FEMA sending manufactured housing to Sandy zones

A snow plower drives on New Jersey Avenue as snow covered debris from Superstorm Sandy lies on the sidewalk, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012, in Point Pleasant, N.J. A nor'easter hit the New Jersey shore on Wednesday, pounding the region which was already hit by Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A snow plower drives on New Jersey Avenue as snow covered debris from Superstorm Sandy lies on the sidewalk, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012, in Point Pleasant, N.J. A nor'easter hit the New Jersey shore on Wednesday, pounding the region which was already hit by Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The federal government is moving manufactured housing into areas in New York and New Jersey that were hit hardest by Superstorm Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said the disaster relief agency has several hundred mobile homes in its inventory of emergency supplies and has started moving some of them to disaster zone. He said it is unclear yet if FEMA will need to order more of the temporary homes.

Officials still don't know "what total demand would be," Fugate told reporters.

Forty prefabricated homes were en route from a staging area in Maryland to a staging area in New Jersey, FEMA officials said. State officials in New Jersey and New York will decide where the houses will be placed, federal officials said.

Since the storm hit last week, more than 317,000 people have registered with FEMA for financial help and the agency has approved more than $300 million in emergency aid. In New York and New Jersey, FEMA has determined that more than 101,000 people are eligible for temporary housing at hotels or motels in the region but it's unclear exactly how many people are taking advantage of that option.

More than 56,000 people have also been ruled eligible for FEMA's individual and households program, which provides money for renting a new place or housing repairs.

Fugate said some people who have been forced out of their homes have sought shelter at hotels as far away as Albany.

FEMA was widely criticized for using trailers after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and parts of the Gulf Coast in 2005 after many of those trailers were later found to contain toxic levels of formaldehyde.

A class-action settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit over the trailers earlier this year called for around two dozen companies that manufactured trailers distributed in that emergency to pay a total of $37.5 million to resolve claims from residents housed in the trailers.

Fugate said the mobile homes being sent to New York and New Jersey have been approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The mobile homes being used for this storm are not the same kind that were used after Katrina and Rita, FEMA said.

Officials in New York and New Jersey don't know yet how many people may have been left homeless by the storm. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this week that officials were going door-to-door in hard-hit areas to determine the need for temporary housing. He said the worst-case estimate is 40,000 people, half of them in public housing.

But Bloomberg said as many as 20,000 will probably get their heat and power back within a few days. Ultimately, the number of people who need housing could be under 10,000, he said.

At least 4,000 residents were in New Jersey shelters. On Wednesday, some storm evacuees were moved from shelters to tent-like housing at a racetrack in Oceanport, N.J. because a building that had been used as temporary shelters had to revert to normal use.

A nor'easter that hit the region Wednesday hindered recovery efforts and cut power to some areas that had only recently had the lights turned back on.

__

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-11-08-Superstorm-Housing/id-b8550821bda8485abdc2351bf72c0287

sf 49ers joe paterno died 49ers game ravens steven tyler national anthem paterno newt gingrich

Breastfeeding baby doll: creepy or groundbreaking?

This product image released by Berjuan Toys shows a girl playing with The Breast Milk Baby doll. The breastfeeding doll, whose suckling sounds are prompted by sensors sewn into a halter top, has caught some flak after hitting the U.S. market. (AP Photo/Berjuan Toys)

This product image released by Berjuan Toys shows a girl playing with The Breast Milk Baby doll. The breastfeeding doll, whose suckling sounds are prompted by sensors sewn into a halter top, has caught some flak after hitting the U.S. market. (AP Photo/Berjuan Toys)

This product image released by Berjuan Toys shows The Breast Milk Baby doll. The breastfeeding doll, whose suckling sounds are prompted by sensors sewn into a halter top, has caught some flak after hitting the U.S. market. (AP Photo/Berjuan Toys)

NEW YORK (AP) ? We've got dolls that wet, crawl and talk. We've got dolls with perfect hourglass figures. We've got dolls with swagger. And we've got plenty that come with itty bitty baby bottles.

But it's a breastfeeding doll whose suckling sounds are prompted by sensors sewn into a halter top at the nipples of little girls that caught some flak after hitting the U.S. market.

"I just want the kids to be kids," Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox News show when he learned of the Breast Milk Baby. "And this kind of stuff. We don't need this."

What, exactly, people don't need is unclear to Dennis Lewis, the U.S. representative for Berjuan Toys, a family-owned, 40-year-old doll maker in Spain that can't get the dolls onto mainstream shelves more than a year after introducing the line in this country ? and blowing O'Reilly and others' minds.

"We've had a lot of support from lots of breastfeeding organizations, lots of mothers, lots of educators," said Lewis, in Orlando, Fla. "There also has been a lot of blowback from people who maybe haven't thought to think about really why the doll is there and what its purpose is. Usually they are people that either have problems with breastfeeding in general, or they see it as something sexual."

The dolls, eight in all with a variety of skin tones and facial features, look like many others, until children don the little top with petal appliques at the nipples. That's where the sensors are located, setting off the suckling noise when the doll's mouth makes contact. It also burps and cries, but those sounds don't require contact at the breast.

Little Savannah and Tony, Cameron and Jessica, Lilyang and Jeremiah ain't cheap at $89 a pop. Lewis, after unsuccessfully peddling them to retailers large and small, now has them listed at half price on their website in time for the holidays this year.

"With retailers it's been hard, to be perfectly honest, but not so much because they've been against the products," he said. "It's more they've been very wary of the controversy. It's a product that you either love it or you hate it."

Critics cite an unspecified yuck factor, or say it's too mature for children. But Stevanne Auerbach loves it. The child development expert in San Francisco, also known as Dr. Toy, evaluates dolls and other toys for consumers, lending her official approval to Breast Milk Baby.

"We felt that it had merit in dealing with new babies for the older child," she said, "and for the curiosity that children have in this area. Breastfeeding in Europe is acceptable and the doll has been successful there. We wanted to open up the opportunity."

Sally Wendkos Olds, who wrote "The Complete Book of Breastfeeding," also doesn't understand the problem.

"I think it's a very cute toy," she said. "I think it's just crazy what Bill O'Reilly was saying that it's sexualizing little girls. The whole point is that so many people in our society persist in sexualizing breastfeeding, where in so many other countries around the world they don't think anything of it."

Olds called Americans "prudish in many ways," adding the doll offers: "bodily awareness. It's realizing that this is OK."

Lewis blames lack of U.S. sales ? just under 5,000 dolls sold in the last year ? solely on phobia about breastfeeding, something widely considered the healthiest way to feed a baby.

"There's no doubt about that," he said. "The whole idea is that there's still some taboos here. They're difficult to justify and difficult to explain but they're out there. You mention breast and people automatically start thinking Janet Jackson or wardrobe malfunctions and all sorts of things that have absolutely nothing to do with breastfeeding."

Lewis considers Breast Milk Baby "very much less sexualized" than Barbie dolls or the sassy Bratz pack.

Olds, who lives in New York City, agreed, though she thinks the doll's full retail price is too high. "That's my only objection to it. It's a lot of money, but people spend a lot of money on their children in all sorts of ways."

Haven't little girls been mimicking the act of breastfeeding with their baby dolls for centuries without benefit of accoutrement?

"Why do we need anything with bells and whistles? Why did we need a Betsy Wetsy? Children like toys that do things," Olds said, invoking one of the first drink and wet dolls created back in 1935. "So this doll makes noises. She burps, she cries, she sucks very noisily. Big deal."

Lincoln Hoppe, a Los Angeles actor and father of five ? all breastfed ? said a young child who becomes a big sibling and sees mom nursing might enjoy the doll just fine. "After all, they're going to imitate mom anyway using whatever doll they've already got," he said.

But how about on playdates or just out and about in public?

"It's already hard to tell a child they can't take 'that' toy with them to their sibling's soccer game." he said. "There may be a time and place for this doll, but I find the idea kind of creepy."

___

Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-11-08-Breastfeeding%20Baby%20Doll/id-70842e7a5dc442779fd6ebaf5f654b5c

michael turner split pea soup land of the lost cleveland cavaliers cleveland cavaliers war horse k cups

Mass Comm Jobs: Journal Broadcast Group Job Opportunity ...

Account Executive

WSYM-TV FOX 47

Lansing, MI





Shift:

Full-time



Education:

College degree in related field preferred.



Skills:

Excellent written and verbal communication skills required; strong problem solving and persuasive abilities; high work ethics and standards; ability to meet deadlines and detail orientation; must be motivated to build customer loyalty; computer proficiency.



Experience:

2- 4 years sales or marketing experience preferred. Understanding of the Media industry preferred.



Duties:

Prospect, develop and grow station accounts; pursue and develop new business; maintenance of current billing accounts; copy writing; development of sales presentations, promotions, and research; conceptualize and communicate creative ideas; follow through on production for new business clients; establish and maintain customer relationships.



Send resume and cover letter to:

Joe Antonelli

Local Sales Manager, WSYM-TV FOX 47

600 W. Saint Joseph Street

Lansing, Michigan 48933

jantonelli@jrn.com









Journal Broadcast Group is an equal opportunity employer.

Posted 11-9-2012

Source: http://masscommjobs.blogspot.com/2012/11/journal-broadcast-group-job-opportunity_9.html

karl rove Election 2012 Results polling place washington post yahoo news comedy central obamacare

Nigeria is "at war" with Boko Haram: Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria is "at war" with Islamist sect Boko Haram and should not negotiate with its leaders who are "mass murderers", Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said on Friday.

President Goodluck Jonathan said earlier this year his government was open to dialogue with the sect, whose insurgency has killed an estimated 2,800 people since 2009.

The sect is styled on the Afghan Taliban and while it usually targets security and government officials, it has also struck churches, mosques and universities, becoming the biggest security threat in Africa's top oil producer.

"Don't talk to mass murderers. You are not obliged to talk to those who made the killing of innocent people their philosophy," Soyinka told reporters at a conference in Lagos.

"This is a security issue. It becomes a question of who goes down: is it the community? Is it society? is it the nation? Or is it a bunch of killers who are totally beyond control?"

Soyinka, 78, who sports a distinctive white Afro hairstyle, is a playwright and one of Africa's leading intellectuals. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

He said the violence in the north of Nigeria was the fault of religious "extremists" who had "brainwashed" youths who were now out of control. He also blamed the government for "abysmal" leadership, which he said had left vulnerable youths in poverty.

A purported spokesman for Boko Haram told reporters in the sect's stronghold in Maiduguri, in the northeast, it would be willing to talk if its members were released from prison and other conditions were met.

But the sect's leader Abubakar Shekau has said he won't talk with the government, saying he wants to impose sharia, Islamic law, on the country of 160 million people, around half of whom are Christians and the other half Muslim.

Rights groups have said the military committed human rights violations during their campaign against Boko Haram, including executing unarmed people on the street and torturing suspects.

"The military has never had to cope with this kind of insurgency and so the military is making a lot of blunders," Soyinka said. "There have been incidents of the violation of fundamental human rights, absolutely."

"We are at war and a lot of horrible things happen."

Soyinka has been an outspoken critic of governments in Nigeria and elsewhere. He was arrested during Nigeria's civil war in 1967 and spent two years in solitary confinement.

(Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-war-boko-haram-nobel-laureate-wole-soyinka-193544313.html

undrafted free agents braveheart earthquake california earthquake california roy orbison the third man 2012 nfl draft order