O'BRIEN WINNER TO START
 

While JM Vangogh, who won the 2005 O'Brien Award as Canada's best older trotter, isn't a regular around Rockingham Park, his owner certainly is. That's what makes the third running of the $50,000 Joseph Carney Memorial Trot on Saturday (September 2) pretty special for John Mello.

Mello, who lives in Georgetown, Ma., purchased his first standardbreds and thoroughbreds in 1968 and began driving harness horses at Rockingham a year later. He liked the horse business and the track so much that he successfully bid for the disposal contract and has been hauling the horse manure away since 1972.

"It means an awful lot to me to be able to bring the best horse I've ever had for this race," said Mello, who currently has two other trotters in training north of the border. "I knew Joe Carney pretty well, and I always liked Joe. I'm an employee of the track, so I hope my horse gives a good account of himself."

Rockingham's most prestigious race for trotters is named in honor of Joe Carney, the track's late president who revived racing in New Hampshire after a devastating 1980 fire shuttered the track for four years.

JM Vangogh, a six-year-old who has earned over a million dollars in his career, has been installed as the 7-2 second choice in the talented field of trotters invited for the free-for-all.

"Everyone at the track here knows him," said Mello, who has always kept the Rockingham regulars updated on his horse's triumphs in Canada and elsewhere. "There are very few million-dollar earners who come here to race, so I think people will be excited to see him."

JM Vangogh will have the services of David Ingraham, who on Friday received the Silver Bullet Cup as the Coors Light Driver of the Year at Rockingham for the second consecutive season, when he breaks from post position five.

"I like my chances and I like my driver," said Mello. "David certainly knows his way around this racetrack."

Post time on Saturday is 1:05 p.m. Live racing continues throughout the Labor Day holiday weekend and the 2006 live meet will conclude on Monday. In addition to the Carney on Saturday, Miller Lite will send one lucky fan home with a barbecue grill and accessory package. On Monday, everyone at the races can register to win an Ipod from Coca-Cola.

Lynne Snierson

Rustic Garden Structures, the place for custom-built cedar garden structures in North Carolina unveils Rustic-Furniture-in-a-box projects. Please consider the release below as a product feature item for your publication.
  
Great outdoor furniture completes the scene a garden creates, and with furniture-in-a-box projects by Rustic Garden Structures gardeners can brag that they built it themselves. 
 
  As development consumes the countryside where he lives, Luke Barrow of Bynum, N.C. removes cedar trees and branches from areas that are being clear-cut and uses them for rustic furniture and structures. Now, for the first time his artistic furniture is delivered in kit form and creatively put together by the customer. Barrow explains, "For ten years we’ve been hearing our clients say they could do this themselves. We decided to put them to the test, provide them with materials and simple instructions, and challenge them to create their own artistic, rustic furniture."

Prices start at $199 and include free shipping within the continental U.S. Gardens will be enhanced with a delightful place to sit plus there will be a story to tell about a building adventure and the one-of-a-kind furniture.

Bill Pits Prisons Against Small Businesses 

For the second time in three years, the House has approved a bill forcing prisons to compete with small businesses for federal contracts.

The Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act, which passed the House by 362-57 last week, allows small private-sector manufacturers to vie for formerly non-competitive government contracts for office furniture, electronics, and other products and services.

In 2003, a similar House bill failed to pass the Senate.

Under current law, federal agencies are required to get certain office supplies and services from Federal Prison Industries under a special "mandatory source" status.

Created in 1934, FPI, which also goes by the trade name UNICOR, is a government-owned agency that employs inmates at federal prisons — paying them as low as 25 cents an hour — to supply goods and services for federal agencies.

Last year, FPI made $765 million in total sales, including $138 million in furniture sales alone, according to the agency's annual report.

Private-sector businesses, trade groups, and labor unions have long complained that the agency's preferred procurement status is unfair and bad for business.

The FPI says its own purchases of services and materials, primarily from small businesses, are good for the private sector. It has also says that without the program, inmates would have no way of learning work habits and job skills, which could lead to higher recidivism rates among inmates.

"The unintended and indirect message from FPI to working Americans is that if you want a job, commit a crime," Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill., chairman of the House Small Business Committee, said in a statement following Wednesday's vote. "That's not the American way."

"This legislation simply requires FPI to compete like every other business for contracts with the federal government," he added.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., who sponsored the bill, said it includes provisions for alternative work and rehabilitation programs for inmates that "are just as valuable in combating idleness and contributing to institution safety as prison labor."

Still, those programs could cost the government up to $357 million between 2007 and 2011, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

At the same time, federal agencies will likely be able to "acquire some products or services less expensively through a competitive procurement process," the CBO said.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which strongly supports the measure, taxpayers are already footing the bill for "above market prices for lower quality goods" under the current program.

In a congressional statement issued last year, it said the bill removed costly barriers that "prevent business, particularly small businesses, from obtaining government contracts."
A similar bill introduced in the Senate in April 2005 is currently in the committee stage.