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Lou’s Cafe Celebrates Their One Year Anniversary in San Francisco

s Cafe in San Francisco’s Richmond district celebrates their first year in the city with introducing “a new Sandwich Menu” and the chance for customers to have a sandwich named after them.

San Francisco, CA (Vocus/PRWEB) March 16, 2011

Get ready to celebrate as family-owned and operated Lou’s Cafe, located in the Richmond district of San Francisco, announces their one year anniversary in San Francisco on March 19, 2011. In honor of the event, Lou’s is offering special promotions on that day, including free chips and soda with the purchase of a sandwich, as well as introducing a new sandwich menu.

“Awesome sandwiches in the Richmond! Finally! The service couldn't be friendlier and the sandwiches couldn't be tastier,” says customer Evel K. “Love the Lou's Special Sauce and I always ask for extra jalapeno spread. If you're looking for a hot, fresh, tasty sandwich served by good folks, then look no further.”

Along with the promotions on the day of the event, Lou’s is offering a chance to have a sandwich named after one lucky customer. With the purchase of one of , each customer can submit their idea for a new gourmet sandwich and what they want it to be named. Someone’s tasty idea could be Lou’s next special.

Lou’s is highly rated with a 4.5 out of 5 stars on consumer generated content site Yelp.com, and has won a “Best of Yelp” Award for restaurants in San Francisco.

For more information about the promotions involved in Lou’s one year anniversary celebration, or any of Lou’s Cafe’s products or services, call them at (415) 379-4429, view them on the web at , or visit their store located at 5017 Geary Boulevard in San Francisco.

About Lou’s CafeLou’s Cafe is a family-run restaurant that specializes in , soups, salads, pastries and coffee. Lou’s Cafe is located in the Richmond district.They take pride in their fresh ingredients, homemade sauces and innovative lunch and . They provide delivery options for local businesses, as well as catering for all party needs, and can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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TJ BrodethLou's Cafe(415) 418-7793Email Information

Witness: Searching for reforms in King Abdullah's Saudi Arabia

The moment my wife and I left our apartment compound in downtown Riyadh, a jeep screeched to a halt in front of us and a bearded man stepped out.

"Is this your wife? I want to give you some advice. Don't let her wear makeup," said the religious policeman, dressed in a traditional white robe.

"If she uses makeup, other men will only look at her," he added, raising his forefinger to stress his point and staring hard at me.

A woman wearing makeup or not completely covering up would go unnoticed in most parts of the world, but in Saudi Arabia it can be enough to get you detained for "immoral behavior."

Encountering religious police roaming the streets to uphold the kingdom's values of an austere version of Sunni Islam was one of the most striking experiences of living in Saudi Arabia.

It was also a reminder that the Gulf Arab state remains a deeply conservative country despite hype in the West praising King Abdullah for reforms such as overhauling outdated state education or liberalizing the economy.

"Moderate" and "reformer" are regular descriptions of Abdullah by Western diplomats, intellectuals and business people since he took office in 2005. Some even call him "liberal."

But during my two years as Reuters correspondent in the Saudi capital, I did not notice any changes in a strict social code banning unrelated men or women from mixing and forcing shops and restaurants to close five times a day for prayers.

In fact, I felt the country got slightly more conservative, not just because of religious police cops roaming the streets.

Shortly after I arrived, the cabinet shelved plans for a municipal vote in which women had hoped to participate for the first time. The move shocked reformers longing for changes in a country without an elected parliament or political parties.

Weeks later, authorities canceled Saudi Arabia's only film festival. We few accredited foreign journalists had planned to cover the Jeddah event, but at the last minute, officials told us in private that it would not take place.

No explanation was given, but diplomats pointed the finger at Interior Minister Prince Nayef, a half brother of Abdullah and a conservative who won a promotion in March 2009 and could one day become king.

Getting to the bottom of any government decision was my biggest challenge in a country famous for its secrecy, but following Nayef's promotion, I got the feeling that what little reform impetus there was soon petered out.

REFOMERS' REPUTATION IN SHATTERS

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Al Saud family in alliance with clerics where conservative and more open-minded princes are in constant battle, with the result that little actually happens -- one step forward, one step back.

True, there was one reform push while I was there, with the launch of the first mixed-gender university in September 2009 -- the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) near Jeddah which reveled in almost unlimited funds.

It was a bold move for a country which imposes strict sex segregation, but the inauguration gave the impression that Saudi Arabia was more concerned about window dressing rather than looking to kick start much-needed education reform.

Riyadh flew in hundreds of journalists, academics and Nobel Prize winners to the campus, built in a remote spot far from the prying eyes of clerics. We attended a lavish ceremony and met students and professors who praised the academic freedom.

I found out later that only a fraction of the students were Saudis, while those we talked to on the campus had been briefed by a foreign PR agency what not to tell us -- such as the fact the campus Internet was censored, like in the rest of Saudi.

Soon afterwards, reporters were no longer welcome while even some academics were discouraged from visiting. The few that made it were not allowed to take photographs of unrelated students studying together for fear of annoying the clerics.

It was as if the government wanted to forget the place.

SOURCES GETTING SILENT

The impression of non-reforms only increased when rumors started to flow in July 2010 about the king's health after he abruptly canceled a visit to France without offering a reason.

It was impossible to find out anything concrete, but I sensed that government activity slowed down. No major project got under way and Abdullah traveled to New York to undergo back treatment which kept him away from home for three months.

There was certainly no sign of a much-delayed bill that would help ordinary Saudis get affordable housing -- and touch on the sensitive issue of why so much land was owned by royals.

Since his return last month, Abdullah has unveiled handouts worth $130 billion to insulate his oil-rich kingdom from protests battering other Arab states. He also moved to strengthen internal security forces and the religious police.

Just days later I saw religious cops driving around my neighborhood in jeeps, urging people via loudspeakers to go to the mosque for evening prayers.

With Riyadh watching Arab protests tapping its borders, my job got harder as sources and commentators got more reluctant to talk. Newspapers stopped publishing controversial editorials.

"I don't comment anymore," one of my best sources said just before I left.

State security agents knocked at dawn at my hotel room after I had covered Shi'ite protests in the eastern province. A week later the government withdrew my accreditation.

Despite this abrupt end to my assignment, I leave with happy memories of the hospitality of the many Saudi friends I made.

One day, I was driving with my wife in the desert near the volatile Yemen border searching for pre-Islamic rock carvings when I made a wrong turn and got the car stuck in sand.

A farmer stopped his pickup to ask whether he could help. Since I struggled with the local dialect, my wife, a native Arabic speaker, did most of the talking. Out of modesty, the pious man averted his gaze whenever she spoke. But he fixed our car in no time and invited us for lunch.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Crispian Balmer)

Jury selection begins in Jackson doctor trial

Jury selection has begun to choose the 12 people who will decide if Michael Jackson's personal doctor is guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the pop icon's 2009 death.

The challenge of finding non-biased jurors was highlighted when only two out of some 160 juror candidates said they had not heard anything against Conrad Murray, who due to go on trial next month.

Some 300 people had been randomly selected as candidates, but faced questions to ensure their impartiality as jurors for the trial of Murray, accused of giving Jackson a fatal overdose of a powerful sedative.

About half of the group crowded into the LA Superior Court on the first two days of jury selection, and by the end of the day about 100 had been dismissed, after proving that serving on the case would cause them financial hardship.

Only two hands went up when Judge Michael Pastor asked if anyone had not heard anything against Murray, the subject of intense media scrutiny ever since details emerged about Jackson's final hours.

"Real live cases are not scripted episodes of TV shows," the judge warned the potential jurors.

Those not rejected Thursday or Friday get a 27-page questionnaire to further test their eligibility. Lawyers for both sides will then quiz the potential jurors from May 4, to choose a final panel of 12 jurors and six alternates.

In a small blow for Murray -- who was in court for the jury selection -- he was forced to fire a publicist after questions allegedly on the jury candidates' questionnaire were leaked to the media.

"It is an embarrassment," Murray's lawyer Ed Chernoff told the judge. He apologized and said the publicist had been dismissed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The closely-watched trial had been due to start this week, but was delayed and will now get underway with opening statements on May 9. It is expected to end by early July.

Murray claims he was just administering an insomnia treatment when the singer died on June 25, 2009 from an overdose of anaesthetic propofol. He pleaded not guilty at preliminary hearings in January.

Murray could face up to four years in jail and permanently lose his doctor's license if convicted.

Jackson's death shocked the entertainment world and triggered intense debate over the performer's health in the run-up to London concerts, known as the "This is It" tour.

Prosecutors allege that Murray, 57, "abandoned his patient" after administering the propofol to help Jackson sleep, and then tried to cover it up after the singer's death.

Murray acknowledged that he had used propofol, but insisted that on the day of the 50-year-old singer's death he administered only a small amount of the drug that should not have been fatal.

His defense team has suggested that Jackson could have effectively killed himself by administering an extra dose of propofol while Murray was out of the room.

China rockets to second in science publications

China has rocketed into second place in the number of articles published in international science magazines, according to a report released by the Royal Society in London.

While the top 10 is filled with major Western powers, their share of research papers published is falling, while nations such as China, Brazil and India are growing.

Also on the rise, but further behind, are Iran and Turkey.

China shot up from sixth place in the period 1999-2003 (4.4 percent of the total) to second place behind the United States with 10.2 percent over the years 2004-08, overtaking Japan.

The United States remained in the top spot, but has seen its share shrink from 26.4 percent to 21.2 percent.

Britain remained third with its share at 6.5 percent, down from 7.1 percent.

Japan had slipped from second to fourth place, falling from 7.8 percent to 6.1 percent, said the report.

Germany, in fifth place, published six percent, down from seven percent, while France, in sixth, published 4.4 percent, down from five percent.

They were followed by Canada, Italy, Spain and India, which pushed Russia out of the top 10, moving up from 13th position.

"China?s rise up the rankings has been especially striking," said the report.

"China has heavily increased its investment in R&D (research and development), with spending growing by 20 percent per year since 1999 to reach over $100 billion a year today," it continued.

That came to 1.44 percent of the country's GDP in 2007), it added.

"China is also turning out huge numbers of science and engineering graduates, with 1.5 million leaving its universities in 2006," the report added.

While Britain's share of articles published was down, the Royal Society last week welcomed British finance minister George Osborne's promise of another 100 million (114 million euros, $160 million) of capital investment in science.

Turkey's improved scientific performance had been almost as dramatic as China's, the report said, noting that it had declared research a public priority in the 1990s.

The country had increased its research and development nearly six-fold between 1995 and 2007, and during the same period, the number of researchers there had increased by 43 percent.

Iran was the fastest-growing country in terms of numbers of scientific publications, rising from 736 in 1996 to 13,238 in 2008.

"The scientific world is changing and new players are fast appearing," said Chris Llewellyn Smith, who chaired the study at the Royal Society, Britain's national science academy.

"Beyond the emergence of China, we see the rise of southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, north African and other nations.

"The increase in scientific research and collaboration, which can help us to find solutions to the global challenges we now face, is very welcome.

"However, no historically dominant nation can afford to rest on its laurels if it wants to retain the competitive economic advantage that being a scientific leader brings."

The Royal Society's findings were published in its report entitled "Knowledge, networks and nations: Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century".

'Relax and have fun' not the Rx for Knicks' woes

a stretch of 18 games that include six sets of back-to-backs. Throw in the roundtrip flights, and it's easy to understand why D'Antoni canceled practice Thursday. Even he had to concede that rest was likely to make the Knicks better than another bleary-eyed afternoon spent watching film and drilling.

"I think we're all somewhat getting the fatigue factor setting in," said Stoudemire, whose worst game of the season came Wednesday night in a loss to Orlando, again after New York came unglued in the final period.

"It's been a crazy, crazy month for us so far, a lot of games in few nights. And so we played great in the first half, we applied so much energy, in the second half we just kind of run out a little bit there. But," he added, "we'll be OK."

Not unless — or until — D'Antoni figures out a way to solve New York's fourth-quarter woes. On top of that, he must lighten Stoudemire's burden on the defensive end of the floor. His initial response wasn't all that encouraging.

"I can understand the anxiety," D'Antoni said. "We have it, too."

With good reason. Anthony sat for nearly 4 1/2 minutes of the final period against Orlando, but wasn't much better once he did get in. Chauncey Billups, who came over with Anthony from Denver to choreograph the offense, missed six games and has been ineffective since returning from a thigh injury he picked up in a collision with Orlando's Dwight Howard.

Fair or not, all the blame is falling on Anthony's slim shoulders. He was booed at the end of the Orlando loss, suggesting New Yorkers are beginning to view him and Stoudemire the way they do Yankee counterparts Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

Just like A-Rod, Anthony has already hit a few bad notes. After talking a lot, he refused to say anything at all after a tough loss recently in Detroit. Wisely, he's not offering specific solutions — translation: criticizing the schemes and his teammates — instead offering vague encouragement.

"We just need to relax," Anthony said. "I think it's, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We're losing games that we know we should be winning, and we're just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. I think we're playing too tense out there on the court."

Soon after joining the Knicks, Anthony boasted, "I told y'all when I made this move, I wanted to take on big challenges."

He'd better be. If Anthony thinks it's tense out there now, just wait. He's not in Denver anymore.

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org