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During February of this year there had been rumors of as many as 260 dolphins dead on the north coast of Peru. But some authorities dismissed the report. I backed off the story. Then on March 23 I received an email from

By Robert Dell
Millions of Americans who recently endured needless hours of toil and stress completing tax returns want fundamental tax reform and relief from the oppression of the current tax code, which includes a $400 billion annual compliance burden and which even progressive economists concede is a national disgrace.
Recently House Republicans began such an overhaul by passing the Ryan budget, which promises to cut the top marginal rate to 25 percent — while offsetting the revenue loss by reducing tax exclusions, deductions and credits. But unless the GOP wins back both the Senate and the White House in November, their budget has little chance of becoming law. Why? Because virtually all Democrats agree with the assessment of the budget provided by White House advisor David Plouffe: that it “showers huge additional tax cuts on the wealthy” at the expense of the non-wealthy.
But if the goal is to obtain more revenue from the wealthy, there are better ways to do it than raising the top marginal income tax rate, as proposed in the Obama

Saving for retirement can be a sore subject for Americans approaching their golden years.
With so much gloom-and-doom surrounding Social Security — a 2011 report from the Social Secuirty Board of Trustees said Social Security will be insolvent by 2017 — a self-funded retirement is more of a reality for many Americans.
The average person lived 16 years longer in 2007 — most recent year for which data was available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control — than they did in 1935 when Social Security was introduced. So, even without inflation, the number of dollars needed to sustain a retiree has gone up.
For those planning to retire by 65, their retirement fund will need to be big enough to replace their income for at least 12

A recent episode of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice featured two teams of famous personalities designing and promoting an interactive segment and producing a “Walk with Walgreens” starter kit to be distributed nationwide to promote the drug company’s walking fitness program.
For three hours, viewers watched as the celebrities fashioned the marketing material and staged the presentations before Walgreens executives, and at the end, rocker Dee Snyder, was “fired” by the Donald because he had created a poorly designed starter kit with unappealing words for his losing team.
According to the Walgreen’s website, The “Walk with Walgreens” program is intended to reward members with weekly coupons at their stores for logging their “steps” on an interactive website and learning the health benefits of walking.
Joe Magnacca, Walgreens’ president of daily living products and solutions, stated in a company press release that the “Walk with Walgreens” segment on Celebrity Apprentice presented the company with a “unique opportunity to bring greater awareness to our walking program and its healthy rewards.”
Almost simultaneously, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was raiding several of Walgreen’s drug stores and a distribution center in Florida to determine whether their pharmacies were involved in the illegal distribution of Oxycodone pain killers.
There was no press release about this recent episode on the Walgreen site.
According to DEA officials, there has been a sharp spike in sales of pain pills at Florida Walgreen pharmacies since 2009. Last year, 53 out of 100 Walgreens stores were on the DEA’s list of the top 100 Florida purchasers of Oxycodone, which is the most illegally taken prescription pill in the United

Society’s standards are stupid. Let’s stop criticizing ourselves and others and learn to accept our healthy selves.
Society has set a lot of standards for women, here’s a little quote from Tiny Fey’s book, Bossypants…
Everyone seems to have something wrong with their body like the below scene from Mean Girls suggests. As satirical as the movie is, it’s right. There are too many unrealistic expectations for teenage girls, and this only fosters an environment for something called “body-bashing.”
Overweight? Stop going to the drive-thru.
Are you skinny? You must bulimic, anorexic or both.
You got bad skin? Ever heard of Proactiv?
No curves? No guy will like you now.
The sad thing is, comments like this are prevalent on social

We all need a place to eat, and we all need a place to learn. The more support we have in these two areas when we are young, the better our chances of not growing up to be hungry adults. For most children, the primary environment in which they eat and learn is school. They also do a lot of their learning in the

Creepers are a type of shoe that originated in World War II, when British soldiers wore them because the tough soles of the shoes were perfect for the desert environment. After the war, the soldiers returned to London and frequently inhabited the various night spots around the city, giving the shoes the term “brothel creepers,” or just creepers for short. Throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, creepers were still a prevalent fashion staple on the rock ‘n’ roll scene.
A few months ago, I started seeing creepers all over the fashion blogosphere; they were especially popular in the UK (the Internet is a great way to keep up with trends all over the world). I was extremely intrigued by the boxy shape and thick soles — they were completely different from the sky-high stilettos that are so common among women

NBC News found itself immersed in some big hot water recently because of one small editing decision. On an episode of the Today Show, the network aired a portion of George Zimmerman’s 911 call on the night Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.
The NBC version had Zimmerman telling a dispatcher “the guy looks like he’s up to no good… he looks black.” On the un-edited recording, Zimmerman doesn’t say “he looks black” until the dispatcher asks for a

Photo Credit: Small Kitchen College
So your body may not have been in top-notch condition for spring break, but there’s still time to get that bikini bod by summertime!For usfoodies who dream, live and eat food all the time, we might be quick to shake our heads at such a statement. I may not have the complete solution to the bikini body challenge we all might face, but I do have one tip that will go a long way.
My secret? Chilled soups. If you’re not convinced that cold soup is appetizing, I dare you to try one of these recipe ideas (all of which are packed with fruits and veggies that are in season for spring!). Think you’ll grow tired of cold soup? Try a different colored soup each day! That way, you’ll be sure to take in all different kinds of vitamins and

At the end of March I was shocked to learn that two gay men from an Atlantis Cruise had been arrested in the Caribbean island of Dominica. The local authorities must have known it was a “gay cruise line” before it docked, which led me to question why, having allowed several hundred gay men into their country, they then decided to arrest two of them. The answer came a few days later when photos of the couple in question emerged, showing them butt-naked, on their balcony, in plain view of everyone on and around the pier, in flagrante delicto. “Well, what did you expect?” was my

by Sara Dickerman, Bon Apptit
Our week of dinners for under $100 has come to a close. But the idea, really, was to leave you with lasting lessons for stretching dollars in home cooking, even if we aren’t serving up a specific recipe every day. Here are a few tips I gathered in the process of creating the dishes:
1) A little repetition goes a long way
Variety is fantastic, but try to repeat the same recipe a few times a month. You’ll find yourself ready to go, staple-wise, so you won’t need to pick out new oils, vinegars and dry goods each time you cook the

The 2012 Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) cohort was announced on Wednesday, April 18. These 20 social entrepreneurs comprise the 10th annual class of our unique capacity-development program. The Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University provides each entrepreneur fully subsidized Silicon Valley mentoring, MBA-caliber classes, and a rare opportunity to network and collaborate with on our campus in the heart of Silicon Valley, culminating in the Business Plan Presentations on Aug.

While attempting to register my children for an Operation Purple Camp, which connects military children going through similar emotional and psychological challenges, I learned that the program had been cut significantly.
Last year, I had five to six dates and locations from which to choose within my home state. This year, I only had one.
The website stated that because of a lack of funding, many military nonprofits are experiencing serious financial burdens — so much so, that some of the programs that cater to military children’s needs will cease to exist.
Sesame Street and the Electric Company partnered to play a critical role in military families’ lives. Since 2008, their programs and characters have placed a special emphasis on serving military children and young

As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women’s reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues.
Sadly, millions of women in developing countries still lack even the most basic care during pregnancy and too often have no one to assist during births. As a result, 1,000 women die every day from complications in pregnancy or childbirth, and countless others suffer debilitating injuries, such as obstetric fistula. Moreover, 215 million women still lack access to modern contraceptives and are, therefore, unable to make fundamental decisions about whether or when to become pregnant.
It is inexcusable that in the 21st century motherhood remains so dangerous for so

There’s something comfortably enjoyable about Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion, something almost soothing.
Too few movies these days take the time to explore personal interaction and the way we communicate – or think we communicate – with the people who are closest to us. Kasdan is a master at this sort of thing (along with his wife, Meg, with whom he made the unjustly overlooked Grand Canyon).
Which is fine as far as it goes. Still, Darling Companion seems disappointingly without sharp edges. There is drama, to be sure, but this is a film that is less about the small events, which happen over the course of a few days to a family of characters, than the ways the relationships between these characters deepen and

Would you rather be sufficient or masterful?
Would you rather be bright or a freaking supernova?
Would you rather be well-rounded or on your own leading edge?
You’re probably incredibly, thoroughly competent at a number of things. You track down the best deal on flights, you know how to cook a turkey, your digital photos are organized. You hire, fire, charm loan officers, and change printer cartridges before most people have put the cream in their first coffee. You’re on top of

The now famous story of how Mitt Romney strapped his family dog, Seamus, to the roof of the car, albeit in a carrier, for a drive from Boston to Canada continues to, excuse the pun, dog Romney even now after he has secured the Republican Party’s nomination. It is probably true that Romney’s treatment of Romney would not make him a bad president-his economic views and fear of his own party’s right wing would do that. Despite this, Romney’s treatment of Seamus may prove damaging in the election.
Romney’s treatment of Seamus is potentially damaging to his candidacy because it reinforces much of what many Americans, particularly swing voters, already feel about Romney-that he is a smart enough man, but simply unable to connect or relate to the problems and challenges facing ordinary Americans. The Seamus story is consistent with this because it shows Romney to be goal driven, singularly focused and insensitive-it should be remembered that after the dog got sick, Romney pulled over, hosed him off and kept going-even when taking his family on vacation.
Both MItt and Ann Romney have consistently argued that their treatment of Seamus was not cruel, that the dog had previously enjoyed riding on the roof and that they would not have treated a family pet who was loved by them and their five children that

Source:Associated Press
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NEW YORK — As the Celtics staggered to the locker room after getting hit by an NBA record-tying 3-point assault, the halftime musical selection perfectly summed up how they must have felt.It was “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” — and Carmelo Anthony and two sharpshooting subs sure did.Anthony had 35 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double, and the New York Knicks made 19 3-pointers to keep alive their Atlantic Division title hopes with a 118-110 victory over Boston on Tuesday night.
Knicks Blog
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J.R. Smith and Steve Novak both scored 25 points for the Knicks, who overcame a season-high 43 points from Paul Pierce and moved into sole possession of seventh place in the Eastern Conference while trimming Boston’s division lead to 3½ games.Novak hit eight 3s in the highest-scoring game of his career. Smith made all seven of his 3s in the first half, equaling a team record.”Our bench was great tonight,” Anthony said. “Novak and J.R., them guys combined for 50 points off the bench. When they get hot like that, it’s hard to deal with.”The Celtics would have wrapped up their fifth straight Atlantic title with a victory. Instead, the Knicks stunned them with a record-tying 14 3-pointers in a 72-point first half and equaled their season high by finishing 19 of 32 behind the arc. They improved to 14-5 under interim coach Mike Woodson.Tyson Chandler had 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting for the Knicks, who finished one short of their franchise record for 3s, set last season.”We didn’t defend the 3 at all tonight,” Pierce said. “We dug ourselves a huge hole that we couldn’t climb out of.”Kevin Garnett scored 20 points for the Celtics, who fell out of a three-way tie for fourth in the East with Atlanta and Orlando. Rajon Rondo had 13 points and 13 assists.The Celtics watched Anthony score 42 points in a losing effort against Miami on Sunday and apparently overreacted to it, trying so hard to get the ball out of his hands that they didn’t pay enough attention to his supporting cast.”We panicked,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “We trapped too early. We were doing things that we shouldn’t have done. It happens. We talked about it at halftime. I thought we were better at it and then we did it again in the fourth quarter out of nowhere. Good lesson though. I told our guys it was a really good lesson for us: Don’t overreact to one great player and I thought we did that.”Playing without the injured Ray Allen, the Celtics got a brief scare in the third quarter when Rondo landed hard on his back going for a rebound and remained on the court for a few minutes while being attended to before remaining in the game.Woodson has repeatedly said the division title was his goal, even though the Knicks’ 18-24 record when he took over always made that unlikely. Rivers said he’s never talked to the Celtics about winning a division title or congratulated them for doing so, but there’s no doubt it’s worth having this season. Division winners are guaranteed to be seeded no worse than No. 4, avoiding Chicago or Miami until at least the second round.
More on the Celtics
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Allen missed his fifth straight game when he felt pain in his right ankle Tuesday morning. He had gone through the morning shootaround and Rivers assumed he was set to play before the pain returned. Neither was sure if Allen would play Wednesday against Orlando.Allen, the NBA’s career leader in 3-pointers made, would have fit in perfectly in this game.The Celtics jumped to an 8-2 lead, but the rest of the first half belonged to the Knicks. New York scored the final 10 points of the first quarter, going up 32-26 behind 12 points from Anthony and 63 percent shooting.The Knicks then scored eight straight points to open the second quarter, capping an 18-0 run when Smith’s 3-pointer made it 40-26 with 9:16 left. Consecutive 3s by Mike Bibby and Smith later made it 54-35 midway through the second, and the lead reached 20 points when Novak was fouled while making a 25-footer, falling backward out of bounds and into the arms of Woodson — the only time anyone got near a Knicks shooter in the half.Novak hit two more before halftime, the Knicks taking a 72-53 lead into the locker room. He is shooting an NBA-best 47.2 percent from behind the arc.”He’s the best 3-point shooter in our league by far. I mean it’s not even close,” Smith said. “The guy’s shooting 50-something percent from 3, so people are starting to catch onto it but not fast enough.”Pierce, who was 17 of 18 from the free throw line, had 17 points in the third quarter to get the Celtics back into it, and the Knicks led 96-84 after three.The Celtics finally got within single digits late in the game, with Pierce scoring four straight to cut it to 112-106 with 3:07 left. But Novak hit two 3-pointers around a jumper by Rondo, putting it away at 118-108.Game notes Woodson said Amare Stoudemire could return Friday at Cleveland. He hasn’t played since March 24 because of a bulging disk in his back. … The Celtics played without swingman Mickael Pietrus, who was sent back to Boston with knee pain that Rivers assumed was caused by playing on three straight nights after a lengthy absence with a head injury. … The Knicks play their next three on the road and have just one home game remaining, next Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers. … The Celtics finished 1-6 this season on the road against division rivals. … Milwaukee also hit 14 3-pointers in a half in 2006.
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Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 3, Episode 16 of Fox’s “Glee,” entitled “Saturday Night Glee-ver.”
I thought I was going to hate this episode, but despite the lame title, “Saturday Night Glee-ver” was one of the best “Glee” episodes of the season.
It wasn’t perfect, but for the first time in weeks, there was actually character development, as Mercedes, Santana and Finn finally make post-McKinley decisions. Sure, at times it felt like a Lifetime movie adaptation of “Mamma Mia!” — too many cookie-cutter, feel-good moments for my taste — but despite the cheesus, it worked. Mercedes got her groove back, Santana found her groove and Finn finally made an appropriate life

…BUT FIRST, A RANDOM EAGLE SIGHTING
After 40 years, the Eagles are touring in countries in which they never previously performed. Last year was mainland China and this year, it’s the Middle East and South Africa. Here’s proof…
A Conversation With The Gaddabouts’ Edie Brickell
Mike Ragogna: Hello, Edie Brickell! How are you?
Edie Brickell: I’m good, thank you, Mike. How are you?
MR: I’m pretty

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“The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.” — Ralph Nader
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC not only gave unfettered free speech rights to corporations but paved the way for unlimited amounts of money to be poured into election campaigns, especially those of presidential

There are two ways to enforce rights. A government agency can do it, or it can be outsourced to private contractors, which means plaintiffs’ lawyers. If we’re going to use a government agency, then we have to make sure they do it efficiently, because our tax dollars fund those agencies. If we’re going to use private lawyers, they’ve got to be able to make good money doing it, otherwise they’ll do something else

The story of changing the world often starts this way. An ordinary man, with an extraordinary idea and the gumption to make it real, makes waves of change that ripple through the sea of humanity. It proves no different in the case of Harvey Lacey. Harvey is, first of all, a change