The clinic works in four stages; sign in, the waiting area, surgery and recovery. The Lame Deer Critter Committee, along with several organizations and volunteers come together to make it all possible. Some even went into the community to search for the animals that need it the most. Were having a stray animal round up, as they call it, for mostly dogs because they are the most populous here, Burman said.

Veterans Diane Scollard of Absaorkee and Mark Francis of Hardin donate their time and skill for the operations. 90-percent of the dogs and cats we do here today, if we werent over here doing this, they would not get done, Francis said. They would not come to a veterinary clinic to be spayed and neutered.

Spay and neuter clinics like these are a necessity, as it reflects on the stray pet population. There has been, maybe two or three years in there, where things fell apart and we didnt do any clinics, Francis said. People that do business over here say they just see that population increase.

These free spay neuter clinics take place three times a year, with the next scheduled for August. While the spay and neuter effort saves the community thousands of dollars in the long run, there is a need for additional supplies amp; donations. Everything from food, blankets, even pet carriers are needed. You can contact Ataloa Burman at (406)477-6991 if there are any supplies you wish to donate.

Another free spay and neuter clinic is set for Thursday, May 23, 2013 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm on a first come, first served basis. The Critter Committee reminds those who plan to attend, not to let your pet eat or drink water several hours before the surgery. Bring animals in their own kennel, along with a towel or blanket for comfort.

A January call for applications drew 55 students; 15 semi-finalists were chosen for a round of interviews with a cross-disciplinary faculty
committee. The inaugural eight Harvard Horizons scholars then received in-depth
mentoring and coaching in oratorical and other presentation skills from faculty
members and other experts, in particular, from assistant professor of visual and
environmental studies Laura Frahm
and Pamela Pollock, assistant director of
the Derek Bok Center for
Teaching and Learning. As Dean Meng said in his opening remarks, "Wouldn't it be wonderful"
if Harvard students were known as great speakers, besides being known for their
intellect? This explicit, pedagogical aim--and the diverse mix of winners, representing the humanities, the arts, and the sciences--distinguished the event
from similar programs that focus on applied student work in science and
engineering.

At Sanders Theatre, the Horizons scholars' talks covered the social
power of music; fiction's role in helping people understand globalization; a prior
century's forays into distance learning; the use of advertising in war and
peace; the way that computers have changed mathematical proofs; and brain
science, vaccines, and DNA sequencing.

• Fenna Krienen, of the psychology department, spoke about her work on the
  connectome, a project to map the human brain, which researchers now know is not as modular as was once
  thought. "Even the most basic functions," she said, "emerge from dynamic
  networks in the brain."
• Hansun Hsiung (East Asian languages and civilizations) explained
  how English-language textbooks were translated and used in Asian classrooms in
  the nineteenth century, calling it "the first real attempt at distance
  education." He noted that when knowledge moves, it also changes, and provided a
  graphic example in the form of a likeness of Thomas Jefferson, reproduced by Asian
  printers as an example of what a Caucasian man looks like. This, he suggested,
  was an example of how, at a distance, people learn in unexpected ways. The
  increasingly Asian character of Jefferson's features in subsequent editions
  provides a further lesson for current experiments in online education: "When we
  set knowledge free, we must also sometimes relinquish our own control."
• Jeffrey Teigler (Division of Medical Sciences) spelled out why the
  creation of vaccines to prevent human disease is not straightforward.
  Cytokines (certain substances secreted by specific cells of the immune system) are the language of that system, he explained by way of analogy, and a given vaccine will not elicit an identical message every time. By
  trying to understand the language itself--reducing ambiguity--he hopes to make
  better vaccines.
• Liz Maynes-Aminzade (English) described how a genre of modern
  fiction can help people understand their place in a networked world. "The kinds
  of fictions I've been calling macrorealism,"she said--television series such as The Wire (2002-2008), for example--"can shape
  how we imagine ourselves as connected to and responsible for people who are far
  away from us: people we don't know, people we can't see, people we might never
  meet."
• Aaron Kuan (applied physics) spoke about the need for faster DNA
  sequencing of patients in order to deliver personalized cancer medicine, and
  his ambition to achieve this through the use of synthetic nanopores (tiny holes in a thin membrane, just big enough to allow a single DNAmolecule of to pass through).
• Alex
  Fattal (anthropology) reflected on the Colombian government's use of
  advertising to help demobilize the FARC guerrilla insurgency that has plagued
  the country since the 1960s.
• Stephanie Dick (history of science) spoke about
  the influence of computers on mathematics, and how the nature of proofs and
  what constitutes mathematical knowledge has changed in the digital age.
• Edgar
  Barroso (music), who spoke last, explained how music had led him to explore
  subjects in psychology, computer science, digital media, history, physics, and
  a variety of other disciplines, and how he eventually began to ask scholars in
  those disciplines for help with his own field of study. Music is like "a glue"
  that binds many fields of knowledge," he said. "It brings us together. If we
  make an effort to collaborate...I believe we will have better music, better
  science, and ultimately, a better society."

After the presentations and awarding of certificates to the scholars, Meng
thanked Stephen Blyth, professor of
the practice in statistics and managing director and head of public markets for
Harvard Management Company, for his support of the Dean's Innovation Fund,
which made the Harvard Horizons program possible. During their own days as
Harvard doctoral students, Blyth then
recounted, he and Meng wrote a paper together that he described--to laughter
from the audience--as both the most-cited in his career, and the least cited in
Meng's.

That spirit of collaboration was echoed forcefully by Stephanie Dick,
who spoke on behalf of the Harvard Horizons scholars. "We have truly bonded as
colleagues," she said, "and have become invested in each other's work in a way
that is still uncommon across disciplines."

"Sounds of Rivers: Stone Drum," which is being showcased in the annual UM "Dance in Concert" production, illustrates how science and fine arts can come together to document valuable research and tell a compelling story.

UM Flathead Lake Biological Station associate professor Mark Lorang records the sounds of rivers in Montana as part of his geomorphology research. The natural symphony of sounds, which serve as a guide and map for the ecosystems surrounding waterways, appeals to a greater human desire to understand rivers in a personal way.

"I think everybody wants to relate to rivers," Lorang said. "What they sound like, what they look like, what's underneath. There's been poetry written about babbling brooks for thousands of years. There's more interest in a river than the physics of the sediment transport or the flow hydraulics."

Lorang and Stephen Kalm, dean of the UM College of Visual and Performing Arts, started a dialogue about the artistic potential for his research. When composer and UM School of Music associate professor Charles Nichols got involved, the project really took off.

The final product is a breathtaking multimedia show featuring computer music composed by Nichols; poetry written by renowned local poet Mark Gibbons and narrated by Kalm; digital animation by UM School of Media Arts master's candidate and adjunct instructor Amber Bushnell; and dance choreographed by UM School of Theatre and Dance associate professor Nicole Bradley Browning and performed by student Allison Herther.

The piece features a complex interconnectedness of the different media. Nichols' composition combines processing of the poetry's text and different aspects of the river's sound to control the pitch, speed and pressure of a digital violin performance. During the show, he will perform live electric violin to correspond with music mentioned in Gibbon's poem. While the sound swirls around the audience, it also connects to Bushnell's computer animation, influencing the color and movement of the images that play across a large screen and on Herther's flowing white gown, which spans the entire stage.

The grand scale of the production speaks to the passion across campus for research and artistic expression.

"Mark's research and his approach to his research are inspirational," Nichols said. "And his enthusiasm for collaborating with our artists to illuminate that research for the public is exciting and contagious. It allowed me to collaborate with artists I've wanted to work with since moving to UM."

"Dance in Concert," which also features other performances by UM students and faculty, will be held at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, May 8-11, in the Montana Theatre of the Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center. Tickets cost $20 for the public, $16 for seniors and students and $10 for children age 12 and younger. They are available for purchase at the UMArts Box Office in the PAR/TV Center Lobby from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday and one hour before the show, or by calling (406) 243-4581.

The other three umpires -- Brian ONora, Bill Welke and Adrian Johnson -- were fined.

This is the moment of absolute maximum leverage, Stephen Crosby told an audience of about 100 people this morning at Suffolk University in Boston. We want host communities to look for ways to get the wow factor.

At the same time, Crosby said, communities shouldnt get stars in the eyes and focus on the money.

Instead, they should weigh potential benefits such as jobs against potential drawbacks such as traffic, crime and problem gambling before they sign a host community agreement, he said.

If they fail to do due diligence, they may not be eligible for the $15 million to $20 million mitigation fund the state has set aside for unanticipated impacts on communities, Crosby said.

A. Yes. Tetanus can be a fatal disease to most farm animals. Tetanus, often called lockjaw, is caused by a potent neurotoxin produced by the spore-forming bacterium Clostridium tetani found in the soil. After the two-dose initial vaccination, farm animals should be given an annual vaccination. Consult with your veterinarian for the best vaccination program.

Q. Is now a good time to fertilize my lawn?

A. Yes, now is a good time to fertilize the lawn. Be prepared to mow more often once you fertilize. Mow your lawn at the recommended height (2 to 2.5 inches for Kentucky bluegrass lawns) and never remove more that one-third of the leaf blade in any one mowing. This may mean mowing more than once a week when the grass is growing rapidly. You will #x93;scalp#x94; your lawn by mowing too closely, or removing more than one-third of the leaf blade at any one time.

Q. What types of grapes can I grow for edible leaves?

A. Usually, the wine grape varieties belonging to the species Vitis vinifera are used for stuffed grape leaves. However, juice grape varieties also can be used. Younger leaves usually are better, and make sure you are aware of any pre-harvest intervals of any chemicals used on your grapes. The timing must match when you harvest leaves, not the grapes.

Q. Who really #x93;runs#x94; the 4-H program?

A. Volunteers are the key to providing 4-H programs. Interested adult volunteers are always needed to lead clubs and to assist with 4-H activities. Orientation and training are provided, so no previous experience is necessary. Volunteers are supported by a professional staff, including a county 4-H educator. Natalie Kinion, who is a faculty member at Washington State University, is the 4-H educator for Benton and Franklin Counties. She is responsible for the countywide program. There are various county 4-H support and advisory groups made up of adult volunteers. State and national 4-H personnel assist county 4-H professionals.

-- Questions should be called in to the WSU Extension offices in Kennewick at 735-3551 or Pasco at 545-3511.

While Naticchioni has never managed an animal shelter before, her bachelors degree in business administration and experience in accounting and budgeting will be put to immediate use addressing the many problems found during a recent audit of the shelters policies and practices. (See the Internal Audit Report in the Document Cloud below.)

The Cuyahoga County Department of Internal Auditing discovered the kennel, from Jan. 1, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2012, failed to obey multiple state laws, lacked organization and mishandled revenue and records.

Deficiencies detailed in the 34-page report include:

Failure to weigh dogs before injecting them with a euthanasia drug that must be given based on weight, according to a federal regulation.

Over- and under-worked employees and some who werent sure of their duties.

Lax security and nonfunctioning security cameras.

Failure to verify that employees who drive county vehicles have drivers licenses and auto insurance.

Missing financial and dog records.

Failure to safeguard Social Security and checking account numbers of adopters.

Failure to comply with the state law that requires dog wardens to regularly patrol their county to find and capture loose dogs.

Incomplete records on surgeries and dogs being held.

Faulty donation records that prevented auditors from determining whether donations had been misappropriated.

Failure to issue dog licenses in sequential order.

Missing dog licenses and license sales records, which could result in a dog not being reunited with its owner.

Charging $1 or $2 to replace a lost dog tag, while state law requires a $5 fee.

Overcharging for licenses because of a faulty website.

Paying unapproved overtime and an employee who failed to use a time card.

Failure to lock up medications and keep records on their use.

Fiscal bureau says health care changes could be costly to taxpayers

The Joint Finance Committee considers insurance changes for public sector workers.

They were seized yesterday from the Harden Road home of Lynn Schaeffer, 65, and her daughter Wendy Desarbo, 39.

The two were arrested at their home in Pamplico and charged with Ill Treatment of Animals.

A veterinarian is expected to visit all the animals Thursday afternoon to see what vaccinations they need and what, if any, underlying medical conditions they have.

A spokesperson for the Florence Area Humane Society said yesterday that the animals seemed extremely malnourished.

A preliminary court hearing for Schaeffer and Desarbo is scheduled for June 18.

Speaking at the Game Horizon conference in Newcastle, UK (as reported by Joystiq), Rein said point blank that the next-gen consoles are going to be fully embracing the free-to-play and these IAP [in-app purchase]-type business models. So in case you dont know that, Im putting that out there. Sony and Microsoft are both going heavily in that area.

When moderator Matt Martin from GamesIndustry International said there isnt evidence to back up this kind of talk from the console makers just yet, Rein responded, Well, Im telling you. Im telling you what theyre telling developers.

Free-to-play gaming isnt totally new to consoles these days. Toylogic released cutesy multiplayer RTS/brawler Happy Wars as a free-to-play title on Xbox Live Arcade last year, and Sony Online Entertainment released PS3 versions of free-to-play MMOs DC Universe Online and Free Realms last year as well. More recently, CCPs first-person shooter Dust 514 launched as a free-to-play title on PS3, and Namco has announced that the upcoming Ridge Racer Driftopia will be free to play on both PC and PS3. On the Xbox 360, Signal Studios is working on Ascend: Hand of Kul as a free-to-play RPG, and Microsoft itself is planning to release a free-to-play World Series of Poker title on Xbox Live and Windows 8.

Reins comments seem to suggest that Microsoft and Sony are interested in further increasing the prevalence of free-to-play titles on their upcoming hardware. Zombie Studios has already announced that the PS4 first-person shooter Blacklight: Redemption will be free-to-play, and Sony Worldwide Studios chief Shuhei Yoshida told Game Informer recently that the studio is working on a free-to-play type PS4 game itself. Microsoft hasnt announced any such free-to-play plans for its next Xbox (or much of any concrete plans at all for the system), but the company has dabbled with free-to-play game publishing through last years Microsoft Flight.

We know that free-to-play is a dirty word among a large segment of the Ars audience, but this isnt necessarily bad news for the future of console gaming. As the above-mentioned titles highlight, free-to-play is no longer synonymous with the casual and social clickfests that used to dominate the space. As long as developers can balance the game so paying for items doesnt mean paying to win, this kind of focus could lead to a lot of high-quality games that dont require players to shell out money up front.