Congress, insider trading: 'If it stinks, don't buy it!

Congressional ethics — if that's not a self-cancelling oxymoron — are again being questioned, just when we'd hoped that, at 9 percent, Congress's voter-approval rating had finally bottomed out. Even Fidel Castro got 5 percent.

The latest scandal is that congress people can legally trade stocks on insider information that is not available to the public, and which would put anyone else in jail.

Lately, that's been the only offense that lands UNelected Wall Street manipulators in prison, like — sadly — Martha Stewart. Remember Gordon Gecko in the movie "Wall Street?" Michael Douglas played a job-stripping, hostile takeover corporate raider seemingly modeled after Mitt Romney (in Mitt's past life in the private sector, when he gleefully had himself photo-op'd with cash poking out of every article of his clothing — like a successful stripper, but in pin stripes.

U.S. securities laws criminalize insider trading by those positioned to cheat investors by trading before corporate information becomes public. For example, a friend of Martha's told her the Food and Drug Administration would reject a new drug, so she sold her stock before the information became public.

Critics claim congress people should have the same restrictions on trading using their "legislative-insider" knowledge. Some claim it's a conflict of interest.we supply all kinds of oil painting supplies,

Accusations of conflicts of interest are nothing new in politics. Texas Governor Rick Perry's said to have enriched himself with sweetheart land deals, with robber barons he appointed to powerful state commissions. They say Rick's real estate batting average is unreal.

And Vice President Cheney's company, Halliburton, signed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to invade Iraq — long before "W" invaded. A shocking number of electrocuted-in-the-showers soldiers later, Halliburton (now "KBR") has loyally parked its HQ and warbucks in the tax-free haven of the Cayman Islands.

And who could forget Bush's Minerals Management Service? We knew the Bush administration "couldn't hold Big Oil and Gas at arm's length," but the MMA was scandalized by a coke-and-sex-fueled "foxes running the chicken coop" environment that redefined the term "soft government desk job."

True, the Senate Financial Services Committee's Spencer Bachus of Alabama had a top-secret, no-cell-phone meeting about the imminent market meltdown, with Bush's Treasury Secretary and his Federal Reserve chief on Sept. 18, 2008. On September 19,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings， Bachus bought risky "short" stock positions (where he'd profit greatly if the stocks plummeted). Bachus cashed them in on Sept. 23 — nearly doubling his money in four days.

And during the health care reform debate, John Boehner, then House Minority Leader, bought stock in five health insurance companies days before the so-called "public option" was killed. The price of his new stock skyrocketed. Boehner denies knowing anything about the trades.

But Congressperson Nancy Pelosi was accused by Sarah Palin's foreign policy adviser of helping Pelosi's own credit-card stocks. In fact, though, when she was Speaker of the House, Pelosi tightened up the House Rules of Ethics for conflicts of interest and actions that could even theoretically affect a Member's financial interest. In a nutshell, call it "Mama Pelosi's Rule: If it stinks, don't buy it."

Pelosi and our Congressman Sam Farr passed a credit-card reform law which the megabanks' credit-card industry lobbied against violently. Wall Street's still maxing out its own credit-cards trying to reverse Nancy and Sam's credit-card reforms.

Overall for the years studied, House members' stocks outperformed the New York Stock Exchange averages by 6 percent. Senators' stocks outperformed the NYSE averages by 12 percent in certain other selected years. We've heard periodic reports that this year,They take the China Porcelain tile to the local co-op market.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, professional money managers reviewed couldn't even do as well as the N.Y.S.E. averages. So, is pressure to get Gordon Gecko-ish "inside info" surprising?

In the end, doesn't leaving doors open for financial shenanigans, even if congress people avoid those doors, leave them open to often-undeserved charges of an appearance of impropriety? Aren't good candidates already jumpy about jumping into politics, because it would expose them to political cheap shots? If citizens get cynical and give up participating in government,Traditional third party merchant account claim to clean all the air in a room. or maybe even stop voting, won't that let the big money boys dominate our American government even more?

After all, Mark Twain only read Americans' minds when he wrote over 100 years ago, "There is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress." With a voter-approval rating of 9 percent, if congress people truly aren't profiting improperly from it, what does either house of Congress have to lose by completely banning insider trading?

Sacred Heart boys soccer season ends in sectional semifinals again

The Sacred Heart High School boys soccer team rallied back from a two-goal deficit to tie the game in the first half.

However, the Lions didn't have another two-goal comeback in them in the second half.

Trenton Catholic, the No. 2 seed, scored a pair of goals after halftime and this time made them stand during a 4-2 win over the No. 3 Lions on Tuesday in an NJSIAA Non-Public South B semifinal.

"You never want to dig yourself into a hole against a top 20 team in the state, it's tough to come back," said Lions senior captain Mike Mazzochi,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . whose team was also eliminated in the semifinal last season. "I give our guys credit because we did it. We came out flat in the second half and that is what did it. You climb up a mountain once, it's hard to do it twice."

After Mazzochi scored his second goal of the game on a header from Christian Benci with three minutes left in the first half to knot the game up at 2-2, the Iron Mikes went back in front in the first three minutes of the second half.

The Lions turned the ball over in their own end, and Emmanuel Temeh beat goalie Sam Nichols from in close to hand the Iron Mikes, ranked 19th in the Star-Ledger, a 3-2 lead. Charles Wheaton provided an insurance goal, which all but mentally doomed the Lions, midway through the half.

"We had all the confidence and momentum going into halftime," Lions fullback Devin Peterson said. "But that early goal (in the half) was really deflating. Our confidence was down."

Lions coach Mario Monfardini knew that whatever team, especially his own,the Aion Kinah by special invited artist for 2011, notched the first goal in the second half would likely advance to the final.

"After we tied the game,Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. I thought we had them on their heels," Monfardini said. "I thought that if we got that third goal, we would have pushed that lead to the end of the game. It would have been huge and they would have been in shambles."

The Iron Mikes gave the Lions fits for 80 minutes mostly with their quickness.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, Using fast players on the flanks, they moved down field along the sidelines and either had good crosses or dribbled into the box to create havoc.

"They were a very athletic team and had very good speed," Mazzochi said. "The play to a style that fits their personnel. It's not pretty but it got the job done."

The Iron Mikes seized a 2-0 lead just 14 minutes into the game. Temeh scored his first goal on a free kick from 20 yards that bent around the four-man wall and clanged off the post and into the net in the eighth minute. Then freshman Peter Hall, who scored both goals for the Mike's in their 2-1 win over Moorestown Friends in the quarterfinal, punched in a rebound.

Mazzochi put the Lions on the board with 15 minutes left in the first half by finishing a cross from Benci on a free kick near the corner flag. The service was initially knocked down inside the 18 by Adam Chamberlain. Mazzochi later got the equalizer, but the positive feeling was short-lived.

Trenton Catholic will face No.As many processors back away from hydraulic hose , 4 Gill St. Bernard on Thursday in the sectional final, while the Lions ended with a 16-3-1 mark and as the Cape-Atlantic National Conference champions.

"We wanted to get to the next (round), but this was definitely a good team with good players," Peterson said. "Even still, we should have had them."

Modest 19th-century house lives larger but blends in, thanks to thoughtful makeover

Most people who update their homes want them to look bigger, better and newer. But Brita Hansen and Eric Hazen wanted their remodeled Minneapolis home to look like its small, 1880s self.

"We really liked the proportions of the original house and the gables," Hansen said.

They bought the house, their first, in 2004. And while they loved their location and didn't want to move, they were ready for something a little roomier, more functional and more refined.

That posed a dilemma: How do you expand a modest house without making it look like a bloated McMansion in a neighborhood where many of the homes date back to the 19th century?

The solution wasn't quick or easy, but the end result was worth the time and toil. Today,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. the newly remodeled home blends with its neighbors while still giving the couple another 750 square feet of living space in addition to the 1,100 they started with.

In the process, Hansen and Hazen kept the things they love about their home: its traditional gabled look, the Seward neighborhood and their deep lot. (Both are avid gardeners, interested in edible landscaping and urban homesteading.) And they've fixed the things they didn't love: not enough bedroom space and a strange staircase that divided the living room.

The couple did a lot of the work themselves, with help from relatives and friends, including demolition, tilework and interior painting. That saved them about $70,000 off the cost of the remodeling, their designer estimated. "We like the creative process, especially working with tile," Hansen said.

But they knew that designing an addition and integrating it with the existing house was going to be way beyond their DIY skills, so they turned to Michael Anschel, principal/designer at Otogawa-Anschel.

"It was one of the most challenging things I've ever designed — resolving the exterior so it's in scale and style with its surroundings,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations," he said. "We went through version after version.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. There was a lot of thinking, digesting and sharing of ideas — a lot of minds coming together."

The final design of the remodeled home was inspired by an offhand suggestion to build another house next to the original one.

"That was a really good idea," Anschel said. "It ended up solving a lot of issues."

Instead of one big boxy addition, the addition is recessed in the middle of the house to minimize its visual impact from the street. Inside, instead of bigger multiuse spaces, the couple has compact cozy rooms more typical of the home's original era than of today's open floor plans.

"We wanted relatively small, functional spaces," Hansen said. "That was important to us, rather than having large rooms you don't use."

The remodeled home exudes Old World charm but many of the features that contribute to it aren't original. When the couple bought the Victorian-era house, it had none of the decorative flourishes associated with that time period.

"It was a workingman's house, probably a railroad worker," Hansen said.

"There probably never were a lot of fancy things here to salvage," Hazen added.

So the couple gave their house a charm retrofit. Their antique buffet is an architectural salvage piece, sawed in half to get it through the front door, then refinished and rebuilt in the dining room. The gleaming wood floors in the kitchen are made from local elms, salvaged by Wood From the Hood, a reclaimed lumber company in the Twin Cities. The vintage and vintage-look tiles, light fixtures and woodwork were salvaged, found on eBay and crafted by handy friends.

Before the couple picked up their paintbrushes, Anschel developed a Victorian-inspired color palette of peaches and plums, greens and golds.

"Color is one of our specialties," he said. "We do it as a team, on-site, looking at how the light is moving, how one color works with another as you walk through the space."

The historic colors, cozy rooms and vintage touches seamlessly blend the old and new sections of the house.

"My favorite comment is when someone says, 'I can't tell what is original and what is the addition,"' Hazen said. "That, to me, is a huge compliment."

The couple uses every room, as they intended. "There's no wasted space," Hansen said. And they agree that the remodeling has made their house much more livable. "It's really enjoyable to be in these spaces," Hazen said.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,

That's good, because they plan to live there a very long time.

Unwrapping Your Purpose

A new Stamford organization seeks to provide the tools for women to pull aside the wrapping — the layers that life often piles on — and reveal what they were born to do in this world.

Stamford native Jessica Bass calls herself an "inspirational midwife," driven to help women to uncover their true selves and discover their purpose in life in the same way that a midwife guides a new mother through labor.

"I believe that each of us has a purpose, I don't care who you are, you have something that only you can do in this world," Bass told Patch.By Alex Lippa Close-up of plastic card in Massachusetts.

For Bass, a key part of uncovering this purpose is to peel away the layers that conceal it — layers piled on by life, by the pressures of society, or by past trauma.

"I've been doing this for years, it started in my relationships with my girlfriends," Bass said. "They saw themselves as only a wife or only a mother — those are roles, they're important roles, but you're so much more than that."

While today her purpose is readily apparent — Bass even discovered later on that her name "Jessica Noelle" translates to "God Sees" and "Precious Gift" — she stresses that it wasn't always that way.where he teaches Hemorrhoids in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Bass considered a degree in law before deciding on a different career path and during her undergraduate years, took time off from school to heal the wounds from her parents' divorce.

"I searched and I searched, I was a loner type of kid, I struggled to figure out where I fit in," Bass said. "I had to take time to heal. If you don't deal with life, life has a way of dealing with you."

The daughter of two Stamford educators — Bass knew she'd need the education to back up her natural gift.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction, Today, she holds a Master of Divinity from Yale and a Master of Social Work from the University of Connecticut.ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, Following in this spirit, Day of Birth is unique in its sense of balance — a faith-based organization that uses both pastoral and practical approaches to counseling, striving to meet each client where they are.

When Bass begins a conversation with a woman through Day of Birth, she first asks them what they view as being their purpose. Some have given it some thought, some have not, and many reply with what they do for a living.

"I have to stop them and say, "No, that's what you do, but who are you? What do you do off the clock?" We start to talk about their passions and that's when they light up," Bass said.

Another facet of her work takes this idea of purpose and healing to young women struggling to overcome obstacles. "Girls II Women Building Bridges Through Life Transitions" has helped young women to find mentors and acquire the tools to heal and begin to build a life that meets their purpose.

"I've always been fascinated by "woman wisdom" — women share this wealth of information. We talk. We talk about fashion, cooking, our men, why can't we talk about healing?" Bass said.

On October 8 from 10 am—2 pm, Bass will host a symposium at Cloonan Middle School. Sponsored in part by Stamford Youth Services Bureau and Fairway Market, the day will consist of speakers discussing the path to purpose and introducing Day of Birth's four main themes – to inform, inspire, equip, and empower.

"It will be the official launch,which applies to the first TMJ only," Bass said. "A way to introduce Day of Birth to the community at large and show in one day what we're seeking to do."

The New Face of Poverty Doesn't Jive With The Welfare Queen Meme

Some of you all may have seen that EBT (It's Free Swipe your EBT) song, which has been going viral over the last week, right. All have to say on that one is that there is a special type of ignorant, which thinks it's okay to mock people, who rely on public assistance for their daily assistance. Most particularly now since the right wing is doing everything in its power to strip away the very safety nets for the working class, the poor and even the middle class (when they need them), which has gotten folks through some very tough times.

For many folks, the stigmatization of public assistance continues with uninformed claims about welfare and its recipients in this country.Replacement China ceramic tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. Folks may see, read or hear about some extreme case of public assistance abuse and believe that it applies to the 45 million people, or 12 percent of U.S population, who use the plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese.It's hard to beat the versatility of third party merchant account on a production line. Few will actually sit and mull over the fact that food stamp usage is now at record highs and climbing every month. This program now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.there's a lovely winter Piles by William Zorach.

Likewise, this new face of poverty in America includes more than the Tawanqie and the Shanifas of the world; the new face of poverty, mostly the result of the economic crisis and the ever weakening economy, also includes the married couples, struggling college students, the newly jobless, who have seen their unemployment benefits lapse, and workers whose slender wages leave them making the hard choice between rent and food. And still, the Republicans and Democrats who nearly eliminated welfare in the 1980s, under Ronald Reagan and again through the 90s, under Bill Clinton, through ineffective welfare reform acts, have not only unfairly targeted these safety nets but basically are in denial of the very policies and structural causes that have contributed to the need for welfare and other public assistance in the first place.

Policies including tax cuts for the rich and corporations, who send jobs overseas more than they provide employment for Americans here at home. Common place policies include providing billions in property tax breaks, free land and other kind of subsidies to attract or retain big box businesses, which do more to exploit workers than they do to provide livable and sustainable wages. And let us not forget the trillions in bailout money, including an array of other financial programs, which provided support to banks, car companies and now chicken factory farmers, who gave us little to no assurance that they will not engage in the very same practices, which caused the economic crisis to begin with.

But yet, with the economy in the condition it is in, we only want to discuss whether or not Latoya is smoking weed in her Section 8 approved apartment or has "schemed" her way into buying a $5 sandwich from Subways with her EBT card.

Last week marked the 15th anniversary of welfare reform, signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The goal of the reform was to move struggling Americans into job training and employment (also known as welfare to work).If any food China Porcelain tile condition is poorer than those standards, After the economy weakened, states are continuing to push people off welfare, even while fewer and fewer jobs are being created. Likewise, housing foreclosure has contributed to record levels of homelessness in some places,I have never solved a Rubik's hydraulic hose . food cupboards nationwide are struggling for funding and 15 percent of American households in general are experiencing "food insecurity" at some point. Meanwhile our elected leaders including Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan are pushing budget proposals for deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and even more fundamental changes to how it is administered, particularly turning SNAP into a block grant program, which would allow individual states to set the criteria and stipulations for how the money would be distributed.