Take the Best of Portland 2013 Survey and Win $250, $50 Gift Cards -

The 2013 Portland food and drink survey is now open. Since we already covered coffee, those questions have been removed, along with a few others. There is one new question ? ?Best outdoor dining space?.

I have purchased a $250 gift card to Timberline Lodge as an incentive. One lucky person will be awarded the card in a random drawing, so if you want to be eligible, be sure to leave your email address (it will never be given out, but just used to notify the winner). The gift card can be used for any purchase at Timberline Lodge or the Ice Axe Grill, lift tickets, rentals, lessons etc. A $50 gift certificate to a restaurant of your choice will be given out as a second prize. The survey will close after we have at least 1,000 responses.

In case you want to think about it for a bit, here are the winners of the last survey. The questions this year are as follows:

• Best Pizza
• Best Burger
• Best Bakery
• Best Vietnamese
• Best Chinese
• Best Vegetarian
• Best Thai
• Best Steak
• Best Sushi
• Best Mexican
• Best BBQ
• Best Italian
• Best Seafood
• Best Lebanese
• Best Indian
• Best Brunch/Breakfast
• Best late night snack
• Best Desserts
• Best Beer Bar
• Best Bar
• Best Happy Hour
• Best Business Lunch
• Best Lunch (excluding food carts)
• Best place to dine with a large group
• Best New Restaurant
• Of the restaurants that closed in 2012 ? 2013, I will miss this one the most
• Most Family Friendly
• I had to break up with this restaurant in 2012-2013 ? it went downhill
• Most Romantic Restaurant
• Best First Date Restaurant
• This Restaurant is Coasting on its Reputation
• Lousy service in a restaurant that is pretty darn good otherwise
• I thought this restaurant would be great, but I didn?t like it!
• Best Cheesemonger
• Best Butcher/Meat Counter
• Best Fishmonger
• Best Gourmet Food Store
• Best Wine Shop
• If I want quiet conversation, I go to:
• Best outdoor dining ? patio/deck/etc.

You favorite six restaurants in Portland are:

Take the survey by clicking here!

"I have a wide-range of food experience - working in the restaurant industry on both sides of the house, later in the wine industry, and finally traveling/tasting my way around the world. Whether you agree or disagree, you can always count on my unbiased opinion. I don't take free meals, and the restaurants don't know when, or if, I am coming."

Source: http://portlandfoodanddrink.com/take-the-best-of-portland2013-survey-win-250-50-gift-cards/

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Vertu TI now available in red or blue limited editions, only 1,000 of each made

It's been almost half a year since Vertu launched its first-ever Android phone, the TI, and now the company's decided to throw in a couple of limited editions to lure the big spenders. As pictured above, the new Vertu TI Colours collection is wrapped in either "Sunset Red" or "Midnight Blue" calf leather, and only 1,000 units are made for each color. As per typical Vertu style, there's a unique number etched on the back to indicate which of the 1,000 units yours is.

The rest of this hand-crafted, matt grey titanium phone remains unchanged otherwise, namely its 3.7-inch tough sapphire screen, Android 4.0, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4, 64GB storage plus an 8-megapixel camera. And of course, the phone still comes with the famed Vertu Concierge, a "100 percent independent" service that CEO Perry Oosting is very proud of. To join this exclusive club, you'll have to somehow fork out a whopping HK$90,000 or €8,900 (about US$11,700) -- just a tad more expensive than the TI Titanium Pure Black edition, but also more flamboyant. This author already spotted these new phones at Vertu's Hong Kong Airport store, and he's currently accepting donations.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/M9dFNTKwUEI/

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Attacks kill at least 11 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) ? Suicide bombers and shootings in northern and central Iraq were among attacks across the country that left eleven dead on Sunday.

They were the latest incidents in a wave of violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the start of April. Militants, building on Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government, appear to have grown stronger in central and northern Iraq.

The commander of the army's 12th Division, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Khalaf, said the assault on the police station near the town of Hawija started with a gunman on foot opening fire on the guards. A suicide bomber with an explosives belt then blew himself up in the reception area, and a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the building, Khalaf said. Three policemen were killed and five others wounded.

Hawija, a former insurgent stronghold, is about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad. The predominantly Sunni town and surrounding areas have been tense since April, when Iraqi security forces launched a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest there in which 23 people, including three soldiers, died.

In the nearby city of Tuz Khormato, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, two parked car bombs went off in the early morning in a residential area, killing one civilian and wounding 27 others, a police officer said.

Also Sunday, a mortar round hit a motel in central Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding nine others, police said.

At night, gunmen, carrying guns fitted with silencers opened fire on a group of people standing in the street in Baghdad's northern Qahira neighborhood, killing four and wounding two others, said two police officials.

Qahira neighborhood was the scene of a deadly suicide attack inside a Shiite mosque last week. At least 34 people were killed in that attack.

Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information to reporters.

___

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/attacks-kill-least-11-people-iraq-210207745.html

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Supreme Court punts on affirmative-action case

The Supreme Court has surprised legal experts by declining to strike down the University of Texas' use of race in undergraduate admissions. On Monday, the justices sent the case back to a lower court for a rehearing, dodging a decision on whether affirmative-action policies at public colleges around the country are unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, wrote the opinion for Fisher v. University of Texas, which was decided 7-1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court's liberal leader, dissented, arguing that the lower court's decision in favor of affirmative action should stand. Kennedy said the federal Fifth Circuit must rehear the case to decide whether UT "offered sufficient evidence to prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity." The court also requires the lower court to decide whether the college could use any "race neutral" means of creating a diverse campus before resorting to affirmative action.

"Strict scrutiny imposes on the university the ultimate burden of demonstrating, before turning to racial classifications, that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice," the justices wrote.

The decision comes as a surprise, since during oral arguments in the case in October, many of the conservative-leaning justices seemed poised to issue a broader ruling invalidating the use of race in admissions. Kennedy has also frequently expressed skepticism of affirmative-action programs.

"Affirmative action lives to see another day," Adam Winkler, a constitutional law expert at UCLA, told Yahoo News. "The Supreme Court seemed prepared to strike a real blow against affirmative action back in October. But the Fisher case reaffirms [previous] Supreme Court cases that allow universities to take race into account."

Abigail Noel Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas after she was denied admission in 2008. UT automatically admits Texans who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but fills its remaining seats by judging applicants on a combination of GPA, test scores, race and other factors. Fisher claimed she was discriminated against because she is white when she was denied admission. The college argued that Fisher's GPA and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race and that using race as one factor in admission helps it maintain a diverse student body.

The Supreme Court established in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities could use race as a factor in admissions as long as they did not use quotas (for example, that 10 percent of the class must be black). The justices said affirmative action was still necessary to counteract the effects of institutionalized racism that had prevented minorities from attending college in the past. The majority wrote that they believed that in 25 years, affirmative action would no longer be necessary and should be stopped. This "sunset" provision was skewered by the four dissenting justices.

The Fisher case was argued 10 months ago, and many legal experts were stumped as to why the justices were taking so long to release an opinion. The court has agreed to hear another case dealing with affirmative action next fall and may issue a broader decision then.

Justice Elena Kagan, a President Barack Obama appointee, recused herself from the case, most likely due to her work on it as solicitor general.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/supreme-court-punts-affirmative-action-case-141850745.html

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Frenkel to return as Israel's central bank chief

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jacob Frenkel, an inflation hawk who was Bank of Israel governor in the 1990s, will be returning to the helm of the central bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid said on Sunday.

They appointed Frenkel to replace Stanley Fischer, who is stepping down at the end of June after eight years on the job, having guided Israel's economy through the global financial crisis.

Frenkel, 70, beat deputy governor Karnit Flug, who will likely be acting central bank chief until Frenkel starts. The date of his arrival was not announced.

"He is a world renowned figure, which is what Netanyahu was looking for," said HSBC economist Jonathan Katz.

As governor between 1991 and 2000, Frenkel was credited with reducing inflation, liberalising financial markets and removing foreign exchange controls.

He is currently chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and also served as vice chairman of insurer American International Group as well as chairman of Merrill Lynch International. Frenkel also is the head of the Group of Thirty, a private consulting group on international and financial issues.

"We are certainly talking about a governor who will act as the responsible adult, who will fill the position of Fischer with quality and authority," said Joseph Fraiman, chief executive at Prico Risk Management and Investments.

"No less important, Frenkel will benefit from the international credit that is greatly needed for the Israeli economy, especially in the current period," he added.

Frenkel, whose appointment needs cabinet approval, will face several challenges including continuing Fischer's insistence that the government stick to responsible policies and working to halt fast-rising home prices.

Israel's economy grew 3.2 percent in 2012, but is expected to slow to a 2.8 percent this year excluding the start of natural gas production.

Inflation, which ranged between 1.3 and 18 percent in the 1990s, was at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in May. At the same time, the shekel is strong.

To encourage economic growth and keep exports competitive, the Bank of Israel reduced its benchmark interest rate twice in May, to 1.25 percent. The central bank next decides on Monday and analysts largely believe the key rate will stay unchanged.

When Frenkel was last in the job, the governor alone made interest rate decisions. Now, there is a six-member monetary policy committee with the bank chief as chairman.

"Frenkel will need to work harmoniously with the monetary council he inherited from Fischer," said Yaniv Pagot, chief strategist at the Ayalon Group. "This is not a simple challenge that could, in a certain situation, bring the first cracks."

He said that, with Israel's foreign exchange reserves nearing $80 billion, it would be interesting to see whether Frenkel would continue intervening in the foreign exchange market and buy dollars to defend Israel's exports if the shekel continues to appreciate.

(Additional reporting by Tova Cohen and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/frenkel-return-israels-central-bank-chief-193609124.html

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Video: What's Bernanke's Next Move?

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52279871/

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Chapter 3 - We Live Healthy

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Source: http://we-live-healthy.com/chapter-3/

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