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Tilman Fertitta,kobe 7 shoes, the Houston entrepreneur whose restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues are expected to take in $2,michael kors handbags.5 billion this year, can use those assets to aid his growing line of casino hotels,michael kors outlet store.“There's no doubt he has a powerful arsenal of concepts that he can use in his casinos,michael kors purses,” said Joe Weinert, senior vice president of Atlantic City-based Spectrum Gaming Group, a research and consulting firm for the gaming industry.Fertitta,louboutin outlet, sole owner of Landry's,michael kors outlet, closed Friday on the former Isle Casino Hotel in Biloxi, Miss,cheap nike shoes., for $45 million and announced a $100 million effort to rebrand it as his fourth Golden Nugget,michael kors purses, while adding a Morton's Steakhouse and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. to attract more business,cheap kobe shoes.In addition to adding a new casino floor, bars and restaurants,christian louboutin sale, Fertitta plans to open an H20 resort pool and lounge, a concept he developed at his San Luis Resort in Galveston. Related articles:  When citing 60 Min while NBA MVP LeBr ) and Nan Hayworth ( 

Now's time to rethink HISD food program - Houston Chron
The website recently reported that Aramark, the private corporation that manages the Houston Independent School District's, violated its contract by incurring a shortfall of almost $2 million in taxpayer dollars in fiscal 2011. The website further reported that, as a result, HISD is considering ending the Aramark contract when it is up for rebidding next year. As a parent of two children in s who is involved in school food reform in our district,michael kors purses, this is welcome news. Two million dollar shortfall or not, I believe it's time to revisit former Superintendent 's controversial 1997 decision to privatize our Food Services department, and Aramark's recent stumble presents an occasion to do so. Food service management companies (FSMCs) like Aramark are, above all else, for-profit entities, incentivized to cut costs wherever possible to retain valuable district contracts and yield maximum returns for their shareholders. One significant way in which FSMCs save money is by turning to giant food processors like Tyson, Pilgrim's and ConAgra, which are paid processing fees to convert free federal commodity foods (whole chicken parts, potatoes, wheat flour, etc.) into products like fried chicken patties,michael kors bags, French fries and frozen pizza. The resulting convenience foods allow districts to save significantly on kitchen labor, since often little more than reheating is required to prepare them. The problem, of course, is that these highly processed foods are not served in the best interest of our students' health,cheap michael kors. To be sure, HISD has made some laudable improvements to its menus, primarily at the elementary school level, and a handful of high schools now have a new Tex-Mex line and an attractive fresh deli line (the latter,cheap christian louboutin, however, is not eligible for federal reimbursement, which means the majority of HISD high school students cannot take advantage of it). But I have still witnessed firsthand many HISD school meals which consist of par-fried, monochromatic fare like fried chicken patty sandwiches, corn dogs and chicken-fried steak finger sandwiches. Pizza is available to most of our middle and high school students every single day of the school week, with burgers of one sort or another available on most days as well. And all of these foods can be supplemented (or replaced) by students with items like baked Flaming Hot Cheetos, cookies, Rice Krispies treats, cheesy, fried-chip nachos and neon-bright, artificially colored slushies, all available in the so-called "a la carte" lines (for fully paying customers) that help boost Food Services' profits. But there are compelling reasons to rethink our current model. With childhood obesity making national headlines,cheap michael kors, districts all over the country are re-examining their reliance on highly processed foods and reviving the bygone era of scratch-cooked school meals. Moreover, when Paige hired Aramark in 1997, our food services operations looked very different than they do today,christian louboutin shoes. In the intervening 14 years, we have moved from aging warehouses and cramped school kitchens to a state-of-the-art, $51 million central food preparation and storage facility that serves our entire district. Located in northeast Houston, this 15-acre site boasts 95,000 square feet devoted to baking, "cook/chill" and cold food preparation, as well as football-field-sized freezer and dry storage areas. But our impressive central kitchen - one of the largest of its kind in the nation - may be underutilized. While HISD says around 40 percent of our school food comes from the central kitchen, upon closer examination, most of the items currently prepared there are baked goods like cookies, kolaches and rolls, three side dishes, several types of sauces and seasonings, and (as best as I can determine) a handful of entr��es. But some of these entr��es are themselves made from highly processed components, such as the "BBQ chicken tenders" that HISD counts as its own creation but which, when I ate one, appeared to be no more than a premade chicken nugget coated by the district in sauce. Moving to more scratch-cooking in the central kitchen would certainly require HISD to pay more for labor. But school food consultant, co-founder of Cook for America and author of the forthcoming Lunch Money: in a Sick Economy , argues that when districts stop paying processing fees to huge food manufacturers and management fees to private companies like Aramark, the labor costs of cooking free commodity foods from scratch are offset. That result may be all the more true in a district like ours, where more than 80 percent of children qualify for free or reduced-price government meals, meaning that our Food Services operation has far more federal reimbursement dollars to work with than more affluent districts. An emphasis on scratch cooking would also keep more taxpayer dollars here in Houston. Instead of paying our current per-meal fee to Philadelphia-based Aramark, and processing fees and food purchasing dollars to the far-flung companies with which Aramark contracts, we could put that money directly into the hands of Houston-based kitchen workers and more local food suppliers. Those wages, in turn, would be spent by workers on goods, housing and services within our own city,christian louboutin sale. So before HISD either grudgingly renews Aramark's contract despite the $2 million shortfall or simply turns the keys over to yet another FSMC like Chartwells or Sodexo, I would urge our superintendent and school board to consider commissioning a feasibility study to determine if self-operation, with a greater focus on scratch-cooking, could possibly break even. But even if such a study finds this option is more costly than privatization, it's my fervent hope that HISD would be willing to make that additional investment. After all, HISD's own nutrition mission statement promises that "Houston ISD will be a leader in child nutrition and wellness by providing the highest level of nutrition possible on our campuses ��" It's critical that we now put our money where our mouths are. Because with one in three HISD students already overweight or obese, providing fresher,michael kors outlet store, healthier school food to Houston's children is not a luxury - it's a moral obligation,cheap nike shoes.  Siegel blogs daily about children and food at The Lunch Tray,louboutin shoes, and about HISD school food specifically at The Spork Report, which is reposted on. She is a member of the and HISD's, but offers these views in her individual capacity. Related articles:  Watch Today’s Discov It is difficult to he can’t tell you w </ul>

After decade of fighting signs of progress elusive - Housto
KABUL, Afghanistan - For 10 years, ever since the towers fell, the United States has fought a war in a distant land - in hopes, it says, of protecting American interests and making the world safer from terrorism. Now, as President Obama plans to end U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014, the question remains as muddy as ever: What happened here? There have been victories - and setbacks. More than 1,522 American service members have died,christian louboutin sale. There has been talk of a more stable, safer Afghanistan and frequent, obvious evidence to the contrary. The country's president and the United States share an uneasy relationship, and it's difficult to tell the story of the past decade in a single, concise statement. Which is not surprising. Over more than 30 years of warfare, there has rarely been clarity in Afghanistan. You can't always tell who's on which side, and sometimes people are on both. Conventional battles are common, as is shadowy guerrilla warfare. Yesterday's enemy is today's ally,cheap nike shoes. Tomorrow he's an enemy once again. Afghans are dying by the thousands in a conflict which began to free them from whose leaders are mostly hiding in Pakistan - a nominal American ally. Work still undone America's chapter in Afghanistan's struggle is drawing to a close. President has said he will withdraw a third of nearly 100,000 U.S. troops by next summer and end combat operations in 2014 - with or without even a semblance of a lasting success. Much work remains unfinished even after almost a decade of war and billions of dollars in aid. Although battered, the insurgents still control large swaths of the country, and it is nearly impossible to travel safety from the capital to the southern city of Kandahar. Efforts to establish effective government, especially at local levels,kobe bryant shoes, have achieved limited success at best. Afghanistan's own security forces remain far from capable of defending the country on their own. And only about 2,000 of the estimated 25,000 to 40,000 insurgents have joined a highly touted program to reintegrate into society. In announcing the timetable, Obama spoke of building a "partnership with the Afghan people that endures" long after the last American service member has gone home. His words were aimed at reassuring the Afghans that America would not abandon them. Heard it before That pledge was reminiscent of the Soviet assurances to their Afghan clients when they, like the British a century before, concluded that fighting in Afghanistan wasn't worth the cost in blood and treasure and withdrew in 1989. Moscow left behind a friendly government and a well-equipped Afghan army,michael kors handbags. Three years later, that government collapsed, the army fell apart and the country was again engulfed in war. America entered Afghanistan in October 2001 to strike at al-Qaida after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Another goal was to oust the ruling and  and his network. The Taliban were dispatched with relative ease by U,cheap michael kors.S. air power and ground forces provided by militias that had resisted the hard-line Islamist movement. The U.S. and its partners established a government in Kabul, setting the stage for democratic elections. But the Bush administration shifted its attention and resources to Iraq and a new war to bring down. Faced with a monumental challenge and limited resources,christian louboutin shoes, Afghan President turned for support to the militias and warlords that Washington had used to oust the Taliban. With that, the new government sank into a quagmire of corruption and favoritism - opening the door to the revival of the Taliban. By 2006, the country was facing a full-blown insurgency. Old alliances shifted back and forth. The man who invited bin Laden to Afghanistan is now a member of parliament and a Karzai crony. The warlord who helped rescue Karzai from fighting in Kabul in the 1990s now leads one of the main insurgent groups fighting his government. Obama entered office promising to focus attention on the Afghan conflict, which he described as a "war of necessity" as opposed to Iraq, a "war of choice." He doubled the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and in December 2009 dispatched 30,000 more troops in a "surge" to try to stop the Taliban momentum. In doing so, Obama in effect changed the character of the war. His commanders employed the counterinsurgency strategy that brought some success in Iraq, coupling military force with an ambitious, troop-intensive plan to push insurgents from their strongholds so the local government could build a system of services and institutions to win the loyalty of the people. The military always knew there would never be a winner in the war. Instead, it hoped to create the necessary groundwork for a process of reconciliation and reintegration to encourage insurgents to re-enter Afghan society. But the investment proved too much for an American public weary of war and struggling with an economy marked by job loss and rising deficits. Even with troop reductions, the United States is facing huge expenses if it sticks by Obama's plan,kobe 7 shoes. Building and funding a 300,000-member Afghan army and police will cost an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion a year even after 2014. The U.S. already paid $22 billion in 2010 and 2011 to train and equip the Afghans. Dividing up power The dilemma is that without such an investment, Afghanistan could again slip into civil war again. Preventing that will require not only a strong security force but a power-sharing agreement among the numerous ethnic groups, including the Pashtuns from whom the Taliban draw their strength. With the days of foreign forces numbered, Karzai has been reaching out to the Taliban, a process that Washington has tacitly endorsed. That effort has alarmed many Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara politicians, who fear Karzai will give too much power to his fellow Pashtuns. Obama's drawdown announcement served to reinforce many of those fears. "This announcement, they fear, runs parallel to a possible power-sharing deal with the Taliban that may emerge during this period,", co-director and senior analyst of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based think-tank, wrote recently in Foreign Policy. "For them, today was the beginning of the end of the world's support for Afghanistan,kobe shoes." With such a complex ethnic and political landscape,kobe shoes, few believe Afghanistan will enjoy peace anytime soon. Optimists hope the level of violence can be reduced and the fighting limited to small areas around the country. "I think an optimistic, hopeful outcome is nonetheless one in which some pockets of insurgency persist after 2014, but are contained and hopefully degraded over time primarily by the Afghans themselves," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. "For us the key is that no large sanctuaries develop. I am optimistic on these points." Pessimists,christian louboutin sneakers, including many Afghans, fear that once the foreign troops leave, the country will descend into a new civil war. Gov. Mohammed Anwar Jigdalik of Kunduz province said his fellow northerners are already rearming in the belief that the Taliban are "coming with weapons to take them over." "All of Afghanistan would welcome reconciliation, but people are afraid," he said. "Now people are rearming." Related articles:  from beef carpaccio</li> Drink warm Infectio</li> law and Chinese law</li> </ul>