Wondering what is Florida Keys??

The Florida Keys are an archipelago of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and defining one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point, the southern tip of Key West is just 94 miles (151 km) from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 23.5 and 25.5 degrees North latitude, in the subtropics. The climate of the Keys however, is defined as tropical according to Köppen climate classification. More than 95 percent of the land area lies in Monroe County, but a small portion extends northeast into Miami-Dade County, primarily in the city of Islandia, Florida. The total land area is 137.3 square miles (356 km2). As of the 2000 census the population was 79,535, with an average density of 579.27 per square mile (223.66 /km²), although much of the population is concentrated in a few areas of much higher density, such as the city of Key West, which has 32% of the entire population of the Keys.

The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe County, which consists of a section on the mainland which is almost entirely in Everglades National Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the Dry Tortugas.

The Florida Keys are the exposed portions of an ancient coral reef. The northernmost island arising from the ancient reef formation is Elliott Key, in Biscayne National Park. North of Elliott Key are several small transitional keys, composed of sand built up around small areas of exposed ancient reef. Further north, Key Biscayne and places north are barrier islands, built up of sand.[1]

The Florida Keys have taken their present form as the result of the drastic changes in sea level associated with recent glaciations or ice ages. Beginning some 130,000 years ago the Sangamonian Stage raised sea levels to approximately 25 feet (7.5 m) above the current level. All of southern Florida was covered by a shallow sea. Several parallel lines of reef formed along the edge of the submerged Florida plateau, stretching south and then west from the present Miami area to what is now the Dry Tortugas. This reef formed the Key Largo limestone that is exposed on the surface from Soldier Key (midway between Key Biscayne and Elliott Key) to the southeast portion of Big Pine Key and the Newfound Harbor Keys. The types of coral that formed Key Largo limestone can be identified on the exposed surface of these keys.

Starting about 100,000 years ago the Wisconsin glaciation began lowering sea levels, exposing the coral reef and surrounding marine sediments. By 15,000 years ago the sea level had dropped to 300 to 350 feet (110 m) below the contemporary level. The exposed reefs and sediments were heavily eroded. Acidic water, which can result from decaying vegetation, dissolves limestone. Some of the dissolved limestone redeposited as a denser cap rock, which can be seen as outcrops overlying the Key Largo and Miami limestones throughout the Keys. The limestone that eroded from the reef formed oolites in the shallow sea behind the reef, and together with the skeletal remains of bryozoans, formed the Miami limestone that is the current surface bedrock of the lower Florida peninsula and the lower keys from Big Pine Key to Key West. To the west of Key West the ancient reef is covered by recent calcareous sand.

Barack Obama Thug Chief of Staff? Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel, the man President elect Barack Obama has chosen to be his Chief of Staff, is being slated a thug out of Chicago – and the reasons are intriguing.

Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives who was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2006 elections, may become Obama’s Chief of Staff.

Rahm Emanuel isn’t just what Obama would have you believe he is – but he is also an alleged thug who let Freddie Mac and its investors come crashing to the ground.

Emanuel was on the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac when it began its downward spiral. According to a blog, ABC News reported:

According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002. Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) of having “failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.”

Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois and is of Jewish descent. Obama apparently appreciates Emanuel’s knowledge of policy, politics and Capitol Hill. He says Emanuel will “have his back” in his future administration.

Nonprofit eatery can’t bring home bacon

For nearly a year, Salt Lake City’s One World Cafe – founded on the altruistic goal of letting customers set their own meal price – has been on a crash course with business reality.
In mid-October, employee paychecks bounced and the longtime manager was fired. Bo Dean’s dismissal angered the rest of the staff enough that they walked out in protest.
Founder Denise Cerreta was forced to call a temporary staffing agency so she could serve customers.
Inexperience seems to be the main problem for the nonprofit cafe at 41 S. 300 East.
“As the restaurant grew, I didn’t have the expertise at running a kitchen,” acknowledged Cerreta during a media teleconference call on Friday. “We needed more structure and a more professional kitchen.”
A recent review of the business showed the restaurant was overstaffed and management of employee time was poor. It never even had an employee time clock. The restaurant also had failed to keep concise records of food costs and fixed costs. All told, mismanagement cost the restaurant $8,000 to $10,000 a month, Cerreta said.
“There just wasn’t a system in place so that it would work as a professional establishment,” added Steve Lyman, a longtime restaurant manager from Squatters, Red Rock and Bambara, who is volunteering his time to help get One World in order.

During the past week, the restaurant has implemented new kitchen procedures and hired a new executive chef and sous chef.
“We were financially shaky, but we will be fine,” Cerreta said. “We are in no danger of us closing.”
Following tradition wasn’t what Cerreta wanted when she founded The One World “Everybody Eats” Cafe five years ago.
She envisioned a restaurant with no menus or set prices. Cerreta, and later her chefs, would make entrees, soups, salads and desserts from organic meats and locally grown produce. Diners filled their plates with only the food they wanted and paid what they thought the meal was worth or what they could afford.
The idea was unique and quickly gained national attention. Cerreta turned the business into the nonprofit One World Everybody Eats Foundation with its own board of directors. She traveled the country speaking about the concept and helped people start similar community kitchens in other cities.
But this summer, while Cerreta was in Seattle, One World’s revenues began declining. Meal donations, which once averaged $10, had fallen to $7.
At one point, the bank account was so depleted that employee paychecks bounced.
“Mine didn’t clear for 3 1/2 months,” said Dean, who had worked at the restaurant since its inception. He had been asked to create a more professional operation in recent months, but when the board decided he wasn’t up to the task, they fired him.
Dean believes Cerreta’s constant absence from the restaurant and lack of communication exacerbated the financial problems.
To expand the “One World” concept, Cerreta was out of town much of the time, he said. She also has pulled trained chefs away from day-to-day restaurant operations to help with the expansion.
“It’s hard to implement changes when I was the only one around,” said Dean, who heard that he had been fired from a fellow employee – not Cerreta or the board.

How To Search For Missing Money Online

A friend of mine recently e-mailed me to let me know that there was some lost and missing money in my name waiting to be claimed. It was sitting idolly in an insurance premium that had been refunded and never claimed. I guess that she had been bored one day and just started searching for everyone that she knew. It’s not a bad idea, and many people can find missing money that the government and other companies owe them.

You can look for lost money in your own name as well at the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administration’s (NAUPA) website. MissingMoney.com is NAUPA’s comprehensive national database that was established in 1999 to help the states inform citizens about unclaimed property. The website will also tell you the procedure and who to contact to begin the claims process.

Some of the most common types of unclaimed property that can be lost and then found are bank accounts and safe deposit box contents, stock certificates, mutual funds, bonds, dividends, uncashed checks and wages, insurance policies, CD’s, trust funds, utility deposits, escrow accounts, and others. Many people, especially professionals who move around from job to job every few years open bank accounts and conduct transactions throughout the country. Do you have money in an old savings account that you might have forgotten about?

You can also check your state’s office of your state’s treasurer to find missing money that is owed to you. The NAUPA has a link to most states’ offices directly on their website. Check every state that you have lived in. It could well be worth your time. It was very quick and painless checking to see if I had any money left unclaimed in the six states that I have lived in throughout my life.

The money in question that my friend found in my name was actually my grandfather’s. We share the same name, and the leftover money was for an insurance premium that was paid and eventually refunded the month that he died, over twelve years ago. Thanks to my friends e-mail, my aunt (the actual next of kin) was able to retrieve her long lost $150, which was enough for a great night on the town.

Circuit City may shut stores to avoid bankruptcy

Struggling electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. is considering a plan to shut at least 150 stores and cut thousands of jobs to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

Circuit City has hired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which oversaw Kmart’s Chapter 11 reorganization, as its bankruptcy counsel. The company also has retained FTI Consulting Inc. to develop a turnaround plan and investment bank Rothschild Inc. to guide talks with banks and secure emergency financing, the Journal reported.

“While we would appreciate [Circuit City] for its attempt to stay solvent, we remain highly pessimistic on holiday sales and on consumer spending in 2009,” said Standard & Poor’s analyst Michael Souers.

A filing from Circuit City would make it the largest retailer to enter bankruptcy protection in several years, the paper reported. Retailers that have filed for bankruptcy protection this year include Linens ‘n Things, Mervyn’s and Sharper Image.

“We’re not going to speculate on rumors and comment beyond our original statement,” said Circuit City spokesman Jim Babb in a response to emailed questions.

The company’s management team, board of directors, and its strategic financial advisers are conducting a “comprehensive review” of all aspects of its business to determine the best methods of accelerating its turnaround and delivering substantially improved operating and financial performance, the company said in a written statement.

Shares of Circuit City fell 2.6% to 38 cents a share in afternoon trading, erasing earlier gains and wiping out 91% of their value this year.

The declining credit market has yielded the company little luck in securing debtor-in-possession financing, which helps a business in bankruptcy proceedings pay its day-to-day operating expenses, according to the Journal. By shutting the stores, 59-year-old Circuit City could liquidate about $350 million in inventory, which it could use to pay off certain real-estate costs and pressure existing landlords to renegotiate some leases, the paper added.

As of Aug. 31, Circuit City had 714 stores in the United States and 772 stores and dealer outlets in Canada, employing about 45,000 people. It had sales of $11.74 billion in the year ended Feb. 29.

In September, Circuit City withdrew its previous fiscal 2009 outlook and said that it was suspending future store openings beginning next fiscal year to review all aspects of the business ahead of the holiday season, its biggest selling period.

Faced with a slowing U.S. economy, a weakened brand position, along with stiff competition from rivals such as Best Buy Co. Circuit City has lost market share and customer traffic. Cash and short-term investments declined 78% to $92.5 million, while the company incurred short-term debt of $215 million.

The retailer’s liquidity position and how its financial performance may be affecting its vendors were repeated topics on management’s conference call with analysts in September.

Circuit City, which began to explore a sale of the company earlier this year, said in September that all options were still on the table. It also said that it may focus internally on improving its performance to keep operating independently.

Terry Mcauliffe make run for governor in VA

Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman filed papers Monday forming an exploratory committee to run for Virginia governor. 

Terry McAuliffe was widely expected to make his decision after Election Day. The former Democratic National Committee chairman will now do a 60 day listening tour of the state.

In September, McAuliffe hired longtime Virginia political consultant Mo Elleithee to start planning a possible statewide campaign, should he decide to run. Elleithee spent the last year working alongside McAuliffe in the Clinton campaign as a senior spokesman, but in recent years he has also helped steer Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to signature Democratic victories in Virginia.

Should he run, McAuliffe will face off in next year’s Democratic primary against state Sen. Creigh Deeds and State House Rep. Brian Moran. Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell is expected to run for the Republican nomination unopposed.

Murder case dropped against estranged wife

A MURDER case has been dropped against a woman accused of bludgeoning to death her estranged millionaire husband.

Melbourne woman Dianne Faye Griffey was to stand trial in the Victorian Supreme Court today for the murder of Michael Griffey, 45.

Mr Griffey’s body was found in the garage of the family’s home in January, 2006.

The father-of-three appeared to have been attacked with a blunt metal object and had been dead for several days when he was found.

Today, crown prosecutor Geoffrey Horgan SC said the case against Ms Griffey was doomed.

Justice Philip Cummins discharged Ms Griffey, telling her she was free to go.

She made no comment as she left court.

Criminally insane would be denied vote under bill

It happened again Tuesday, as it does in most every election: Howard Unruh, the man who killed 13 people in a 1949 Camden shooting spree, voted and the Mercer County Board of Elections declared his ballot invalid.

Though his ballot was not counted, the possibility of voting by Unruh and other people who have committed heinous crimes but have not been convicted either because they were found not competent to stand trial or because they were not guilty by reason of insanity sparked outrage among some officials this week.

State Sen. Shirley Turner, a Democrat from Lawrenceville, said that she is drafting a bill that would bar the criminally insane from voting.

“These are the people who have been determined not to know right from wrong — which is why they’re in a psychiatric facility,” she said.

The dustup began when about 40 patients at Ann Klein Forensic Center, which serves about 200 people with severe mental illness who are also in the judicial system, submitted absentee ballots in Mercer County for this week’s election.

Mercer County Republicans challenged the votes.

They were able to show that seven of the patients were sex offenders on parole for life and therefore ineligible.

Also disqualified was the vote cast by Unruh, now 87, who was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for his killing spree and who is a patient at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital — a high-security facility near the Ann Klein center.

The votes of 33 other Ann Klein patients withstood the challenge and were among the 3.65 million votes counted in New Jersey.

It is unclear how many patients there may have voted by absentee ballot in other counties.

Pam Ronan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said there are 229 people in the five state psychiatric hospitals because they have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ronan said her department believes that people are eligible to vote unless they are serving a prison sentence, parole, probation or have been found by a judge not to be competent to understand voting.

By that definition, Unruh might be eligible.

Ronan said patients around the state are told about the election and given voter registration applications and absentee ballots if they request them.

“Our practice is to respect the patient’s civil rights,” she said.

Officials who object to the Ann Klein patients voting say they aren’t concerned if most of the 2,000 or so state psychiatric hospital patients vote.

“There are many people who are committed but are suffering mental diseases,” said Paula Sollami Covello, the Mercer County clerk who was upset that her job required her to grant absentee ballots to Ann Klein patients. “But they are able to understand what they are doing.”

‘Witness to Jonestown’ is a chilling look at a deadly cult

Jim Jones presented himself to his Peoples Temple followers as a messiah.

Privately, he knew he was a fraud, which means he either fought an inner battle with some vestige of his better nature or congratulated himself for pulling off the messiah scam.

Either way, when he led some 900 Peoples Temple followers to their death in Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978, he forfeited his claim even to being a hustler and became simply a mass murderer.

Deranged, maybe. Cowardly, for sure. Like many of his fellow killers, he killed himself to avoid facing what he had done.

“Witness to Jonestown” uses the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre to revisit the story. It’s a compelling documentary, using extensive interviews with Jonestown survivors to build a portrait of an increasingly paranoid Jones pulling in the walls of his own creation so far that eventually everyone was squeezed to death.

In this reconstruction, the alleged mass suicide was not really suicide at all, at least in the classic sense of people choosing to take their lives.

After isolating his followers in the South American jungle, Jones pounded them for months with the increasingly urgent warning that the U.S. government was going to get them and treat them “worse than the Jews were treated during the Holocaust.”

When Peoples Temple members killed Congressman Leo Ryan, who had flown to Guyana to see what was going on, Jones whipped the compound into a frenzy, declared death was the only way out and used armed gunmen to enforce the order to drink poison.

It still sounds insane. But when the survivors explain why they joined Jones in the first place, and how they were alternately stroked and manipulated as time went by, dots start to connect.

Viewers fascinated by the Jonestown story shouldn’t expect this special to provide any startling new information or insight. Jones’ story, including his political influence in San Francisco, has been well-documented before, as recently as last year’s docudrama “Jonestown: Paradise Lost.”

Most of the survivors have also told their stories before.

What “Jonestown Revisited” does well is put the story together in one place, with the stamp of solid news reporting.

MSNBC says it feels a special kinship to the story because three NBC newsmen were killed along with Ryan. Each step toward trying to explain the “how” and “why” pays tribute to what they were doing that day – even if it only proves that sometimes the madness can’t be stopped.

Famiy TV show for your home: Design on a Dime

Design on a Dime (sometimes referred to as DoD) is a redesigning television series on HGTV. It features one or more people who want a room, etc. made better. The Design on a Dime team uses a $1000 budget to remake a room. There have been a few variations, with episodes for weddings and more.

Design on a Dime makes over a space for design-conscious home dwellers who want lots of style but may not have lots of money for the project. With a budget of $1,000, a design team tackles a problem area such as a boring bedroom, lackluster living room, cluttered dining room or outdated office space.

Design Team

• Kristan Cunningham:Kristan Cunningham knew from a young age that her passion for the arts would become her career. Hailing from West Virginia, she studied interior design at the University of Charleston, and in 1997 decided to introduce herself to Los Angeles and the city’s cutting edge world of design.Having seen much success in furniture design and with her own projects, Cunningham joined a small, edgy firm, where she could hone her skills. The studio environment gave her the opportunity to exploreboth the structural and technical end of design, providing her with an even more well-rounded design sensibility. As host and designer on Design on a Dime, Cunningham relishes the opportunity to “get back to the basics.” Viewers and clients alike will reap the benefits of her fresh approach to budget-conscious design. She lives in Pasadena with her fiance, Scott, and Floyd, their Yorkshire terrier.

• Spencer Anderson:Spencer Anderson grew up in Houston, Texas, where he studied art and metal sculpture before moving to Tallahassee. At Florida State University, he continued to sculpt, but found a new interest in designing sets and building props for his friends’ movies. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began assistant art directing on small cable films. Now, as a member of the design team on Design on a Dime, he couldn’t be happier. He has many opportunities to make new and exciting pieces that don’t get destroyed after the show’s over! His artistic background and talent for building are a perfect combination for the show’s unique formula.

• Summer Baltzer : Summer Baltzer began her career more than 10 years ago, designing and decorating for community and equity theater productions in the Southern California area, while also running her own residential interior design business. She received her formal training at California State University-Northridge in the Family Environmental Sciences department, where she studied Architectural and Interior Design. Baltzer has many years of experience in designing interiors to suit all pocketbooks, but she particularly loves the challenge of designing a room on a dime.

• David Sheinkopf : For Dave Sheinkopf, growing up in New York city was a breeding ground for creativity. Starting at a young age, Sheinkopf found himself in the spotlight, working on big and small screens as an actor. At age 19, he moved across the country to his new home in Los Angeles. After years of focusing his talents on television and film, he discovered a love of building and designing. Eventually set design gave way to art direction on music videos and commercials, although his passion for acting and furniture-building never subsided. His new job on Design on a Dime not only feeds his creative side but has given him a great team of players to work with who are dedicated to inventing solutions for challenging decor dilemmas.

• Charles Burbridge : Los Angeles native Charles Burbridge left his growing decorative painting and interiors business to join the HGTV family. Though this is his first foray into broadcast television, Burbridge has been a working actor for the past decade and is a founding member of the popular Bay Area improvisational sketch comedy troupe Big Boned Theatre. Dividing his time between his numerous creative pursuits has always been a challenge, but at last he has found the perfect blending of his many interests and artistic abilities as a part of the Design on a Dime team.

• Ali Azhar : Ali Azhar’s philosophy of design is that lighting, color and texture make a room. As a contractor, he does it all from lighting to building to tiling, working from the ground up. He likes to say his approach is to make $1 out of 15 cents. It’s a philosophy that will serve him well in his new role as design coordinator on Design on a Dime. When he’s not working on the show, Azhar’s restoring his own home in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

• Kelly Edwards : A native of Chicago, design coordinator Kelly Edwards has returned home after spending the past three years in Los Angeles working as the design assistant for one of the original Design on a Dime design teams. She feels it was a job that served as the basis for learning how to incorporate high-end design principles with designing on a budget to create a room that homeowners can enjoy and find functional at the same time. She wants to show viewers that with a little ingenuity, they can transform everyday purchases into amazing designs.

• Abraham Hopkins : Abraham Hopkins is on a mission to make green homes and eco-developments a reality for us all. Coming to Design on a Dime fulfills his passion to teach millions of Americans about green design on a budget and the positive impact it can have. Hopkins is the owner of Paradigm Building, a construction company specializing in green building. Before life as a business owner, he worked for 10 years as a carpenter in every aspect of construction — from concrete work, framing and drywall to tile, electrical, plumbing and roofing. He received a bachelor’s degree in construction management from Cal Poly. He went on to earn his contractors license following that, and with five years’ experience, he was certified as a Green Builder.