West Essex Middle School
West Essex Middle School Principal David Montgomery recognizes seventh graders Tyler Friedman, left, and Spencer Peckman
West Essex Middle School
Assistant Principal Lisa Tamburri recognizes eighth graders Ben Goodman, left, and Michelle Inga, as June’s students of the month
Posted: Friday, June 8, 2012 3:00 am
NORTH CALDWELL – Seventh graders Tyler Friedman and Spencer Peckman and eighth graders Ben Goodman and Michelle Inga have been named students of the month for June by West Essex Middle School Principal David Montgomery and Assistant Principal Lisa Tamburri.
Friedman, of North Caldwell, is described as an “excellent student who is respectful and polite to teachers and peers. She acts as a role model to her fellow students both academically and socially and is a true pleasure to be around.”
Peckman, also of North Caldwell, is called “a wonderful young man who is always doing the right thing. He is polite and respectful to everyone he comes in contact with and is a strong self advocate.” According to a press release, “He guides others to act appropriately and is considered a leader among his peers.’
Goodman, of North Caldwell, is “a conscientious eighth grader. He is an arduous worker and completes his work to the best of his ability.”
In class, a press release states, “Ben adds thoughtful comments by sharing his insights and his life experiences to our class discussions. He continues to be a respectful member of the West Essex community.”
Inga “is always doing the right thing, whether it is class work, homework or being nice to others. With her great ability in math, she generously helps others in her group. She is always pleasant and respectful.”
Every month, West Essex Middle School selects four students to be recognized and honored as the students of the month. The middle school staff bases candidates and selections on a review of the “whole” student not just the student with the best grades. Character traits such as honesty, perseverance, responsibility, integrity and leadership as well as a student’s academic qualities are included.
Honored students have their pictures displayed in the middle school display case outside of the main office and on the middle school website. Honorees are also recognized during the morning announcements and receive a certificate recognizing their accomplishment, a “Student of the Month” locker magnet and a $5 student store gift card.
Posted in News on Friday, June 8, 2012 3:00 am. | Tags:
Source: newjerseyhills.com
Essex: Emergency services prepare for the worst - essexcountystandard.co.uk
Essex: Emergency services prepare for the worst
6:30pm Friday 8th June 2012 in Countywide news
Emergency services simulated a chemical attack on the Essex Olympic Torch Relay.
Firefighters, police and ambulance teams carried out the exercise at the county’s fire service headquarters in Kelvedon.
Assistant Divisional Officer Justin Benson-Ryal, the fire service’s Olympics coordinator, said: “The torch relay will be a fantastic spectacle but as emergency services we have been doing months of work to make sure that it will be as safe as possible, for those taking part and the many thousands of spectators who will line the route.
“Exercise Titan gave us an opportunity to test the plans we and our blue lights partners have created with a realistic scenario.
“It taught us a great deal and lessons learned from the exercise mean we are all as well prepared for the torch relay as possible.”
The Olympic flame is coming to Maldon on July 6.
Source: www.essexcountystandard.co.uk
London 2012: Selection 'a fairytale' for Mohamed Sbihi - BBC News
Mohamed Sbihi has described his selection in the men's eight boat for the London Olympics as "a dream".
The 24-year-old took up the sport nine years ago after being discovered through a talent identification scheme while at school in Surbiton.
He told BBC London 94.9: "An opportunity has become a dream and the dream has started to become a reality.
"I feel very fortunate. It's almost like a fairytale. If I hadn't gone into school that day, I wouldn't be here."
The Molesey Boat Club member was identified after British Rowing's World Class Start programme visited Hollyfield School in south west London.
"They wanted all the tall kids in the year to go to a special PE lesson," Sbihi added.
"I didn't really want to go because I wanted to play football but my PE teacher pulled me back and told me that as I was the tallest guy in the year, I had to go.
"Before I knew it, I was in the top four out of 10,000 kids who had been tested in our area. I didn't like it to start with but then it slowly hooked me.
"I feel honoured and proud to wear the GB flag. I have to thank everyone who has been involved in my development."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
'Bored' London diamond thief Arthur Rachel jailed - The Independent
Arthur "The Brain" Rachel, 73, was sentenced to eight and a half years for his involvement in planning robberies with two other accomplices, both of whom are also in their 70s.
Before the sentencing in Chicago, US District Court judge Harry Leinenweber asked Rachel why he got involved after spending nearly a decade in prison for the London diamond robbery.
"It's the way we are," Rachel answered. "We got nothing better to do. We sit around talking."
Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond in 1980. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's Graff Jewellers of £2.3 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
The diamond was never recovered.
Federal prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu did not mince words in characterising Rachel, noting his long criminal history.
"This thug has the gall to ask for leniency when he does the same thing over and over," he told the court. "He is a parasite. He lives off of others. The public needs to be protected from this man."
Judge Leinenweber found Rachel guilty in a bench trial, while his co-defendants - Scalise, 74, and Robert Pullia, 70 - pleaded guilty earlier.
Evidence presented during Rachel's trial included a stepladder that the would-be robbers intended to use in a 2010 burglary at the home of the late Chicago mobster Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. Authorities arrested the senior citizens, dressed in black, outside the house.
They had also planned to rob an armoured car, prosecutors said.
The FBI has said Scalise's resume included serving as a technical adviser on the film Public Enemies about Depression-Era gangster John Dillinger, which was filmed in Chicago in 2008.
Asked by reporters as he left court earlier this year if the Marlborough Diamond could ever be located, Scalise said: "If Lloyd's wanted to pay enough money, maybe they could.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Aaron Cook's Games dream over as BOA ratifies nomination of Lutalo Muhammad - Daily Telegraph
“The results are plain for everyone to see, he is world No 1, European champion and has beaten 10 of the top 15 athletes in the Olympic rankings in his most recent fights. It makes a mockery of the taekwondo -80kg competition in the London Olympics.”
Cook would have been selected if the criteria was on performance, one of the GB Taekwondo selectors, Dr Steve Peters, said. Peters sat in all three meetings but did not vote because he said his role was as an ‘athlete advocate’.
“We all agreed that if world ranking and success in tournaments were the only selection criteria, then Aaron would be selected as he’s an outstanding athlete who could get gold at the Olympics,” said Peters. “All we’re saying is that there are two athletes who can achieve this.”
Peters said Muhammad was ultimately chosen several compelling reasons: he was improving at a rapid rate, including a victory over Cook (although Cook beat his rival soon afterwards) and that his height and flexibility give him an advantage to double tap and earn extra points for headshots in fights.
“People have been confusing the issue, thinking there is something secret or underhand or another agenda and it is nonsense. The fact Aaron is working outside of the academy has never come into the meeting, it is not an issue,” said Peters.
However the BOA has reserved the right to reconsider Muhammad’s selection – an unlikely situation – subject to the findings of an inquiry instigated by the World Taekwondo Federation. Last night Cook was considering his legal options.
The BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said: “After a thorough review, the panel is now sufficiently satisfied that the agreed selection procedures have been followed, and it is on that basis we are ratifying the nomination.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London hotels persist with Olympian price hikes - Daily Telegraph
This week JacTravel, which provides wholesale accommodation for inbound tour operators, said its London bookings were down by 35 per cent during July and 30 per cent during August, compared with the same months last year. By contrast, it said that bookings for summer holidays to Barcelona and Berlin had grown by more than 100 per cent.
JacTravel found that some four-star London hotels were charging up to £415 per night for stays during the Games, nearly four times more than usual.
A second hotel booking website, Hotels.com, found that the average price for a room during the Olympics had fallen slightly by five per cent since March, to £202. However, this is still 93 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
A spokesman for Hotels.com said that some cheaper rooms could still be found if travellers were willing to look to outlying districts.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London Olympics 2012: Ex-Goldman CEO, Paul Deighton climbs Olympic hill with a smile - Economic Times
For all the mighty symbolism, the torch can't shield Deighton from the sceptical audience gathered one evening in March to hear how they can profit from this summer's Olympics, The hall is filled with about 200 small-business owners, and a gloomy mood prevails as Britain struggles through its first double-dip recession since the 1970s.
One woman waves a London 2012 brochure and asks why it was printed in China when the games should be helping British businesses. "I'll look into it," Deighton promises. He gently reminds her that 95% of London 2012 contracts were awarded to British firms. Another man asks about a feared shortage of portable toilets in the Olympic Park.
Deighton politely reassures him that they've got that one covered. It's fitting that a former Goldman Sachs banker is running the business end of the Olympics - and getting dumped on by cantankerous Londoners.
In the Public Eye
Deighton, 56, says his 22-year career at Goldman didn't prepare him for being quizzed about such nitty-gritty details by a cynical British public. "When you're in investment banking, you're pretty much under everybody's radar all the time," he says.
Together with London 2012 committee chairman Sebastian Coe, the only man to have won 1,500-metre Olympic gold twice, Deighton is overseeing everything from transport to security while making sure he's got enough of those portable toilets. Surely his is one of the toughest jobs in the world right now?
"The best job in the world," Deighton says, smiling.
While the games will take place in an age of austerity, they won't be austere. In 2007, after underestimating the cost of cleaning up the site and constructing sports venues, the Blair government more than tripled the original spending plan, to 9.3 billion ($14.3 billion).
In addition, Deighton's LOCOG, has a separate 2.2-billion budget. For a country still reeling from the financial crisis, the money amounts to a backdoor Keynesian stimulus. Plus, Deighton says, the total outlay guarantees London a boost in tourism.
Dancing Nurses
Although the spending pales in comparison to the $67 billion China lavished on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is doing what it can to make Britain cool again.
The government even found an extra p41 million in public money to mount Olympic spectacles, including Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle's secrecy-shrouded opening ceremony, which somehow will merge Shakespeare's The Tempest, a play about a shipwreck, with dancing National Health Service nurses, singing schoolchildren and Paul McCartney.
Spending on security has risen to more than 1 billion as the government tries to guarantee a trouble-free Olympics.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
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