Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $2.5 million in cash from a former Carnegie Mellon University trustee accused of conspiring to launder more than half a billion dollars for a drug cartel.
An indictment filed Wednesday in Texas alleges that El Paso lawyer and philanthropist Marco Delgado defrauded millions from a firm doing business with a Mexican utility and used that money to underwrite a lavish lifestyle that included a $250,000 contribution to Carnegie Mellon University.
Delgado could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Authorities also have requested forfeiture of $2.5 million in cash, a house and furniture in El Paso and a New Mexico apartment, as well as two vehicles.
Delgado is charged with 15 money laundering and two wire fraud counts. The indictment returned in El Paso alleges Delgado fraudulently instructed a bank in Mexico to move $32 million dollars from his client's Mexican account to an account he controlled in the Turks and Caicos islands. The indictment says the El Paso lawyer then diverted part of that money to Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
Delgado faces a separate indictment accusing him of conspiring to launder more than $600 million for a Mexican drug cartel. He was arrested in November and charged with conspiring to launder drug profits from July 2007 through December 2008.
Delgado obtained a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon in 1990 and in 2003 and donated $250,000 to create a scholarship named after him to help Hispanic students. He was also a member of several charities and a regular contributor to the El Paso symphony orchestra.
The investigation into Delgado started in September 2007 after a $1 million seizure was made in Atlanta. The man carrying the money told investigators that he, Delgado and other men had met in Mexico and agreed to transport money for the Milenio Cartel, a drug-trafficking organization based in the Mexican state of Colima.
According to U.S. authorities, Delgado admitted to U.S. agents that he had been contacted by people in Mexico about slowing down extradition processes of alleged cartel members and about moving up to $600 million from the U.S. to Mexico. He told the agents the million dollars seized was "a trial run" to see if it was possible, according to the U.S. government.
Treesh was sentenced to die for shooting 58-year-old Henry Dupree during a robbery of an adult book store in Eastlake on Aug. 27, 1994.
Treesh's attorneys described him as a cocaine addict who was high during the robbery and is deeply sorry for what happened.
"Hindsight, regret and remorse cannot turn back the clock and cannot return Mr. Dupree's life," they said in a petition for clemency. "What Fred can do and has tried to do is to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did" by teaching them to avoid drugs.
Attorney Adele Shenk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Kasich's decision. It was unclear Thursday if Treesh had federal appeals remaining, though execution dates are generally set once an inmate has exhausted those appeals.
Treesh, 48, argued he had accepted responsibility for the killing but that it was an unintentional consequence of a struggle for a gun while he was high. But the parole board concluded evidence showed Dupree was seated when shot and hadn't appeared to be a threat to Treesh.
Prosecutors contend Treesh intentionally murdered Dupree and tried to kill others, including police officers who pursued him, after a three-week spree of increasingly violent crimes. They said Treesh and a co-defendant had robbed banks and businesses, committed sexual assaults, stole cars, committed carjackings and shot someone to death in a Michigan robbery during a spree that also took them to Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that Chavez "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him."
The vice president has used similar phrasing in the past, saying on Dec. 20 that Chavez "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health."
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly since before his latest cancer operation in Cuba on Dec. 11. He returned to Venezuela on Feb. 18, and the government says he has been undergoing more treatment at a military hospital in Caracas.
Maduro also called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Chavez and to remain loyal to the president. He said Chavez's health had suffered because he had dedicated himself "body and soul" to his work as president.
Chavez himself has previously acknowledged that he was neglecting his health in recent years, often staying up late and drinking dozens of cups of coffee a day.
The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He hasn't specified the type of cancer or the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumors have been removed.
2013年2月28日星期四
2013年2月27日星期三
Council considers proposal to stay at church center to further mission
The church’s denominational offices would remain at the Episcopal Church Center in New York if the Executive Council accepts a recommendation it received Feb. 26 from a group of Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society executives.
Of four main scenarios analyzed, “God’s mission of reconciliation is best furthered” by remaining at 815 Second Ave. in Manhattan and consolidating DFMS operations at the church center to free up even more space to rent to outside tenants than the 3.5 floors that are currently leased out, a report to council says. This choice would be “in the organization’s best interests financially, both in terms of budget effect and for long-term investment purposes,” according to the report.
The DFMS, the church’s corporate entity, currently rents 2.5 floors to the Ad Council and one floor to Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations. The church center has nine floors of office space.
The study began in February 2012, five months before General Convention met, when council’s Finances for Mission committee asked DFMS management to study the possible relocation of the church center.
The report said the group believes that “the real underlying energy in examining the location of the church center is less about its location and more about how it actually functions,” adding that the writers “could not be in greater agreement about the need to reform how the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society functions and serves the needs of the church, particularly as to fostering, encouraging, and supporting mission at the local level in partnership with local leadership.”
Calling the desire for relocation “only a mask for the real reform needed and called for,” the group asks “how long, we wonder, would it be before complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in New York would become complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in some other city?”
“Perhaps rather than shifting the locus of our communal anxiety from one site to another, we would be better served in the long run to use our best judgment to make a rational and strategic decision in the best interests of the church’s engagement of God’s mission and then clearly articulate that decision to the church.”
Episcopal Church Chief Operating Officer Bishop Stacy Sauls told the council that the question of relocating the church center is regularly asked. The first time was about eight years after the building began to be used, and the issue seems to return at the same interval, he said.
Sauls, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barnes, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Sam McDonald, Director of Human Resources John Colon and Legal Counsel Paul Nix, all members of the 10-person Executive Oversight Group, conducted the study that began last spring.
The study considered Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale and Cincinnati, as well as another location in New York as alternatives to the 50-year-old church center.
Later in the day, Nat Rockett, Cushman & Wakefield executive vice president, told the entire council that it is not unusual that his firm came to a different conclusion that the Executive Oversight Group because the real estate firm looked at a different, limited set of factors.
After the recommendation was presented, council discussed the conclusion during an executive session on the second day of council’s three-day winter meeting. The session was closed because part of the discussion of the group’s report involved proprietary information such as the anticipated per-square-foot market rental rate for the 11-story building and its presumed value on the Manhattan real estate market. That information will also be absent from the version of the report that is expected to be posted here Feb. 27.
Council took no action on the recommendation and Finances for Mission and Governance and Administration for Mission will take up the report at council’s June 8-10 meeting.
The Executive Oversight Group came to its unanimous conclusion, the report says, after analyzing five “mission considerations,” including the unity of the church, mission partnerships, continuation of services provided, promoting justice and maximizing financial resources for mission. The overall consideration, according to Sauls, was stewardship in terms of financial management of the church’s resources for mission.
“We question the prudence of such a disruption at precisely the time when the church is reforming itself to have an increasingly missional focus and the staff is most needed to facilitate, encourage, and lead the initiatives being implemented as part of the Marks of Mission Budget as adopted at the 2012 General Convention,” the writers say.
In addition, Episcopal Migration Ministries might be threatened by a move because it is unlikely many staffers would leave New York since resettlement jobs abound there. If a major loss of staff impacted EMM’s abilities to offer the services for which it receives government grants, the ministry might have to be discontinued, the report says.
The report expresses concern about leaving New York because of the laws that might be encountered elsewhere. Married same-sex couples would be forced to choose between their jobs and moving to a jurisdiction that did not recognize their marriages, the writers suggest. New York recognizes same-sex marriage.
“We wish to be clear that we, as management, will implement whatever needs to be done to serve the church, and further, that we believe the entire staff of the Church will exercise its best efforts to the same end,” the writers say. “However, we do wonder about the effect on our prophetic voice of the indiscriminate dismissal of staff in order to replace them with cheaper labor absent some persuasive, if not compelling reason, to do so.”
“As leaders in the church, we have a particular concern about the effect on our witness on the issue of marriage equality when some married persons employed by us would be forced to make a choice between keeping their jobs and having their marriages recognized.”
Of four main scenarios analyzed, “God’s mission of reconciliation is best furthered” by remaining at 815 Second Ave. in Manhattan and consolidating DFMS operations at the church center to free up even more space to rent to outside tenants than the 3.5 floors that are currently leased out, a report to council says. This choice would be “in the organization’s best interests financially, both in terms of budget effect and for long-term investment purposes,” according to the report.
The DFMS, the church’s corporate entity, currently rents 2.5 floors to the Ad Council and one floor to Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations. The church center has nine floors of office space.
The study began in February 2012, five months before General Convention met, when council’s Finances for Mission committee asked DFMS management to study the possible relocation of the church center.
The report said the group believes that “the real underlying energy in examining the location of the church center is less about its location and more about how it actually functions,” adding that the writers “could not be in greater agreement about the need to reform how the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society functions and serves the needs of the church, particularly as to fostering, encouraging, and supporting mission at the local level in partnership with local leadership.”
Calling the desire for relocation “only a mask for the real reform needed and called for,” the group asks “how long, we wonder, would it be before complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in New York would become complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in some other city?”
“Perhaps rather than shifting the locus of our communal anxiety from one site to another, we would be better served in the long run to use our best judgment to make a rational and strategic decision in the best interests of the church’s engagement of God’s mission and then clearly articulate that decision to the church.”
Episcopal Church Chief Operating Officer Bishop Stacy Sauls told the council that the question of relocating the church center is regularly asked. The first time was about eight years after the building began to be used, and the issue seems to return at the same interval, he said.
Sauls, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barnes, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Sam McDonald, Director of Human Resources John Colon and Legal Counsel Paul Nix, all members of the 10-person Executive Oversight Group, conducted the study that began last spring.
The study considered Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale and Cincinnati, as well as another location in New York as alternatives to the 50-year-old church center.
Later in the day, Nat Rockett, Cushman & Wakefield executive vice president, told the entire council that it is not unusual that his firm came to a different conclusion that the Executive Oversight Group because the real estate firm looked at a different, limited set of factors.
After the recommendation was presented, council discussed the conclusion during an executive session on the second day of council’s three-day winter meeting. The session was closed because part of the discussion of the group’s report involved proprietary information such as the anticipated per-square-foot market rental rate for the 11-story building and its presumed value on the Manhattan real estate market. That information will also be absent from the version of the report that is expected to be posted here Feb. 27.
Council took no action on the recommendation and Finances for Mission and Governance and Administration for Mission will take up the report at council’s June 8-10 meeting.
The Executive Oversight Group came to its unanimous conclusion, the report says, after analyzing five “mission considerations,” including the unity of the church, mission partnerships, continuation of services provided, promoting justice and maximizing financial resources for mission. The overall consideration, according to Sauls, was stewardship in terms of financial management of the church’s resources for mission.
“We question the prudence of such a disruption at precisely the time when the church is reforming itself to have an increasingly missional focus and the staff is most needed to facilitate, encourage, and lead the initiatives being implemented as part of the Marks of Mission Budget as adopted at the 2012 General Convention,” the writers say.
In addition, Episcopal Migration Ministries might be threatened by a move because it is unlikely many staffers would leave New York since resettlement jobs abound there. If a major loss of staff impacted EMM’s abilities to offer the services for which it receives government grants, the ministry might have to be discontinued, the report says.
The report expresses concern about leaving New York because of the laws that might be encountered elsewhere. Married same-sex couples would be forced to choose between their jobs and moving to a jurisdiction that did not recognize their marriages, the writers suggest. New York recognizes same-sex marriage.
“We wish to be clear that we, as management, will implement whatever needs to be done to serve the church, and further, that we believe the entire staff of the Church will exercise its best efforts to the same end,” the writers say. “However, we do wonder about the effect on our prophetic voice of the indiscriminate dismissal of staff in order to replace them with cheaper labor absent some persuasive, if not compelling reason, to do so.”
“As leaders in the church, we have a particular concern about the effect on our witness on the issue of marriage equality when some married persons employed by us would be forced to make a choice between keeping their jobs and having their marriages recognized.”
2013年2月25日星期一
Don Hasson guides family business through multiple expansions
Built in 1906, the seven-story brick building was vast and filled with all sorts of interesting things.
“It was like walking back in time,” Hasson said. “It had five great big freight elevators with those wooden doors that hurl you up and down. It had an old round chute that carried boxes from the top floor down to the basement.”
It had wall shelves that had to be reached by 20-foot ladders that moved on a track attached at the ceiling. When the building was closed in 1980 so the company could move to a new facility, workers found parts for horse-drawn wagons, plow repair parts and other archaic inventory that had been tucked away and forgotten.
“When I was a kid, I loved to go over there and hang out and play and ride the elevator,” Hasson said.
His grandfather C.S. Hasson was one of the founders of the company, and Don Hasson’s father, Jim Hasson, was its president at the time.
“After my dad got tired of me getting in everybody’s way, he decided the best thing for me was to put bicycles together,” Don Hasson said.
“After my dad got tired of me getting in everybody’s way, he decided the best thing for me was to put bicycles together,” Don Hasson said.
That was OK. Building bikes was fun, Hasson said. Now age 62, Hasson is president of the company and has spent most of his life building it into an operation with a combined 700,000 square feet of warehouse space in two states, customers in 17 states and a sales staff of 85.
And the fun now comes from each chance to add to this hardware empire, Hasson said. He keeps a list of 12 companies House-Hasson has either bought outright or acquired the business and sales staff from after they closed. The chance to land a major account or to pick up the pieces when a competitor comes apart and use them to build your business is exciting, Hasson said.
“Every couple of years we get bored just doing the same thing, so we go try to stir up something new and different,” he said.
Hasson focused on building a sales territory in northern Georgia, but when Sam House retired in 1926, Hasson came back to Knoxville to become president. Hasson served until his son J.W. “Jack” Hasson took over as president in 1950. By 1954, House-Hasson Hardware had 35 salespeople and operated in seven states.
Jack Hasson’s brother James K. “Jim” Hasson became company president in 1970. That year, the company made the first of many acquisitions that would propel its growth.
But not all was unbridled expansion. The world wars and the Great Depression presented challenges, and House-Hasson also found itself facing competition from mail order and catalog companies, foreshadowing the competition it would start to face in the 1980s from the growth of “big box” stores like The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Plan your route to avoid dangerous and stressful intersections. For example, navigating the intersection of 16th Street, U Street, and New Hampshire Avenue NW on foot during rush hour is likely to turn a nice walk into a terrifying near-miss. Turning-arrow patterns and drivers’ behavior have effectively negated pedestrian right-of-way on the south side of that intersection.
I’ve found that the standard advice to make eye contact with drivers (for example when they are turning through a crosswalk) often backfires. When drivers see me watching them, they sometimes take this as license to inch into the crosswalk directly toward me in an attempt to time their crossing with mine, passing only a foot or two behind me.
A modified version of the eye contact strategy seems to produce better results: After seeing that a driver has noticed me, I keep my head facing forward and watch the car from my peripheral vision. I know that the driver has seen me, but he or she might not be sure if I see him or her. This often seems to bring out drivers’ better nature, and they leave me plenty of space to cross to avoid startling me.
Wahl stresses the practical advice that makes urban travel not only survivable but also a good experience. This advice acknowledges realities of urban life without being timid about travel. More people should adopt the attitude, as well as the advice.
Stressful intersections tend to have common characteristics. Traffic can come at you from several directions, traffic volume may be heavy, the walk sign may be short, or you may have to cross multiple lanes with no traffic signal at all.
Drivers analyze their commuting routes. They learn where they might face a difficult left turn or an intersection where they have a stop sign, but the cross traffic is heavy and free-flowing. They figure out ways to avoid the difficult maneuvers.
A walking commuter should be making the same calculations, to limit stress and improve personal safety. The shortest route between two points isn’t necessarily the best.
I particularly admire Wahl for thinking through the “eye contact” strategy. While safety experts urge both drivers and pedestrians to make eye contact, many people who walk in congested areas challenge me when I repeat that advice.
They make solid arguments, based on experience. They often note that a driver who appears to be looking at them may actually be staring into windshield glare that obscures the walker’s location. Others know that drivers are often looking solely for other drivers, and may stare right through a pedestrian. Or if making a left turn, their entire focus may be directed at oncoming traffic and not at the crosswalk they are about to turn into.
“It was like walking back in time,” Hasson said. “It had five great big freight elevators with those wooden doors that hurl you up and down. It had an old round chute that carried boxes from the top floor down to the basement.”
It had wall shelves that had to be reached by 20-foot ladders that moved on a track attached at the ceiling. When the building was closed in 1980 so the company could move to a new facility, workers found parts for horse-drawn wagons, plow repair parts and other archaic inventory that had been tucked away and forgotten.
“When I was a kid, I loved to go over there and hang out and play and ride the elevator,” Hasson said.
His grandfather C.S. Hasson was one of the founders of the company, and Don Hasson’s father, Jim Hasson, was its president at the time.
“After my dad got tired of me getting in everybody’s way, he decided the best thing for me was to put bicycles together,” Don Hasson said.
“After my dad got tired of me getting in everybody’s way, he decided the best thing for me was to put bicycles together,” Don Hasson said.
That was OK. Building bikes was fun, Hasson said. Now age 62, Hasson is president of the company and has spent most of his life building it into an operation with a combined 700,000 square feet of warehouse space in two states, customers in 17 states and a sales staff of 85.
And the fun now comes from each chance to add to this hardware empire, Hasson said. He keeps a list of 12 companies House-Hasson has either bought outright or acquired the business and sales staff from after they closed. The chance to land a major account or to pick up the pieces when a competitor comes apart and use them to build your business is exciting, Hasson said.
“Every couple of years we get bored just doing the same thing, so we go try to stir up something new and different,” he said.
Hasson focused on building a sales territory in northern Georgia, but when Sam House retired in 1926, Hasson came back to Knoxville to become president. Hasson served until his son J.W. “Jack” Hasson took over as president in 1950. By 1954, House-Hasson Hardware had 35 salespeople and operated in seven states.
Jack Hasson’s brother James K. “Jim” Hasson became company president in 1970. That year, the company made the first of many acquisitions that would propel its growth.
But not all was unbridled expansion. The world wars and the Great Depression presented challenges, and House-Hasson also found itself facing competition from mail order and catalog companies, foreshadowing the competition it would start to face in the 1980s from the growth of “big box” stores like The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Plan your route to avoid dangerous and stressful intersections. For example, navigating the intersection of 16th Street, U Street, and New Hampshire Avenue NW on foot during rush hour is likely to turn a nice walk into a terrifying near-miss. Turning-arrow patterns and drivers’ behavior have effectively negated pedestrian right-of-way on the south side of that intersection.
I’ve found that the standard advice to make eye contact with drivers (for example when they are turning through a crosswalk) often backfires. When drivers see me watching them, they sometimes take this as license to inch into the crosswalk directly toward me in an attempt to time their crossing with mine, passing only a foot or two behind me.
A modified version of the eye contact strategy seems to produce better results: After seeing that a driver has noticed me, I keep my head facing forward and watch the car from my peripheral vision. I know that the driver has seen me, but he or she might not be sure if I see him or her. This often seems to bring out drivers’ better nature, and they leave me plenty of space to cross to avoid startling me.
Wahl stresses the practical advice that makes urban travel not only survivable but also a good experience. This advice acknowledges realities of urban life without being timid about travel. More people should adopt the attitude, as well as the advice.
Stressful intersections tend to have common characteristics. Traffic can come at you from several directions, traffic volume may be heavy, the walk sign may be short, or you may have to cross multiple lanes with no traffic signal at all.
Drivers analyze their commuting routes. They learn where they might face a difficult left turn or an intersection where they have a stop sign, but the cross traffic is heavy and free-flowing. They figure out ways to avoid the difficult maneuvers.
A walking commuter should be making the same calculations, to limit stress and improve personal safety. The shortest route between two points isn’t necessarily the best.
I particularly admire Wahl for thinking through the “eye contact” strategy. While safety experts urge both drivers and pedestrians to make eye contact, many people who walk in congested areas challenge me when I repeat that advice.
They make solid arguments, based on experience. They often note that a driver who appears to be looking at them may actually be staring into windshield glare that obscures the walker’s location. Others know that drivers are often looking solely for other drivers, and may stare right through a pedestrian. Or if making a left turn, their entire focus may be directed at oncoming traffic and not at the crosswalk they are about to turn into.
2013年2月20日星期三
Tiny House Infographic project meets Kickstarter goal
I’ve switched focus as of late to cleverly designed urban sardine cans geared toward young professionals who are willing to forgo full kitchens and make do with Murphy beds, but the tiny house movement is going strong as ever.
Case in point: Diminutive dwelling demigod Jay Shafer is now cooking up an entire tiny house village dubbed the Napoleon Complex in Sonoma County, Calif. (AKA Land of the Tiny House People). Zoned as an RV park with about 40 to 70 petite residences and loosely based on the cohousing model, the intent of the community is to “create a contagious model for responsible, affordable, desirable housing.” With a proposed opening date of 2015, I'm thinking that it will be the perfect place for Austin Hay to settle down in after he graduates from college!
And then there’s Ryan Mitchell, a Charlotte, N.C.-based tiny house devotee and editor/founder of "tiny lifestyle" website The Tiny Life. A few weeks back, Mitchell launched a Kickstarter campaign that would enable him to create an infographic that tells the story of tiny houses and the people who decided to live in homes of reduced square footage.
A Kickstarter campaign for an infographic? Yep. After embarking on a survey in which more than 2,300 tiny house people responded in under 48 hours, Mitchell knew that he had to share the massive amount of data he had collected in a visually appealing yet informative manner and, well, talented graphic designers cost money. With that, he launched the Kickstarter campaign with the goal of $1,000 to help pay for a designer and bring the infographic to life.
That said, Mitchell has already met his goal. But with a few days left until the campaign expires, tiny house lovers can still contribute and receive one — or a few — of the perks associated with backing the project: bumper stickers, an early release of the infographic, a 12-by-8-inch print of the campaign’s nifty promotional graphic, and a pre-release of Tiny Life’s upcoming ebook “Cracking the Code.” Big spenders will even receive a one-hour phone chat with a tiny house guru.
Walking or driving along Montreal Road through Vanier during the past year, it has been impossible not to notice the dramatic curving walls rising from the ground at the corner of Bradley Avenue.
Construction on the new $14.2-million Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health is expected to be completed in March. An official opening is set for May 9, though executive-director Allison Fisher promises an open house the last week of March for the neighbourhood.
"I think a building like this always brings possibility, especially in a place like Vanier," says Fisher. "That something as beautiful as this, as important as this, is going up brings possibility to everybody who is engaged and everybody who lives around it."
Designed by Ottawa architect Douglas Cardinal and his son Bret, the new building is clad in a golden, rough-cut stone that contrasts with the polished transparency of blue-green glass flowing across it. The materials evoke cliffs, water and sky.
It's the same Minnesota limestone used in Cardinal's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In Ottawa, he is best-known for the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau.
Since 1998, Wabano has provided health, social services, counselling and cultural programs for Ottawa's 35,000 people of aboriginal origin. Crowded and busy, it has a waiting list of 200 families, shared offices, and lack of quiet space for activities such as after-school tutoring.
Carlie Chase, Wabano's director of initiatives, observes that there is no direct translation of the word "health" in Ojibway. The closest is "Mino Biimaudziwin" which means living a good life.
The architecture of the building is part of the idea. "If our way of being in the world is creating the good life, if that is how health is defined, then you must create space that reflects that," says Fisher.
"If you think of the one thing we should be creating beautiful it should be the things we go in when we're not well," she says. "When you are at your worst is when you are sick. If you come into a space that is beautiful and you belong in it, then you get better."
The new three-storey structure wraps around Wabano's original two-storey building, combining it into one facility, both functionally and es-thetically, and adding 25,000 square feet. The old building, with 15,000 square feet, has been renovated to meet contemporary building codes. Parking is underground.
"You'll see there are curves everywhere," says Fisher. "This is not a square building." Light streams in through large windows. "It's much brighter."
Conspicuous from the street is a new domed gathering space that can accommodate up to 500 people, bringing inside a larger public. It will be rented for events, conferences and celebrations and used by Wabano for educational purposes. Every Wednesday night there will be opportunities to learn about aboriginal culture, open to all.
"We're very invisible in this city," says Fisher. "One aspect for us was to become visible people with value, and to be proud to show who we are."
Wabano - which means new beginnings in Ojibway - will become Canada's first national centre of excellence for aboriginal health care. It will house a maternal and child wellness centre, expand programs in chronic disease, women's health and mental health, and introduce a social enterprise program to develop job skills. The expansion will enable Wabano to double the number of clients from 10,000 to 20,000 a year.
Case in point: Diminutive dwelling demigod Jay Shafer is now cooking up an entire tiny house village dubbed the Napoleon Complex in Sonoma County, Calif. (AKA Land of the Tiny House People). Zoned as an RV park with about 40 to 70 petite residences and loosely based on the cohousing model, the intent of the community is to “create a contagious model for responsible, affordable, desirable housing.” With a proposed opening date of 2015, I'm thinking that it will be the perfect place for Austin Hay to settle down in after he graduates from college!
And then there’s Ryan Mitchell, a Charlotte, N.C.-based tiny house devotee and editor/founder of "tiny lifestyle" website The Tiny Life. A few weeks back, Mitchell launched a Kickstarter campaign that would enable him to create an infographic that tells the story of tiny houses and the people who decided to live in homes of reduced square footage.
A Kickstarter campaign for an infographic? Yep. After embarking on a survey in which more than 2,300 tiny house people responded in under 48 hours, Mitchell knew that he had to share the massive amount of data he had collected in a visually appealing yet informative manner and, well, talented graphic designers cost money. With that, he launched the Kickstarter campaign with the goal of $1,000 to help pay for a designer and bring the infographic to life.
That said, Mitchell has already met his goal. But with a few days left until the campaign expires, tiny house lovers can still contribute and receive one — or a few — of the perks associated with backing the project: bumper stickers, an early release of the infographic, a 12-by-8-inch print of the campaign’s nifty promotional graphic, and a pre-release of Tiny Life’s upcoming ebook “Cracking the Code.” Big spenders will even receive a one-hour phone chat with a tiny house guru.
Walking or driving along Montreal Road through Vanier during the past year, it has been impossible not to notice the dramatic curving walls rising from the ground at the corner of Bradley Avenue.
Construction on the new $14.2-million Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health is expected to be completed in March. An official opening is set for May 9, though executive-director Allison Fisher promises an open house the last week of March for the neighbourhood.
"I think a building like this always brings possibility, especially in a place like Vanier," says Fisher. "That something as beautiful as this, as important as this, is going up brings possibility to everybody who is engaged and everybody who lives around it."
Designed by Ottawa architect Douglas Cardinal and his son Bret, the new building is clad in a golden, rough-cut stone that contrasts with the polished transparency of blue-green glass flowing across it. The materials evoke cliffs, water and sky.
It's the same Minnesota limestone used in Cardinal's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In Ottawa, he is best-known for the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau.
Since 1998, Wabano has provided health, social services, counselling and cultural programs for Ottawa's 35,000 people of aboriginal origin. Crowded and busy, it has a waiting list of 200 families, shared offices, and lack of quiet space for activities such as after-school tutoring.
Carlie Chase, Wabano's director of initiatives, observes that there is no direct translation of the word "health" in Ojibway. The closest is "Mino Biimaudziwin" which means living a good life.
The architecture of the building is part of the idea. "If our way of being in the world is creating the good life, if that is how health is defined, then you must create space that reflects that," says Fisher.
"If you think of the one thing we should be creating beautiful it should be the things we go in when we're not well," she says. "When you are at your worst is when you are sick. If you come into a space that is beautiful and you belong in it, then you get better."
The new three-storey structure wraps around Wabano's original two-storey building, combining it into one facility, both functionally and es-thetically, and adding 25,000 square feet. The old building, with 15,000 square feet, has been renovated to meet contemporary building codes. Parking is underground.
"You'll see there are curves everywhere," says Fisher. "This is not a square building." Light streams in through large windows. "It's much brighter."
Conspicuous from the street is a new domed gathering space that can accommodate up to 500 people, bringing inside a larger public. It will be rented for events, conferences and celebrations and used by Wabano for educational purposes. Every Wednesday night there will be opportunities to learn about aboriginal culture, open to all.
"We're very invisible in this city," says Fisher. "One aspect for us was to become visible people with value, and to be proud to show who we are."
Wabano - which means new beginnings in Ojibway - will become Canada's first national centre of excellence for aboriginal health care. It will house a maternal and child wellness centre, expand programs in chronic disease, women's health and mental health, and introduce a social enterprise program to develop job skills. The expansion will enable Wabano to double the number of clients from 10,000 to 20,000 a year.
Howard Brown rebranding Triad health clinic alongside expansion
As part of a plan to
move and expand services at its Triad Health Practice in the Boystown LGBT
enclave, Howard Brown Health Center announced Tuesday it is rebranding and
opening the clinic at its new space on North Halsted Street late next month.
Branding for the clinic’s new name, Aris Health, has already appeared on windows at the redesigned 4,050-square-foot facility, 3245 N. Halsted St., formerly occupied by Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. The changes will officially go into place March 25, the organization said.
In April, Howard Brown said it would relocate the clinic to the larger location from a smaller space at 3000 N. Halsted St. due to capacity demands for its expanding services, such as pediatric care.
The new storefront location, which is steps away from of one of the symbolic Halsted Street rainbow pylons and directly across the street from Steamworks, a gay bathhouse, will afford the clinic greater visibility, the organization said.
“We are excited about opening Aris Health in the heart of the community to serve patients in an environment completely focused on their care,” said Karma Israelsen, interim president and CEO at HBHC. “It’s important for us to meet the comprehensive health and wellness needs of those we serve.”
The increased prominence in Boystown will help the organization reach its goal of more than doubling the clinic’s current base of 2,000 patients to 5,High quality chinamosaic tiles.000 patients in the first few years. The new space has capacity for nearly 10,000 patients, or about the amount served at Howard Brown’s Sheridan Road facility.
In addition to clinical health services and pediatric care, Aris Health will also offer adult primary and behavioral care.
“We added pediatrics as part of our core practice offering last year to serve our patients’ children; Aris Health and the expanded space allows us to fulfill this need,” said Israelsen.
Specifically, the facility will house nine exam rooms, including a separate space for pediatric care; an onsite Walgreens pharmacy and free lot parking off Halsted Street — all of which will translate into benefits for patients, said HBHC’s Medical Director Dr. Magda Houlberg, M.D.
“At Aris Health, we are proud to institute a patient-focused model of care in a new and fresh environment that focuses on our patient experience,” Houlberg said.
Patients served at the new facility will be part of its new “complete patient-centered care model,” a system which promotes the involvement of patients in their medical care and ultimately leads to the development of personal relationships with their providers, according to Howard Brown.
As part of that relationship, the patient and provider work together on preventive and chronic care management which might also include the care a patient receives at other health facilities, the organization said in a statement.
Among the features of the new column-free facility are tunnel space for four batting cages, two infield areas, a 28-foot high ceiling, video capability, a concession stand and pro shop.Creative glass tile and solarlamp tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath.
“As we continue to position ourselves as a prime destination for baseball and softball players, the new building will enable us to provide a place for events and training for the entire year,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose.” said Frank Zitaglio, general manager of BBH, a subsidiary of Steel Sports Inc. “Further,Looking for the Best iphoneheadset? the addition of a former player of Frank Catalanotto’s caliber will serve to solidify Baseball Heaven as the leading facility of its kind in the region.”
Catalanotto will provide individual and group instruction to baseball players and teams.Make your house a home with Border and carparkmanagementsystem Tiles. He enjoyed a 14-year MLB career with the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets, compiling a .291 lifetime average in 1,265 games.
“I’m very excited to be a part of this great complex, and I look forward to working with players of all ages as they continue to develop their skills,” said Catalanotto, a native of Long Island, N.Y.
The new building is part of an overall upgrade BBH is planning in the coming year, including the construction of two new concession stands, the creation of extra parking, live online video streaming of all games and the development and implementation of a variety of sports instruction and development programs.
Zitaglio said both the construction of the new building and other renovations to the complex will create new jobs within the community and underscores BBH’s commitment to Long Island, a large portion of which was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
“We are extremely thankful to our community leaders and the Town of Brookhaven Planning Board for approving this excellent addition to our complex,” Zitaglio added. “We want to make sure that every current and potential player and team fully understands that we’re here for the long term. And through Baseball Heaven, we aim to continue to foster the values of teamwork, sportsmanship and integrity – all of the good things that baseball and softball are about.”
Branding for the clinic’s new name, Aris Health, has already appeared on windows at the redesigned 4,050-square-foot facility, 3245 N. Halsted St., formerly occupied by Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. The changes will officially go into place March 25, the organization said.
In April, Howard Brown said it would relocate the clinic to the larger location from a smaller space at 3000 N. Halsted St. due to capacity demands for its expanding services, such as pediatric care.
The new storefront location, which is steps away from of one of the symbolic Halsted Street rainbow pylons and directly across the street from Steamworks, a gay bathhouse, will afford the clinic greater visibility, the organization said.
“We are excited about opening Aris Health in the heart of the community to serve patients in an environment completely focused on their care,” said Karma Israelsen, interim president and CEO at HBHC. “It’s important for us to meet the comprehensive health and wellness needs of those we serve.”
The increased prominence in Boystown will help the organization reach its goal of more than doubling the clinic’s current base of 2,000 patients to 5,High quality chinamosaic tiles.000 patients in the first few years. The new space has capacity for nearly 10,000 patients, or about the amount served at Howard Brown’s Sheridan Road facility.
In addition to clinical health services and pediatric care, Aris Health will also offer adult primary and behavioral care.
“We added pediatrics as part of our core practice offering last year to serve our patients’ children; Aris Health and the expanded space allows us to fulfill this need,” said Israelsen.
Specifically, the facility will house nine exam rooms, including a separate space for pediatric care; an onsite Walgreens pharmacy and free lot parking off Halsted Street — all of which will translate into benefits for patients, said HBHC’s Medical Director Dr. Magda Houlberg, M.D.
“At Aris Health, we are proud to institute a patient-focused model of care in a new and fresh environment that focuses on our patient experience,” Houlberg said.
Patients served at the new facility will be part of its new “complete patient-centered care model,” a system which promotes the involvement of patients in their medical care and ultimately leads to the development of personal relationships with their providers, according to Howard Brown.
As part of that relationship, the patient and provider work together on preventive and chronic care management which might also include the care a patient receives at other health facilities, the organization said in a statement.
Among the features of the new column-free facility are tunnel space for four batting cages, two infield areas, a 28-foot high ceiling, video capability, a concession stand and pro shop.Creative glass tile and solarlamp tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath.
“As we continue to position ourselves as a prime destination for baseball and softball players, the new building will enable us to provide a place for events and training for the entire year,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose.” said Frank Zitaglio, general manager of BBH, a subsidiary of Steel Sports Inc. “Further,Looking for the Best iphoneheadset? the addition of a former player of Frank Catalanotto’s caliber will serve to solidify Baseball Heaven as the leading facility of its kind in the region.”
Catalanotto will provide individual and group instruction to baseball players and teams.Make your house a home with Border and carparkmanagementsystem Tiles. He enjoyed a 14-year MLB career with the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets, compiling a .291 lifetime average in 1,265 games.
“I’m very excited to be a part of this great complex, and I look forward to working with players of all ages as they continue to develop their skills,” said Catalanotto, a native of Long Island, N.Y.
The new building is part of an overall upgrade BBH is planning in the coming year, including the construction of two new concession stands, the creation of extra parking, live online video streaming of all games and the development and implementation of a variety of sports instruction and development programs.
Zitaglio said both the construction of the new building and other renovations to the complex will create new jobs within the community and underscores BBH’s commitment to Long Island, a large portion of which was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
“We are extremely thankful to our community leaders and the Town of Brookhaven Planning Board for approving this excellent addition to our complex,” Zitaglio added. “We want to make sure that every current and potential player and team fully understands that we’re here for the long term. And through Baseball Heaven, we aim to continue to foster the values of teamwork, sportsmanship and integrity – all of the good things that baseball and softball are about.”
Hostage for a Day
I knew we should have opted to take an older, cheaper car.When I
first started creating broken howospareparts. As the tribesmen
running the checkpoint demanded that we pull over, I cursed myself for letting
my misgivings slide. I'd taken the road before -- the split-second pause before
getting the go-ahead from the armed locals who run the informal roadblocks
dotting the roads running through the villages north of Sanaa may have raised my
blood pressure, but I had never had any issues. Until now.
Confusion quickly ensued. The guys running the checkpoint -- a disorganized group of about a dozen armed, but generally disheveled,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. tribesmen in their late twenties -- seemed split on what to do. Most just wanted to let us pass, one seemed intent on stealing my friend's car, and a few seemed convinced I was an Iranian spy. After about 15 minutes, I realized that revealing my identity as an American journalist was probably the best of a slate of bad options.
Frantic arguments continued. Growing increasingly nervous, I pulled out what I knew would be the trump card, threatening to bring their sheikh into the matter. As I dialed the number for a close associate of the sheikh, a longtime friend, I vainly hoped they'd realize that it wasn't worth troubling one of Yemen's most powerful men with what was, until that point, a rather minor issue.
It didn't work out that way. Dragging the sheikh into it turned out to be exactly what the tribesmen wanted: They now agreed that I was indeed an American journalist rather than an Iranian spy, and further decided that I would be an excellent bargaining chip in their lingering dispute with the central government.
"You'll stay until the government compensates us for what we lost in the war in Hasaba,New Ground-Based parkingassistsystem Tech Is Accurate Down To Just A Few Inches." I was told. I had come here to get a better idea of the tenuous state of things in the tribal areas north of Sanaa. Instead, I had become a hostage of them.
My kidnapping -- which occurred, ironically, on the second anniversary of the start of Yemen's revolution -- had its roots in the wounds opened up by that revolt, which remain unhealed to this day. In May 2011, the uprising against then President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally sparked the urban warfare that many feared was inevitable. A day after Saleh refused to sign an internationally backed power transfer agreement, fighting erupted between pro-Saleh troops and fighters loyal to one of the country's most powerful tribal leaders. Despite the seeming asymmetry, the tribal forces put up a hell of a fight in the ensuing weeks, seizing control of a number of government ministries as their scores of kinsmen -- including the guys who kidnapped me -- descended from north of the capital to join.
A year and a half after the sporadic battles ended, Hasaba, the neighborhood where the fighting was concentrated, still bears resemblance to civil war-era Beirut. Government assurances of compensation for those who were affected by the fighting, it seems, have yet to come to fruition. I've largely associated all of this with the bombed-out buildings in the area that was once the epicenter of the fighting. But the ripple effects of the fighting extend for miles: The guys that kidnapped me, it turned out, were still bitter over the loss of their car, which was destroyed when they traveled to Sanaa to join in the battle. The Hasaba war of May 2011, oddly enough, bore indirect responsibility for my time as a hostage in February 2013.Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and bobbleheads at wholesale prices.
The visitors took the lead in the seventh minute as Boyd controlled the ball in the penalty area before cutting it back into the path of Tomlin, who rifled past David Forde for his ninth goal of the season.
Millwall reacted well to falling behind and almost levelled four minutes later as Liam Trotter found Henry, whose cross just evaded the on-rushing Rob Hulse.
The equaliser soon followed as Lowry released Henry who lofted a beautiful chip over Robert Olejnik for his third goal in as many games.
Posh looked sharp whenever they attacked and took the lead for a second time 13 minutes before half-time with Boyd again the architect.
The 27-year-old showed a mixture of determination and skill to beat Millwall right-back Adam Smith, showing good awareness as he rolled the ball into the feet of captain Rowe who arrowed Posh back in front.
Darren Ferguson's half-time team-talk was nearly made easier with 40 minutes gone as Tomlin's flick released Dwight Gayle whose near-post effort had Forde sprawling to save.
Millwall boss Kenny Jackett made two changes at the break with Martyn Woolford and Alan Dunne replacing Benik Afobe and Smith.
But it was Boyd, looking to turn from provider to scorer, who struck a 51st-minute effort that flashed wide of Forde's left-hand post.
The game settled into a rhythm with neither side forcing the issue until an error by Millwall defender Karleigh Osbourne let Posh in for their third goal.
Osbourne played a pass across his defensive line that was too short and Peterborough reacted quickly with Kane Ferdinand robbing Jimmy Abdou of possession and Tomlin was again on hand to finish another perfectly-weighted Boyd pass.
The Posh fans were soon cheering another goal as Mendez-Laing drifted past two Millwall defenders with ease before unleashing a fierce effort that gave Forde no chance.Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices.
Confusion quickly ensued. The guys running the checkpoint -- a disorganized group of about a dozen armed, but generally disheveled,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. tribesmen in their late twenties -- seemed split on what to do. Most just wanted to let us pass, one seemed intent on stealing my friend's car, and a few seemed convinced I was an Iranian spy. After about 15 minutes, I realized that revealing my identity as an American journalist was probably the best of a slate of bad options.
Frantic arguments continued. Growing increasingly nervous, I pulled out what I knew would be the trump card, threatening to bring their sheikh into the matter. As I dialed the number for a close associate of the sheikh, a longtime friend, I vainly hoped they'd realize that it wasn't worth troubling one of Yemen's most powerful men with what was, until that point, a rather minor issue.
It didn't work out that way. Dragging the sheikh into it turned out to be exactly what the tribesmen wanted: They now agreed that I was indeed an American journalist rather than an Iranian spy, and further decided that I would be an excellent bargaining chip in their lingering dispute with the central government.
"You'll stay until the government compensates us for what we lost in the war in Hasaba,New Ground-Based parkingassistsystem Tech Is Accurate Down To Just A Few Inches." I was told. I had come here to get a better idea of the tenuous state of things in the tribal areas north of Sanaa. Instead, I had become a hostage of them.
My kidnapping -- which occurred, ironically, on the second anniversary of the start of Yemen's revolution -- had its roots in the wounds opened up by that revolt, which remain unhealed to this day. In May 2011, the uprising against then President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally sparked the urban warfare that many feared was inevitable. A day after Saleh refused to sign an internationally backed power transfer agreement, fighting erupted between pro-Saleh troops and fighters loyal to one of the country's most powerful tribal leaders. Despite the seeming asymmetry, the tribal forces put up a hell of a fight in the ensuing weeks, seizing control of a number of government ministries as their scores of kinsmen -- including the guys who kidnapped me -- descended from north of the capital to join.
A year and a half after the sporadic battles ended, Hasaba, the neighborhood where the fighting was concentrated, still bears resemblance to civil war-era Beirut. Government assurances of compensation for those who were affected by the fighting, it seems, have yet to come to fruition. I've largely associated all of this with the bombed-out buildings in the area that was once the epicenter of the fighting. But the ripple effects of the fighting extend for miles: The guys that kidnapped me, it turned out, were still bitter over the loss of their car, which was destroyed when they traveled to Sanaa to join in the battle. The Hasaba war of May 2011, oddly enough, bore indirect responsibility for my time as a hostage in February 2013.Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and bobbleheads at wholesale prices.
The visitors took the lead in the seventh minute as Boyd controlled the ball in the penalty area before cutting it back into the path of Tomlin, who rifled past David Forde for his ninth goal of the season.
Millwall reacted well to falling behind and almost levelled four minutes later as Liam Trotter found Henry, whose cross just evaded the on-rushing Rob Hulse.
The equaliser soon followed as Lowry released Henry who lofted a beautiful chip over Robert Olejnik for his third goal in as many games.
Posh looked sharp whenever they attacked and took the lead for a second time 13 minutes before half-time with Boyd again the architect.
The 27-year-old showed a mixture of determination and skill to beat Millwall right-back Adam Smith, showing good awareness as he rolled the ball into the feet of captain Rowe who arrowed Posh back in front.
Darren Ferguson's half-time team-talk was nearly made easier with 40 minutes gone as Tomlin's flick released Dwight Gayle whose near-post effort had Forde sprawling to save.
Millwall boss Kenny Jackett made two changes at the break with Martyn Woolford and Alan Dunne replacing Benik Afobe and Smith.
But it was Boyd, looking to turn from provider to scorer, who struck a 51st-minute effort that flashed wide of Forde's left-hand post.
The game settled into a rhythm with neither side forcing the issue until an error by Millwall defender Karleigh Osbourne let Posh in for their third goal.
Osbourne played a pass across his defensive line that was too short and Peterborough reacted quickly with Kane Ferdinand robbing Jimmy Abdou of possession and Tomlin was again on hand to finish another perfectly-weighted Boyd pass.
The Posh fans were soon cheering another goal as Mendez-Laing drifted past two Millwall defenders with ease before unleashing a fierce effort that gave Forde no chance.Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices.
Where Gallic cuisine—including a whole bunch of fine charcuterie
If there’s a stretch of pavement that more perfectly fits a certain image of the city than the 8900 block of Sunset, I don’t know it. In this neon-accented jumble of shop fronts and nightspots you can consult a psychic, acquire a spray-on tan, rent a two-tone convertible Rolls-Royce, and bask in a face-melting guitar solo at the Whisky. Step off the sidewalk into Gorge, a snug restaurant that opened in September, and you can also eat some extremely good head cheese that is nothing like the pimento-studded stuff you might get from the deli counter. Chef Elia Aboumrad fashions her fromage de tête by simmering pork heads for six hours, letting them cool before covering the flesh morsels with their own broth, and allowing them to set. Spread over a piece of warm baguette, the head cheese releases a hint of fresh tarragon that harmonizes with the broad meaty notes.
Charcuterie is of the moment. Asking whether a restaurant cures its own bacon is a question that can elicit a kind of you-poor-schmuck smile from the waiter. Of course it does—and salumi,Creative glass tile and solarlamp tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. cervelat, and testa. Among today’s commercial kitchens, the lodestar is the smokehouse of yesteryear. Well after 2011’s $600 multitome Modernist Cuisine made its splash, chefs are still pawing through Jane Grigson’s 1967 classic, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery, for inspiration. Sure, there’s some trend chasing going on, but for a lot of kitchens charcuterie is almost the antidote to the celebrity-chef movement, in which you must be photogenic, capable of owning the room like Oprah, and versed in turning a mass of ingredients—chosen at random by TV producers, if you’re playing the game right—into a tweetable trophy. Charcuterie isn’t flashy. Constructed out of view days if not weeks in advance, it’s about tradition and craft and the integrity of the raw ingredients. To gussy it up is to ruin it. I admire that bravado—you’re confident with what you have, and you slice it.
Aboumrad practices a decidedly old-school version of what is already an old-school art. Born in Mexico City, the 29-year-old uses hog—not synthetic—casings. She shuns nitrates and punches up the saucisson with patient aging instead of heavy-handed seasonings. The freshest of her dry links, perfumed with garlic and Basque piment d’Espelette, is so creamy, it is reminiscent of the best bologna. The driest—a classic salami she tweaks with red wine and ginger, aging it six weeks—is chewy and intense. Between them is a sausage she ages for a month and spices by grinding the giant peppercorns grown in her grandparents’ native Lebanon.
Apart from the occasional waitress and a kitchen hand, the only other staffers are Aboumrad’s husband,Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings? Darius Allyn—he’s the beverage director—and her business partner, Uyen Nguyen, pastry chef by day and manager by night. As restaurants go, this is about as personal as you can get. Yet Aboumrad and Nguyen, whose family escaped Vietnam when she was a child, keep wide of calling attention to their own back stories. The women met at the Len?tre cooking school in Paris. Later Aboumrad apprenticed at the original L’Atelier de Jo?l Robuchon and made such an impression that after two years she was named the opening sous-chef at Robuchon’s MGM Grand location in Las Vegas. Nguyen (who grew up in the O.C.) followed her to the desert, crafting pastry at Le Cirque and Guy Savoy. It was Aboumrad’s gig overseeing the dining ops at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay that introduced her to Allyn, who was in charge of the wine program at the hotel’s Aureole restaurant.
Having fled one debauched Strip, they’ve set up shop on another, with a restaurant that seems thoroughly antithetical to its surroundings. In this low-key space a refrigerated case of sausage by the doorway passes as a showy touch. The hunter green walls are adorned with original 18th-century French tapestries Aboumrad borrowed from her mother, but she and Nguyen stained the Home Depot wainscoting themselves. Arrayed below a pressed-tin ceiling, basic Windsor chairs cluster around saloon tables, and a metal counter reflects an overhead rack that holds knobby French goblets—hardy receptacles that are all the prettier filled with a cool draft of the Pasadena-brewed Craftsman Oktoberfest ale they keep on tap.
Given the nature of the place, the restaurant’s name might seem weird,Gecko could kickstart an solarstreetlight mobile app explosion. telegraphing sybaritic abandon, but it’s actually a nod to the trio’s Nevada days: “à la gorge,” which means “to the throat,” is what Robuchon’s kitchen staff would exclaim when things got wild (and apparently what Napoleonic troops shouted as they mounted a charge). Pronounce it as you will. Gorge isn’t about eating yourself silly; it’s about paying tribute to a painstakingly understated—and single-minded—craft. The ethos extends to Saturday brunch, a bighearted selection that includes br?léed bananas Foster tossed over oatmeal but is most visible in the one-page dinner menu, which bears Gallic classics like frisée salad, Toulouse-style sausage, and St. Honoré dessert. Wine suggestions run alongside the food on the left, while cider and craft beer pairings appear on the right. On the back is a map of France indicating the provenance of what’s being poured. The signals are there; still, it would be a mistake to categorize Gorge as a mere wine bar.
Tall woman who sports a black chef’s jacket, Aboumrad works in a tight kitchen dominated by a big, old meat grinder. At each turn her approach to charcuterie displays a remarkable eye for detail. The rabbit rillettes and the chicken paté are ostensibly similar selections—a pair of spreadable numbers in single-serve containers. That’s where the similarities end. The rabbits are poached in olive oil for 48 hours, a top layer of pearly duck fat added to the ramekin before cooling. For the paté, Aboumrad caramelizes the chicken livers with onions. In order to keep the mousse slightly grainy, however, she refrains from passing the ingredients through a tamis, or silk screen: That way the texture lends the dish a rustic character, while the finishing layer of rich, melted Plugrá butter nudges the flavors toward delicate and refined, drawing out the tawny port that has gone into the mix.
This skill at shifting between high and low tones is a tip of the cap to Robuchon. The opening of the first L’Atelier in Paris in 2002 was a way for the hyper-punctilious legend to release the culinary id by acknowledging how kitchen crews had always eaten in private. But Aboumrad is sensitive enough to avoid falling into parody. With the Cornish hen entrée she uses a splash of lima (the compact yellow Mexican lime) to jolt the pan juices. For the oyster mousse she smokes the bivalves over hickory wood. It’s decidedly haute until she crowns the deep-flavored custard with trembling beef gelée—the yield from hours of simmering—which brings matters back to earth with its cuisine bourgeoise cues.
If there’s an example of how elusive that contrast can be, it would be the vegetable terrine. Dainty as the dish is, with various shades of green imparted by leeks and asparagus, it doesn’t add up to much. And the jellied beef broth that trembled on the oyster mousse one night was on another occasion so rubbery, I could have bounced it across Sunset and hit the Hustler store. As slipups go, these are slight, but consistency is especially crucial here. We’re talking about a plucky restaurant that has plopped itself down in an unlikely location in order to mine a subsection of French cuisine.
Aboumrad is no mere classicist; she has a sense of playfulness, too. The chef dresses the frisée salad in a warm mustard vinaigrette and drops in the requisite runny egg, but instead of tossing sizzling lardons on top, she scoops up the greens and places them over a bacon flan. Her goat cheese salad isn’t fashioned from breaded segments; the chèvre has been popped into rosemary brioche balls that, after slow proofing, are fried to order. I’m not sure a description can do the results justice. With the mackerel tartine Aboumrad bypasses the white wine-based bistro classic and poaches the fish in olive oil, a technique that highlights the richness of the flesh rather than leaving it quasipickled. Her pig’s ear tartine is a jammy reduction radiating a bouquet of gelatinous nuances that burst to the fore when you take a sip of old-vine Cairanne from the southern C?tes du Rhone, a plummy varietal with echoes of blackberries that were squished at the bottom of a picking pail. Perfect.
In keeping with the quirkiness that motivates Gorge, the classic St. Honoré pastry is the only dessert offered.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Named for the patron saint of French patissiers, the fist-size tart demands a mastery of both puff and choux pastry, along with classic crèmes, and a deft hand with sugar work. It could come across as a marmoreal display of skill, but not here. Nguyen offers several variations, each a warm, lively update. The vanilla-flavored St. Honoré carries diminutive cream puffs; the pistachio one, a nutty macaron. My favorite is caramel ringed and hides a payload of cooked-down apples scented with anise and a touch of cinnamon.Creative glass tile and solarlamp tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. Where others leave the compote smooth, Nguyen’s is somewhat chunky, recalling the kind you’ve fork-pressed at home.
Classic and contemporary, self-assured and feisty—Gorge isn’t showy, but, boy, is it seductive. The duck sausage, browned and sizzling, bursts at the touch of a tine, scattering its seared hash over the mashed potatoes; you could be eating in the inglenook of a farmhouse fireplace. The pheasant paté is a straight-up master class in how far beyond meat curing the charcuterie art can go. First Aboumrad must skin the birds that she buys from Inglewood purveyor Rocker Brothers, keeping them whole to later wrap the breast strips in. From the bones and legs she produces a jus that, when reduced to the consistency of syrup, will go into the forcemeat. Chopped truffles and Trader Joe’s pecans (a nice touch) lend texture, while the caul fat she uses to line the enamel mold adds depth as it slowly renders during the two hours the paté cooks in the oven. The reward, after a few days in the fridge, is a flavor-saturated wonder that commands the taste buds. Served with a bit of potato purée and a light kale salad, the dish is a quiet statement not only about restraint and discipline but the remarkable results they can achieve.
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