Impressive pinot noirs, zinfandels, and chardonnays from the heart of California’s Russian River

by Robert Parker

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This impressive estate in the heart of Russian River is part of the treasure trove of great estates owned by Jess Jackson’s boutique operation, often referred to as Artisans & Estates. The property is managed by Jackson’s son-in-law, Don Hartford, who has an impressive track make an entry of of hiring top winemakers, and producing superb zinfandels, pinot noirs, and chardonnays. I first became excited by the Hartford wines when the talented Mike Sullivan was there, and he has been replaced by one more terrific winemaker, Jeff Mangahas. Of course, the most important aspect is terroir, and this winery owns some of the finest cool climate sites in the Russian River, Green Valley, and Sonoma Coast. Here are some of their current and up-coming releases, all of which are sensational wines that, by means of North Coast standards, remain realistically priced.

90 points 2005 Pinot Noir Hailey’s Block Arrendell Vineyard (Green Valley, Russian River)

The 2005 Pinot Noir Hailey’s Block comes from Green Valley’s Arrendell Vineyard, one of the coolest places for growing fruit in Northern California. This vineyard, that is at a modest elevation of 100-140 feet, has produced a wine by means ruby color, notes of cranberries, strawberries, and red currants with hints of pomegranate and earth. The wine has harsh acidity, beautiful fruit purity, and a fragrant bouquet. It is definitely a cool-climate pinot, but an impeccably well-made one. Drink it superior the next four to five years. $55

90 points 2005 Pinot Noir Jennifer’s Marshall Vineyard (Russian River)

This vineyard is situated in the well-known Petaluma Wind Gap, which is a funnel for winds coming off the Pacific and churning into the Russian River Valley. It is a very cold area, and this wine reflects that in its hints of sassafras, pomegranate, cherry, and strawberry. The wine is dark ruby, medium-bodied, by zesty acidity, and a heady finish. $65

91 points 2006 Chardonnay Four Hearts (Russian River)

This multiple-vineyard blend exhibits loads of metaphorical consequence, poached pear, and apple marmalade notes followed by full-bodied flavors by a subtle wood remark, a leesy, chewy texture, and a good finish with fresh acidity and discernment. Enjoy it over the next several years. $40

91 points 2005 Pinot Noir Sevens Bench Vineyard (Carneros)

This is a ample, plump pinot noir revealing hints of spring flowers intermixed with black cherry and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied through good acidity, outstanding perfection, and a long, layered finish, it is a beautiful Pinot for drinking over the next four to six years. $50

92 points 2005 Pinot Noir Velvet Sisters (Anderson Valley)

The 2005 Pinot Noir Velvet Sisters, from the Savoy and Falk Vineyards in Anderson Valley, is a classic example of this area. Bluer effect characteristics longitudinally with copious notes of flowers jump from the glass of this dark ruby-colored wine. It is nuanced and elegant, with adequate supply of dressing, lovely balance, and a soft personality. Drink this wine over the next four to five years. $55

93 points 2005 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard (Green Valley, Russian River)

Made from the possessions’s oldest pinot noir vines (32-year-old heritage Martini clone), this cuvée exhibits a grenache-like kirsch liqueur and raspberry fruitiness. Elegant, by medium to full-bodied flavors, great fruit on the attack and mid-palate, and a savory, medium to full-bodied finish, this wine should tipple nicely for five to six years. $75

93 points 2005 Pinot Noir Far Coast Vineyard (Sonoma Coast)

This is an exceptional pinot noir. Dark ruby in color, with a beautiful nose of rose petals, strawberry and cherry jam, forest pose, and peat moss, the wine also has an undeniable minerality about its character, through great matured ovary, terrific texture, and a lingering perform. This is a superb Pinot that should drink nicely in spite of five to six years. $65

94 points 2006 Zinfandel Dina’s Vineyard (Russian River)

From a 100-year-old parcel of seven acres of head-trained, dry-farmed vines, the superb 2006 Zinfandel Dina’s Vineyard (15.8% alcohol) offers copious quantities of raspberry and blueberry edible succulent growth, a full-bodied, peppery, spicy personal criticism, and oodles of glycerin and depth. $50

94 points 2006 Zinfandel Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard (Russian River)

A stunning effort is the 2006 Zinfandel Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard, from 100-year-old vines planted in sandy/mould soils. This dense ruby/purple-colored wine shows notes of black raspberry, balmy cherry, roasted herbs, pepper, and soil notes. It is full-bodied, powerful, with head-spinning levels of alcohol (15.8%). The wine has fearful purity and should quench one’s thirst nicely because four to six years. $50

96 points 2006 Chardonnay Stone Côte (Sonoma Coast)

A compelling chardonnay offering glorious notes of crushed rocks, white currants, nectarine, and white peach, this superbly nuanced, full-bodied wine has confinement, but effortless concentration and richness as well since impeccable balance. It is best drenched above the next two to three years. $50

I’ve ofttimes told people trying to squeak into a Ferrari that if they can’t afford the best example, they really can’t afford an edgy one

by Steve Ahlgrim

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Not since the 412’s demise in 1989 had Ferrari offered a 2+2, and when the 456 GT debuted at the Paris Salon in October 1992, it was obvious that the long-awaited newcomer eclipsed all Maranello’s former four-seat Grand Tourers.

Although new from stem to stern, the 456 GT incorporated elements familiar to generations of Ferrari cognoscenti—front-mounted 4-cam V12, rear transaxle, tube-like steel spaceframe chassis, and all-independent suspension—while making an appearance on this account that the primeval time were electronically-controlled adaptive suspension and a 6-speed gearbox (there was furthermore an optional automatic).

Essentially a detuned version of the engine powering the 550 and 575, the new 5.5-liter V12 unleashed no less amount than 442 hp. Except for the F40, the 456 was the most energetic way car developed by Ferrari up to that time.

For the 456, Pininfarina worked its magic formerly to a greater degree to create a subtly beautiful curvaceous body contrasting with the hard edges of its progenitor. Aerodynamically efficient, the 456 remained stable up to its maximum of around 190 mph, a conformation that made it the world’s fastest production four-seater passenger car. Acclaimed on its debut, the 456’s styling has not dated and is a tribute to Pininfarina’s farsightedness in creating one of most successful designs of modern times.

Supplied new via Maranello Sales in June 1996, this fine manual transmission example has covered only 38,000 miles from new and remains in good condition everywhere. The car has been in storage, unused, for the past couple years and thus we attract favor to a thorough service/checkover be carried out prior to exercise.

All handbooks are in the correct wallet, including a fully stamped service book. Ferrari 575 wheels and front disc brakes/calipers are the merely notified deviations from manufactory specification.

The SCM Analysis

This car sold for $66,326 at Bonhams’s Goodwood Festival of Speed auction onward July 11, 2008.

The 456 was Ferrari’s attempt to make a car that was "different from the other cars in all aspects by the agency of synthesizing the act and driving pleasure of a sports car with the comfort and extent of a gran turismo." That was a lofty goal and one that could only have being achieved by small increments of differences given the fine gran turismo offerings from the competition. Ferrari’s ultimate talent is its ability to exploit small increment improvements to make a truly high car, and in that remark the 456 is a result.

The silhouette of the 456 is a masterpiece of Pininfarina design. It is a consummate elaborate balance of aggressiveness and elegance. The proportions are large enough to say, "I’m a grown husband’s car," but compact enough to be sporty. It is a hallmark of highline Ferraris that each centimeter of the inland is covered in plush carpet or rich leather. The 456 ups the bar with a warm inner that’s elegant, unmingled, and uniquely Italian. Complementing the appearance, the interior has all the fully adjustable, electronic, and automatic features you would expect to find on a luxury automobile.

Breaking tires loose be pleased with a muscle car

Mechanics are the seat of affection of any Ferrari, and in this domain the 456 does not disappoint. The V12’s nearly 450 horsepower is impressive, but the magic is the 398 ft-lb of torque at the sweet taint of just 4,500 rpm; the 456 can break tires relaxed like a skinny-tired muscle car. Variable-ratio power steering, three-way adjustable hanging dampening, self-leveling rear ride height, and a speed-activated raise up spoiler ensure the handling is up to the performance. In uncivil, the 456 is one heck of a nice car.

Ferraris are a rich man’s toy, and in no degree demonstrates the principle like a 2+2 Ferrari. Two-plus-twos are the workhorses of the Ferrari marque. They are designed to be a practical daily driver and are often used to the degree that of that kind. Regular use translates to higher mileage, more inner be consumed by slow degrees, more exterior damage, and in general, less anxiety. Rich new car buyers like to drive new, flawless, low-mileage cars, so after a few chips, their 2+2 gives way to a new car.

GM introduces the Chevy Volt, a satin electric car competent of 40 mpg on a choose charge

by David Welch

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Some critics have called the Chevrolet Volt, the electric car General Motors (GM) plans to sell in 2010, vaporware. Other skeptics have doubted the group could get the needed lithium-ion batteries ready for market by then.

But in a play to ceremony that GM power of choosing have beyond its progression financial struggles and challenge Toyota ™ in the technology game, Chairman and CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr. showed the production version of the car at a 100th annual event for the automaker at its Detroit headquarters. "The Volt is hieroglyphical of what GM is today—cutting-edge design and technology," he declared.

GM first showed the Volt in January 2007 at the Detroit Auto Show (BusinessWeek.com, 7/01/07) in an attempt to show it was pushing ahead with advanced technology. While GM and its bread-and-butter Chevrolet brand were trying to buoy pickup truck and SUV sales amid rising gasoline prices, rival Toyota was winning converts through its Prius (BusinessWeek.com, 6/6/08)> and several other mule electric cars.

The Volt is an attempt to leapfrog over the Prius’s reputation for technology and make GM’s Chevy brand—known more for trucks and muscle cars than tech savvy—appropriate in today’s market. Says Global Insight analyst John Wolkonowicz: "This is exactly what Chevy of necessity."

The car is more advanced than today’s hybrids, what one. typically run most of the time on a gasoline instrument, acquisition a boost from electric motors to improve fuel economy.

The Volt is completely different. It is engineered to run purely off the full of fire motor for up to 40 miles on a single charge from a domestic circle outlet. After that a four-cylinder gasoline engine kicks in to charge the battery. The car would get more than 50 mpg if the driver drains the battery and uses a tank of gas. But the collection says most drivers commute less than 40 miles a day, to such a degree they’ll rarely use gasoline.

GM was expected to spread abroad that the controversial car is put on the progression to being showroom-ready. The and nothing else surprise is that the vehicle’s design drifted from the protoplast concept car, what the same. was sportier than the fruit model GM displayed in Detroit. The new one isn’t bland by any stretch, but GM Vice-Chairman Robert A. Lutz explained that the car had to change to make it greater degree aerodynamic and cost-effective.

First, Lutz said, the car will be built using similar underpinnings of GM’s future family of compact cars. In that sense, the Volt will be a cousin of the Chevrolet Cruze compact (BusinessWeek.com, 7/10/08), what one. goes on sale in Europe in March and the U.S. a year later.

That allows GM to share some parts with a family of compacts that will sell hundreds of thousands of copies a year worldwide. The tradeoff is that the Volt loses the longer hood and sporty stance of its concept car.

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What sort of methods will this project use to try and prove to be correct people’s claims of “near-death” experience?

When your heart stops throb, there is in no degree blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about ten seconds, brain exercise ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, ten or 20 percent of people who are then brought back to vitality from that period, which may be a scarcely any minutes or over every twenty-fourth part of a day, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, are these real, or is it more sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures single visible from the ceiling and nowhere besides, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they’re able to tend hitherward back and tell us the kind of we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn’t functioning.

How does this project relate to society’s perception of death?

People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you’re either dead or you’re cheerful. And that’s a sociable definition we be in actual possession of. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops acting. When doctors glow a light into someone’s pupil, it’s to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye introspective is mediated by the brain stem and that’s the circuit that keeps us alive; if that doesn’t work then that resource that the brain itself isn’t working. At that point, I’ll appeal to a bring up into the room so I can certify that this patient is dead. Fifty years ago, mob couldn’t remain alive after that.

How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?

Nowadays, we have technology that’s improved so that we can bring men back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they’ll ever rise it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine, you fast-forward to ten years down the line and you’ve given a patient whose heart has just stopped this amazing drug, and actually what it does is it slows everything down in the way that that the things that would’ve happened over an twenty-fourth part of a day, now happen excessively two days. As healing art progresses, we will end up through lots and lots of ethical questions.

But what is happening to the individual at that time, that which’s really going on? Because there is a lack of consanguinity grow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And in the inside of about 5 minutes or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so dignified that even if we restart the love again and cross-question blood, the person be able to nay longer be viable because the cells have just been changed too much. And in consequence the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it’s not a moment, it’s a process that actually begins when the passion stops and culminates in the complete loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, at last what matters is, What’s going attached to a person’s mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon to the degree that the heart stops? Does it cease activity not beyond the first 2 seconds, the leading 2 minutes? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after ten minutes, after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don’t know.

What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?

Eye-opening and self-same humbling. Because that which you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine populate who are not looking for the sake of any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven’t even told anybody besides relative to it because they’re afraid of what people will think of them. I have about five hundred or so cases of people that I’ve interviewed since I first started out more than ten years ago. It’s the consistency of the experiences, the realty of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened and they couldn’t explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not honorable the patients’ side but also have the doctors’ side - and see how it feels for the doctors to possess a sufferer approach back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn’t told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail the sort of he had said and finished. He was such freaked out by it that he just unquestionable not to think about it anymore.

Why translate you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?

Because we’re pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people clinch this idea that well, when you die you cease to exist, that’s it. Death is a moment, you know you’re either dead or you’re alive. All these things are not scientifically valid but they’re social perceptions. If you lo remote at the end of the 19th hundred years, physicists at that present life had been working with Newtonian laws of motion and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out in that place in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is alto gether sufficient. It explains most things that we deal through. But in consequence it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really minute levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton’s laws nay longer put. A new science of energy was needed, henceforth, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy, even Einstein himself didn’t rely upon in it.

Now, whether or not you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, since in 99% of circumstances we can’t separate the mind and brain, they toil at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain ultimate examples, like when the brain shuts the floor, that we meet with that that this conceit may not any longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the similar way that we had to have a renovated quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us remote to our roots. It may take us back to the earliest moments after the big bang, the surpassingly beginning. With our meditate, for the first opportunity, we be delivered of the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see that which happens at the end for us. Does something abide?

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Read concerning in what state many Americans believe in guardian angels hereTime.com

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Dennett, 61, the Progressive Party’s candidate for Vermont Attorney General, said Thursday she will prosecute President Bush for murder if she’s elected Nov. 4.

Dennett, an attorney and investigative journalist, says Bush must be held responsible according to the deaths of thousands of people in Iraq — U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. She believes the Vermont attorney general would have legal power to carry into effect so.

She also related she would appoint a special prosecutor and even now knows who that should be: framer Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, the author of “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,” a new book.

“Someone has to act forward,” said Dennett, flanked by Bugliosi at a word conference announcing her plan. “Someone has to say we cannot put up with this shortcoming of accountability any more.”

Dennett and pair others are challenging incumbent Attorney General William Sorrell, a Democrat, in the Nov. 4 election.

Bugliosi, 74, who gained fame as the prosecutor of killer Charles Manson, said any state attorney general would have jurisdiction since Bush committed “apparent acts” including the military’s recruitment of soldiers in Vermont and allegedly false hind part before the threat posed by prior Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in speeches that were aired in Vermont and in many.

“No man, even the president of the United States, is above the law,” said Bugliosi.

The White House press office didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday. But Republican National Committee spokesman Blair Latoff denounced Dennett.

“It’s extremely disappointing that a candidate for state attorney general is more concerned with radical left-wing provocation than upholding the law of Vermont,” Latoff said. “These incendiary suggestions may notch points among the chiefly fringe elements of American society, but can’t be subsidence for anyone looking concerning an attorney general.”

Anti-Bush sentiment runs deep in Vermont. It’s the only state Bush hasn’t visited as president, and one whose liberal tendencies produce it improbable he decree.

In 2007, the recite Senate adopted a resolution calling for Congress to break the ice impeachment proceedings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Last March, the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro voted to seek indictments against Bush and Cheney over the war, and dozens of other towns voted at town meetings to call for his impeachment.

Sorrell, who is seeking a sixth term, said he doesn’t believe a Vermont attorney general would require the dignity to charge Bush.

“The substantiality is, in my view, that unless the aggravated misdemeanor takes place in Vermont, then I for the reason that the attorney general have in no degree authority under Vermont law to be prosecuting the president,” Sorrell related.

The strange concept gives novel expression to automaker’s Scandinavian-inspired design ethos

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Just over a quarter century ago, Saab showed the first four-seater convertible to the world, creating a new class of luxury automobile. Now it’s located to do it all over again with the 9-X Air general car and a visually-distinctive newly-designed Canopy Top designed to aerodynamically cocoon the passenger enclosed space. The design incorporates prominent raked rear pillars that curve upwards to amount a flat folding roof—essentially a development of the Targo roof principle—with a separate rear screen located between them. Instead of having a manually detachable house section, the Saab Canopy top is completely powered in manipulation and folds away in the storage trunk. With the top down motorists have power to enjoy open-top motoring eager from buffeting, and with the top up the 9-X Air assumes the guise of a true coupe. Saab has filed a patent on the convertible vault outline and from this time forth the 9-X Air provides a transitory view of what a future convertible from Saab could look like.

The clean, sculpted body contours of the 9-X Air accord. fresh lively representation to Saab’s Scandinavian-inspired invention ethos and its aircraft heritage. The purposeful stance, with minimal overhangs front and rear, is complemented by a single, wraparound window graphic, regulate uncluttered body surfaces and ‘congeal block’ lighting themes.

Anthony Lo, Director of Advanced Design at General Europe said of the car: "Like her sister the 9-X BioHybrid, this car is every part of about efficiency in design and performance. It offers important benefits in weight-saving and packaging as correctly as giving us the exemption from restraint. to take convertible design forward."

The 9-X Air and its hatchback sibling too showcase seamless, wireless connectivity (Bluetooth) with one or multiple vagrant devices (mobile phones, PDAs etc).

The 9-X Air has been created by a team under Anthony Lo, Director of Advanced Design at General Motors Europe, operating in co-operation by the Saab Brand Center in Sweden.

Designed in parallel through the Saab 9-X BioHybrid concept, the 9-X Air shares its distinctive brow-band styling, in the same place with its highly efficient powertrain. The small, 1.4-litre Saab BioPower engine combines a series of measures on this account that more responsible entertainment: engine rightsizing, turbocharging, the use of biofuels and hybrid technology.

Running adhering E85 fuel (85% bioethanol/ 15% petrol), the engine delivers a sporty 200 hp (147 kW), giving zero to 62 mph acceleration in 8.1 seconds and projected CO2 tailpipe emissions of just 107 g/km over the combined cycle. Compared to normal petrol, the overall environmental impact on a source-to-wheel basis of using E85 is even else beneficial.

The exterior appear of the 9-X Air is defined by the prominent C-pillars, or buttresses, that provide the rear mounting during the term of the unique Canopy Top - a powered, flat-folding roof developed from a Targa top principle. This innovation in convertible design, which distinguishes between a folding roof and a complete folding soft-top or hood assembly, is subject to a Saab patent suit.

The Canopy Top is in fabric, rather than metal, to save weight and engage more efficient packaging. It is fully automatic in operation and folds neatly in three small sections under a rear tonneau cover in the trunk deck. The rear screen between the buttresses retracts automatically into the underside of the raised tonneau fold up to allow stowage of the Canopy Top. The screen then moves back into position to provide a without fault glass surround for the cabin in open-top mode.

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A federal regard has rejected the latest appeal by Washington’s longest-serving death-row inmate, Jonathan Lee Gentry, turning aside allegations of police and prosecutor misconduct and nearly a dozen other claims that he hadn’t received a fair testing.

Gentry, 52, has been on death tumult since 1991, at the time he was convicted of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in Bremerton. On Monday in Seattle, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ruled upon the body a supplicate filed by Gentry’s attorneys in 1999.

But the judge has given Gentry’s attorneys until next month to ask him to consider again portions of his controlling, and Gentry’s lawyer promised to pursue the case into the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Weisser said Gentry’s case will likely take “at least two additional years” in appeals.

“These are difficult cases, and we know this process is a lengthy one,” Weisser said. “We can’t afford to get frustrated now.”

Lasnik, in a separate ruling earlier this month, found that the Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office knowingly withheld evidence and elicited false testimony from at least one jailhouse snitch in the plight. The judge fix, however, that taken in words immediately preceding with other, damning evidence, the sending out didn’t prejudice Gentry plenty to grant him a new trial or throw out the death penalty.

“We are greatly disappointed … that the judge didn’t determine judicially reversible error,” said Gentry’s appellate attorney, Scott Engelhard. “We believe the conviction should be overturned.”

Gentry was convicted of killing Cassie Holden, a Pocatello, Idaho, girl who was visiting her dam in Bremerton in June 1988. An ocular evidence found she’d been beaten through a large rock.

Witnesses reported because a black male person in the area, and Gentry, who is monstrous, had a drawn out delinquent history and quickly came under suspicion subsequently he was arrested for the knife-point rape of another young woman in Kitsap County.

He was charged with Holden’s murder after hair and blood on his shoelaces linked him to the crime.

In January 1995, the condition Supreme Court upheld Gentry’s death sentence in a 6-3 decision. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Gentry for a hearing on his seek reference of the case to overturn his settled belief.

In February 1999, the state Supreme Court again upheld Gentry’s death sentence. In a 7-2 decision, the court said, “Gentry has not provided us any reasons to re-examine issues we previously resolved in prescribe to review. Moreover, he has not demonstrated the thing of new issues” to examine.