ALEXA MELO

Massachusetts-born, Culver City, CA-raised Alexa Melo is only 20, but the singer-guitarist sounds like she’s been through the wars. And she has, in a manner. Signed to a major label as a precocious teen, Melo was passed from producer to producer to producer before finding a sonic ally in Christian James Hand (The Mowgli’s). Now “emancipated” from her label deal, Melo independently released her self-titled debut this June, and it’s a far cry from the straight-up pop her handlers envisioned when they signed her.

At their most direct, Melo’s songs recall some of the strongest voices of the 1990s, but her palette extends beyond mere angsty-anthems. Much of the album, which began with Melo’s own ProTools recordings, reflects her stated influences of Radiohead, Bjork, Portishead, Jack White and Pink Floyd, and her guitar-playing abilities, as well as her vocal stylings, live up to her sonic ambitions.

Already receiving airplay on local L.A. radio stations including KROQ, Alt 98-7 and KCSN, Alexa and her six-piece band will continue to grow their fan base with live performances all over Southern California between now and the end of 2015 (and beyond).

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Mr. Marrs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of North Texas in 1966 and attended Graduate School at Texas Tech in Lubbock for two years more. He has worked for several Texas newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where beginning in 1968 he served as police reporter and general assignments reporter covering stories locally, in Europe and the Middle East. After a leave of absence to serve with a Fourth Army intelligence unit during the Vietnam War, he became military and aerospace writer for the newspaper and an investigative reporter. Since 1980, Mr. Marrs has been a free-lance writer, author and public relations consultant. He also published a rural weekly newspaper along with a monthly tourism tabloid, a cable television show and several videos.



In 2007, Mr. Marrs retired from the University of Texas at Arlington where he had taught a course on the Kennedy assassination since 1976. In 1989, his book, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, was published to critical acclaim and reached the New York Times Paperback Non-Fiction Best Seller list in mid-February 1992. It became a basis for the Oliver Stone film JFK. Mr. Marrs served as a chief consultant for both the film’s screenplay and production.



Beginning in 1992, Mr. Marrs spent three years researching and completing a non-fiction book on a top-secret government program involving the psychic phenomenon known as remote viewing only to have it mysteriously canceled as it was going to press in the summer of 1995. Within two months, the story of military-developed remote viewing broke nationally in the Washington Post after the CIA revealed the program but put their own spin on psychic studies. Psi Spies was finally published by New Page Books in 2007.



In May, 1997, Marrs’ in-depth investigation of UFOs, Alien Agenda, was published by HarperCollins Publishers. Mr. Marrs has been a featured speaker at a number of national conferences including the Annual International UFO Congress and the Annual Gulf Breeze UFO Conference. It has been translated into several foreign languages and become the top-selling non-fiction UFO book in the world. He began teaching a course on UFOs at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2000.



Also in early 2000, HarperCollins published Rule by Secrecy, which traced the hidden history that connects modern secret societies to the Ancient Mysteries. It too reached the New York Times Best Seller list. In 2003, his book The War on Freedom probed the conspiracies of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. It was released in 2006 under the title The Terror Conspiracy. In mid-2008, his book The Rise of the Fourth Reich, detailing the infiltration of National Socialism into the USA, was published followed by a study of mysteries entitled Above Top Secret.



An award-winning journalist, Mr. Marrs is listed both in Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in America. Mr. Marrs has won several writing and photography awards including the Aviation/Aerospace Writer’s Association’s National Writing Award and Newsmaker of the Year Award from the Fort Worth Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 1993, Mr. Marrs received Freedom Magazine’s Human Rights Leadership Award.



Mr. Marrs has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, CSPAN, the Discovery, Learning and History Channels, This Morning America, Geraldo, Montel Williams, Today, Tech TV and The Larry King, George Noory and Art Bell radio programs along with numerous national and regional radio and TV shows.  He is a former president of the Press Club of Fort Worth and a current member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, and the Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Timothy D Slekar is currently the Dean of the School of Education at Edgewood College in Madison, WI.

He began his career 24 years ago as a 2^nd grade teacher in Virginia. He then taught 5^th grade in Pennsylvania. Dr. Slekar attended Millersville University where he earned a Master’s degree in Education and continued on to earn his PhD in social studies education at the University of Maryland at College Park. During his studies Dr. Slekar worked with 7^th and 8^th grade teachers in the city of Baltimore Maryland. Dr. Slekar has published research in various top education research journals including Teacher Education Quarterly, Theory and Research in Social Education and Journal of Thought. Dr. Slekar is one of the founding members of United Opt Out National. He has been a radio cohost on podcast, local & national radio as well as on numerous television news shows as an expert education policy analysist including MSNBC, CNN & Fox News



About his blog talk show - Busted Pencils - Fully Leaded Education Talk

BustED Pencils; Fully Leaded Education Talk is a new, weekly, one hour talk show dedicated to public education.  It is the only talk on the radio about education by educators.  BustED Pencils is known for its commitment to the hard facts with a humorous twist.  Hosts Tim Slekar and Jed Hopkins cover the “real” issues in education.

This show establishes and alternative space and discusses education reform from an entirely progressive perspective.  Our approach is funny, edgy, passionate, witty and gritty.  BustED Pencils explores the political and commercial influences behind education policy.  We translate education news into laymen terms so the everyday person can understand the issues — not loaded with edu-jargon.  We strongly promote public schools and their democratic and civic mission.  Lastly, we talk about the most important issue facing the future of America — public education.

BustED Pencils appeals to parents, grandparents, guardians, teachers, policy makers, tax payers and students alike.

Rosemarie has been with United Opt Out from the beginning of our journey.  She has attended every national UOO event and has been by our side the last four years as we have grown and increased our efforts to resist corporate education reform and reclaim and improve public schools for all children.

Here is a brief bio on Rosemarie:

Rosemarie Jensen is a former teacher and currently a parent activist. She received her M. Ed. from the University of Florida and taught K-1 for ten years in both Alachua and Broward Counties. In addition, she trained teachers in Alachua and surrounding counties in Math Their Way and later worked as a K-2 literacy trainer for teachers in Broward County. In the past 15 years she has been an active participant in her local schools  and has worked to end high stakes testing and corporate reforms. She has been involved in  community, state and national efforts to support public education and teachers. She has opted her son out of FCAT for the past three years in Florida.

Peggy Robertson has taught kindergarten, first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth grade, beginning her career in Missouri and continuing in Kansas, for a total of ten years.



She was hired by Richard C. Owen Publishers in 2001 to serve as a Learning Network Coordinator and spent the next three years training teacher leaders and administrators in educational theory and practice in the state of Colorado, as well as around the country during the summer months.

In 2004 she was hired as the Literacy Coordinator by the Adams 50 School District in Westminster, Colorado. While working in Adams 50 she mentored teachers and administrators and supported them in the writing and implementation of school development plans.

She earned her master’s degree in English as a Second Language at Southeast Missouri State University. She currently is an instructional coach at an elementary school and devotes the rest of her time to her work at United Opt Out National. Contact Peggy at writepeg@juno.com or 720-810-5593.

Ceresta Smith, an American University alumna, is a twenty-three-year veteran educator who has taught grades six through twelve reading and language arts, as well as beginning and advanced television production. Contact Ceresta at cerestas@yahoo.com or 786-303-4785. She earned her National Board Certification in Adult/Young Adult English/language arts in 2002 and now serves as a teacher leader and mentor.



In September of 2008, she moved from a school deemed “high performing” to serve as a teacher leader and literacy coach in a school deemed “low performing.” While there, she became a 2009 – 2010 recipient of a Jordan Fundamental Grant that facilitated the implementation of Text Titans, a literacy building initiative designed by her and funded by Brand Jordan. A private foundation created by basketball great Michael Jordan, Brand Jordan honors teachers who motivate and inspire students toward achieving excellence.



As a committed educator and activist, Ms. Smith founded the Concerned Teacher Coalition in 2009 to address the inequities in Miami-Dade County’s predominantly African-American public schools. One of the original organizers of Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, she continues to champion for equity and quality pedagogy in America’s public schools.

*** SPECIAL SHOW FOR THE NEW YEAR 2020!!! ***

Carla Fox has been seeking the answers to life's most important questions all her life.  Through shamanic journey work and the use of altered states of consciousness, she has traveled far and wide in the cosmos gaining a unique understanding of the realms in which we exist.  Her mission on Earth at this time is to be a way shower for others who can benefit from what she has learned and where she has gone.

Her evolution of service to others started with her Shamanic Healership training at the Four Winds Society.  Her studies at the Monroe Institute led to the creation of Quantum Sphere Healing, the process she currently uses.  Her passionate interest in the whole death process helped her create her latest workshop entitled, "Journeys Beyond the Physical".  And, of course, there is her timeless book, "Traversing the Infinite Now", which is only available on her website.

Through her workshops, blog, and energy healing practice, Carla's mission is to assist others in attaining clarity, healing, wholeness and self-empowerment in order to take full advantage of the evolutionary opportunities that are being presented to each and every human being at this time. You can find out more on her website, and check out her blog at the links below:

http://www.quantumstargate.com

http://thecarlafoxblog.blogspot.com

David Lewis is a masterful singer/songwriter – 7 CD’s published - who became a messenger for the Ascended Masters about 11 years ago.

David brings harmony and prescience of divine order that is stepping through the thinning veil for winning from the beginning of the Aquarian Dispensation.

In this show, David provides some timely insight from the Master Jesus regarding the big shift of Earth energies with evolutionary ascent of mass consciousness from talking about problems to focusing on solutions with loving kindness.

We live in a miraculous time when quantum science of the divine matrix is unveiling not only the mysteries of quantum power (free energy), quantum wisdom (heart coherence), and quantum healing (global TeLeCare), but also the mysteries of conscious evolution with revelations from ascended realms that give us INsight for OUTlook of a more enlightened nature.

For those who like waking up with song and inspiration in the morning, David’s website provides free live and prerecorded messages from those who ascended with momentums of mastery that comes through these messages. The ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of your day may well benefit.

David Christopher Lewis is an author, spiritual speaker and teacher. In September, David will conduct a book tour and lecture series in 26 cities across the western U.S.

His new book, Advanced Studies of the Human Aura: How to Charge Your Energy Field with Light and Spiritual Radiance provides a deeper understanding of the aura. David's highly original and influential work gives keys to increasing your auric light to accelerate your consciousness, and move from a sense of limitation to unbounded cosmic awareness and abundance.

In 2004 David had a profound spiritual awakening. He began to receive telepathic communications from divine beings known as ascended masters. In January 2005 David co-founded The Hearts Center, a movement for those seeking spiritual quickening and enlightenment. He also co-created Meru University, a modern day on-line mystery school. Meru U supports advanced spiritual development with teachings of the ascended masters revealed for today in live webinars, courses and workshops.