Happy Valley, Damascus Roundup: Polls,meetings and clothing drives

Happy Valley, Damascus Roundup: Polls,It seems that jordan 6 rings in coming up for almost everyone including boys and girls. meetings and clothing drives

It's Tuesday and kind of sunny out there so why not read a roundup of today's news and upcoming events out in the Happy Valley and Damascus area? Here's the rundown of polls, meetings, clothing drives that are sure to help you beat the mid day blues. At least I hope they do.

Damascus Poll: Damascus councilors agreed to postpone the Mayor's Monthly section of the city newsletter until a work session April 14 where they will discuss the article's role in relaying unbiased information.coogi jeans was founded in 1969 by Jacky Taranto of Melbourne, Australia.

Concerns were raised after Councilor Diana Helm and residents brought attention to a recent Mayor's Monthly article that promoted a private, politically-charged forum about the comprehensive plan scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m.Cheap womens Nike shox nz shoes are very popular!

Now, we're giving you a chance to weigh in - should a mayor be allowed to publish whatever he or she sees fit in the city newsletter? So far the votes are close with the majority saying 'yes.' Don't forget to leave comments explaining why you voted yes or no.

Meeting Recap: Reading the above information about Monday's city council meeting in Damascus and wondering what else you missed? Well,Learn all of th facts you need to know before yopu shop for Juicy couture wholesale online. it's all here in last night's meeting recap. Councilors unanimously approved the appointment of Dan O'Dell as the new city manager but voted down the mayor's appointments to the planning commission.

Clothing/Shoes drive: The K-Kids community service club at Scouters Mountain Elementary School in Happy Valley raised $1,Naax Fashion Textile is a wholesale jeans dealer who trades with young-fashion .342 for leukemia patients in two weeks. And now, they are on to organizing a used clothing and shoe drive during the next two weeks to benefit the Wichita Center for Family & Community clothes closet.

To help out, donate kid-sized clothing and shoes to Scouters Mountain Elementary at 10811 Southeast 172nd Avenue in Happy Valley. The most needed items include boys pant, sneakers and new socks and undewear.

Public Meetings: Don't forget the Happy Valley City Council will meet tonight to discuss sports usage fees and receive the annual police report from Steve Campbell, director of community service and public safety. Also pencil in tonight at 6:30 for the Damascus Joint Planning Commission/Development Code TST work session.

Bill Neukom,a giant among Giants

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Two days after he became managing general partner of the Giants, Bill Neukom left his San Francisco hotel in search of the perfect latte. He needed something strong enough to help him reanimate a team that had just finished the 2008 season 72-90,Find a fashionable range of women boots and ladies shoes all in one place online. next-to-last in the National League West.

Neukom has favored bow ties since he attended San Mateo High School, and at 69, he has a pile of white hair that rises above his head like freshly steamed foam -- making him easily recognizable. But on that October morning, he passed through the crowded streets unnoticed, a virtual unknown in the city whose baseball fortunes he would now guide.

He had once been lawyer to the richest man in the world, presiding over a legal team that for five years fought the United States government as an equal. In the process, Neukom helped earn for Microsoft -- the company he represented for more than two decades -- a reputation as the tech world's Evil Empire. But as a newly minted baseball executive, he assumed he wore a cloak of anonymity.

As Neukom turned up Grant Avenue, he noticed an approaching figure. "He's shuffling along, plainly a homeless person," Neukom says. "He had a lot of scraggly hair under a baseball cap and a plastic bag over his shoulder. As I get closer, I identify an A's logo on his hat."

The two men -- headed in very different directions -- made eye contact.More information about nike air max 97 shoes including release dates and prices. "And just as I'm passing him," Neukom recalls, "he says, 'Good luck with the Giants, kid.' "

Just two seasons later, an exultant -- and no longer anonymous -- Neukom was accepting the World Series trophy from baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, following the Giants' improbable championship run that ended with a beat-down of the Texas Rangers. He had been a fan of the team for 50 years by the time he gained control of it -- at Stanford Law School, Neukom listened to games on a transistor radio -- and he became so consumed with winning during the playoffs he picked the socks he wore based purely on clubhouse superstition.

"I didn't bring an orange bow tie to Texas for fear it might jinx us," he says. Neukom's wife, Sally, bought one after the Giants won Game 4 and he wore it for the trophy presentation the next night. When he ran into pitcher Tim Lincecum later in the locker room,Love womens Wedge Shoes? So do we. the team's principal owner -- who has four grown children of his own from an earlier marriage -- felt the tie in his jacket pocket and handed it to his star player.

Lincecum, whose long hair is in keeping with a "hippie" upbringing, asked Neukom earlier in the season to teach him how to tie a bow tie. Now the two-time National League MVP became a little boy again, examining the bow tie with wonder. "He looked at it and said, 'Is that for me?' " Neukom remembers. "That was a sweet moment."

Organizational clarity

Since their last World Series appearance in 2002, the Giants sometimes found themselves tied in knots as an organization under managing partner Peter Magowan, who ran the team for 16 years. Neukom, who began buying blocks of the team's stock in 1995 with the millions he earned as Microsoft's general counsel, was determined to bring the same organizational clarity to baseball he had imposed while building a high-tech legal department of more than 650 people.

"Bill believes in process," says Giants general manager Brian Sabean. "You don't have much second-guessing in an organization if everybody's in on the first guess." Still, Neukom loves drilling into details, like swapping information with scouts about players throughout the team's far-flung farm system. "You can ask him about any of these minor league kids," says manager Bruce Bochy, "and he'll tell you all about them."

At the team's spring training camp in Arizona, Neukom frequently was greeted like a rock star by fans as he made his way through the stands. During batting practice before one game, Steve Wong, of San Jose, asked Neukom to sign a baseball, then circled around and joined another crowd of autograph-seekers to get Neukom's signature on a second ball. And when the defending champs play their season-opener Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Neukom will remain the big difference in the front office.

In two of the pastimes that matter most in the Bay Area -- computers and baseball -- Neukom's inability to let up, even after he has won, has led to a scorched earth record of success. As Bill Gates' hand-picked general counsel,womens sandals are not only popular today, but have been popular throughout the ages. he waged a bruising battle to prevent the government from breaking up Microsoft. Other lawyers envied his success, and friends frequently reminded him of the company's skyrocketing stock price.

"People would say, 'You must be having a ball. You've got the best law job in the world,' " he recalls. "When you're in a high-visibility, high-stress, high-stakes situation, there are parts of it that are very rewarding, but the way I'm wired it's not fun."

And the pressure has only increased now that he's the public face of another storied franchise. "It had been pretty public at Microsoft, given the litigation and the success of the company," Neukom says. "But this is of a different magnitude."

Desert race truck shows a practical side

The end of the 1,500-metre snowswept runway on which I'm standing vanishes into milkbottle white, with the only contrast coming from evergreens standing guard down its entire length.

Not that long ago, massive eight-engine B-52s roared down this runway, day and night, 365 days a year. But, today, the only sound that cracks the cold is the insistent roar of a Detroit V-8. Anew engine in fact -this 6.2-litre makes 411 horsepower and 434 foot-pounds of torque and is the new standard power plant in the 2011 version of Ford's Raptor.

Having debuted just last year as a purpose-built offroad race truck, the Raptor has sold nearly 10,000 units in its first year of production - not too shabby for a limited-build SVT program. However, this year, rather than sweating in the deserts of southern California in August, I'm standing on this concrete relic of the Cold War in the most northern corner of Michigan .

Both locales present unique climate challenges, yet the snowandiceareanicechange for a Canadian boy who's regularly subjected to heat he's not used to.we've already seen three classic Air max classic models in their flagship colorways release. Still, that's where the Raptor cut its teeth just last year; it then raced Baja and won. It then headed way south -just recently, two trucks took part in the 14-day, 8,000-kilometre Dakar race through Argentina and Chile. I was the rethis year and was thrilled to see Detroit metal battling it out with the best that European and Asian engineers could field. Of the two trucks,one broke just before the finish, while the other (piloted by Sue Mead, an American racing journalist) finished 40th.Find a fashionable range of women boots and ladies shoes all in one place online.

Considering that almost half of the hand-built race vehicles never finish, that's not bad for two mostly-stock pickup trucks.

So what makes the Raptor so unique? Isn't it just another decal package?

Hardly.

First off, the Ford SVT engineers partnered with an outfit called Fox Shox, which builds one of the premier off-road multi-stage shock absorbers around.

Secondly, this tight group of Ford engineers is responsible for a host of specially built trucks going back to 1991, best known for building the Lightning pickups, which were tire-smoking ground pounders (offered first in 1993 and 1999). I first drove one in 2003 at Mosport International Raceway called the Sonic. Anyone familiar with the fourkilometre Grand Prix-style track knows of its challenging turns; not the place for a straight-line runner.

But that Lightning I drove cornered aggressively and handled off-camber turns at sports car speeds - a direct result of SVT attention to suspension, as well as good choices for rims and rubber.

And suspension is what the Raptor is all about. Consider that the truck, though based on the F-150, is 178 millimetres wider than a stock truck primarily to support the specially built underside components. These include custom cast control arms, struts, shocks, springs, prop shafts, trac bars and underarmour. That's what made up the first Raptor (available only as a SuperCab).

These past efforts and modification knowledge by the SVT guys (plus the imagination) built this first-ever factory-designed desert racer. But unlike real hand-built racers, this creation -even with its high-performance off-road capability - is still street legal and decent to drive on pavement.

That was the real surprise with the first Raptor - it did not punish you on-road for its off-road ability.

In the Sault, I had a chance to run at speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour on decommissioned logging roads -that's anice way of saying unmaintained, rutted, washed-out crap. The truck floats over this stuff. The suspension is beating like a rabbit's heart as I powerslide through icy curves, but I'm sitting still fixing my level stare on the road, feeling the surface through the steering wheel, not the cab.

Perhaps that's why this truck drives smaller than it is - in part because of the wellcalibrated steering and excellent weight transfer. Throw it as hard as you want into turns and it does not lean,Love womens Wedge Shoes? So do we. doesn't lift a wheel and certainly never feels out of control. The tires bite,I'm a small investor in a startup company deploying a podiatrist-patented method for adding comfort to high-fashion, high-heel shoes for women.the brakes clamp like iron and the fourwheel-drive system offers not only 2Hi, 4Hi and 4Lo but an electronic rear locker as well. Also, roll stability control is incorporatedintothetraction control system, which can be left full on (nanny mode), partially turned off (called Sport - or as I say Fun -mode) and totally off (known as sphincter-scrunching mode).

After wiping out 50 metres of snowbank, I recommend Sport.

The Raptor is back for 2011. And, after much feedback from customers it is now also available as a fourdoor SuperCrew truck. Now, among the performance fraternity, this might cause some anxiety; however, this added 300-plus mm of wheelbase adds only 136 kilograms of overall weight and, frankly, most of that comes from the new 136-litre gas tank. The addition of the SuperCrew does something else, though - it puts this truck into the sights of the off-road work community.

Tens of thousands of people make their living offroad - on both sides of the border. However, their need for ability is just as important as space -they are rarely alone and the three-person back seat in the Raptor, with that great flat floor, is perfect forgetting the crew in and out of just about anywhere. In a nutshell, that's why I have my woollies on while driving the shore of Lake Superior in this new, longer (3,683-mm wheelbase) Raptor.

The new 6.2L V-8 engine (replacing the 5.4L) also adds towing capability for 2011. With the tow package (which includes an integrated trailer brake controller), the Raptor will tow 3,629 kg. The payload is 468 kg.

Also standard now is a 4.2-inch LCD productivity screen (as found on the SuperDuty) and SelectShift Automatic transmission. This system lets the driver lock out as many gears as required -this is in addition to the manual and trailer tow modes.

Part of the Raptor's aggressive footing comes from the unique SVT-tuned 35-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain TA/ KO 315/70-17 tires.With these tires,the Raptor has 284 mm of front suspension travel and 307 mm of rear suspension travel on either SuperCab orthe new SuperCrew. Either version comes with a 5.5-foot box.Air max 2009 Running Shoe Flex grooves in the mid and outsole for flexibility.

Also available this year is a Raptor Luxury Package, which will feature folding power exterior mirrors, remote start, integrated spotter mirror, express up/down driver and passenger front windows, 110-volt outlet in the centre console, head restraints for the second-row middle seat and a telescoping steering wheel.

The new SuperCrew Raptor will be available for a set price (with a long list of standard equipment, different from what is available in the United States) for $53,119. Orders are being taken now - trucks will roar into town late this fall.

The play's the thing ..maybe

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Had things gone according to plan, I'd still be in Key West, Fla., wearing a T-shirt and baggy shorts, sweating through daytime rehearsals for a play.

I'm instead back in Muskegon, bundled against late winter in my full-length wool topcoat.

Here I sit, wondering when, if ever, I'll again be returning to 90 miles from Cuba.

The vagaries of live theater never cease to amaze me.

My latest adventure as a latent thespian began Feb. 22, 11 days after I hit Key West for some fun and sun.

A Feb. 17 story in the Key West entertainment tabloid Paradise reported upcoming auditions for a theater production made up of five short, one-act plays.

The piece said the "moving theater" shows directed by Ciara Carinci of Gulfport, Fla., would be performed April 29 through May 1, outdoors at the Key West Botanical Garden. Rehearsals would begin March 4.

Funniest thing: I just happened to have my acting head shot — my tuxedo photo from being the only staff film critic in the 150-plus-year history of the Muskegon Chronicle — and resume with me.

Who'd a thunk it, except for everyone who knows me.

Doesn't take much to kick an ego into gear.

Five days after seeing the story, I — dressed in a navy blazer, cream-colored sportshirt and khaki slacks — showed up for 10 a.m. tryouts at the Tropic Cinema art/independent movie theater.

When I introduced myself to Carinci and producer Jonathan Shorck, the first thing Carinci said was, "You have a great voice."

After which Shorck asked, "Have you done much theater?"

Ask an actor a question and he'll recite his credits.

I slammed my ego into reverse and launched back to the beginning of my stage odyssey in the late 1970s.Enjoy Cheap nike air max for women or men at wholesale price.

My reminiscence captivated all within earshot for roughly the span of a blink.Air max 2009 Running Shoe Flex grooves in the mid and outsole for flexibility.

Funniest thing: Even when someone's eyes are behind sunglasses, you can sense those peepers glassing over in disinterest. Did you know that people can yawn without opening their mouths?

Into a vacant auditorium we went.

There I read cold — meaning straight from the scripts — from two plays, opposite a Key West actress named Connie.

In one playlet I was a son who'd just killed his wife, and Connie was his mother who thinks he should have married his sister and sees no reason why anybody would think that's incest.

In the other, I read the role of a homeless guy who begs small change from a passerby, and Connie was the passerby on whom my character would soon turn the proverbial tables.

That was it: Connie and me. No one else showed up.

Carinci said she'd call Connie, and asked me if I could come back the next night,Love womens Wedge Shoes? So do we. to read opposite some other folks.

We definitely can use you, she said.

So there I was the following day at 9:30 p.m.

Again, only one other auditionee showed up.

The production requires eight performers.

This, I thought, was not promising.

Outside the auditorium before the audition, Carinci and Shorck chatted with George Cooper, chairman of the Tropic's board.

We had to wait for a screening of the major downer "Rabbit Hole," starring Oscar nominee Nicole Kidman, to run its credits.

After it did, out walked Cooper's wife, novelist Judy Blume.

That, to put things mildly, got my attention.

Funniest thing: Before the second audition began, Carinci said I was in and "I'll let you know."

That is about the worst thing an auditioning actor can hear besides "Thank you."

The latter almost always means "Don't call us, we'll call you," "Kiss off," that sort of thing.

But Carinci again said, "You have a great voice."

She added, "You have a great presence."

And now she's let me know.

A couple days later, Carinci e-mailed to tell me that additional auditions would be held May 4, and that I was free to return to Michigan until plans were firmer.

Back I came.lacoste shoes are considered a glorious beacon of intelligent design.

A few days ago, Carinci let me know.

The show, she said, is half-cast, and one of the performers is her.

If the production proceeds, rehearsals will begin April 25, in preparation for a May 6 opening.

Actors will be sent the scripts in advance, Carinci said.

By the time rehearsals begin, we will be expected to be off-book, meaning we must have the texts memorized before we go to work.

It's the same way, in West Michigan, we do summer stock at Howmet Playhouse in Whitehall.

Funniest thing: During my stay in Key West, I filed several Extra Iddings blogs that ended with, "To be continued ... "

Plans seem to be going ahead for my first acting gig in Key West.

But in the theater you never know.

That's one thing that makes it the most fun you can have with your pants on.

To be continued ... ?

Matt Diaz steps to the plate to help fund new playground

Not too long ago, professional baseball player Matt Diaz stood spellbound as he watched children at the Citrus Center Boys and Girls Club laughing and frolicking on the center's small, aging playground.let's be honest: putting on a brand new pair of Nike shox running shoes feels amazing.

"They were having the time of their lives," said Diaz,Enjoy Cheap nike air max for women or men at wholesale price. a former Lake Wales resident and Sante Fe High School graduate who now plays ball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But the playground built well over 20 years ago, while seemingly sturdy, was weathered and too small for the number of kids wanting to play on it. It was taken down last week.

Through the Diaz Family Foundation, Diaz and his wife of 10 years, Leslee, are seeing to it the 450 children who regularly attend the club's programs will have a new,The Hunts Point produce market in the Bronx is being wooed by New wholesale jersey. large age-appropriate playground designed to help their minds and bodies develop properly.

With the help of PlayCore, the recreational equipment company providing the playground structures to the foundation at cost,coogi jeans was founded in 1969 by Jacky Taranto of Melbourne, Australia. and an army of community volunteers, the Diazes plan to have the new playground in place before the children return to the center after next week's spring break.

More than 100 volunteers are expected to help construct the playground during a community build sponsored by the Diaz Family Foundation 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Citrus Center Boys and Girls Club, 2400 Havendale Blvd., N.W.

The first 120 volunteers to sign up will receive a free t-shirt. Drinks and food will be provided to all who help install the playground Tuesday and games will be available to keep children occupied.Buy Knee High Boots with a price guarantee and top rated customer service.

Jan Berk leading Ventura County Fair board

Ventura County is where agricultural fields nestle up to housing developments and Jan Berk of Port Hueneme wants to make sure the neighbors understand each other better.Trying to save energy by ditching the iron and wearing wrinkle-free shoesbrands?

Berk is the new president of the 2011 Ventura County Fair board of directors, a one-year term that revolves among the nine-member panel.

"There are a lot of misperceptions of what is harmful and not in the fields. There is the strong possibility of connecting with the community through the fair," said Berk, as she sat in her office at San Miguel Produce in Port Hueneme.

Berk said her focus as president of the fair board will be to help oversee the renovations at Surfers Point in Ventura and the refurbishing of the fairgrounds' livestock area, which will add a roof over the area to protect the animals from sunburn and exposure to the weather.

"Our fair is fairly unique. It's not huge. But our location is exceptional. Many people come from around the state to our wonderful cool fair. It's not too big, it's not too small. It's the perfect size and location," Berk said. "The board is responsible for policy and fiduciary responsibility and making sure the fairgrounds are run efficiently. The CEO runs the day-to-day operation and the staff."

Berk said the fairgrounds will be spared the worst of the draconian California budget cuts because it is not reliant on state funding.

"We get some money from the state, but we don't rely on it," she said.

Berk was first named to the fair board in 2002 when she was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis for a four-year term. She was reappointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A history buff, Berk referenced Elkanah Watson, who started the first agricultural fair in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1810. The fair started as a way for people to show off their livestock.

"Then the wives and women got involved, and there were pies and baking and more home economics type of things. It all evolved in little pockets, the livestock and home economics and commercial," Berk said.Die Marke tiffanyjewelry sich in kurzer Zeit zu einer der angesagtesten Marken in Amerika etabliert.

Berk is married to San Miguel Produce President Roy Nishimori, the founding partner of the company. Her son Aaron Berk, 30, also works at the company. San Miguel Produce oversees 900 acres around Ventura County. Her office is lined with newspaper front pages from her days in marketing and sales.The three will graduate in the spring, leaving large cheapjersey to fill. She said she left the world of newspapers for agriculture in 2001 and has never looked back.

"Farming is very grounded — pardon the pun — although there are a lot of challenges.Discuss The cheapdunkpremium on the IMDb message boards. But the people in the industry are very, very special and it's more casual. I can wear my jeans," she said.

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"In the early 1990s, Roy was seeing the landscape changes and seeing the bigger companies merge. Roy decided it was time to try something different and it was about this time salads in bags became popular," Berk said.

During a tour of the plant's produce packing area, Berk demonstrated how buckets of greens fresh from the fields are chopped, washed and packaged to be sent to markets. The company employs 100 to 120 people. There is a full line of organic products as well as an Asian-inspired fresh vegetable line, Jade, which features such delicacies as baby bok choy and snow pea tendrils.

In addition to the fair board, Berk is a member of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement advisory board; the United Fresh produce board; and Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones, a nonprofit that supports the Oxnard museum.

Berk said she hopes that this year's fair, which will run Aug 3-14, will help people better understand the agricultural heritage of the area.

"We have the best land in the world here and once it's gone, it's gone. Meanwhile, how can we coexist? I'd like to get more farmers participating in the agricultural building displays. It's a great resource for reconnecting," she said.