Joe Kennedy Is Gone, But Not Forgotten

I don't know where I'd be
Without you here with me
Life with you makes perfect sense
You're my best friend
-- Tim McGraw, "My Best Friend"

The days crawl by. Jami Dawn Kennedy tries to will her way through them, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. What other option is there? Smile a fake smile. Grin a fake grin. Put on a strong front for anyone outside of her tight circle of family members and friends.

"How are you holding up?" they ask.

"Oh, fine," the widow says.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" they ask.

"No, thank you," the widow says.


Actually, there is something they can do for her -- a small gesture, in lieu of flowers or whatever it is one sends a 26-year-old pregnant widow who lost her husband a mere four months ago. "They," she says, "can try and remember Joe."


That's all she asks for, and, quite frankly, it's the least they -- you -- can do. Remember Joe Kennedy, the journeyman left-hander who went 43-61 during a five-team, seven-year major league career. Remember Joe Kennedy, the teammate who rooted for his colleagues with uncommon vigor. Remember Joe Kennedy, the boy who grew up poor in a San Diego County trailer and willed himself to succeed.


Remember Joe Kennedy, the man who loved picking up his infant son Kaige (now 16 months old) and twirling him like a baton as the boy giggled himself silly. Remember Joe Kennedy, the husband who cried uncontrollably while proposing to Jami some 4½ years ago. Remember Joe Kennedy, who on the night of Nov. 23, 2007, died of hypertensive heart disease at the age of 28.

Remember Joe Kennedy.

Please, remember him.

That has become Jami's mission -- the purpose of her life since losing the purpose of her life. Inside the Denver home she shared with Joe, there are photographs upon photographs. Joe as a baby. Joe in a baseball uniform. Joe and Jami on vacation. Joe with his little boy.

"Kaige will come in, see Joe's pictures and say, 'Dah-dah, Dah-dah,'" says Jami, sobbing between words. "I don't know what he remembers and what he doesn't, but I think he wonders where Joe is." More crying.


How in the world is she supposed to do this? To go on, alone? Heck, the boy looks exactly like his father, from his facial expressions to his hair to his belly to his gestures. "I saw Kaige's face light up whenever Joe entered the room," she says. "Absolutely light up."



Joe Kennedy was a 6-foot-4, 225-pound teddy bear of a man who seemed destined to pitch for a few more years, then retire to enjoy a lifetime of marriage, fatherhood and golf. He seemed destined to coach a Little League team; take memorable vacations with close pals like Frank Thomas and Todd Helton; father two more kids, maybe even three.



He and Jami had their days mapped out; a beautiful, blissful journey.



Their marriage would last, because neither believed in divorce and neither could imagine life without the other. They would grow old together. Spoil grandchildren ... great-grandchildren. "We always laughed," Jami says. "At the end of the day you're with your best friend. That's what Joe is to me -- my best friend."



She still does this -- the present tense. It's one hell of a habit to break, especially in the late days of March. This was Joe's favorite time of year -- the warm sun, the green grass, the optimism of a new 162-game season.



Jami can't help but feel -- literally feel -- Joe preparing for the upcoming season, hoping this would be the year he'd finally break through and capitalize on the promise that made Tampa Bay select him with its eighth-round pick in the 1998 amateur draft. Though he was often guarded with strangers, inside Joe was actually an optimist. With this adjustment, or a trade to that team, he could win 15 games, maybe even 18. "He felt this season would be the one where he finally fulfilled his promise," Jami says. "He really felt it."

It's noteworthy to hear Jami Kennedy speak in this manner, because the woman Joe fell for -- the one with the angelic smile and the Oreo-sized dimples -- once barely acknowledged baseball as a sport. ("I once argued with my mom until I was blue in the face that there was no such thing as a second baseman," she says, managing a quick chuckle. "Because nobody stands on second base.") She was a mass communications major at the University of South Florida back in 2003 when a mutual friend insisted she meet his pal who played for the Devil Rays. "I had no interest in being set up," she says. "Especially with a ballplayer."


So, without her knowing, the friend invited Jami and Joe to the Martini Bar in Tampa, Fla. "Joe opened the door when I walked in, and I thought, 'Oh, he's cute,'" she says. "But I didn't know he was the guy I'd been told about." When Jami asked Joe to direct her to the bathroom, he advised her that the Martini Bar lacked a ladies room, but he could gladly escort her to the port-a-potty out back. It was her first taste of Joe's kindling-dry sense of humor. "I was like, 'What's with this guy?' and I punched him in the arm," she says. "An hour into the night I finally realized this was the man I was supposed to meet."


From that moment until last Nov. 23, Joe and Jami never went a day without talking. Corniness be damned, it was love at its most authentic. She loved the way he held her; the way he could always make her laugh. He loved the way she thought -- really, truly thought -- he was the best ballplayer on the planet. "I'd give him these pep talks," she says, "and Joe would just crack up."


Back on Dec. 14, 2003, Joe was crestfallen to learn that the Devil Rays had traded him to the Colorado Rockies. Shortly after hearing the news, he arrived at Jami's doorstep, sobbing.


"Why are you crying?" she asked.


"Because I was traded," he answered.


"Wow," she said dryly. "Now who's gonna do your laundry?"


With that, Joe lowered himself to one knee and grabbed Jami's hand.


Eight weeks later, on Jan. 31, 2004, they were married at the Rusty Pelican in Tampa. Before 130 people, with Tim McGraw's "My Best Friend" playing in the background, they had their first dance as a married couple.


"It was the best day of my life," she says. "I just celebrated our four-year anniversary, and ..."

More crying.


In order to maintain some semblance of normalcy, Jami has spent portions of these past few months in Florida and Arizona, staying with Frank and Megan Thomas near the Blue Jays' camp in Dunedin, Fla., and with Todd and Christy Helton at the Rockies' camp in Tucson, Ariz. Though no positives accompany this story, the aftermath of Joe's passing has afforded Jami time to appreciate the family she made through baseball. On the day Joe died, Frank and Megan rushed to Florida to be by Jami's side. They went to the hospital with her, and helped make the funeral arrangements with her. "It was the least we could do," says Frank. "Joe was one of my closest friends."


"Because of Christy and Todd and Frank and Megan, I feel like I might make it," Jami says. "They don't treat me like a widow. They treat me like a person. When something like this happens, people look at you like you have a disease. Well, I don't have a disease. I'm just hurting."


The pain isn't likely to disappear anytime soon. On Monday, Jami and Kaige will return to Coors Field -- the stadium Joe called home for 1½ years -- to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day. Then, approximately two months later, she is scheduled to give birth to a baby girl at Denver's Rose Medical Center.


With Joe gone, Jami plans on packing the delivery room with every friend and family member -- male or female -- she can find. "It'll be so incredibly bittersweet," she says. "I love that I'm carrying his baby, that a part of Joe is alive in me. But I just hope during delivery that I feel him there with me. I need to feel him with me."


Another cry. Another pause. Deep breaths. Deep, painful breaths.


"No matter what," she says, "I'm naming the baby Joe. That way, I can look forward to the day when I yell his name again and have someone answer it.


"That way, he lives on."

Article Complete /
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/080327&sportCat=mlb

From $70K To Food Bank, One Family's Struggle

ALTADENA, California (CNN) -- When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.

It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.

"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard."

Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills.

Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied.

"I never used the system. I've been working since I was 15-and-a-half. I needed it now and it turned me down," she said.

Stories like Guerrero's are becoming more common as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of an economic downturn, rising gas prices and a housing crunch, especially in a state like California that has been rocked by foreclosures.

On Wednesday, a key government report on the battered housing market found new home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February, suggesting the nation's housing market is still struggling.

Americans also have been attending in large numbers foreclosure fairs where mortgage lenders, financial planners and counselors offer tips to hard-hit homeowners.

"Our economy is struggling, and families in the 'Inland Empire' and across the nation are hurting," California Rep. Joe Baca said, referring to an area of Southern California in his district.

"Our housing market is in a state of crisis due to rampant abuses of sub-prime lending, and unemployment is rising. At the same time, the cost of necessities such as gas, healthcare, and education continue to rise."

Daryl Brock, the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization supplies food to more than 400 charities in metro Los Angeles, from homeless shelters to soup kitchens to an array of food banks. While the majority of people they help are working poor families, he said they have seen some major changes.

In the last 12 to 18 months, Brock said, the agencies he supplies have begun seeing more middle-class families coming to their doors.

"Our agencies have said there is an increasing number of people coming to them for help," Brock told CNN by phone. "Their impression was that these were not people they normally would have seen before. They seemed to be better dressed. They seemed to have better cars and yet they seemed to be in crisis mode."

He added, "The only thing they can do is give us anecdotal evidence that they think it's because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis."

A former loan processor, Guerrero knows all about that, although so far she has been able keep her house.

She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months, but now that money's gone.

She says she's now in a middle-class "no-man's-land."

"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months," she said.

She's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns. But for this single mom, every day it becomes harder to hang on.

"It's just depressing," she said. "For me, I just don't want to get out of bed, but I have to. That's my hardest thing....I have to.

Article Complete / http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/03/27/foodbank.family/index.html

The Romanovs / Czar Nicholas II's Son's Remains May Have Been Found

MOSCOW — The remains of the last czar's hemophiliac son and heir to the Russian throne, missing since the royal family was gunned down nine decades ago by Bolsheviks in a basement room, may have been found, an archaeologist said Thursday.

Bones were found in a burned area in the ground near Yekaterinburg, the city where Czar Nicholas II and his wife and children were held prisoner and then shot in 1918.

A top local archaeologist said the bones belong to a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of the czar's son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains have also never been found.

If confirmed, the finding would solve a persistent mystery about the doomed family, which fell victim to the violent revolution that ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule.

It comes almost a decade after remains identified as those of Nicholas, his wife and three of his daughters were reburied in a ceremony made possible by the Soviet collapse but shadowed by statements of doubt — including from within the Russian Orthodox Church — about their authenticity.

The spot where the remains were found this summer appears to correspond to a site described by Yakov Yurovsky, the leader of the family's killers, said Sergei Pogorelov, deputy head of the archaeological research department at a regional center for the preservation of historical and cultural monuments in Yekaterinburg.

"An anthropologist has determined that the bones belong to two young individuals — a young male apparently aged roughly 10-13 and another, a young woman about 18-23," he told NTV television.

Nicholas abdicated in 1917 as revolutionary fervor swept Russia, and he and his family were detained. The next year, they were sent to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, where a firing squad executed them on July 17, 1918.

Historians say Communist guards lined up and shot Nicholas, his wife, Alexandra, their five children and four attendants in a small basement room in a nobleman's house in Yekaterinburg. The bodies were loaded in a truck and disposed of first in a mine shaft, according to most accounts.

According to NTV, a 1934 report based on Yurovsky's words indicated that the bodies of nine victims were then doused with sulfuric acid and buried along a road, while those of Alexei and a sister were burned and left in a pit nearby.

The Bolsheviks who killed the czar apparently mutilated and hid the bodies because they did not want the remains of the family — especially those of the heir Alexei — to become objects of worship or spark opposition to their new regime.

With the bodies lost for decades, hundreds of people came forward claiming to be a surviving member of the royal family.

The most prominent was Anna Anderson, a woman who appeared in a mental hospital in 1920 and claimed to be the czar's youngest daughter, Anastasia.

She said she had been rescued by one of the soldiers who killed the rest of the family and was carried out of Russia on the back of a peasant cart, eventually winding up in Berlin.

In the 1990s, DNA tests revealed she was a Polish peasant named Franziska Schanzkowska.

Parts of the royal bodies were exhumed in 1991 and reburied in 1998 in the imperial-era capital of St. Petersburg, following years of investigation and DNA tests in Britain and the U.S. But the bodies of Alexei and one of the czar's daughters, either Maria or Anastasia, remained missing.

The two daughters were only a year apart, and DNA testing cannot distinguish between siblings. Most Russian scientists believe the missing daughter was Maria, and scientific tests have indicated the bones of Anastasia were among the remains buried.

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas, Alexandra, Alexei and his four sisters as martyrs in 2000. But the church cited the two missing corpses and questions over whether the recovered bones were actually those of the royal family in its decision to scale down its participation in the 1998 burial ceremony.

Historian Edvard Radzinsky, the author of a book about Nicholas II, told NTV that if the remains are confirmed to those of Alexei and his sister, it would prove the authenticity of the earlier find by providing "documentary affirmation of what is written in Yurovsky's notes."

Along with the remains of the two bodies, NTV said archaeologists found shards of a ceramic container of sulfuric acid, nails, metal strips from a wooden box, and bullets of various caliber.

It said they found the remains in a weekslong search using metal detectors and metal rods as probes, not by digging.

Pogorelov said the /remains and other items must undergo further tests, and a representative of the Romanovs — the royal family whose rule was ended by the Revolution — urged caution.

"It is necessary to treat these findings very cautiously," Ivan Artseshchevsky told NTV from London, citing the controversy over the bones identified as those of the czar and others killed.

He said tiny statistical margins of error in the identifications had sparked "huge doubts and many disputes."

Article Complete / http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294360,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/archaeology

Message In A Bottle

SEATTLE, Washington — Merle Brandell and his black lab Slapsey were beachcombing along the Bering Sea when he spied a plastic bottle among the Japanese glass floats he often finds along the shore of his tiny Alaskan fishing village.

He walked over and saw an envelope tucked inside. After slicing the bottle open, Brandell found a message from an elementary school student in a suburb of Seattle. The fact that the letter traveled 1,735 miles without any help from the U.S. postal service is unusual, but that's only the beginning of the mystery.

About 21 years passed between the time Emily Hwaung put the message in a soda bottle and Merle Brandell picked it up on the beach.

"This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands," she wrote. "Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung."

Brandell, 34, a bear hunting guide and manager of a local water plant, said many of the 70-plus residents of Nelson Lagoon were intrigued by his find. Beachcombing is a popular activity in remote western Alaska. Among the recent discoveries was a sail boat that washed onto shore last October.

"It's kind of a sport. It keeps us occupied. It's one of the pleasures of living here," Brandell said of the village reachable only by plane or boat that is too small to have its own store.

He had no idea just how unusual his find was until he tried to track down the sender: a fourth grader from the North City School in the Shoreline School District.

No one answered the phone when Brandell called the school in December so he sent the school district a handwritten letter, which eventually ended up on the desk of district spokesman Craig Degginger.

After some searching, Degginger discovered Emily Hwaung is now a 30- year-old accountant named Emily Shih who now lives in Seattle. She was in the 4th grade during the 1986-87 school year at a school building that closed more than a year ago.

"I've been getting a kick out of it for a month now," Shih said during a recent interview.

She said she was flabbergasted by the news and immediately shared it with her Kirkland co-workers.

"I don't remember the project. It was so long ago. Elementary school is kind of foggy," Shih admitted.

The project may have been more memorable if each child had created her own message and personally dropped it in the water, but the letters from Carol Aguayo's fourth grade class were typed. The students only added their names and signed them, then a friend carried the bottles on his boat and dropped them in the ocean.

"It took away a little of the mystique," Shih said of the form letter.

She also was a little chagrined by the offer to mail a photo to whomever found the letter and by the environmental implications of dropping plastic bottles in the ocean, and noted that times have changed a lot in 21 years.

"I've had a good laugh about that with all my friends," Shih said.

As she was sharing her story with friends and co-workers, Shih realized how rare it was for a message in a bottle to arrive safely somewhere.

"Many of them had tried to do it themselves, but you never hear of one coming back. The odds are so low that you'll ever hear back from somebody," Shih said. "It was just kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Brandell has a theory about how the bottle ended up on the shore of Nelson Lagoon and how the letter remained so readable after its 21 years in transit. Maybe the bottle didn't spend those years in the water. It might have blown his way quickly and then remained buried in the mud for years.

It was found among some Japanese floats that took a similar journey many years ago. They don't really wash ashore. They extrude out of the mud and into the hands of beachcombers, who sell them on eBay or craft jewelry out of them like Brandell's mother does.

Article Complete / http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340791,00.html

Why Do You Seek The Living Amoung The Dead ? / Christ Has Risen

The Death Of Christ / 10,000 Angels Could Have Saved Him

On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone

Gotta love some of the classic Rolling Stone Covers !
Which is most memorable in your opinion ?
My favorites are many, but I will select of a few.
Please, if you have a favorite lets hear which one & discuss pop culture throughout the years.

''Gonna See My Picture On The Cover, Gonna Buy 5 Copies For My Mother, Gonna See My Smiling Face On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone''

Manson Victims Buried In Notorious Camps / Forensic Experts Say Dig

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.

Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live.

But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.

And the results of just-completed follow-up tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.

Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge..... Dig.

Please Copy / Paste Link For Complete Story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23651072/

So You Want To Be A Professional Tornado / Storm Chaser Huh ?

I think when I first got started tornado chasing I never thought it would become so much of my life. The idea of chasing storms for a living didn't even cross my mind. I just thought about chasing when I had the time and money to buy gas. Maybe going out of state once or twice a year, it was a hobby that didn't make money, it took it.

But I went from chasing a couple of weeks in May to now chasing a few months every year. I am doing more chasing than I ever thought I would, doing tornado research, and and even making money while doing it. But hard core chasing entails traveling tens of thousands of miles each year to get the best storms, with many weeks off in a row, and lots of money just to cover your costs. Making money doing it is very hard.

I am now doing serious tornado research in the hope of helping develop tornado warning systems for people and also working on tornado education and safety. But my research isn't making money, it costs money. Some researchers are making a full time living from storm/tornado study, but again, they work all year long on the research, and only part time actually chasing. That means most of their year is spent at desks, in front of computers and not chasing tornadoes. So again, picture the reality here, they are sitting at a desk and computer working hard on their research. Not chasing storms and tornadoes all year long. These researchers are highly educated professionals, so if research is your thing, plan on many years in a university getting your needed degrees. Also, you had better be good at complex math since advanced meteorology requires it.

With as far as I have come, I still don't consider myself a full time tornado/storm chaser, but just a part time chaser because I am only out chasing a few months each year. I hear of people who claim to be full time year around chasers, but I would ask them a few questions. Do you make all your money just chasing storms and no other income at all except what you make at tornado chasing? As far as I know, and I talk to many chasers from around the world, no one is making their entire living just chasing storms. No one. Surprised?

Storm chasing and chasing tornadoes is a business like any other. What do you have to sell, what product do you offer? Many tornado chasers are videographers, and great at it. Warren Faidely was one of the first to make good money at filming storms and tornadoes, and is still one of the best in the world with a camera. Does he just chase storms? No, he is a photographer and videographer and makes money chasing because he knows how to use a camera better than most everyone else out there. He is really a photographer/videographer, and a fantastic one. So there are photographers and videographers who are making money, but you need very good video or photos to compete.

It comes down to the fact that you need to be able to market and sell something. If you aren't great at photography and videography, you aren't a professional researcher, than you need something else to sell. You could do chase tours. There are many chase tours with some tours like Silver Lining Tours with Roger Hill who are really tour guides for a living, with Roger maybe being the best in the world currently. No, he does not make a living just chasing, he sells tours and is also highly talented at photography and video, and sells those for money too. Some of his video is so good I have cried watching it, really. Again, you need to have something to sell and market besides just sitting in a car and chasing down storms and tornadoes.

You could be filming the best tornado in history, but if you don't know how to use a video camera no one will buy your video. You may love chasing storms, but to run a chasing tour you had better be great at finding most every tornado, be a fun person to be around, and know how to keep people entertained, or you will have many unhappy travelers along with you demanding their money back. Some smaller, less known tours out there are finding running a tour is very risky, expensive and difficult, with their riders asking for all their money back because they didn't see one tornado. I personally am not interested in making a living being a tour guide, even when it means chasing tornadoes and storms.

So, can someone make a living at chasing tornadoes and storms? Only if they have something that can be sold or is of value to someone else. The trick is finding the someone else who will buy what you have to offer and what you have needs to be exceptional. Then, how much money a year do you need to call it a living? $20,000.00 per year? But is that all profit or is that gross income before expenses? Would $30,000.00 dollars gross income leave you enough to live off of? Do the math and you will see how hard it is to make a full time living from tornado/storm chasing. Chasing costs are very expensive, especially with gas over $2.00 per gallon traveling 400 or more miles everyday, motel cost and meals out. Profit is almost as elusive as the tornadoes we seek, it takes hard work to make it.

Being a part time chaser is still great and maybe is the best route for you to work towards. Part time chasers who make up pretty much the vast majority of chasers find that a second or third income is what makes it all work. Maybe you will find you have so much to offer you can gross $70,000.00 per year or more, but still the bottom line is, will you be able to live off of what is left after all expenses are paid. However you add it up, you still have to pay for food, shelter, medical, and all the other bills all year long. Of course vehicle costs is always very high with wear and tear, repairs, tires, windshield replacement, oil changes, you get my point. Then there are equipment costs, repairs, and replacements.

Don't get discouraged if other chasers make you feel like they are making great money and living well off of chasing and you aren't, because chances are, they aren't doing that great. Instead you should feel like one of us if you are out there in search of seeing a tornado, while still having to hold down some kind of secondary income. I believe making a very good living as a tornado/storm chaser and making all your income from only chasing, and doing it year in and year out is still just a dream for almost everyone chasing. Short of winning the lottery, retiring and having a nice pension to live off of, living at home with your parents, inheriting a million dollars, or striking it rich by luck, plan on working besides chasing and you will be in touch with the real world.

That's how it is: Tornado Tim

http://www.tornadochaser.net/living.html

Salvia / More Powerful Than Marijuana & It's Legal

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: "Time is running out! ... stock up while you still can."

That's because salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, are considering a ban or have previously.

"As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one," said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.


Some say legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive.

Native to Mexico and still grown there, salvia divinorum is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk.

Hour-long hallucinations
Called nicknames like Sally-D, Magic Mint and Diviner's Sage, salvia is a hallucinogen that gives users an out-of-body sense of traveling through time and space or merging with inanimate objects. Unlike hallucinogens like LSD or PCP, however, salvia's effects last for a shorter time, generally up to an hour.

No known deaths have been attributed to salvia's use, but it was listed as a factor in one Delaware teen's suicide two years ago.

"Parents, I would say, are pretty clueless," said Jonathan Appel, an assistant professor of psychology and criminal justice at Tiffin University in Ohio who has studied the emergence of the substance. "It's much more powerful than marijuana."

Linked to boy's suicide
Salvia's short-lasting effects and fact that it is currently legal may make it seem more appealing to teens, lawmakers say. In the Delaware suicide, the boy's mother told reporters that salvia made his mood darker but he justified its use by citing its legality. According to reports, the autopsy found no traces of the drug in his system, but the medical examiner listed it as a contributing cause.

Mike Strain, Louisiana's Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner and former legislator, helped his state in 2005 become the first to make salvia illegal, along with a number of other plants. He said the response has been largely positive.

"I got some hostile e-mails from people who sold these products," Strain said. "You don't make everybody happy when you outlaw drugs. You save one child and it's worth it."

An ounce of salvia leaves sells for around $30 on the Internet. A liquid extract from the plant, salvinorin A, is also sold in various strengths labeled "5x" through "60x." A gram of the 5x strength, about the weight of a plastic pen cap, is about $12 while 60x strength is around $65. And in some cases the extract comes in flavors including apple, strawberry and spearmint.

'Experience immortality'
Some Web sites tout the product with images like a waterfall and rainbow and include testimonials like: "It might sound far-fetched, but I experience immortality."

Among those who believe the commotion over the drug is overblown is Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group that does research on psychedelic drugs and whose goal is to develop psychedelics and marijuana into prescription medication.

"I think the move to criminalize is a misguided response to a very minimal problem," Doblin said.

Doblin said salvia isn't "a party drug," "tastes terrible" and is "not going to be extremely popular." He disputes the fact teens are its main users and says older users are more likely.

"It's a minor drug in the world of psychedelics," he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23573004/?GT1=43001

Bledsoe / Out Of The NFL & Into Business

BEND, Ore. — On the first day of the first football season after his retirement, Drew Bledsoe actually missed two-a-days. In the morning, he climbed into his boat and floated on Whitefish Lake in Montana and allowed for 30 minutes of reflection.

Then he started training camp.

This was not training camp like the ones Bledsoe reported to during his 14-year N.F.L. career. This was Camp Bledsoe, the beginning of his transition.

He grabbed a camera and asked his wife to snap a shot of him sitting on a deck, feet in the water, beer clutched between his legs. He sent the picture to dozens of friends still playing in the N.F.L., all sweating through training camp in the sun.

“As you can see from this first picture I am maintaining my strict workout regimen,” he wrote them. “You can see here I am alternating some 12-ounce curls with some toe swirls. I generally do these until the bottle gets too light to offer enough resistance then I start over with a fresh one.”

The messages continued through the first week of camp — Bledsoe riding his motorcycle, sipping wine, playing golf. By the end, Bledsoe knew deep down what he already suspected. His N.F.L. career was over.

“When training camp came and went, and I wasn’t there, that was when the official break happened,” said the 36-year-old Bledsoe, who announced his retirement last April. “I left that phase of my life and moved on to the next one.”

Last week, quarterback Brett Favre joined Bledsoe in the retired quarterbacks club. Next season, Favre will experience what Bledsoe went through this year, a transition from veteran signal caller to real-world rookie.

On a recent two-day tour of his new life in the city of Bend, Ore., Bledsoe conducted a business meeting over wine, coached third graders on the basketball court and closed a business deal on the ski slopes at nearby Mount Bachelor.

Bledsoe began planning his transition six years before his retirement, about the same time his tenure ended with the New England Patriots. They selected him out of Washington State with the first overall pick in the 1993 draft, and Bledsoe’s entire family traveled to New York City, their first trip together on an airplane.

“Like the Waltons go to New York” Bledsoe said.

During his ninth season in New England, against the Jets in late September 2001, Bledsoe took the most vicious of hit of his career. Linebacker Mo Lewis smacked Bledsoe along the sideline as he tried to run for a first down. Four liters of blood flowed into Bledsoe’s chest cavity, until his lungs failed to inflate.

Bledsoe went back into the game, but he could not remember plays he spent years practicing. He needed assistance getting dressed after the game.

In Bledsoe’s absence, the Patriots turned to a young and unknown quarterback named Tom Brady. Bledsoe threw a touchdown pass in the American Football Conference Championship game that year, but Brady started in the Super Bowl, and the Patriots’ dynasty began with Bledsoe on the sideline.

“I don’t play the what-if game much,” Bledsoe said. “And of course, I believe had I not gotten hit, we would have done the same thing. As an athlete, you have to believe that.”

After that season, Bledsoe felt a strong urge to walk away. Instead, he went to Buffalo, where he made his fourth Pro Bowl, then to Dallas, where he was benched again. His career ended with more than 44,000 passing yards and 251 touchdown passes.

The Cowboys pulled Bledsoe at halftime of a game against the Giants in late October 2006. He said he decided to retire then, but waited until the season ended to make sure he was not simply making an emotional decision.

Bledsoe says he is still bothered by the perception at the end of his career that he was too slow and his skills were declining. He insists his skills “had not diminished to any measurable degree.”Bledsoe wished he could show up at the scouting combine wearing a disguise, pretending to be from a small school, essentially starting over.

“Perception always bugged me,” said Adam Bledsoe, his younger brother. “In the latter half of his career, he became a whipping boy.”

Bledsoe relished standing on the field, the center of attention, 80,000 fans packed in the stands. But after the second benching, after teammates started addressing him by Mister, he decided to fade into the background. He started to decline interview requests and began starting businesses.

He knew the statistics of recently retired players, the marriages that crumbled, the money that disappeared, the friend who refused to watch football for three years after retirement. Gone were the people who made his doctor’s appointments, gave him directions and planned nearly every minute of his day.

His biggest fear: finishing football and having no reason to get out of bed in the morning. As a result, Bledsoe said yes to everything. During his career, a winery deal with three other N.F.L. quarterbacks — Damon Huard, Rick Mirer and Dan Marino — fell through, so Bledsoe started his own vineyard. He planted the grapes three years ago, and the winery will start producing in 2010.

A coffee business, 11 Roasters, is in full swing. Bledsoe proudly shows off the fire-engine red roaster in his Bend offices and talks about his blends like a Starbucks chairman. (He says the Esmeralda special is a favorite.)

The idea behind all his endeavors, whether wine, coffee, real estate or the Drew Bledsoe Foundation, is to start slow, build small and then expand. Bledsoe said he believed every coffee blend, every bottle of wine, should tell a story.

His advice to Favre? Stay busy. Adam Bledsoe jokes that after his brother retired, he took golf as seriously as he used to take football. He raised $600,000 in four months to put in FieldTurf at the local high school.

Along the way, the strangest thing happened. Bledsoe sometimes awoke at 4:30 in the morning, excited to start the day.

He coached flag football in the fall and basketball in the winter. He and his wife, Maura, will celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary in May. Finger paintings from four children — Stu, 10, John, 8, Henry, 7, Healy, 4 — hang from the refrigerator.

Sometimes, Bledsoe’s family wonders the same things as everybody else. Like when Healy asked the other day, “Daddy, when are you going to play football again?”

Arizona, Carolina, Cincinnati and Jacksonville called this past season. Jacksonville’s offer intrigued Bledsoe. The Jaguars had a strong running game, a solid offensive line, a coach Bledsoe liked, and they were offering an easy seven-figure paycheck.

Bledsoe seriously considered it, but he decided to turn down the offer. When he woke up the next morning with a giant smile on his face, he knew he made the right decision.

Toward the end of his career, Bledsoe learned he had chronic head trauma migraines. Every time he was hit in the back of the head, he lost his peripheral vision.

“I really don’t have any regrets,” Bledsoe said. “Most people leave the game angry, at least for a little while. I had that with the Patriots, but I got over it, moved on.”

Humor eases the transition. His e-mail address starts exqb11. The Bledsoes’ Christmas card pictured the family dressed in holiday gear, with its recently retired father sitting oblivious in the middle, watching television.

There were times when Bledsoe missed the game. At a restaurant in Montana, the Cowboys’ first preseason game was on television, and there were all his teammates, guys he played with only a few months earlier, moving on.During the Super Bowl, the Bledsoes went skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyo. They planned to leave on a Sunday, but snow forced them back inside the cabin, where they watched the Giants’ victory on television.

When the game ended, Maura held a glass of wine and toasted her husband on surviving his first season out of football. She noticed tears forming in his eyes.

At the end of the two-day Bend tour, Bledsoe pulled his Mercedes into the lot where the family is building its second dream home. The house will be about 10,000 square feet, with a wine cellar and a theater and an underground basketball court.

The last time Bledsoe built a home like this, he played for the Patriots, his career still in front of him. Scanning the mass of concrete, Bledsoe smiled. New dream house, new dreams, new life. This transition is complete.

“His career didn’t end the way we thought,” Maura said. “I always wanted it to end in the Super Bowl, ride into the sunset. But this works. He’s happy and busier than he’s ever been.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/football/10bledsoe.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ei=5088&en=45384b34ee9e1e99&ex=1362801600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Former Panther / Current Raider Cooper Finds Purpose In Saving Animals

He Credits Those Who Can't Defend Themselves For Prolonging His Career.

OAKLAND – Jarrod Cooper can't take two steps in the Oakland Animal Shelter without stopping.

He might pause to pick up an abused dog recovering from surgery, gaze out a window at roosters rescued from a life of cockfighting or help socialize for adoption a malnourished animal being nursed back to health – all while wearing a huge grin.

And when discussing Code 597, the nonprofit he founded to fight animal cruelty, before taking a group of about a dozen Raiders fans dutifully dressed in silver and black – masks and all – for a tour of the shelter, Cooper is just as happy.

The shelter might as well be Cooper's second home. When he didn't have football last season, it became his solace.

Hit with a four-game suspension to start the season after violating the NFL's steroid and related substances policy, the Raiders safety seriously began considering life without the game when the team cut him before training camp.

That led Cooper to reflect on what he would like to do when his playing days end, and he turned to his childhood dream of being a veterinarian.

The Raiders eventually re-signed Cooper, and although his 2007 season was cut short by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Week 12, that couldn't get him down. He had found solace in working with the animals.

"It changed my life," Cooper said. "I'm actually moving here. I live in (South) Carolina, but I want to work with animals when I'm done."

Cooper, however, isn't waiting until he's done with the NFL to pursue a career as an animal control officer.

If Cooper isn't working out, he's at the shelter or on his way. If he can't be there, he's calling to check in.

Cooper has attacked working with animals the same way he tracks down punt returners as a gunner on special teams – full steam ahead with no regard for anyone trying to stop him.

"He wants to beat down the door of somebody," said animal control officer Andrew Gordon, who has spent 33 years at the shelter. "Especially for the animals."

Cooper isn't literally tackling animal abusers – although if he could, he probably would – but he does help screen families that want to adopt animals and goes out of his way to help educate others on animal abuse.

Last fall, he began taking ride-alongs with animal control officers. Instead of using Tuesdays, the team's day off, to rest, Cooper spent eight-hour days volunteering to beat down the doors of animal abusers.

"It was Code 597 left and right," Cooper said. "We picked up dogs, cats, dead animals. It was nonstop. I was exhausted when we were done."

Cooper has spent many a tiring day at the shelter doing whatever needs to be done.

"Nothing's beneath him," animal control officer Nicole Frede said. "He's been in kennels cleaning up dog poop, and we have people to do that – on his hands and knees picking up dog poop in the kennel when he doesn't have to."

If you didn't know better, you might assume Cooper was on the payroll. Instead, it's Cooper pouring money into the shelter, including the recent addition of the "Coop," an open area for dogs to roam free.

He speaks in "we" terms when talking about the shelter and gives tours with a comfort level that proves he spends as much time rehabilitating his knee as he does helping socialize animals for adoption.

"He really is addicted to this place because I had to put him on a schedule," said his girlfriend, Erica Arana, who helps with the nonprofit and volunteers at the shelter. "I'd call him and say, 'Hello, you can't possibly still be there. The place closes at 6.' He really is here every day."

Though his veterinary dreams were derailed when he realized the curriculum was too intensive to coincide with playing college football at Kansas State, Cooper never lost his love for animals.

Code 597 was born out of Cooper's desire to educate the public on how to properly care for animals. He reminds people on tours of the facility, for example, that it's not OK to leave their dog chained all day. The program also pays for animals to be spayed or neutered if owners can't afford to do so.

It's all part of the perspective Cooper has gained from working at the shelter.

"I don't think any player really has it that bad," Cooper said in between playing with dogs. "You're living the dream and doing what you want to do. You come here and see reality.

"Working here probably prolonged my career. It takes a lot of stress off you. (After retiring), I'll probably be an ACO with a big thing of mace to spray people with."

So if you're out to harm animals, cover your eyes.

NFL Players Open Up About Sexual Abuse

TO BE HONEST, Al Chesley says he doesn't know how much the terrible secret he kept within affected his life.
The former Eagles linebacker won't say it was the root of the alcohol and drug abuse that might have cut short his NFL career.

He doesn't know how much it contributed to his issues with anger management or with authority figures. He doesn't know if it caused him to be a womanizer.

All Chesley knows is that after 37 years of hiding, fearing, feeling ashamed, the last 3 months have started the healing process, and he wants to let others who may be suffering like he had know that help is available.

"I don't know how bad it hurt me," Chesley said of being sexually abused when he was 13 years old. "I self-medicated myself with illegal drugs and alcohol. I was into womanizing and had anger problems.

"I don't know how much it contributed to those things, but it could have played a big part. I'm not crying the victim. I was a victim then, but now I'm a survivor.

"All I want to do now is set an alarm, to help other people out there who are going through what I did. You don't have to suffer."

Chesley, 50, was in Wilmington yesterday along with members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to encourage law-enforcement officials to extend their support and encouragement to victims of pedophilia.

It was the first time Chesley, who played 3 1/2 seasons for the Eagles and was a member of the 1980 Super Bowl team, has spoken in a large public setting about the abuse he suffered.

He said when he was 13, a Washington police officer he thought was his friend coaxed him into his apartment and performed oral sex on him.

"I hadn't had any sexual experience prior to that," Chesley said. "He stole some of my innocence. I always knew something was wrong with that incident but I was never able to talk about it."

Chesley said he kept this secret for 37 years, in part because he didn't want his parents to find out.

"I did not want to embarrass them," Chesley said of his parents, who are deceased. "That was probably a warped way to look at things, but I was still thinking I did something wrong. I was just 13 years old.

"As I look back now, my parents would have loved me more and been very supportive of me if I told them."

Paul Livingston, who is the San Diego director of SNAP, said Chesley's story is not uncommon. Livingston, who said a janitor at his school sexually abused him when he was 7, said pedophiles count on their victims being too ashamed or afraid to speak out.

"These predators are vicious and vindictive," Livingston said. "They groom us, threaten us not to speak out. We end up blaming ourselves our whole lives."

Playing at 6-3, 240 pounds, Chesley had the invincible physique of a modern-day gladiator, but it was only window dressing for the child suffering inside.

"I was a big, strong football player, but inside I was still the little boy who was hurting," he said. "I was carrying this deep, dark secret."

Chesley said he first started thinking about telling his story to someone about 3 years ago.

He was watching the "Oprah Winfrey Show" when New York Jets wide receiver Laveranues Coles told his story of being sexually abused for 3 years by the man who would become his stepfather.

"I didn't have the courage to come out at all, let alone on television in front of millions of people," Chesley said. "But to hear [Coles'] story was huge. He seemed so free. I could sense how free he was.

"I knew from that moment on, I had to get real with myself."

But it took more time, and then about 3 months ago he went to a support group meeting, where he met Livingston. The two talked afterward, and Chesley knew he had found what he needed.

"It just went from there," he said. "I'm a much healthier person. I'm 50 and working on the second half of my life.

"I wish I would have had the courage to talk about this 20, 10, 5 years ago. I don't know how many people I may have been able to help."

And helping others is all Chesley wants to do now by sharing his story, delivering information and encouraging victims to get the help that is available.

"You don't have to suffer," he said. "I was an unhealthy person to keep it in as long as I did.

"I don't want children to get tricked and to succumb to what I did. And if it's already happened to them, they need to tell someone about that person.

"You didn't do anything wrong. You were the victim and there are avenues for you to get help." *

Send e-mail to

smallwj@phillynews.com.

Who Is Dmitry Medvedev, Is He Merely Putin's Puppet Or The Man Who Can Reform Russia ?

Dmitry Medvedev is soft-spoken former law professor who has risen in the ranks of Russian politics because he is a protege of Vladimir Putin. He was handpicked by Putin in 2007 to be his successor. Before Russia's presidential election on March 2, 2008, long before a ballot was cast, Medvedev was called "Russian's next president" and heavily favoured to win.

Medvedev, a 42-year-old who comes from an academic family, is mostly defined in Russia by what he is not. He does not have a background in the security forces. He is not said to be charismatic. He reportedly has never raised his voice to a subordinate. He does not bark orders. He is not stern. His style is described as softer and gentler than that of Putin. He is said to be intelligent, competent and calm.

What he stands for, and whether his publicly stated positions would lead to reforms, is not yet clear. Medvedev is largely a man of mystery. He has spoken of "full democracy," he has complained of "legal nihilism" in Russia, he has made mention of the need for a "unified state."

But political observers said Putin would most likely remain the boss in the Kremlin regardless of who won the presidential election: Medvedev or his rivals, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gennady Zyuganov and Andrei Bogdanov.

Medvedev is clearly Putin's chosen man. He has served as Russian first deputy prime minister, a position created for him by Putin in 2005, when Putin made him responsible for "national projects." And during the run-up to the 2008 election, Medvedev said that if victorious, he would ask Putin to become prime minister.

Aurel Braun, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Toronto, told CBC News that even if Medvedev wanted to distance himself from Putin and carry out real changes, he currently lacks the strength.

"He is creature of Putin. He doesn't have an independent power base. He is an appointee. He's not there because he's earned the position. He has not built a power base from which he could counter Putin," Braun said.

"Could he create a group of loyalists around himself? If not, he will be an administrative president, working to ensure a third term for Putin."

Hints Of Liberal Leanings

In speeches, Medvedev has indicated he is more liberal than Putin. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 27, 2007, he said: "Today we are building new institutions based on the fundamental principles of full democracy."

He went further: "This democracy requires no additional definition. This democracy is effective and is based on the principles of the market economy, supremacy of the law and government that is accountable to the rest of society. We are fully aware that no undemocratic country has ever become truly prosperous, and this for the simple reason that it is better to have freedom than not to have it."

He is also on the record as saying he would like to improve the rule of law, to support civil society and to fight corruption. His presidential campaign slogan, "Forward, Russia," suggests he is interested in progress.

In a speech in Moscow on Dec. 11, 2007, Medvedev said he wants to decrease poverty, improve health care and education, and to raise living standards in rural areas.

Much has also been made of his musical tastes, in part because some seized on them as a sign that Medvedev was more modern and hipper than his predecessors. He is a devoted fan of hard rock and cites Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin among his favourites. These bands would have been on the state-issued blacklists during Medvedev's Soviet-era schooldays, but he has said he had taped copies, perhaps from bootleggers. Today, he collects the bands' original vinyls and said in an interview with Russian magazine Itogi that he had amassed all of Deep Purple's recordings.

But the question remains: will Medvedev emerge from Putin's shadow and be his own man?

'Liberal Reformer' Or 'Complete Figurehead'?

Experts say Medvedev would likely be a transitional president with real power vested in Putin, who is barred from serving a third consecutive term as president by the Russian constitution.

Medvedev, in his Dec. 11 speech, did not dispel the idea that he would be anything but deferential to Putin, saying it is "extremely important" for Russia to keep Putin in the "most important position" as chairman of Russia's government.

Gary Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, B.C., said Medvedev is presenting himself as slightly more modern than Putin.

"He certainly comes across as being very honest, very competent, very educated and cultured. He's young, he's sort of considered a liberal reformer, someone who is supportive of reforms towards a market economy, towards democracy, a democracy in which a leader plays a very strong role."

However, like the University of Toronto's Braun, Wilson said he sees Medvedev as completely dependent on Putin for power. While Medvedev is viewed as a competent politician, he is a first and foremost a Putin loyalist, Wilson said.

"I think they'll work closely together to achieve the goals that they set out. I don't want to say he'll be a complete figurehead, but I think that they've worked together for so long and they share a lot of the same values that they just sort of work in tandem," he said.

"This is the safe bet for Putin."

Wilson said that if Putin accepted the offer to become prime minister, there could be a power reversal in the Russian government. He said that while the constitution was structured for a strong president and a weaker prime minister, Putin could use his party's large majority in the legislature to override the presidential veto, should there ever be one.

"If Putin decides to become prime minister, I think Medvedev would be a very compliant president," he said, adding that Putin "could be pretty powerful as a leader."

The early years
Medvedev was born in 1965 in St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) and is the son of two university professors. He was a top student who went on to receive a law degree from St. Petersburg University in 1987 and completed a doctorate in law in 1990.

He taught law at St. Petersburg University before entering government in the early 1990s. He joined Putin, an ex-intelligence officer who was then a young bureaucrat in the office of Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of St. Petersburg.

The professional relationship between the two continued when, in 1999, Putin became president. Medvedev served in several posts in the Putin government, including deputy chief of staff to the president, chief of staff and first deputy prime minister.

Since 2000, he has also been chairman of the board of directors of the state's natural-gas monopoly, Gazprom.

He is married to his secondary-school sweetheart, Svetlana, and they have a son, Ilya, born in 1996.

Election denounced as farce
Officially nominated as a presidential candidate in Dec. 17, 2007, Medvedev had the support of four Russian political parties going into the election: the ruling United Russia party and three smaller pro-Kremlin parties, A Just Russia, Agrarian Party of Russia and Civil Force Party.

Despite the official endorsement, some experts decried the election as a farce.

In an opinion piece published in the Moscow Times on Feb. 27, 2008 — headlined A Stolen Election — John Hopkins University professors Mitchell Orenstein and Serhiy Kudelia wrote that Medvedev was being "painted as a new liberal" but none the four presidential candidates represented real change.

The University of Toronto's Braun said the election process itself was negative because it was not transparent. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe announced in early February that it was not going to send observers to monitor the election, citing a lack of co-operation from Moscow.

"This is not the way you run an election," Braun said.

He said the less-than-open election is an attempt to create a political duo in which Putin is the bad cop, while Medvedev is the good cop.

But a headline in the Feb. 28, 2008, issue of the London-based newsmagazine The Economist suggests that Medvedev may first have to establish himself as a presence. The headline read: "Russia's new president, the name's Dmitry."

Too Early To Guess

Braun said political scientists have been poring over statements made by Medvedev to discern political leanings. However, he added that it is all speculation.

"We are trying to deconstruct his messages. Even if he is more Liberal than Putin, will he have the capacity to implement reforms? It's way too early to predict. It's almost like reading tea leaves. You dissect every word; you parse every sentence. There are suggestions of intent, but there is the question of capacity," he said.

"We have to look closely at what is happening. We have to analyze statements, but we have to look at actual policy. Right now, we are guessing."

Story Complete / http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/russia/medvedev.html