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The bakery giant and its labor unions have agreed to a Tuesday mediation session over a crippling labor strike the company cited as the final trigger for the emergency shutdown Hostess began last week.

The temporary reprieve in the labor-management standoff came in a White Plains, N.Y., hearing Monday in which U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain questioned the rationale for the strike by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

Drain cited "serious questions" about the strike because the union rejected Hostess' latest contract offer without filing an objection to it or discussing the possibility of going to mediation. The union represents about 5,000 of the company's 18,500 workers.

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0 Santa Claus

Christmas Image,  Santa Claus 

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Leila Bekhti

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Néstor Kirchner

Néstor Kirchner
Kirchner ante el Congreso Nacional, marzo de 2007
Secretario general de la Unasur
4 de mayo de 2010 – 27 de octubre de 2010
Presidente	Rafael Correa
Sucesor	María Emma Mejía1

Néstor Carlos Kirchner (Río Gallegos, Argentina, 25 de febrero de 1950 – El Calafate, Argentina, 27 de octubre de 2010)4 fue un político, abogado y empresario argentino, perteneciente al Partido Justicialista y al Frente para la Victoria, Presidente de la Nación Argentina entre el 25 de mayo de 2003 y el 10 de diciembre de 2007. Sucedió a Eduardo Duhalde, quien debía completar el mandato del renunciante Fernando de la Rúa, por lo que ejerció su mandato en los cuatro años correspondientes además de los pocos meses restantes del mandato inconcluso del expresidente radical. Kirchner fue sucedido en 2007 por su esposa Cristina Fernández. En consecuencia, se convirtió en el primer «primer caballero» (cargo genérico equiparable al de «primera dama») de la historia argentina.

Antes había sido intendente de Río Gallegos (1987-1991) y gobernador de la provincia de Santa Cruz (1991-2003). En 2009 fue elegido diputado de la Nación Argentina por la provincia de Buenos Aires, con mandato desde el 10 de diciembre de 2009 hasta el 10 de diciembre de 2013. Desde el 4 de mayo de 2010 se desempeñaba como secretario general de la Unasur.

También presidió el Partido Justicialista, cargo al que renunció el 29 de junio de 2009 y volvió a ocupar el 11 de noviembre de 2009, asumió de modo oficial el 10 de marzo de 2010.

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0 halloween

halloween

I've just enjoyed a great week on Rhys's Pieces, with almost 700 visitors on the best day. So I've been checking past stats and interestingly enough the post with the most views was last year's Halloween blog about why people like to be scared.

Halloween is, of course, a Celtic festival. It was the time when the veil between our world and Otherworld was lifted, when spirits, ghouls, and all manner of horrid things passed into our world for one night. Thus the wearing of scary masks and dressing up as ghosts and monsters was to make the creatures from beyond think that we were one of them and thus not try to grab us and take us back with them.

So I wonder if Halloween is part of our collective psyche, like being attracted to the smell of wood smoke and the fear of the dark (and spiders in my case). Some part of us remembers sitting around a camp fire generations ago, feeling safe and protected while one of the group told a scary story.  My children and grandchildren certainly have enjoyed transforming themselves into frightening things. Sweet little Mary Clare, aged 6, apparently told the other kids in her class that she was really a vampire, making them all terrified of her. The teacher complained to my daughter who made her promise not to do it again. "So promise mommy you won't tell anyone you're a vampire again," my daughter said. Mary Clare gave her a sweet smile. "Okay, mommy," she said. Then she went to school the next day and told them that she wasn't a vampire.... she was really a werewolf!

I have to admit that it's fun dressing up and being someone else for a while, but my costumes usually are of the harmless variety. Last year I was my character Lady Georgiana and John was an aging seducer from the Thirties. And this year I've written a special Halloween story featuring Lady Georgie. It's called Masked Ball at Broxley Manor--an extravaganza involving royalty and at least one gate-crasher. You can find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble to put you in the Halloween spirit.