California must cut prison population by 30,000

gucci outletThe U.S. Supreme Court ordered California on Monday to reduce the population of its jammed prisons by more than 30,000 in two years to repair a health care system that lower courts found was defying constitutional standards and endangering guards as well as inmates.

Federal judges rightly found that overcrowding in a prison system that has held nearly twice its designed capacity for more than a decade was the main cause of "grossly inadequate provision of medical and mental health care," the court said in a 5-4 ruling.

"Needless suffering and death have been the well-documented result," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in the majority opinion.

He cited evidence from two decades of litigation: mentally ill prisoners waiting up to a year for treatment, suicidal inmates held for 24 hours in phone booth-size cages without toilets, waiting lists of 700 inmates for a single doctor, and gyms converted into triple-bunked living quarters that breed disease, and violence victimizing guards and inmates alike.

Death toll

A federal judge found in 2006 that shoddy prison health care in California was responsible for the death of one inmate a week, Kennedy noted.

"The medical and mental health care provided by California's prisons falls below the standard of decency that inheres in the Eighth Amendment," which bans cruel and unusual punishment, said gucci clutches eveningKennedy, joined by the court's more liberal justices.

Under the ruling, California's prison population of 143,000 must be reduced to 110,000 by mid-2013. Critics both on and off the bench forecast a wave of dangerous felons on the streets.

Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissent joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the majority was loosing "the equivalent of three Army divisions" of criminals and was "gambling with the safety of the people of California."

Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway of Tulare said Californians "could be at serious risk of becoming victims of crime ... as a result of this reckless and irresponsible decision."

One alternative

But Gov. Jerry Brown's administration, while critical of the ruling, said the state could comply without releasing any dangerous criminals - if Republicans approve Brown's budget proposal to shift thousands of low-level offenders and parole violators from state prisons to county jails.

"If realignment is done quickly and fully as the governor proposed, it will solve this problem," said Matthew Cate, Brown's prison director. "Our goal is to not release inmates at all."

The California State Sheriffs Association chimed in, saying Brown's plan - as long as it is accompanied by more state funding for counties - is "a way to ensure this is not a massive release of prisoners."

But Republicans have opposed Brown's plan on two grounds: The governor wants to extend tax increases to pay for it, and it would arguably reduce punishment by allowing some felons to avoid state prison.

gucci hobosSentencing overhaul

At the other end of the spectrum, the American Civil Liberties Union said the ruling should prompt the state to ease some of the nation's harshest sentencing laws by, for example, making it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to write a $450 bad check or possess drugs for personal use.

"California locks up too many people who pose no threat to public safety and keeps them locked up for too long," said Allen Hopper, an ACLU attorney in San Francisco.

Inmates claiming that prisons provided substandard mental health treatment first sued the state in 1990. They were joined in 2001 by prisoners suing over medical care.

gucci shoulder bagsA federal judge appointed a receiver to manage the health care system in 2006, saying state officials were unable to comply with constitutional standards. After a trial in 2009, a three-judge panel said the system could be repaired only if the state first addressed overcrowding. At the time, there were 156,000 inmates in a system designed for 80,000.

Reductions to date

While fighting the courts' authority to lower the prison population, state officials have responded to the litigation by making their own reductions.

Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared an overcrowding "state of emergency" in 2006 and transferred nearly 10,000 prisoners to other states. He also acted with lawmakers to speed up the releases of some low-risk inmates and stop returning parolees to prison for minor violations.

In upholding the panel's order, the Supreme Court said California's "serious constitutional violations ... have persisted for years. They remain uncorrected."

Kennedy said the three-judge panel had heard expert testimony by former prison directors in California and other states that prison populations can be reduced in a way that "does not gucci toteincrease crime to a significant degree."

The court also upheld the panel's two-year deadline for lowering the prison population but said state officials might ask the three judges for more time - five years, for example - because of "changing political, economic and other circumstances."

Cate said the Brown administration would seek an extension "if that's what public safety requires."

The rapid succession of strikes, all within less than half an hour, rattled windows and sent heavy, acrid-smelling plumes of smoke over the city, including from close to Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in Nato strikes that targeted what he described as buildings used by volunteer units of the Libyan army.

Nato said in a statement that a number of the attacks hit a vehicle storage facility adjacent to Bab al-Aziziya that has been used in supplying regime forces "conducting attacks on civilians".

It was not immediately clear if the facility was the only target hit in the barrage. Bab al-Aziziya, which includes a number of military facilities, has been pounded repeatedly by Nato.

gucci top handlesThe military aircraft flew low over the city during the night, the strikes coming in series of three loud booms punctuated by the hissing sound of low-flying jets

Pro-Gaddafi loyalists beeped their car horns and fired guns. Men screamed and shouted outside the hotel where journalists were staying, declaring their loyalty to Gaddafi.

Observers described the bombing as the heaviest attack

NBA Playoffs: Thunder learning lessons. The hard way.

burberry outletThese are hard, painful lessons for the Oklahoma City Thunder.They are the hard, painful lessons virtually every championship team has had to learn. Michael Jordan and his Bulls were knocked out three straight years by the Detroit Pistons, teaching him hard lessons. It’s true of champions since. Even the two-time, soon-to-be-dethroned Lakers had to not just lose but get crushed by the Celtics in a closeout game to understand the final steps they had to take.

Championship teams learn from these lessons and come back better for it. The Thunder started that process last season, lessons learned from the energy the Lakers responded with when challenged last season helped propel the Thunder to the Western Conference finals

This season, the Thunder are taking tougher courses. The new lessons all focus around execution. Particularly execution under pressure. About finishing off games on the biggest stages.

These are painful lessons, especially when they come on the end of a loss where you were up 15 points with less than five minutes to go.

The lessons are that to win close games in the playoffs requires you create space for your stars by having other threats the defense has to respect, having good play designs and then executing those plays. The Thunder had none of those at the end of Game 4.

“We struggled at the end with execution, and we struggled throughout the game with turnovers,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said in his postgame interview, broadcast on NBA TV.

Some of the lessons the Thunder are being taught:

burberry clutches evening With the game on the line, your best shooters have to get looks or set up other scorers. Meaning if Kevin Durant is going to see a hard double-team — and he will every time — then Thabo Sefolosha is not the guy who should be the outlet for the three. He shot 27.5 percent from three this season and is a career 30 percent shooter from deep. Yet he was the guy taking a key late three because he was open. He was open for a reason. Jordan learned the pass the ball with the game on the line but Steve Kerr was a knock down shooter (career 45 percent from three). It’s not just making the pass, it’s making the pass to the right guy.

Which brings us to another lesson…

• A team needs to have some good end of play sets. A chunk of this falls to Scott Brooks, who at one point late in the game had his team come out of a timeout to run a Westbrook isolation. There was no clever play drawn up to free him.

When things got tight late the Thunder reverted to a Durant/Westbrook pick and roll that was easy to defend, basically forcing an isolation play. Look what happened on that second-to-last play: Dallas did not respect as a threat anybody else on the court so they had three guys up and defending the pick and roll, which was really more of a handoff to Durant then Westbrook slid out of the way. So Durant tried a 30-foot shot that was still blocked by Shawn Marion. The play had no chance of working because there was no execution.

burberry hobos“I didn’t have anything else to do,” Durant said of the play. “I caught the ball I was at the half court line, there where three Mavericks in front of me and three seconds on the clock. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to run into their defense and had another shot.”

The play had no other good passing options, no guys moving off the ball, no getting the ball to Durant in the post or a spot he likes on the floor. It wasn’t even a good clear out play.

The way that went down brings us to another lesson…

• The front office needs to get more shooters and scorers. They rightfully love the way this team has come together in Oklahoma City. This is a good group. But once James Harden went out — once a third serious scoring option left the floor — the Thunder become predictable. They don’t pay the price for that much in the regular season because Durant and Westbrook are such serious talents, but in the playoffs against a good team it doesn’t work.

burberry shoulder bagsThe Thunder need to be able to defend better at the end of games. This is pretty self explanitory. It’s not just on offense, the best teams can get stops late, not make key fouls. This, however, is a little harder to pin on the Thunder at the end of Game 4 because Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great scorers the game has and sometimes you can’t stop him. Also, that foul on Nick Collison guarding Durant late could have gone either way (we’ve all seen that both called and ignored at the end of close games, it was borderline).

• Westbrook has to learn to better use his explosiveness to set guys up, Durant has to learn how to better play in traffic and get inside late in games.

The jumpshots Durant was settling for at the end of the game looked like Kobe Bryant’s pull up jumpers late. And that is not a good sign. You want to be more like Kobe circa 2001, the guy who would attack the rim late in games. Durant has to find a way to be a bigger threat in traffic and burberry top handlesnot just settle for pull-up jumpers.

Westbrook has taken a lot of heat this series, and certainly some of it is deserved. He has to find a way to strike a better balance with his teammates — like he did in Game 7 against Memphis. He is a young point guard — he didn’t play the point until the pros and he is only 22. He is learning, figuring out when he has to attack and when that attack should be to set others up. But under pressure he reverts to wanting to score because that is what he did for so long. He does not think pass first — he’s getting better, but he’s not there yet.

Which is sort of where all the Thunder are — close but not quite there yet. Another small couple of pieces used better, both by the coach in better sets and the stars as release valves. Just better execution under pressure.

The Thunder are learning hard lessons. But they are lessons champions have learned and grow burberry totesfrom.

Should you tell your boss you're moonlighting?

louis vuitton outlet These days, plenty of people are holding down more than one job. But deciding how much to reveal to a full-time employer about a part-time gig can be tricky.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: Ever since my spouse got laid off about a year ago, I've been supplementing our income by taking on some consultingwork in addition to my regular job. I've found that I really enjoy it, and eventually I'd like to segue into it as a full-time occupation. The question is, what do I tell my boss in the meantime?

So far, I've managed to fit my consulting work into my own time on evenings and weekends, and I'm very careful to avoid the use of any company resources for outside projects. (My consulting business is home-based and has a separate email address, phone line, etc.) Still, it seems dishonest not to mention to my boss that I'm doing this, especially since we are friends. Do I have an obligation to tell him? ¡ª Double Agent

louis vuitton bags Dear Double: That depends. Does your employer have a formal policy requiring that you disclose any outside employment (as many universities and some companies do), or do you have an employment contract that calls for disclosure?

If so, the decision is made for you: By keeping mum about your part-time gig, you run the risk of becoming a full-time consultant sooner than you planned.

But even if not, particularly since your boss is also your friend, "there's a trust factor involved," says Kristin Cardinale, author of a book called The 9-to-5 Cure: Work on Your Own Terms and Reinvent Your Life.

Cardinale knows a thing or two about wearing multiple hats. A Milwaukee-based career coach who also teaches college courses, she founded and runs both a tech support company and a national seminar firm.

"As a pre-emptive move, you could tell your boss what you're doing, just to avoid a potentially sticky situation if he hears about it some other way," Cardinale says. "You don't want to seem to be doing this behind his back."

louis vuitton Telling him what you're doing doesn't mean, however, that you have to reveal why. In these situations, as in so many others, how you phrase it makes all the difference. Saying "I've started my own consulting practice, and I'm working on building it into a full-time business" would probably be a mistake, since "putting it that way is likely to make your boss start thinking of you as temporary and on your way out," Cardinale notes.

Instead, mention a current consulting project without bringing up your long-term plan. "There is little to no risk involved in saying you've taken on an outside gig if you emphasize that it's short-term -- say, for the next couple of months -- and if you stress how it's helping you sharpen your professional skills," says Cardinale.

"And you're not saying anything untrue," she adds. "After all, until you are ready to make the leap into full-time consulting, you're still just exploring."

By the way, this situation is less unusual than you may think. In 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 3.5 million Americans, or 4.5% of the workforce, held a full-time job while also pursuing a part-time sideline. For anyone considering doing likewise, Cardinale offers three tips:

louis vuitton 1. Be fanatical about using your own resources, not your employer's, for outside work. You're already doing this, but the point bears repeating. Emailing consulting clients on the company's system, or devoting time during work hours to meeting an outside deadline, can get you sacked.

2. Clearly define your availability. "Be upfront with your outside clients about the fact that you're working full-time and may not always be reachable during regular business hours," Cardinale advises. Tempting as it may be to let the boundaries blur, your full-time job has to be your top priority -- at least until you decide to leave it.

3. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Build some breathing room into your schedule so you don't burn out. "Consulting works on referrals. You want to have enough energy to give clients your best work, so they'll recommend you to others," Cardinale says.

Another reason not to take on too much at once is that "while you're still trying this out, it should be a positive experience, not one that leaves you exhausted," she adds. Don't worry about turning away business that, realistically, you can't handle right now: "If you set limits -- so that, when you do take on a project, you can give it your very best -- clients will actually respect you more."

Cue the Conspiracy Theories: The Strauss-Kahn Reaction and French Democracy
louis vuitton outlet This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Monde.

There is no end to the wild talk unleashed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest by the New York police, on May 14, over charges of sexual assault, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape. As if the extraordinary nature of this affair and the mind-blowing ¡ª and dramatic ¡ª situation in which the former head of the International Monetary Fund now finds himself could justify the most extravagant of explanations.

Ever since the news first broke on Sunday, the notion that it was all a set-up meant to bring down Strauss-Kahn has spread like wildfire, especially on the Internet. The world of imagination being boundless, each theory brought forward seems more surprising than the other: they point to the CIA or rivals inside the IMF, to big American banks or financial interests threatened by Strauss-Kahn's push for more regulation, to murky schemes by some "black cabinet" working for Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elys¨¦e palace, or even to Socialist party rivals only too eager to get rid of a dangerous candidate ahead of the 2012 presidential elections. (See pictures from the career of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.)

louis vuitton bags Conspiracy theories have been fanned by the fact that certain political figures ¡ª supporters of Strauss-Kahn, but not only ¡ª have seemed unwilling to exclude the possibility of a "trap" or of "manipulation." During an interview with the French newspaper Lib¨¦ration that took place on April 28, Dominique Strauss-Kahn himself had alluded to the possibility that such a set up could be organized by his enemies.

To crown it all, a poll performed on Monday by the CSA institute found that 57% of the French public believes that the former head of the IMF "is the victim of a plot," with the number reaching 70% in the case of left-leaning voters.

Regardless of whether the poll in question is legal or not ¡ª the Guigou law adopted in 2000 requires that no such polls be taken about someone protected by the presumption of innocence ¡ª the inquiry does reveal significant details about the state of mind in the country of ("I think, therefore I am" philosopher) Ren¨¦ Descartes and beyond. (See why the 9/11 conspiracy theories won't go away.)

It is only normal that most people find this matter utterly shocking ¡ª and captivating ¡ª given that the alleged sex scandal involves one of the world's most powerful men, as well as a potential candidate for the presidency of the French Republic. But does this mean that we should suddenly stop analyzing the facts with caution and common sense? Obviously not. Unless we are ready to admit that challenging all authority, and especially the authority of justice (be it American, in this case), has now reached a disturbing point of no return. Unless we are ready to say that the media's investigative efforts no longer carry any weight compared to the crazy elucubrations that the Internet instantaneously spreads around the entire globe.

louis vuitton We should not again find ourselves so ready to surrender to the kind of frenzy of conspiracy theories that has spawned since the 9/11 attacks. Let us not forget that this phenomenon is one of the very sources of totalitarianism, a sign of a democracy in regression.

Also from Worldcrunch:

In Turkey, the Double-Edged Sword of Domestic Violence
¡ª Le Figaro

War in Libya: Why It's So Difficult to Take Stock

Ahead of his trip to Washington, Netanyahu delivered a speech to his parliament in which he made clear his opposition to talks with a newly constituted Palestinian government that shares power between the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas and the radical Hamas movement that rules Gaza. He also made a series of demands that the Palestinians ¡ª and especially Hamas ¡ª are not likely to meet. Among them were dropping their claim to east Jerusalem, their would-be capital, and recognizing Israel as the Jewish homeland.

louis vuitton shoes Palestinians, for their part, refuse to negotiate while Israel continues to expand Jewish enclaves in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to be part of an eventual state. Israel refuses to freeze settlement construction, saying the matter should be resolved through negotiations.

With talks at a standstill, the Palestinians are planning to unilaterally take their bid for statehood to the United Nations in September, a step Obama rejected Thursday, saying, "Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state."

But Obama had no solution to the question of Hamas, and no blueprint for how to solve enormous conflicts over the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. The border issue, he conceded, was just a start.

Associated Press writers Ben Feller in Washington and Amy Teibel and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

May 20, 2011 03:51 AM EDT

Copyright 2011, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Netanyahu at White House after Obama challenge

louis vuitton outletWASHINGTON ¡ª President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were sharply at odds over terms for Middle East peace ahead of a highly anticipated Oval Office meeting Friday.

Palestinian workers wait to cross a checkpoint to work in Israel at the separation barrier in the West Bank town of Bethlehem early Thursday, April 19, 2011. President Barack Obama is endorsing the Palestinians' demand for their future state to be based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, in a move that will likely infuriate Israel. Israel says the borders of a Palestinian state have to be determined through negotiations. In a speech outlining U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa, Obama on Thursday sided with the Palestinians' opening position a day ahead of a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) President Barack Obama shakes hands with audience members after he delivered his Middle East speech at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, May 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
cheap louis vuitton In this Wednesday, April 17, 2011 picture T-shirts for sale are displayed in a souvenir shop in Jerusalem«s Old City. President Barack Obama is endorsing the Palestinians' demand for their future state to be based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, in a move that will likely infuriate Israel. Israel says the borders of a Palestinian state have to be determined through negotiations. In a speech outlining U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa, Obama on Thursday sided with the Palestinians' opening position a day ahead of a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

In a speech Thursday on U.S. policy in the Mideast, Obama for the first time endorsed the Palestinians' demand that their eventual state be based on borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War in which Israel forces occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

From Jerusalem, Netanyahu dismissed the position as "indefensible," saying it would leave major Jewish settlements outside Israel. Then he boarded a plane for his long-scheduled visit to Washington, vowing to seek clarifications in his meeting with Obama at the White House.

The encounter will pit a president deeply frustrated with a peace effort in shambles against an Israeli leader confronted by a Palestinian government he says he cannot do business with. International pressure is growing on both to answer the demands of the Palestinian people as the revolts sweeping the Arab world crest against Israel itself. Palestinian protesters emboldened by the winds of change marched on the Jewish state's borders this week and at least 15 people were killed.

Against that backdrop, Obama is aiming "to try to convince Netanyahu and the Israelis that there's a greater urgency in reaching agreement with the Palestinians because of the dramatic changes under way in the region and greater diplomatic pressures and efforts to isolate Israel and delegitimize its existence," said Haim Malka, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

louis vuitton sale "So he was speaking to both the Israelis and the Palestinians and trying to urge them to move forward and conveying a sense of urgency and risk in the status quo," Malka said.

Obama's stance on the 1967 borders was not a major policy change, since the U.S ¡ª along with the international community and even past Israeli governments ¡ª previously endorsed an agreement building on the 1967 lines.

But it was the first time he'd explicitly endorsed those borders as a starting point, a position Netanyahu rejects. Obama said Israel can never be a truly peaceful Jewish state if it insists on "permanent occupation." But he did say the 1967 borders should be accompanied by land swaps agreed to by both sides, which could accommodate existing Jewish settlements.

Obama was unsparing, too, in his words for the Palestinian leadership, repudiating its pursuit of unilateral statehood through the United Nations and questioning its alliance with a Hamas faction bent on Israel's destruction. It was not immediately clear, however, whether Obama's statement on the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations ¡ª something the Palestinians have long sought ¡ª would be sufficient to persuade the Palestinians to drop their quest for U.N. recognition.

louis vuitton Obama's blunt attempt to steer the peace effort was a major change in tactics from a president who has avoided imposing any U.S. plan but is now running out of patience and reasons to be subtle. Seeking to shake up a dynamic of mutual blame for the stalled peace talks, Obama pushed both sides to accept his starting point ¡ª borders for Palestine, security for Israel ¡ª and get back to solving a stalemate "that has grinded on and on and on."

"The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome," the president said Thursday at the State Department. "At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever."

That doesn't mean resolution is anywhere in sight.

Historic flooding threatens the Delta

louis vuitton outletTUNICA, Miss. ¡ª The bulging Mississippi River rolled into the fertile Mississippi Delta yesterday, threatening to swamp antebellum mansions, wash away shotgun shacks, and destroy fields of cotton, rice, and corn in a flood of historic proportions.

The river took aim at one of the most poverty-stricken parts of the country after cresting before daybreak at Memphis just inches short of the record set in 1937. Some low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, but the city¡¯s high levees protected much of the rest of the city.

Over the past week or so in the Delta, flood waters along the rain-swollen river and its backed-up tributaries have washed away crops, forced many people to flee to higher ground, and closed some of the dockside casinos that are vital to the state¡¯s economy.

The worst is yet to come, with the crest expected to roll through the Delta over the next few days. The damage in Memphis was estimated at more than $320 million as the serious flooding began, and an official tally won¡¯t be available until the waters recede.

louis vuitton bagsTo the south, there were no early figures on the devastation, but with hundreds of homes already damaged, ¡°we¡¯re going to have a lot more when the water gets to where it¡¯s never been before,¡¯¡¯ said Greg Flynn, a spokesman for the Mississippi emergency management agency.

Across the region, federal officials anxiously checked and reinforced the levees, some of which could be put to their sternest test ever.

About 10 miles north of Vicksburg, Miss., contractors lined one side of what is known as a backwater levee with big sheets of plastic to keep it from eroding if flood waters flow over it as feared ¡ª something that has never happened to the levee, which was built in the 1970s.

In Vicksburg, at the southern tip of the rich alluvial soil in the central part of the state, the river was projected to peak on Saturday just above the record set during the cataclysmic Great Flood of 1927. The town was the site of a pivotal Civil War battle.

Wearing rubber boots and watching fish swim up and down his street, William Jefferson stood on a high spot in his neighborhood just outside Vicksburg. He said he had not had a hot meal since water started coming into his house a few days ago. Yesterday, the house had at least 3 feet of water, as did dozens of other homes in the neighborhood. Nearby, his brother Milton cast a fishing rod.

¡°At least we can catch something fresh to eat, because we ain¡¯t got no icebox or electricity,¡¯¡¯ he said with a smile. Then the pair playfully debated whether they would actually eat anything caught in the filthy flood waters.

louis vuitton ¡°If you eat a fish right now, you won¡¯t live to see the water go down,¡¯¡¯ William Jefferson said.

Jimmy Mitchell, 46, and his wife and two children have been living in a loaned camper for more than week at a civic arena in Tunica. ¡°There¡¯s no sewage hookup. You go in a barn to take a shower,¡¯¡¯ said Mitchell, who is from the small community of Cutoff. ¡°We have no time frame on how long we can stay.¡¯¡¯

As Mitchell and friends sat outside chatting in the breeze, children rode bikes nearby.

¡°Cutoff is a community where everybody lives from paycheck to paycheck. It¡¯s also a community where everybody sticks together,¡¯¡¯ Mitchell said.

As the water rose, Mississippi¡¯s governor, Haley Barbour, moved furniture out of his lake house outside Vicksburg on family land that was inundated during the 1927 flood. A week ago, he urged residents to flee low-lying areas, saying that the state wouldn¡¯t assist the evacuations and that people should help one another secure their property and get out.

Widespread flooding was expected along the Yazoo River, a tributary that is backed up because of the bloated Mississippi. Rolling Fork, home of the bluesman Muddy Waters, was also in danger of getting inundated.

 louis vuitton handbagsFarmers built homemade levees to protect their corn, cotton, wheat, and soybean crops, but many believed the crops would be lost entirely.

More than 1,500 square miles of farmland in Arkansas, which produces about half of the nation¡¯s rice, have been swamped over the past few weeks, and the economic impact will be more than $500 million, according to the state¡¯s Farm Bureau.

The passing of the crest in Memphis was of little consolation for many people there.

¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We¡¯ve already lost everything,¡¯¡¯ said Rocio Rodriguez, 24, who has been at a shelter for 12 days with her husband and two young children since their trailer park flooded.

Floods are factor in price-per-gallon increase

louis vuitton outletEVANSVILLE ¡ª Marcy Gerike of Evansville was in front of MotoMart on East Lloyd Expressway on Tuesday afternoon when gas prices spiked more than a quarter.

The price of a gallon of regular unleaded fuel jumped 26 cents from $3.93 to $4.19 at many Evansville gas stations at 1:30 p.m. After seeing the just-posted price, Gerike told others about it during a stop at the nearby CVS/pharmacy.

"This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous," she said about the jump.

American Automobile Association regional spokesman Michael Right used another word to describe the new prices: awful.

He said his office doesn't track record one-day spikes for Evansville but certainly sympathized with local drivers.

"Any time you get above a 20-cent jump in one day," Right said, "it's a big one."

Oil prices rose $1.33 to $103.88 per barrel ¡ª after falling more than 15 percent last week ¡ª leading to speculation gas prices were on their way down for the summer. But the price of oil isn't to blame for the latest jump, Right said. Instead, the hike can be blamed on a culprit that has already wrecked havoc on the region for more than two weeks.

"Flooding," Right said. "It's affecting some refinery operations as well as terminals. In addition to that, some barge activity is being constrained."

According to The Associated Press, refinery problems have cut into the gasoline supply, and many louis vuitton bagsanalysts expect reports to show production slipped by 300,000 barrels last week.

Whatever the reason, motorists weren't happy about the addition of more than a quarter to prices that many of them called already too high. While many have tried to be more efficient when going out, there's still plenty of traffic on the roads, said Gerike, 52.

"Obviously, people are willing to pay the price to do what they have to do as far as getting to work or going to school. It's just like anything else. It's going to come to a time when people aren't going to be able to afford it, or they're going to have to get second jobs or something."

But 21-year-old Daniel Garrett of Elberfeld, Ind., said that time already has come for some people. The construction worker on Wednesday was picking up a used Mazda, which he said should get more than 30 miles per gallon, to replace a 1992 Dodge Dynasty.

"Every two days, I would have to put more money in the gas tank. The car sucked, and so did the gas prices," Garrett said. "I was spending $70 every two days."

Gerike counts herself among the lucky ones when it comes to dealing with gas prices. She's a stay-at-home mom and can usually go two weeks between fill-ups. But Stola Molinet of Boonville, Ind., isn't so fortunate.

"We can't just get on our bikes. I live up past Boonville, and I travel a lot, and my husband travels a lot, and my daughter's 17, so she has to get to school and back."

burberry outletMolinet, 57, said her fuel bills alone have amounted to about $70 a week. Though she still had about a half of tank left Tuesday afternoon, Molinet, who works at Schnucks in Newburgh, expects she'll need to fill up again today.

Gerike does have one major concern about gas prices. Her son, Micah, who is a senior at Harrison High School, will be heading off to Franklin College, about 25 miles south of Indianapolis, in August.

The family was at an orientation event last weekend, where gas prices were already more than $4.

"My son's going to go away to college, and he is going to be traveling three hours anytime he gucci outletwants to come home, and that's going to be tagged onto everything else," she said.

Many Hoosiers already were paying more than $4 before Tuesday's hike. The average price in the state Tuesday morning was $4.08, according to AAA.

But at least one price analyst thinks the increase will be short-lived.

"This isn't the kind of thing that can last a long period of time," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

"I still think six weeks from now we'll be well south of $4 a gallon."

Competition of Louis vuitton and H&M

Louis vuitton outlet Strong spending power of Chinese people, so many international luxury brands in China and confidence that have accelerated store openings, particularly in second and third tier cities is to accelerate the expansion of the market, to seize market share. Market has also repeatedly shown. Since 2007, LV shop in China, significantly faster, the new stores are mostly distributed in the second and third tier cities such as Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao, Xiamen, Wuxi, Wenzhou, Nanning, Kunming and so on. LV watches and jewelry, president of North Asia had also said that the future will be extended to three, four-line market, three-city luxury consumption capacity no less than Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.

Not just LV, 2010, the Prada even opened in Shanghai in addition to the number of new stores, but also in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, the city opened a new store type; opened by Gucci stores in China, mainly in Zhengzhou, Jinan, Guiyang and Taiyuan; Omega flagship store in China, in addition to distribution in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, also shops open in the Anshan, Wenzhou, Kunming, Dalian and other cities. According to Ruder Finn's "2009 Report of luxury goods in China" survey, "Although 39.8% of respondents said second-tier cities often go shopping in Hong Kong, 33.3% of consumers preferred Shanghai in east China, but there is still 23.9% of people that only in the vicinity of their purchase on the line, no need to deliberately rushed to the front-line city, which has become a driving force for the local presence of second and third tier luxury. "

Louis vuitton outlet  As of the end of 2008, the world's top luxury brands, has about 8 percent to enter the Chinese market. Luxury goods in China in 2009 reached 9.4 billion U.S. dollars market, is still the second highest in the world to buy luxury goods, buying 27.5% of the world's luxury goods. It is predicted that by 2014, China is expected to become the world's largest luxury goods consumer market.