DT Fine Art

If I had it my way, the only kind of footwear I’d be wearing in New York in July would be two buckets of cold water strapped to my ankles.

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Alas, in the interest of vanity over comfort, I decided to take a trip to DNA Footwear on Smith Street to see if they had anything that might look better with a sundress than, say, two aluminum tubs.

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Boy, did they.

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This is the Summer of the Wedge.

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For a period of time the fashion world had banished the wedge heel, and it was forced to live only on the feet of suburban teenagers eating giant pretzels at the mall. But the wedge is back with a vengeance, from low end to high end, daytime to nighttime.

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What we seemed to have forgotten about the wedge heel is that you can actually walk in it. This means that you can add length to your legs and strut them around. There’s nothing sillier than sitting in heels, after all.

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Jeffrey Campbell “Aries” $119.99

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I am a huge fan of Jeffrey Campbell’s shoes. They are very stylish, and always look like they cost a lot more than they do. I adore his “Aries” wedges, which come both in tan and black suede. The toe and arch are open, but they lace up the ankle like a bootie. I really love the tan ones with the woven espadrille style base because they make your legs look a mile long (I always recommend tan heels), and they will go with pretty much anything, which makes them a great summer staple.

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The black is special because of the heel base, which is woven with stripes of metallic threads in red, blue and green.

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The heel isn’t low, but the wedge style gives you enough support that you’ll barely notice. Another bonus to these shoes is that you can pair them with cute white socks and wear them into Fall (not to bring up the sore subject of Fall and Winter).

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Sachelle  $129.99

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These are perhaps one of the sweetest pairs of shoes I’ve ever seen. A play on Boat Shoes, they feature the drawstring cord woven around the top and tying at the toe, but add a low wedge, a peep toe and a sling back heel. DNA carries them in a buttercup yellow as well as a cornflower blue. The yoke of the shoe is leather, and in a slightly darker hue, while the base and wedge are a lighter hue in a soft suede.

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These shoes belong on the feet of a woman in a sundress shopping for produce in a Parisian market. Not to qualify, or anything.

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Toms “Artist” $69.99, “Classic” $54

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You can’t say anything bad about Toms. People love them because on top of being comfortable, affordable and offered in every color under the sun, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair bought. One for one, you can’t beat that. (Recent controversy notwithstanding.)

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But enough about “do-gooding” and back to fashion. While the flats have that hippie slipper chic thing going (I could take it or leave it), the peep-toe wedges are quite cute. They are very 1970s feminine to me. The canvas will breathe, the wedge isn’t too high, and with all of the colors and patterns they come in, you can find one to match every outfit. I also love that the wedge bases come in woven, canvas and cork.

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But for those of you that maybe can’t jive with the wedge, here are a couple other styles I found at DNA Footwear that caught my eye.

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Minnetonka “Thunderbird” moccasins “$39.99

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I used to wear these when I was a little girl and I STILL love them. These are about as classic as it gets. DNA carries them in brown, taupe, gray and black suede, each with beaded eagles on the toe in black, red and white beads. I also love the little suede fringe beneath the drawstring. These shoes would look adorable with a pair of denim shorts.

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The padded insole and lightweight rubber sole make them perfect summer walking shoes too.

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J Shoes “Rio” $139.99

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The special feature of these sandals is the carved wooden heel. They look like a cross between little Dutch girl wooden clogs and Scandinavian furniture. Beautiful!

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The foot is wrapped in multicolored cotton cords, with a peep toe. DNA offers them in both natural browns and a cool blues/purples theme. These shoes are unique and stylish, and they will be the star of any outfit.

Even if I could afford to take a trip to Rome this summer, I probably couldnt spare the time, what with an unprecedented number of new TV shows premiering across broadcast and cable dials through months which once used to be quite fallow.

US major utility American Electric Power (AEP) has advised of its intention to put on hold plans to construct a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility due to political uncertainty over future climate-change legislation in the country, and unfavourable current market conditions. About 60% of the companys 80 power plants are coal-fired and have come under pressure from cheap substitute products such as natural gas and generally sluggish power demand in the aftermath of the 2008-09 recession, according to a company statement. AEPs CCS plant was designed to capture about 1.5 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from coal combustion and store the emissions underground. Since AEP has not been able to attract interested partners in the project, the CCS plant is indefinitely deferred.

Significance:Despite ongoing disagreement between US Democrats and Republicans about climate-change-mitigation measures, in 2009 the government agreed to support AEPs CCS plans with USD334 million in funding to partially cover the costs of the project. AEP, however, advised it would terminate the agreement with the government, despite USD16 million in phase-one front-end engineering and design, and development of an environmental impact statement having already been carried out. It remains unclear whether AEP will be required to refund the amount or whether the government support package can be frozen together with the project. The fate of AEPs CCS project only highlights the business challenges the lack of US climate-change guidance results in on the federal level. Fourteen years after the Kyoto Protocol was initially adopted, the US still lags behind many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in terms of a federal climate-change-mitigation plan. While industries did welcome the United States no-nonsense stance on the matter for a long time, investors have come to realise that a carbon price and emissions-reduction measures are instruments that will prevail in the long-run, and they are seeking to price these future costs into their projected cash-flow calculations. Continuing to ignore this reality will therefore not be an option for the US if it does not want to lose its competitive edge.

Copyright 2011 World Markets Research Limited
All Rights Reserved

Wire News provided by

Stephen Colberts Super PAC Will Air TV Commercials

July 16, 2011 9:16 AM

ABC News Michael Ono reports:

What is Stephen Colbert planning to do with all that Super PAC money? His audience may finally have an answer.

The Comedy Central TV personality sent out a political fundraising email Friday accompanied with announcement that the Super PAC would launch its very first television commercial.

“Soon well release our first TV commercial, and send Washington a strong message: We can afford a commercial. And thats just the beginning of the commercial. There will be twenty-six more seconds in it, chock-full of other messages.”

And while the email didn’t provide further details into the content of the commercial, the fundraising email didn’t hold back on decrying the current state of the country.

“America has forgotten who it is, where its going, and how it got there. Its like America is the protagonist in one of those TV crime shows where a good cop loses his memories in an accident and has to piece them back together while solving a new murder every week. Luckily, America has help from a sexy love interest: Me”

Colbert recently received approval by the Federal Election Commission to establish a Super PAC that allows him to collect money for a political cause and to promote his Super PAC on his television show which is owned by Viacom.

SACRAMENTO — State Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned that a spending cap that the Legislature qualified for the ballot will do untold harm to colleges and universities if approved by voters next year.

The cap, approved last year by the Legislature as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers last budget, is unusually restrictive and will force a significant downsizing of government, Lockyer said Wednesday in remarks to the Sacramento Press Club.

I dont see anything fundamentally objectionable to the idea of spending caps, Lockyer said, but youll have unintended mischievous consequences with the ballot measure, ACA 4, which provides for a 3.8 percent rate of growth for government spending.

The problem, Lockyer said, is that one of the fastest areas of government growth, health care spending, grows as much as three times the rate of inflation. Because no one has been able to figure out how to curb health care costs, the Legislature would have to go after easier targets, such as universities and colleges — which withstood hundreds of millions in cuts this year alone.

Thats a bad idea, Lockyer said. Its bad for our future. Its not the right cap. … As a long-term investment strategy for the state of California to invest in those public sectors that create jobs, and create good jobs, its doing exactly what we shouldnt be doing.

Lockyer praised Democrats for knocking back the states structural deficit from $45 billion

The Ultraviolet format is almost ready to go live, but Apple and Disney have yet to sign on.

A report from Pocket-lint suggests that the Ultraviolet movie format is close to officially going commercial. For consumers, this means that for every Blu-ray and DVD theyve purchased over the years, theyll also unlock a cloud-stored digital version that can be streamed on up to 12 registered Ultraviolet devices. All they need is the UPC symbol in order to register their movie.

But for those who dont want to purchase discs, there are plans to introduce a pay model that simply offers the rights to the digital Ultraviolet version. However both models are reportedly backed by all but one of the studios, almost every major consumer electronics manufacturer, several major retailers, and over 70 other technology companies.

Disney and Apple have yet to sign on.

All but one [of the major studios] have signed on… And that doesnt mean that they wont, said Danny Kaye, executive vice president of Global Research amp; Technology Strategy at Fox. He was referring to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment who he believes will ultimately offer UV versions of its catalog.

And what of Apple? Surely the company has nothing to lose given that it doesnt directly sell movie and TV episodes on physical discs. If anything, Apple would simply offer permanent cloud storage for its digital video so that users can stream anytime the want. Of course, were talking about Apple who seemingly loves control over all aspects of its devices, software and the accompanying multimedia.

Unsurprisingly, Apple has resisted in shifting over to the UV side… possibly in favor of its own video cloud offering. That also doesnt mean they wont, said Kaye. From my perspective, when youre well established you sometimes take a wait and see.

He added that Apple may not wait for too long once its rivals start getting way ahead in the game. If you just take smartphones as an example, Android now enjoys quite a market advantage, Kaye said. And the same things going to happen in tablets. We also have all the other hardware thats a part of this ecosystem – the majority of hardware and software companies will create very strong competition, just like it has with Blu-ray. And well see what happens as we go forward.

[Ultraviolet is] one of the largest consortia ever, especially across industries, he added. And when that happens, you succeed.

• News

A Quick Pit Stop

Moorpark Mom, Stacie Wheeler, and her family take a trip to the La Brea Tar Pits.

July is National Ice Cream Month, as designated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

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And as if that weren’t enough of an excuse to down a whole pint of Chunky Monkey, National Ice Cream Day falls on the third Sunday each July. That makes it this coming Sunday, July 17.

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So, to celebrate, here are some fun facts about ice cream.

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Grab a spoon and dig in!

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1. The average American eats about five and a half gallons of ice cream each year: While this number includes treats like single-serve novelties and soft-serve ice creams, it does not include other frozen desserts like yogurts or sherbets.

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Americans eat more ice cream than people in any other country in the world, not just per person but as a whole. Around $1.5 billion of ice cream is produced annually in the US

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2. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, America’s top-five favorite ice cream flavors are:

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• Vanilla

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• Chocolate

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• Cookie ‘n cream

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• Strawberry

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• Chocolate Chip Mint

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3. About 9 percent of all milk produced in America is used to make ice cream: It might not sound like much, but that’s a pretty staggering number when you consider that there’s more than 10 ways to use milk, and nearly one-tenth of the milk we produce is solely going toward creamy, delicious ice cream.

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In fact, it is federal law that ice cream must contain at least 10 percent milk fat before bulky ingredients are added, like candy pieces, peanut butter or cookie chunks.

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4. Ice cream is basically just milk and sugar: Of course it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the nuts and bolts of it.

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Modern ice cream makers add things like emulsifiers, preservatives and other ingredients that are hard to pronounce, but only in small doses. And then there is the complex machinery that mixes and aerates the ice cream.

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Only then does the specific flavoring and ingredients that make each variety unique come into play.

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But at its heart, ice cream is just milk and a whole lot of sugar.

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5. No one knows who invented ice cream: No, it wasn’t sirs Ben and Jerry. The fact is, no single person is credited with inventing ice cream.

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What we do know is that when Marco Polo returned to Italy from an excursion in the 13th century, he brought with him an arcane recipe that resembled sherbet. It’s believed that ice cream evolved from this recipe, but no one knows for sure; England seems to have had ice cream around the same time as the Italians, and France had similar frozen desserts as early as the 16th century.

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America has had ice cream for as long as there’s been an America. In fact, George Washington spent $200 each summer on ice cream (quite a sum in 1790), and Thomas Jefferson made his own ice cream using an elaborate 18-step recipe.

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Author’s note: Information provided by the International Dairy Foods Association, www.idfa.org.

And we are live at the White House, debt talks just getting under way, and the anger just getting started. House Speaker John Boehner blasting the president for digging in on tax hikes, as opposition to raising the debt limit digs in even deeper.

Tea Partiers launching an urgent petition to block any increase, as a new poll finds Americans are more worried about raising it than not.

Indiana Republican Congressman Mike Pence says the people have it right.

Congressman Pence, you dont believe that the sky will begin to fall come August 2 if we do not raise the debt ceiling?

REP. MIKE PENCE, R-IND.:Look, Chris, we have an obligation to defend the full faith and credit of the United States of America, but we also have an obligation to restore the confidence of the American people in our ability to manage our fiscal health and to end this era of borrowing and spending thats putting an enormous burden on our children and grandchildren.

We can do both. House Republicans believe that the pathway forward is to cut spending now more than a dollar for any increase in the debt ceiling. It means putting statutory caps on the books. And I believe that any increase in the debt ceiling should be contingent on sending a balanced budget amendment to the states.

So those are the conditions. I know thats being communicated to the White House at this very hour. And were hoping the president will start to listen.

COTTER:You even said it yourself. We are at impasse, though, right now, are we not?

PENCE:Yes.

COTTER:Do you see any give and take in negotiation from either side here moving forward?

PENCE:Well, you know, it really is frustrating. I said on the House floor today that weve reached an impasse, as the president and his administration have insisted on adding tax increases to a debate over the debt ceiling.

And I think — I think what Speaker John Boehner said today, Im sure whats being delivered is, first and foremost, the American people know this is the presidents problem more than anyone elses. The president is the chief executive of our government. He has an obligation to make sure that the government pays its bills.

And also quite frankly were in this mess because of the runaway spending and the failed economic policies of the Obama administration. So, it is now incumbent on the president to stop essentially talking down to the Congress, dictating what his terms will be for the debt ceiling.

He needs to own up to this. He needs to recognize it is his responsibility to find out what we need on Capitol Hill to agree to a debt ceiling increase, and that very simply is to cut spending now, to cap spending in the law, and send a balanced budget amendment to the states.

COTTER:Have you seen any of the latest policies — latest proposals, rather? I know that Senator McConnell came back with sort of a fallback plan, where the president could raise the debt ceiling incrementally, moving out subject to approval by the Congress. Have you seen this plan? Is that something thats new and interesting and might be able to work?

PENCE:Well, I just heard a little bit about it in the last couple of hours…

COTTER:Yes, it just came out.

PENCE:… as an incremental plan that, again, would be — would require the administration, from what I understand, Chris, to put out a list of budget cuts to offset any increase in the debt ceiling.

Yes, weve got to stop digging this hole. The American people know that we have to maintain the full faith and credit of the United States of America. But at $14 trillion national debt and counting, the American people want us to stop piling red ink on our children and grandchildren.

And so, at minimum, it seems to me what Senator McConnell is talking about is — is you could authorize a short-term increase in the debt ceiling, but demand that the White House come out with a deal.

My bottom line is we need to see the leadership from the leader of this government. We need to see this president step up and put out a plan that will essentially draw the Congress forward. It is his responsibility to lead this government.

And as he said five years ago when he was a senator, whenever there is a debt crisis, whenever we face a moment where we have to raise the debt ceiling, he said then, of the Bush administration, that it is — it is a debt crisis, but it is also a failure of leadership.

And what we need to see now is for the president to recognize this is his problem, its his responsibility. He needs to come to the Congress and say, what do you need for us to figure out how we can do this together in the best interests of the American people?

COTTER:Do you feel like — and I think I could ask this to Democrats, Republicans, since both sides are really dug in — do you feel like you are putting your political legacy and certainly your political future on the fact that, banking on the fact that, come August 2 or August 4 or August 11, whatever the date may be, we arent going to run into a disaster, we arent going to run into a problem where interest rates are moving rapidly higher and the full faith and confidence in the US government is tested?

Do you believe you are putting your political legacy on the line?

PENCE:Well, to me, its not — and I think this is true of most House Republicans its not a matter of politics or putting our political legacy on the line.

Were putting the well-being of future generations of Americans on the line. If we dont change this path toward fiscal insolvency, were going to go 10 years done the road kicking the can and were going to wake up and face the same problems that Greece is facing and Portugal is facing and Ireland are facing.

We need to take a step back now, seize this moment to introduce real fiscal discipline and real reform.

COTTER:Do you think…

PENCE:Thats cut spending dollar for dollar, cap spending in the law.

COTTER:Yes.

PENCE:And then its time for a balanced budget amendment to be sent to the states for ratification.

COTTER:Do you think the American people see it the way you see it? Because the president earlier today — and this isnt the first time its happened — said, look, we will get to the point where, hey, maybe on August 2, Social Security checks wont be mailed out, where hes sort of trying to tug at certain parts of the American people to say youre going to pay for it right away if we dont do something by August 2.

PENCE:Well, I think in — I think the American people are better informed about Washington, DC, than at any time in my or your lifetime.

And so, a lot of these old tactics — look, weve got a couple of trillion dollars coming in yet into the federal government. The president would have the ability to provide for the common defense, to provide for all of our entitlements and pay the national debt with the $2.2 trillion that weve got coming in.

This is the same old, tired game in Washington, DC and I think the American people see right through it. The people Im talking to as I travel across the state of Indiana virtually on a daily basis these days, Chris, are — are — are alarmed about this mountain range of debt, which is a result of the borrowing, the spending, the bailouts, and the takeovers of this administration and the last Congress, and theyre a result of the failed economic policies of this administration.

Thats why were saying the president owns this problem. He needs to stop trying to dictate terms, like higher taxes to the Congress. He needs to come to the Congress and say, what do you all need on behalf of the American people for us to honor the full faith and credit of the United States, but restore confidence in our commitment of fiscal responsibility and reform?

It smelled sort of like a slaughterhouse, said neighbor Kevin McCullough. You couldnt sit outside of your house and have a barbecue or picnic or anything like that because of the smell.

When animal control officers investigated the property, they said they found 20 dogs and nine cats living in filth in the home and in a shed out back.

It was awful. It was saturated with feces and urine, vomit, food thrown on the floor, said Maleah Stringer with the Animal Protection League. You could only stay in maybe 10, 15 minutes at a time.

West told police she loves her pets, but was unable to keep up with their care.

The problem compounds over time, said Mitch Carroll with Anderson police. I think she became a victim somewhat of her passion for animals.

The animals were seized by authorities and were being cared for by the Animal Protection League and the Madison County Humane Society.

West was not arrested but was evicted from her home due to several city ordinance violations.

To think that theres someone whose 80-something years old, who has no family and is living in those conditions and, of course, being an animal lover, it was heartbreaking to see the conditions of the animals, Stringer said.

City officials will meet in the coming days to discuss the possibility of simply demolishing the home, which officials said is beyond repair.