This. I wonder if the company that insures the business is okay with dropping the drug-testing? I think many of these companies that do random drug testing, do so to satisfy their insurance companies. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Handsome and confident looking!

I don't know about the proibotics, but my dr. put me on a mini-antibiotic (Nitrofur Mac) for chronic BV and I have found it works well. I've also read that boric acid suppositories work as well for BV. I haven't had it since being on the Nitrofur, so I can't verify if it works. Hugs to your dd.

"Unlocked" means that the phone can accept SIM cards from various cell phone service providers. All of our unlocked phones were purchased from the manufacturer of the phone, not through a cell-phone service provider. Straighttallk services used to be only available with the purchase of "straight talk" phones. However, recently, Straight talk, like many cell-phone service providers, have adopted the Bring Your Own Phone marketing campaign. For example, here's a link to t-mobiles (which we use on one of our unlocked phones): http://www.t-mobile.com/bring-your-own-phone.html

Hubby has an unlocked Google phone/Nexus 4 with a Straightalk SIM card ($45/mo) unlimited text and data. Uses AT&T on this type of phone. Works very well. Dh "tethered" it to his laptop and was surfing the web this weekend. It was seamless. Oldest ds has just purchased a OnePlus One phone and uses T-Mobile (100 chat/unlimited data) for $30 month. It was $350 but has 64 gb of storage and he keeps a lot of music on his phone and takes lot of photos. He's a technophile and does all kinds of cool things with his cell phones (controls tv's and game consoles, uses almost all voice commands for calls and directions). I think those are features of GooglePlus, but I'm not sure. Youngest has a Virgin Mobile phone (LG, not sure what type but not very impressive compared to my other two phones) with a $35/mo. plan (300 minutes/unlimited text and data). He's a very basic user. There is no front-facing camera with his phone and very little storage, so he wants to upgrade. I live in an area that has Verizon, T-mobile, and At&t, so service hasn't been an issue. The unlocked phones ran about $300-350 each, but they are so much nicer and larger and fun to use compared to the Virgin Mobile phone by youngest has. A used unlocked Nexus 4 goes for $200+ on ebay.

I gave my mom a fitbit for Mother's Day 2013. Since then she's been a walking-maniac. She started with walking .25 mile a day and then she's logged in as much as 6 miles per day. She's retired and has plenty of time to walk. She is very healthy and I think it was the best present I ever gave her (and myself -- because she's taking care of her health).

This NYTimes article describes Jordan's "Absorbing" of refugees. Is that what we in the US would accept as responsible and humane? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/world/middleeast/new-refugee-camp-in-jordan-absorbs-flood-from-syria.html

Maybe google hangout? http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Google%2B-Hangouts-for-Teaching

My oldest has an unlocked Nexus 4 (Google phone) and we use a T-mobile Sim card and use pre-paid monthly plan from Walmart. I think it's $30-35/mo.

Location AND education and a bit of luck. My nephew graduated from UW with a bachelor's in Software Engineering and within two years of graduating is making six-figures. He grew up within driving distance of UW (commuted, so no student debt) and many tech companies. He's good a math and loves computers. My son wants to go into game design, but I'm secretly hoping he goes into Applied IT or Cyber security and gets a nice, stable job with the government . We are in NoVA and just about everyone with any stability works for the government, military or quasi-government.

I just ate a leftover all-beef hot dog. I'm an 80% vegan for health reasons, but I don't think hot dogs should be a part of the 20% non-vegan foods I eat. However, I hate wasting food.... I guess I need to recite Michael Pollan's mantra "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." 20X.

SO JEALOUS!

I home-schooled my two boys from K-8. I miss them when they are away at school and I look forward to seeing them when they arrive at home. II love the summer break and having them here! Even with all the typical teen behaviors, I thoroughly enjoy being with them. My SIL and BIL have had their daughter in daycare since she was 6 weeks old. They seem really frazzled when she is home with them all day during on the weekends. Some people never get used to being with their children for long periods of time and I think it's kinda sad.

Ben Howard Every Kingdom http://www.amazon.com/Every-Kingdom-Ben-Howard/dp/B007CIQ4B2/ref=tmm_acd_title_0 Damian Rice - O http://www.amazon.com/O-Damien-Rice/dp/B00009V7P8/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1 Christopher Andrews - Grapes & Whiskey (locally produced CD, my youngest is a guest musician on it!) City & Colour - Little Hell http://www.amazon.com/Little-Hell-City-Colour/dp/B004WJREYU JJ Grey - This River http://www.amazon.com/This-River-JJ-Grey/dp/B00BG475CK/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

Wear the right-sized bra.

I guess their will be a lot more women at gun shows from now on, since it would be illegal for their husbands to purchase one for their wife to use or carry. Or am I wrong? It seems the only way to enforce this new definition of straw purchases is to register and track every firearm. This seems like this is leading the way for gun registration - which has been found to be a no-no is past court cases. I am really curious as how this is going to work. The only people I've known to be prosecuted for straw purchases are the ones related to Columbine. I'm sure the ATF has some stings set up to catch people doing it, we just don't read about it. Just like they catch people buying alcohol for minors.

Concealed-carry does not rely on a specific number of people owning and carrying guns. It relies on the concept that anyone and everyone may be carrying and thus a criminal assumes more risk in perpetrating a crime. Using the analogy of the unmarked police car. Not EVERY Silver Malibu is an unmarked police car ready to write you a ticket, but once you see someone pulled over by one, you surely take note of them when you are going 65 in a 55 mph zone. Perhaps you even slow down. You don't think about the possible number of Silver Malibu's your state police have on the road, you just think that maybe the one quickly approaching your rear-view mirror might be manned by a trooper and you glance down at your speedometer just to make sure you aren't going that much over the speed limit. Sometimes it's a trooper, sometimes it's just a mom taking her kids down the road. But either way, you've slowed down.

Because if you live in an area that ban guns in your home or bans concealed-carry, then the would-be criminals KNOW that you are unarmed (unless you are a criminal too). The risk that they will be injured or killed in perpetrating a crime against you is very low. If concealed-carry is common where you live, the criminals do not know who is armed and who is not, so they have to assume a greater risk if they choose the wrong victim. Similar to the use of unmarked police cars.

Better than not being armed? I want a fighting chance. At 120 lbs. I need a little help. Whether it be in the form of a gun, baseball bat, crow bar or pepper spray, that is my choice. If someone breaks into my house and ends up injured it is because they CHOSE to enter uninvited and with malice. I did not make that choice for them, they took the risk and lost. I think each individual has to do their own risk assessment and figure this out for themselves. When I first was a SAHM, I went through my house and made a game-plan for responding to a home invasion. I had to. I was in the area of the DC sniper and I felt that I needed to be on high-alert. Call me paranoid, call me a prepper...whatever. All I can be certain of is that if there is no doubt that a criminal will choose the path of least resistance. They do their own risk assessment before they act. If you make the assessment that the risk is low and choose not to have a game plan for yourself or your family, that is your choice. Please don't make that choice for me.

I was not willing to go as far as to say there has to be a connection and I am willing to accept that the increase in sexual assaults may just be due to the increase of reporting as suggested by the OP. That is all I was trying to convey with that comment. Nothing more, nothing less.

I hope you are correct about the increase reporting. This forum is located on a website that advocates education, critical thinking and logic. I'm sorry that my attempt to educate myself and understand the Australian model and how it would play out in the United States is upsetting to you. I am not trying to find holes, but trying to figure out how this would be implemented in my country with it's history, Constitutional framework, value of civil liberties, abundance of firearms (270-310 million vs. Australia's 1.5-3 million), may prove difficult.

The people I know who are into guns wouldn't rely on something so expensive, awkward and unreliable for home protection. There are much better options. BTW, I am NOT a member of the NRA. http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephsteinberg/2014/05/04/smartguns/

Because we have people that believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment and believe it applies to the citizenry. Mandatory gun-buybacks will not fly here. Many would argue that they will hand in their guns when all the criminals do. I would like to see more data on the outcomes of Australia's plan. So far, I'm burning up the net and found some interesting data. The U.S crime rate has dropped over the last ten years: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/29/justice/us-violent-crime/ "There were 14,612 murders last year, on average one every 36 minutes. That's a small decline from 14,722 in 2010, but it's a decrease of nearly 17 percent from a decade ago." I'm researching to data on the crime rates in Australia. I read an editorial the inferred that Australia's had homicide rate and dropped but not significantly. The gun ban created more of a drop in gun-related suicides. I'm trying to verify with this tool: http://www.aic.gov.au/dataTools/facts/vicViolentCol.html Australia's drop in murders is lower than it was in 2002, but their increase in sexual assaults is pretty dramatic. Interesting.

Post Newtown there was an explosion of ARs, ammo and magazine sales. These ARs, ammo and magazines are now sitting in the safes and gun cabinets in people's homes. When these items are banned as suggested here. What will be the mechanism for confiscating these items? The federal government doesn't have a good track record of tracking guns that THEY put into circulation (see Fast and Furious), so I wonder how they are going to go about gathering up ones purchased by citizens. There is no federal gun registry aside from the one the ATF has for full-auto machine guns. How do you envision this working? How do you get full-compliance? Will handguns be included in the ban since they account for most of the homicides? How with the government handle handguns that can be equipped to look like assault weapons? (They currently exist) If a person is disarmed and then becomes a victim of a violent crime, does the federal government have any liability?

Most if not all hunters I know use the items you listed as banned and AR-15s as well. Even bolt-action rifles which are not considered semi-automatic allow to shoot 5 shots without reloading. I'm not sure what banning those would do to the crime rates down as they are used very rarely in homicides in the US. (322 homicides from all kinds of rifles in 2012, 6,371 homicides due to handguns in 2012). Since many are used by hunters, I doubt you could get legislation passed to ban them. Our own Vice President came out in favor of shotguns for home-defense just a few years ago.