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 Hip Hop Theater Festival
A week of free performances by new and established local, regional and
national hip hop artists. No, it isn't just your imagination . . . you
are hearing poetry everywhere you turn. All across the country youth are
slamming for a chance to bust at Brave New Voices, the International
Youth Poetry Festival, this July in Washington, DC. DC Writer's Corps
are rocking the mic in Washington DC. July 9-14.
Many paths lead to one destination
Guided by the Lord, the Rev. Deloris Borum will soon open a shelter
for women and children.
BY JENNIFER WORRELL
 YORK
COUNTY, VIRGINIA -- Life throws twists,
turns and cliffhangers at many people, but the Rev. Deloris L. Borum of
Faith for the Living Ministries in York County, sees the rough spots as
a chance to prove her faith. "Life has been quite a trek," she said.
Thus far, all paths in the minister's life have led her to the building
of a church on Goodwin Neck Road in 1990 and now to the imminent
groundbreaking for Natasha House, a shelter for homeless women and
children. Her road to the ministry began about 43 years ago when the
birth of her first child sent her into post-partum depression. "I was in
a suicidal state, and I prayed for help," she said.
One night, Borum dreamed she was back home in Mathews County and saw a
long-haired man nearby whom she believed to be Jesus. Her sister
attempted to lead her to him, but Borum felt unprepared for the meeting
in the dream. "When I woke up, I gave myself back to the Lord," she
said. "Things began to change for me then."
Borum knew there was a plan for her then, so she set her sights on going
back to school. Ten years later in 1973, when she was finally in her
last year in the Christopher Newport Elementary Education program,
challenges came again - this time in the form of a severely broken toe.
"I was in so much pain, and the doctor said there really wasn't much
they could do," she said. "The swelling went from my foot all the way up
to my knee."
That night, she remembers crying because missing class would have pushed
her graduation back even further. Again she prayed for help and was able
to drift off to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Borum felt
herself jerked awake and a strange, cold sensation on her knee. She felt
herself pulled from the bed.
"The bandages fell from my foot, the swelling disappeared, and I was
soon leaping around the bed," she said. "It was then that I heard the
Lord say, 'This happened so I could do my work; go and preach my
Gospel.'"
That night, Borum and her husband went to her mother's house in Mathews
to share what had just happened. "I gave testimony to my mother, and I
preached my first sermon right in her living room," Borum said.
Borum began preaching at local churches while she finished school. "I
had a very busy schedule," she said. After she graduated in 1975, she
began her 18-year teaching career. During the late 1970s, her life
seemed near-perfect.
"I had achieved the American dream: I had a great husband, two nice
children, the white picket fence - everything you could ask for," she
said. "I also had worked to build a good reputation in the community; I
felt it was important for teachers and preachers especially to have that
reputation."
But when her daughter, a senior in high school, became pregnant, the
family hit one of those rough spots. "Here I was, a preacher and a
teacher with a pregnant teenager - I was so embarrassed," Borum said.
The girl kept the baby and named her Natasha. Unfortunately, my daughter
began to stray, and I didn't feel she was doing right by the baby," said
Borum. "I took care of her, and I prayed that the Lord would give me the
grace to raise her."
During that time, Borum had another vision. "The Lord said, 'I want your
property - build a home for single women and children,' " said Borum.
"He said, 'You have nurtured your child and grandchild, and I see your
heart - I want you to do this.' "
Her assignment seemed far-fetched, and she and her husband, George,
decided to wait until the time was right financially to build the
shelter. The couple had already begun working on the Faith for Living
Ministries Church; in 1984, they began holding services in their living
room. "It took us six years to save the money to buy the land and build
the structure," Borum said. Soon after they completed the church in
1990, George Borum died. Struggling with the loss, Deloris put the
shelter on hold.
Ten years later, Borum again had a vision. The instructions to build a
shelter were restated. "Right away, I called Social Services and Family
Focus to find out if there truly was a need for such a shelter; both
admitted there was," she said. "The representative from Family Focus
suggested I find a grant writer." She still had no idea where to put the
building.
Suddenly, she remembered the earlier dream, and she had an idea. "We had
3.3 acres next to our church that we had planned to use to expand our
sanctuary," Borum said. "I asked the board to use that land for the
shelter instead, and everyone agreed."
She and the other church leaders were excited about the plan, but they
all knew that the shelter had to have a name. After a great deal of
pondering, Borum suggested "Natasha House." "I chose the name after the
granddaughter the Lord gave me the grace to raise," said Borum. "The
Lord gave Barbara Jackson, one of my assistant pastors, an acronym for
Natasha: 'New Alternatives To A Secure Home Atmosphere.'"
Borum enlisted the help of York County officials, who supported her idea
and changed some text in the county codes to accommodate the future
shelter. "The Lord then led me to the Honorable Shirley Cooper," she
said. With Cooper's help, the shelter fund has received several
donations, including $50,000 from the York County Volunteer Association
and $500 from the York Lion's Club.
"We are well on our way - everyone who hears about what we are doing
expresses a great need," said Borum. "I've already received between
10-15 calls asking when the shelter will be ready."
Statistics show that the number of homeless families in the area has
increased by 100 per year since 2000. Once the structure is complete,
Natasha House will provide homeless women and children with a residence,
case management, financial and educational counseling, and a rental
allowance program. Borum expects to break ground in late summer or early
fall. "Our first major fundraiser will occur on Sept. 23 at Point Plaza
in Newport News," she said. "There will be a $100 dollar per plate
dinner, a silent auction, and JoAnne Davis will speak."
The community's outpouring of support for Natasha House has touched
Borum deeply. "There are awesome caring people in York County - they
have been so supportive," she said. "Hats off to them; it's a wonderful
blessing to my soul to see such caring." "
Copyright (c) Daily Press
POLICE NEWS
LOCAL EMT LOOKING FOR "DEATH"
SOUTHWEST -- Federal
Marshal Ethan Redfeather reported that a gentleman claiming
to be new to the area, Michael Durst, formerly of
Cincinnati, Ohio, was seen in local occult stores allegedly
doing research on Little Death.
Durst, who was later discovered
to be a new Paramedic employee of LifeStar EMT Response, was
asking a lot of pointed questions of patrons of the store,
about the deadly designer drug, which Marshal Redfeather
felt was suspicious behavior. Durst expressed to the Marshal
that he didn't exactly "play by the rules" and was
interested in cracking the case himself. He claimed to have
read stories about the drug in archived newspapers and
online, and was interested in the story. One of the patrons
asked Durst, what if he did solve the mystery of the glyphs
on the pills, would he tell the police? Allegedly he
replied, "I'm not sure, probably, unless I had a reason not
to." He followed with an offhand comment about "dirty cops,"
and expressed interest in forming his own sting operation
(which would be illegal) in which he posed as a drug user
and attempted to buy some of the drug.
Durst further explained his
fascination was due in small part to a near-death experience
back in Ohio. A background check revealed that he was shot
and seriously wounded at a crime scene by a delusional
vagrant, and the District Attorney had charged him with
negligence in securing the scene.
Durst left his contact
information with Marshal Redfeather. He is not being charged
with a crime, but a report was filed on his behavior. No
known connections have been established between Durst,
Stuart Dixon, or Hank Bukalski. A week after the
incident, Durst abruptly left town, ostensibly to return to
Ohio. He is wanted for further questioning in this case.
CLASSIFIED ADS
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Mutant Mice Carry Diseases to Help Humans
Bred by the Millions, Exotic Bio-Engineered Mice Created to Carry
Diseases to Benefit Humankind
By PAUL ELIAS, The Associated Press
They're being bred now by the millions, the
mutants, created to carry the ghastliest of diseases for the benefit of
the human race. Since researchers published the mouse's entire genetic
makeup in map form three years ago, increasingly exotic rodents are
being created with relative ease.
There's the Schwarzenegger mouse injected with muscle-building genes.
The marathon mouse, which never seems to tire. Researchers recently
engineered some mice to be extremely addicted to nicotine, and others to
be immune to scrapie, a close cousin to the brain-wasting mad cow
disease. And scientists are in hot pursuit of a Methuselah mouse, able
to cheat death long after its natural brethren meet their maker.
Millions of these and other mutant mice are routinely created now, by
injecting disease-causing genes or "knocking out" genes in mouse
embryos. Their decreasing cost and increasing availability is helping
researchers in pursuit of all manner of disease cures.
Top researchers in the Parkinson's disease field, for example, were more
excited by the dopamine-free "knock-out" mouse that Duke University
researchers invented than the actual study they unveiled this week,
which suggests that the club drug Ecstasy reversed Parkinson's-like
effects in these particular bio-engineered mice.
Researchers first genetically engineered a mouse in 1980. But until
recently, such creations were mostly scientific novelties.
That changed drastically after President Clinton announced the mapping
of the human genome in 2000. That's because mice and men are nearly
genetically identical, each possessing just a few hundred different
genes out of a possible 25,000 or so. Cancer in mice is a lot like human
cancer, for instance. Mice have become powerful, living research tools.
The number of mutant research mice has grown so dramatically in recent
years that companies are now profiting by housing and breeding
scientists' creations. "Space is precious," said Terrence Fisher of
Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, Mass., the nation's largest
mutant mouse house. The publicly traded company breeds and cares for
scientists' creations and markets their inventions to other researchers,
shipping an estimated 7 million mice worldwide annually. "The novelty of
being simply able to do this has worn off and clearly these mice are
tools that are accelerating research," Fisher said.
The repository with the country's widest selection of mutant mice is the
nonprofit Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where most
researchers who genetically engineer mice with government money are
required to send some of their mice.
The lab boasts a collection of nearly 3,000 different mutant mice types
and shipped 2 million animals to U.S. researchers last year. The mice
are in such great demand that Jackson opened another breeding facility
in West Sacramento, Calif. four years ago. "We have always been the
mouse place," said Jackson spokeswoman Joyce Peterson.
The lab charges researchers $11 for mice that are particularly useful in
diabetes work and as much as $200 each for so-called nude mice, which
lack immune systems. These mice think "boy in the bubble" are bred and
kept in sterile rooms, high-technology cages and their human handlers
are required to shower each time they enter and leave. The Jackson
Laboratory's main focus is cancer research, but the mice business
accounts for $60 million annually, Peterson says.
Many animal rights groups oppose all animal experimentation as cruel,
but lab scientists who work with bio-engineered mice are quick to point
out that the Food and Drug Administration requires that all drugs be
tested on animals before people. Peterson said the Jackson lab, in
operation since 1929, follows federal guidelines on animal treatment and
has never been targeted by anti-experimentation militants.
Nearly all the genetically engineered mice in circulation today have but
one gene added, subtracted or altered. The problem with that model is
that many diseases such as diabetes and cancer are caused by multiple
gene malfunctions.
"Eventually, that's where engineered mice are going," said Mendell Rimer,
a University of Texas neuroscientist who tends to about 500 mice in his
Austin lab. "That's a more realistic disease model." Rimer said such
multiple gene engineering is occurring in tiny worms, and it's only a
matter of time before researchers report similar success in mice.
Rimer's genetically engineered mice are among the most advanced, and
offer a glimpse of the breakthroughs to come. He spent 2 1/2 half years
engineering mice with muscles that lose connection to their nerve cells.
He's done this by splicing into mice a cancer gene which creates a
protein that "disassembles" the connections. But he's also taken his
work one step further than the usual cut-and-paste work.
Rimer is able to turn on the mutant gene by feeding the genetically
engineered mouse an antibiotic. He can turn it off by stopping the
antibiotic treatment. This way, he can observe the progression and
regression of the mutation he made, giving him unparalleled insight into
how nerves communicate with the muscle. "We can control the timing of
the defect that we induce in these mice," Rimer said. "This type of
complexity is where genetic engineering is heading."
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
'Super floods'
raised as nuke dump hazard
By Anna Salleh for ABC Science Online
AUSTRALIA -- Rare 'super floods' may
cause rivers to change course, scientists say, compromising a site the
Australian Government has shortlisted for a nuclear waste dump in the
Northern Territory.
 Hydrogeologist
Peter Jolly of the Territory's Environment Department, who previously
raised concerns about the suitability of the proposed dump site at
Fishers Ridge, has now also cast doubt on the Harts Range site, 100
kilometres north-east of Alice Springs.
Mr. Jolly says the Harts Range site is on a flood plain between two
active river channels that come off the ranges. He says evidence shows
that over hundreds or thousands of years massive flooding has been
responsible for "catastrophic changes" in the course of rivers in
central Australia. "A river goes in one spot at the moment but a 'mega
flood' can lead to it changing its course completely," Mr. Jolly said.
He says such issues are important to consider given the long-term nature
of a nuclear dump. "The river channels may migrate across the [dump]
site, so if you're looking at a containment time of 500 years or a
couple of hundred years, the site may end up in the river channel at
some stage," he said.
Mr. Jolly says recent studies of water bores drilled near the two sites
show there is an aquifer in river sediments of sand and gravel beneath
the Harts Range site. "That would tend to suggest that anything that
would leak would leak pretty quickly into the sand and gravel and into
the groundwater," he said.
He says the other site at Mount Everard, 27 kilometres north-west of
Alice Springs, has more suitable water flow and river erosion of the
landscape for a dump. That site has brackish saline water beneath it, as
well as 50 to 90 metres of clay, then granite. Mr. Jolly says it has no
river sediments. "That would suggest that it would contain any spill,"
he said. "From a hydrogeological and a geomorphologic point of view it's
probably the better site."
The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), whose
preliminary assessment led to shortlisting the sites, has defended its
proposals. It says the hydrogeology and geomorphology of the sites will
be examined during site investigation studies.
ENTERTAINMENT
NEWS:
Entertainment and
Gossip
From regular columnist
Kitty Whittier
All hail to the red, white and blue... Join
me,
 friends,
in celebrating Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of the Press, by sharing
shocking dish on our favorite local luminaries!
Thankfully Loki is back from his West End
Tour and keeping us busy guessing his intentions. He leads this month
with a conservative salvo, trotting out the respectable Ms. Duckworth of
the Word. Just friends, still? Mmm Hm.
The next week, an interesting mix-up of our
favorite suspects goes down in Irish themed watering hole Hell or
Connaught (we don't understand the name either). Loki, his on again off
again blonde friend (sources say she has connections to the Embassy of
the Republic of Ireland), our own Monica Garrett (really, my dear, must
you appear in both columns so much?) and wayward Great White North
visitor Steven MacDonald, were all seen gathered in the pub chatting it
up over drinks. Nothing too scandalous, but just a fascinating remix of
cast. Noted as absent - the blonde's bookworm beau, Felicity, Monica's
yet unnamed trenchcoat mafia escort, Loki's Persian Princess, and La
Nouveau. Then again this wasn't Dark Asgard, and heaven only knows what
they could have been over there doing, while all this was going on...
Until next time!
ADVICE COLUMN:
Monica Garrett
Dear Monica:
About 10 years ago, my wife had an affair. I suspected it
but could not prove it. Recently, something happened that
confirmed my suspicions.
Now I am in a quandary as to what to do. I want to forget
the entire affair.
I have no intention of leaving my wife or changing my
feelings for her.
Things have been great for the past 10 years, and I believe
that she regrets the affair.
I have three questions:
1. Should I confront her about this and probably cause more
friction?
2. Should I just forget it?
3. What can I do to get this out of my mind?
— Worried in Va.
Dear Worried:
If I told you to forget all about this, would you be able
to?
I didn't think so.
People disagree about whether full disclosure is the answer
in every situation of infidelity, but it is definitely the
answer here. You need to talk to your wife about this
because for your intimate relationship to continue and grow,
you two need to get out your broom and dustpan and clean
away the cobwebs lurking in the dusty corners of your
marriage.
As things stand, you and your wife are keeping a deep
secret. (Ironically, you're both keeping the same secret.)
This is best handled with the mentoring and support of a
marriage counselor. These difficult conversations are easier
when they are guided by someone who is neutral,
understanding and who knows how to ask the right questions
and frame the answers in a thoughtful way.
You should ask every question that you need to ask, and your
wife should answer you completely and honestly. Then you can
commence the process of forgetting.
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