Candles were lit during a service in memory of six people, including a man from York – killed when a plane crashed in thick fog.The service was held in Cork to remember and pray for those injured or killed when the flight from Belfast crashed at Cork Airport last month.Dozens of members of the emergency services and the staff of the airport and the hospital attended the ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Anne.
CoPilot Andrew Cantle, 27, lived in Rawcliffe, was among the victims.
By Todd Starnes, Fox News Radio
A Nevada Democratic legislator introduced a bill that would outlaw air fresheners and candles in public places. But some critics said the Bill goes too far – and also prohibits priests from the use of candles in mass.
Assembly democratic Paul Aizley, from Las Vegas, presented his Bill on Monday. It would set restrictions on pesticides, fragrances and candle to accommodate people with "chemical sensitivity".
FAIRFIELD, CA-a man was burned and residents in several units of apartment Fairfield were displaced Monday when a fire broke out in one unit to 211, apparently caused by a candle unattended, said a spokesman for firefighters.
A 23-year-old man was rescued from the apartment where the fire started, said Asst. Fire Marshal Jerry Clark with the Fairfield Police Department. The victim suffered burns and smoke inhalation and was transported by ambulance at UC Davis Medical Center. His condition was unknown.Clark said that the victim's mother said she had left a candle burns when he left for work Monday morning. The woman said the complex of apartments without electricity from windy storm on Saturday and she was using candles for light.Clark said that the cause of the fire appeared to be accidental. Solano County Chapter of the American Red Cross was helping residents of the building with four temporary housing units.There was no immediate estimate of damages.The first calls to Emergency Responders arrive at approximately 8: 34 a.m., Clark said.News10 KXTV/Still tottering on unsteady feet, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) better known as Health Care Reform will reach its first milestone. The act, written to improve Medicare prescription drug coverage, extending the Medicare Trust fund and insuring coverage for those with pre-existing medical conditions, was signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010.
The ongoing oppositional politics between Republicans and Democrats will find the two parties celebrating this anniversary differently. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., Democratic Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Tex., at a ceremony marking the one year anniversary of the passage of the Health Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, March 17, 2011. (Photo: Associated Press)
In Blue states, Democrats will celebrate the day complete with cake and press conferences. In Red states, Republicans are more likely to serve up mud pies and press conferences.Americans are just not eager to commemorate this first birthday. The polls show why: they just don’t get it.Full expansion of the law happens in 2014, and 60 percent of the people who have the most to gain, the uninsured and low-income Americans, say they are really confused. This past week the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly 53 percent of Americans say they are confused by the new law. They just don’t know if ACA is good for them and their families or not.
Whose fault is that? President Obama's and the Democratic party's. It is their bill and they did a terrible job selling it. Worse they made a mish-mash of it while trying to please the likes of Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, seen negotiating on one hand while commenting about "death panels” on the other.
Congress took too long to craft the ACA, and the public grew suspicious of Washington dragging out the process. The concoction looked like some very nasty medicine as Democrats where unable to frame their own message, delivering that spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.ntil real reform of Health Care Reform comes along, ACA does accomplish some real goals. Some of what it is doing as of 2011 include:
* Children cannot be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.* Young people can stay on their parents’ health plan until they turn 26.* Insurers can no longer put a lifetime benefit limit on your coverage or cancel your plan if you get sick.* Congress will now have to face the same choices in the insurance market as the rest of us.* Small businesses get a 35% tax credit to help cover employees’ coverage.* Domestic violence and Caesarean sections can’t be counted as pre-existing conditions that exclude women from coverage.* All insurance plans must now be transparent and accountable, reporting how much of your premium is spent on actual health care and giving rebates if more than 15-20 percent goes to administrative expenses, profits, and executive bonuses.
These are just some of the reasons it is called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.In the last year people’s opinions on ACA have not changed very much: 46 percent still oppose it and 42 percent now approve of it, up just 2 percent. Worse yet, seniors, who would gain new benefits under the Medicare program, oppose ACA by 52 percent, even though the Medicare Part D drug prescription "donut-hole" will finally be eliminated, reducing the threshold of out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.
The same Kaiser poll carries with it some unhappy news for the Republicans determined to repeal the law. Only 39 percent of the public support repeal while 51 percent are opposed. In fact, in the last category 30 percent are in favor of expanding it further.Count me as one of those. While better than no reform of health care, ACA is far from ideal.
There is little doubt this bill needs serious tweaking. President Obama and the Democratic Congress could initiate a Single Payer system, then during negotiations, if needed, they could settle for the Public Option and not for what we got.Even as GOP governors scramble in the courts in an effort to scrap ACA, it is rather ironic that the Reddest of Red States are also the top ten unhealthiest in the country: Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Nevada, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, with Mississippi at #50.
Surprised?Don’t be. Those states also deliver the most dismal health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2009 Health Scorecard.So why aren’t citizens demanding more of their elected leaders? Why are they listening to Mississippi Governor, and presidential aspirant, Haley Barbour, instead of former Governor Howard Dean who made Vermont not only the healthiest state in the nation but also one with the best health care?
Do the Republicans have a death wish for their party? Or are they hoping that if they continue to hop up and down on one foot yelling, “Socialism, Communism,” people will believe them?Or does the song and dance of Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) resonate when he said: "If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that's in people's pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States -- the Great War of Yankee Aggression."
Broun, who is a doctor, is the same Congressman who wants to kill Medicare through privatization. Think what that would do to the health of Georgia’s seniors. What is even more insincere is that while GOP governors tie up their own states’ resources in lawsuits to stop Health Care Reform, they accept federal dollars to help them regulate insurance companies within their borders or set up exchanges for insurance consumers.
An exception is Alaska Governor Sean Parnell who turned down federal dollars. Send the money to states like Maryland, where Governor O’Malley is working with the stakeholders to set up a good exchange system. Or to Massachusetts, a state that led the way on health care, even as its author, Mitt Romney, now runs for the hills, ashamed he did something right, er, left. So Happy Birthday, Health Care Reform! Like any one-year-old, you will stumble a bit in these first years, but by 2014 when you are four, you should be up and running pell-mell.
And as people begin to benefit from better health care, they will appreciate you more.Until then, Democrats need to quit playing defense and step forward to explain why reform was needed and then begin to reform the reform.
We have to.In 2010, the number of unemployed soared to 52 million, more than half that number due to job loss.People’s lives are at stake. Americans’ patience is growing thin with the posturing of the GOP and the timidity of the Democrats.Enough of the dilly-dallying. Enough of whistling “Dixie.” America expects more.
Will it happen? I am not holding my breath. To contact Catherine Poe, see above. Her work appears in Ad Lib in the Communities at the Washington Times and at the Democratic Forum.
Caught any of those HP commercials lately? How could you miss them, right? Well, if you remember Woodstock, you also remember that Melanie Safka, the folk singer who launched her career at the famed 1969 "three days of peace and music" is the voice reverberating through the speakers again on her 1971 smash "Brand New Key."
Of course, that wasn't her only statement: She also sold over 80 million albums on the strength of other hits, like "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)."Now, she's 64 and back at it again, touring in support of her new album, "Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me." I was honored to nab a rare interview with the legend herself to talk about her new projects, the recent death of her husband's manager/producer Peter Schekeryk and her thoughts on the current music scene--and she didn't hold back. Read on and visit melaniesmusic.com for all the Melanie scoop.
UsMagazine.com: I read that you live in Nashville now.
Melanie: I did live in Nashville and I still have a place there, but after my husband, who was my manager and produced all of my records, passed away on the road, my son and I still have continued doing the gigs that he had booked. I found myself in Arizona and I've just been here and I don't really think I'm going to go back to Nashville.
Us: Too many memories?
M: Yeah, too many memories. It's just overwhelming. I'm okay, but grief is one of those things that comes in waves. It's bound to happen.
Us: I suppose you're putting that into your music. Is that what you're putting on the new record?
M: The new album is magic. My husband had a heart attack on an airplane coming from Germany. He had an emergency triple bypass and all was well--he changed his lifestyle and diet and was doing really great. As I said, we were on the road at the end of October 2010 and that was the last time I saw him. He died on that first attack. He actually said he saw what it was like and said he wasn't afraid anymore.
Us: So you're still really in mourning.
M: Oh my God, it's unbelievable. I probably won't remember half of this year. It's just foggy and I'm not taking any drugs even though people keep handing me things to feel better. I'm probably just better off experiencing it now and I'll go through whatever I have to go through. It's unimaginable pleasure that Peter's not going to walk through a door somewhere. We were married for 43 years.
Us: What did he say when he had that near-death experience?
M: He said he wasn't afraid to die anymore. He said it was really beautiful and that the only reason he came back was to make sure that our son Bo and I were okay. Unfortunately he did leave us in a big ol' mess. He loved playing the game of making the deal and making money, but he wasn't good at keeping it or drifting. He loved artists. If every artist could have to Peter, there'd be world peace. I believe that art and music could change the world. But artists are so screwed up most of the time mostly because they don't have someone really supporting who they are. I was fortunate for the 45 years that Peter was in my life that I was buffered from a lot of what the industry has to dish out.
Us: "Brand New Key" was such a simple song, but such a huge song. At the time though, it was banned by certain radio stations because of sexual innuendo. Was there any intended innuendo in that song, and how do you feel about its longevity?
M: It's amazing, I can't believe it. This is the first year that I've been listening to it because of the HP commercial and having a million hits on YouTube. It's like having a hit record with it again. I hear it now. I think ' what is it about this song? ' It really has its own little unique charm. When you ask about sexual innuendo, I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote it. I had just come off a 27-day fast on nothing but distilled water, so I think I was a bit out of my body at the time. It was just a one-off thing. Most of my writing has meaning. I do write a lot of quirky, funny songs, but you don't go out to do that. It was one of those things that just happened. I always blamed the hamburgers that I ate after my fast for doing it. I had just broken this fast and then I went and had McDonald 's!
US: How do you feel about all of the people that you've inspired over the years? And who out there today, are you into?
M: It's difficult because so many people are doing what they think is interesting. I think the difference between the music from the 60s/70s was that people were doing things to express themselves and drawing from different sources. It wasn't to go out and be interesting. Now it's about the hairdo and the style and the look and how it all gets marketed and ' let me make this noise with my voice. ' I always can detect fake that sort of thing that happens when people go to make a noise with their voice. Some people can detect it in writing. There's a certain stilted falseness in peoples ' writing. There's that same thing that happens in the voice. There's a reality that you know the voice is coming from a place deep within themselves. I thought Michael Bolton was the first offender. I remember I heard him and I thought, ' oh my God-this is evil! ' And it's gotten worse, Now there's a whole slew of people. I'd rather hear Celine Dion than some of the more "interesting" people. At least there's a melody, and I can hum it later. I think marketing has invaded the industry as far as music because people are so concerned with what market they reach. They're much less concerned with what music they're making.
US: It's funny that your music is still around and still permeating. You mentioned the HP commercial which has revitalized "Brand New Key." How does it feel seeing that on TV?
M: It's mine, so I'm excited! Seeing it with that visual was amazingly creative, and I can't imagine any other song working as well. I called them and told them that there's more where that came from. I don't think I interested them, really. It's true though, I've got these quirky songs. On this new album, I've got this one called "Angel Watching." There's something very magical about that one. And then there's this one, "Big Bear" that's really funny. There's just a few that has a lot of Melanie. I see that now. Over the years, I didn't see myself as a person with a style, but I can now. I'm very proud of "Brand New Key", whereas when I was 19, I wasn't. I was like, ' oh my God, what have I done? I have this hit record and it's cute to be dooming myself. '
US: Very true. Anything else you want to add? Anything more that you want to let people know?
M: I've always been a very private person. The whole social media thing, people expecting to know what you're doing before you go to bed. I don't call it social media, it's kind of voyeurism. It's invasive. I'm a reclusive person. But I do love people. I love humanity. I'm a humanitarian. I'm a people person. Somebody accused me of being a humanist, and I don't know what that is exactly, but I guess I am one. But I like to be in my own space with my own things, and I'm in this very strange position now. I'm in this house that belongs to this very wonderful person just letting me have her guest house, and I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life.
By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here, and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
A producer of TIPPERARY religious candles won his first U.S. order that was placed by venerable St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.Candle Company St Killian won the deal with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland, and was marked in an event after the Holy Mass at St. Patrick's day at the Cathedral of St. Patrick yesterday.
The order is for new smokeless candles of society that are seen as an alternative, cleaner, safer and more convenient for traditional candles.As part of its activities in the United States to tie in with the St. Patrick's day, earlier this week Enterprise Ireland arranged for 20 Irish technology companies pitch their products at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Senior technology executives from the Bank provided a briefing on the needs of technology of the future of society.Bank of America is one of the largest financial institutions in the world with 57 million customers and 5,900 retail branches.
An idea born in Central Ohio sets the world on fire last week.NBC4 introduced the world to Main Hart, a boy of 13 years is the creation of man-scented candles.The kitchen in the main family home in Marysville was opened almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week."It is very stressful, stressful," said Hart Main.
Thousands of orders poured e-mail account can top man after his story aired around the world.His candles with perfume Gear Head, Bacon lined desk Today Show."On Friday, Google closed the account of Gmail because they thought that we were spamming," said Craig Main, Hart's father.The success is sometimes overwhelming, according to Hart's father.
"The story got so big, that I don't think people understand that these are placed in a kitchen, three people," he said.Add brothers Hart, and all hands and their family members on the bridge."My favorite hairdryer was commandeered to correct the imperfections in the surface of the wax," said Amy Main, mother of Hart.Every free moment have is used to fill orders and get them shipped.
In the midst of chaos, the main family has a priority, though."We could donate those 6000 cans of soup to the Red Cross, but we need someone to vacuum seal it," they said.The family is looking for a partner company and clinging tight to their cause."It has become the power of people," they said.
Hart is meeting with a lawyer to talk about his business plan this week. He is also looking for another space where you can make the candles.For more information, NBC4 stand with and update nbc4i .com.
To send a news tip or story idea, send an e-mail to stories@nbc4i.com.
