With The Theme “Holidays viewed through the eyes of a child.” The Holiday Parade Will Be Accepting Applications Starting “NOW” October 19, 2012.

Applications will be available online ( PDF file) and in person, at the Desert Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce 11-999 Palm Drive -Desert Hot Springs, CA. 92240 760-329-6403 info@deserthotsprings.com

The Holiday Parade is gearing up, after a five-year-long pause, to bring back the Holiday – Christmas Parade to the community! Applications for entrance to the parade will be available online and in person October 19, 2012 for Floats, Bands, Horse, Motorized and Marching Units.

There will be slots for Floats, Bands, Horses, Marching and Motorized Units. The decision on selection and approval is based on completed application, show and entertainment value and diversity within the parade category.

Applications can be downloaded from DesertHotSprings.mobi  in a PDF format. All interested parties should form their units around the theme “Holidays viewed through the eyes of a child.” Any questions regarding the parade should be directed to Holiday-Parade-Chair Joe McKee. He can be reached at 760-671-4150 or Max Liebermann 760-671-1-12 or via email at info@deserthotsprings.mobi.

The Holiday Parade will be held on Saturday, December 15th, 2012 and is a day-time parade starting at 11:00 a.m. The mission and goal of the Holiday Parade  is to present a successful and entertaining Holiday – Christmas Parade as a holiday gift to the citizens of Desert Hot Springs, California.

Desert Hot Springs Holiday Parade Website

dhs holiday parade application 2012 final copy

The 25^th Annual Desert Stars Award Ceremony and Gala presented by The Desert Theatre League (DTL) at Sun City Shadow Hills, October 14^th, entertainingly co-hosted by actor/singers Julie Rosser and Paul MacKey went off without a hitch to the applause of nominees and the audience of over 300 enthusiastic actors, directors, writers, technical wizards, and musicians. Speaking of musicians, the entire awards ceremony was treated to the ongoing piano accompaniment of local musical Impresario/Producer Derrik Lewis and to Bassist Jeff Stover, who musically bridged the winners’ walk to the stage to accept their DTL Statuettes.

The 2012 Desert Theatre League Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree Joy Groves, co-founder of The Groves Cabin Theatre of Morongo Valley, received a standing ovation as she walked onto the stage to accept her Award from the DTL Judging Coordinator Barbara Johnson. Johnson enumerated the many, many, theatrical accomplishments and honors Joy Groves has received over the years.  Groves was obviously moved and very humble in her acceptance speech. She reminded everyone “… theatre is a collaborative art form with many players required for theatre to be successful.” The Groves Cabin Theatre is the DTL’s leading award winner over the 25-year span of the Desert Theatre League, winning more than fifty awards for excellence.

   Special DTL Board of Director Awards were presented to:  Chuck Yates, co-founder of Coyote StageWorks of Palm Springs, who received the Joan Woodbury Mitchell Award for getting theatre done and who inspires that effort in others; Alden West, received the Michael Grossman Award which is presented to an Actor in recognition of talent, dedication, and devotion to the craft of theatre production; Barbara McReal, received the Bill Kuhlman Award which recognizes the “unsung heroes” of theatre production, who greatest performances and contributions may never be seen in the glow of the footlights, but without whom, those footlights would never burn; Derik Shopinski, actor, dancer, choreographer, and costume designer, received the Sidney Harmon Award which is presented to a Coachella Valley resident in recognition of efforts in the advancement of theatrical excellence, both on and off the stage.  Shopinski was the only performer to receive three honors/awards at the 2012 Desert Stars Awards.

Several theatre groups received multiple Desert Stars Awards, with The Palm Canyon Theatre garnering the most – eighteen trophies in all.  Coyote StageWorks was the second biggest winner nabbing twelve excellence awards including five for its production of “Plaid Tidings”.  CK Dance Company won eight awards, and Dezart Performs received seven trophies.  It was a great night for the twenty-seven theatrical and musical producing organizations located here in the Coachella Valley and Hi-Desert.

For a complete list of winners go to: www.deserttheatrleague.org.

Iranian hackers intent on disrupting the United States’ financial sector are once again on the attack, this time with US officials claiming America’s biggest banks have been hit as a cyberwar against the country’s Middle East adversary intensifies.

Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp. are two of the latest targets in a renewed assault on America’s online-infrastructure as hackers identified as members of a shadowy group of Iranians irate with the US policy wage a computer-controlled war for the fifth straight week.

The Qassam Cyber Fighters are taking credit for the latest attack and say it’s in response to the anti-Islamic “Innocence of Muslims” movie produced in America that has also been blamed for a string of violent protests in the Arab World in recent weeks.

“We have a suggestion for Mr. Panetta,” the hackers write in a message to the US Secretary of Defense posted this week on the Internet. Instead of “spending several billions that won’t be good for you, tell your henchmen on YouTube” to remove the video.

There could be more to the malicious assault than just that, however, as the Wall Street Journal cites unnamed US officials who suggest the cyberstrike is in retaliation for the American-endorsed sanctions on Iran that have all but crippled that country’s oil exports and crumbled the worth of the Islamic Republic’s currency.

That isn’t to say that the latest series of assaults comes amid a one-sided war, though. While US officials remain largely off the record when disclosing America’s own cyberassaults, the country has been credited with relentlessly ravaging Iran’s computer networks. And although the US is believed to have fired the first shot in a secretive cyberwar, they very well might also make the last.

When quizzed on how soon Iranian action will prompt the US to respond to cyberattacks with the world’s most heavily-armed military, a senior US official speaking anonymously tells the Journal, “It’s a fair question,” but adding, “I am not sure I have the answer to it.”

That admission echoes a warning Sec. Panetta put forth earlier this month. During a cybersecurity address in New York, the Pentagon chief said, “If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us, to defend this nation when directed by the president.”

Even if the US Labor Department has determined that the unemployment level has finally plateaued after months of staggering jobs statistics, the truth behind the numbers isn’t all that nice. Only four out of every ten adults in the US is employed.

While the percentage of Americans filing jobless benefit claims isn’t what it was during an unemployment epidemic that ravaged the country throughout the majority of US President Barack Obama’s administration, the Labor Department’s numbers are largely inflated on account of how they determine what actually constitutes looking for work.

Officially, the unemployment rate in America for the month of September was only 7.8 percent, but that statistic stems from only the number of citizens who have been actively searching for a paycheck. In actuality, only around 5 percent of the adult population in the US is unemployed in the eyes of the government because they have been handing in applications during the four weeks before the Labor Department conducted their research. Additionally, another 3 percent are interested in work but haven’t actively engaged in a job hunting during that span, roughly creating an unemployment figure of just under 8 percent.

The real figures, however, reveal a much scarier statistic.

“The employment-to-population ratio is the best measure of labor market conditions and it currently shows that there has been almost no improvement whatsoever over the past three years,” Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist for Capital Economics, writes in a note to clients obtained by CNN. That figure, which accounts for the proportion of working Americans compared with the number of adults in the country, is a lot higher than 8 percent.

For now, 58.7 percent of American adults are working if the actual employment-population ratio is taken into consideration, leaving about 82 million, or almost 41 percent of people unemployed. Only 8 percent, however, are even interested in work, leaving 33 percent of Americans not only jobless — but in no desire for work.

Read the whole story…

A 24-year-old intelligence female officer with the US military has been identified as one of two Americans killed in Afghanistan over the weekend in an apparent suicide bombing in Kandahar province.

Army Specialist Brittany B. Gordon is being considered the latest addition on a list of only 22 American women fatally wounded in Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began over 11 years ago. She was pronounced dead on October 13 as a result of wounds she suffered after an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated near an intelligence office in the remote Maruf district, Afghan officials tell the Tampa Bay Times.

“It is not one that was planted as a mine. The person was wearing a suicide vest. This is also considered an IED,” US Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a lawmaker on the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee, tells the Times. “It was an inside job.”

Reports suggest that the assailant was wearing the explosives beneath an intelligence service uniform when a delegation that included US coalition members was delivering furniture to an office in Maruf over the weekend.

Sources speaking to the Times say the suicide bomber is thought to have been targeting local agents with the National Directorate of Security, an Afghan intelligence service, and that the American casualties are the result of collateral damage.

Another American, identified so far only as an officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was also killed in the blast, along with four Afghan officials.

“The man believed he was attacking the NDS delegation; he probably was not aware of the foreign soldiers coming with them,” Maruf district chief Haji Malim Toorylai says.

Mr. Toorylai adds to reporters that the culprit behind the blast was Abdul Wali, a native of a nearby village. Hours after the attack, the brother of one of the Afghani victims reportedly killed the 9-year-old sibling of the assailant.

Read the whole story…

The FBI has arrested a Middle Eastern man that they say intended to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan this morning, only a few blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.

The man, whose name has not yet been released, is reported to be a resident of Long Island. He had engaged with undercover officers working for both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department, and local network NBC 4 says the public was never at risk. Authorities arrested him early Wednesday and he will go before a court later in the day.

The New York Post reports that the suspect was supplied with explosives by the FBI after they made contact with him following online posts he is thought to have authored referencing jihad.