handeni district in Tanga region heard about the much marketed government subsidised farm inputs three years ago, he rejoiced and quickly extended his two hectares to three because he thought the inputs would be given free of charge. Mohamed who resides in Konje village, represents many villagers who had little or no education at all on what the government’s subsidised farm inputs were all about.

He immediately ignored the offer and went back home to continue using traditional means of cultivation. He has since never dared to ask about the government’s subsidized farm inputs again.

Farmers and their village leaders were supposed to be sensitized on the issue from the word go but it seems this was not the case. Surprisingly, even the secretary of government’s subsidized farm inputs in the village, Aziza Ng’ondi has never received education on the proper use of the inputs.

Aziza who is coordinating the programme at the village, admits she is ignorant too of proper application of the inputs in the farm because during the inception of the programme the village had no farm extension officer.

As a result, she says the villagers and leaders were only sensitized on the availability of the inputs through posters and a few campaigns but not on the application of the inputs on the farms.

Furthermore, she says during the sensitization campaigns, some farmers did not attend and others were simply migrants in the village from other regions in search of farming land. These came to the village late when beneficiaries had already been identified.

She said in recent years,woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. there has been a massive influx of people from other regions of Singida and Arusha into the village, and when they arrive they also want to benefit from the programme.

She says the government subsidized farm inputs is a three-year programme aimed at benefiting all the villagers but in phases. When the first group is covered, the programme shifts to cover another group until all farmers are done with.

Apart from lack of education, Aziza cites another problem facing smooth implementation of the programme, as lack of monitoring and evaluation of the exercise.

She says sometimes the books containing vouchers would get finished and the farmers would go without inputs because there was nobody from the district level to make follow up. “In the past, all coordinators of the programme at village level were promised to be paid 2,500/- for every book that got finished, this money would be used as transport fare for us to rush to other stations and collect the books, but now we are not given the money,” she said.

However, she said despite all the shortfalls, a big percent of farmers who received the farm inputs have improved their productivity from 2 to 3 sacks of maize before the programme to more than 10 sacks after the programme which means, if they had education, yields would have gone up than it is now.Find purses from our handbags and purses Collection in a variety of styles for every occasion.

Reached for comments, the district’s agriculture, Irrigation and cooperatives officer, Omar Kiruwale refuted the allegations saying since the programme started in 2010; the district council has been working very closely with extension officers to identify farmers in different villages so that many could benefit from the government subsidized farm inputs on time.

“When we started this programme, all precautions were taken including convening several public rallies to educate the people on the government’s subsidized farm inputs but also to identify poor farmers who could not afford buying the inputs at market price,” he said. He said despite minor hitches such as the effects of climate change, and invasion of rats (Panya) into farms, the past three years of the programme has been successful.

“The district has made significant achievements such as increased productivity, increased income among farmers and improved livelihood among farmers on the programme” He said.

“Many farmers here say the fertility of their land is good enough to support agriculture and therefore there is no need for more fertilizer. We at district level say this is a very wrong perception and that’s why we have launched education campaigns to make sure that all farmers are reached,” he said.

“We have started with seven tractors from SUMA JKT, which have been distributed in seven divisions, however, our long term plan is to make sure that every ward gets tractors and this will go all the way to the village level,” he said.

The Handeni District Commissioner, Muhingo Rweyemamu said despite being his first time to manage and supervise the programme as the District Commissioner, so far the programme was going on well and many farmers have benefited from the programme.

However, he faces some challenges, for example, some farmers want to get only improved seeds and not fertilizer on grounds that the fertilizer kills soil fertility.

“We have selected ten primary schools to conduct demonstration farms on this programme so as to alley fears on the negative perception of farmers who think that using fertilizers kills soil fertility so as to attract more farmers” he said.

He called on the Handeni residents to make sure they uproot tree trunks from their farms so that the tractors can operate without obstacles and effectively and efficiently use government subsidized farm inputs to improve their livelihood.

 TV One stumbled on to a ratings winner with the strangely captivating Barbie-on-acid dramas of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Despite the misleading title (it mostly featured Irish Travellers, not Roma Gypsies) and selective depiction of Traveller culture, it provided a rare look at an insular outsider people struggling to find their place in the modern world - though it never asked how they pay for such lavish celebrations. Maybe it's because they save money on rates, maintenance and all the other costs faced by homeowners.

The show found some Travellers who were willing to talk about their lives, but also an outsider who had ingratiated herself with them: Dressmaker Thelma Madine, creator of fantastical, kitschy wedding gowns that involve more planning and effort than the Moon landings.

A straight-talking, weary-looking Liverpudlian, Thelma's the lady to see if you want a hot pink dress with enough fabric to clothe an African village, a truckload of crystals, and your name in fairy lights. And another dozen just like it, for the bridesmaids. Just be sure to hire a limo with extra-wide doors.

Now she's got her own show, where she's training 10 gypsy girls as dressmakers, as a way of giving back to the people who've paid for her palatial home (furnished in the same garish style as her dresses) and private schooling for her daughter. At first glance, it looks like a commendable idea.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings painted a depressing picture of the role of females in Traveller culture. It's a contradictory world where little girls bump and grind in skimpy costumes like miniature Beyonce clones, and teenagers dress like Arkansas jailbait but their honour is vigorously defended until they're married. After that, it's the life of a stay-at-home mother (which must be pretty claustrophobic when your home is a caravan).

Many Traveller girls aren't expected to get an education, much less a job, but the big question is whether they live this way by choice or because they are oppressed victims of a male-dominated culture. Thelma is convinced it's the latter - hence her new venture - but she doesn't seem to be entirely on their side.

While she's done well from Travellers, she shares society's doubts about their integrity, intelligence and work ethic, and considers the girls to be essentially unemployable, were she not coming to their rescue.


Announcing the project to her staff, she said: "The bad part is they're all gonna be Travellers." That's not bad, she was told. "You come back to me and say that in three months," Thelma replied grimly, as if casting a gypsy curse, followed by a blithe quip about how one girl won't need her dad's permission because he's just gone to jail.

Like its predecessor, Thelma's Gypsy Girls purports to be sympathetic to its subject but looks more like a typical "reality" show, cranking up the conflict (which is easy when you put teenage girls in a room together). It feels like exploitation in more than one sense - Thelma's snowed under with work and has moved to new premises, and the expansion rather conveniently coincides with her getting a bunch of low-paid trainees.

DOES it seem right that a four-year-old child would be wearing a dress more expensive then your wedding dress? That is the kind of craziness that went on in London last week at the first ever Kids' Fashion Week.
The place was swarming with mothers desperate to spot the best new outfits for their little ones. Money was clearly no object, with a red silk Chloe dress selling for a mere snip at $1,235 (1,454).

Children as young as 18 months were getting their nails painted at a nail bar. But don't worry, the nails were being painted with washable, non-toxic polishes. Phew, for a moment there I thought these women had all lost their minds.

With newly polished nails, these tiny children then watched equally small children parading up and down in designer clothes, their every move being photographed and filmed.

What exactly does this teach our children? That they should focus on their appearance more? Want to wear ridiculously expensive clothes? Want to be photographed and splashed all over YouTube?

One of the mothers attending the show said: "When my girls are beautifully dressed, nothing else matters. It's a reflection on me as a parent. It doesn't matter what I wear. People treat you differently when your children wear designer clothes."

Parents have always made sacrifices for their children to have the best. It used to be so that their children could have the best education or piano lessons or maybe even horse-riding classes, but designer clothes ... seriously?

Children have always been a reflection of their parents. But rather than reflect their parents' values, now it seems that many parents are more worried about whether their children reflect their ability to fund a wardrobe full of designer clothes.

Research has found that children start recognising logos at 18 months. By the age of 10, the average child has already memorised 300 to 400 brands. Among eight to 14-year-olds, 92pc are specific about which ones they want to buy.

In the UK alone children's fashion is now a $6.5bn (7.6bn) industry. Not to be sniffed at. You can see why the manufacturers are keen to showcase their wares.


 

NeNe Leakes is set to walk down the wedding aisle for the second time this year with her ex-husband and fiance Gregg Leakes and the television star is so ecstatic about her upcoming nuptials that not only will she invite all of her Bravo and NBC co-stars but she will invite her former nemesis Kim Zolciak!

NeNe revealed that she and Zolciak became friends again during the taping for the upcoming season 5 three-part reunion special for The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

"I will definitely invite every castmate from every show I'm on. I don't know who's available but they're all on the list! RHOA's Cynthia [Bailey] will be a bridesmaid. And Kim [Zolciak] will be invited as well," NeNe surprisingly told InTouch.

"And I believe she'll come," NeNe added, because she is "extending an olive branch."

Nene and Zolciak have been on-and-off again friends since the show's first season. During one heated argument, NeNe famously called Zolciak a "dirty, low-down monkey with a wig."

In the issue, NeNe also discussed her wedding dress. NeNe revealed she has yet to pick out her wedding gown but she is "still interviewing designers" and plans to lose 10 lbs. in time for the nuptials.

"They're sending me sketches," she said of her various wedding designer candidates.

As for the actual ceremony, NeNe plans to have a "big fantasy wedding" in Atlanta this summer.

The couple met in 1996 and divorced in 2011 after 13 years of marriage. Together they have a son, Brentt. NeNe has another son from a previous relationship. Gregg said that the couple split when "fame got to (NeNe's) head" after he had invested $300,000 in her career during their marriage.

Leakes confirmed her reconciliation with Gregg during her appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 3. The show's host inquired about a series of photos NeNe posted on Twitter on New Year's Eve.

"Well.... a little after midnight, I was asked this beautiful question: 'Will you marry me -- again?'" The NBC and Bravo star said she accepted Gregg's proposal that night.

'We were with our son - Gregg somehow got him out of the condo and had a big heart made of Hershey's Kisses on the bed. It was sweet! I said yes right away," she told Fallon. She explained why she took him back during the late night chat.

"When I started living my dream, things changed. I started making more money than him. He'd say "You don't need me anymore," but I really did," she told the late night talk show host.