Hotel managers said that requiring all adults to provide identification at check-in would be a burden for their staffs and a time-consuming annoyance for guests who arrive in large groups on bus tours. Registration clerks typically ask only the person paying the bill to present a photo ID, hotel officials said, to be sure that the name and other information matches that on the credit card.

State law requires hotel clerks to obtain the name of the person registering, their date of birth, home address and information about the vehicle in which they arrived.

The City Council passed a different ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor if guests provide false information.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/local/west/152160845.html

ALBANY — Ten men answered an offer on an Internet ad site this week and got arrested for prostitution in the first sting operation of its kind by Albany police.

The police say they could have nabbed more had they been allowed more time for the operation, which took from 4:30 p.m. to around midnight Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Express.

“The number of arrests indicates that the role social media on the Internet plays in prostitution in Albany is larger than probably the average citizen realizes,” police Detective Brad Liles said Friday. “We are getting an idea from this about how prevalent the problem is.”

Four of those caught in the sting live in Albany and five live in Corvallis. One is from Boise, Idaho. All are charged with prostitution, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a $6,200 fine. They are scheduled to appear at 1:15 p.m. June 20, in Linn County Circuit Court.

The investigative reports on each person will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office.

Liles did not want to reveal many details about the operation so as not to jeopardize potential similar enforcement actions in the mid-valley or elsewhere.

Employees at the Holiday Inn Express were not told the type of operation to be conducted, only that something was about to happen. Twelve officers took part.

The police allege that the clients agreed to exchange money for sexual conduct or contact with a woman via the website backpage.com. (Thinly disguised sex ads on the nationwide site have been cited in a recent report on CNN and, in an email Friday, by a group called Enough is Enough.)

After the men knocked on the door at the hotel at prearranged times, under Oregon law the crime of prostitution was considered to have been committed, Liles said.

When police opened the door, they pushed the unsuspecting clients to the ground and handcuffed them.

“We are physical when making an arrest because we don’t know if a person is armed, and we don’t want to have to go running after a person in a motel,” he said.

A 27-year-old Albany man caught in the sting was willing to talk about his experience if the Democrat-Herald agreed not to name him in this story. He said he arrived at the hotel at 7 p.m., knocked on the door and immediately was arrested.

“I never even saw a woman,” he said. “I was held in the room for two hours and saw two more guys come in and get arrested.”

The man said officers wore shorts and T-shirts with bullet-proof vests.

“I was taken to jail, and we all were held there until about midnight when everything was finally over,” said the man, who is married. “This was my first time out and I went because a buddy told me about it.”

Liles said the operation was justified: “Prostitution destroys families, puts people at risk of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases, and puts both male and female prostitutes at risk for a myriad of physical, mental and emotional problems.”

Article source: http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/prostitution-sting-nets-from-corvallis/article_3b621928-a18d-11e1-98ed-001a4bcf887a.html

Vive le soleil … Noumea’s Port Moselle, with St Joseph Cathedral in the foreground. Photo: Getty Images

If France could be improved, it would be a tropical island. Andrew Bock knows a place that already fits the bill.

It’s all in the pout. To speak French well, one must exercise the kissing muscles. In fact, one has to use every part of the mouth, much as one does when dining at a good French restaurant.

Say “oo” and blow a kiss to the wind. Say “on” and send a nasal sound vibrating pleasantly through the palate. Say “r” and produce a soft, sexy “grrr” at the back of the throat.

Immersion in the melody of spoken French can be enjoyed less than three hours from Sydney, on a tropical island surrounded by one of the most beautiful lagoons in the world. The capital of New Caledonia, Noumea, is a banquet of foie gras and frangipani, petanque and palm trees, marinas and mangoes, champagne and geckos, kisses on both cheeks, windsurfing, sailing and sunbaking on coral beaches. There are boulangeries, patisseries, creperies, boucheries and charcuteries everywhere. There are chocolatiers, even though chocolate melts quickly outdoors in the subtropical heat.

In Noumea, a coffee is a short black and nobody gets takeaway. People drive on the right and cycle with baguettes in their baskets even in 30-degree heat. Supermarkets sell home-made pates, full-flavoured cheeses from every French province and entire aisles are stocked with French wine and champagne. Even French visitors are impressed by how much champagne New Caledonians drink.

The city has some of the best French restaurants in the southern hemisphere and the balmy night air is syncopated by music in bars and nightclubs overlooking the lagoon.

New Caledonia might have been called New South France if Captain Cook hadn’t “discovered” it in 1774 and given it the Roman name for the highlands of Scotland. Indeed, if Napoleon III hadn’t finally gazumped the British in 1853 and annexed the island to establish a French penal colony, New Caledonia might have become part of the Commonwealth.

New Caledonians, with dependable French patriotism, are just as quick to point out that if early French explorers such as Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Bruni d’Entrecasteaux and Jean Francois de Laperouse had been a little more adroit, Australia might have been French.

New Caledonia has an outdated reputation for being expensive. Airfares are slightly inflated but the strong Australian dollar and a range of accommodation means New Caledonia is no more expensive than Australia.

Not much English is spoken in “Nouvelle-Caledonie” outside the travel industry and it’s a great place for Australians to learn French. So between champagnes and dinner parties, I enrolled in a French-language course.

The most popular French language school, CREIPAC, occupies a site overlooking the lagoon and surrounded by lawns shaded by frangipani, palm and flame trees. There’s a good restaurant with a bar nearby on the lagoon. It’s hard to imagine a more attractive place to study.

Early-morning weekday classes leave students plenty of time to explore Noumea and the islands and practise their new-found French, and CREIPAC can organise home-stays for a more intensive immersion.

Cruise ships brought about 180,000 day-trippers to Noumea last year but fewer than 8000 Australian tourists came to New Caledonia by plane in the same period. About 600 of them enrolled in one- and two-week French courses at CREIPAC.

The school’s restored 1890s buildings were once part of the colony’s main convict penitentiary. New Caledonia began receiving French convict ships in 1864, just when most states in Australia had abolished transportation. The rural descendants of French convicts and early free settlers still own much of the west-coast farmland. Known as Caldoches, they farm cattle, ride horses and many drive around in big new utes bearing R.M. Williams stickers. The indigenous Melanesians of New Caledonia, the Kanaks, have their own languages but speak French, too. Although the Kanak French accent is slightly pithier than the classic accent in France, the New Caledonian accent generally is neutral, partly because the population is continually refreshed with French migrants and workers.

It took most of a fortnight course for me to mend my broken French but by the end I could understand and be understood when I spoke. Travelling and shopping became easier; at supermarkets I could read labels and on the streets I could understand directions. As my accent improved I heard more and even began to enjoy the lyrics of French songs. During my last week I managed to join an obligatory conversation about love, appropriately enough, describing cultural attitudes to love and how real love transcends them all.

The best place to practise conversation in Noumea is undoubtedly around a dining table, provided it doesn’t interfere with other pleasures. Gabriel Levionnois is the founder of one of Noumea’s better restaurants, Au Petit Cafe, and a yachtie who opens only four days a week, so he can enjoy lagoon life on long weekends. “Our philosophy was to establish a top restaurant and also have a social life, a life beyond the restaurant,” Au Petit’s chef, David Cano, says. “And why not in a country this magnificent? We love the sea, we love diving and fishing and we want to enjoy it all.”

Savouring is one of the things New Caledonians do best. The friend I stay with often comes home from work to cook a simple lunch. Businesses often shut for an hour and a half in the middle of the day. Along and beside the Promenade Pierre Vernier, Noumeans jog, cycle, windsurf, kitesurf, sail and paraglide before and after work. At Baie des Citrons, just two kilometres south of central Noumea, I join early-morning swimmers doing lazy laps over coral reefs.

At Anse Vata, the next bay around, men play petanque beneath palm trees, and windsurfers skim the lagoon like dragonflies. I count 75 kitesurfers and 50 windsurfers one Saturday.

One in two households in the south province owns a boat and if Noumeans are not on the beach they’re visiting one of the offshore islands and islets. The lagoon surrounding the main island of New Caledonia invites sailing. Or diving and snorkelling with dugongs, manta rays, clown fish and turtles. Or fishing for trevally and billfish. Immersion in Noumean culture means immersion in the lagoon.

On the three larger islands, Ouvea, Lifou and Mare, and in the north of the country, Kanak culture is more prevalent than French; an estimated 45 per cent of the overall population is Kanak, belonging to 341 tribes. A spectacular road between Kone and Poindimie in the mid-north of the main island passes traditional villages perched on ridges overlooking valleys and gorges. Stands of eucalypts, casuarinas and araucarias (conifers native to South America and Australia), are reminders the archipelago was once part of Gondwana.

It’s becoming more common for Kanaks to leave their villages to look for work in the capital. The younger Kanaks bring with them a love of post-Jamaican reggae and neo-tribal fashion. Their music sings of freedom and a Kanaky state. The first of a possible three referendums will be held between 2014 and 2018, to decide whether the country remains an autonomous “collectivity” of France or gains full independence as a nation.

One of Noumeans’ favourite holiday spots is the Isle of Pines, a 20-minute flight or a two-day sail south of the capital. Here the Kunie people farm an endemic snail species for New Caledonian restaurants. Snorkelling at La Piscine Naturelle, I see a banded sea snake and a psychedelic variety of fish. In Kuto Bay, 15 yachts from Noumea moor lazily on the mirror-finish lagoon. A flame tree drops red flowers on the sand. The slender spires of araucaria trees line distant shores like green minarets.

When a huge cruise ship arrives at Kuto Bay next morning, ferrying 2000 Australian day-trippers, I imagine how the islanders might have felt when they first saw European ships, and why some shops in Noumea don’t open when ships come in. When a throng of thong-wearing Australians approaches me asking for directions, I feel a guilty pleasure when I pretend not to understand and reply in French.

Andrew Bock studied French courtesy of CREIPAC.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Air Caledonie has a fare to Noumea from Sydney (3hr) for about $745 low-season return, including tax. Melbourne passengers pay about $1000 and fly Qantas to Sydney to connect; see aircalin.com.

Staying there

Tera hotels are in four of the best locations: on the lagoon at Noumea; Isle of Pines; Poindimie and Port Boise. One bedroom suites in Noumea start at 22,600 CFP francs ($239) with breakfast. Garden bungalows at Oure Tera on the Isle of Pines cost from 32,900 CPF francs a night; see www.tera-hotels-resorts.com.

Nataiwatch Guest House on the Isle of Pines has simple twin share bungalows from 10,900 CFP francs a night. Camping also available. nataiwatch.com.

Motel le Bambou, at Val Plaisance, Noumea, has double rooms for 7500 CFP francs a night. motel-bambou.com.

There are affordable “gites”, somewhere between BBs and homestays, all over New Caledonia; see gitesnouvellecaledonie.nc. Stays are offered by a growing number of Kanaks; and camping grounds for travellers are available.

While there

CREIPAC’s one- and two-week courses are held on weekday mornings. A one-week course costs 26,500 CFP francs; two weeks costs 48,000 CFP francs. The school arranges home stays with families for about $50 a night, including breakfast and dinner. There are four courses scheduled a year; classes for groups of eight or more can be arranged at other times, too. See www.creipac.nc.

Charter a bare boat or with a skipper from Dream Yacht Charters; from $430 a day, see dreamyachtcharter.com.

Windsurf with Laurent Gauzere at Anse Vata for 1500 CFP francs an hour, phone +687 788 667.

Gamefish with Etienne Picquel at Bourail or Poindimie. Bookings via oceanbluefishing.com in Sydney on 8572 4777.

When to go

April to November is drier and sunnier, with lower humidity. The December to March hot, wet season can bring cyclones. January is also busier with New Caledonian holidaymakers.

Article source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/gallic-meets-the-pacific-20120518-1yuqa.html

Article source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/18/high-noon-hotels-jakarta-s-outskirts.html

Albany Police

Ten arrested in prostitution sting — Officers arrested 10 men allegedly attempting to solicit the services of a prostitute Wednesday evening at a local hotel.

Capt. Eric Carter described the event as a “targeted enforcement operation,” however, he declined to give further details. “From an operational standpoint, there isn’t much I can say beyond that,” he said.

The men ranged in age from 20 to 59 and lived mostly in Corvallis and Albany, with one man from Boise, Idaho. According to a city official, the men found the prostitution services online.

Asked what prompted the sting, Carter said, “It’s something that we are aware of going on in the community. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to go in and address it. Clearly, there was a need for it based on the number of people we were able to arrest.”

Linn County Sheriff

Arrest — Gerald McKenzie Davis, 43, of Salem was arrested about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Marion County parole and probation office on three counts of first-degree sex abuse. The alleged abuse happened in mid- to late 2010 at a residence in Harrisburg.

The victim, a girl, was about 9 years old at the time. She recently told a family friend about the incidents. The friend told the girl’s mother, who called law enforcement.

Davis was lodged at the Linn County Jail.

ID theft arrest — Deputies arrested Robin Ann Ostovar, 44, about 2:10 p.m. Wednesday at her home in the 400 block of S.E. Hazel Street in Mill City on charges of identity theft, computer crimes, second-degree theft and credit card fraud.

The investigation began after deputies received a phone call the evening of Jan. 6 from a woman who identified herself as Ostavar’s former roommate. The caller said the two were living together in Mill City the previous October and November. Since then, someone had used the woman’s bank card and had been getting loans in her name.

Deputies investigated and brought Ostovar to the Linn County Jail on Wednesday.

Sweet Home Police

Injured leg — A young man was injured Wednesday when he got out of a Suburban being driven by his foster father and the vehicle ran over his leg.

It happened about 7:40 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Long Street and 18th Avenue.

The 15-year-old had unexpectedly exited the vehicle at a stop sign, according to an officer’s report.

Medics provided the boy with first aid at the scene. He was taken by private vehicle to receive additional medical care.

Sweet Home Fire

Tree fire — At 11:05 a.m. Thursday, firefighters were called to the 26900 block of Fern Ridge Road when a burn pile got too hot and a tree above it started smoldering.

A firefighter was able to extinguish the fire in a few minutes.

Article source: http://democratherald.com/news/local/public-safety-log-may/article_304b3cee-a09e-11e1-bb93-0019bb2963f4.html

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Published Wednesday May 2, 2012

FOOTBALL

Shatel: Big Ten, Rose Bowl aren’t playoff thorns

By Tom Shatel
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST

There are a lot of great things about this college football playoff. Not the least of which is listening to all of the good old boys in the establishment tell you what a great thing it is.

Not long ago, a playoff was the bane of society, the end of our favorite game, the best game. Today, members of the old guard are falling all over each other to get a place in line.

The poo-bahs of college football are as transparent as Lou Holtz talking about an opponent. And I love them for that.

What’s especially fun is watching Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, the best commissioner, out in front of this thing. The ever-flawed BCS was imploding and the playoff, in some form, was inevitable. Even Delany couldn’t hold off any longer. By jumping on board the train, Delany gave it full momentum.

College football has been great, despite itself. Now the lords of Saturday have a chance to do it right, fix New Year’s Day, bring back meaningful nonconference games, maybe help the athletes.

But there’s one thing in particular to watch in our Big Ten corner of the world, also known as the Land That Time Forgot.

Maybe now the Big Ten can really think B1G.

If we have learned anything in one year in the Big Ten, it’s that it’s easy to find a beer bratwurst. Another thing: the Rose Bowl is a very big deal.

The national championship? Not so much.

I’m very much in favor of the Rose Bowl. It’s that good. It was one of the appealing things about joining the Big Ten. Nebraska has a chance to go to the Rose Bowl. It’s a throwback, in more ways than one.

The Orange Bowl has been trashed, the legacy of greatness buried beneath Marlins Stadium and the remnants unrecognizable in a collage of bad games in an average NFL stadium. The Fiesta Bowl is tainted by scandal, and last week, the folks in Phoenix said they would be happy to not stage a bowl game if they could have a playoff game. Oh, the tradition.

The Sugar Bowl still works as a Southeastern Conference staple, but the Superdome is aging and the SEC’s obsession with the national title makes the Sugar not as sweet.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 remain loyal to Pasadena, and for some folks, that is tantamount to keeping a rotary phone in your house.

I don’t want the Big Ten to give up the Rose Bowl. Ever. It’s part of the league’s identity and heritage. There’s been too much selling out in college football.

But I agree that the Big Ten needs to up the ante, show some urgency and get in the game.

BIG RED TODAY ON FACEBOOKClick the image above to join the conversation on the Big Red Today Facebook page.

Embrace the Rose Bowl and the national title? Now that would be B1G.

Why can’t the Big Ten do both?

It can. And there’s every chance this four-team playoff might be the thing that flips the switch.

Sometimes you need incentive. Sometimes you need to feel you have a chance.

The Rose Bowl is part of the Big Ten’s button-down image, an image the league takes very seriously. The league doesn’t want to sell its soul for the national title. However, recent incidents at Penn State and Ohio State showed the Big Ten’s human side.

There is no reason the Big Ten should not be part of the national title chase annually. The league is full of Type-A folks. There’s money, facilities, talent galore, good coaching and a TV network.

What I think is missing, and this will sound strange, is some self-esteem. The Big Ten can have a fatalistic attitude. Championships happen in the South, in Florida. Not up north. You see and hear this in baseball, too. Not so much in basketball, where chasing the Final Four is tradition.

Maybe, just maybe, adding two more spots to the title chase will give the Big Ten hope. The margin is now wider. Sure, it could just mean adding two more SEC teams to the mix. I’m kidding. I think.

There are other things that could get the Big Ten’s attention. Hold semifinal games on campus. Give Indianapolis the national title game one year. There’s a proposal to give an automatic berth to a conference champion if it’s ranked in the top six, a Delany idea.

And the Urban Meyer factor.

Meyer, the first-year coach at Ohio State, won two national titles at Florida. It will be interesting to see if Meyer can flip the culture in the league. He won’t want to stop at the Rose Bowl. Unless it’s the site of the national championship game.

That’s another thing that could play to the Big Ten’s favor, with Delany’s help. There are several proposals for the four-team format. Delany is pushing on-campus semifinals. That would be terrific. Anyone in favor of an LSU-Nebraska playoff game at Memorial Stadium in early January? Right. Sign us up.

The establishment, the bowl folks, are saying it won’t work, because Kansas State and TCU and Boise State won’t have a stadium or hotels big enough. It would work, but if you know college football, you know the politics and bowl people still have their hooks in. And the SEC folks won’t want to play in Ann Arbor or Lincoln when they can see their breath.

So the bowls will probably be involved, and here’s the plan that makes the most sense: include the bowls, with conference tie-ins. And hold the semifinals at the bowl sites of the teams ranked Nos. 1 and 2. If a Big Ten or Pac-12 team is one or two, the Rose Bowl hosts the semifinal game. If it’s a Big Ten team, it plays a semifinal in the Rose Bowl, while the Pac-12 team goes elsewhere for one year. If USC is No. 1 and the Big Ten is out, the Big Ten shacks up in the Fiesta or Orange for a year.

The downside is that the Big Ten would be left out of the Rose Parade for one year. The upside, the Big Ten could be in the playoffs in the Rose Bowl. And play there every other year.

A lot of things are in place. Meyer is in the ‘hood. Michigan, with the energetic Brady Hoke, will want to do whatever “Ohio” does. Others will follow. Nebraska’s here, too, and while the Huskers don’t remember much about playing in major bowls or national title games, Husker fans still have the hunger.

Now there’s going to be a playoff, and Delany, who sets the agenda for all things Big Ten, is helping drive the train. If Boss Delany says a playoff is the way to go, his subjects will follow.

It’s time for the Big Ten to stop and smell the roses. On the way to the national championship.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

Article source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120502/BIGRED/705029785

Timeline for 100-year history of Beverly Hills Hotel:

1912: Hollywood Hotel former manager Margaret Anderson builds the Beverly Hills Hotel for $500,000 with architect Elmer Grey.

1914: Beverly Hills becomes an incorporated city.

1915: The first five of the hotel’s private bungalows are built.

1919: Douglas Fairbanks buys a lodge and expands it into “Pickfair” house with his love Mary Pickford, above the hotel.

1928: Interstate Company of New York buys the hotel from Margaret Anderson.

1933: With the economy devastated by the Great Depression, the hotel closes in April.

1934: Bank of America reopens the hotel under trusteeship in February.

1939: William “Hernando” Courtright, Bank of America’s then vice president, is chosen to oversee the hotel’s liquidation, and becomes the hotel’s longtime manager.

1942: Courtright buys the hotel with friends Loretta Young, Irene Dunne, Harry Warner and Joe Schnitzer, and renames the El Jardin restaurant as the Polo Lounge in honor of polo players.

1942: Billionaire Howard Hughes moves into the bungalows, staying there on and off for 30 years.

1948: The hotel is painted pink, dubbed the “Pink Palace,” as part of a redesign during the 1940s by African-American architect Paul Williams that includes the Crescent Wing and Fountain Coffee Room.

1954: Detroit real estate magnate Ben L. Silberstein buys the hotel.

1957: Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall’s film “Designing Woman” is shot at hotel’s pool, Cabana Club.

1959: Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand stay in bungalows 20, 21 while filming “Let’s Make Love.”

1978: Neil Simon’s “California Suite,” starring Maggie Smith and Bill Cosby, uses the hotel as a set.

1979: Silberstein’s daughters Muriel Slatkin and Seema Boesky inherit the hotel after their father dies.

1985: Seema Boesky and her husband Ivan Boesky gain control of the hotel. Ivan Boesky is indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading a year later.

1986: Denver oil executive Marvin Davis purchases the hotel.

1987: The hotel is bought by the Brunei Investment Agency. (The agency’s luxury hotel properties now belong to the Dorchester Collection.)

1992: The hotel closes in December for a $100 million restoration.

1995: The hotel reopens that June.

2012: The Beverly Hills Hotel celebrates its centennial.

Article source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/05/07/2106805/beverly-hills-hotel-timeline-for.html

GOP Rep. Phil Hart of Hayden lost a four-way race to challenger Ed Morse, ending an eight-year legislative career that has been criticized for an ongoing battle with state and federal tax collectors. Hart ended the night with 31.2 percent of the vote to Morse’s 35.4 percent.

Nampa Rep. Robert Schaefer, a 28-year legislative veteran, lost to former Canyon County Commissioner Todd Lakey in a rout. Lakey scored 61.4 percent of the vote.

Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee Chairman Tim Corder of Mountain Home lost in the redrawn legislative district that found him opposite Senate colleague Bert Brackett of Rogerson. Brackett collected 57.4 percent of the vote to Corder’s 42.6 percent.

In another tussle among incumbents, freshman Dan Johnson, recently appointed to the Senate, put down a challenge from Rep. Jim Nessett. The two-way race for the Lewiston-area district ended with Johnson securing more than 59 percent of the vote.

Elsewhere, incumbents held their ground despite plenty of money and advertising intended to unseat them. Panhandle Sen. Shawn Keough and Reps. George Eskridge and Eric Anderson easily put away challenges from the right with 70.7 percent, 66.8 percent and 63 percent, respectively.

In Kootenai County, freshman Sen. Steve Vick walked away with 61.8 percent of the vote against rival and former Sen. Mike Jorgenson, whom Vick defeated two years ago.

In the Benewah-Latah District 5, Greshman Bouma, who defeated Sen. Gary Schroeder in the GOP Primary in 2010, won a contest against Schoeder’s son, Barrett, with 68 percent of the vote. That means Bouma will have a rematch against incumbent Democrat Sen. Dan Schmidt in November.

Freshman Rep. Shannon McMillan of Silverton grabbed 47 percent of the vote in a three-way contest featuring Rex Rammell, who is known for his bids for statewide office. Rammell mustered just less than 31 percent of the vote.

Rep. Steven Thayn of Emmett won the GOP nomination in his quest to move to the Senate. The three-way race garnered him 44.6 percent of the vote in a sweeping new District 8 that covers five counties: Boise, Custer, Gem, Lemhi and Valley.

House Majority Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts of Donnelly, who was targeted for defeat by his own House leadership team, won the GOP nomination with a plurality of almost 45 percent in a three-way race.

Rep. Lenore Barrett of Challis also chalked up a win in a four-way race, with more than 37 percent of the vote.

Sen. Monty Pearce of New Plymouth put away his opposition, Matthew Faulks of Parma, with 56 percent of the vote despite a challenge that focused on last legislative session’s ethics inquiry (for which Pearce was exonerated) and his support for new oil and gas regulations.

Likewise, Pearce’s District 9 House colleague, Rep. Judy Boyle of Midvale, amassed an almost 57 percent majority despite facing a four-way race and heavy criticism for the new oil and gas statutes.

Newly-minted Sen. Jim Rice of Caldwell, appointed a few months ago to replace Sen. John McGee who resigned, easily dispatched Kent Marmon with 68.8 percent of the vote.

Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Patti Anne Lodge captured 59.8 percent of the vote over former Rep. Maurice Clements, to claim the GOP nomination for the Canyon County District 11 seat. Both of her House seatmates, Gayle Batt and Christy Perry, also won Tuesday and face no opposition in the fall.

Senate State Affairs Chairman Curt McKenzie fended off a challenge from retired dairy farmer Hubert Osborne, securing the GOP nomination for the Canyon County seat with 54.3 percent of the vote.

In Ada County, Rep. Marv Hagedorn will move to the Senate later this year, securing 55.5 percent of the vote against former legislators Stan Bastian and Gary Bauer.

Tom Dayley, a former Department of Agriculture employee, picked up 34.3 percent of the vote in a four-way race to win the GOP nomination in an open District 21 seat.

In District 22, Jason Monks won the GOP nomination with 39.7 percent of the vote, narrowly beating out former representative and county commissioner Fred Tilman and three other rivals.

In the Mini-Cassia area, Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron of Rupert gained re-election to the new District 27 by defeating Cassia County rancher Doug Pickett. Cameron scored almost 57 percent of the vote.

In southeastern Idaho, former Rep. Rusty Barlow couldn’t come close to beating freshman Rep. Jim Guthrie of McCammon. Guthrie won the GOP nomination with 65.3 percent of the vote, but still faces opposition in November. Sen. John Tippetts of Montpelier, won re-election with 57.5 percent over Scott Workman.

In eastern Idaho, Dell Raybould, the House Environment, Energy and Technology Committee chairman, had no problem securing re-election against two challengers with 58.6 percent of the vote.

Finally, two former legislators switched from the Statehouse to the county courthouse. Sen. Joyce Broadsword of Sagle, who did not seek re-election, beat incumbent Cornel Rasor for a seat on the Bonner County Commission. Broadsword collected 51 percent of the vote. Rep. Carlos Bilbao won a four-way race for a spot on the Gem County Commission.

Article source: http://www.idahoreporter.com/2012/corder-hart-nessett-schaefer-lose-reelection-other-challenges-statewide-fail-to-sway-voters/

April 30, 2012

UCF Athletics Social Media Directory

By Marc Daniels
UCFAthletics.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) – When conference commissioners left Fort Lauderdale last week after three days of meetings much was known and more was not. The landscape of college football’s postseason is changing but how it is changing and the process of what determines participants in a new system remains unknown to those who were in the room of talks. But one thing appears clear, changes are coming and how it impacts programs like UCF remains to be seen.

One thing conference attendees made clear is that automatic qualifiers (AQ) are gone after the 2013 season. This means UCF will have one season in the BIG EAST where the conference is guaranteed a slot in one of the major bowl games. I get it. The most logical next questions is, “Isn’t that a bad thing?” The answer is a tough one because the answer is yes and no.

Yes if you are saying one of the reasons the BIG EAST was so attractive was that it had a guaranteed slot in the Bowl Championships Series and you knew going into the season that if you won the league you had a major bowl spot. Yes if you start adding up the money BCS games have been paying out. Yes if you think it made you feel like part of the elite in college football. All of those points are valid in saying the loss of automatic qualifiers is not a good thing.

But here is something you might be forgetting in analyzing the impact of such a move – you are looking at only the postseason. One game. One team. There is a bigger picture. A much bigger picture.

Yes, there is no questions the SEC, Big 10, Big XII and Pac 12 were interested in seeing the BIG EAST not be guaranteed a slot in the next contract, but it’s not because they didn’t like the BIG EAST. It is because they wanted to see a BIG EAST team get a ranking above some of their teams in the final regular BCS rankings.

But that’s not the bigger picture point. In regards to bowls and future four-team playoff modules, whatever system they choose to rank, invite, appoint to these games will be based on regular season success and ranking. If a BIG EAST teams goes 12-0 or 13-0 with a conference title, it will not be guaranteed a spot in a new playoff. But it will have a chance to be considered. Does an unbeaten SEC have a better chance of being in the top four? Probably. But until someone explains the formula of how the four teams are chosen, it’s a guess. Who did you beat? When and where you beat your opponents. A high preseason ranking. All those things will matter and today no one knows the process.

But back to the bigger point here. The new BIG EAST certainly hopes it is in a position to have their top team play in the biggest bowl game possible at the end of the season and hopes that if one of its teams goes unbeaten that it is in position to play for a national title. However, that’s not why the league expanded.

Remember, while a new four-team postseason model may be worth hundreds of millions, college football teams make the bulk of their media money through their own conference deals that cover the regular season.

Some college football media and fans wondered after news that the AQ’s were going away why Boise State and San Diego State would still want to join the BIG EAST. Why? Money.

Television analyst project the new BIG EAST package to be worth anywhere from $8-14 million per school for full sports members. Current non-football members make over $3 million per year. The BIG EAST has not had football-only playing members as it will in its new configuration.

UCF reportedly earned just over $1 million in its television deal with Conference USA. Boise State and San Diego State were in the Mountain West this past season. They both made about what UCF did. Boise State and San Diego State stand to make far more than they did in the current league. The Mountain West Conference shut down its television network and is currently trying to get a new deal with another network. And the planned merger between the Mountain West and Conference USA appears to have come to a screeching halt. If the television money was there, does anyone doubt the merger would have happened? In fact, according to various media reports, Conference USA has identified four expansion candidates to replace UCF, SMU, Houston and Memphis.

Whether the BIG EAST champion makes the proposed new four-team playoff is somewhat irrelevant in its television contract negotiations. What is appealing to potential new television partners are the 14 programs that reside in top-30 media markets. And the fact that the BIG EAST provides a ton of content for networks not just in football but in basketball as well.

But here is another point to consider about college football’s postseason. What you see today may change drastically in the coming years and not just at the BCS level. More and more bowls are struggling to survive. Demands on schools to purchase blocks of tickets and pay for bands to perform and hotels to book are challenging for schools. There is a push for schools to win a minimum of seven games to be bowl eligible instead of the current six. Some bowl will survive and others will not. That’s basic economics.

My guess as more television companies get in the game, a new bowl system will emerge. Someone will pay, and pay big for the rights to the new four-team model and conferences like the BIG EAST and programs like UCF will benefit. But look for some of these new television partners to create new bowl games and match teams in games they own and control. Think that is odd? Do you know who owns more bowl games than anyone else in college football? ESPN, which oversaw seven bowl games this past season.

I don’t know nor can anyone predict if the BIG EAST champion in 2014 plays in a bowl game that you view today as a major bowl. My guess is if the BIG EAST champion in 2014 goes unbeaten, it will have a chance to play for a national title. If it is highly ranked and not in the top four, it will still play in a great game.

Each year there may be only a handful of teams that truly can win the national title in college football, but don’t get caught up in that being the only thing you think the BIG EAST is good for. In reality there are millions of reasons to love the BIG EAST.

Knights notes and more: Despite dropping two of three against Memphis, UCF baseball holds the 15th spot in the Coaches Poll. A big non-conference game at Stetson awaits the Knights on Wednesday. It’s about wins in regards to hosting a regional. If UCF piles up a few more, I still like their chances to host…Final thought: I asked someone for directions and they sent me a link to a website. When I get to the site, it said I needed a password. My friend sent me the password and it then asked me to register to access the directions. Frustrated, I then just used the navigation app on my phone…after I downloaded the new version. I miss maps.

Article source: http://onlyfans.cstv.com/schools/ucf/genrel/043012aab.html

NEW YORK (AP) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn is suing the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexually assaulting her, saying she seriously damaged his reputation with what he calls a bogus allegation.

The former International Monetary Fund leader and French presidential hopeful struck back at maid Nafissatou Diallo’s lawsuit against him with denials and a $1 million defamation claim of his own Monday, exactly a year after she told police he tried to rape her in his Manhattan hotel suite. He says whatever happened was consensual.

He was arrested, resigned from the IMF, and spent several days behind bars and three months on house arrest before prosecutors dropped the case, saying they’d lost confidence in Diallo’s trustworthiness because she’d lied about her background and changed her account of what she did right after leaving Strauss-Kahn’s room. Although prosecutors didn’t say they believed she misrepresented the encounter itself, Strauss-Kahn’s court papers blast her claims as intentional lies.

“As a direct result of her malicious and wanton false accusation, Mr. Strauss-Kahn suffered … substantial harm to his professional and personal reputation in the United States and throughout the world,” says his Bronx court filing, written by attorneys William W. Taylor III, Hugh Campbell and others. It was first reported by the New York Post.

It was submitted two weeks after the same court rejected his argument that diplomatic immunity should shield him from Diallo’s suit, a ruling he may yet appeal.

Diallo’s lawyers said Strauss-Kahn’s defamation claim an example of the “misogynistic attitude” of a man who now faces preliminary charges of being involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France. As of last week, French investigators also studying accusations that Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape during a sex party in a Washington hotel in 2010. Separately, a French writer accused him last year of having tried to rape her during a 2003 interview, an accusation prosecutors said was too old to try. He denies all the allegations.

“As with his plea for diplomatic immunity, we are entirely confident this latest desperate ploy will be swiftly rejected,” Diallo attorneys Kenneth W. Thompson and Douglas H. Wigdor wrote in an email.

Diallo, now 33, says that when she arrived to clean Strauss-Kahn’s suite, he abruptly chased her down, tried to yank down her pantyhose and forced her to perform oral sex. She says a ligament in her shoulder was torn, among other injuries.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Diallo has done.

The married Strauss-Kahn, 63, has acknowledged there was a sexual encounter and called it a “moral failing,” but insisted it wasn’t forced. His new filing says he and Diallo “engaged in mutually consensual sexual acts” and says she “suffered no injuries whatsoever.”

At the time, Strauss-Kahn was considered a leading Socialist candidate to take on conservative incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Socialist Francois Hollande won the election last week.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47429831