Justice Department Reaches Three Settlements Under the Americans with Disabilities Act Regarding the Use of Electronic Book Readers
News release: " The Justice Department today announced separate agreements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Ore., regarding the use in a classroom setting of the electronic book reader, the Kindle DX, a hand-held technological device that simulates the experience of reading a book. Under the agreements reached today, the universities generally will not purchase, recommend or promote use of the Kindle DX, or any other dedicated electronic book reader, unless the devices are fully accessible to students who are blind and have low vision. The universities agree that if they use dedicated electronic book readers, they will ensure that students with vision disabilities are able to access and acquire the same materials and information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use. The agreements that the Justice Department reached with these universities extend beyond the Kindle DX to any dedicated electronic reading device."

"The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data." http://www.data.gov/

Dick Francis CBE (born Richard Stanley Francis on 31 October 1920) is a British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey. Francis was born in Lawrenny, south Wales, in October 1920, the son of a jockey and stable manager.[1] He left school at 15 without any qualifications,[2] with the intention of becoming a jockey and became a trainer in 1938.[3] During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force, piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane.[2] After leaving the RAF in 1946 he became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing.[1] He won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953-54 season.[1] From 1953 to 1957 he was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In 1957 he was forced to retire from racing as the result of a serious fall. His most famous moment as a jockey came while riding the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch, in the 1956 Grand National when the horse inexplicably fell when close to winning the race.[4] Dick Francis has written more than 40 international bestsellers and is widely acclaimed as one of the world's best thriller writers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957) which led to him becoming the racing correspondent for the London Sunday Express, a position he held for 16 years. In 1962 he published his first thriller Dead Cert set in the world of racing. Subsequently he regularly produced a novel a year for the next 38 years, missing only 1998 (during which he published a short-story collection).
Francis is the only three time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come To Grief in 1996. Britain's Crime Writers Association awarded him its Gold Dagger Award for fiction in 1979 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award in 1989. In 1996 he was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, the highest honour bestowed by the MWA. He was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000. In 2003 he was honoured by being awarded the Gumshoe Awards' Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award. Dick Francis' manager (and co-author on recent books) is his son Felix Francis who left his post as teacher of A-Level Physics at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire in order to work for his father and who was the inspiration behind a leading character in the novel Twice Shy. His other son Merrick, formerly a racehorse trainer, later ran his own horse transport business, thus inspiring the novel Driving Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis

Explainer 2010: answers to your questions about the news from slate.com
http://www.slate.com/id/1787/landing/1

Contest results from This Week magazine: We asked you to come up with a name for the “aughts”—or the “oughts” or the “naughts.” You know: The decade that just, mercifully, ended. You rang in with:
FIRST PRIZE: The Uh-Oh's! Jo Choto, Middletown, MD
SECOND PRIZE: The Owes Michael D'Amato, Edison, NJ
THIRD PRIZE: The Dreckade Miles Klein, Frisco, TX
SELECTED HONORABLE MENTIONS:
The Blunder Years Doug Hundley, Willits, CA (and others)
The 0 No's Dee Dunn, Hillsboro, VA (and others)
The Zeroes Constantine Kounelis, Carlsbad, CA (and others)
Reign of Error Tom MacIntosh, Baltimore
Forget Me Aughts Barry Cutler, Palm Desert, CA
The Uncheery-O’s Paul Studebaker, Valparaiso, IN
0 Well Steve White, Boise
The Decade Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken Larry Fish, New York City

A story, appearing in the LAT and elsewhere on January 8, is that the French government is mulling something called a Google tax that it said would, according to the story, “help level the playing field between Internet portals that offer free content and the music, film and publishing industries that lost revenue partly because of it.” The money quote in the story comes from Patrick Zelnick, a music producer who co-led a recent government-commissioned report that outlines programs to encourage buying books, music and films online rather than viewing them for free. Zelnick told the French daily Liberation on Thursday: The world of culture is not only turned upside-down but profoundly threatened by the development of the Internet, and we hope that our action doesn't intervene too late. WSJ Law Blog January 8, 2009

Medicare is a government service that helps provide health care for senior citizens and disabled U.S. citizens. Medicare is part of Social Security and does not provide total health care coverage. It is available to all U.S. citizens at age 65. Medicare coverage is broken into 2 distinct categories: Medicare Part A helps with hospital costs and Medicare Part B requires a monthly fee and is used to pay medical costs. Medicare as we know it today came into existence in July of 1965 during the Johnson Administration. Franklin Roosevelt's administration was the first to address the subject of government assisted health care. During State of the Union speeches in 1943-1945, Roosevelt spoke about universal health care, and Americans being covered from "Cradle to Grave." Bills were introduced to Congress during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations; no bill ever got out of committee. Every Democratic administration from Roosevelt to Johnson lobbied and tried to introduce some sort of government assisted health coverage from 1935 until Medicare's passage in 1965. http://hnn.us/articles/1583.html

Trees New York’s Citizen Pruner Tree Care Course trains New Yorkers in tree care and pruning. The course consists of eight hours of classroom training and four hours of hands-on experience in the field. The comprehensive curriculum covers street tree basics, street tree identification and street tree care. The two-hour long classes meet once a week for four consecutive weeks, and for four hours of field training on a Saturday. Classes are held in the spring and fall of each year. The course fee is $100 and includes a comprehensive manual and other materials. Since the Citizen Tree Pruner Course is offered throughout the city, it attracts people from a wide variety of backgrounds and learning styles. Each class is tailored to those participating. As a result, although a standard curriculum is used, each class moves at its own pace. Following the course, participants take a final exam that certifies them to legally work on trees owned by the City of New York. This includes street trees and most park trees, excluding parks that have their own conservancies such as Central Park and Prospect Park. Certificates are issued by Trees New York and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. http://www.treesny.org/programs.html

wistful adjective date: 1714
blend of wishful and obsolete English wistly intently
1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also : inspiring such yearning
2 : musingly sad PENSIVE
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistful

"Live Well. Learn How." from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services http://www.healthfinder.gov/
As people reach the top, they become more critical of others, less critical of themselves, study finds. http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?docID=634686
Thanks, Beth.