Mayor Bart Cox opened the November meeting with an opening prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

After approval of the previous meeting of Oct. 8, and the approval of bills and warrants, time was given to Lorie Huntington of the Governors Youth Council.

Huntington then made a presentation about the dangers of the new smoke- less tobacco products being marketed to grade school and high school students. The items she displayed were about the size of a cell phone and looked like packages of candy, lip balm containers or lipstick containers. These products have all the ingredients of a cigarette, and are five times stronger and more addictive than cigarettes. The cigarette companies have found a loophole in the law and the government has not added any laws making it illegal to market these products to teenagers and younger students. Although the tobacco companies will deny their target is youth, these products appeal to the youth because of their packaging.

Huntington provided information. Some of the new tobacco products being tested have as much as three times the nicotine as the average cigarette, putting children at risk for tobacco related poisonings.

A 1-year old who weighs about 23 pounds could suffer severe toxicity or death if they ate 10-17 Camel Orbs, or 17 strips, or three to four sticks according to information provided by the Utah Department of Health. A 4-year old who weighs about 35 pounds would have to eat 12-27 orbs, or 27 strips or five sticks. High concentrations of nicotine in these products make them a serious health threat to young children.

Last year alone the Utah Poison Control Center took 102 tobacco poisoning calls, 88 of which were for children age 4 or younger, according to Marty Malheiro, the Center’s coordinator of outreach education. These tobacco cases included chewing tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, filter tips, snuff and unknown tobacco products.

All of these dangerous products can be purchased at the local stores in Carbon and Emery counties. Huntington said, “We all need to be aware of them and the effects of what they are doing to the youth in our area. The tobacco companies are targeting our youth and this is just a new way to do so. The hotline number for quitting is 888-567-8788. The lines are open Monday through Sunday from 6 a.m.-1 a.m.,” said Huntington.

In other business the City Council passed a resolution establishing an Identity Theft Policy in compliance with recent federal and state legislation they also passed a resolution establishing policies and procedures guidelines for new accounts, security deposits and returned checks.

The Orangeville City Council passed two resolutions authorizing the issuance of Taxable Lease Revenue Bonds of not more than $180,000 for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, installing skate park improvements and related matters.

A public hearing will be held on Dec. 10, concerning the issuance of the $180,000 in bonds for the Orangeville Skate Park.

Councilman James Davis has interviewed several skate park contractors and has developed a skate park layout and design using prefabricated skate park ramps on a large concrete slab. The exact location of the skate park has not yet been determined by the City Council.

The City Council also approved an outside of the city water and hook-up for Jim Fielder. This water hook up will cost Fielder about $2,000 and one water share.

Jacob Tuttle gave a report on the activities of the Youth City Council and Mayor Bart Cox appointed Carmen Humphrey as the advisor to the Youth City Council.

Orangeville City’s community Christmas chili/soup cookoff will be held on Dec. 5. Sign-ups for the chili/soup cook-off will be at the city hall. Sign up on or before Dec. 4. Chili and soups will be accepted from 3-3:45 p.m. on Dec. 5 at the Community Center. Bring at least one gallon, they will be served at the dinner portion of the Community’s Christmas Party. The judging will be at 4 p.m. at the old Fire Station/Community Center. Childrens crafts from 4-5 p.m. at the City Hall. From 5-7 p.m. the chili and soup dinner will be served. Orangeville officials encourage all to sign up for the chili/soup cook-off.

By PHIL FAUVER
November 24, 2009

Given the current H1N1 flu pandemic, State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe, M.D. says there’s never been a better time to quit smoking.

“Smoking damages your lung tissue, making you more susceptible to lung infections like bronchitis and pneumonia, which may complicate an influenza infection,” said Dr. Monroe. “Damaged lung tissue does not heal as efficiently after an infection as healthy lung tissue. Smoking also suppresses your immune system, making a smoker more susceptible to getting the flu in the first place.”

“When we look at the hospitalizations and deaths from the 2009 H1N1 flu, we can clearly see the negative impact chronic diseases, including tobacco-related illnesses, have on a person’s risk to develop serious illness or to die from the flu,” said Dr. Monroe.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has targeted individuals aged 25-64 with underlying medical conditions, like asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), to be among the first to get the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine as they are at higher risk for influenza-related complications.

Pregnant women are also targeted to be among the first to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine. According to the CDC, pregnant women are at a higher risk to get the flu and to have severe complications, including preterm labor, severe pneumonia, fetal distress, and even maternal death. Smoking during pregnancy can increase these risks, according to Dr. Monroe.

“Unfortunately, there are counties in our state with significantly higher than average rates of women who are pregnant and smoke,” said Dr. Monroe. “We know pregnant women are at higher risk of complications from the flu, and smoking can only compound the threat.”

“Our goal is to help Hoosiers live longer, healthier lives,” said Karla Sneegas, executive director, Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation agency. “We know current economic issues in the nation are likely causing extra stress for individuals, which can make it even more difficult to quit. However, we want Hoosiers to know, if you are ready to quit smoking, we are here to help.

“The first step in quitting can be as simple as picking up the phone,” said Sneegas. “The free Indiana Tobacco Quitline – 1-800-QUIT-NOW – is available from 7 a.m. – 3 a.m. seven days a week with highly trained quit coaches ready to help with advice and tips designed to help callers quit for life.”

“Our goal is not only to help people quit using tobacco, but to assist their family and friends as well. A strong support network is critical to success in quitting,” added Sneegas.

For more information regarding information on how to quit using tobacco, call the free Indiana Tobacco Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or visit www.in.gov/itpc.

Cigarettes are a clear public health problem. A significant number of people who smoke regularly throughout their lives will develop serious health problems including lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. And for 30 years now, governments around the world have worked to change people’s attitudes toward smoking. Indeed, when I visited Tunisia in early November, they pointed out that 2009 was designated as a year-long anti-smoking campaign.

There are two classes of measures that have been taken to fight smoking (and related public health problems like alcohol and unhealthy eating). One is to make smoking less attractive in the short-term to counteract the positives of smoking. The other is to provide warnings about the dangers of smoking.

As I have written before in previous entries, one reason why smoking is so difficult to quit is that it provides some pleasure in the short term (and for the addicted smoker also the absence of painful cravings). The health risks are in the long-term and so they have a weaker pull over current behavior. Thus, measures like making it illegal to smoke indoors in public places and raising the price of cigarettes through taxes are aimed at decreasing the pleasure of smoking in the short term.

SmokersThe other major public health initiative is to influence the information that is available about smoking. For example, in the US, there are very few venues in which cigarette manufacturers are allowed to advertise, and so there are few positive messages about smoking in mainstream media. In addition, by law, cigarette packs have to come with a warning about the dangers of smoking.

A paper by Jochim Hansen, Susanne Winzeler, and Sascha Topolinski in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology examined the effectiveness of these warnings on the attitudes of smokers toward smoking.

The authors reasoned that there are two kinds of smokers. Some smokers find that smoking is an important part of their self concept. They are truly smokers. Other people smoke cigarettes, but that is not an important part of their self-concept. They do not identify strongly as smokers.

There are also two kinds of warnings that are often given about smoking. Some of those messages are about the negative social consequences of smoking. For example, a warning might point out that “Smoking makes you unattractive.” Most of the warnings that actually appear on cigarette packs tend to focus on the danger of death associated with cigarettes, issuing warnings like “Cigarettes are dangerous for your health” or “Cigarettes cause lung cancer.”

In other posts, I have discussed the idea of mortality salience: that being reminded of your own mortality can affect your self-esteem. Hansen and colleagues reasoned that a cigarette warning that highlights that cigarettes may cause death could actually backfire. When someone identifies strongly as a smoker, then a warning that focuses on mortality can threaten that person’s self-esteem. Because they identify strongly as a smoker, the easiest way to boost their self-esteem is to increase their favorable attitude toward cigarettes.

To test this hypothesis, a number of cigarette smokers were tested. Some of these people were ones for whom smoking was an important part of their self-concept, while others were ones for whom smoking was not that important to their self-concept. The smokers read either a warning that talked about how smoking decreases a person’s attractiveness or a warning that talked about how smoking causes death. Later, these people rated their attitude toward smoking.

As these researchers predicted, if people thought smoking was an important part of their self-concept, they rated smoking as much more attractive if they read a warning that focused on death than if they read a warning focused on attractiveness. That is, for the group of smokers whose identity is bound up with smoking, the kinds of warnings that are typically shown on cigarette packs actually backfire.

This research suggests the importance of gathering evidence about programs that relate to the behavioral aspects of public health problems. On the surface, nobody could oppose big warnings on cigarettes that trumpet their health risks. However, we must be careful, because these warnings could actually do more harm than good.

By Art Markman
November 24, 2009, Psychologytoday

Legislation sponsored by Assemblywomen Connie Wagner and Joan Voss (both D-Bergen) to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors and include e-cigarettes in the New Jersey Smoke Free Air Act, which prohibits smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, was unanimously released today by an Assembly panel.

Wagner said she’s concerned e-cigarettes are being marketed to children because they offer flavors like chocolate, banana and strawberry and could serve as a gateway to real cigarette use.

“These are dangerous devices and I want to make sure our children are protected,” Wagner said. “I’m very concerned that young people who use these things will get hooked on the nicotine and eventually move onto the real thing, opening the door to a lifetime of expensive and debilitating health problems.”

E-cigarettes look like the real thing but don’t contain tobacco. They employ a metal tube with a battery that heats up a nicotine solution. Users breathe in the resulting vapor.

“Electronic cigarettes contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals, with one study even finding they use a toxic ingredient found in antifreeze,” Voss said. “We have every reason to be worried about the safety of these products that are easy for youngsters to buy and also contain no health warning like you find on real cigarettes.”

The merged legislation (A-4227/A-4228) would extend the state ban on the sale of tobacco products to those under 19 years of age to e-cigarettes and include e-cigarettes in the New Jersey Smoke Free Air Act, which prohibits smoking in indoor public places and workplaces.

The Wagner-Voss legislation was released by the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee and now go the Assembly Speaker, who decides if and when to post them for a floor vote.

There is a feeling of decadence that comes from smoking a good cigar that is unmatched by almost any other leisure activity.

Perhaps it is the unfashionable machismo, or the mischief of enjoying something that is so bad for you. Or perhaps it is simply the perverse satisfaction that comes from burning an expensive object for pleasure. And, at the top end of the vintage cigar market, things can get expensive indeed.

“A box of 50 Chateau d’Yquem can fetch £10,000 or more at auction,” said Mitchell Orchant, managing director of the London cigar merchant C.Gars Ltd. That is nearly $17,000. “The Anniversario, can sell for £400 a cigar and its value just seems to keep on going up.” Both cigars were made by Davidoff, the famous Geneva tobacco house.

As the price tags suggest, these are not just any old stogies. Examples of a prestigious elite of vintage Cuban cigars, they date from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s, a golden age when a mixture of local Cuban artisanal skill, tobacco quality and the demands of a handful of European exporters combined to create some of the finest cigars ever made.

The intervening years have only served to improve them further, according to the experts.

“The cigars are like a good Bordeaux,” said Mr. Orchant. “In the right conditions they can keep for almost ever, and year after year, like good wine, they get better.”

Not all cigars age well. There is little point in buying a two-dollar panatela – a long, slender cigar – and sticking it in a cupboard for twenty years. Top vintage cigars tend to be the larger, plumper types, such as coronas or Churchills, always handmade and rolled from the best leaves of the tobacco crop. Cigars made from a full, strong tobacco blend tend to age best.

Stored correctly in a humidor the best cigars, or sticks as experts call them, can mature for about 30 years, during which time they become mellower even as the flavors become more distinct. They can hold on to that quality for a further 30 years or more before the flavor of the tobacco starts to deteriorate.

Within the rarefied world of vintage Cuban cigars, two brands, Dunhill and Davidoff, stand out above the rest. That is in part because of their undoubted quality. It also helps that they were made in large volumes and are consequently still readily available to buy at auction or from specialist merchants.

Vintage examples of other famous Havana brands such as Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba and Montecristo are also much prized. A box of 49 Montecristos, dating from the 1950s, before the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, will go under the hammer in December at a C.Gars Ltd auction in London and is expected to fetch as much as £6,000.

“The price of other Cuban brands is rising as they age but they are less expensive because they were never discontinued like the ultra-collectible Dunhill and Davidoffs,” said Mr. Orchant.

The Dunhill and Davidoff cigars were the offspring of an unlikely marriage between two of Europe’s most exclusive luxury tobacco brands and Cubatabaco, the Cuban state tobacco monopoly.

Cubatabaco made cigars under license for the London-based tobacco company Dunhill from 1984 until 1991. Dunhill-branded Cuban cigars were made prior to the Cuban revolution too, but few have survived.

Of the post-revolution Dunhill Cubans, the ones to look out for, say aficionados, are the mid-1980s Don Cándido and Don Alfredo: the latter, named after the company’s founder Alfred Dunhill, sell for $350 to $500 a cigar.

Davidoff’s Cuban output dates over a slightly longer period, from 1967 to 1991. Perhaps because of that extended run, which means that there are more available, or perhaps because they were distributed more widely across Europe, it is the Davidoffs that have emerged in recent years as the darlings of many vintage-cigar collectors and smokers.

Made under the guidance of Zino Davidoff, the patriarch of the company that bears his name, the cigars were named after some of the finest wines of France: Dom Perignon, for the iconic champagne, seven inches, or 17.8 centimeters long; Château Mouton Rothschild; Château Lafite; Château Latour; Château Margaux and Château d’Yquem.

None of the names were ever officially licensed with the châteaux. Yet the French wine makers mostly tolerated the breach of their trademark, perhaps helped by Mr. Davidoff’s habit of sending them gift boxes of his cigars.

The one exception was Château d’Yquem. The maker of France’s most lauded Sauternes dessert white wine warned Davidoff off using its name in the early 1980s, and the cigars bearing its name were discontinued in 1982. Already considered one of the best of the Château series, the intervention of the vineyard served to make them the rarest and thus the most expensive of the range.

The unlikely coupling of the European luxury brands and Cuba did not last. By the late 1980s Cubatabaco’s efforts to increase the volume of its output led to a decline in quality. Davidoff in particular took the decline in standards badly.

Zino Davidoff went on French television in 1987 to harangue his Cuban business partners and backed up his talk by burning 130,000 cigars, declaring them unsmokable.

The relationship between Cubatabaco and Davidoff and Dunhill ended in 1991 when both the European houses shifted their production to rival tobacco-producing countries.

Some cigar aficionados mourn the end of those relationships as the end of the golden age of cigar making. Others are less nostalgic.

“The Cuban cigars were always a little inconsistent and still are,” said Dorothée Spriet-Weisz, manager of A la Civette, an almost 300-year old Paris cigar shop, on the rue Saint Honoré, that lists Casanova, Voltaire and Winston Churchill as past customers. “I like the Dominican Davidoff cigars, but it is a question of personal taste and it is true that 65 percent of the cigars we sell are Cuban.”

The Executive Director of Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), Issah Ali, has said that if government is committed to fighting hard drugs in the country then it must vigorously tackle the tobacco threat since it is the “gateway” to the use of hard drugs.
Issah Ali of the NGO believes the more people use tobacco, the more they are likely to graduate into the use of Marijuana and hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Speaking at a Public Forum put together by VALD, Issah Ali therefore appealed to government to ensure the passage into law of the Tobacco Control Bill, which has been pending for some time now. “We are humbly urging the Minister of Health Designate to ensure government presents the Tobacco Control Bill to Parliament by the end of this month – November 2009.”
In reaction to a question on what stage the bill has reached, Ben Botwe of the ministry who represented the minister at the forum said the final draft is almost done and that it will soon be laid before parliament.

At his vetting recently, the minister designate, Hon. Benjamin Kumbour, was made to say that he had given up on smoking himself and so it is hoped that he will work diligently to ensure the passage of the law.
Some have wondered why Ghana still does not have a Tobacco Control law even as she was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which is the first global health treaty aimed at protecting present and future generations from the dangers of tobacco.

An insider source told this writer that the issues are more “complicated” than they seem on the surface. The lobbying power of tobacco companies, the source said, cannot be underestimated and that individuals within the corridors of power have their bread buttered from the industry. Governments? around the world are also reluctant to stop cashing in on tobacco trade; a cost benefit analysis is the last thing they would consider when they are looking for immediate cash to spend.

Indeed, according to Issah Ali, the tobacco industry has no right to interfere with Public Health issues of countries and that British America Tobacco (BAT) must “stop deceiving governments with secret letters and weak arguments, to interfere with public health policies, knowing that what they are doing contravenes international laws.” The reference here is article 5(3) of the FCTC.
Advocates of tobacco control have been worried about its weakening impact on human health and economic productivity as it is the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), close to 5 million people die annually as a result of tobacco use and that someone dies every 6.5 seconds from tobacco use. It also reduces life expectancy by 20 to 25 years.

If the trend continues unchecked, tobacco use, it is projected, would kill 6 million people in 2010, more than HIV, Malaria and TB combined, and over 10 million smokers and passive smokers by 2030 with 70% in developing countries including Ghana.
Tobacco is said to be a poisonous social drug used for non medicinal purposes, leading to physical, mental damage and other social problems.

The drug, according to experts, contains over 40 chemicals which cause cancer in various organs of the body. Dr. Promise E. Sefogah of Doctors for Right to Health said at the forum that the effects of these chemicals could lead to several other health complications including impotency and infertility.

Dr. Sefogah said high exposures to second hand smoke suggest the need for strong and effective smoke free policies in Ghana. “There is an urgent need to for the creation of the social and legal climate here in Ghana where tobacoo becomes less desirable, less acceptable and less accessible.”

In line with this, he called for higher taxes on tobacco products since it has been proven to “induce quitting, prevent relapse, reduce consumption and prevent initiation.”

Reynolds American Inc. has officially launched the biggest recycling project in its history.
The company has put its historic former headquarters on the market, hiring Commercial Realty Advisors of Winston-Salem as the broker.

The 22-story building has been the headquarters of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. since it debuted as an innovative architectural and engineering masterpiece in April 1929. The building also served as the home for various commercial and retail businesses from its opening until the early 1980s.

In October 2008, Reynolds said it planned to consolidate its downtown employees, both Reynolds American Inc. and the subsidiary, into the neighboring Plaza Building by early 2010. That goal recently was accomplished.

The decision to vacate the building came shortly after Reynolds said it was eliminating 570 jobs, mostly white collar, as part of a continuing effort of trying to balance consumer demand for its products with company size.

The Reynolds Building is valued at $12.3 million, according to Forsyth County tax records.

Reynolds has said it is open to selling and leasing the building, which has at least 240,000 square feet of mostly Class B office space. Commercial real-estate developers say that the building has the potential for mixed use, including residential units.

David Howard, a spokesman for Reynolds, said that the company chose the broker because it “has the background, expertise and local knowledge needed for this project.”

Among Commercial Realty’s projects have been representing the buyer of the Park Building and taking over leasing of that building, brokering the Hillcrest golf course land transaction and the selling of the Fieldcrest Cannon building in Greensboro.

The broker will work with Jones Lang LaSalle, an international commercial-realty company based in Chicago, to evaluate and market the building.

“Over the next several months, the broker will evaluate possible uses of the building that will take into account not only its practical usage, but its historic significance to the community and the role it might play in downtown development in Winston-Salem,” Howard said.

John Reese II, the managing partner for Commercial Realty, said that the two real-estate companies will spend up to 60 days to “determine the best and highest use of the building.”

“The canvass is totally blank right now,” he said.

The building is being entered into a competitive market for downtown office space.

There is about 100,000 square feet of space available in the Wachovia Center, which has 600,000 square feet.

There also is 204,000 square feet of space in Winston Tower Main, which has about 436,000 square feet, and all 268,708 square feet in Winston Tower Church, according to the Web site of Magnolia Partners, which manages the buildings.

“With the building being an iconic part of Winston-Salem, we believe there will be considerable options for adaptive reuse,” Reese said.

Howard said that Reynolds will consider whatever recommendations that the real-estate companies make, including upgrading office space to Class A specifications.

The decision by Reynolds marks another change in the evolution of Winston-Salem’s economy, said Gayle Anderson, the chief executive and president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.

“There is excitement in the community about the re-development potential of this building,” Anderson said. “Until more specifics are known, it’s difficult to predict how it might be seen in the marketplace. We look forward to seeing their plans and working with them.”

The building is not on the National Register of Historic Places, company spokeswoman Maura Payne said.

However, the building represented the culmination of a downtown construction spree during the 1920s. The job of designing the building went to Shreve & Lamb. The Winston-Salem Journal reported at the time that the architectural firm was asked to produce “an effect of conservatism along with attractiveness, but to avoid flashiness.”

According to a centennial edition of the Journal published in 1997, “city residents could be forgiven for wondering whether the architects followed the directive.”

“Gray-brown marble from Missouri, black marble from Belgium and buff-colored marble from France covered the walls and floor. The ceiling was festooned with gold leaves, and the grillwork, elevator doors and door frames were bright, gleaming brass.”

The building, which at the time was the tallest south of Baltimore, won a national architectural award. A gigantic version of it would rise from the sidewalks of Manhattan as the Empire State Building, another Shreve & Lamb design.

By Richard Craver
November 23, 2009

An occasional update on local stories that were in the news just a year ago.

Nov. 16: The smoking lamp will be turned back on at Atlantic City’s 11 casinos.

Gamblers will be allowed to light up again on the casino floor following the end of a controversial, month-long smoking ban that was blamed by gaming executives for scaring away customers.

Over the objections of smoking opponents, City Council agreed to lift the ban for at least a year to give the gaming industry more time to recover from the nation’s economic crisis.

Council planned to vote on the measure earlier this month, but never did. But councilmembers have indicated that the financial outlook for the state, and specifically the area casinos, makes the ban less attractive. Gaming halls in nearby Pennsylvania that allow smoking also have not helped in getting the full ban approved.

Callaway sentenced

Nov. 21, 2008: Former Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit invasion of privacy for his involvement in a plot to blackmail Atlantic City Councilman Eugene Robinson with a tape of him having sex with a prostitute.

Callaway admitted renting two rooms at an Absecon motel where Robinson was filmed having oral sex with a prostitute in November 2006.

Callaway was sentenced to three years in prison, to run concurrent to a 40-month federal term he already was serving. He is currently at the Federal Correctional Institution Gilmer in Glenville, W.Va., but almost had a chance to travel back to Atlantic County for a while last month, when three of his co-conspirators were on trial.

Defendant Floyd Tally testified he believed the Robinson set up was part of a federal investigation. Callaway told him as much, he insisted. And, on the stand, he would admit it. The move couldn’t be made in time, however. Tally, along with Callaway’s brothers, David and Ronald, were convicted in the scheme. They are scheduled to be sentenced. Dec. 10.

Kessler Campus

Nov. 20, 2008: William B. Kessler Memorial Hospital has begun a full-court press to stay in business by getting $5 million in loans from community members by mid-January. That would complete the funding of a $16.5 million revitalization plan for the once-bankrupt hospital.

“Am I convinced that the citizens are ready to loan the hospital $5 million? No. But I think there’s a shot,” new CEO Jim Rossi said.

There wasn’t. By March, Kessler closed its doors, and AtlantiCare took over running the hospital as a satellite to its two other campuses.

Less than two weeks into the new management, doctors were already lauding the change.

“It’s night and day,” said Dr. Bill Zwiebel, who worked at Kessler Memorial Hospital for 25 years before it closed March 12. He now works at Kessler Campus as a member of AtlantiCare’s emergency department staff.

While AtlantiCare took over the emergency room, it still remains unclear what will happen to the rest of the hospital.

Holocaust memorial

Nov. 18, 2008: About 70 people bundled up under the pavilion at the Boardwalk and Kentucky Avenue, where a Holocaust memorial three years in the planning will be erected.

Atlantic City may well be the most ethnically diverse city in America, said Rabbi Gordon Geller, chairman of the committee to build the memorial. The project has been endorsed by clergy of every creed, and will serve as the city’s dedication to the ideal of tolerance and harmony.

The director of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem assured him that with 10 million pedestrians walking by every year, the memorial “can and will be recognized as one of the most important vehicles in the world for disseminating the legacy message of ‘Never again,’” Geller said.

Almost exactly a year later, the committee had another public announcement: The jury that will pick the winning memorial design has been chosen.

Designers may send their plans through the Web site www.acbhm.org.

Six finalists will be chosen by next summer. They each will receive $2,500 to turn their designs into models. The judges will then make their choice in August.

By Lynda Cohen, November 23, 2009

France’s first lady has been ridiculed as a wine-swigging, chain-smoking man- eater in a new episode of The Simpsons called The Devil Wears Nada.

Carla Bruni, wife of president Nicolas Sarkozy, bumps into Homer and his colleague Carl in Paris and promptly throws herself at Carl, declaring: ‘I want to make love, right now.’

In another scene, Homer takes a dig at French cinema, saying: ‘If you fire me, I’ll call president Sarkozy and he’ll be all over you like Truffaut on Hitchcock.’ The cult cartoon has featured figures such as former prime minister Tony Blair and media mogul Rupert Murdoch – but usually with their permission.

The controversial episode was broadcast in the US a week ago and has since become a web sensation in France.

The gags will send international relations to a new low after the cartoon created the insult ‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’ when France protested against the Iraq war.

By MILES ERWIN, November 23, 2009