Bucket becomes boutique at resort

THE once sleepy Edwardian holiday town of Greystones, Co Wicklow, has seen a burgeoning of new businesses from fashion to food and wine, flowers and gifts, cafes and restaurants and a hip pub. On a recent visit I met some really enthusiastic people working hard to keep their businesses on course in these times.

As you drive up Church Road you see people dining outside A Caviston's and The Happy Pear, which are side by side. Nearby is Azur shoe and accessory boutique, only six weeks old. It is the venture of Brigid Whitehead, and she clearly has a flair as she has bought like an expert. Her taste is impeccable, with a sparkling array of lovely shoes, handbags and classy costume jewellery and belts.

"I have been in publishing, but this is something I always had an interest in. We have a small publishing company in Bray where we were publishing interior and architectural magazines for almost 15 years, but we decided to take a year out. Business is tough.

"I worked for a year on my own... I just decided life is too short and I needed to start looking at something else."

Last October Brigid started researching her new business and found her premises.

"I just love it. I am delighted, I am a people person. I did the bulk of my research on the internet."

Brigid's aim was to stock quality products at the right price, which she has done. "I have been very busy. I couldn't anticipate how it was going to go -- it was a roll of the dice! I have tried to source things you can't get elsewhere."

Azur has a lovely range of costume jewellery by Martine Wester from London and a beautiful Danish range, Tokyo Jane, with bangles from €18. There is a fantastic range of bags by Martine Wester, shoes by Marco Moreo, and espadrilles by Vidoreta of Spain. Look out too for classy recyclable Canadian bags Matt & Nat.

Next door is the Greystones Eye Centre, where I met Ken Murray. Ken says, "Although it is a very tough trading climate out there, we are going from strength to strength due a very loyal customer base -- but also to an increasing number of visitors from south Co Dublin."

The Eye Centre has an extensive range of ophthalmic frames and sunglasses, including Gucci, Ray-Ban, Marc Jacobs, Bvlgari and Chanel.

Nearby too is Sophie Rieu's Garden of Unicorn sustainable designer label, where you can have her lovely designs made to measure.

Across the road is the authentic Italian Caffe Delle Stelle -- owned by Tomasso and Nadia, who used to have Papa's Restaurant in Blackrock, Co Dublin. They have a great value daytime menu.

Next door is the edgy Toil & Glitter boutique, with many Scandinavian clothing ranges. It stocks all sizes and has some funky labels, including Odd Molly.

The very popular Georgio's Shoe Boutique, owned by Cheri Feely and Yvonne Boland, has been on Hillside Road for 10 years. "We do a lot of mid-market comfort ranges from Germany --the Rieker, the Ara -- as well as dressy shoes for weddings."

Moving down the street I passed the new, hip Mrs Robinson Bar with its funky retro decor and sofas. It is proving a big hit in the area.

At Browzround gift shop I met Lana Kelly and Sandra O'Connell, a mother and daughter team in business for three years.

Drug suspect gets city salary

A lineman at the Peabody Municipal Light Plant has pocketed about $40,000 in salary since being arrested in August on suspicion of trafficking cocaine.

Ronald D'Andrea, 50, who has worked at the light plant since 2003, has also collected health, life and retirement benefits since he was arrested and placed on paid leave months ago, according to city records.

On Aug. 23, Revere police narcotics detectives caught D'Andrea with a half-kilogram of cocaine stuffed into a Target shopping bag, according to a police report filed with Chelsea District Court. Local and state drug units had been monitoring D'Andrea and eavesdropping on his conversations while investigating "the narcotics distribution enterprise" he is alleged to have operated, the police report said.

Two days before his arrest, D'Andrea paid $20,000 for the cocaine and agreed to pick up the drugs the following Tuesday at a Ninety Nine Restaurant in Revere, according to police.

About 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 23, D'Andrea drove into the restaurant's back parking lot and got into the passenger seat of gray sedan, police said. A short time later, D'Andrea got out of the car carrying a white shopping bag, then placed the bag in the trunk of his car as police approached. When police confiscated the bag, it contained "a block of white rock/powder ... in excess of 500 grams of the Class B controlled substance, cocaine," according to the police report.

After obtaining a warrant to search D'Andrea's Saugus house, police found more than $1,500 cash, a digital scale and a handheld grinder, the police report said.

D'Andrea pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Chelsea District Court and was released on $5,000 bail. His attorney, Robert Sheketoff, declined to comment on the case specifically. He said that drug cases typically take more than a year to settle. The next scheduled court date is a probable-cause hearing slated for April 30 in Chelsea.

Shortly after D'Andrea's arrest, the Peabody Municipal Light Plant suspended the lineman without pay but then placed him on paid administrative leave in October.

When asked why D'Andrea was placed on paid leave instead of unpaid leave, Glenn Trueira, the manager of the plant, said there is no "specific policy about this," so the determination was made based on the circumstances and after consultation with the plant's attorney, Phillip Durkin. Trueira was assistant manager of the plant at the time of D'Andrea's arrest.

"What we do is look at each case separately on its own merits, what's involved and what the given details are in each case," Trueira said in an interview. "When this situation arose, I consulted with our attorney, and he looked into it."

The Municipal Light Commission was told of the D'Andrea situation but did not weigh in, said Robert Wheatley, the commission chairman.

British man charged after boarding plane in Pakistan with rifle

Mohammed Rafiq was travelling back to the UK via Dubai when he was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, which serves the capital Islamabad.

Police found a .222 calibre rifle and ammunition in his luggage, and initially feared he was planning a terrorist attack.

However, Deputy Inspector General Azhar Hameed Khokhar, who heads security in Rawalpindi, where the airport is located, said police had found no evidence of a terrorist plot.

"We are confident it has nothing to with terrorism. He was arrested at the airport by security officers when he was found to have a rifle in his bag," he said.

"He claims it was packed by mistake by his relatives.
"We have investigated his background and can find no connection to terrorist groups."

It is understood that Mr Rafiq had been in Pakistan visiting relatives in Kashmir and was due to fly home with Emirates to Manchester.

He has been charged with holding a weapon without a licence and released on bail, said Mr Khokhar.

A security consultant in Islamabad said Mr Rafiq had a lucky escape.

"Of all the places to get caught like that, Pakistan is one of the worst," he said. "It looks pretty bad."

Pakistan's terrorist training camps along the border with Afghanistan attract young Jihadis from Europe and have been connected repeatedly with several plots against Western targets.

Last year one of Britain's most wanted terrorists, Ibrahim Adam was killed in a drone strike soon after warnings that he was trying to secure a passport and might to return to Britain to launch attacks.

But at the same time, arms and ammunition are widely available at gunships in towns and cities and many people carry guns for their own personal protection.

And earlier this year an American diplomat was arrested with 13 bullets in his luggage at Peshawar airport as he prepared to fly to Islamabad.

Diplomatic sources said the close protection officer, who was routinely armed, had simply blundered as he packed for an early morning flight. He was released within hours.

A spokeswoman for the British High Commission said Mr Rafiq had not requested consular assistance.

CM D V Sadananda Gowda rolls out goodies bag for his village

A school boy from this backward village in Dakshina Kannada in his avatar as chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday loosened purse strings of the state treasury to put it on the accelerated path to development. The chief minister's largesse for the day is Rs 9.25 crore aimed at addressing the most basic needs of the village - identified once by a media survey as the most backward village in DK.

The goodies bag did not stop there. The CM addressing his village elders and Gen Next from the very school premises in the village that he grew up said, "Sullia taluk as a whole will get Rs 79 crore during the current fiscal for its various development needs. I have allocated special grants of Rs 5 crore for each of the eight assembly taluks in Dakshina Kannada district in the budget," the CM said.

Observing that he never dreamt of standing before his villagers as chief minister he said, "This is mainly due to the blessings of all, village deity and the opportunity given to me by my party that I have come to this exalted position."

The BJP deserved the credit for giving even a person, who hailed from a remote backward village, to occupy the top post in the state, CM said adding he would ensure that none of his acts brought disgrace to the village ever.
Defending the largesse that includes Rs 4 crore for development of Sullia-Ajjavara-Mandekolu-Addoor inter-state road, bridge across Payaswini on Jalsoor-Muroor-Mandekolu Road at Muroor at the cost of Rs 4 crore, development of Baithadka-Mandekolu Road at a cost of Rs 80 lakh and bridge at Mavinapalla on the Baithadka-Mandekolu at a cost of Rs 45 lakh, the chief minister said, "It is my vision to see no village in the state remains backward."

Asserting that he has maintained a clean slate in the last eight months at the helm of affairs, the CM said it was his firm belief that corruption in the administration could be rooted out with timely delivery of vital services to people. "Sakala is the instrument chosen by me for this purpose. Lack of hands in providing transparent administration is a issue. But, I will manage the situation and am determined to stop corruption," the chief minister added.

For women, boxing workouts pull no punches

Jennifer Vaughn needed to get in shape after law school. Emily McCart wanted a break from running.

Punching, jabbing and kicking a heavy boxing bag turned out to be just the workout they were looking for.

For women who crave an intense fitness routine, boxing-based workouts can be efficient and empowering, even if their feet never touch the inside of a ring.

"I became addicted to it," said Vaughn, a Chicago-based attorney. "It has given me an amazing sense of confidence and poise; a feeling that there is nothing that can't be accomplished."

Such was her devotion that Vaughn eventually opened a franchise location of LA Boxing, a national chain that specializes in boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, in her town.

"It developed from a love of the sport," she said. "I wanted to train like a fighter, but in a place where you didn't' have to get in the ring if you didn't want to. "

Her club boasts a regulation-sized ring and some 35 150-pound (68-kilogram) punching bags. Women, who make up 60 percent of her clientele, gravitate to the group fitness classes.

"We get working class people, professional women, students, some senior citizens too," she said. "We have a few pros, but most people are there to work out."

McCart, a Chicago-based public defender, said the strength she gained from her boxing fitness classes complements her running.

"I've learned something about the sport, the technique," she said. "I never knew I'd like it, but it's become a part of my life."
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Philip Jacobs, LA Boxing's Director of Franchise, said his company targets soccer moms and their kids.

"I would say 90 percent of our clients have nothing to do with real fighting," he said from Santa Ana, California.

He said members divide equally along gender lines, but can foresee a spike in female members this summer when the 2012 Olympics includes women's boxing for the first time.

"It's fun. It's empowering. It's as much psychological as physical," he said of the workout, which he said can burn up to 1000 calories. "If you can't do a six-punch combination, you do a two-punch. Everyone gets their own bag and goes at their own pace."

He calls the hour-long classes hardcore and quick.

"It's a testosterone-filled environment for people who seek out an intense workout. Women don't walk in there with makeup on."

Pam Opdyke, regional sports manager, Reebok Sports Club/NY and The Sports Club/LA, said women members crave the intensity of the boxing and kickboxing classes those fitness centers offer, just as much as the men do.

"I think our boxing classes have always been predominantly women," said Opdyke, who is based in New York.

She said boxing workouts are great for toning the upper arms, back and abdominals, areas that women often like to target, while providing a high-intensity cardio session at the same time.

"It's all intermixed with boxing," she explained. "Just hitting the bag is cardiovascular, and you're working on your abdominals and your arms. You're also twisting, and then there are plyometric (jumping) moves, followed by pushups and sit ups."

She said boxing is a particular draw for professional women.

"The people who take our classes are Type A," she said. "They learn to do it well."

Her clients mainly attack heavy bags, not people. "I don't think anyone imagines they would hit anybody," she said. "But just imagining they could is a confidence booster."

Southeast Louisiana Turns to Greener, Grocery Bag Options

New Orleans is emerging from the throwaway era as residents sign up for curbside recycling -- implemented last year -- and direct their Carnival beads to new uses. Cities in other states have gone a step further, banning plastic grocery bags and even paper ones because of resources used in their production, along with the litter they generate, the cost of their disposal and threats to fish and wildlife. Plastic bags are banned in parts of the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. In March, Austin, Texas voted to outlaw single-use plastic and paper bags at stores.

The New Orleans City Council hasn't considered restrictions on grocery bags yet. And Louisiana's parishes could be slow to regulate plastic and paper bags since the state produces oil, natural gas and petrochemicals -- feedstocks for plastic -- and engages in pulp and paper making.

After grocers nationwide adopted plastic bags 40 years ago, shoppers have reused them for garbage and their pets, stashed them in cupboards or immediately tossed them in the trash. Here in Sportsman's Paradise, they've been left behind at picnics and at beach and boat outings. They can clog storm drains. Unless they're recycled or sent to landfill, plastic bags slowly degrade outdoors, often reaching the ocean and interfering with life there.

So how are local stores and shoppers dealing with grocery bags today? "Paper versus plastic used to be the big question, but in recent years plastic has become the new normal," said Allison Rouse, managing partner and third generation grocer at Rouses Enterprises LLC. "We still have some people who prefer paper and request it, but plastic is by far the bag most commonly used."

Some customers, however, have adopted reusable bags, Rouse said, adding "they're environmentally friendly, they reduce waste and mean fewer bags to carry." Rouses, with 38 stores in south Louisiana and Mississippi, introduced reusable bags on Earth Day in April 2008. The company's big collapsible, canvas bags sells for 99 cents.

In 2008, the Whole Foods Market chain phased plastic bags out of its stores.

At Robert Fresh Market -- with four stores in Greater New Orleans -- operations director Drew Le Blanc said "we primarily use plastic bags because of the low cost to us -- about 1.5 cents" apiece. That may be more than some other grocers pay because of custom print on the chain's bags. "We have some customers who ask for paper bags -- costing us 9 cents," he said. "They provide better balance in the trunk of a car."

Le Blanc said, "In the last two years, we've seen a tremendous increase in the use of cloth or recycled-material bags. Most stores, including ours, sell them. The markup on the bags isn't much. They save us on the cost of buying grocery bags, and we brand them in a form of advertising."

At Breaux Mart, Jay Breaux said reusable bags have caught on in several of the company's five stores in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. "We sell recycling bags below cost and give them away on occasions. We have bins in the front of our stores for people who want to return plastic bags for recycling."

Breaux said plastic bags are cheaper than paper but cashiers double them for heavy items. And shoppers want items separated in different plastic bags so they don't cross-contaminate. He said customers who prefer recyclable bags can use nylon ones for produce. "You just ball them up and put them in your pocket before heading to the store," he said.

Liz Davey, environmental affairs director at Tulane University, said she's been pleasantly surprised at how many customers use recycling bags when she shops for groceries in Mid City in New Orleans.

But that's still only a fraction of local consumers. And in the meantime, plastic bags remain a problem for the state's air, streams, lakes and Gulf waters.

"Fish mistake plastic for jellyfish or other organisms and consume it," said Chris Macaluso, coastal outreach coordinator with the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. "Plastic has no nutritive value and it harms a fish's digestive system." He said plastic doesn't break down quickly and people need to be mindful of bags going into storm drains, canals and downstream.

Plastic tends to degrade more slowly in water than on land. In the cold, dark ocean, it gradually breaks into tiny pieces called micro-plastics. "Fish and birds think those plastic pieces with the sun reflecting off them are plankton and other food," said Andres Harris, solid waste and recycling manager at Louisiana State University's Baton Rouge campus. He said "we eat that fish."

Andres said plastic bags blow around and end up in our waterways. "In the Pacific Ocean, there's a a huge zone where currents meet, plastics collect and fish eat plastic particles." That area, 1,000 miles west of California, is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Northern Pacific Gyre.

In Louisiana's Gulf, the hypoxia or low-dissolved oxygen zone is mainly blamed on nitrogen from fertilizers flowing down the Mississippi River.

What happens to plastic bags in landfills? At River Birch Inc. in Gretna, technical director Victor Culpepper said "plastic bags are problematic for landfills because they become airborne quickly. We use litter fences and have crews pick them up after they blow around." At day's end, the bags, along with everything else, are covered with clay.

Culpepper said bags decompose at varying speeds, depending on what they're made of and where they are. They start to photo-degrade outdoors when exposed to the sun.. He said "we don't open the landfill to look inside so I'm not sure how long they take to degrade there."

But even biodegradable and compostable plastic bags and paper bags take a long time to break down in landfill, where there's little oxygen, compared with someone's backyard, LSU's Harris said.

One reason that low-income countries with growing populations ban plastic bags is that they can't afford to keep building landfills and recycling facilities. And governments in low-lying Asian nations want to keep plastic bags from clogging storm drains during rainy seasons.

Plastic and paper bags are both villains but in different ways. Paper bag manufacturing consumes three times as much energy and nearly twenty times as much fresh water, according to a 2007 study by Boustead Consulting & Associates in Pennsylvania. Since most paper comes from tree pulp, paper bag production requires huge resources from forests -- which absorb greenhouse gases. Paper bags are heavier to transport and store than plastic.

How to avoid a backpack burden

Book, notice folder and spelling homework, 227 grams. Pencil case, 85 grams. Pocket notebook with fairy cover, 28 grams. Lunch, 570 grams. Placemat, 42 grams. Hat and mittens, 227 grams. Extra hat, 28 grams. Inhaler, 28 grams.

Sunscreen, 114 grams. Hand sanitizer, 28 grams. Moisturizer, 28 grams. Cellphone (not working), 42 grams.

Add these and other small treasures squirrelled away in the pockets of the plaid backpack — 935 grams — together and it all adds up to more than three kilograms. In itself, perhaps not that much. But for Grade 2 student Hazel Taylor, it clocks in at more than 10% of her body weight. Alberta Health Services recommends that children's growing bodies should carry backpacks that weigh no more than 10% of their body weight to avoid developing chronic health problems in their adult life.

"It's sometimes heavy because I have my lunch kit and water bottle and heavy stuff," Hazel, 7, says of her backpack.

Her father, Kirk Taylor, has hefted the bag.

"For her, I think it's definitely heavy," says Taylor, also noting that Hazel has never complained about a sore back or shoulders from carrying her backpack. Some items, he acknowledges, could be left at the school rather than brought back and forth, such as an extra change of clothes, "I'm sure if we went through it, there is stuff we could take out."

Keeping within the recommended weight is likely a challenge for many Calgary students. Lunch, a water bottle and snow pants, not to mention a few school books or an agenda, and the bag itself, and the weight easily adds up to more than 10 per cent of a child's body weight, especially in the youngest grades. Hauling heavy textbooks back and forth from home to school becomes a concern for the older grades.

At Hazel's school, Captain John Palliser School in the northwest, a casual weighing of a small sample of backpacks and grades 1 and 2 students showed most are just under that 10 per cent mark at eight or nine per cent of body weight. One Grade 2 student hit a high of 17 per cent, while one Grade 1 was at a low of five per cent.

Neither the Calgary Board of Education nor the Calgary Catholic School District have written policies directing a maximum weight children should be carrying in their bags.

"We don't specify an administrative regulation regarding that," said Jeannie Everett, director of Area 1 for the Calgary Board of Education. "We certainly tell parents, through our school news letters, that we support the Alberta Health Services' recommendations and that parents ultimately get to determine the type of backpack that their kid carries and what goes into them."

Grade 1 student Sam Symanczyk's mom bought her a roller bag this year.

"I remember as a kid having pain and neck problems because of a heavy backpack and from carrying it on one shoulder," said Angela Symanczyk, a certified personal trainer. Last year, her daughter complained about the weight of her backpack, but the roller bag seems to have solved most of the problem.

"When I roll it, it gets kind of heavy and my arms get tired. Then I switch arms," Sam says of her bag. She does still need to lift it at times and it can get stuck on snowy ground, but it mostly alleviates carrying the weight.

Julia Brooks, physical therapist with Alberta Children's Hospital, works with children experiencing neck and back pain.

"I wouldn't say that there are more new neck and back injuries, but I would say that the current load we're asking students to carry in their backpacks certainly increases the amount of pain and disability that we see related to that," she said.

"If we look at a teenager at 130 pounds, that (10 per cent of body weight) is only 13 pounds. They're lugging along five textbooks and a trombone and pair of gym shoes and their lunch, and that quickly adds up to 30 pounds. I've had some kids weigh their backpacks, and they're in excess of 30 pounds. It's more like going on a backpack trip than going to school every day."

While she hasn't seen any research literature specifically on how backpacks relate to back problems in children, she does say school bags tend to be a prime suspect when trying to sort out why a child is experiencing back and neck pain.

"Often backpacks are a huge contributor (to such pain)," Brooks said.

She suggests lightening the load by leaving textbooks at school if there is access to another set at home, and wearing a proper backpack so weight is well-distributed. Good posture is the other piece to solving the pain puzzle.

"If you look at desk workers and students, they tend to be the ones who have significant levels of neck and back pain purely because of the position they are constantly in," Brooks said.

Taking "posture breaks" — standing up or sitting up straight every 20 minutes and tightening core muscles helps give your back a break.

And those cool courier-style bags? Leave them at home, Brooks said.

"Ideally when you're wearing a bag with weight, you want the weight distributed over both shoulders," Brooks said. "If you only have a strap on one side (backpacks included), it means that all the muscles on one side are trying to hold you up and the other side is getting overstretched. Courier bags are definitely more stressful on the spine and the musculature around the spine."

Hazel's teacher, Nancy Baines, noted that school bags are a weighty subject and reflect changes in our society. With longer bus rides, some kids are passing the time with electronic devices from iPads to Nintendo DS. Older kids have computers to tote with them.

"Over the years, bags seem to have gone up in weight because of the extra things students need," said the teacher of nine years, who has also seen changes that make them lighter, including using a notice folder instead of a heavy agenda to communicate with parents.