News figaro

Gov. Jerry Brown issues 79 pardons

Label: Business

Prison chaplain Leonard Wilson-Banks often tells the inmates he counsels to heed his life and the successes he accomplished after serving time behind bars.

But Wilson-Banks once gave up on the one part of his redemption — a pardon.

"I lost confidence," he said. But then a few years later he started pushing for it again.

More than 30 years and five governors after first applying, Wilson-Banks on Monday learned his perseverance had paid off. "Thank you so much! Thank you!" he said to a reporter who called him at an Arkansas prison to tell him that Gov. Jerry Brown had given him clemency.

Wilson-Banks, 77, was among 79 people for whom the California governor on Sunday signed full pardons, giving clemency to more people in a single day than some California governors have in their entire tenure.

The list was released Monday, but word had not yet reached all recipients. Wilson-Banks said his hopes lifted recently, when he heard Brown's office had called the warden at the Cummins Prison Unit in Arkansas, where he is chaplain.

His road to clemency started with release from prison in 1974, after serving time for a robbery in Alameda County in which he drove the get-away car. He began to work for criminal justice programs, from a university program for parolees to working as a chaplain and advisor in California prisons. An Alameda County court in 1980 endorsed him for a pardon, and when that wasn't enough, Wilson-Banks began soliciting letters of endorsement, including those from a judge and a congressman.

By 1988, Wilson-Banks gave up the quest, only to resume it a few years later, calling the governor's office so often that he came to know the staff by name. Still, Monday's news caught him off guard. "I only wish I got it before my mother went on, three years ago," he said.

For the most part, those pardoned were small-time drug offenders. Many who served little to no time in prison had secured pardon recommendations years ago from their local courts. One Sacramento man, who served a year in jail on a 1968 grand theft charge, had been eligible for pardon since 1973. The most serious case involved a Los Angeles woman, 80-year-old Bertha Fairley, who received clemency for a 1971 involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Brown's acts of clemency grace only a small set of those who become eligible every year. The majority of those pardoned had persuaded local Superior Courts to award them a certificate of rehabilitation. The service is free through the county public defender's office.

From January through November, the Los Angeles County Superior Court sent the governor's office the names of 60 people recommended for pardons. John Garbin, the paralegal who handles pardon applications for the county public defender's office, said he's seen only six granted in his career.

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

Envoy to Syria Brahimi Meets With President Assad

Label: World

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Monday and said he had presented “steps” to de-escalate the war, which he described as “still a reason for worry.”

The New York Times

A Syrian warplane was reported to have conducted airstrikes that killed dozens of people in Hilfaya, according to antigovernment activists in the area.

“We hope that all sides will work toward a solution, as the Syrian people want,” Mr. Brahimi said afterward in brief comments to reporters, according to the Reuters news agency.

Mr. Brahimi did not give any details of a specific proposal, but a member of Syria’s political opposition who said he had spoken with Mr. Brahimi’s aides said he was advocating a plan for a negotiated solution first proposed in June. The opposition member, Mohamed Sarmini, said the proposal would temporarily leave Mr. Assad in power while curbing his authority and creating a transitional government — an arrangement that the opposition has so far been unwilling to accept.

“It does not meet the demands of the revolution,” Mr. Sarmini said.

After the meeting, the official Syrian state news agency said Mr. Assad “stressed the Syrian government’s keenness” to pursue efforts that “preserve the sovereignty and independence of the homeland.”

Mr. Brahimi arrived in Damascus on Sunday as residents of the town of Halfaya, in west-central Syria, reported that dozens of people had been killed when a Syrian warplane dropped bombs on a bakery.

The attack, and the number of casualties, could not be immediately confirmed. A local activist said he ran to the bakery soon after he heard a warplane followed by explosions and the sound of ambulances. “There were bodies everywhere,” said the activist, who gave his name as Samer.

Photographs he took after the attack showed bodies in a heap on a bloody sidewalk outside a low-slung building, which was damaged but still standing. Amateur video of what the activists said was the aftermath of the attack showed a man sitting near a motorcycle, his arm twisted around his back, struggling to stand as people around him screamed. Roughly a dozen people could be seen on the ground, covered in dirt or debris from the building; some were wounded, and several appeared to be dead. Armed men wearing camouflage outfits were helping to move the bodies, which were placed on truck beds.

The reasons for the attack were unclear, but activists speculated that it was a government response to the arrival of rebel fighters in Halfaya. The rebels occupied the town last week after embarking on a broad offensive to seize territory around the city of Hama, where the government has kept tight control after suppressing protests in the city last year. In several days of fighting, civilians have been caught between the warring sides, a volatile development in a part of the country where members of Syria’s many sects live among one another in neighboring villages.

Human rights groups have accused the government of indiscriminate attacks on or near bakeries in the past, especially in the northern city of Aleppo. In a three-week period in the summer, Human Rights Watch documented 10 separate bombings on bakeries in the city.

Mr. Brahimi’s visit was likely to increase speculation about a deal to remove Mr. Assad from power. The talk has grown as rebel forces have claimed gains near government strongholds.

Russia, one of Syria’s most reliable allies, has recently sent signals that it is distancing itself from the Syrian president. On Saturday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said several countries in the region had offered Mr. Assad asylum, but he added that Moscow would not mediate on their behalf.

It was the third visit to Syria by Mr. Brahimi since he assumed his post in August, and it occurred as fighting grew worse in the eastern and southern suburbs of Damascus, where rebel commanders say they are trying to establish staging grounds for attacks on the capital.

West-central Syria has become the latest front in the war, with the rebels attacking government checkpoints and other positions in an effort to disrupt the military’s supply lines and to push south from opposition strongholds in northern Syria. The offensive has led to growing fears for civilians in the area.

On Friday, a group of rebel fighters posted a video in which they threatened to shell Christian villages unless residents forced government loyalists to leave. Local church leaders have pleaded for peace and an end to sectarian strife.

Before the bombing on Sunday, Halfaya had been repeatedly shelled from loyalist positions in a nearby village, activists said.

In some photographs that Samer, the activist, said he took at the bakery, one fighter, with his hands resting on his head, stared in shock at the bodies around him. Another carried body parts. Bystanders searched for survivors under the rubble. Another man picked up a piece of bread lying next to someone’s slippers.

In other amateur video apparently shot in a hospital, doctors tended to bleeding men lying on the floor, a teenage boy slumped against a wall and a woman lay on her side on a gurney. Antigovernment groups said 60 to 90 people were killed, but the toll was impossible to confirm. The bakery was one of three in the city, activists said. When word spread on Sunday that a flour shipment from Turkey had come in, people began lining up around noon, waiting for bread after a stretch of days when the bakeries had been idled.

After the bombings, rebel fighters released a statement vowing revenge.

Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

Atheist Kids and Bullying: Just an Xbox and a Football Game Away From Redemption

Label: Technology

I’ll never forget the year my eight-year-old daughter came home from school saying she got in trouble for going to the bathroom.

“I was afraid,” she said, “that the devil was coming out of the mirror to get me…. I wanted Aya to stay with me until I was done.”

Like any parent, I sat her down and asked her to tell me why she would ever think a mirror could spawn something as terrifying as that.

“Susie told me because I didn’t believe in god, the devil was coming to take my soul.”

MORE: Bullying the Bullies: What to Do to Save the Next Amanda Todd

“Susie” as we’ll call her, was a fellow eight-year-old student at my daughter’s Catholic school. Susie attended church every Sunday with her family—the same church that many of her classmates to this day all go to.

Was my daughter being bullied for being an atheist? I quickly dismissed it. After all, these were only eight-year-old girls, and it wasn’t like we talked about god hating with our morning cereal.

I soon noticed a new pattern of my daughter: She wouldn’t enter a bathroom without a friend or parent and began wetting the bed at night for fear of our extensive collection of bathroom mirrors pulling her into almighty hell at 2 a.m.

Sure enough, the religious eight-year-old was still pressuring my daughter to consider her morality, spirituality and reason for living daily in the school bathroom.

“When the child goes to school, and encounters for the first time other kids who don’t believe the same thing, whether it’s no belief or a different belief system, that can rock a kid’s world.”

I got on the phone and made sure the principal was aware of the bullying, that the child was reported and that my daughter would hopefully make the choice not to play with her anymore. The school thought I was a little crazy. Bullying was getting punched in the stomach in a dark place behind the school, not a little girl being taunted for not believing she was going to have life eternal. This was a new place they were afraid to gain control of. The principal, a former nun, kept a tight lip.

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, every day “an estimated 160,000 students in the U.S. refuse to go to school because they dread the physical and verbal aggression of their peers. Many more attend school in a chronic state of anxiety and depression.”

Courtney Campbell, Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, says he encountered the same case with his own children who were told at a very early age by some of their “friends” that they were “going to hell.” Though there were no physical beatings, the “psychic bullying” may have been worse.

“There is a phenomenon of religious-bullying at an early age, though in my own view/experience with raising my kids, it’s less of an issue than lookism [obese kids], size [‘big’ bullies], or gender, or clothes, or any of a number of things that kids do to manifest power over others,” says Campbell.

He points out that in most conservative/evangelical/fundamentalist Christian traditions, kids are taught at a very early age in their Sunday schools or summer bible camps that there’s only one path to happiness and salvation. That teaching, absorbed at a young age, is on its own rather threatening to the child.

Blame it on fear, maybe a calling out of one’s most sacred and learned family beleifs, but this form of push and shove is only getting more sophisticated.

Rachel Wagner, Associate Professor for the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College and author of Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality, says we are overlooking a major player of the religious bullying model—video games.

“If we compare video games to rituals as similar kinds of interactive experiences that are meant to shape how we see ourselves and others in the world, then we can argue something more basic—that video games (like rituals) can teach people habits of encounter—and offer youth deeply problematic models of encounter with difference,” says Wagner, who adds that in her next book, she’ll argue that religion has always had the ability to be “played” like a game, a religious encounter she coins “shooter religion.”

While Wagner admits it’s very important to remember that all world religions also have “deep and abiding practices urging compassion, understanding, tolerance, and social justice,” in today’s media-soaked society, feeling the need to retreat into a simpler world where people can be reduced to camps can be terribly tempting.

Stacy Pershall, author of Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl, says that growing up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in an athletics-focused, Christian bible belt, she was used to being surrounded by “Jesus talk.”

Pershall, who was bullied for being a “strange girl,” when young, unathletic and atheist to boot, now works and empowers high school and college students as a writing teacher and mental health speaker.

“Although it still makes my heart pound a little to stand in front of a crowd and admit that I don’t believe in god (as I recently did at Catholic University in D.C.), somebody needs to do it. I get to be the adult who says to kids, ‘I’m an atheist, I have morals, I have friends, I’m happy, and I care about how you feel.’ That’s a wonderful, powerful thing. I get to tell bullied kids who might be considering suicide that they’re not alone, and that they have kindred spirits. It’s what the Flying Spaghetti Monster put me on Earth to do.”

Were you ever bullied? Leave what you were bullied about in COMMENTS.

These are solely the author’s opinions and do not represent those of TakePart, LLC or its affiliates.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• 5 Things to Keep in Mind About Bullying

• A Bully’s Paradise: Hidden Halls, Dark Corners and No Supervision

• Mother Bullied to Abort Unborn Twins?

Amy DuFault is a writer and editor whose work has been published in EcoSalon, Huffington Post, Ecouterre, Organic Spa, Coastal Living, Yahoo!, The Frisky and other online and print publications. In addition to being a former co-owner of an eco-boutique, she coaches and connects the sustainable fashion community to feed her soul. She also dreams of singing in an all-girl punk band even though she has stage fright. @amytropolis | TakePart.com

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Atheist Kids and Bullying: Just an Xbox and a Football Game Away From Redemption
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Kerri Walsh Jennings Expecting a Girl

Label: Lifestyle

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

12/24/2012 at 08:15 AM ET

Kerri Walsh Jennings Expecting a Girl
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty

Kerri Walsh Jennings is thinking pink.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist found out the sex of her baby on the way live on Today Monday.

Walsh Jennings, husband Casey Jennings and sons Joseph, 3½, and Sundance, 2½, continued a previous Christmas tradition, having their doctor pen the baby’s gender on an ornament to reveal that come April, they’ll be welcoming a girl.

“We’re going to share something so special today and I’ve been dying for two months to find out,” the beach volleyball star, 34, said before breaking the news through tears. “Oh my God — we’re having a girl!”

“It feels a little cheesy if I overthink it, but I’m just not going to overthink it,” Walsh Jennings told Today prior to the announcement. “I feel like people are along for the ride with us. We’ve gotten so many words of encouragement … I welcome all the love and prayers I can get!”

– Sarah Michaud

Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

Label: Health

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.

Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.

But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.

"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.

Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.

Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)

Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.

Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.

"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."

In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:

—Previous violent or aggressive behavior

—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse

—Guns in the home

—Use of drugs or alcohol

—Brain damage from a head injury

Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.

Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.

Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.

According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.

Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.

Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.

And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.

All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.

Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.

Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.

Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.

___

Online:

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Marines to undergo random Breathalyzer tests

Label: Business

SAN DIEGO — Starting Jan. 1, Marines at Camp Pendleton and other bases will be subject to random Breathalyzer tests twice a year under what is billed as the toughest anti-drinking policy in the U.S. military.

An order issued by Lt. Gen. R.E. Milstead Jr., deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, calls for any Marine or sailor with a blood-alcohol level of 0.01% or higher to be referred for counseling. Any Marine or sailor who tests at 0.04% or higher will be referred to medical personnel to determine his or her fitness for duty.

Milstead said that although the new order "is primarily for deterrence and education," nothing precludes commanders from handing out punishment. Each unit will have an officer or staff noncommissioned officer to act as the alcohol screening program coordinator.

In California, a driver with a 0.08% blood-alcohol level is considered drunk, and his or her driver's license is immediately suspended. A single drink can lead to a level of 0.01%.

In September, a study by the Institute of Medicine, sponsored by the Department of Defense, found that binge drinking, often called "sport drinking," is increasing among military personnel in all branches.

In 1998, 35% of personnel admitted to binge drinking in the previous year. In 2008, the last year for which statistics were available, that figure had risen to 47%. Twenty percent of personnel classified themselves as "heavy" drinkers.

Noting that "alcohol has long been part of military culture," the study's authors, including professors from USC and UC San Francisco, called for better leadership from the top of the chain of command in curbing excess drinking. Among the recommendations was "routine screening for excessive alcohol consumption."

Under the Marine order, monthly reports about the results of the alcohol screening program will be kept by each Marine unit, and quarterly reports will be submitted to Marine Corps headquarters.

In fiscal 2011, the last year for which statistics are available, the Marine Corps reported 13 alcohol-related deaths among Marines in this country and abroad. Included were Marines killed by vehicle and motorcycle crashes, one from falling 17 stories from a building, one from attempting to run across a freeway near Camp Pendleton and several that occurred during binge drinking when the Marine passed out and could not be revived.

Officials have also expressed alarm about a link between alcohol abuse and cases of domestic violence and sexual assault.

In June, a Marine Corps report indicated that there had been 333 reported cases of sexual assault corpswide in the previous year and that in most cases, the aggressor, the victim or both had been drinking.

In a precede to that report, Commandant Gen. James Amos wrote: "Despite our efforts, we have been ineffective at addressing and eliminating sexual assault within our ranks."

tony.perry@latimes.com

India Ink: India Reacts to Tendulkar's Retirement from One-Day Cricket

Label: World

The Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar said Sunday that he was retiring from One Day International cricket.

“I have decided to retire from the One Day format of the game. I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup winning Indian team,” Tendulkar said in a statement released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

With the decision, Tendulkar, who enjoys Godlike stature for many in India and abroad, drew the curtain on a 23-year career in the format, called O.D.I., having played 463 O.D.I.s, scored 18,426 runs and made 49 centuries. He holds the record for being the highest run scorer in this format of the game and has also made the largest number of centuries, played the greatest number of games and, along with the former Indian batsman Rahul Dravid, holds the record for highest partnership (331 runs against New Zealand).

Understandably, his decision has left some very distraught Indian cricket fans, who expressed their grief and almost a sense of bereavement on Twitter and other social media platforms.

“Tendulkar retires from ODI. End of an era. For the past 20 years, we were fortunate to watch & enjoy some amazing cricket, thanks to him,” an orthodontist based in Malaysia, who uses the Twitter handle Sabarinathan, tweeted.

“Finally world Ended in 2012,” a reader named Ashish, from Pune, commented on a Times of India story about the retirement.

B.C.C.I. officials, however, seemed less than perturbed.

“Tendulkar’s decision is not a shocker for B.C.C.I. He was waiting for the right time,” Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer, told reporters. “What he has expressed is his concern that India has to prepare for the next World Cup. From that point of view, he felt that it was time that he retired.”

“A person of his caliber knows what to do. He has always taken the right decision at the right time. He will continue to do that in future as well,” Sanjay Jagdale, the board’s general secretary, told reporters.

Reaction from the cricketing community in India was mixed.

“Sachin tendulkar a great batsman.great human being.a great friend.great man to look up 2.proud indian.Real son of india.I salute u nd love u,” the cricketer Harbhajan Singh tweeted.

“He has done Indian cricket a favor…. He has played a great deal of cricket and noone can compare to him but all I can say is: better late than never,” the former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad said in an interview with the news channel ABP.

Some fans, too, lauded Tendular’s decision as the right move at the right time.

“A late, but correct decision by Tendulkar. He will be missed but time had come,” Imran Asghar, who according to his Twitter profile is a British Pakistani, tweeted.

Tendulkar, it seems, has a special connection with India’s archrival, Pakistan. He made his debut in O.D.I.’s, nearly two decades ago, against Pakistan on Dec. 18, 1989. His last O.D.I. was also against Pakistan, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the Asia Cup last March, where he scored 52 runs. India won the match.

Coincidentally his announcement came on a day that the Indian team for the two T20s and three O.D.I.’s with Pakistan, which will start next week, was announced.

“Sachin’s announcement has come as a big surprise,” Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former chairman of the selection committee for the Indian team, told news channel CNN-IBN. “I thought he would play in the one-day series against Pakistan.”

Despite a string of poor performances recently, Tendulkar bid adieu to his home audience in style. His last O.D.I. played in India was the World Cup final match against Sri Lanka in his hometown, Mumbai. India won the match and World Cup 2011, following a nearly three-decade wait after its 1983 World Cup victory.

“I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well wishers for their unconditional support and love over the years,” he said in his statement.

However, he has announced no plans to retire from Test matches, the longer five-day format of the game.

Linnea Johansson Blogs About Making Your Home Party-Ready

Label: Lifestyle

By Linnea Johansson

12/23/2012 at 08:05 AM EST

Party planner Linnea Johansson (standing)

Adrian Mueller - Fabrik Studios

Celebrity event planner and chef Linnea Johansson knows how to throw a party. She's worked with A-list stars such as Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Justin Timberlake and just released her second book, Perfect Parties – Tips and Recipes from a New York Party Planner in October. Now she's lending her expertise to PEOPLE.com with two blogs geared toward your holiday party planning. Cheers!

When planning a holiday party or a bash for any time of year, you may want to start with an easy, inexpensive dining room makeover.

Giving your old chairs a new look in no time to spruce up your dining room for the holidays and/or any party occasion. Simply wrap fabric against the back of the chairs and then staple the fabric on the inside of the back ... and you have new chair slip covers in a jiffy. This works great at home, and you can easily create a new look for a room.

This trick has saved me many times. I once did an event for the Food Network to honor their stars. There was not much to do on the food end as all the show hosts and chefs sent over their recipes for a menu. The space was beautiful but the chairs I rented arrived in the wrong color. So I had to do a little last minute dining room makeover. My team and I rushed out and got fabric from the office and did a quick makeover for the chairs right before the guests started to arrive.

Light It Like Gere
Most of my clients think I am crazy when I say I want to spend 50% of the decor budget on lighting. I always have to tell them the same story to convince them. When doing a job with Richard Gere and his wife at their restaurant the Bedford Post Inn, they not only had tons of cozy lighting in their restaurant, but also had little pink lights throughout the space. As he has been in countless movies, Richard told me that pinkish-hued lights is a movie set trick and makes everyone look great and at least 10 years younger. I have been using pink lights ever since. Thanks, Richard!

Linnea Johansson Blogs About Making Your Home Party-Ready| Celebrity Blog, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Private Party

Linnea Johansson's book, Perfect Parties

So no matter how lavish or casual the party, lighting is the way to make a regular space look different and sets the mood. For at home entertaining, I start by shutting off all the overhead lights and directing any spotlights at your best looking décor item, whether that's flower arrangements, the buffet or the dinner table. You can simply buy cheap spotlights and set up for the night, or make votive holders by simply wrapping drinking glasses in decorative paper and taping the back, then add votive candles. Cluster the votives around the area you want to highlight.

DIY Frame-to-Trays
Turning frames into trays is one of my favorite decor tricks, and I have used it at countless events. Simply buy a cheap frame, and frame a decorative fabric or decorative paper. Then you can use it as a serving tray, platter on a buffet or decorative charger under your guest plates – easy and cheap to create. And the best part is, for the next party, you can simply frame something new to match that parties theme. As you can imagine, my office has quite a few frames stacked in it.

Table Decor & Bar in One

I love creating a beautiful flowering punch bowl in the middle of the table; it works like a self-serve bar and great table decoration, all in one. As an extra bonus, you'll keep the party decor bill down. Slice seasonal fruit or my favorite, edible flowers. You can also freeze the fruit or flowers into a large ice block. Place a few votive candles around the punch bowl and it will sparkle and glow.