Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816)  Of French and English descent, Morris was born at Morrisania estate, in Westchester (present Bronx) County, NY. His family was wealthy and enjoyed a long record of public service.  His elder half-brother, Lewis, signed the Declaration of Independence.  Gouverneur was educated by private tutors and at a Huguenot school in New Rochelle.  He attended King's College (later Columbia College and University) in New York City, graduating in 1768 at the age of 16.  Three years later, after reading law in the city, he gained admission to the bar.  In 1775, representing Westchester County, he took a seat in New York's Revolutionary provincial congress (1775-77). In 1776, when he also served in the militia, along with John Jay and Robert R. Livingston he drafted the first constitution of the state.  Subsequently he joined its council of safety (1777).  In 1777-78 Morris sat in the legislature and in 1778-79 in the Continental Congress, where he numbered among the youngest and most brilliant members.  During this period, he signed the Articles of Confederation and drafted instructions for Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, as well as those that provided a partial basis for the treaty ending the War for Independence.  Defeated in his bid for reelection to Congress in 1779 because of the opposition of Gov. George Clinton's faction, Morris relocated to Philadelphia and resumed the practice of law.  This temporarily removed him from the political scene, but in 1781 he resumed his public career when he became the principal assistant to Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the United States, to whom he was unrelated. Gouverneur held this position for 4 years.  Morris emerged as one of the leading figures at the Constitutional Convention.  His speeches, more frequent than those by anyone else, numbered 173.  http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/gouverneur-morris/ 

Gouverneur Morris IV (1876-1953), a great grandson of American Founding Father Gouverneur Morris, was an author of pulp novels and short stories during the early-twentieth century.  Several of his works were adapted into films, including the famous Lon Chaney, Sr. film, The Penalty.  See a partial bibliography and link to more information at Project Gutenberg,  Internet Movie database and Internet Broadway Database at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris_(author)  

Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli (1725–1807), was a Corsican patriot and leader, the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica.  Paoli designed and wrote the Constitution of the state.  The Corsican Republic was a representative democracy asserting that the elected Diet of Corsican representatives had no master.  Paoli held his office by election and not by appointment.  It made him commander-in-chief of the armed forces as well as chief magistrate.  Paoli's government claimed the same jurisdiction as the Republic of Genoa.  In terms of de facto exercise of power, the Genoese held the coastal cities, which they could defend from their citadels, but the Corsican republic controlled the rest of the island from Corte, its capital.  Following the French conquest of Corsica in 1768, Paoli oversaw the Corsican resistance.  Following the defeat of Corsican forces at the Battle of Ponte Novu he was forced into exile in Britain where he was a celebrated figure.  He returned after the French Revolution which he was initially supportive of.  He later broke with the revolutionaries and helped to create the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom which lasted between 1794 and 1796.  After the island was re-occupied by France he again went into exile in Britain where he died in 1807.  Many places in the United States are named after him.  These include:  Paoli, Pennsylvania, which was named after "General Paoli's Tavern" a meeting-point of the Sons of Liberty and homage to the "General of the Corsicans", Paoli, Indiana, Paoli, Wisconsin,

Paoli, Oklahoma, and Paoli, Colorado.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasquale_Paoli

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In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)

Slow Art Day  One day each year – April 27 in 2013 – people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at art slowly.  Participants look at five works of art for 10 minutes each and then meet together over lunch to talk about their experience.  That’s it.  Simple by design, the goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing.  Link to Slow Down You Look Too Fast, a 2010 article, and 2013 venues (including the Toledo Museum of Art) at:   http://www.slowartday.com/about/

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day will take place on Saturday, April 27, 2013, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  In the five previous Take-Back events, the Drug Enforcement Administration  in conjunction with state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners have collected more than 2 million pounds (1,018 tons) of prescription medications.  Locate Collection Site Near You  Collection site locations are now available.  Check back often; sites are added daily.  Please contact the Call Center at 1-800-882-9539 if you require assistance.  http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/

April 23, 2013  Eighty five percent of all financial advisers and financial planners are really just brokers or salesman.  Their incentive is to sell you a product that makes them a higher commission, not necessarily a product that maximizes your chances of saving more.  Only 15 percent of advisers are “fiduciaries” — advisers who by law must operate with your best interests in mind.  Last year, the Obama administration proposed a rule to mandate that all financial advisers, financial planners and other assorted financial wizards would have to adopt a fiduciary standard when it came to employee retirement accounts such as your 401(k) or IRA account.  The financial services industry, which today manages something upwards of $10 trillion of our retirement nest eggs, thought this was a bad idea and pushed back hard.  Scores of their protest letters poured into the U.S. Labor Department, the branch of our government responsible for regulating employee retirement accounts.  Congress, too, was hit with a furious lobbying campaign.  This would be way too expensive, the industry said; if we have to provide such a standard of service, we will either have to pack up and find another business line, or have to pass the increased costs on to our customers.  The Obama administration pulled their proposal last fall.  The Labor Department says they plan to reintroduce a new fiduciary rule this summer.  Martin Smith  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/the-retirement-gamble-facing-us-all/

Fiduciary  An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money.  The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another's benefit.  A fiduciary relationship encompasses the idea of faith and confidence and is generally established only when the confidence given by one person is actually accepted by the other person.  Mere respect for another individual's judgment or general trust in his or her character is ordinarily insufficient for the creation of a fiduciary relationship.  The duties of a fiduciary include loyalty and reasonable care of the assets within custody.  All of the fiduciary's actions are performed for the advantage of the beneficiary.  Courts have neither defined the particular circumstances of fiduciary relationships nor set any limitations on circumstances from which such an alliance may arise.  Certain relationships are, however, universally regarded as fiduciary.  The term embraces legal relationships such as those between attorney and client, Broker and principal, principal and agent, trustee and beneficiary, and executors or administrators and the heirs of a decedent's estate.  A fiduciary relationship extends to every possible case in which one side places confidence in the other and such confidence is accepted; this causes dependence by the one individual and influence by the other.  Blood relation alone does not automatically bring about a fiduciary relationship.  A fiduciary relationship does not necessarily arise between parents and children or brothers and sisters.  The courts stringently examine transactions between people involved in fiduciary relationships toward one another.  Particular scrutiny is placed upon any transaction by which a dominant individual obtains any advantage or profit at the expense of the party under his or her influence.  Such transaction, in which Undue Influence of the fiduciary can be established, is void. 

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2.  Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fiduciary 

Arbor Day (from the Latin arbor, meaning tree) was founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska City, Nebraska.  By the 1920s, each state in the United States had passed public laws that stipulated a certain day to be Arbor Day or Arbor and Bird Day observance.  Each state celebrates its own state holiday.  The customary observance is to plant a tree.  On the first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted.  See Arbor Day dates around the world at:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day 

National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates according to their best tree-planting times.  Check map to find out when your state or territory observes Arbor Day at:   http://www.arborday.org/arborday/arborDayDates.cfm