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MIAMI -

At first, I thought he was kidding.

The call from the 850 area code (Tallahassee) turned out to be a rep from the Department of Children & Families. I figured he was returning my calls about the now-fired caseworker for a baby who died, about follow-through on family services, about the breakdown of a system...

Nope.

The DCF press guy had one question. It was a question about a word. One word.

"Really?" I asked. "Really."

His DCF brass wanted to know why I chose a particular word -- an adjective -- in one of my reports this week.

Think about that. The hierarchy of the state agency responsible for the most vulnerable among us, dealing with another high-profile case of a dead baby, directed their press guy to investigate, call and challenge one word one journalist used in one report.

"Respected."

They took issue that I described the now-fired investigator Shani Smith as a "respected veteran." Sure, she's a veteran of the department, they acknowledged, but they thought the word "respected" was an "editorial comment."

Original post:
Word Up! DCF has grammar police

A national short story competition for young writers attracted more than 1,000 entries from Shropshire, organisers said today and offered a fascinating glimpse into the way children use language.

BBC Radio 2s 500 Words competition, launched by Breakfast show host Chris Evans, drew 90,000 entries from all over the country.

Youngsters had to tell a story in just 500 words, and the winners will be announced live on air on Friday.

In the meantime lexicographers at the Oxford University Press have been studying the entries all 40 million words to produce an insight into the way children use English.

And they found that mom was the word most used in the stories written by 698 Shropshire girls and 374 boys.

They also showed their rural roots by featuring sheep 64 times more in their tales than children in other areas.

Meanwhile, the icy weather that swept the region at the start of the year could have been influenced the popularity of the words snow and ski, which both feature in the top 10.

Other well-used words included Jade, nan, kitten, and concert.

But there was bad news for teachers, with the word dont appearing without its apostrophe 49 times more in the Shropshire entries than in those from other regions.

And where mom was the most written word overall, with regional variations including mum and mam, dad only just scraped into the top 15.

Read the original here:
Mom’s the word for young Shropshire storytellers

AP

Todays news that two executives at Pilot Flying J, the billion-dollar truck-stop mega-company founded by the Haslam family and run by Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, pleaded guilty to federal charges confirms that multiple employees were involved in a scam that entailed defrauding customers of rebates.

In the aftermath of the guilty pleas, Haslams lawyer reiterated what Haslam has been saying for weeks: Haslam didnt know about the fraud.

Given the raid by federal agents on April 15, 2013 and the affidavit that was filed by FBI agents, this comes as no surprise, attorney Aubrey Harwell told newsnet5.com. You cannot read the affidavit and not realize that people acted inappropriately and agreed to plead guilty.

The problem for Haslam is that same affidavit contains quotes from a Pilot Flying J employee who told an undercover informant that Haslam was aware of the scam. As prosecutors commence harvesting guilty pleas along with likely commitments to cooperate in efforts to go higher up the corporate ladder, it could be only a matter of time before someone points the finger at Haslam.

Harwell already is suggesting that any such testimony would constitute a lie.

The lawyer, who represented former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo in the incident that resulted in DeBartolo becoming the former 49ers owner, is very confident the persons pleading guilty will tell the truth, and that any possibility that Haslam was involved is non-existent. Harwell also attributed to size of the company to Haslams lack of knowledge.

Meanwhile, Pilot Flying J issued a statement acknowledging the guilty pleas.

The statements released by the federal court today do not come as a surprise given what weve been learning in our own internal investigations, but are nonetheless disappointing, a company spokesman said. We want to assure our customers that we are taking every step to correct any wrongdoing that has occurred and to make certain that it does not happen again.

It definitely wont happen again. The question is whether and to what extent upper-level executives will face charges for the fraud that already occurred.

Follow this link:
PFT: Congress tells Snyder 'Redskins' is like the N-word

29 May 2013 13:47

A competition run by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans in association with the Oxford University Press has found that mam is the word used most often by children on Tyneside

Mam is the word used most often by children on Tyneside, a new survey suggests.

The finding has come from a competition run by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans in association with the Oxford University Press, in which children were encouraged to send in stories of no more than 500 words.

Nationally more than 90,000 youngsters entered their stories. The resultant 40 million words were analysed by the Oxford University Press and the findings give a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and the remarkable ways they use English.

Across the UK, mum is the most popular word used but the regional variation mam occurred most in Tyne and Wear.

After that, the words used most by children in the region were pirate, Dan and eventually.

Chris Evans says I was staggered to find out wed received over 90,000 entries for this years 500 words competition.

The creativity of these awesome authors knows no bounds - we have dragons, monsters, wizards, space-ships - and some of these super story-tellers are even inventing new words. Inspirational or what?

See the rest here:
Mam’s the word for Tyneside kids

In this era of political correctness, the Washington Redskins have come under enormous pressure to change their nickname, and that pressure increased significantly on Tuesday as ten members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Redskins owner Dan Snyder urging him to drop the name Redskins.

According to the Associated Press, the letter was spearheaded by the leaders of the Congressional Native American Caucus, Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole and Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum.

In the letter, the congressmen say that Native Americans throughout the country consider the R word a racial, derogatory slur akin to the N word among African Americans or the W word among Latinos.

The letter was also sent to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Redskins official sponsor FedEx, and the other 31 NFL franchises.

The team has not responded publicly to the letter, but Dan Snyder has said in the past that the Redskins will never change their name.

In April, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III tweeted what appeared to be criticism of calls to change the teams long-held name.

In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness, Griffin tweeted then.

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'A racial, derogatory slur': Congressmen call for Redskins to lose the 'R word'

Original post:
‘A racial, derogatory slur’: Congressmen call for Redskins to lose the ‘R word’