Smart snacking isn't just about healthy options, but about snacks that give you lots of energy to get through the day. One way you can do this is to "snack like a toddler," or consume fresh fruits, nuts, and other energy-packed snacks that are also healthy .
If you're having a hard time falling asleep, most of just toss, turn, and whine about it. There's better ways to fall asleep fast though, so we want to hear your tricks.
Whether you've just run a marathon or just have tight muscles, a foam roller could be your new best friend. These ~$15 exercise tools are like the "Poor man's massage therapist," working out any tension or knots your body might have.
There are a handful of reasons for leaving a full-time job with nothing lined up. Maybe you're switching careers . Maybe you're becoming a stay-at-home parent. Either way, to make the transition smooth for your finances, consider paying your bills in advance.
My favorite pair of eyeglasses have had a terrible tendency of slipping off my nose when I looked down. The simple tool that finally has them staying put: ponytail holders.
We've heard the claims before, and now that it's February, they're back: Chocolate is full of antioxidants. Its many health benefits are proven. It's really good for you, right? Not quite. Let's take a closer look.
Like hangover cures, it seems like everyone has a sure-fire way to cure a cold. The folks over at AsapSCIENCE break down the usefuless of a handful of popular cold remedies in the video above.
There's nothing like the delicious draw of a perfect looking slice of cake. Resting your knife in a jug of hot water in between slices can make sure every slice looks as amazing as it tastes.
Keeping your freezer stocked with ready to eat meals and leftovers you'd otherwise throw out is a great way to save time, energy, and money. Make sure you actually use that food by doing a freezer cleanse at least twice a year.
Drug stores sometimes offer great deals on household goods. But they can be very hit or miss. To get a better idea of what's worth checking out, MoneyTalksNews rounds up a few of the hits.
Even if it's not catnip, many cats have a thing for plants. One way to keep your house plants safe from your cat: Leave leftover citrus peels on the soil of the plant.
The perfect french fries are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. If you don't want to mess with deep-frying, this technique of steaming-then-roasting may be your best alternative.
Your kid has the sniffles. You figure you'll stop at the drugstore to pick up something to make him feel better. Not so fast! While fever reducers like Tylenol are safe for all ages, almost everything else—especially if it claims to cure coughs or runny noses—is either not recommended for little kids, or is complete garbage.
When you're taking care of business, it's comforting to know you've got the best toilet paper for the best price. After extensive research and testing, these were found to be the best sheets for your behind.
We all get busy, and cooking takes time. Put together some key baking mixes so you can cook a quick meal (or dessert) with minimal time and effort.
A big bowl of pasta might be a satisfying meal, but it's a calorie bomb. Instead of making pasta the focus of a dish, make it an accent to another meal.
This is not, we repeat not, Jack White’s guacamole. (photo: Morton Fox)
Concert riders have long been a source of giggles and schadenfreude for people amused by the petty backstage demands of extremely wealthy musicians and their entourages.
That’s why the recent publication of the contract and rider for Jack White’s concert at OU’s McCasland Field House seems barely worth a mention, certainly compared to the many more outrageous riders that have been leaked over the years.
The former White Stripes frontman doesn’t make any overly bizarre demands — smoked salmon and Fiber One bars aren’t exactly the same as the mountains of cocaine and bowls of barbiturates you hear about from rock acts of previous generations — though he does include a very specific recipe for guacamole (see page 20 of this PDF if you absolutely must have it), but even that is the expected avocados, onions, etc., you’d find in most guac recipes.
The most revealing thing about the contract — which was obtained by the Oklahoma Daily via an Oklahoma Open Records Act request since the school is publicly funded — is that OU paid at least $80,000 for the concert. Again, that’s not terribly shocking for a high-profile artist playing a venue that holds several thousand people.
But these minor revelations, which were published a day before the concert, have apparently ticked the surly rocker off.
“Just because you can type it on your computer doesn’t make it right,” he reportedly told the audience during the show.
Of course we’d counter — you’re extremely wealthy and famous and you got your guacamole, so get back to playing music.
Things have only intensified in the days since, with White’s reps at the all-powerful William Morris Endeavor Entertainment something or other telling the school that it will no longer book any of its music or comedy clients at the school ““until this policy is modified not to disseminate private information.”
Except OU can’t change that policy because it can’t change the Oklahoma Open Records Act — which requires any public entity of the state of Oklahoma to respond to request for records — and it can’t violate that act just to book thin-skinned rock stars who are too secretive about their guacamole recipes.
“OU is basically getting blackballed as a place that’s not welcoming to outside talent,” the Campus Activities Council chairperson tells the Daily. “If [Black Student Association] or [Hispanic American Student Association] want to bring a speaker, any student association, this affects everybody. If they want to bring in musical talent, a speaker, a comedian, it really affects that.”
Rather than give in to the whiny artists’ demands, we’d recommend that every news organization at every state-run school in the country make similar information requests for every big name act that plays at their school.
Being a celebrity does not give you the freedom to hide how much money you’re getting from taxpayers.
Rice University bioengineering students, staff and faculty worked with Marvel Universe LIVE! and the hospital this week to not only give kids lacking all or part of their hand a free mechanical hand, but also the chance to build those hands themselves, using Marvel superheroes as design inspiration.
Volunteers from Rice and the online community e-NABLE, as well as performers from Marvel, showed the patients and their families how to put the hands together using plastic parts made on 3-D printers at Rice.
Buying a prosthetic hand can cost more than $4,000, a hefty price especially as young patients usually outgrow several of them during childhood, a Rice University press release explains.
One mother said the hand her son built with the team will be his first prosthetic, and that she thinks the new hand will help boost his confidence, as it’ll make it easier for him to tie his shoes and carry his lunch tray. He has symbrachydactyly, which means he has part of two fingers on his left hand.
“This is pretty much the only option he’s got,” she said. “He’s really not eligible for (more expensive prosthetics) because he’s six, and he’s growing quite a bit.”
And now, sit back and watch kids being extremely happy, and let the waves of warm fuzzies wash over you:
The Oregonian reports on a recent ruling in the case of a man who was accused of crouching down in a Target store to take revealing photos of a 13-year-old girl.
While the young woman didn’t notice she was being photographed, another shopper did and reported him to employees. Surveillance footage subsequently confirmed what the shopper had claimed to see.
The 61-year-old was arrested for the Jan. 2014 incident and charged with invasion of personal privacy and two counts of attempted second-degree encouraging child sex abuse.
His defense wasn’t that he didn’t do — those facts are apparently not in dispute. Instead, his lawyers contend that his actions aren’t forbidden by state law.
Oregon’s invasion of personal privacy law requires that the person being photographed or recorded be in a “state of nudity,” which specifically means that the subject’s genitals, pubic area or breasts are “uncovered or less than opaquely covered” in any way.
Additionally, the statute requires the subject of these photos must be “in a place and circumstances where the person has a reasonable expectation of personal privacy.”
The defense team said that since the girl was wearing underwear the incident didn’t meet the first requirement, and that even if you did consider the images were “nude” in nature, she couldn’t have had a reasonable expectation of personal privacy in a huge retail store with dozens of other people present.
Prosecutors countered that the 13-year-old might have been in what is generally considered a public space, but nonetheless “had an expectation of privacy that a deviant isn’t going to stick a camera up her skirt and capture private images of her body.”
With regard to the other charges against the defendant, the relevant state statute posits a few situations in which a person would be encouraging child sexual abuse in the second degree. Two of them involve knowingly paying for child porn, and since the defendant took the photos in question himself, only the first type of violation seems to apply.
It requires that he “knowingly possesses or controls, or knowingly accesses with the intent to view, a visual recording of sexually explicit conduct involving a child for the purpose of arousing or satisfying the sexual desires of himself or another person.”
The defense argued that the images taken in this instance are not sexually explicit and thus don’t qualify as child porn under state law.
Prosecutors contended that the defendant’s intent was to snap photos that were explicit that he could use for his own sexual gratification. The fact that his results didn’t reveal nudity shouldn’t absolve him of trying to snap explicit images, they told the court.
But while the judge agreed that the actions of the defendant were “lewd” and “appalling,” state law left him no choice but to side with the defense.
“From a legal point of view, which unfortunately today is my job to enforce, he didn’t do anything wrong,” explained the judge, who said he was extremely frustrated” the decision. “It’s upsetting to say the least.”
Intuit says it’s looking into the possibly fraudulent activity after hearing from a handful of states with issues a spokeswoman told MarketWatch.
The company says it appears after a preliminary examination with security experts that it’s systems remain intact and haven’t been breached, but ne’er-do-wells may be stealing identities and then using TurboTax software to file the fraudulent returns.
In a press release, Intuit says that “the information used to file fraudulent returns was obtained from other sources outside the tax preparation process.”
If you’re worried about not being able to file your state return, Inuit says the pause is simple a “precautionary step,” so it would appear at this time that at some point, TurboTax will again accept state e-filed returns.
Utah reached out to Intuit first, notifying the company that state officials had flagged 28 fraud attempts “originate from data compromised through a third-party commercial tax preparation software process,” and an additional 8,000 returns marked as potentially fraudulent.
Tax officials in Minnesota and Alabama also posted similar warnings about the tax preparation software.
“We understand the role we play in this important industry issue and continuously monitor our systems in search of suspicious activity,” Brad Smith, Intuit president and chief executive officer, said in the release. “We’ve identified specific patterns of behavior where fraud is more likely to occur. We’re working with the states to share that information and remedy the situation quickly.”
If you’ve already filed your return and it’s been paused, you don’t need to take any further action, Intuit says, as it will be submitted when the company resumes filing. Federal tax return filing hasn’t been affected, the company says.
Intuit’s spokeswoman tells MarketWatch that the hope is to resume filing state returns later today.
Any TurboTax customers who believe they are victims of tax fraud can call 1-800-944-8596 for direct access to “specially trained identity protection agents who will provide comprehensive support and filing assistance,” Intuit’s release says.
*Thanks for the tip, Steve!
TurboTax halts e-filing for state returns due to fraud, stealing of refunds [MarketWatch]
RadioShack once had thousands of franchisees, or dealer stores. Most of them have now closed, and there are fewer than 1,000 left. The key feature that has helped them survive is that most of the dealer locations were already successful retailers selling other things before Radio Shack recruited them to join the network. The Dallas Morning news recounts that decades ago, the Shack took small local merchants out for fancy dinners and tropical cruises trying to convince them to join the dealer network. The model was successful for everyone, bringing electronics to towns too small to support a corporate-owned RadioShack store.
Most of the original retailers brought in 20 to 30 years ago are now retiring or leaving the business for the same reasons that any brick-and-mortar businesses, even in small towns, are closing down. Yet some of the stores remain open and successful. CNN visited a few dealer locations that are thriving, which continue to succeed mostly on the strength of their customer service, their relationships with customers, and the fact that they’re the only place for miles around where you can buy a mobile phone at all.
One business owner who owns two Radio Shack dealer stores in New England told CNN that he would be fine even if the Radio Shack brand ceased to exist. Another store in Wisconsin is similar to what RadioShacks will become in the future: it’s a co-branded store that is also a storefront for Cellcom, a regional mobile provider. The announced post-bankruptcy plans for RadioShack are that about half of its stores will remain open, and they will be co-branded RadioShack/Sprint retail locations.
My RadioShack store will be fine [CNN]
(Coyoty)
The San Antonio Police department issued an alert after a recent spate of heists at three different BBQ joints, reports KENS 5 News.
The restaurant owners think it’s the same person sneaking in and hauling out bags full of meat. After one heist, the thief left behind a machete.
“They got it all done in 20 minutes,” said one, while another noted the suspect was “all dressed in black, no flashlight.”
“The brisket bandit is what I’ve coined him,” said another owner, who said a thief took away $2,500 worth of meat in one night.
“The surveillance showed him coming in with a back pack and then walking out with six duffel bags worth of food,” he said.
The recent heists have led others to beef up security, pun intended, as brisket is too expensive at the moment and losing it cuts into restaurants’ profits.
The SAPD hasn’t been able to definitively connects the three cases yet, however, as they’ve had a hard time getting a clear image of the person. Whoever it is, they probably smell delicious.
‘Brisket bandit’ wanted by multiple S.A. barbecue joints [KENS15]
When I drop my dog off at a boarding facility, I expect her to return home with all of her body parts still attached. One family trusted the local Camp Bow Wow to watch over their dog, and but she was taken to the vet after workers found her with a paw caught in the kennel. Now they disagree with the camp on who should cover the vet bills.
Dogs are left unattended in their kennels at the boarding facility for about half the day, from 7 PM to 6:30 AM. Dogs are normally okay with that kind of downtime, but the workers’ off time was disastrous for Curly, a Rhodesian ridgeback/German shepherd mix. She caught her toe in her kennel (probably between some wires) resulting in what employees called “a lot of blood.” Her owners gave permission to rush her to a vet, where they amputated the injured toe and charged the owners more than $1,800.
The family reports that their eleven-toed dog isn’t the same. The injury happened in the summer of 2014, and Curly still isn’t able to run more than a few miles without limping. “She used to run six to seven miles with my husband,” the owner explained.
The family wants Camp Bow Wow to cover the entire vet bill, and the facility says that they’ve offered to cover half. According to the owner, the offer they’ve made is for $700 and a refund for the dog’s stay.
Call Kurtis Investigates: Dog Returned From Boarding Facility With Toe Ripped Off [CBS Sacramento]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of visitors to museums on the National Mall may soon have to leave their selfie sticks at home.
The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum this week banned selfie sticks, which are hand-held camera mounts for self-portraits. The National Gallery of Art plans to formally ban selfie sticks next week and already doesn’t allow bags or extra photo equipment. The move follows similar bans in New York museums.
Hirshhorn spokeswoman Kelly Carnes said Friday the policy is meant to protect artwork and visitors from potential harm.
Smithsonian museums already ban tripods and camera stands. No problems have been reported due to selfie sticks.
Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas says officials plan to develop a Smithsonian-wide policy on selfie sticks. She says art museums are always more concerned about photography and photo equipment.
The post Smithsonian to develop rules on ‘selfie sticks’ for photos appeared first on WTOP.
A small-town California fire captain resigned Wednesday, days after his arrest on allegations connected to the clandestine installation of spy gear to video record a minor in the bathroom.
Mark McLeod Wygant, the former fire captain of South Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains, is also said to have possessed as many as 100 videos of the young girl, who was 12, according to court documents (PDF). The defendant, who is being held without bail, installed as many as four spy cameras "for the purpose of recording her nude from multiple angles," the FBI said in an affidavit.
FBI agent Glenn Norling wrote in his affidavit that the recordings had started in 2011 and ended in December. In one 14-minute video, Wygant "is seen placing and apparently concealing the camera at the very beginning of the video file," the agent wrote. The FBI wrote that the "spy gear" was purchased on eBay.
WASHINGTON — City officials, union leaders and Metro told a D.C. Council committee that the coordination and communication problems leading up to the fatal smoke incident at L’Enfant Plaza on Jan. 12 have been around for a while.
Firefighter union head Ed Smith testified to the D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary that radio problems aren’t just isolated to Metro tunnels. He said D.C. Fire and EMS have problems in huge buildings made of concrete or granite.
“We have a vehicle with repeaters that help boost the signal, but it doesn’t always work. These radio issues have been going on for many years. It’s something engineers will have to find the answer to,” says Smith.
Kenneth Lyons, of the American Federation of Government Employees, told lawmakers that problems are so bad with the city radios that cell phones usually work much better in Metro tunnels. Lyons pointed to many situations where the radios were unreliable for civilian medics and ambulance drivers to coordinate taking patients to local hospitals.
Smith agrees that cellphones sometimes work better.
“There are repeaters and antennas in the Metro tunnels. If they work with our radios, then everything is fine and the signal is good. But if it isn’t working right, then cellphones are a good backup plan,” he says.
Lyons described cases in which DC FEMS radios “honked out” when someone pushed the button on the radio to talk inside a Metro station. Honking out is when the radio honks to let the user know that the signal cannot reach its intended destination.
Encrypted radio systems were also a topic of testimony. In mid-December, the District of Columbia moved from the Motorola SmartZone 4.1 system to the P25 system. The old system was an open system, where anyone could listen to DC FEMS communications unless the agency went to one encrypted channel. The new system is a closed system, with most of the channels encrypted, blocking the public or anyone without the decryption key from listening.
Ultimately, the NTSB will have to determine what role the change of systems played in the radio troubles at L’Enfant Plaza.
“People should be able to hear routine calls from D.C. Fire. We had significant problems with the decisions with the previous administration on this and many other issues,” says Smith, referring to former Fire Chief Ken Ellerbe and Deputy Mayor Paul Quander.
“For a department that was already plagued with programs, the one thing that worked decently, they screwed up,” he adds.
Smith thinks the culture at DC FEMS during the Ellerbe administration emphasized limited communication with outsiders or consultation with the union. The relationship between Ellerbe, Quander and Smith was not good. The relationship with Metro was not much better, he added. Ellerbe eliminated the DC FEMS liaison to Metro, which has since been restored.
“I hope there are no walls,” says Kevin Donahue, Deputy City Administrator overseeing public safety issues. “If there are, it’s going to get torn down pretty quickly. I work with and interact with Ed Smith quite a bit, and we’ve been talking to WMATA. So if there is a wall there, it’s not going to be there much longer.
“Not only do I have regular communication between [Metro interim GM] Jack Requa, but I want our mid-level staff to interact. I want our engineers to be talking to their engineers if there are changes or problems with the radio system in the future without needing to run it up the ladder,” he adds.
Metro seems to applaud this renewed effort to re-open communications with outside agencies in the new administration. The agency told reporters that it was totally unaware that the D.C. Office of Unified Communications made changes to the city’s radio system at One Judiciary Square just one month before the L’Enfant Plaza incident. Metro says the changes were found and fixed two days after the incident.
“We want everyone to understand that things you do or we do to the radio system may have an impact on the other side and we want to make sure that communication link exists between us,” Requa says.
Lawmakers questioned officials for nearly three hours about the radio issues, noting that each side has to do better in the future.
The post D.C. radio issues have been well known for years, council told appeared first on WTOP.
WASHINGTON – A bill banning retailers from selling dogs and cats in Montgomery County is headed to the full council for consideration.
A Montgomery County Council committee voted in support of the measure Thursday afternoon.
The bill is tentatively scheduled for a full vote by the County Council on March 3.
During a public hearing last week, pet owners, retailers, breeders and animal welfare advocates testified for and against the bill.
Among those opposing the bill is Mitchell Thompson. He owns Just Puppies, a Rockville retailer and the lone pet store in the county that sells dogs and cats. Although the county bill would not apply to incorporated cities, a Rockville councilwoman has indicated interest in pursuing similar legislation there.
Thompson told a council committee that his business cares about puppies, a comment that generated grumbling from supporters of the bill.
“Kennels are inspected from the USDA and state on a regular basis. Vet care and teeth cleaning is mandatory on every animal,” he said to defend his business.
Thompson told the council committee he buys his puppies from 30 different kennels, most in Missouri. He said he’d recently taken a trip there to talk to an inspector.
But several former Just Puppies employees testified in favor of the bill during last week’s hearing.
David Beye told the council committee: “While working at Just Puppies, we would get many dogs from these breeders that had clearly not had proper medical care. Many had underlying genetic conditions that would quickly kill them.”
Cindy Castro, another former Just Puppies worker, said a boxer puppy frequently vomited and his illness escalated. Weeks went by before he was taken to a vet, according to Castro’s testimony. One day, she came in to work to learn that the pup had been euthanized.
Ruth Hanessian, owner of the Animal Exchange, also testified against the bill. Although Hannesian’s store doesn’t sell kittens or puppies, she said the bill could send prospective pet owners to “unregulated sources” where they might find “older dogs with uncertain histories.” Hanessian said shelters and rescues could provide good dogs, but “they’re not right for everyone.”
WTOP’S Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
The post Proposed ban on puppy sales advances in Montgomery Co. appeared first on WTOP.
WASHINGTON — Alexandria residents, get your shopping bags ready. Wegmans plans to open its store near Fort Belvoir at 7 a.m. Sunday, June 14.
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The 126,000-square-foot store will anchor the Hilltop Village Center, a 350,000-square-foot retail and office complex at Telegraph Road and Beulah Street.
The Fairfax County store will be the seventh Wegmans Food Markets in Virginia and the first in the state to feature a feature a full-service restaurant called The Pub.
The company continues to hire and train workers.
“Though the opening is months away, we’re training our team now so that they receive some of the most in-depth culinary, customer service, and product education in the industry,” Mike Dempsey, store manager, said in a news release.
The store will employ a total of 550 people, 300 of which will be part-time. Of the 550, 500 employees will be new to the company and hired locally, Wegmans says.
Wegmans also plans to open Virginia stores in Chantilly, Charlottesville and in the Greater Richmond area.
The post Alexandria Wegmans to open in June appeared first on WTOP.
Manassas purse-snatching suspect identified PotomacLocal.com Clayton Lee Hill was identified as the suspect in a purse-snatching incident at Giant Food store in December. The Manassas City Police were able to identify Hill after a five-week investigation. He is currently in custody, with a pending court date ... |
Back in 1952, the couple bought a Frigid Queen in downtown Mattoon, IL and renamed it Burger King, opening in 1954, reports the Herald Review.
When the Burger King we all know today came around, the owners of the solo eatery had already trademarked the name in Illinois, prompting the two businesses to go to federal court to settle things. The judge ruled in 1968 in favor of the national chain, giving it the right under its federal trademark to name its restaurants as such everywhere else in the United States… except in Mattoon.
To this day, there can be no other Burger King within 20 miles from the Mattoon Burger King, a restriction that will remain in effect with the new ownership.
The locals have fond memories of the place, and the new owners say they want to keep those warm feelings going forward.
“I hope we can continue what they started so many years ago,” the new owner said of the couple who’ve owned the restaurant for decades, noting that he often stopped by the Burger King with his teammates growing up. “They are great people and they have done great things for Mattoon.”
Meanwhile, the couple says they’re happy to hear from their customers during this time, and they’re not going to just kick back and relax in their retirement. The new owner has pledged to work with them to tap their vast wealth of knowledge running a restaurant.
“We do appreciate the support we have gotten. We could not have done this without the customers,” the husband half of the equation told the Herald-Review. “We don’t plan to just sit in a porch swing. We can’t do that.”
New owners ascend to Burger King throne [The Herald-Review]
