truesee's Blog

Calif principal sells shoe collection to save jobs

The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Worried about possible layoffs, school principal Michele Miller spotted a potential solution in her own home.

 

In this photo taken Tuesday, March 22, 2011, some of Michele Miller's shoes is shown in a room at her home in El Dorado Hills, Calif. Miller will be selling 285 pairs of her shoes online with proceeds benefiting the Rescue Union School district where she is the principal of Jackson Elementary School. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Randall Benton) 

 

 

In this photo taken Tuesday, March 22, 2011, Michele Miller is shown in a room full of her shoes at her home in El Dorado Hills, Calif. Miller will be selling 285 pairs of her shoes on-line with proceeds benefiting the Rescue Union School district where she is the principal of Jackson Elementary School. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Randall Benton) 

 

 

In this photo taken Tuesday, March 22, 2011, Michele Miller is shown in a room full of her shoes at her home in El Dorado Hills, Calif. Miller will be selling 285 pairs of her shoes on-line with proceeds benefiting the Rescue Union School district where she is the principal of Jackson Elementary School. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Randall Benton)

 

The principal of Jackson Elementary in El Dorado Hills, a suburb east of Sacramento, decided to part with most of a shoe collection gathered over the past 15 years.

She is selling 285 pairs — which fill a room in her apartment — to help close a district budget gap of up to $2.2 million. She's asking for a donation of $1,000 a pair to help save the jobs of 17 teachers, three vice principals, library technicians and others.

Miller felt the urge to act after leaving a late-night school board meeting March 8, when she learned the district faces a budget deficit of no less than $1.4 million, and possibly much higher.

"I came out of that meeting in a state of shock," Miller told The Associated Press. "I kept thinking, 'What do I have that I can sell?'"

She stayed up until 1 a.m. working out logistics to sell most of her 350 pairs of shoes.

Volunteers are uploading photos of the size 7-7½ high-tops, cowboy boots, leopard-print rain boots, sandals, platforms and high heels to a website, www.shoestotherescue.com, which went live earlier this week. For some of the shoes, Miller will post stories on her website about the memories she attaches to them.

The site also contains two videos in which Miller appeals to viewers to "adopt" her shoes.

"They're my art form, but they're functional art," she told the AP.

Miller described her shoes to The Sacramento Bee as gently used and relatively inexpensive.

"They're not Jimmy Choos or Prada or Gucci or something like that," she said.

Miller said she has not received any orders for her shoes yet but is taking donations from those who want to help but don't need additional footwear.

The website accepts tax-deductible donations through PayPal, which funnels the money to a district account set up for the eight-week fundraiser. Any money collected is designated specifically to help preserve at-risk jobs in the Rescue Union School District.

Miller said she will pay for shipping herself, but might ask a local mail center to pitch in if orders take off.

LINK TO VIDEO: 

http://www.shoestotherescue.com/

There's no question that Serena Williams is a good looking woman. But some even think the tennis star is a bit too hot for TV.

At least that's the case for her new ad for Top Spin 4, a tennis game made for Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In a commercial lasting less than 60 seconds, Williams – clad in a black leotard and stockings – is deemed "the world's sexiest tennis player" before she faces off against actress Rileah Vanderbilt, who is dressed in a similarly revealing outfit and called "the world's sexiest tennis gamer."

The video is cut with clips from the actual game, as if the two women were playing each other. But combined with grunting sounds that are more commonly heard in the bedroom than on the tennis court, the hotness factor goes up several levels.

"You realize this is a fantasy right?" Williams says at the end.

According to Joystix.com, the commercial was actually rejected by the game's maker, 2K Sports, but Vanderbilt uploaded it herself onto YouTube and tweeted a link to it on Monday.

By Wednesday, she was distancing herself from it, calling an Ad Week blog post on the controversy "sooo inaccurate..."

When the site offered her the chance to explain, she replied, "It's all good. I can't get into it."

On Monday, Williams herself told her fans to "Stay tuned for a awesomely sexy video I am tweeting later," but, interestingly enough, she hasn't mentioned it since then.

"As part of the process for creating marketing campaigns to support our titles, we pursue a variety of creative avenues," 2K Sports said in a statement. "This video is not part of the title's final marketing campaign and its distribution was unauthorized."

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.nydailynews.com/video/index.html?eCode=1haDJ5Ohij8jJOnRkV5qeTMgTSGL7luj&dCode=kwNjNjMjplgQ0qlPihZkN2UvJBqMUCbu

Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest Elizabeth Taylor's funeral

Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, March 24th 2011, 10:15 AM

Pole Dancing for Jesus

Updated: Wednesday, 16 Mar 2011, 10:25 PM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 16 Mar 2011, 10:25 PM CDT

KRISTIN KANE
Reporter

DC incident spurs look at airport tower staffing

JOAN LOWY

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Air traffic safety is under increased scrutiny by federal authorities following an incident in which two passenger jets landed without controller assistance at Reagan National Airport because no one could be reached in the airport tower.

 

The FAA control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen in Arlington, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Federal safety officials are investigating a report that two planes landed at the airport without control tower clearance becasue the air traffic controller was asleep. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

 

 

The FAA control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen in Arlington, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Federal safety officials are investigating a report that two planes landed at the airport without control tower clearance becasue the air traffic controller was asleep. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

 

 

The FAA control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen during a storm, in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Federal safety officials are investigating a report that two planes landed at the airport without control tower clearance because the air traffic controller was asleep. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

 

 

An aviation official said that an air traffic supervisor — the lone controller on duty around midnight on Tuesday when the incident occurred — had fallen asleep. The official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity because an investigation is ensuing, said the incident has led the Federal Aviation Administration to launch a nationwide inquiry into airport tower staffing issues.

Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the pilots of the two planes were in contact with controllers at a regional Federal Aviation Administration facility about 40 miles away in Warrenton, Va.

He said that after pilots were unable to raise the airport tower at Reagan by radio, they asked controllers in Warrenton to call the tower. Repeated calls from the regional facility to the tower went unanswered, Knudson added.

Responding to the incident, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement that he has directed FAA to put two air traffic controllers on the midnight shift at Reagan National.

"It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical air space," LaHood said. Reagan National is located in Northern Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington.

LaHood also said he has directed FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt to study tower staffing at other airports around the country.

NTSB is gathering information on the occurrence to decide whether to open a formal investigation, Knudson said.

Regional air traffic facilities handle aircraft within roughly a 50 mile radius of an airport, but landings, takeoffs and planes within about three miles of an airport are handled by controllers in the airport tower.

The planes involved were American Airlines flight 1012, a Boeing 737 with 91 passengers and 6 crew members on board, and United Airlines flight 628T, an Airbus A320 with 63 passengers and five crew members.

"The NTSB is conducting an investigation and we are doing our own review," United spokesman Charles Hobart said in an email.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency "is looking into staffing issues and whether existing procedures were followed appropriately."

It's unlikely the safety of the planes was at risk since the pilots would have used a radio frequency for the airport tower to advise nearby aircraft of their intention to land and to make sure that no other planes also intended to land at that time, aviation safety experts said. At that time of night, air traffic would have been light, they said.

Also, controllers at the regional facility, using radar, would have been able to advise the pilots of other nearby planes, experts said.

The primary risk would have been if there was equipment on the runway when the planes landed, they said.

But the incident raises serious questions about controller fatigue, a longstanding safety concern, said John Goglia, a former NTSB board member.

"You have to watch your schedules to make sure (controllers) have adequate rest," Goglia said. "It's worse when nothing is going on. When it's busy, you have to stay engaged. When it's quiet, all they have to be is a little bit tired and they'll fall asleep."

 Police said that 20-year-old Angelo Palmieri walked into the store on 13th Street Tuesday, implied he had a gun and demanded money from the clerk. The clerk handed over the cash and Palmieri ran out of the store and got into his mother's car, said police.

The clerk called 911 and shortly afterward, Palmieri and his mother, 47-year-old Cindy Willson, were caught and arrested, investigators said.

Dwight Bettner said he wished his 92-year-old neighbor would leave him alone long before she fired four shots at his Fort McCoy home on Monday.

Helen B. Staudinger said her relationship with the 53-year-old man soured because of his "lies" and that he was not "paying his way" when they dined out.

On Tuesday morning, in a room at the Marion County Jail where inmates appear before a judge via video, Judge Sarah Ritteroff Williams told Staudinger that even if she posts the $15,000 bail for charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and shooting into an occupied dwelling and gets out of jail, she still is forbidden to have any contact with Bettner.

The judge also warned Staudinger that if Bettner's residence is within 500 feet of her home, she is not allowed to return home. And, the judge added, she is not allowed to possess any firearms or ammunition.

"I feel pretty good," Bettner said upon hearing the news of the restrictions placed on his neighbor.

Before facing the judge during first appearance, a handcuffed Staudinger, dressed in a red and white jail outfit, told a Star-Banner reporter that Bettner is a smooth talker. She said she liked him and had told him many times about her fondness for him.

Staudinger said she is a widow and that her husband died in 1982, and that is the year she moved to Fort McCoy. She said they had five children, four girls and a boy, and that she was a housewife but also once worked as a supervisor for a chain of cleaners.

She said she used to cook for Bettner when he first moved into her Fort McCoy neighborhood. She said they used to go out and eat and sometimes he would kiss her on the cheek and other times would give her a peck on the lips when she cooked for him.

Staudinger said Bettner told lies and was not paying his way when they dined out.

She also said he had a number of girlfriends coming and going from his residence.

Bettner said he moved to the neighborhood about six months ago and that a couple of months after moving in, Staudinger needed a part for her stove so he drove her to Ocala to purchase the item. On their way back, he said, they stopped to grab a bite to eat and she offered to pay for the meal. He said that was the only time they ever went out to eat.

He said Staudinger once cooked dinner or breakfast for him and he gave her a kiss on the cheek just "trying to be nice to her."

"I've got a girlfriend of my own," said Bettner, adding that he has repeatedly ignored the woman's advances.

When sheriff's deputies arrived shortly before 1 p.m. Monday, Bettner told them he had been hit by flying glass when his neighbor fired shots into his residence.

"I was standing in the bedroom talking on the phone when one of the bullets came into the bedroom," he said. "The other three bullets hit the side of the house."

Bettner said Staudinger has cursed at him and once attempted to strangle a woman she thought was having an affair with him.

While standing in Staudinger's front yard, Deputy Kimberly Minton asked for the gun and Staudinger told her it was inside.

The deputy found the .380 semi-automatic handgun on an end table in the living room. She emptied the weapon and noted a round was in the chamber.

Staudinger told the deputy she had gone next door to talk with her friend, but he wanted her to leave. She said although Bettner had a girlfriend, she was not going to leave the house until he gave her a kiss. They argued, Staudinger said, and she left his home in anger, grabbed the gun and went back to the house and fired several shots.

Staudinger told the Star-Banner reporter, however, that the reason she went to Bettner's home was because he owed her money from the times they went out to eat.

"The more I thought about it, the madder I got," she said.

She denied asking for a kiss before leaving.

She did say the weapon belonged to her.

Staudinger's friend Penny Powell said she heard shots and went to her friend's home to check on her.

"I think she was upset at him," Powell said.

Staudinger was appointed a public defender. Her next court date is April 2.

LINK TO PHOTO: 

U.S. citizen gets deported: L.I. tot, 4, sent to Guatemala after grandfather's detained

Erica Pearson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, March 23rd 2011, 4:00 AM