Sadly, Iceland and the Aurora Borealis have been subtracted from my trip itinerary; Putting the awe back in awesome: Auroras over Sweden make you feel very insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, so you need to positively influence the things that you CAN!; @STFAbisko

VideoFromSpace YouTube Channel video: 3 Years of Amazing Auroras Captured on Video by Chad Blakley at Abisko National Park, Sweden. Uploaded June 12, 2012.
http://youtu.be/DaWAgch0GFM

Sadly, Iceland and the Aurora Borealis have been subtracted from my trip itinerary; Putting the awe back in awesome: Auroras over Sweden make you feel very insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, so you need to positively influence the things that you CAN!; @STFAbisko

Or, jag tänker inte Island som planerat.
Some of you already know this from emails or phone calls of mine the past few weeks, but for others of you, this will be the first you hear of it: I'm not going to be going to Iceland in January as originally planned.
My big plans to stop there for a few days on the way back from Sweden, and to hop on a sweet tour bus and take a long-but-comfortable drive a few hours north of Reykjavik to see the Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis are officially kaput. 

It's mostly because in October, I booked non-refundable airline tickets on SAS and had to pay in advance for the airfare, hotel and the B&B in Stockholm that I'm staying at to get the specific travel dates I wanted, ostensibly, in order to get back in time to watch the public Presidential Inaugural on Monday the 21st.
The non-Romney inaugural as it turns out

This required that I make some changes to my original itinerary, as discussed here on the blog back on July 18, 2012, titled, Want to see a sneak peek of my future? Prescient geniuses with a camera at BeepShow have already filmed part of my future -away from the heat & humidity of Miami- and it includes Iceland and the Northern Lights. But sadly, I'll end up missing Sigur Rós at Iceland Airwaves; #Iceland, #BeepShow, #Icelandair
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/want-to-see-sneak-peek-of-my-future.html

As previously seen on that post: 


London to Iceland in Ten Minutes from Beep Show on Vimeo.
Beep Show video: London to Iceland in Ten Minutes. 2012.
Complete information about video is here: http://vimeo.com/45121903

http://www.icelandtouristboard.com/

Still, it's not like you can't see the Aurora Borealis from Sweden, you just have to be smart, resourceful AND patient... like the people who captured the wonderful videos above and below.

For me to see it in two weeks, I'll obviously have to leave greater Stockholm so I can be free of the city's light pollution.
On the other hand, while I'm there, there will be a whole lot LESS hours of light -daylight- for me than what I'm used to, as sunrise there will be sometime after 8:30 a.m. and sundown will be around 3:30 p.m.
Yes, you read that correctly, sundown at 3:30 p.m.

Just so you know, since I'm guessing that most of you reading this have never heard of it, the city of Abisko, located in Norrbotten, the northernmost county in Sweden, up near the Norwegian border and the Lappland area of Finland, is considered one of the best places on the planet to see the aurora borealis phenomena.
That's largely because the mountains around there catch most of the precipitation in winter and prevent it from interfering with the night time views.
That explains why so many of the videos on this post and uploaded to YouTube were recorded there.
It's a target-rich environment.


View Larger Map

According to this article in the newspaper up in distant Norrbotten, NSD, i.e. the Norrländska Socialdemokraten, http://www.nsd.se/nyheter/ bookings to the Abisko Turiststation STF, a.k.a. STF Abisko, increased by 130% over last year, a banner year. 
http://www.nsd.se/nyheter/artikel.aspx?ArticleID=7366284

According to this article, what's especially noticeable now are the number of Northern Lights tourists coming from Japan and Great Britain, which sort of stands to reason given both how Internet-savvy those countries are, and how famous their citizens are are for traveling and exploring.

For the Japanese, it's about a nine-hour plane ride from Tokyo, but for the Brits, it's much less daunting to get to the nearest airport, Kiruna, via stops in Oslo or Stockholm Arlanda.

Official STF Abisko website:
http://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/sv/upptack/Omraden/Lappland/Fjallstationer/STF-Abisko-Turiststation/


Meanwhile, over at Porjus, the #1 place to see the aurora according to many informed sources, there's a LIVE streaming camera you might want to check out: http://uk.jokkmokk.jp/detail_nr3.shtml
http://www.porjus.eu/


VideoFromSpace YouTube Channel video:Chad Blakley's latest video of an ionized oxygen aurora over Abisko National Park, Sweden. Uploaded December 19, 2012 
http://youtu.be/7yN9lcJIeLA



VideoFromSpace YouTube Channel video: Awe-Inspiring Northern Lights Shine Over Sweden, December 2012. Shot from Abisko National Park, Sweden. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/N79ATuvHi1Y

See more from Chad Blakley at http://www.lightsoverlapland.com and http://digitaljournal.com/article/327325



tonakai82 YouTube Channel video: Aurora Borealis from Abisko Sky Station in northern Sweden 2012. Uploaded December 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/kc9Ds3b1IKk

More photos at: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/63402501@N07/sets/72157632201759165/  



GregTechnology YouTube Channel video: Aurora in Abisko -The northern lights blaze in Arctic Sweden. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/E4BbfrF5PxE



skbailey YouTube Channel video: Doggylights. Uploaded December 6, 2012.
http://youtu.be/9b3wgmu_9Ko



tenorsominutesagos YouTube Channel video: A Day and Night at the Aurora Sky Station, Abisko, Sweden. Uploaded December 25, 2011. 
http://youtu.be/NkAJBmg3E1Y

I'm concluding today's post with a non-aurora video of snow-heavy Abisko from two days ago, the day before Christmas, with a temperature of about negative 25 Fahrenheit...



Joachim Floberg YouTube Channel video: Abisko Julen 2012.  Uploaded December 24, 2012. http://youtu.be/lIuwAbbZHV0

Trivia: Sweden has a base compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan that's officially called "Northern Lights."
 -----
See more at...
English aurora photographer Patricia Covern, now living in Porjus: 
http://www.arctic-color.com/

www.auroraskystation.com

http://www.visitreykjavik.is/ 

http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoFromSpace

Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Benny Andersson on piano, Olle Moraeus on violin - "En skrift i snön" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on Dec. 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/cTatkGocfCY

Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!

All screenshots appearing on this page of SVT's St. Lucia telecast are December 13, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 

The sweetness and the utter simplicity never disappoints.

Church choirs singing traditional Lucia and Christmas carols, the reading of the Lucia text, and as always, all done with no self-conscious showboating or self-congratulatory displays -and no distracting applause from the audience.

All done in one hour.

Above and below, my screenshots of 14-year old Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia.

By now, after a few years of watching this, and having gotten into the swing of how things go, there are certain songs that are always performed that are now so familiar to me that I can already hear the upcoming refrain, chorus or key musical notes even before the chyron disappears from the TV screen.

Correct, like hearing the first few notes of an ABBA or Beatles song.



To me, this year's telecast seemed much more subdued than the previous two Luciamorgon telecasts.

Whether that was the plan or just the way it all worked out, I can't say, but it did seem like there was noticeably less energy in the room, maybe almost too subdued.
Was it because I already knew that this year's telecast was NOT LIVE as the last two had been, where anything done LIVE always offers up the possibility of something interesting and unexpected happening?

Or maybe it was just because yours truly was already pretty tired and stayed-up all night thru to watch the telecast, which was 1 a.m. Eastern my time that Thursday morning, 7 o'clock in Uppsala.

When that opening framing scene outside Uppsala Cathedral came onscreen, it looked SO very dark and very cold!
I practically shivered vicariously when it came on and I thought about how mornings like that can make you exhausted even before the day begins.
Thoughts of warm tomato soup and soup crackers went thru my head.

This is what it looked like outside the Cathedral in Uppsala an hour later, at 8 a.m., looking more like 6 p.m. in Bloomington, Indiana, about mid-January.

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson - "Vinterhamn" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/Xqtr219lt40

sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson: "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" on SVT's Luciamorgoon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/fsnbicyYNcU

The above was short and sweet, but still my favorite from that day!

The person who uploaded these vids onto YouTube, 

https://www.youtube.com/user/sannasonja/ is also from Florida! 

The video of the entire telecast is on SVT Play's website for another 28 days, as of today, then will be permanently deleted. 
http://www.svtplay.se/video/907512/lucia/?tab=undefined&sida=1

As usual, the SVT audio and video quality is amazing, so be sure to click the opposing arrows in the far right corner of the video and hit fullskärm to enable the full screen, 
And be sure to watch for Olle Moraeus on the violin.

My last two blog posts on the Lucia telecasts by SVT were: 
2010 St. Lucia Day in Stockholm: traditional songs and sweet sentimentality that ring true across the miles; SVT's Lucia program is sublime!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-st-lucia-day-in-stockholm.html

2011 St. Lucia Day in Göteborg is an hour away on SVT; will they strike gold and be sublime yet again?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/2011-st-lucia-day-in-goteborg-is-hour.html

Sweden.se's Vimeo video: Swedish Lucia for Dummies. Lucia Day - a feast of candlelit processions, saffron buns, mulled wine and talking animals. Here’s how to make the most of it. http://vimeo.com/55253944

http://www.sweden.se/lucia

As a bit of a Lucia bonus, here's a short video of some kids in a Lucia procession who made their way out to the glass cage in the Great Square in Malmö, Gustav Adolf Square, where   this year's Musikhjälpen took place two weeks ago, and where Robyn famously performed in 2010, as I wrote at the time.
Robyn rocks Malmö at Musikhjälpen 2010 as amazed fans watch her like a goldfish in a glass bowl at Gustaf Adolfs Square
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/robyn-rocks-malmo-at-musikhjalpen-2010.html

Below, Kodjo and Gina interact with the kids inside their glass cage studio: 

http://www.svtplay.se/klipp/908558/varldens-sotaste-luciatag/?tab=undefined&sida=1

More videos of the show's dozens of musical guests performing can be found at
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=3946 and
at http://www.youtube.com/user/poriel2

Two views of the entertainment world of Christmas 1957: Pre-Christmas shopping and American comedy as seen thru the eyes of Jack Benny, and Ingmar Bergman's masterful 'Wild Strawberries' opens in Sweden the day after Christmas and becomes a classic from Day One

MiscVideos78rpm YouTube Channel video: The Jack Benny Program - Christmas Shopping (Original air date: December 15, 1957). 

Uploaded December 23, 2012. http://youtu.be/u17Xo0dqJ34

And on December 26th, 1957, Ingmar Bergman's classic film and screenplay of remembrance, "Wild Strawberries" -Smultronställe- officially opened in Sweden, the same year that he had directed his first film, the classic, "The Seventh Seal." 

Both are among my all-time favorite films, and in the case of Wild Strawberries, I've probably seen it -conservatively- over 20 times, mostly on Turner Classic Movies/TCM, and it's a film I always gets something new out of, and am always trying to persuade people to see for the first time.
Starring Victor Sjostrom, and a then-22-year old Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand. 

Wild Strawberries, 1957, Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Opening scene)
Rafael Lasevitz YouTube Channel, Uploaded April 6, 2015
https://youtu.be/NeJQXA6CCuA

A better version of this amazing scene and other clips from the film are at 

https://www.tcm.com/video/1196578/wild-strawberries-1957-movie-clip-my-name-is-isak-borg

MiscVideos78rpm YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MiscVideos78rpm

That curious anti-gun marketing effort on the Washington Post's website this weekend: Why do they call it "Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund" when it's really NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 7 other very affluent non-mayors funding it, albeit mostly Bloomberg?; Laurel Bentley, Eli Board, Ann Hawkins, Judi Krupp, Henry Lord, Helen Raiser, Brad Reiss;

Above, my screen shot of The Washington Post's website Saturday night, December 22nd, 2012, completely surrounded by the marketing efforts of a group that calls itself "Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund." Nope, I'd never heard of them before, either. They probably don't call what they're doing above capitalizing on a tragedy, but rather taking advantage of a crisis. And we all know how Obama supporters hate to waste a crisis. But it's exactly what it looks like. An anti-gun only approach won't sway the majority of this country or Congress, but they don't seem interested in multi-prong solutions, only guns, guns, guns.

I first noticed this anti-gun marketing effort on the exterior of The Washington Post's website Saturday afternoon, saw that it was still there later in the night when i went to get an early look at sunday's columns; it's still there on Sunday afternoon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Center for Responsive Politics seems to have about the most recent information on the group, such as it is, though I think that the FEC info might just be for sometime short of Election Day.

http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=Mayors+Against+Illegal+Guns+Action+Fund

http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/contrib.php?cmte=C30000897&cycle=2012

Here's the first page of two of the financial contributors to the group, which totals only eight

people giving a total of  $3,380,238 in 2012: Laurel Bentley, Michael R. Bloomberg, Eli Board, Ann Hawkins, Judi Krupp, Henry Lord, Helen Raiser, Brad Reiss

http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/contrib_all.php?cycle=2012&type=A&cmte=C30000897&page=1 

Just so you know, these are not just activists of the sort that every community has, but rather the sort that actually host President Obama fundraisers -with him there- instead of various celebrity surrogates. 

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

Videos: Autonomous Vehicles On Par with Human Drivers -And I'd suggest they're superior to most South Florida drivers fumbling with Cell Phones, Makeup or Skype during rush hour; Inside Google's Self-Driving Car

FORA.tv YouTube channel video: Autonomous Vehicles On Par with Human Drivers. FORA.tv's Chris Gerdes shows the advances in autonomous vehicles, highlighting their ability to safely navigate race tracks without human intervention. Uploaded December 19, 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQbyl5DVQk

Complete program available for free at http://fora.tv/2012/10/30/Car_Talk_Autonomous_Vehicles_and_the_Future_of_Energy

FORA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ForaTv

Inside Google's Self-Driving Car

http://youtu.be/S_eVE6KQ4Jg

Google Self-Driving Car - August 2012

http://youtu.be/nimfOPoVs4w

Lexus To Outline Autonomous Car Strategy At 2013 CES  

By Viknesh Vijayenthiran

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1081302_lexus-to-outline-autonomous-car-strategy-at-2013-ces

President Reagan's Address to the Nation About Christmas and the Situation in Poland -December 23, 1981; Lech Walesa and the Solidarity trade-union movement in Poland

ReaganFoundation YouTube Channel video: President Reagan's Address to the Nation About Christmas and the Situation in Poland — December 23, 1981. Uploaded December 10, 2012. http://youtu.be/9kiFK6xxE08

ColdWarWarriors YouTube Channel Solidarity Poland 1981, Uploaded on May 28, 2010. http://youtu.be/peT3-xSzj08

https://www.youtube.com/user/ColdWarWarriors

Today, Stockholm is T minus 21 days -and yes I'm counting!; Some Swedish homework of mine to make my trip go well includes reviewing grammar and re-watching the original films in Swedish based on Stieg Larsson's Millennium crime fiction trilogy, starring Noomi Rapace & Michael Nyqvist

CBS News YouTube Chanel video: CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent Erin Moriarty travels to Stockholm, Sweden to discover the story and the truth behind the success of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, whose Millennium crime fiction trilogy has swept the world of book publishing: Stieg Larsson: Behind "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Uploaded October 10, 2010. http://youtu.be/X-WJ6BlLw2s

Above, at Panera Bread in Hallandale Beach last month, a few hours after three elements of my "Swedish homework" were finally delivered via Amazon.com.  I wanted a few weeks to brush-up and remind myself of some things that I just might've forgotten the past few years, while toiling away for clean, effective and transparent government here in Hallandale Beach and Broward County, THE most-corrupt county in all of Florida. November 19, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Here are my three handy study tools to help me make more sense of things in Sverige in a few weeks when I'm doing my thing in Södermalm and Norrmalm.


Essentials of Swedish Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Swedish
By Ake Viberg, Kerstin Ballardini and Sune Stjarnlof 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0844285390/
Because it never hurts to go over some things...

201 Swedish Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses (201 Verbs Series) 
By Richard P. Auletta
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812005287
Because there's always those verb tenses that seem slightly different than the way you remember them, and because I hate to make mistakes...


Dragon Tattoo Trilogy: Extended Edition (2011)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005JTLTI4/
A four-DCD collection that includes the three original Swedish language films from Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, starring Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist, plus a bonus CD.


Trailer: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009); original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor


Trailer: The Girl Who Played with Fire (September 2009); original title in Swedish:  Flickan som lekte med elden


The much-scarier teaser


Trailer: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2010); original title in Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes

I saw the original Swedish films but wanted to review them again before my trip so that:
a.) it would be fresh in my head once again once I get there, and, b.) so that I could take some notes on certain places where action takes place in and around Södermalm, since I'll be staying there for half of my trip. http://youtu.be/mJzQ_0XHJ58

The Millennium Tour
http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Stockholm/Culture-in-Stockholm/The-Millennium-Tour/

Bellmansgatan 1, Södermalm, the fictional home of crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist.


View Larger Map

Photos of the free Millennium tour in Stockholm at: http://www.losapos.com/millennium%20locations%20in%20stockholm

Of the various versions of the trilogy collection you could buy, I wanted to get the one that was in Swedish and that included lots of the footage that was cut from the original shorter theatrical release, so nearly every one of the three is three hours in length.
It does come with English subtitles, of course, since I'm not fluent in Swedish, just know what I know -and it even has an English dub track I won't use- but not one that's all dubbed, since that isn't what I saw the first time.

That's one of the other things that Sweden has in common with the U.S. -real hardcore film fans prefer their films in the original language, with subtitles, NOT dubbed, as is so common in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries.
On top of all the dozens of other things i will be doing during my stay there, I'll avail myself of some opportunities to check out other aspects of Swedish film culture and history while there.

After all, as I mentioned here in my blog post of April 25, 2012, titled, Beautiful, just like the original! Greta Garbo will be featured on the new Swedish 100 Kronor note, with Ingmar Bergman on the 200 SEK note, all designed by Göran Österlund, starting in 2015
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/beautiful-just-like-original-greta.html
Sweden doesn't just talk the talk, they actually put their larger-than-life film personalities on their currency, in the case of the two giants below, starting in 2015. 

Designed by Göran Österlund

Many years ago, when I was still living in the Washington, D.C. area, and despite a busy schedule, usually managing to see a foreign film a week, one night while leaving the theater, completely out-of-the-blue, I came to the sudden realization that unless Uma Thurman 
or Cate Blanchett agreed to portray her in a well-written biopic, there was almost no chance we were ever going to see a top-tier actress play Garbo in a believable way.

Queen Christina trailer (1933): The One and Only Garbo!
I think I've probably seen Queen Christina about a dozen times over the past 30 years.


http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/385/Queen-Christina/

Ingmar Bergman is on the new 200 Kronor note, replacing Selma Lagerlöf, who was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Designed by Göran Österlund

Two great new songs from Jill Johnson - "A Woman Can Change Her Mind," and her duet with Rascal Flatts, "Come Wake Me Up"

poriel2 YouTube Channel video: Jill Johnson - A Woman Can Change Her Mind (Live @VärldensBarn2012) Benefit concert for Children of the World. Uploaded October 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/6Uccl5cWwxA


jilljohnsonmusic YouTube Channel video: Come Wake Me Up - Rascal Flatts and Jill Johnson. Uploaded December 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/1a4cTBCe25A

Rascal Flatts' new album, CHANGED (Deluxe Edition) will be officially released in Sweden on January 3rd by LionheartSweden

jilljohnsonmusic YouTube Channel video: TV ad for Jill Johnson's latest album, A Woman Can Change Her Mind. Uploaded November 7, 2012.

http://youtu.be/XLBh-mRuv-I

Unfortunately for me, based on the latest information I've seen from her record company, except for a TV performance for SVT in Göteborg slated for Wednesday January 16th, unless something really crazy happens, I won't be able to see Jill perform LIVE next month while I'm in Sweden because her tour doesn't start until Spring. 
Which sucks for me, to say the least.

http://jilljohnson.se/

http://www.lionheartmusicgroup.se/

Cold facts on school violence & security, the subject the N.Y. Times has largely ignored for years; John Solomon & Kimberly Dvorak detail Obama & Congress' hypocrisy: Pre-Sandy Hook shooting, Obama "administration eliminated emergency preparedness program, let school violence prevention programs lapse"; At Broward Beat, intense debate ensues on the role of (or absence of) SROs at Broward County schools and who should be paying for them

I actually read this Washington Guardian piece early Saturday morning and have been waiting patiently to see something on this topic elsewhere, ideally, at a South Florida-centric news website or blog, or a decent segment on TV with some real depth.

Nope, it seems that few want to actually deal with the actual nuts and bolts of school security and the source of funding, they just prefer repeating the same old homilies and tut-tut how terrible it all is.

Even pre-9/11, living and working in Washington and going fairly regularly to some of the places I did for work or my own purposes because of where some friends worked, I was always VERY safety and security conscious about myself and the people I worked with, since we often worked VERY late in almost completely empty office buildings in a city that was among the most crime and violent-prone in the country.

I had no qualms about complaining to the property management company about aspects of building security that I found weak or unsatisfactory, and actually got building security people fired for their continual lack of attention to detail, and unwillingness to tell their friends to stop coming by and hanging out near high-security areas.
I took the approach that we could always find someone who understood our unique security circumstances and who'd pay more attention, so I never lost any sleep about getting someone fired for not doing their job the way we wanted it done.
We were the client.

The day in 1994 that the Oklahoma City Bombing took place at the Murah Federal Building, I was at the NLRB HQ on Vermont Avenue, N.W. doing some research and going over the recent filings and proceedings re the MLB lockout, even while ESPN was reporting on it just a few blocks away.
The difference in security in that building within one week was night-and-day. 

During the nearly 15 years that I lived and worked up there, one of the regular features of local TV news reporting in Washington, D.C. were fairly-lengthy segments on the ease with which strangers/reporters could access and penetrate D.C. high schools without detection. 

Seemingly once a week, someone at one of the four area TV stations showed how easily it could be done regardless of how much the School system spent on security.
And I hardly need mention that one of the biggest problems were the school's students themselves trying to finesse the security systems by creating pathways that allowed them to skip off campus without being noticed by authorities.
Frankly, I always thought that there'd be a mass shooting at one of those schools but it never happened, even while the drive-bys during afternoon football games were not uncommon.

I have no reason to think that the security down here is any different with respect to students actually watering-down whatever the schools put in place.

The Washington Guardian

Before Connecticut tragedy, administration eliminated emergency preparedness program,let school violence prevention programs lapse

John Solomon and Kimberly Dvorak 

Updated 23:43 PM EST, December 14, 2012

Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget savings.

Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure

Speaking of ignoring the problem of school security, please note for yourself how rarely the N.Y. Times has written about school security.
Here are the search results for "school security" as of 10:50 a.m. today:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/school+security

How many entries do you see since 2000? 
Just one, from 2002, and that was about Israel.
I think it's fair to say that barely more than zero articles in 12 years pretty well speaks volumes.
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/school+security/365days/


http://www.browardbeat.com/tears-for-sandy-hook-elementary/

http://www.browardbeat.com/parents-start-pressure-for-school-cops/


10 years later, the real story behind Columbine
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Updated 4/14/2009 1:48 PM 
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm

Good news for Hallandale Beach taxpayers! Rare victory for common sense and financial accountability at City Hall courtesy of Comm. Michele Lazarow

Above, 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, which includes the office of Zamar, Inc. Of course, even without the $50,000 in CRA funds they thought they were going to get Monday night, I suspect they can swing the $10 they pay a year in rent to taxpayers for use of the former Sanders property. May 22, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Good news for Hallandale Beach taxpayers!
There was a rare victory for common sense and financial accountability at City Hall last night, at the CRA Board of Directors meeing, courtesy of Comm. Michele Lazarow, just elected in November.

Lazarow made a motion to table the voting on agenda item 9A and have the HB City Commission vote on it again on January 14th, after the CRA Advisory Board meets one more time at a time and place TBA, which I'll share with you here once it's announced so you can attend.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-12-17-HBCRA2/Exhibit%2013%20to%2015%20-%20HBCRA%20Advisory%20Committee%20Rank%20and%20Recommendations.pdf

Only the four original groups that made the cut will be re-examined for accuracy and compliance with city rules.

Also, at 7:11 p.m., CRA Executive Director Dr. Alvin Jackson, Jr. announced that Zamar, Inc would NOT be eligible for funding this year on account of their failure to qualify as a 501(c)(3),
as I've been writing and discussing for well over a year.
That means that $50,000 is, theoretically, on the table, to be added to the totals previously approved, or placed back into that line item until next year.  

The final vote was 5-0!

Afterwards, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, as has often been the case the past four years on those rare times when he hasn't gotten his way, seemed to grumble and complain on the dais about the actual function and purpose of the CRA right now.
But what he really meant was the fairness of it all, just not in the way that most of the world understands the concept of "fairness."
He preferred the way things were done before when fairness to taxpayers' long term best interest played second-fiddle to his base political interests, he just didn't say this out loud, but not to worrry.
We all knew that was what really got him upset -he didn't get his way. 

Sanders lamented (i.e. bitched) about the fact that some people in this city -you may know them as taxpayers and small business owners- took the initiative and were able to do their own research and write persuasive emails to Comm. Lazarow and others in the community to raise reasonable questions about the true facts surrounding some of the assertions on applications of groups who've gotten CRA funds with little real oversight in the past, and who seem to have gotten used to telling less than the whole truth on their applications.
Yes, it turns out that taxpayers don't like being played for fools, not that Sanders would acknowledge this.

Lazarow was able to use common sense and persuasion about being entitled to vote based on real facts and numbers that made sense to prevent a fait accompli, and was able to make the case that more scrutiny needed to attach to the information included in the myriad applications.

In the timing is everything department, her comments came just hours after the news swept the area that earlier Monday the Broward IG has forwarded info to the Broward State's Attorney Office re Dr. Deborah Brown's Zamar Inc. re allegations of misappropriation of Hallandale Beach CRA funds.

Of course, Comm. Sanders phrased it differently, in a sour and petty way, and in the process, threw my friend and civic activist Judy Selz under the bus by name, because earlier in the evening, she reminded the entire room what taxpayers had been promised in the way of transparency, accuracy and standards with respect to CRA grants by former City manager Mark A. Antonio.

Comm. Sanders didn't seem to like the reminder that many members of this community's pro-reform elements, of which I am a part, have NOT FORGOTTEN that this process was supposed to be much more honest than it has been, but the truth is that some of his closest political pals operate on the margin in this community and do NOT tell the truth and operate on the margins of what is acceptable -and we all know it
That even includes many members of the South Florida press corps.
It's certainly no secret.

Trust me, those remarks of his won't be soon forgotten, even though it's par for the course for him, a person who was deathly afraid of showing his face  before voters in most parts of this community, as he proved during this past election, when he refused to participate in any meaningful debate.

Poor Comm. Sanders has no idea what that upcoming CRA Advisory Board meeting might be like if some of us in this city choose to drop some very pertinent facts on the table at that public meeting that don't square with the contrived version of reality some of these groups are trying to foist upon us.
Where they "serve" the community in ways that are hard to measure or in some cases, try to solve problems that most of us don't think we actually have.

(Honestly, this city and the CRA district in particular have so many problems, why the need to make them up?)

Also, in what was news to me, Comm. Sanders announced that his wife, Jessica, no longer has the role she did at the Palms Community Action Coalition.
Yes, the group with the useless website that is on an 18-month time delay.
Don't know whether she gets to keep her city office and resources at the Hepburn Center!

There's still a segment of the local population that believes there's still a fairly good chance that Mayor Cooper will try to make someone else the scapegoat for the many years of chronic mismanagement at the HB CRA that happened under the two previous City Managers while Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew adamantly refused to perform their proper oversight function.
They did nothing to stop what was happening, instead, only encouraged more of it as long as their own political supporters reaped the benefits.

Ask yourself this question: Why is it that in a city this size, it's the same 8-10 people who consistently got their hands on CRA funds when there is so little to show for that money afterwards?

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Previously I'd written...

Subject: FYI re Hallandale Beach CRA's annual shell game of ranking groups, per Monday night's CRA meeting at 6 pm. Talk about history repeating itself...

6 pm Agenda at:

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-12-17-HBCRA2/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202012-12-17%2018-00.htm

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2012-12-17-HBCRA2/Exhibit%2013%20to%2015%20-%20HBCRA%20Advisory%20Committee%20Rank%20and%20Recommendations.pdf

Philanthropic oversight group Guidestar's page on Zamar states that their exempt status was 

automatically revoked by the IRS in 2010 for failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years, so why does the city still treat Zamar like it's tax exempt?

http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/65-0407038/zamar-school-performing-arts.aspx

Here's the IRS doc report re Zamar and the Automatic Revocation of Exemption Information:

http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayRevocation.do;jsessionid=1e+Hhjpuicy-VvcAz1PR6g__?dispatchMethod=displayRevokeInfo&revocationId=395876&ein=650407038&exemptTypeCode=al&isDescending=true&totalResults=452261&postDateTo=&ein1=&state=All...&dispatchMethod=searchRevocation&postDateFrom=&country=US&city=&searchChoice=&indexOfFirstRow=1000&sortColumn=legalName&resultsPerPage=250&names=&zipCode=&deductibility=

On fourth page of document, Document 11 - Exhibit 11 - Zamar School of Performing Arts Application, uses a copy of the 2003 IRS form that is no longer valid about the organization.

And nobody at the CRA said anything about this????

Where does Dr. Deborah Brown get off thinking that she can fool taxpayers by including invalid docs from the IRS to try to scrounge up $50,000 from the city, yet again? Or by using docs from the Florida Dept. of State that appear to be seven years old and not current?

Where exactly is their current, properly filled-out 990 Form?

Why is that such a big mystery if they have nothing to hide?

There seems to be no end in sight for this woman getting tens of thousands of

dollars from Hallandale Beach taxpayers every year despite consistently being

less than honest or transparent with them.

And why, despite all the money involved is all this CRA loan information copied and managed

in such a consistently self-evident half-assed fashion that it can NOT be searched for on the

city's website?

Yes, it's hard to shake the impression that some of the staff at Hallandale Beach City hall want taxpayers, their real bosses, to be in the dark and NOT be able to simply look at easy

to understand information so they can connect-the-dots and draw their own conclusions.

How can there be not one but two city employees at the CRA making over $100,000 a year involved in this sorry spectacle of an effort, and yet this is what they present to HB taxpayers with a straight face, as if we should be grateful?

It's still unclear to me what Liza Torress really does and why her salary went up $40k to $100K this past Spring.