Keith Strickland Tag Page

The Cybils nominees: Picture books

Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek: A Tall Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend). written by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by John Hendrix. Schwartz and Wade BooksReviewed by: Scope Notes Amadi's Snowman. written by Katia Novet Saint-lot, illustrated by Dimitria Tokunbo. Tilbury HousePink Me quick opinion: I have reviewed this book twice, and twice managed to lose the review. Grr! It's quite a nice book. Set in Africa, it addresses pride and literacy and traditional gender roles. Inte

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Weekly T.O. throw-by-throw: Making the 49ers pay for a foolish game plan

T.O. earned the right to unleash a little told-ya-so after the second 200-yard game of his career came on the heels of folks criticizing him for complaining about his role in the Cowboys' offense. "When I get my hands on the ball, things happen," T.O. said. "It's not a mystery." You want a mystery? Try to figure out what the heck the 49ers defensive staff was thinking when it decided not to follow the blueprint teams have been using to shut T.O. down since September. By my count, San Franc

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Ten years later, tobacco deal going up in smoke

Consider this the next time you see a teenager take a drag on a cigarette: Your state government likely has a financial stake in that kid continuing to smoke. And quite possibly, so does your retirement portfolio. That was hardly the intention 10 years ago, when a collection of state attorneys general delivered a crushing blow to Big Tobacco. On Nov. 23, 1998, the nation's four largest cigarette sellers agreed to pay $200 billion over 30 years in what seemed like a victory for David over Golia

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Arkansas State Baseball Announces Six Additions For 2009-10

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE JONESBORO, Ark. (11/20/08) – ASU head baseball coach Tommy Raffo has announced the signing of six players who will join the Arkansas State baseball team for the 2010 baseball season. Four freshman and two junior college transfers have signed to play for the Red Wolves and will join the team in fall 09. “I would like to commend the efforts of assistant coaches Chris Cook and Justin Meccage for a quality early signing period for ASU Baseball,” said Raffo. “We had three

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With Alayna bailey now complete the girls have retired their red wagon

With Alayna bailey now complete the girls have retired their red wagon Posted by on November 20th, 2008 By Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan CHICAGO Reuters President elect Barack Obama prepared to meet his economic advisers on Friday as new US jobless figures underlined the enormity of the task confronting him to stabilize an economy that is shedding. Ready to move into Updated, new paint inside out, porcelain tile and laminate flooring, new garage doors, roof gutters. Th grade Ricki Boothe,

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Failure to Launch, Part II

Continuing our series on young, potential-laden squads that never quite cashed in on that promise, here are teams #1-5 in our countdown… 5. 1982-83 Kansas City Kings (45-37) Young nucleus: F Eddie Johnson, G Larry Drew, G Mike Woodson, F Ed Nealy, C Steve Johnson, F Reggie King, F Reggie Johnson, C LaSalle Thompson, F Kevin Loder, G Brook Steppe ORtg: 106.2 (7th) DRtg: 104.9 (11th) SRS: 1.039 (11th) Age - League Age: -1.59 Expected wins: 214 Actual wins: 159 +/-: -55 The potential:

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Which colleges produce the most NFL talent? Part II

Yesterday I looked at what my algorithm thought were the ten top NCAA programs in terms of producing NFL talent. Today, we’ll look at some other teams of interest. Just missing the top 10 is my alma mater, a school which has had moderate success at various times, but isn’t thought of as a football power: Arizona St. QB Jake Plummer 76 RB John Henry Johnson 57 RB Gerald Riggs 54 RC Charley Taylor 82 RC Jerry Smith 71 RC John Jefferson 54 RC Larry Walton 42 T Marvel Smith 45 T Levi Jones 34 G Ra

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Dept. of Downhill Rolling

THE HITS KEEP COMINGThe Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert sent out an update on the state's budget problems, which are affecting every aspect of state and local government. Capitol Alert warns that towns like Claremont that rely on CalPERS for their employee pension plans may have to pony up more money to cover their pension obligations because of the steep declines in the CalPERS investment portfolio, Something we commented on a few days ago.Education, too, figures to take a big hit. Here's what

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Fire Flames Out, And So Does News-Press' Coverage Of It

By most accounts, the Tea Fire started at about 5:45 pm Thursday. Plenty of time to get stories and articles about it into the next morning's newspaper. So which Santa Barbara paper had the most extensive coverage of the fire on Friday? The News-Press had great photos, but only one story about the fire in its Friday edition.In fact, it almost seemed as though they thought Paula Poundstone coming to town, (upper right hand corner) was the bigger story.Both the Daily Sound and the Daily Nexus, the

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Chartburn: 11/14/08

Mainstream Rock: Bryan Adams, “Run to You” (1984) Darren Robbins: This song was the exact turning point for Adams. Up until then, his music has a certain us-against-them quality. While “Run To You” is not a bad song per se, it and the entirety of Reckless (the album on which it appears) is much too polished for my taste. I like to think that if time travel really were possible, the first thing I’d do is travel back in time and tell Bryan Adams 1984 that I have two songs I’d like to play

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B-52s, Hercules & Love Affair: Live It Up On The Day Of The Dead

Yeah I know… the most you think you know about The B-52s is that song that won’t get out of your head: Loveshack. That’s why we were surprised but intrigued when we heard The B-52s were performing along with indie disco demons (and hipster DFA-record darlings) Hercules And Love Affair, at Hammerstein Ballroom the day after Halloween. We figured it was an ironic match worth checking out. Plus the post-Halloween date appealed to some of the more wildly attired drag queens in town (as did the gorg

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(UDPATED) U.S., South Carolina Results

NATIONAL RESULTS U.S. President (Electoral Vote) (R) John McCain - 163 *(D) Barack Obama - 338 U.S. President (Popular Vote) (R) John McCain - 46% (55,455,461) *(D) Barack Obama - 52% (62,534,907) Balance of Power - U.S. Senate *Democrats 56 Republicans 40 Undetermined 4 Current Net Difference: Democrats +5 Balance of Power - U.S. House of Representatives *Democrats - 248 Republicans - 168 Undetermined - 19 Current Net Difference: Democrats +13 SOUTH CAROLINA RESULTS (COURT

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Poll Watching

Poll Watching Filed under: Basketball, Media, Polls — Chas @ 6:42 pm Now this is a fun little thing. It’s called Pollspeak.com. Find out how they vote. For example, this is how AP voters picked Pitt. Voter Rank Paul Arnett 2 Phil Chardis 2 Bruce Pascoe 3 Dave Goren 3 Gary Horowitz 3 Myron P. Medcalf 3 Steve Pivovar 3 Will Vandervort 3 Dave Jones 4 Ed Graney 4 Patrick Stevens 4 Pete Iorizzo 4 Ron Morris 4 Bob Condotta 5 Jeff Walker 5 John Shinn 5 John Wern

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My prediction

Here is my prediction. Wednesday morning you can grade me on how well I did. Arizona: Don’t believe the hype. John McCain is in no danger of doing an Al Gore and losing his home state. McCain by ten. Colorado: Bush won here by almost five. Barack Obama thinks that, along with Iowa, the Rocky Mountain State is his best chance for a pickup. The youth vote in Boulder and Denver will be up this year. So too will be the military vote in Colorado Springs and the rancher/farmer/landowner vote everyw

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That’s Her Story & She’s Sticking To It?

That’s Her Story & She’s Sticking To It? Helen Jones-Kelley continues to say that it’s routine for employees to run checks on her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance. Unfortunately for her, her employees say differently: Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I

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Shocker: Worker Ordered to Run Illegal Check on Joe the Plumber Says There's No Such Thing as a "Thrust into the Spotlight" Check, That She Was Lied to About Reason for Check, and She Was Instructed to Lie About the Reason for Check Afterwards

—Ace I gotta tell ya, I'm stunned by all this. Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it was routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case. "The man" being Joe Wurzelbacher. He himself can presumably ask for a check into himself. Why did the supervisor feel the need to lie about why the check was being done? Why did he invent a legal reason, if the real reason was,

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“Joe the Plumber” Not Checked for Political Reasons? Yeah, Right

Posted by The Asian Badger on November 2, 2008 From The Columbus Dispatch It seems the woman who ran the records on Joe Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber” was following orders. But check this out. (Emphasis mine.) By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case. Niekamp didn’t know she jus

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State employee was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber - Joe Should Sue

This story is beginning to gain ground: “Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case. Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American. The senior manager would not lear

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State Employee: Says She Was Ordered to Check Out Joe the Plumber

State Employee: Ordered to Check Out Joe the Plumber! BY Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American. The senior manager would not learn about "Joe" for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry. The rea

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State employee says she was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber

Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case. Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American. The senior manager would not learn about "Joe" for another week, when sh

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