Hebrew in a whole different light…

The Magazine HERE.

The Dating Service HERE.

Cities set limits on serving food to homeless people

Cities are cracking down on charities that feed the homeless, adopting rules that restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide.

Orlando, Dallas, Las Vegas and Wilmington, N.C., began enforcing such laws last year. Some are being challenged.

Last November, a federal judge blocked the Las Vegas law banning food giveaways to the poor in city parks. In Dallas, two ministries are suing, arguing that the law violates religious freedom.

“Going after the volunteers is new,” says Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless. “They think that by not feeding people, it will make the homeless people leave.”

City officials say the rules were prompted by complaints about crime and food safety. Some say they want control over locations so homeless people can also get services such as addiction counseling and job training.

“The feedings were happening several times a week” in parking lots and sidewalks downtown, says Dewey Harris, director of Wilmington’s Community Services Department. “A lot of the merchants said, ‘We feel uncomfortable when you have all these homeless being fed downtown when we’re trying to attract tourists.’ “

Last March, the city restricted meals on public property to designated locations and required a permit. One spot has been approved: a city park parking lot.

Dallas also limits outdoor food giveaways to approved locations. Those distributing food must take a food-handling course and get a city permit, says Karen Rayzer, director of environmental and health services. A violator can be fined $2,000.

Orlando adopted an ordinance in July that requires a permit to serve more than 25 people in a park within 2 miles of City Hall, where most food giveaways were taking place. An applicant may serve twice a year in each park.

“This ordinance wasn’t established to ban feeding,” says city spokeswoman Heather Allebaugh. She acknowledges that some groups ignore the law.

City Commissioner Robert Stuart voted against it. He is executive director of the Christian Service Center for Central Florida, which feeds 325 homeless people a day but, as private property, is not affected.

“It’s not fair to take a population without a home and make them criminals,” he says. “And I don’t think we ought to be limiting the opportunity to help others.”

Balls Out Jeans

can you say…"TRAIN WRECK?"

EPA probes Wal-Mart’s Silly String sales

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking Wal-Mart whether it sold Silly String, a child’s toy, and similar products that might contain chemicals damaging to the ozone layer, the world’s largest retailer said Tuesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. disclosed the EPA request in the retailer’s annual financial report, which includes a detailed breakdown of its dealings with environmental regulators.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said he believed the EPA is also contacting other retailers who may have sold canned string that might use an ozone-damaging gas as a propellent

An EPA spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment on the request.

Wal-Mart said in its annual report that it received an EPA request in February seeking detailed information about “nonessential products containing ozone-depleting substances including products such as Loony String” which Wal-Mart may have sold or distributed since January 1, 2002.

In March, the EPA sent a revised letter limiting its request to “string products including Loony String, Silly String and Fiesta String” for the period from 2004 to the present.

“Wal-Mart is in the process of gathering the information requested,” the company said.

Single women reach orgasm ‘more often’

A new sexuality survey has confirmed what women know and some men fear – single females have far more luck achieving orgasm than those partnered off.

Taking men out of the picture allows women to “better connect with themselves”, according to sex therapists behind the Queensland study of 500 older women.

The research found that 56 per cent of sexually-active women with no current partner could reach orgasm every time with masturbation compared with only 24 per cent of women with partners.

“That’s a significant difference and I’d imagine there are few men out there a little surprised and unimpressed that women have better luck without them,” said medical sex therapist Dr Jane Howard.

The findings come from the study What Does Sexuality Mean To Older Women?, which assessed the sex lives of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s to find trends over the ages.

Dr Howard said she believed women on their own were better at achieving orgasm because they don’t have the “distraction” of having to please a man or subscribe to male-type sexual fantasies.

“Arousal is a lot about what erotic thoughts go through the mind, and for women that’s very different to men,” Dr Howard said.

“It may be focusing on Colin Firth’s smouldering eyes, some romantic novel or a waterfall or whatever.”

The therapist said the most outstanding aspect of the study was the variety of ways people lived their lives.

“Some people are in relationships and having sex, some are in relationships with no sex, others are single and are having sex … it was just so varied,” Dr Howard said.

She said her results destroyed the cultural myth that people stay in life-long relationships and are sexually functional until they die.

“We like to think of people having wild sex for their whole lives but the reality isn’t quite like that,” Dr Howard said.

More than 80 per cent of women in their 40s were sexually active, but this figure declined to 27 per cent for those in their 70s.

The fact that 70 per cent of men in their 70s were not capable of having an erection could affect this figure.

But results showed that three quarters of women over 70 were indifferent to sex.

While their libido dropped off and arousal was less, their capacity to orgasm was seemingly unaffected by age.

“That was quite surprising, actually,” Dr Howard said.

She said the results would help people understand the true impact that ageing had on sex.

The findings are part of the Longitudinal Assessment of Ageing in Women, conducted by the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Mudflap Man Stickers, For The Equal Opportunity Offender

That’s right, we’re an EOO here at WINDING ROAD. And as such, we’re just as likely to put one of these Mudflap Man stickers on one of our cars as we are likely to run the Mudflap Lady on one of our trucks.

They’re six inches wide and four inches tall and available for $3.99 from Sticker Giant.

+ Sticker Giant.com: Mudflap Man – Vinyl Sticker

Falcon Webcams

See them HERE.

High Hopes for Wedding Bliss….

Stilt-walking newlyweds Monica Tse and Mike Templeton Brady smile down at Tse’s nephew Jason Tse, 8, after the longtime performers arrived Sunday at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco from their wedding ceremony.

Pizza boxes carry deadbeat mug shots

Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms — wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.

The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.

“It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don’t eat out, they order pizza,” said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati.

Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California’s Kern County seizes and auctions parents’ vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.

State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.

“While we have made progress, putting the wanted posters on pizza boxes is an example of the innovation and commitment that we need,” she said.

Other Ohio counties put posters on their Web sites and work with local Crime Stoppers programs, and a few contract with companies that can track people through rental and cell phone records, according to the Ohio Child Support Directors Association. Some include fliers in water and sewer bills.

Butler County has printed posters with mug shots of its 10 most-wanted parents, placing them in post offices and other government buildings and sending them to Ohio’s 87 other counties. The lineup, chosen by prosecutors, is changed twice a year.

The Butler County sheriff’s office served 1,224 nonsupport warrants last year, said sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Langmeyer. The county has about 350,000 residents.

Brown approached several restaurants and chains with her idea of affixing the posters to pizza boxes, but so far only three pizzerias are participating.

Since the first pizza posters appeared in August, they have led to one arrest, Langmeyer said. “It’s a good idea any time you can put the faces out there,” he said.

The owner of Karen’s Pizzeria hasn’t heard any complaints about her participation in the poster program.

“Some customers joke about it and say they’re glad they aren’t on it,” Karen Willis said. “Most seem to think it’s a good idea.”

An attorney who focuses on fathers’ rights cases called the tactic “horrible.”

“It’s just a way of shaming people,” said Maury Beaulier, whose firm is in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Many circumstances can cause people to get behind in support payments, but that doesn’t make them deadbeats, he said.

Widespread public shaming also can devastate the children, said Michael McCormick, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.

“Think how children feel to see a parent on a wanted poster and know their friends might see it,” he said.

Brown said her agency tries to work with parents by trying to help them find work and seeks most payments through civil court. Criminal charges are a last resort. Conviction on a felony count of failing to pay child support brings a prison sentence of up to 18 months, with fines usually set in the amount of the support owed.

“We aren’t trying to penalize these people,” Brown said. “We are just trying to help the kids who have a right to be supported.”