Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) attended a ribbon-cutting event for the Health West clinic in Aberdeen, Idaho. Crapo praised the clinic, which will specialize in assisting low-income patients in rural areas, saying, “What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.” What Crapo did not mention in his praise for Health West is that most of its funding came from the stimulus package that he opposed:

During a brief speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Sen. Crapo said the clinic is essential in providing efficient high-quality services in a rural community. He said the facility helps address two disturbing trends in U.S. health care ? skyrocketing cost of services and limited access to quality care.

?What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today,? Crapo said. [...] Stephen Weeg, executive director for Health West in Southeast Idaho, said the clinic hopes to partner with the larger medical hospitals to bring in specialists once a month. Green light for the clinic did not come until stimulus money was made available.

Weeg said stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided $500,000 of the $660,000 project. Additional money came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About $74,000 was raised locally, with about $35,000 left to raise.

At the time of the passage of the stimulus bill, Crapo called it “an avalanche of special funding, much of which is unrelated to stimulating our economy as a whole.” It now appears that the senator realizes, at least implicitly, that it has provided funding to important projects like the West Health center that he calls “one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.”

There's nothing quite like John Rhys-Davies getting into a voice acting role on camera to cap off a week. Sure, him and fellow voiceover actor for Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Sean Astin talk about the game a bit, but we're much more entertained by Rhys-Davies' proclamation that "Behind every Aragorn, there's a dwarf!" See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin sign up for Aragorn's Quest

John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin sign up for Aragorn's Quest originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Developers and publishers have gone to some pretty drastic measures to prevent having their new products put through the Gamestop wash, such as EA's Project Ten Dollar, or Ubisoft's highly controversial "Pre-Owned Smart Bomb," which, upon sensing a player's intent to trade a game in, destroys his or her entire city. However, according to Treyarch's Mark Lamia, the developer hopes to combat resales of Call of Duty: Black Ops by making its multiplayer component positively unquittable.

"We're going to support the hell out of Black Ops," Lamia recently explained to MCV. "That will be our focus post-release: making sure we keep our fans engaged, and hopefully as a result, they'll want to keep playing our game and won't want to trade it in." A noble goal, but people really love trading in their games, guys. We're afraid of how things might escalate if Treyarch fights to keep their wavering attention. "No, wait, don't go," they might say, "now the game has dinosaurs!"

Treyarch combating trade-ins by supporting Black Ops multiplayer originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fans of lighter shades of red will be pleased to hear that the typically no-nonsense black (or blue!) DualShock 3 controller will be getting a somewhat whimsical pink paint job later this month. According to a recent Gamestop listing, the wireless controller will retail for the standard $55 and is expected to hit store shelves on September 21.

The listing adds this model is "perfect for female gamers and households with kids," though that statement is rather narrow-minded -- don't you think? It's like, if we were to draw a Venn diagram including "ladies" and "people who would want to play games with a pink controller," there'd probably be a surprisingly small amount of overlap, and then, slightly adjacent to that overlap, there'd be an even smaller circle representing Steven Tyler.

[Thanks, Vallanthaz]

Pink DualShock 3 controller coming September 21 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next week's Tokyo Game Show will be the site of many game unveilings, including Capcom's follow-up to Ace Attorney Investigations for Nintendo DS. No need to wait 'til then to get a peek at it, though, as the publisher has released the first few shots on its Japanese site. See 'em after the break.

Continue reading Investigate these Ace Attorney Investigations 2 screens

Investigate these Ace Attorney Investigations 2 screens originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Tuesday evening, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) conducted an “America Speaking Out” town hall with his constituents. Gingrey explained that Republicans would solicit ideas from the public using their America Speaking Out online platform to generate a new version of the 1994 “Contract with America.” However, he said regardless of the input received, the new political document outlining the GOP agenda would focus on extending the Bush era tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans. To reinforce his point, Gingrey said that extending the Bush era tax cuts to “at any level” would be a promise so strong it would be akin to “God’s covenant with Moses,” and a “a pledge of your sworn sacred honor” that he would “sign it in blood if necessary”:

GINGREY: I had somebody say you know a Contract with America is a little redundant, going back to 1994. And I had somebody suggest at a town hall meeting recently maybe it ought to be a “Covenant with America.” Just as God’s covenant with Moses, really this is a convenant. This is more of a commitment, more than a contract. This is a pledge of your sworn sacred honor. And maybe that’s the kind of thing that we need to get, to truly get attention and sign it in blood if necessary. So we think it would be not be appropriate at a time like this to raise people’s taxes, at any level. At any level. [?.]

GINGREY: When you start taxing men and women who create most of the jobs, you know that’s not the answer. So, our opinion I’m sure will be part of this covenant with America will be to keep taxes low for everybody.

Watch it:

Oddly, Gingrey also attacked public sector jobs and government spending, while in the same breath empathizing with “the pain that our teachers in Georgia are feeling.”

You know those Highlights magazines and coloring books you used to doodle in as a kid? Imagine your life depended on your ability to stay within the lines, only your arm had a mind of its own and the image you were coloring is constantly changing as you try to color it. Yeah, we had the same nightmare as kids ... and also, that's pretty much Lilt Line on Wii, the first game to be published - as opposed to developed - by Gaijin Games, the predominantly WiiWare dev studio behind the Bit.Trip series.

Continue reading Lilt Line preview: Stay between the lines

Lilt Line preview: Stay between the lines originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As part of a series of interviews with PC Gamer, the folks at Valve recently gave out a laundry list of failures on the company's part. Many readers will be familiar with many on the list, including early versions of Team Fortress 2, the flying fairy game and, more recently, mistakenly banning over 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 players. Of particular note on the list were Valve's failures regarding the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Valve's Erik Johnson lamented the way the company has dealt with the PS3, and also referred to the lack of Team Fortress 2 updates on the Xbox 360 as "a total failure." Johnson noted that these failures are worse than internal failures, saying, "If you fix a bug before it ever ships, it's pretty cheap. If you ship it and then fix it, it's really expensive." Gabe Newell added that the company is "really happy with the current situation with the PS3."

Concerning the lack of TF2 updates on Xbox, Newell admits that Valve built the game assuming that Microsoft would eventually change some of its Xbox Live rules (thought he didn't elaborate on the nature of said rules). "We thought that there would be something that would emerge," said Newell, "because we figured it was a sort of untenable." He added that Valve understood Microsoft's rules when it made TF2, but they were "such a train wreck" that the company assumed they would "have to change" eventually.

Valve owns up to its 'failures' with PS3 and 360 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Democratic primary for a state senate seat in Maryland’s 39th district has been a “among the more spirited this year in Maryland.” However, the contest literally took a dark turn this week when incumbent State Sen. Nancy King (D) sent out a campaign mailer “deliberately darkening” the skin tone of her primary challenger Saqib Ali.

The mailer, first obtained by Maryland Politics Watch, features two images of the candidate — one that appears to be a real photograph of Ali and a replica of that image that has been vertically flipped and darkened. “Every aspect” of the altered image of Ali – “his hair, his skin, his five-o’clock shadow, his tie and his suit — is darker”:

The campaign then chose to enlarge the darkened version of Ali later in the mailer.

King’s campaign manager Amy Yockus Hartman told the Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel that “at no time, in any way whatsoever, did we, or would we, alter photos or attempt to insinuate anything about Delegate Saqib Ali other than the verified facts we have consistently laid out through this campaign.”

Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D), who “is neutral in the race between King and Ali,” is not buying King’s explanation. Ervin left a comment on Maryland Politics Watch’s post, stating “this is the second piece of mail that has left me wondering if Senator King has any idea how many people of color that she represents in her district.” Ali was equally bewildered by King’s denial, “because clearly, to the plain eye, it’s obvious the photo has been altered. Without a doubt. So it’s one of those cases when someone says the sky is purple.”

Regardless of King’s intent, the alteration of skin tone has a clear impact on how people feel about candidates. A University of Chicago study last year showed that “people perceive lighter skin tone to be more representative of a candidate with whom they share political ideology than darker skin tone.” Even if an unknown candidate’s political affiliation is ambiguous, researchers found that voters “who saw a photo with darkened skin accompanying” an unknown candidate’s biography “reported that they were less likely to vote for this candidate.”

What level could better demonstrate the practical applications of LittleBigPlanet 2's grappling hook than one based on Tarzan, the O.G. of using swinging as a form of locomotion? Check out Media Molecule's "Sackzan" featurette below, and imagine how you'll incorporate the new toy in your own levels.

Continue reading LittleBigPlanet 2 'Sackzan' featurette is a swinging good time

LittleBigPlanet 2 'Sackzan' featurette is a swinging good time originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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