| The Talleys get their lift
This is an updated version of a story posted earlier on Thursday. GRANDVIEW — Robert Talley could not believe it. By about 3 p.m. on Thursday, he had the lift that he and his wife, Ann, had been waiting for, a gift from the Barstow Senior Center. "I just felt, well, if we had that, why not?" said Ethel Bussman, the office manager at the senior center. Ethel said after reading about the struggle Robert and Ann have been through to try to get a lift so Robert could be set upright and clear the mucus and fluid from his lungs, she wanted to be able to help. The senior center often accepts donations of equipment to help ailing senior citizens in the area, and Ethel felt certain they had a lift for Robert. She found one and made arrangements for her husband, Larry, to deliver it. The Talleys, she said, were in tears.
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The 53-year-old Halsey, who now runs a small nonprofit called the California Chaparral Institute, has dedicated his life to defending the chaparral against its detractors. He likens chaparral-haters to climate-change deniers and flat-earth believers. "I've chomped down on it," he says, "and I'm not going to let go until either I die or I can get some kind of validation, so that land-management agencies aren't proclaiming the need to cut it all down." For context, he reads out loud from the latest issue of his quarterly newsletter, The Chaparralian, which features a picture of a miniature Smokey Bear in chaps: "Smokey Bear and wildland firefighters have been maligned long enough in California," he intones, mimicking a filmstrip voiceover from the 1950s. "It's time for the public and journalists to begin thinking for themselves and stop mindlessly accepting one of the most common group delusions in the last 25 years: Decades of fire suppression in chaparral are to blame for all the large wildfires in Southern California." As Halsey sees it, this delusion has been loudly promoted by the chorus of experts who dominate the media every fall and winter.
N.M. Environment Department proposes limit to truck idling
SANTA FE—The state Environment Department is considering limiting the amount of time long-haul truckers can leave their vehicles idling at truck stops. The department plans four hearings around the state this month about the proposed rule. The proposal is a result of Gov. Bill Richardson's executive order to reduce the state's greenhouse-gas emissions to 75 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. The new regulation would apply only to commercial trucks weighing at least 16,001 pounds. No time limit on idling has been proposed. Drivers power the heat and air conditioning in their truck sleeping berths by letting the engine run while they rest. Those idling engines—even in cleaner new models—produce thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and other pollutants, according to the Environment Department.
The Listening Cure
Audrey Reid, a 36-year-old from Dundee, Scotland, says medication slowed her thinking and rendered her powerless against bullying by her voices. They made sexually demeaning comments and, when she tried to make coffee, convinced her she was brewing poison. But their effect is not always destructive, and HVN encourages its members to form relationships with them. Reid says four of her seven voices calm her down during stressful situations, help her assess people she meets, and remind her what to buy at the grocery store. One which she regards as that of herself as a child even helped her successfully confront another, which she says mimics a man who molested her when she was 8 years old. "I'm not a confrontational person, so I needed her there," she says, noting that while the abuser's voice still occasionally criticizes her, for the most part "he's been put in his place." Voice hearers must navigate a society that often views them as freaks and potential criminals: Bullimore says he's been spat upon, called a "psycho" and had his face slashed with a broken vase by people who know of his condition.
Davis' family comes home
Yet, the Home Builders Association Serving Portage and Summit Counties and others were committed to doing all within their powers to let in a little sunshine. For 60 days, volunteers from the local building industry labored hard and long to make over a house in Coventry Township for the family of the late Jessie Marie Davis, the 26-year-old pregnant Lake Township woman who was killed last summer. Charged in that horrific crime is Canton police officer Bobby Cutts Jr., the father of Blake, who is also believed to be the father of Davis' unborn daughter. Davis was within days of delivering her daughter Chloe. On Monday evening, Patty Porter — Davis' mother — her soon-to-be 3-year-old grandson Blake Davis and other family members — some blindfolded — were led to their new home, complete with a security system.
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