http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/arts/television/william-windom-everyman-actor-is-dead-at-88.html?_r=1

William Windom, Emmy Winner and TV Everyman, Dies at 88

By ERIC GRODE

Published: August 19, 2012



William Windom, who won an Emmy Award playing an Everyman drawn from the pages of James Thurber but who may be best remembered for his roles on “Star Trek” and “Murder, She Wrote,” died on Thursday at his home in Woodacre, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 88.

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Mr. Windom won the Emmy for best actor in a comedy series in 1970 for his performance in “My World and Welcome to It,” a whimsical program based on James Thurber’s humorous essays and fantastic cartoons. He subsequently toured the country with a solo show based on Thurber’s works.

But filmgoers and television viewers may be more likely to associate him with roles that, though also fanciful, had a distinctly darker tone. He teamed up with Rod Serling on episodes of both “The Twilight Zone” (“Five Characters in Search of an Exit” in 1961 and “Miniature” in 1963) and “Night Gallery;” played the president in “Escape From the Planet of the Apes;” and had a memorable role in an early episode of “Star Trek.” He was also a guest star on dozens of other television shows.

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http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/nurse_practitioner_accused_of.html



Syracuse, NY - A nurse practitioner has been charged with illegally selling prescription drugs to the daughter of fired Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.

Court papers said the defendant - Lauren Havens, of Manlius - provided prescription drugs to Sara Fine, 21.

Court papers also showed prescriptions written in the names of Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie Fine; a second daughter, Sheila Fine, 24; and son-in-law, Quint Streeter, 26, without proper authorization. The Fines are among seven people listed as receiving prescriptions for Percocet (Oxycodone) and Lorcet (Hydrocodone) from Havens.

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Dr. Michael J. Paciorek of ENT Facial Plastic Surgery also provided a brief written statement in which he sought criminal prosecution of Havens. He identified her as a former employee.

Paciorek said that on July 18 he met with Investigator W. J. Granato of the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and Granata showed him a number of prescriptions that reportedly had been filled out by Havens for Hydrocodone and Oxycodone.

Those prescriptions were written for Sara Fine, Laurie Fine, Sheila Fine, Kristen Forte, Julie Moreland, Quint Streeter and Mark Zoli, according to Paciorek's statement. Zoli is Havens' married name.

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http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/15/elton-john-band-member-commits-suicide-dead-dies/

Robert Wayne Birch, a bass guitarist who played with Elton John and Billy Joel among many other huge artists, is dead after apparently having shot and killed himself this morning ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... Birch was found around the corner from his home, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. We're told all signs point to a self-inflicted wound.

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Birch has been playing with Elton John since 1992, and was also involved in the biggest single of all time, "Candle in the Wind 1997."

Birch has also performed with legends like Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Cher, Sting, The Backstreet Boys, The Spice Girls, Clint Black and many others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Business_Plot

The Business Plot was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler claimed that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Butler as leader of that organization. In 1934, Butler testified to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Congressional committee (the "McCormack-Dickstein Committee&quot on these claims. In the opinion of the committee, these allegations were credible. No one was prosecuted.

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The election of Roosevelt was upsetting for many conservative businessmen of the time, his "campaign promise that the government would provide jobs for all the unemployed had the perverse effect of creating a new wave of unemployment by businessmen frightened by fears of socialism and reckless government spending."

The Hoover administration had steadfastly defended the gold standard even when Britain abandoned it in September 1931. With a devalued currency, British manufactured goods became cheaper than American counterparts, resulting in more economic hardship for American industry. Roosevelt's campaign had promised to re-evaluate America's commitment to the gold standard and, through a series of actions from March 6 to April 18, 1933, abandoned it.

Conservative businessmen and other supporters of the gold standard were dismayed. Hoover, who had championed the standard, wrote that its abandonment was the first step toward "communism, fascism, socialism, statism, planned economy." He argued that the standard was needed to stop governments from "confiscating the savings of the people by manipulation of inflation and deflation....We have gold because we cannot trust Governments."

Roosevelt also dissolved any "gold clause" within contracts, public or private, that guaranteed payment in gold. This clause was part of every government bond and most corporate bonds. "It was a standard feature of mortgage agreements and other contracts. For creditors, it offered protection against inflation or congressional tinkering with the currency." For debtors, though, it was dangerous, as "The gold dollar, before Roosevelt reduced it, was $1.69. This meant that a bank, for example, could suddenly require a farmer to make mortgage payments in gold coin-transferring a $10,000 mortgage into one worth $16,900, raising the farmer's debt burden by nearly 70 percent." Likewise, the U.S. treasury could be required to pay the bearer of a $10,000 Liberty Bond $16,900 in gold coins. (The constitutionality of this Roosevelt policy was later challenged before the Supreme Court in the Gold Clause Cases.)

With the end of the gold standard, "conservative financiers were horrified. They viewed a currency not solidly backed by gold as inflationary, undermining both private and business fortunes and leading to national bankruptcy. Roosevelt was damned as a socialist or Communist out to destroy private enterprise by sapping the gold backing of wealth in order to subsidize the poor."

Ending the gold standard allowed the country to escape the cycle of deflation, but the shift was not painless. "Since higher prices were not yet accompanied by higher wages, inflation meant lower [real] incomes for those fortunate enough to be employed. Until the effects of increased investment spending ramified through the economy, there was little reason for investment incomes and hence consumption to rise dramatically. Industrial production remained volatile."

To encourage foreign investment, Roosevelt had the Reconstruction Finance Corporation purchase gold with dollars, thereby driving up the price of gold and reducing the value of the dollar. Still, this did not immediately affect the balance of trade. Those considering buying American goods anticipated that there would be a further depreciation that would allow their own currency further purchasing power and therefore greater profits, so they held back their orders. At the same time, Americans fearing additional depreciation purchased more foreign commodities in fear they would lose purchasing power in the future. "The volume of U.S. imports rose by 10 percent between 1932 and 1933. In contrast, exports stagnated. The consequence was a deteriorating balance of trade."

Another Roosevelt policy also had an unanticipated effect on the recovery: the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933, provided established minimum wages of 40 cents an hour and revised upward the entire wage structure of many of the industries it covered; this placed upward pressure on labor costs.

The sustained recovery of industrial production "had to await stabilization of the dollar in 1934, along with the concomitant growth of commodity exports and capital imports."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpac#Super_PACs

Super PACs may support particular candidacies. In the 2012 presidential election, super PACs have played a major role, spending more than the candidates' election campaigns in the Republican primaries. As of early April 2012, Restore Our Future—a Super PAC usually described as having been created to help Mitt Romney's presidential campaign—has spent $40 million. Winning Our Future (a pro–Newt Gingrich group) spent $16 million. Super PACs are often run or advised by a candidate's former staff or associates.

In the 2012 election campaign, most of the money given to super PACs has come not from corporations but from wealthy individuals. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, the top 100 individual super PAC donors in 2011–2012 made up just 3.7% of contributors, but accounted for more than 80% of the total money raised, while less than 0.5% of the money given to “the most active Super PACs” was donated by publicly traded corporations. Super PACs have been criticized for relying heavily on negative ads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crandall_Canyon_Mine#Safety_concerns

In 2006, the mine was cited for several safety violations, including lacking the required number of escape routes.[7] However, its 64 violations and $12,000 in fines was a relatively good safety record and on par with similar-sized mines throughout the country.[8][9] Murray said that the safety violations were trivial and included violations such as not having enough toilet paper in the restroom.[8] In addition, a practice[10] referred to as retreat mining was being conducted in some portions of the mine in which the coal had been removed by room and pillar method. The extraction of material literally creates a 'room' while the ceiling is supported by the 'pillars' of coal that remain. Retreat mining refers to the common practice of removing the pillars while retreating back towards the mine entrance.

On March 10, 2007 the north barrier pillar suffered from a rock burst, in which pressure causes material from the walls and ceiling to explode inward into the excavated spaces. No miners were injured and all equipment was recovered from the affected area, but the partial collapse closed off that area and forced the mine to instead extract coal that had a higher ash content. The company depended on the low-ash coal to meet its contractual obligations, however, so on March 21 a meeting was held in which it was decided to return to the south barrier pillar. This pillar was adjacent to the north barrier pillar. The March 10 event was never officially reported to MSHA, as required by law. Robert Murray claimed to be unaware of the incident but minutes of the March 21 meeting, released in January 2008, revealed that he had in fact known about it