HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A 2008 Christmas Story

Although this has nothing to do with uscity.net, I felt compelled to add this to my blog this year. Merry Christmas!

This year as we reflect on the story of Mary and Joseph's journey toward Bethlehem, many of us can relate to them passing through uncertain terrain and worrying about the future. The financial crisis our country is going through affects some more than others, but everywhere there is anxiety threatening to divert our attention from the blessings we do have.

Christmas surprises are all around us. An acquaintance of mine is a single mother, who had a good paying job, and just finished getting her college degree while working fulltime in November. Everything looked great. Then came a very disrupting diagnosis from the doctors. She is very ill, an illness I cannot pronounce or even try to spell. Basically, they are trying different types of drugs to stop the progression. And two weeks ago, she got laid off – showed up for work, was met at the gate by a security guard who looked her name up and his 'list', and then handed her paycheck to her and said “we will call you if you are needed in the future.” She was not even allowed back in to get her things from her locker.

I talked to her and she told me that this time in her life had been a revelation – in the midst of all her problems, she sees glimmers of hope and knows without a doubt (for the first time in her life) that she is NOT alone. So many people have stepped up to help with the rent, help with her healthcare, buy food, offer a shoulder to lean on, say prayers with her and for her - AND her daughter will be having more presents under the tree than she ever has. The mother of one of the families who has helped her, (even though her own husband had been laid off in Mid-October) told me that this year is not the year to scale back and tone down. This year is a time for lavish, extravagant gifts of sharing, friendship, joy and most of all, hope. If you can give hope to someone, you are not only asked to, but you are required to.

This kind of sharing is what it's all about in my book.

I hope you all have the opportunity to share something this season and I wish you love, peace, blessings and joy this holiday season.

Merry Christmas,
Pam

Last Minute Gift Ideas from CD Universe

Christmas is coming on fast for most of us and if you are looking for a great gift for anyone on your list, try checking out CD Universe. With music for everyone, they offer Christmas music from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to Harry Conick and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, along with new releases and top sellers from every genre.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is watching It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve while doing my last minute wrapping. Make someone happy with a holiday movie they will cherish forever. CD Universe has movies galore – for the kids (and the young at heart, like me): Shrek the Halls, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Polar Express. Charlie Brown. Alvin And The Chipmunks - A Chipmunk Christmas, Bernstain Bears' Christmas Tree and many more. For the older ones on your list, try: Christmas Story: Ultimate Collector's Edition, Elf. Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and two of my favorites - Miracle On 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life. If Christmas movies are not what you are looking for, try their newer releases, like Sex and the City, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! or Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

CD Universe also offers games – top sellers this season are: Call Of Duty: World At War, Hooked w/ Fishing Rod Bundle for the WII, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain Of Memories or WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009.

There are 11 days for Christmas delivery, so shop now and even if you get down to the wire, like I did last year, you can always email someone on your list a gift certificate, right up until Christmas Eve!

Discount Dental Insurance Plans

We have a listing at uscity.net that I would like everyone to know about – we all want to be as healthy as possible, right? Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is vital to our dental health and wellbeing, yet many people forgo the dental care they need due to the high costs involved. Discounted discount dental plans are dental insurance alternatives that start at only $79.95 PER YEAR and provide discounts of 10% to 60% on most dental procedures.

With 100,000+ participating dentist and dental care specialist listings in a combined network of 30+ affordable discount dental plans, its easy to find a dentist and plan in your area. We want to help you save money on your dental care by giving you the power to compare and choose from the best discount dental plans in the nation! Discover the advantages of dental insurance alternatives by joining a discount dental plan.

With the cost of health and dental insurance on the rise, you will find the plans here as or more affordable than most. Right now, Dental Plans is offering new members 3 additional months FREE. Join any one of their money-saving annual discount dental plans and receive 15 months of savings on your dental care. There is also a vision care plan on the site.

Click anywhere on this post to visit the website and check it out for yourself.

Fleetwood Mac Reunited

Fleetwood Mac has announced it is reunited and going out on the road.

The supergroup is launching its tour at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh on March 1. The tour coincides with a new greatest hits compilation called Unleashed that contains never before seen footage and previously unreleased tracks.

"We love our band and think the title of the tour - Unleashed - perfectly describes how we all feel when we get on stage together, especially in 2009," the band said in a joint statement. "We're so happy to get back out on the road, perform everyone's favorite songs and see our fans."

Tickets go on sale Dec. 15. Dates include Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., Boston, New York and Canada.

Just click on this sentence for more ticket info!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I contemplated my Thanksgiving blog, something kept creeping into my thoughts - I am very thankful for the young ones in my life. Besides the youth group at church that I lead, my neices and nephews and all the babies I see and those I get pix and emails about, I am even thankful for the baby I see at the grocery store or strolling down the street. Maybe this thought keeps coming into my being because I need to be reminded of the circle of life. We lost my mom-in-law in November and it was a rough patch. The kids and young adults in my life (including my son, Wade) brought me peace and joy when I needed it most. Of course the kids in my life can also cause the rough patches (right, Wade? - LOL).

So I went out and asked them what they were thankful for, thinking it would be cell phones, Wii, DVDs, cars, etc. Guess what? They, like most of us, are most thankful for family and friends. Top two on almost everyone's list. Some of the other things they are thankful for are surfing, Johnny Depp, Jesus, car air fresheners, the little plastic things at the end of a shoelace, dancing, singing, laughter, beer, the price of gasoline going down, passing the midterm exam, nature. And thanks to Pamela (9-yrs.old) for her top five: family, pets, the love we share, food that God sends us to nourish us and get us through life and shelter to keep us safe and warm.

The uscity.net family wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

New Look For Our Front Page

Check out our new front page – it’s out of this world! Actually it is OF this world, with a view from OUT of this world. Our front page features a satellite photo featuring our part of the world – the good ole’ USA! And, when you scroll over the USA, you get a map that makes it easy to find the state you are searching for.


Our Lead Graphic Artist, Shea Crawford – who is constantly updating and upgrading our look, came up with this design to make our site more appealing. Everyone I have talked to loves it! I hope you do too. But just in case you like the old one better, you can click on the little box with the USA map in the bottom left hand corner and it will take you to our previous front page. Of course, we kept the easy to use yellow and white pages on the right and left that are easier to use than any telephone book ever!

And I also hope you will use our directory to find what you are looking for – our national web link directory has over 1.3 million business links. We have national links like, Amazon (one of my favorites) and Disney Shopping, along with tens of thousands of local links, like Massachusetts’s Yolanda's Pet Sitting and Errand Service, Florida’s Trompe L'Oeil Faux Finishing and California’s Sun Xtender® Solar Batteries.

We also feature informational sites – Texas’ Electricity Bid and the Anger Coach website, for those who are in need of help. We list government agencies, schools and churches.

Anyone who qualifies can be listed in our directory – we are “G” rated and do not have links to any adult sites or sites promoting anything illegal, guns, violence, or sales of hard alcohol. For a full description of what we do and do not list in our directory, go to Our Guidelines page. Businesses that share our commitment to quality information and support for parents and children are always welcome. If you own a business you would like listed, please click here!

Good job, Shea!

Thoughts from the Space Station

My name is Lt. Colonel Shane Kimbrough and I am on the International Space Station orbiting 200 miles above the earth.During the 90 minutes it takes us to circle the earth, we do not see borders or boundaries. From up here, the task of solving the world’s biggest problems seems less daunting. But when our shuttle lands next Sunday, we will return to a world where border disputes and financial crises lead the nightly news. Those challenges define our world and their solutions will define our future.

I believe with my voice and yours and millions of others taking on the challenges of extreme poverty and preventable diseases, these problems become less daunting and more solvable.

I wouldn’t be here today if President Kennedy hadn’t called on America to make space exploration a priority. In 1961 he said, “We face an extraordinary challenge. Our strength as well as our convictions have imposed upon this nation the role of leader in freedom’s cause.” He called on America to marshal its courage and creativity, its intelligence and determination to put a man on the moon.

There were skeptics. Some said it wasn’t possible. Some thought we should instead focus on other concerns here at home. But President Kennedy – and the American people – would not be deterred. We set a goal; we made a plan; we put a man on the moon; we changed the way we saw our world.

President Kennedy’s vision forced us to look to the moon and raise our expectations of what is possible. Looking back at the earth with the same perspective as those early astronauts, Kennedy’s philosophy about our own planet is with me today: “Our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.”

Today, a renewed courage is sweeping the world. People are dreaming boldly and, more importantly, they are ready to turn those dreams into actions.

On World AIDS Day, December 1st, we are celebrating our success in helping to bring lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment to 3 million people globally, including 2 million Africans. But there are 7 million more people who are in critical need of AIDS drugs and don't have them. There are also millions at risk of becoming infected with HIV.
We can drastically reduce poverty and preventable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, on our planet. But it will take all of us working together as one to achieve that goal. As Bono has said, ending extreme poverty could be our generation’s moonshot. This could be our new frontier. We should focus our attention to those on our planet who need help the most.
That’s what I believe. That’s my story.


Up here, we see one world, one home we all inhabit. I’ll check in again when I’m back from orbit.
From the International Space Station,
Lt. Colonel Shane Kimbrough
Mission Specialist, Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126)


I got this in an email about joining ONE.org – took out all the joining stuff and wanted to share this with you. I didn’t want to make this political, but thought it was a great email and in the interest of fairness, if you would like more info about joining this organization, click here.

Happy Halloween!

We here at uscity.net wish all of you a very Happy Halloween. The sweetest dragon in the world is the son of Delanie Crawford and the grandson of Mary and Rusty.
This cute little bumblebee is Sue's Granddaughter, Tiona.
This year Halloween falls on a Friday night, so there will be more traffic and mroe adult parties, so keep an eye on your children, especially the middle and high schoolers who often stay out later.

Here are some other tips for making tonight a treat for all of us:

If you are driving:
1. Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.
2. Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs.
3. Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully.
4. At twilight and later in the evening, watch for children in dark clothing.
5. Remember to have a designated driver if you will be drinking.

If you are a parent or guardian:
1. Make sure that an adult or an older responsible youth will be supervising the outing for children under age 12.
2. Plan and discuss the route trick-or-treaters intend to follow. Know the names of older children's companions.
3. Instruct your children to travel only in familiar areas and along an established route.
4. Teach your children to stop only at houses or apartment buildings that are well-lit and never to enter a stranger's home.
5. Establish a return time.
6. Tell your youngsters not to eat any treat until they return home.
7. Review all appropriate trick-or-treat safety precautions, including pedestrian/traffic safety rules.
8. Pin a slip of paper with the child's name, address and phone number inside a pocket in case the youngster gets separated from the group.

The Costume:
1. Costumes should be loose so warm clothes can be worn underneath.
2. Costumes should not be so long that they are a tripping hazard. (Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries on Halloween.)
3. If children are allowed out after dark, outfits should be made with light colored materials. Strips of retroreflective tape should be used to make children visible.
4. Face Design Masks can obstruct a child's vision. Use facial make-up instead.
5. When buying special Halloween makeup, check for packages containing ingredients that are labeled "Made with U.S. Approved Color Additives," "Laboratory Tested," Meets Federal Standards for Cosmetics," or "Non-Toxic." Follow manufacturer's instruction for application.
6. If masks are worn, they should have nose and mouth openings and large eye holes.
7. Accessories Knives, swords and other accessories should be made from cardboard or flexible materials. Do not allow children to carry sharp objects.
8. Bags or sacks carried by youngsters should be light-colored or trimmed with retro-reflective tape if children are allowed out after dark.
9. Carrying flashlights will help children see better and be seen more clearly.


What the kids should know:
1. Do not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.
2. Walk, do not run, from house to house. Do not cross yards and lawns where unseen objects or the uneven terrain can present tripping hazards.
3. Walk on sidewalks, not in the street.
4. Walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic if there are no sidewalks.

Before and After:
1. Give children an early meal before going out.
2. Insist that treats be brought home for inspection before anything is eaten.
3. Wash fruit and slice into small pieces.
4. When in doubt, throw it out.

BOO!

USCITY.NET Business Members Are Happy

Why are our clients so happy? Because we have lowered our membership fees by 2/3rds! For only $49 your website will be listed in the uscity.net directory for a full year. We hope that our price reduction will help everyone, and make our directory more useful. We are hoping to help small businesses who are going through the downward changes in our economy. Our goal is to have EVERY small G-rated business listed here – we want our users to see what services and goods are available in their area. So, if you are a small business owner, sign-up and help us to help you which will help your customers – and helping others – that’s what it’s all about, right.

Our sign up process is easy:
There are two ways to add your website:

1. - Go to http://www.uscity.net/listmysite.html and fill out the form (Choose a state and category) and on the next section, if you would like a map added, be sure to include the street address of your business.

Or

2. Click here and then pick your state, choose your category and then click on "ADD YOUR SITE".

Then you simply follow the directions.

Fill out the form and if you would like a map added, be sure to include the street address of your business.


Our support group is fantastic; and real, live humans edit our directory! Your emails are read and answered by humans; your corrections and modifications are made by humans; the phone, whenever possible, is answered by humans... That is one of my favorite things about our company – actually about any company, - when I call or email and get real responses from real people who have lived in the United States all their lives!

And, as always, we still list appropriate sites with a reciprocal link for free.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here and I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible!

Pscho-T - Kristina's New Adventure

Hello, My name is Kristina Mangiafico. I graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Exercise Science with the intention of attending medical school within the following 2 years. I worked as a medical assistant for a while and enjoyed helping others. I enjoyed educating patients about their medications and maintaining good health. It was a fantastic experience, and although I could have seen myself doing it as my career… the stresses, the paperwork, and all the time that a doctor has to put in and give up just is not for me! I realized I can do great things, but as far as medical school, it’s not for me.

Post graduation, I found myself confused and unsure of anything in my life. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and moved, it seemed every two to three months. I moved to New Smyrna Beach then Tallahassee back to New Smyrna and now I reside in Tampa.

While transitioning I did some reminiscing on the things I loved and made me happy. For so long, I had suppressed my creative side; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed art, photography, design, and everything that is so innately me. When caught up in studies and work, you can forget about the things that are most important in your life.

Working for USCity.net has given me the flexibility that I needed after college. Due to my ability to set my own hours, I was able to also step back and look at where I want to go with my life.

USCity.net has inspired me to pursue new avenues… avenues that I always dreamt of but never thought possible for a small-town girl like me.

I recently started designing and making clothing. I am now on the web with my website psychot.samsbiz.com and am hoping that something comes of that. If not, at least I gave it a go doing what I love. I design hand-made inkblotinspired images on t-shirts that available for purchase as well as made to order. I have a passion for creativity and I only want to take my concepts and designs to the next level.
Some of my other designs

Australian Pink Floyd Show

A friend of mine is a huge fan of Pink Floyd – and he is raving about the Australian Pink Floyd Show. Another friend of my husband’s went to their concert in Chicago and said they were excellent. He was happy that they played a good range of the songs and said for the most part they were all huge crowd pleasers. In addition, the staging was fantastic. It was on a smaller scale than the Pink Floyd shows he had seen a decade or two ago, but said it was really great.

APF features two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, a keyboard player, a saxophone player and two female backing singers. The band uses film and animation footage, just like the original Pink Floyd and adds some Aussie humor - instead of the filmed footage of the man in the flying bed in “On The Run” there was computer animation of a sunglassed kangaroo in a flying bed and Pink Floyd's footage of politicians for “Brain Damage” were replaced with other 'lunatics' of the past 20 years - i.e. Bush, Blair, Saddam Houssein.

For all you Pink Floyd fans, click here to find out if they are coming to a city near you - it's a great deal for over two hours of Pink Floyd renditions and some great technical visuals.

Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

THE RAG DOLLS COME TO LIFE!The Radio City Christmas Spectacular stars the world famous Radio City Rockettes in an unparalleled show featuring the Rockettes signature eye high kicks, precision choreography and exciting show stopping numbers that will delight the whole family. If you are lucky enough to be living or visiting in New York this year, check the dates for tickets by clicking here. And,the good news is, for those of use who will not be in New York City, this year marks the debut of a new Spectacular, playing cities across the country. The show stopping numbers include the legendary "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" and "New York at Christmas," a fabulous holiday celebration. Families will be delighted and touched as Santa and his reindeer fly, teddy bears dance and the true meaning of Christmas comes to life in the awe-inspiring "Living Nativity”. See if they will be coming to your area by clicking here.

This is one show I would LOVE to see!

Cleaning Up Our Directory

We are working hard here at uscity.net, cleaning house, so to speak. We have started a major clean-up of the listings in all of our state directories and since we are a human-edited directory, this is a major man-hour project. We have some employees devoting all their time to this project and most of our employees spending at least part of their time helping.

Our goal is to get rid of the listings that are no longer working correctly. Some businesses have changed their web address, some just no longer have websites and sadly, some are out of business. The first thing we do if we find a dead link is try our best to find out if the business just has a new URL. If that's the case, we will modify the listing so that it gets our users to where they want to be. If that fails, we have to delete the listing completely.

If you notice that your business is no longer listed, please just re-submit your business with updated information. Click here for easy sign up.

We feel that being of service to our users is our first priority and that means having relevant and working links in all of our categories. We truly want to be the best directory we can and this cleaning is periodically necessary.

We also have a great surprise in store for people considering membership, but more on that later!

We Have A New Sign

uscity.net has a new sign! Our sign is located on SR44 in Florida and we are hoping people who see it will visit our website and see all we have to offer: free, quick and easy phone number look-up (right from the home page); links to family friendly sites in all 50 states in an organized category/sub-category structure that makes it extremely easy to navigate; concert, sports and theater tickets; weather; news; sports; travel information; hotel finder; vacation packages; apartment finder; national and local parks; city guides; movie times for all states, and so much more.

Taking Us Out To The Ballgame

We are just back from a uscity.net company outing! We went to Jackie Robinson stadium in Daytona Beach for a barbecue, ballgame and fireworks afterwards. It was very nice getting together with everyone. The weather was a bit warm, but we had a little breeze from the river and once the sun went down, it was nice. It was Dr. Carithers’ (who is one of our biggest fans and one of our favorite people) birthday, and we had a birthday cake along with the hot dogs, hamburgers and pulled pork.

And, the best surprise of the night was Koda Crawford, who came walking up (no wheelchair, no cane - just her newly healed hip and her adorable little legs!). Way to go Koda! She was walking slowly but she WAS WALKING!

Her Dad sent us the photo of her super-woman hip!
I enjoyed getting to know Linda better and sitting with Kristina, who is a blast to go anywhere with.

The ballgame was between the minor league Daytona Cubs, who lost and... I can’t remember the name of the other team, but remember that it shared a name with a Florida county (was it the Brevards?). The employees’ kids had fun playing games, meeting Cubbie and entering contests all night long. We really enjoyed the fireworks afterwards, which were longer and bigger and much LOUDER than I expected.

Everyone I have talked to had a great time and are looking forward to getting together again soon.

Revolutionary iPhone Interface

~ Attention G-3 iPhone Users ~
Check out our new iPhone WebApp. We have updated our look and our capabilities to make finding local and national businesses in our directory and searching for phone numbers super easy from your iPhone. I never use directory assistance or a phone book anymore and you won't either!

Our directory has been redesigned for the iPhone, allowing you to not only find phone numbers for anywhere in the US free, but also to find safe links to our directory's business web sites. Our human edited directory is indexed geographically and by category.

If you need help with our iPhone interface, please click here!

Happy iPhone Surfing

A Mini Commercial

- We are on youtube! -
Check out our "What is uscity.net?" video at http://www.youtube.com/uscitynet and then visit our site - uscity.net!

Legendary Rockers on Tour

Legendary and influential rock band, The Who, will be touring in the USA later this year. Their first world tour in over 20 years!!

The Who, formed in 1964, is an English rock band that became known internationally for their energetic live performances. (I think they were the first to destroy their guitars onstage.) Original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are touring in Japan and Australia and plan to come to America in October.

The Who were recently honored at the 2008 VH1 Rock Honors in Los Angeles. This award will complement their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the UK Music Hall of Fame and their Freddie Mercury Lifetime Achievement in Live Music Award (the first to receive that award.)

On October 30, 2007, Roger Daltrey while announcing plans for The Who’s return said:

"We don't want to stop... We don't want those long hiatuses that we used to have.... You should at least keep the ball rolling."

Click here to see if The Who will be coming to your area soon!

Migrant Missions

Here's the group after beachfront worship one night

In case you’re wondering why June had so few blog entries, with help from many, I arranged and took the New Smyrna Beach United Church of Christ’s Senior High youth group (Teens in Action) on two mission trips this month.

The first trip was to an area in southwestern Florida called Immokalee, where we helped repair a roof for a very sweet lady whose roof had been damaged in Hurricane Wilma (2005). Her roof had been repaired by a friend, but has been leaking for two years. We were joined by 35 youth from United Church of Christ Churches from all over Florida. She was living in a suburb of Immokalee. The trip into Immokalee was an eye-opener for me; we saw terrible living conditions - the farm- workers were living together in very old, small, sometimes rusting trailers and paying $50 a week each. There were reports of some trailers housing up to 12 men at a time. Some of the workers are documented and some are not. All the workers I talked to were here to work and they are not afraid of hard labor. Almost every one of the single men were working here to send money back home to their families. Hearing their stories was heartbreaking. Most were not aware of what they would find once they got here. Some saved up for years to pay someone to bring them across the border. One lady who had paid to come to America, tells of once getting here, being sold. Some came, went back and then went through proper channels to become citizens. One man I talked with told the story of coming to Florida for a vacation after graduating high school. He was able to attend school because of the money his father was sending home. While visiting his father, he came and worked a week (since that was the only way to spend time with him), went back home – found conditions in his village worse than here and came back.
IMMOKALEE GROUP (MINUS CHRIS AND MARTHA)!
Immokalee is a town that fluctuates between 200 and 1000 residents depending on where the ripened fruits and vegetables are. In Immokalee, farmworkers pick tomatoes, watermelons, citrus fruit, squash, hot peppers and more. It is a very fertile area of Florida, near the Everglades.

And it is HOT! I was so proud of the kids who were up on the roof with no shade and no complaints (and I am talking about teenagers here!). After our first day of work, there was rainstorm that evening and Margarita, the mother, told me that her little girl (going into 3rd grade), got out her Barbie doll and waited for the bowl in the living room to fill up so she could play with Barbie in the pool – she was disappointed but Margarita was ecstatic. It felt good to help someone who was in need. Margarita works at a nursing home and her husband was on the road picking. She has five children, three of them live at home and after work each day, she baby-sits her grandson so her son and daughter-in-law can go to work at night.

We stayed the First Baptist Church in Immokalee and along with some members of the community, staff from area farmworker ministries and staff of the UCC, we spent a day learning about the lives of workers and residents of Immokalee. We saw and heard from people whose children had been born deformed and with disabilities becausethe farms are using pesticides - some that are illegal. We picked oranges off of the ground and tried to lift the bags the workers carry up and down 10-20 foot ladders – very few could lift the “medium” bag which holds up to 90 pounds. The workers who picked the oranges and grapefruit were very proud of their skill at picking the right fruit, knowing how to hold the bags, their strength and their abilities to climb a ladder, pick the fruit and place it in the bins so that they will not get bruised. It was heartbreaking to think of the lack of pride so many Americans have in their jobs and see these people making less than $10,000 a year so proud of their work.

We also visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who has been instrumental in getting big corporations to pay 1 cent more per pound to the farmworkers for tomatoes. The workers have not had a raise in pay in 20 years. With boycotts, letter writing campaigns and meetings with corporations, many big companies have agreed to pay 1½ cents more per pound with 1 cent going to the workers and the ½ cent to the grower to cover taxes. One cent per pound does not sound like a lot, but in most cases, it doubled their income.

We had a community party – complete with piñatas, Spanish beans, rice, chicken, cactus salad (mmm, good) and the most delicious burritos I have ever eaten. About six families attended with the cutest, happiest children in tow. It was here we met families, workers, volunteers and residents of Immokalee. I sat with a man who had been a life long resident of Immokalee, a member of the CIW, a volunteer from AmeriCorps and an undocumented immigrant. We talked with the Spanish speaking through interpreters.
As bad as conditions were here, most of the immigrants I talked to said it was better here than in their villages and back home, where there were no jobs available. I went around the room to ask these people what we could do as Americans for them. And some of the answers I got were: “pray for us”, “vote for immigration reform”, “tell people about us”. I was changed, I had always been aware that we needed to help the immigrants, but was more of a “let’s help the workers who come here legally and send the others back with instructions on how to get here legally”. Not any more! I am convinced after meeting the wonderful people of Immokalee that we are in dire need of a pathway to citizenship or some kind of legal status for the farmworkers. They do not report employee abuses for fear of being deported – and this is not just the undocumented workers who live in fear. Those who are American citizens, fear for their grandparents or parents or friends and are afraid to draw any attention from authorities to their families.

Two blocks from where we stood in a “trailer park” where the men were crammed in like sardines, there had been a conviction of human slavery just two weeks ago. 10 men were chained to their trailers at night and only let loose to pick. And all of this goes on one exit away from Naples, the richest city in America. I asked why people in Naples didn’t help and was told that while there are several from there who are involved with the farmworkers plight, most of Naples wanted Immokalee gone – they wanted the farmlands for developing and expansion for the multi-million dollar homes and stores that are so desperately needed by the richest among us.

On our second mission trip, we went to an area near Ruskin (also in southwestern Florida) called Wimauma. We worked at the Beth-El Farmworkers Mission and La Estanzia Apartments (also called the forgotten community. At Beth-El we dug ditches, landscaped, helped in the food pantry and gave out 275 bags of staples, organized a huge tool shed and painted playgrounds and office buildings. Beth-El is a huge ministry - besides the food pantry, they hold classes on computer use; GED classes; Bible classes in Spanish; sponsor a K-8 school with private funds so that anyone can attend; they ride out to area towns and cities to minister to the migrant communities by bringing food and coffee to the workers who get up at 4:30 a.m. to get the parking lots where the busses come to load workers up and take them to the fields; they provide hot meals, respect and love.

On our last day of work, we held a water party for the children of the La Estanzia Apartments – the kids attend a day care center in the community. This is provided by Redlands Christian Migrant Association. The day care center is staffed by volunteers and most children go home around 1 p.m. We bought two kiddie pools, one with a slide and numerous water guns – we let the kids chase us and get us wet and they were sooo happy. These kids are precious – giggling and running around, hollering "more water, more water”. We worked there last year and it was wonderful to see how some had grown and many had learned to speak better English. We can all be proud of the teens and how they loved, cared for and played with the children.


Lots of Love!

Lots of Hugs!

Lots of Fun!
The second trip was also very spiritual with worship services every night which were put on by college students, complete with contemporary music, personal testimonies and prayer. On the last night, we were asked to throw our earthly burdens in the well and accept the living water of Jesus. These kids are dedicated to making our world a better place and I believe they will! It was very moving and uplifting. I am so proud of all ten of our teens for their hard work, their best behavior and their hearts full of love.

What can we do to help? The problem is so overwhelming that I am not sure – there are so many needs. The few decisions I have made are to honor the boycotts from the CIW, pray for the immigrants, donate money to the organizations that help and definitely find out how the people who I help elect feel about immigration reform.

Surgery is a Success!

Come Home Soon!
Hooray!! Koda Crawford's hip surgery was successful this morning. We all wish her a speedy recovery and hope she gets home soon to take care of her new little puppy. Koda is the 12 year old child of Rusty and Mary from uscity.net. We love you lots, Koda!

NBA Finals Tickets On Sale Today at 2 p.m.

With Friday night's 89-81 win in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics are on their way to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1987 when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-2.

Individual tickets for the NBA Finals (Round 4, Home Games 1 and 2) vs. the Los Angeles Lakers will go on sale today 2 p.m.

Home Game 1 and Home Game 2 of the NBA Finals are scheduled to be played at the TD Banknorth Garden on Thursday, June 5 at 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 8 at 9 p.m. For tickets, click here.

For other sports tickets, please click here!

Welcome Linda!

We would like to welcome Linda Stamberger to our growing family at uscity.net. Linda will be writing copy and adding Florida articles to volusia.com.

She won a writing scholarship to Southampton College, and wrote for Good Times Magazine. Linda is the author of Antiquing in Florida, and has hundreds of articles published, eighty in print. To see some of Linda's articles, go to her Associated Content page.

She is a Florida expert author, and enjoys writing about all things Florida. She also loves Shih-Tzu dogs. We are glad to have Linda on board!

Gadget, Widget -- Gidget!

A FEW DAYS AGO, I was looking for something new to blog about here and called on our founder and driving force, Rusty, to ask him if he was working on anything new and exciting for uscity.net. Well, yes. Yes he was. He told me he was in the process of creating some gadgets. I, of course, immediately thought he had an idea for a new can opener or a better mousetrap. And knowing Rusty, as I do, that would be entirely possible!

However, Rusty assured me that he was working on something to help out uscity.net’s partners and anyone who would like to have easy access to our home page and some of our special features. We will be adding these gadgets to our site. Still, I thought, :HUH?!?,.

He started explaining it to me, got into explaining codes and proprietary stuff and I was lost, so I decided to do some research to find out about these new gadgets for websites. One of the first things I came across was an article stating that gadgets are actually widgets (again, HUH?!?) that are not widgets.

I went to one of my favorite sites, dictionary.com to get some definitions. So now I know that a Widget is:

“1. A meta-thing. Used to stand for a real object in didactic examples (especially database tutorials). Legend has it that the original widgets were holders for buggy whips. "But suppose the parts list for a widget has 52 entries..."
2. [possibly evoking "window gadget"] In graphical user interfaces, a combination of a graphic symbol and some program code to perform a specific function. E.g. a scroll-bar or button. Windowing systems usually provide widget libraries containing commonly used widgets drawn in a certain style and with consistent behaviour.”

Well, that certainly clears it all up… NOT!

And, I could not find anything for a computer related gadget on the site, but now know that the synonyms for gadget are: “contraption; whatsis, doohickey, thingamajig.”

But I prevailed and let me share with you what I found:

A gadget or widget is like a mini-program installed on your website to give you easy access to things you use a lot. It is so cool that we can now have the information we use the most right on our homepage. What I have gathered from my readings is that both widgets and gadgets do the same things. One article says that a widget can be plugged into anyone’s website with the proper code and that gadgets can only be plugged into certain websites or groups of websites. Then there’s Google, who I assume is way ahead of most of us on the top trends in websites and programming. They call their applications, which are mobile, gadgets So if we wanted to add a gadget to uscity.net, we could add it to all fifty states… florida.uscity.net, texas.uscity.net, california.uscity.net, etc…And if we want to make the same sort of applications for other websites to use to get to our features, we can do that too – (of course, when I say we, I mean the programmers).

For instance, if your website visitors are interested in up to date, real-time weather conditions and forecasts, you can install one of these cool little applications and your website visitors can instantly go to our weather site to check the weather, news or find a hotel. You could help your visitors find goods and services by putting our uscity.net main page gadget/widget on your website. The possibilities are endless. Rusty could make us some gadgets AND widgets to check out traffic information, news, use translation tools and even games and calculators.

I have read too many articles and websites that disagree on the meaning and/or difference of widgets and gadgets and it is getting late, so my final thought is that uscity.net should make our features mobile, easy to install on any website, forget about widgets and gadgets and create USCITY.NET GIDGETS!!

Gidgets… Gadgets… Widgets… whatever they are called, are awesome tools for us to use – I hope we can reach out to our communities with local news and weather, movie times in Florida, traffic information and more. Go Rusty Go!

American Idols Live!

No need to go into withdrawal with the “American Idol" television show winding down. This summer Idol junkies and fans will get a chance to see some of their favorites and the season’s top 10. The tour kicks off on July 1st in Glendale, Arizona and crosses America through September.

We don’t know who this year’s winner is yet, but Brooke White, Chikezie, David Archuleta, David Cook, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay and Syesha Mercad are on the list of entertainers to go on tour with this show. "One of the key factors in the success story of 'American Idol,' is the unique experience of seeing today's best undiscovered talent, perform live onstage each and every week," the show's creator, Simon Fuller, says in a press release.

Click here to get tickets in your area.