Washington, U.S.A.  – The states of Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas will receive grants totaling $3 million to develop strategies aimed at helping returning Army veterans find employment more quickly through the public workforce system, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced. This funding represents an initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Army under the Unemployment Compensation for Ex-service Members program.

“The Labor Department is deeply committed to providing employment services and benefits that best support the men and women who have served our country, and the grants announced today are an example of that commitment,” said Secretary Solis. “Ensuring Army veterans have expedited access to job training and job placement services is one way our nation honors their sacrifices.”

This initiative will provide each of the four states with $750,000 to develop new strategies to enhance outreach and re-employment services for Army unemployment compensation claimants.

Examples of strategies include improved tracking of claimants across federal programs to better link unemployed veterans to potential job opportunities; increasing staff capacity to help claimants understand which military skills can be transferred to civilian careers; expanding service delivery through agency partnerships, such as opening employment service satellite offices in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs locations; and expanding outreach activities to better connect these veterans to American Job Centers, job fairs and other services that can expedite their return to work.

“These grants are an important step toward ensuring that the soldiers who so valiantly and selflessly served our nation get the help they need transitioning back to civilian life,” said Secretary of the ArmyJohn McHugh. “By sharing information, improving access to re-employment services and increasing outreach opportunities, we can help Army veterans get better access to and information about job opportunities. I’m grateful to Secretary Solis and the Department of Labor for their support. This is great news for the Army and its veterans.”

The four states selected have large populations of Army veterans who are unemployment compensation claimants and have been actively collaborating with both the Labor Department and the Army to improve veterans’ access to the public workforce system. These grants will be implemented over the next two years, and the promising practices developed with these investments will be shared with other states and expanded to include other branches of the military.

Image Courtesy of  Anthony Correia / Shutterstock.com

The article Four States Receive $3 Million to Help Army Veterans appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Kyiv, Ukraine — Around four million foreign guests crossed Ukrainian border since the beginning of EURO 2012, reported Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service. As international supporters keep streaming in, UK human rights activist Clare Dimyon apologized to Ukraine on behalf of Great Britain for false accusations in racism and other types of intolerance.

Four million people and 860 thousand vehicles have crossed the state border since June 5. However, for the duration of the championship Ukrainian guests have witnessed nothing but hospitality and true unity of all nations, races, and liberties. British human rights activist Clare Dimyon expressed her bitterness at the BBC Stadiums of Hate material, depicting Ukraine as racists and intolerant country. Dimyon, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (awarded for her human rights campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe) apologized on behalf of her home country.

The activist is preparing the film, disproving the statements suggested in BBC’s video piece. Dimyon said that she had seen many representatives of African and Asian descent in Ukraine, at the stadiums specifically, and she did not witness them being stressed or uncomfortable or treated intolerantly by the others.

“I am convinced that I haven’t seen any racist moods here, in any case there were no more than in London. That’s why I think BBC should tell the truth. I am grateful to Kharkiv and its people for the opportunity to defend Britain’s good name and tell the truth to the world,” she added.

As a protest against the negative publications in British press about Ukraine, on June 19 British football fans will carry a coffin during their march in Donetsk tonight. The coffin and “Campbell you’re wrong!” signs are called to signify that British supporters disagree with the statement made by former England captain Sol Campbell, who warned British fans to stay away from Euro 2012.

He recommended fellow countrymen to watch at home on TV, for otherwise they would “risk it coming home in a coffin”. “How could he say that? Ukraine is a great country and Donetsk is a wonderful city,” – commented a fan from London in Donetsk: “And because of his [Campbell's] statement so many of our nationals didn’t make it here.”

Image Courtesy of  labrador33 / Shutterstock.com

The article EURO 2012: Millions of Fans Flock in Ukraine appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

American guitarist and folk musician Doc Watson, 89, passed away on May 29, 2012, at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

According to USA Today, Agent Mitch Greenhill, of Folklore Productions, said Watson was responding and recovering last week from undergoing colon surgery he had on Thursday. It was said Watson remained in critical condition on Friday. Nancy, Watson’s daughter, told the Associated Press, Watson fell on Monday.

The legendary guitarist and Grammy winning musician’s death was confirmed Tuesday night.

The folk musician was born Arthel Watson near Deep Gap, North Carolina on March 3, 1923. He lost his vision before he was 1 year old but began playing instruments from a young age, starting with a harmonica and a banjo given to him by his father. When he picked up a guitar he began teaching himself and started playing for tips.

Watson married Rosa Lee Carlton in 1947, they had two children, Merle and Nancy. In 1953, he started playing with country dance band, Jack Williams and the Country Gentlemen. A few years later he sat with Tom Ashley for a recording session, a year later he performed with Ashley and other musicians at a concert in Greenwich Village which was the start of his career.

When Watson’s music career took off in 1963 when he released his solo debut, Doc Watson and Family. In 1964, he began touring with his 15-year-old son Merle Watson.

The father son duo played together for the next 20 years until Merle’s death after a farming accident in 1985. Over the years, Watson won eight Grammys, seven of them for different albums and the eighth Grammy was a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. While he earned many musical awards and honors through out his career, none of his 60+ albums ever went gold according to the Chicago Tribune.

“Doc was a legendary performer who blended his traditional Appalachian musical roots with bluegrass, country, gospel and blues to create a unique style and an expansive repertoire,” his management company, Folklore Productions, said. ”He was a powerful singer and a tremendously influential picker who virtually invented the art of playing mountain fiddle tunes on the flattop guitar.”

Watson made music that influenced many artists and guitarists. Known for his fingerpicking and flat-pick guitar styles, he pioneered a new bluegrass style playing fiddle style tunes on guitar at a quick pace. He changed folk music forever.

“Overall, Doc will be remembered as one of America’s greatest folk musicians. I would say he’s one of America’s greatest musicians,” said David Holt, a longtime friend and collaborator.

Image Courtesy of   prawnpie

The article American Folk Musician, Doc Watson Dies at 89 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Hidden-camera video secretly shot at a North Carolina Butterball factory farm by an undercover investigator with the animal protection organization Mercy For Animals (MFA) has led to felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges of five Butterball employees by state authorities.

Additionally, Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, the director of Animal Health Programs (Poultry Division) with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, has pled guilty to obstruction of justice after admitting to leaking confidential information to Butterball about the criminal cruelty investigation by state law enforcement officials.

MFA’s Executive Director Nathan Runkle will reveal details of the investigation and the organization’s reaction to the animal cruelty charges against Butterball employees tomorrow morning at a news conference.

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Hilton North Raleigh-Midtown, Sandalwood Room, 3415 Wake Forest Rd., Raleigh, NC

The names of the Butterball employees charged with criminal activity that have been released so far include Ruben Mendoza, Terry Bernard Johnson, and Jose Garcia. The charges stem from an MFA undercover investigation at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina between November and December of 2011. The shocking undercover footage reveals:

• Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
• Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
• Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss and necrotic (dead) muscles and skin;
• Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
• Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA’s investigator.

Mercy For Animals’ undercover video shows that the lives of turkeys in Butterball’s factory farms are brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. Butterball’s turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.

Due to the company’s lack of meaningful animal welfare policies, training or procedures, Butterball subjects countless turkeys to immeasurable cruelty and neglect each year. ”We commend law enforcement for taking swift and decisive action in bringing these animal abusers to justice,” said Runkle. “These arrests should send a clear message to the meat industry that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated.”

The article Butterball Employees Arrested for Cruelty to Animals appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the largest environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Southeast, has announced its fourth annual list of the top 10 places in the South that face immediate, potentially irreparable threats in 2012.

Many of the areas on SELC’s Top 10 list are endangered by pressure to undercut environmental protections and to lower the hurdles for potentially destructive projects, whether it’s fracking in the North Carolina Piedmont, uranium mining in Virginia, or deepwater drilling in the Gulf.

“The South’s special places and natural riches are threatened by a wave of calculated attacks on the bedrock laws that protect our environment and health,” said Marie Hawthorne, SELC’s Director of Development. “Under the guise of promoting economic growth, anti-environmental forces are working in Congress, in state legislatures, and in government agencies to gut our most essential safeguards.

“The truth is, environmental protection had nothing to do with the financial crisis or today’s weak economy,” Hawthorne added. “Doing away with effective laws and enforcement will accomplish nothing except sacrifice the natural treasures like those on our Top 10 list and other resources that make the South such a great place live, work, and raise our families. We owe it to ourselves — and to future generations — to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Top 10 Endangered Places in the Southeast for 2012

The following endangered areas were chosen from among hundreds of special places that the SELC is defending through its law and policy work in the six states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Alabama’s coast: Following the tragic BP spill, the government has returned to business as usual and is authorizing risky deepwater drilling projects under the same assumptions that failed in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This approach is irresponsible, illegal, and poses an ongoing threat to Alabama’s beaches, marshes, wildlife, and coastal communities.

Dawson Forest, Georgia : A costly, unnecessary proposed reservoir would siphon 100 million gallons per day from the Etowah River to fuel metro Atlanta’s unchecked sprawl, threatening prime habitat for endangered aquatic life, water supplies of downstream communities, and a popular recreation area.

Catawba-Wateree Basin, North Carolina & South Carolina: The health of the Catawba-Wateree River, which provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents of central North Carolina and South Carolina, faces an array of threats, including pollution from toxin-laden coal ash ponds, hydroelectric dams that will continue to disrupt stream flows and fish migration, water withdrawals that rob water from downstream farms and communities, and unnecessary reservoir projects that promote inefficient development and water use.

North Carolina Piedmont: The gas drilling industry and its allies in the North Carolina General Assembly are pushing hard to pass legislation that would expedite hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. ‘fracking’) to extract natural gas, despite mounting evidence that the drilling technique, in the absence of appropriate regulatory controls, can lead to the contamination of groundwater and surface water. Potential fracking sites in North Carolina’s Piedmont are underneath or upstream from water supplies for 2.4 million people.

Savannah River, South Carolina & Georgia : The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to deepen 38 miles of the Savannah River shipping channel would increase saltwater intrusion in the river and jeopardize freshwater marshlands in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, drinking water supplies for Savannah and other communities, and habitat for endangered aquatic species.

Chilhowie Mountain, Tennessee: The outdated plan for completing Corridor K between Chattanooga and Asheville includes a proposal to cut a new four-lane highway through the Cherokee National Forest near the Ocoee Gorge, even though improvements to the existing two-lane highway on its current footprint would be less damaging, less costly, and no less effective.

Chesapeake Bay, Virginia: For decades the Bay has suffered from pollution from all sides — air, land, and water. Unfortunately, industry interests and their political allies are doing all they can to impede a comprehensive rescue plan.

Mountains of Tennessee & Virginia: Mountaintop removal and other destructive coal mining practices have already destroyed at least 500 mountains and damaged 1,700 miles of streams in Virginia, Tennessee and other central Southern Appalachian states, and pressure continues to mount.

Charlottesville, Virginia & Surrounding Countryside: Local and state decision-makers are attempting to revive a wasteful, destructive, and ineffective proposed bypass that would leave a permanent scar on one of the South’s most special communities.

Southside Virginia: An intense push to mine uranium in southern Virginia risks polluting drinking water supplies with radioactive and toxic-laden wastewater. Lifting the state’s ban on uranium mining could open up Virginia’s Piedmont countryside to more large-scale mining projects.

The article Top 10 Endangered Places in Southeast US appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Walmart’s 2012 Acres for America program is helping conserve more than 49,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat across the United States. Acres projects connect existing lands to protect migration routes, provide access for people to enjoy the outdoors and help ensure the future of rural economies that depend on forestry, tourism and recreation.

Acres for America is a 10-year, $35 million commitment that began in 2005 between Walmart and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to purchase and preserve one acre of wildlife habitat in the U.S. for every acre of land developed by the company through 2015.  To date, Acres for America has invested in projects in 24 states, protecting more than 687,000 acres.

“It is estimated that America loses nearly three million acres of open space each year,” said Jennifer May-Brust, Walmart vice president of realty supplier management and compliance. “Our strategic partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is helping save important wildlife habitats and fits perfectly with Walmart’s larger goal to bring sustainability into the communities we serve.”

In the summer of 2011, Walmart expanded its Acres investments to include urban conservation projects inChicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.  The six awards announced today will support projects in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina and Tennessee.

“With these new projects, Acres for America extends into five additional states to protect vital areas for wildlife and people,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “These investments will not only benefit endangered species like the Florida panther – they will also expand open space near urban areas and conserve forests and streams along the Appalachian Trail, one of our most treasured natural resources.”

The 2012 Acres for America projects:

Southern Sierra Partnership: Tehachapi Linkage, California

• While protecting more than 22,000 acres of rare blue oak habitat in the Sierra foothills, this project completes a key 50-mile ecological corridor linking the Sierra-Cascade ranges to the California Coast ranges and the lowlands of the Great Central Valley to the Mojave Desert.

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Expansion: Colorado

• This project protects 1,334 acres of tallgrass prairie adjacent to the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge and connects to 70,000 acres of locally protected open space, greatly expanding recreation opportunities in metropolitan Denver.

Panther Crossing Protection Project: Florida

• This 1,530-acre property protects a key migratory corridor for the endangered Florida panther, of which less than 165 exist in the wild.  It connects existing panther habitat to the south with 1.5 million acres of new habitat in the Northern Everglades, and will also benefit the American black bear, red-cockaded woodpecker, swallow-tailed kite and snail kite.

Almo Tract: Fort Benning, Georgia

• This 7,550-acre tract in Georgia’s Fall Line Sandhills is the eastern anchor of a larger 30,000-acre conservation corridor adjacent to Fort Benning. The project protects longleaf pine forest and provides important habitat for the gopher tortoise and red-cockaded woodpecker, among other species.

The Palila Protection Project: Hawaii

• On the Big Island of Hawaii, two protected parcels (4,469 acres) provide critical habitat to the palila (Loxioides bailleui), one of the rarest birds in the world, and contribute significantly to its recovery.

Appalachian Trail Habitat Protection Project: North Carolina and Tennessee

Partners: The Conservation Fund, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Blue Ridge Forever and Conservation Trust for North Carolina

• This group of seven key parcels collectively protects nearly 13,000 acres of forest and 40 miles of freshwater streams along the Appalachian Trail Corridor, which are home to the imperiled southern Appalachian brook trout, 1,000 species of plants, at least 300 species of birds and 20 species of rare and declining salamanders.

For more information on Acres for America or to apply for a grant, visit www.nfwf.org or http://walmartstores.com/sustainability.

The article Walmart’s 2012 Acres for America Program appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Nearly one in four American children attend rural schools and enrollment is growing at a faster rate in rural school districts than in all other places combined, according to ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’, a biennial report by the Rural School and Community Trust.   In addition, rural schools show increasing rates of poverty, diversity, and students with special needs.

These widespread trends are most evident in the South, Southwest, and parts of Appalachia. ”As the evidence mounts that rural education is becoming a bigger and even more complex part of our national educational landscape, it is becoming impossible to ignore in the quest to improve achievement and narrow achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

The day of closing our eyes and hoping rural education will just go away are ending,” said Jerry Johnson, a co-author of ‘Why Rural Matters 2011-12’. More than 9.6 million students are enrolled in rural school districts in the United States, which is over 20 percent of all public school students in the United States.

An additional 1.8 million students are enrolled in rural schools in districts not classified as rural by the federal government.  Together, these 11.4 million students who attend rural schools comprise more than 23 percent of all public school students, according to the Rural School and Community Trust, a respected national nonprofit organization.

Of those students attending schools in a rural district, two in five live in poverty, a rate that has increased by nearly a third in nine years.  One student in four in rural areas is a child of color, and one in eight has changed residence in the past 12 months.

Between the 1999-2000 and 2008-2009 school years, rural districts’ enrollment increased by well over 1.7 million students, showing a growth rate of more than 22 percent.  In comparison, non-rural enrollment increased by only 673,000, or by a 1.7 percent increase, for the same time period.  As a result, the rural districts’ share of national public school enrollment increased from 17.4 percent to 20 percent over the decade, according to federal data in the report.

These enrollment gains were particularly strong in the most rural states in the South and Southwest.  Ten states are among the top 13 in both the number and the percentage of rural enrollment growth — Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

The top five states with rural enrollment increases — Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona — had a total gain of over 1.1 million, more than half the gain for all states that gained rural enrollment.

“Rural minority students are concentrated in certain states, and that concentration is increasing,” said Jerry Johnson. Over 69 percent of all rural minority students now attend school in states where they represent more than one third of the rural student enrollment.  That is up from 58 percent as reported in ‘Why Rural Matters 2009’.

The report uses 25 statistical indicators grouped into five “gauges” to take the measure of rural education in each of the 50 states.  The five gauges are then combined to produce a “rural education priority” gauge.  The higher the ranking, the more important and challenging rural education is in a state’s overall education system and the more urgent it is for policy makers to pay attention to it.

The 13 highest priority states are all in the South, Southwest, and Appalachia, except Alaska, and all, but three, of the 12 next highest priority states are adjacent to them with the exception of Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The report notes that rural education ranks high in importance in many Northern states, including Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, and Vermont.  However, these states tend to rank low on other measures such as student poverty, diversity, or poor student performance and low graduation rates.

“These states symbolize rural education to many people. They are the basis for a myth that all of rural America is uncomplicated, stable, and reasonably well-off. That myth is part of what keeps rural education on the margins of the national debate about education policy,” said Marty Strange, the policy director for the Rural School and Community Trust and co-author of the report.

“But these classic Yankee and Prairie-Plains states are simply an important part of a much more varied, complex, and challenging rural America that education policy makers must better understand,” said Strange. The report found that states most responsive to rural schools have above average fiscal capacity.

For example, the report points out that of the 13 states with the lowest expenditures for rural teachers, all but Nebraska and South Dakota are below the national average in state fiscal capacity.  On the other hand, states with the highest rural teacher salaries are primarily in the Northeast, the West, and the Mid-Atlantic. All these states are above the national average in state fiscal capacity per capital.

The article Rural Student Poverty Rates, Diversity, and Enrollment Increasing Fast appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

While K-12 schools around the country search for funding to provide iPads to every student, an education researcher in North Carolina has found that even a single iPad can make a huge difference in the classroom.

The results of her experience with student teachers at Wake Forest University appear in the December/January issue of Learning & Leading With Technology, the magazine of the International Society for Technology in Education.

“Because they’re truly part of the digital generation, our pre-service teachers and the K-12 students they teach have a natural aptitude for tablet devices,” said Kristin Redington Bennett, an Assistant Professor of Education at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Though iPads can cost more than $500 with 3G access and a budget for apps, Bennett said, “Don’t discount the device because of its price. We found that just one iPad allowed teachers to design creative lesson plans tailored to individual learners.”

One of her pre-service teachers even used the iPad to solve a problem with a disruptive student who made trouble in the reading center every morning. When the teacher showed the student how to download books on the iPad, he read with focus for 20 minutes each morning – a goal he had not achieved until then.

“Anything new and different is engaging for kids,” said Nancy Davidson, a senior elementary education major at Wake Forest who used an iPad in her student teaching last semester. “Tracking student growth through apps, pictures, and videos became more efficient for me and more interesting for the children. Using the iPad in class started as a luxury, but quickly became a normal part of their learning process.”

Bennett’s pre-service teachers used the iPads in three ways:

*Comparing students’ progress on identical tasks using the iPads, interactive whiteboards, and desktops to see if the less-expensive iPad would work as well.

*In groups of two or three, working out a problem together. This approach required a set of rules (only one set of fingers on the iPad) and specific tasks for each team member. The group would capture an image of their work and store it in the iPad’s photo album for teacher review.

*For the teacher only, taking the place of other digital displays. One teacher took photos around the school and flipped through as she explained geometric shapes occurring in the school and in nature.

“What often happens in schools is that they purchase this new technology and expect teachers to use it with little training in how to design successful instruction with it,” Bennett said. “My goal is to train our elementary education candidates to graduate from our program with the skills and fluency in the use of mobile technology to support teaching and learning. This has allowed many of our graduates to be leaders in their schools even as a first-year teacher.”

Based on her experience, Bennett recommends these top 10 apps for use with elementary-school students:

1. Google Earth: (all ages) Take a virtual field trip to anywhere through this app that uses global satellite and aerial imagery with a swipe of a finger.

2. DoodleBuddy: (all ages) Students and teachers can use this across all content areas as a whiteboard equivalent to paint, draw, sketch, and write.

3. Story Buddy: (K-2nd) This app allows kids to create, read, and share stories that they create with the iPad.

4. Stack the States: (2nd-6th) An animated, game-based way to learn state locations, capitals, shapes, abbreviations, and nicknames.

5. Geocaching: (3rd-6th) In this global treasure hunting game, participants hide and seek containers, called geocaches, outdoors, then share their adventures online.

6. Numberland HD: (PK-1st) Twin heroes teach numbers using the Montessori Method.

7. Corkulous: (2nd – 6th) This app allows students to collect, organize, and share ideas through notes, labels, and photos.

8. iThoughtsHD: (3rd-6th) This mind-mapping tool can be used to sequence ideas, write mind-maps, organize thinking, and assess interrelatedness.

9. Coin Math: (K-3rd) Students learn both sides of a coin, how to add them, and how to pay for something with the correct coins.

10. StarFall ABC’s: (PK-1st) Students learn to recognize letters and develop skills as they begin to learn to read.

The article Teaching is Improved with iPads appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Silence fell upon the entire Clemson sidelines as NC State continued to pour unanswered points onto the scoreboard. Without WR, playmaker, and possible Heisman candidate, Sammy Watkins, No. 7 Clemson’s offense was stagnant, and State’s defense was smothering.

Scoring their first touchdown with 1:12 remaining in the fourth quarter, Clemson felt the effects of Watkins absence, who had suffered an upper body injury when playing Wake Forest last week. Unranked North Carolina State sacked QB Tajh Boyd five times, picked him off twice, and recovered two forced fumbles in their routing of the Tigers Saturday night.

Coming off of a one-TD, three-interception performance last week,  State QB Mike Glennon pulled a complete 180. Playing a nearly perfect game, Glennon hit eight different receivers for 253 yards and 3 touchdowns, hitting four of them for three or more receptions. There were no interceptions.

The Wolfpack also had a combined  145 yards on the ground, led by James Washington’s 86-yard performance, but their ability to contain a Watkins-less, Clemson offense overloaded Coach Dabo Swinney’s play calling.  With a team who averaged 170.5 rushing yards per game coming in tonight, Clemson was held to a miserable 34 yards on the ground. As for the Tigers’ aerial attack, Boyd did complete 21 of 34 passes for 238 yards, but he failed to get the ball into the endzone and turned the ball over twice.

State also managed to keep the Clemson offense off the field, winning the possession battle by a margin of just about 13 minutes. State CB David Amerson recorded his eleventh interception tonight, six more than any other team in college football and three away from tying an NCAA record.

The now 9-2 Clemson Tigers will likely take a huge hit in the BCS standing, since losing to a non-Top 25 team normally results in a drop of ten or more rankings. Things do not get any better as they end the season with a road game against the No. 12 South Carolina Gamecocks.

The article Sammy Watkins Injured; NC State Smokes No. 7 Clemson appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The North Carolina state senate approved on Tuesday legislation that would add an amendment to the ballot in 2012. North Carolina voters will vote to decide whether to amend the state constitution, banning same-sex marriage.

The amendment would prohibit legal recognition of any union besides marriage between one man and one woman, including civil unions and domestic partnerships for gay and straight couples. Local business leader Martin Eakes was at the capitol in Raleigh on Tuesday trying to argue against the amendment.

“This was one of the worst days that I’ve ever seen in my home state, and I’ve seen some pretty bad days over the past 25 years,” Eakes said of the vote to advance the amendment. Republican leaders in the state did not allow any public comments about the proposed legislation, speeding up the process of approving the ballot initiative.

The legislation was passed just 24 hours after it was introduced.  The bill passed by a 30-16 vote in the state Senate, in which Republicans hold a 31-19 majority. Constitutional amendments do not have to be signed by the governor. North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, likely would have vetoed the legislation if she were able to.

As it stands, the measure will be voted on during the 2012 primary election. “This is deeply disappointing and hurtful to thousands of North Carolina same-sex couples who simply want to be able to care for each other and their families, as all families do,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in a statement.

Although same-sex marriage is already banned in the state, a constitutional amendment would block any court challenges of the law on constitutional grounds. During floor debate, several Republicans stated that the amendment was required to prevent “activist judges” from overturning the marriage ban.

“Moms and dads are not interchangeable,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. James Forrester (R-Gaston), during floor debate. “Two dads don’t make a mom. Two moms don’t make a dad. Children need both a father and a mother.” The law could have unintended consequences for many unmarried couples, both gay and straight.

Maxine Eichner, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, and some of her colleagues prepared a report on the proposed amendment in June that outlined potential problems.

Even with the revisions made in the last week, Eichner said in an email, the amendment could still interfere with existing child custody and visitation rights and invalidate trusts, wills and end-of-life directives in favor of an unmarried partner, no matter the genders of the unmarried pair.

“The Amendment still has the potential to invalidate domestic violence protections for members of unmarried couples, as an Ohio court did with even narrower language in its state’s marriage amendment,” Eichner warned.

The article North Carolina Adds Same-Sex Marriage Ban to 2012 Ballot appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

In North Carolina, lawmakers in the House voted to override the governor’s veto of a controversial legislation that mandate an ultrasound before an abortion. The legislation would also require physicians to follow a script before performing an abortion.

The Abortion-Woman’s Right to Know Act was vetoed by Governor Bev Perdue in June. The act stated that doctors give a woman an ultrasound prior to the abortion procedure. The abortion physician must also describe the fetus in detail, including the size of the organs and limbs whether the patient wants to hear the description or not.

If the patient refuses to view the ultrasound image or listen to the fetal heartbeat, the doctor must record the patient’s name and keeps it on file for seven years. So much for patient privacy, eh? The bill also requires patients to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion.

“Physicians must be free to advise and treat their patients based on their medical knowledge and expertise and not have their advice overridden by elected officials seeking to impose their own ideological agenda on others,” wrote Gov. Perdue in her June 27 veto note.

Proponents of the bill state that the legislation could potentially save thousands of unborn lives each year by making a woman aware of the consequences of her abortion. But Dr. Amy Bryant, a North Carolina gynecologist who provides abortions on a weekly basis, says the law’s only function would be to place an undue emotional burden on patients.

“I’ve never heard of the ultrasound actually changing someone’s mind,” she said. “Once they’ve made the decision that this is the right thing for them and their families, that’s what they’re gonna do. If you try to coerce women to hear these things or see the ultrasound or hear that there are fetal abnormalities, it’s only going to be more distressing for them. I can’t imagine how it would help.”

After intense floor debates, the North Carolina House of Representatives overrode Perdue’s veto by a vote of 72-47 on Tuesday.

“I’m not supportive of it and I don’t envision myself changing that position,” said Sen. Stan Bingham (R-Davidson), the one Republican who voted against the measure (the other, Sen. Richard Stevens (R-Wake), didn’t vote). “I just really am troubled by the fact that the government is involved in something as directly related to someone’s personal life as abortion, and I feel hypocritical in voting to support this because I’ve always raised my four daughters to make these kinds of decisions on their own.”

Bingham also stated that he questioned some of the information that Republicans have been using about abortions during the debates.  “There’s a lot of non-facts in some of the things that have been said — they make it sound like you go in to get a hamburger and you have an abortion, without any medical exams, no check-ups, no discussion,” he said. “But the medical society strongly disagrees with this, and my daughter is a physician and she strongly disagrees with this too. So I’m trying to be open-minded.”

The senate narrowly passed the override on Thursday. Sen. Bingham was not present to vote. Because of a procedural move, Bingham was allowed to walk away from the vote.  Sen. Stevens also had an excused absence for the entire week of the special session.

Unlike Stevens, Bingham was in his seat when the Senate convened on Thursday morning. Less than an hour later, after a GOP caucus meeting, he was granted an excused absence and left the building.

Bingham’s departure left the Senate with 48 members present instead of 50, a change that allowed Senate Republicans to override the governor’s veto of H854 with the 29 votes they could muster, instead of the usual 30.

“I did not ask him not to be here,” Senate Leader Phil Berger said. “Senator Bingham has been very clear as to his position on that particular issue. I respect his view on that, and based on the views of the members of the caucus as a whole, other than him, he made a decision.”

“My understanding is that he had some business that needed to be taken care of elsewhere as well,” Berger added.

Bingham’s departure left the Senate with 48 members present instead of 50, a change that allowed Senate Republicans to override the governor’s veto of H854 with the 29 votes they could muster, instead of the usual 30.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bev-Perdue/11552180685

The article North Carolina Overrides Governor Veto on Abortion Regulations appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A man in North Carolina claims to have captured the elusive Bigfoot on video in a short clip.  Thomas Byers purports to have filmed the 5 second clip in Rutherford County last Tuesday.

According to Byers’ website, he and a friend were driving along a highway when “we both observed a large upright brown furry animal between six and seven feet tall come up out of the field beside the road and then it ran across the road in front of the pick up truck we were in.”  Byers describes the short encounter.  He reports that both he and his friend jumped out of the truck.  Byers had a small video camera and was able to capture Bigfoot, or he refers to it—Knobby—as it ran across the road in front of the truck.  He said he continued to watch the creature run up the side of a small mountain.  He also maintained that while filming it, Knobby turned its head toward him and growled at him.

Although amazing, the clip shows a distorted image of something running.  It is unfortunately very blurry and difficult to tell if the creature is real or someone in an ape costume.  And we all know the Bigfoot legend has a shady history of faked footage.

Byers is no skeptic though.  He talks about the experience on his site.  “It was at one point only 15-20 foot from me and it happened so fast and shook me up so bad that I really didn’t understand what I had seen until it was up the side of the mountain and out of sight.”  He goes on to talk about Bigfoot’s personal hygiene, or lack thereof.  “One thing I know is the smell of it was horrid. It smelled like a cross between road kill and a skunk. And it did not like the fact that I was there on the road with it. In the video you can hear it snarl or growl at me as it crosses the road.”

Real or fake?  Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory.  Check out the video on his website and weigh in below.

The article North Carolina Man Captures Bigfoot on Video appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A North Carolina resident held an expedition in early March in search of Big Foot.  Rick Lunsford believes he spotted the elusive creature 30 years ago and wants to find him again.  “I’m really looking for evidence, and looking for people to go with me,” Lunsford said prior to the search.

Bigfoot has been described as an ape-like creature that lives in forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America.  Bigfoot is thought to be large, hairy, bipedal humanoid.  Bigfoot sightings have been reported in every U.S. state except Hawaii, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a national group that investigates such reports. The evidence to date has consisted largely of witness reports, plaster casts of footprints, and fuzzy images.

Lunsford went on an expedition on March 5th to search for evidence in the small town of Wilbar, located in the northwestern portion of the state.  Lunsford came forward last year about his story.  He said he saw the creature back in late August or September 1978, when he was 20 years old.  He described Bigfoot as being somewhere between 6 and 8 feet tall and as “broad as a refrigerator.”  Its arms were bowed out. It had dark hair, 3 or 4 inches long, on its arms. It gave off a terrible odor, he said.  But what he remembers most vividly, he said, were the creature’s dark, round eyes and oval head.

Lunsford filed a report last year with the BFRO about his encounter. Including Lunsford, the organization’s website lists 64 Bigfoot sightings in North Carolina, most of them near the Tennessee border.”People have lived up here all their lives and never knew it existed up here,” Lunsford said. “I’ve heard some more stories since I came out with mine.

It is unknown if anything was found on the planned expedition.

The article Expedition to Find Bigfoot in North Carolina appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.