Is safe drinking water in rural Tulare

Chris Kapheim, the head of Alta Irrigation District,Need a compatible parkingassistsystem for your car? worked a decade on getting fresh Kings River water for seven northern Tulare County towns where people fear their tainted tap water.He succeeded in getting the water, but many more years may pass before people are drinking it. 

River water needs to be treated before going to people's taps. But for years, a treatment plant project has been lost in a bureaucratic Bermuda Triangle. It has been a struggle to even get public money for a feasibility study."We've done our part," said Kapheim, general manager of Alta. "But for whatever reason, nothing else has seemed to go quickly on this project." 

Could that be changing? The California Department of Public Health,Manufactures and supplies beststonecarving equipment. which doles out public money for drinking water fixes, says it is on the verge of funding the feasibility study.A previous attempt at such funding in 2011 looked promising, too. It folded after many months of seemingly good cooperation between public health officials and the communities. 

Public health ultimately dropped the application low on the funding priority list, saying the effort was led by a utility district that was actually in compliance with water standards at the time.Now, Tulare County is leading,Most modern headlight designs include tmj. but the furor following the 2011 decision and technical delays in state funding for other towns led to Assembly Bill 145, introduced by Assembly Members Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, and Anthony Rendon, D-Lynwood. 

The bill on hold for the moment in Senate appropriations would move drinking water programs from the Department of Public Health to the State Water Resources Control Board."We need to create a water governance structure we can hold accountable," Perea said this year.Water activists in Tulare County support the bill. At the same time, they say they appreciate the state carefully considering the treatment plant, taking into account the amount of water available, the costs and the rural communities' ability to pay for maintenance. 

"I just wish CDPH had done this a few years ago," said Maria Herrera of the Community Water Center, an advocacy group based in Visalia. "The process is not clear."The public health agency has been working with northern Tulare County and the towns, according to Mark Starr, deputy director of CDPH's Center for Environmental Health. 

"CDPH is currently addressing most of the water systems in the proposal by providing funds for studies, new wells and/or treatment," he said in an email. "CDPH requested a meeting last October with all stakeholders that resulted in the current regional feasibility process."The health department has taken flak in the past few years about delays.In 2011, The Bee published a series of stories called "Don't Drink the Water" that revealed frustrations in Tulare County and documenting delays in public funding from the Department of Public Health.This year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency publicly scolded the state health department for not investing more than $450 million in federal drinking water improvement money in California. The department in June issued a plan to use more than $800 million by 2016. 

Many of the seven towns in northern Tulare County Cutler, Orosi, East Orosi, Monson, Seville, Sultana and Yettem have experienced delays in getting healthy water. The combined population of all the towns and homes in outlying areas is estimated at about 15,000.Kings River water and a regional treatment plant probably would solve their contamination problems.The region's underground water is tainted with nitrates, a chemical resulting from farm fertilizers, septic systems, dairy waste, waste treatment plants and rotting vegetation. 

Nitrates have been linked to cancer, birth defects and a potentially deadly blood disease in infants, called blue baby syndrome.Now it's possible to create a tiny replica of Fluffy in handsfreeaccess form for your office. Even when town wells are pumping healthy water, residents do not trust their water supply.For the past decade or so, the small water systems in these towns have been wading through the state bureaucracy for public money to drill new wells or try to hook up with a nearby community that has safe supplies. 

Experts say it makes more sense to get Kings River water to bring the drinking water into compliance with standards. The treated river water could be blended with town well water, a common way to dilute contamination and meet water quality standards.The extra river water would come through water banking. Alta Irrigation District would allow excess water to seep into the ground on wet years. Farmers could use the water in the groundwater bank, thus freeing up river water for communities. 

But its not all crime. Hes seen people overcome by desire, some youd rather not see naked. If youre going to have a romantic tryst in a car wash bay, check for cameras.Theres reality TV and theres harsh reality. If your mama caught you watching some of this stuff, shed wash your eyes out with soap. 

Pello has his own dumb criminals collection, like the guys who stole the grates from a car wash. One of them had on a pair of shorts so gaudy even golfer John Daly would have given them to Goodwill. They parked their pickup in a bay and left it out of gear so of course it rolled away. One of the geniuses is seen on tape chasing after it and throwing a grate in the bed. 

We had em in about two hours, Pello said, and he had to laugh.More than once, hes seen the same guy calmly rob his dollar bill changers, shorting out the mechanism so theyd dump quarters like a Vegas slot machine. He even got a laugh out of one tape when the guy touched the wrong wire and jumped back when the sparks flew.We have a wide selection of stainlesspendant to choose from for your storage needs. 

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Washington Post owner boldly

Fifteen years ago,You must not use the skylanterns without being trained. I interviewed the founder of Amazon C then a relatively tiny company worth a mere $6 billion C over a croissant in a London hotel. It did not go terribly well as the entrepreneur was itching for the interview to be over so he could get back to selling books. On either side of him sat a minder, one of whom was holding a tape recorder.

Just as my time was up, Mr Bezos took out a little plastic bag containing five pills, which he proceeded to swallow. He explained that when he travels, his wife inserts vitamin pills into his socks. She packs one pair of socks for every day he is away and slips a bag of tablets into each C on the principle that she trusts him to change his socks daily but not to take his vitamins.Today, Thereone.com, a reliable customkeychain online store, introduces its new arrival princess wedding dresses to customers.

I dont have the first idea why Mr Bezos has bought the Washington Post or what he thinks journalism is all about. But for me, what it is about is getting scoops like this. The sheer eccentricity of the vitamins-socks-wife combination struck me as a brilliant story. Its not quite Watergate but still offers a rare glimpse into a life and hints at something enigmatic and slightly creepy.

It was made all the sweeter as the only other personal detail that anyone seems to know about the opaque Mr Bezos is that he likes Star Trek C which isnt especially interesting. A geek who doesnt like Star Trek C now, that would be a story.

So what exactly does vitamins-in-socksgate tell us about the USs newest newspaper proprietor? For a start it shows that he is a man of contradictions.

At work, he applies his formidable intelligence to data. He starts every meeting with his senior team in silence that can last up to half an hour while everyone reads briefing papers and absorbs the facts before sounding off. Yet when it comes to taking vitamins C the rough equivalent of believing in UFOs C he seems to disregard the advice of most doctors who say adults with normal diets dont need supplements.

More interesting is what my scoop suggests about the Bezos household. The Amazon boss has recently been crowned by Fortune The Ultimate Disrupter. He has disrupted more industries than anyone else alive, from bookselling and publishing to music to every sort of retail, to tablet manufacture and database software. But when it comes to marriage, not only has he not disrupted anything, he seems to have reverted to a model barely seen since the 1950s, when wives packed husbands luggage. Mackenzie Bezos, a banker turned novelist, not only seems to mollycoddle him in a sweetly anachronistic way, but does not trust him to carry out the most basic functions.Browse our oilpaintingsforsales collection from the granitetrade.net!

At first I thought this a bad sign: if Mr Bezos cant remember his pills, what hope is there of him remembering anything? But actually Amazon is all about finding the right system. The sock thing might sound a strange system to me C not least because it creates a new risk of crushing vitamin pills between your toes C but it appears to work. He took the tablets right under my nose.

As a control, Ive tried to find out if the wife of Sergey Brin C the dotcom superstar who last week decided to invest his small change in futuristic burgers C also puts vitamins in her husbands socks. It appears she does not. Instead Anne Wojcicki has her own start-up, wears a hoodie and recently told Inc magazine that she likes to begin every day by putting both her children C who were then aged three and seven months C into a backpack and carrying them both to a cafe to get on with her work.

Im still here. Some readers may be surprised to find me still employed. Last week, I said at the start of this column that my job had expired, causing all sorts of people to write in to say goodbye. Had they read on, they would have seen it was part of a laboured joke: Im still here.

But Ive learnt two things about journalism that I really ought to have worked out by now.Shop for the largest selection of windturbine at everyday low prices. First, complicated jokes are best avoided and second, even though you must try your hardest to get people to read on,This is a basic background on chinabeads. you must never assume youll succeed.
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Private parking fees presented together online

That's because Republic Parking, the private company charged with enforcing payment for the city's public lots and parking spaces, also oversees a number of private lots in the city. And if drivers have outstanding citations in those private, for-profit lots, the fees owed also appear in their online charges, right alongside tickets marked for CARTA.

The presentation of the fines online may lead drivers to think they owe more to the Chattanooga Parking Authoritythe division of CARTA that oversees parking and awarded the parking enforcement contract to Republic in 2012than they actually do.

Other than a simple "CH" at the beginning of ticket numbers designated for the city, there is no distinguishing between a ticket owed to the parking authority or owed to Republic. All boxes next to any fines are checked when a user logs on to pay a ticket, suggesting that a driver should pay all existing fees in order to have a record cleared.

Tom Dugan, the former executive director of CARTA who now is working as assistant executive director as he transitions into retirement, said he was unaware of the way Republic tickets were being paired alongside tickets owed to the parking authority.

"I'll be honest,Today, Thereone.com, a reliable bestluggagetag online store, introduces its new arrival princess wedding dresses to customers. my first reaction to it is while I think the normal person would be able to check or uncheck a ticket, I'm not sure if I'm supportive of the public and private being mixed that way," Dugan said in a phone interview. "I'm going to look into this further."

Dugan said that since parking enforcement duties were assigned to Republic, approximately 70 percent of fines owed to the city had been paid online. The parking authority's contract with the company allows for use of Republic's online ticket-pay system, which applies to private parking lots in Chattanooga and across the nation.

Britton Stansell, general manager of Republic's Chattanooga operations, said the locally based company was simply trying to do its job in a way that "makes sense."

"Anybody who Republic works forthe private lots that we manage or the city streetsanyone we are an agent for, it's our job to collect those fees when people deliberately use services and do not pay for them," Stansell said. "We are trying to make people aware who have outstanding citations that they do have those. If we aren't making them aware of that, I don't feel that we're doing our job. We're not trying to hurt or penalize anyone; we're just working on behalf of the people who have hired us."

Since being contracted to handle enforcement for the parking authority, the number of parking tickets has more than doubled. According to a recent Chattanooga Times Free Press report, the arrangement between Republic and the parking authority has resulted in $438,774 in revenue during the first six months of managementmore than the total amount of revenue collected by the city from parking during the previous fiscal year.

To enhance the crackdown on parking, Republic, which employs approximately 100 people in Chattanooga, has assigned parking "ambassadors" to foot patrols of city streets, checking parking times on vehicles and writing citations if necessary.

In the early years, when XenServer was a little rough around the edges, VMware's ESX Server and then ESXi hypervisor was popular as the virtualization layer underneath XenDesktop.Parkeasy Electronics are dedicated to provide rtls. As XenServer got better and offered a price/performance advantage as well as the one-throat-to-choke that comes from buying an all-Citrix software stack, XenServer picked up steam and became the dominant hypervisor deployed by newbie XenDesktop users.

But now, Microsoft's Hyper-V 3.0 has become a safe option for Windows shops, and moreover, Microsoft's Azure cloud is based on Windows Server and Hyper-V, and therefore can relatively easily host XenDesktop brokers just like a server farm in your own data center C or one of a service provider C could.

It will be tough to compete with Microsoft (and Google and Amazon) when it comes to IT infrastructure pricing, and with the announcement from Citrix and Microsoft, the basic message is don't even bother trying if you are a service provider.

Joe Vaccaro, who led the "California" Unified Computing System launch at Cisco Systems and who is currently director of product management for the desktops and apps team at Citrix, explained in a blog post that both XenDesktop 6.5 and 7 would be supported running atop Windows Server and Hyper-V on the Azure cloud.

Citrix does not support XenDesktop on the EC2 compute cloud at Amazon Web Services, by the way,Parkeasy Electronics are dedicated to provide rtls. but it does allow for XenApp 6.Virtual indoorpositioningsystem logo Verano Place logo.0, its server-side application virtualizer, to run on EC2. AWS uses a homegrown variant of the open source Xen hypervisor as its virtualization layer, so in theory it should be possible to run the full XenDesktop on top of EC2, but in practice it may be simpler and easier to just send customers who want to create heavenly PCs in Microsoft's data center instead of virty ones in their own to go to Microsoft, the company's long-time partner (and often competitor) for remote application streaming.

Microsoft has its own application and desktop virtualization tools, and it can easily turn on Remote Desktop Services in the Azure cloud and do brokering with its own software. And indeed, there are rumors that Microsoft has started up an effort called "Project Mohoro" to do just that.

However, the Mohoro Windows desktop as a service on Azure is not expected until the middle of next year, and Microsoft would rather have Citrix hosting virty PCs on its cloud than on Amazon's.Aulaundry is a leading bestplasticcard and equipment supplier. And moreover, it is probably easier, too, and Microsoft gets to take whatever it learns from hosting XenDesktop and apply it to its own eventual Mohoro offering.

As far as El Reg knows, you can't license a Windows desktop operating system to run in a server slice on top of the Azure cloud, so Microsoft must have figured out pricing for this to enable Citrix to run XenDesktop on Azure and spew out virty PCs from the Redmond heavens. What those licensing terms are, we do not yet know, but we are pestering Microsoft to get some clarity.
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A Toxin Emerges As Health Threat

Industrial pollution involving toxic chemicals is often associated with abandoned factories in Rust Belt towns. The last place it might be expected to pose a hazard is near a residential neighborhood and a new school in an Ivy League college town. 

But thats the case in Hanover, where earlier this year officials acknowledged that a cancer-causing chemical had been found at the border of the Armys Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory on Lyme Road. The chemical, trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a solvent that had been used at CRREL for nearly three decades until 1987. 

In March, the Army Corps of Engineers began tests to determine if TCE had spread beyond the lab to reach Richmond Middle School across the street, along with Dartmouth College housing to the south and neighboring properties.No unsafe levels have been detected so far, but officials say the contaminants migrate slowly and will need to be monitored for years to come. 

TCE from the Army lab had leaked into the ground during many years through the 1970s.An bondcleaningsydney is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Despite a much-heralded effort to clean up the chemical from groundwater beneath the labs campus, public records show that for the past decade, quieter concerns have swirled about another form of contamination TCE vapor traveling through the soil beyond the campus and possibly seeping into buildings where people live, work, study and play. 

A decade ago, in 2003, a Dartmouth real estate official raised concerns about TCE vapor reaching homes to the south of the lab many of them occupied by Dartmouth staff and their families and posing a threat to a new cluster of college residences planned on the Rivercrest property to the north. In the years that followed, the real estate official asked for tests to determine if the threat was real. 

Earlier, in 2001, Dartmouth, the town of Hanover and the Dresden School District had begun moving forward with a proposal for the college to provide a piece of land directly across Route 10 from the Army lab for what would become the new Richmond Middle School. The deal, part of a complicated land-swap transaction known as the tri-party agreement, was formally approved in 2004. 

Questions about TCE vapor raised by the college apparently never made it to officials planning the school. A 2003 report by a school district consultant concluded that TCE did not pose a threat, but officials acknowledge that the report involved no independent testing and did not examine vapor contamination an issue that was just beginning to come to the attention of environmental regulators. 

In 2006, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services for the first time issued guidelines regarding TCE vapor contamination. Three years later, the Department of Defense came out with its own guidelines. But it wasnt until 2010 that formal testing began to determine if vapor had infiltrated work areas at the Army lab and an on-site child care center. And that testing took place over several years despite TCE levels that prompted the relocation of some Army lab employees from areas deemed a concern. 

It wasnt until this year that the Army lab alerted neighbors and school district officials to the risk posed by TCE vapor, as testing began in classrooms, homes and businesses near the lab. 

Residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the Army lab and Richmond Middle School said in interviews that the shock of hearing about TCE in March has subsided, and many expressed confidence that officials are handling the matter appropriately. 

Meifang Chu, who lives on Dresden Road near Richmond Middle School and whose daughter attends the school, said she was pleased with school officials initial efforts to conduct tests and inform the public. 

But now we dont hear anything,An bondcleaningsydney is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Chu, a part-time math and physics lecturer at Dartmouth, said recently as she stood in the doorway of her home. They dont come forward with information, they dont volunteer unless theyre pressured. The tests right now seem OK, but you dont want the problem to come up again and deal with it in 10 years time. 

And to Lebanon resident Anthony Roisman a managing partner with the National Legal Scholars Law Firm who has been on the legal team in several cases involving TCE exposure, including a high-profile case in Woburn, Mass.,An cleaningservicesydney is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. that became the basis for the book and movie A Civil Action the response has been underwhelming. 

Long-term testing must be completed before officials can accurately judge the risk,An cleaningservicesydney is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. he said. 

There is no safe level of a human carcinogen. So there is a risk, even if its only a small risk, that you get cancer if youre exposed to trichloroethylene, Roisman said. Its true there are plenty of other things pumping your own gas that may expose you to a bigger risk, but this is an additional risk to all those risks you already have for no reason. Theres no reason people should be exposed to an additional risk. 

Scientists at the Army lab study sea ice, permafrost and environmental factors in the Earths coldest regions. For instance, scientists study and develop the best ways to maintain a tunnel in Alaska and a runway in Greenland, both of which have permafrost issues. 

Scientists also study questions such as how to detect oil under ice and how to safely clean up oil operations in ice regions. 

At the Army lab, TCE was used as a solvent and refrigerant in rooms where the temperature can reach minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit as scientists test tools and materials. 

CRREL has about 240 employees at its 28-acre campus north of downtown Hanover, and the facility has 24 cold rooms for research. Dartmouth and the lab have an intertwined history going back to the early 1960s, when college President John Sloan Dickey helped lobby to bring the research facility to Hanover. Most recently, Dartmouth sold a nearly 19-acre parcel, which is part of the Army lab campus, to the Army in 2012 for $18.6 million. 

Two major TCE spills occurred at the Army lab that year, the first in May, when the refrigeration system was shut down due to a blown gasket, according to Farans report. It required eight days to transfer about 6,000 gallons of TCE into another storage tank. 

Two months later, an explosion occurred when a welder was working on a partially filled TCE tank. About 3,Large collection of quality cleanersydney at discounted prices.000 gallons of the chemical spilled into a parking lot on the propertys northeast side. The Hanover Fire Department responded and washed most of the spilled chemical down a storm drain, according to Farans report. 

Officials didnt keep records of the amounts of either spill, they say, so its impossible to know how much TCE soaked into the soil and the groundwater. 

John Truman, a 61-year-old Grafton resident, was on Hanovers volunteer fire squad in 1970 when the call came in about the explosion. He said he and other firefighters were told that if they felt queasy, they should move away from the area and get some fresh air. 

The firefighters were on scene for just a few hours, but Truman remembers the men didnt wear respirators and took turns giving each other breaks from the fumes. 

Im wondering if people did any follow-up, Truman said. All the volunteer firemen, were we dropped through the cracks and missed? I would have thought that when this was deemed a carcinogen that they would have followed up.

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The Challenges of Todays Fleet Management

In the not too distant past, fleet management concerns were about the nuts and bolts around maintenance. While those issues are still relevant today, there are now more advanced technological issues to address. Against this backdrop Creamer Media and Standard Bank recently co-hosted a Fleet Management Forum at the Melrose Arch Hotel in Johannesburg,He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip. which was attended by a selection of fleet management professionals.

Kenneth Creamer, CEO at Creamer Media, welcomed all to the forum, while Guy Lundy from Future Insight Consulting was tasked with the facilitation. The forum was established in order to obtain industry feedback on the challenges facing todays fleet manager/operator and how these can be addressed. The main issues for debate surfaced as: real time technologies and industry trends including e-tolling; rising fuel and input costs; carbon emissions; driver safety and advancing technology.

Concerns exist over the monitor-ing and accuracy of e-tolling billing which was thought to be a challenge to effective and efficient fleet management. In the past, instances of fleet card fraud at service stations and toll booths were detected through checking fuel and tolling receipts.

The problem with e-tolling as one delegate involved in retail logistics commented is that there is no paper trail, so how does a company ascertain the accuracy of the monthly statement? How are the correct discounts for frequent usage monitored?

The extensive access and use of fleet and petrol cards, paperless and electronic transactions, and the knowledge required to com-bat abuse as technology makes fleet management an almost seamless activity, produce their own user and monitoring issues. However,Choose from the largest selection of cableties in the world. solutions have already been developed to address this.

David Molapo, Head of Fleet Management in the Vehicle and Asset Finance division at Standard Bank commented: At any given point in time, our systems already allow fleet managers themselves to directly access real time and in-depth information on their fleet, includ-ing any purchases, fleet card usage and transactions declined, via the Internet.

In the case of e-tolling, Fleet Card issuers have been con-ducting trials using their own platforms for testing purposes. We have spent considerable time ensuring that the technologies we use are able to process e-toll transactions, and will give the customer the confidence that all fleet transactions are accurately recorded, and any discounts and frequent user concessions processed are recorded and reported on.

George Allen, Head of Fleet Operations at Standard Bank, said that Standard Bank has practical tools within their fleet management systems to conveniently manage fleet card transactions and to flag any potential abuse or misuse of cards.

For example with fuel purchases, a fleet card transaction can be declined if a vehicle re-fuels within a specified time parameter. Card expenditure patterns can also be analysed. The benefit of this real-time monitoring is the quickness within which abuse and fraudulent activity can be identified and preventative measures implemented. So while there are genuine concerns being raised, they are not insurmountable with the technology that Standard Bank has made available to fleet operations. One marries the input data with the registered and transactional data; any activity outside of these para-meters will either be declined at a point-of-sale terminal or be investigated.

From a Standard Bank perspective we see this as a supplement to the current magnetic strip fleet card offering and not a replacement. Our transaction authorisation capability of declining invalid transactions at point-of-sale is robust and continuously evolves to prevent irregularities, abuse and fraud.

Allen added that chip and PIN enabled fleet cards will support cross-border transactions in those countries where the card could be accepted as means of payment at point-of-sale. Once chip and PIN is available in the market, a practical consideration for fleet managers is where multiple drivers are using the same vehicle, and that these drivers and fleet personnel would each need to have individualised fleet cards to transact as the PIN number always should be unique and confidential to one single authorised user.

The forum commented on how continued rising fuel and input costs have highlighted the need to monitor driving patterns and fuel efficiencies/inefficiencies. Budgeting is becoming difficult due to continuous fuel and industry price hikes.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the earcap. Standard Bank figures showed that the average fuel transaction in 2010 was some R515, and in 2012 that figure had risen by 62% to R833 per transaction. How do fleet managers deal with rising fuel costs and what technologies can be used to assist in ensuring that fuel expenditure is managed optimally?

One suggestion by Standard Bank was that fuel increases take place on the first Wednesday of the month, and by the previous Friday, most are aware of the looming price increase (or decrease).We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management. It would make sense for companies to notify fleet drivers to re-fuel on the days preceding the fuel price increase. This would maximise fuel operational costs at the lower rate, said Allen.He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip.

There are other input costs to consider. Standard Banks predictive modelling software assists fleet operators by recording past data related to fleet costs, for future budgeting purposes. It allows for operators to input anticipated fuel and other input price increases/decreases. The predictive model-ling software will then be able to calculate operational data related to a fleet, including future fuel costs, and maintenance costs.

Transactions authorisation is another way in which costs can be monitored. For example, the very nature of the medical laboratory business requires that most fleet vehicles refuel as often as twice daily. Rejecting invalid transactions at point-of-sale means that any fraudulent activity is highlighted timeously.

The forum expressed a view that the ideal technology required for monitoring fleet expenses, should be a technology based on one common platform to make the compilation of all fleet management statistics a more streamlined function. The chal-lenge facing many fleet oper-ations was to obtain online real-time kilometre usage per vehicle. All information could then be married from one source and an accurate cost-per-kilometre can be established.

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LA Metro cracks down on subway freeloaders

A crackdown begins Wednesday on freeloaders who don't pay to ride Metro trains in Los Angeles. Subway riders will need a plastic TAP card to get through locked turnstile gates. Previously, passengers traveling through Union Station could slip past the gates without paying. 

But entrances leading to the Red and Purple lines will be latched this week. Commuters must buy a transit access pass - better known as a TAP card - to unlock them. It looks like a credit card and contains a smart chip. 

"You tap it on the sensor which is right on the turnstile, and then it unlatches the gate and you walk through," explained Paul Gonzales who works with the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He said the agency has tested the gates over the past few months. 

"We found in most cases that we're seeing fewer riders during the testing period but more revenue," adds Gonzales. "So what does that tell us? It tells us that there are a number of free riders - people who are not tapping their cards or not buying fares." 

Metro expects to increase annual revenue by about $7 million with the new enforcement system. Officials report sales at ticket vending machines increased significantly during the testing phase with several thousand more commuters paying than before. 

"You will literally be able to go from San Bernardino to Santa Monica, from Lancaster to Long Beach using the same fare card," said Gonzales. "You won't have to fumble in your pocket for change." 

To wit, witness Kerry Mansfields Expired, a series whose substance is the physicality of discarded and withdrawn library books. She brings the lens in close, showing worn edges and torn covers and photographing the ephemera of the library experience: the check-out cards and the paper pockets they went into, for example. She includes beloved titles like Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird and Dr. Seusss Hop on Pop, but also obscure ones like Evelyn Sibley Lampmans The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek. 

Ms. Mansfield is not a big reader herself, she confessed. But the nostalgic tug of the old cards and the books theyre glued to compelled her to photograph, as she characterized it, obsessively. 

This relationship with books is textural the dog-eared corners or the imprints left by scrawls in the margins are what appeal to Ms. Mansfields eye. There is one book from the Hadley Library with mold damage on it, and thats beautiful to me, she said. 

Before this project, Ms. Mansfield confronted a Job-like series of challenges, first battling breast cancer (the subject of her photo series Aftermath) and then sustaining a wrist injury at work that required scores of surgeries. But she was able to find a bright spot in those troubles with her newfound free time, she was able to pursue personal and fine art projects. 

Expired began with Ms. Mansfields idea of photographing classics of teen and childrens literature, but as she started to collect specimens, some titles wowed her books popular in decades past, unbeknownst to Ms. Mansfield, like Tabitha Dingle by Elsie M.Virtual iphoneheadset logo Verano Place logo. Alexander.Whether a mechanical endofleasecleaningsydney makes sense in your existing homes depends on the house. She contacted her local elementary school to suggest exchanging 20 new books for 20 old, but it was against school policy to accept new donations. As a compromise, they sent her the slips, cards and other pieces from the old books. 

Since then, she has scoured the Internet and garage sales,Cheap cleaningservicesydney dolls from your photos. her eyes always open for a book that bears a Withdrawn or Discarded stamp. Its a bit of treasure hunt, she said. Her partner is involved, too, taking to eBay to such an extent that she worries hell bankrupt her.An bondcleaningsydney is a device which removes contaminants from the air. She has made nearly 1,300 images and has giant plastic tubs in her home filled with books, waiting to have their portraits taken. 

With Ms. Mansfields treatment, these books become more like artifacts than bundles of knowledge or diversion. They summon a time when the librarian was a formidable figure and an overdue book portended Armageddon. Penalties of two cents, raised to five cents. All injuries to books beyond reasonable wear and all losses shall be made good to the satisfaction of the Librarian, one card reads. 

Looking for a way to increase residential waste recycling and reduce recycling litter in neighborhoods, the city wants to begin a two-year pilot program in which selected households would be asked to place their recyclables in clear plastic bags instead of bins. 

To carry out the pilot program,Our industry leading consumer and business rtls products offer competitive pricing combined. public works officials are recommending that the city's current recycling collection contract with Casella Waste Systems be extended for two years, from July 1 through June 30, 2015. 

Robert L. Moylan Jr., commissioner of public works and parks, said Casella Waste Systems is singularly qualified to run the pilot program because it has been collecting curbside recyclables in the city since 2008. 

The company also owns and operates the material recovery facility where all Worcester's recycling collection materials are taken and processed. 

There is no other recycling collection contractor within the collection area with the experience and the ability to collect and accept for processing, recycling materials brought in a plastic bagged format, Mr. Moylan wrote in a report that goes before the City Council Tuesday night. 

Mr. Moylan said the pilot program will take place in five different areas in the city to determine if clear bags should be considered for citywide recycling. 

Each area will consist of 250 to 300 housing units and will include single-family and multi-family dwellings. The commissioner said each pilot study will last for about three months and be done during various seasons to determine if weather affects the results. 

Meanwhile, each household in the pilot areas will also receive informational materials and a survey developed by the city and Casella, as well as a roll of 25 clear bags for recycling about 40,000 clear bags will be needed for the pilot program, he said.

ATCM clarifies position on Portas Pilots

Despite his sentiments and much of his extremely eloquent argument, he does miss several important points and wrongly attributes blame. He looks at outputs in terms of money actually spent at a specific point in time (31 December) rather than funds committed as part of a longer term approach. And he also seems to forget that outcomes (aka results) are more important than outputs (aka money spent).

It’s like a retailer measuring success by turnover without paying attention to profits.
He has also written,Want to find crystalmosaic? “If schemes like the Portas Pilots are to have a future they will have to be freed from the monopoly control of councils and the Association of Town Centre Management.”

We can’t speak for individual councils but we can point out that the ATCM doesn’t have ‘monopoly control’ over the Portas Pilots.High quality chinamosaic tiles. In fact, the ATCM’s prospectus and subsequent funding agreement, which have become public, are specifically aimed at supporting Town Team Partners (TTPs) and not Portas Pilot towns.

Business in the Community (BiTC) are providing support to Portas Pilot towns via a separate agreement with DCLG which we have not been privy to, and we work with them wherever we can.
And even though we are leading that TTP programme we are by no means doing it alone.

Supporters and organisations which have provided support include Experian, Clare Rayner (Indie Retail expert), Visit Worcester and more. We have however always made the offer to Pilots to participate and some have asked our advisors for support which we are happy to provide.

The ATCM has responded to the challenges of establishing, nurturing and guiding new Town Team Partners by creating a new website for Town Teams, publishing guides for new Town Centre Managers, staging events and networking sessions plus much more.

The ATCM has set up a network of eight regional Special Advisors to work with all the Town Team Partners,Universal solarstreetlight are useful for any project. as well as the Portas Pilots that ask for help, but the primary focus has been and remains even now on the Partners.You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth Original ventilationsystem Descriptions.

All of this has been done since last September (with only a month’s lead time before hitting the ground running), and the ATCM among others, is now awaiting the government’s announcement of who will lead on the next phase of support to both the Pilots and Partners. Funding to the ATCM for the first stage of work with the Partners ended in January.

Most Partners have wanted to concentrate on the basics, improving footfall, reducing vacancy rates, helping business retention, improving access, car parking and the public realm and seeing improved customer satisfaction.

But they also need to have the structures in place and develop the relationships needed to generate long term successful partnership working, says Toyubur Rahman, ATCM Town Teams project manager.

A great deal of information, research and examples of good practice already exist in the areas where Town Teams need guidance, but it must be understood that to improve footfall and reduce vacancy rates, towns will have to tackle underlying causes such as poor accessibility, undesirable public realm, lack of events, promotions and marketing and not serving the local community to the best of their ability. Only when the underlying causes are tackled will footfall and vacancy rates improve.

All of the approaches taken, which need to go much wider than focusing on retail, will require a longer term effort led by the community, supported by experts within government and the private sector along with local authority backing, and examples already exist in places like Mansfield, Buxton and other Town Team areas where solid improvements can be seen.

The package of code changes also lowers the number of parking spaces required at certain buildings, such as medical centers and planned business centers. Devilbiss said requiring developers to have less parking spaces would relieve them of a cost that they didn’t need, according to what county staff was seeing in parking lot usage.

The fledgling economy played a part in some of the code changes, he said. The time that a preliminary plan of subdivision would become void was changed from 24 months to 36 months. The time that a site plan would become void was changed from 18 months to 36 months.

Devilbiss said the sunset provision was extended because people are not as aggressively developing land as they used to be. The county has a lot of developers asking for extensions on their various plans because they can’t move forward with the development of their land, Devilbiss said. Changing the sunset provisions made more sense than continually granting extensions, he said.

While the staff suggested most of the changes included in the package, Devilbiss said the commissioners offered a lot of input for changes to the chapter on zoning.

A provision was added that would allow property owners that are not eligible to divide their land to have a detached dwelling unit of up to 600-square-feet of liveable floor area. In the past, people have said that they want to convert their garage to a liveable area so that their elderly parents will have a place to stay, according to Zoning Administrator Jay Voight. If the property had no subdivision rights, that conversion couldn’t happen, he said.

Another provision was added which would allow the zoning administrator to approve an increase in allowable square footage of up to 20 percent in instances of medical necessity or health-care related hardship. When people have medical conditions, their hallways may not be big enough to support the additional medical equipment, Voight said.

The proposed provision would allow Voight to approve an increase in space so that people can expand their houses for those specific instances. In order for people to qualify for the increase in square footage,This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif. Voight said their property must be a minimum of 3 acres.

Indianans plant deep new roots in Cordova the Town

Thanks to his job, Ben Gorsuch spent the past 10 years on the road. But he wasn’t traveling on business — he was commuting.

He said, “9-11 threw me for a curve. I worked for United Airlines for 17 years, but they shut down the Indianapolis facility in 2003. I had to find other employment.”

Ben, an aircraft mechanic, worked for a while as an Air Force contractor. From there, job opportunities led him to Cleveland, Ohio, then to Newark, N.J. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Karilyn, maintained their home in Indianapolis.

So even when another job opportunity led Ben to Memphis, he continued making the drive home to Indianapolis on weekends, renting rooms in “crash pads” during the workweek.

“I ended up down here with the intention of being here a little while and transferring back up to Indianapolis,” he said. “The challenge with that was because of the downturn in the economy, the company I work for vastly slowed down hiring.All smartcardfactory comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty ! They didn’t hire a single mechanic in Indianapolis for a whole year.”

Ben knew he might be waiting a long time for an Indiana transfer. And after spending a decade in a long-distance marriage, he and Karilyn decided enough was enough.

The couple’s home search was also tough. For nearly two years, the Gorsuches studied the Memphis real estate market in hopes of finding a house that would equal the home they loved in Indianapolis. That house, an older home, was loaded with charm and character.

“I really liked East Memphis, those older homes,” Karilyn said. “We looked in High Point Terrace, in the Central-Poplar area.”

Ben searched in his spare time during the week, and Karilyn made a few trips to the Mid-South to view homes in person. During their hunt, the couple met Realtor Melody Bourell,Austrian hospital launches oilpaintingsforsale solution to improve staff safety. of Marx-Bensdorf Realtors, at an open house.

With Bourell’s help, the Gorsuches viewed homes from East Memphis to Cordova to Collierville. One neighborhood in particular stuck in Karilyn’s head: Cordova the Town, a walkable community with homes that give a nod to nostalgia.

“Honestly, it was so far outside of our parameters,” Ben said. “It was the exact opposite of what we were looking for. We wanted something old, with character, small.”

When they initially viewed the neighborhood, Cordova the Town contained only existing homes that were too large and too far out of the Gorsuches’ price range to meet their needs. But they kept their eyes on it, and one day, they learned a firm was developing new lots in the neighborhood: J.T. Travis and Ken Klein of Sterling Gate Properties.

“I went in and, what the heck, I went into the model,” Ben said. “I was just amazed by the quality that J.T. puts into these places. Most builders want to get in,Which drycabinets is right for you? build it and get out. J.T. wants to make every home unique.”

They also love their new house — and they’ve put a lot into it to make it home. The couple requested several special features from the builders, including three sets of French doors that span the front faade, marble countertops in the kitchen and a marble master bath with a frameless shower.

“We wanted to put in our own personal touches,” Ben said.

The couple also requested a three-car garage, and Ben stained its concrete floors with eventual plans to turn it into his “man cave.” Between the house and the garage, a courtyard with multiple seating areas can be enclosed with a retractable screen by Southern Screens.

“At the beginning, when we were really starting to move in and get everything done,Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic. I spent a lot of time scoring and acid staining the concrete and working in (the garage),” Ben said. “Karilyn said, ‘If you love it so much, you can move your bed in there,’” he laughed. “I figured that was my sign I should spend more time inside the house.”

The home’s floor plan includes a first-floor master suite, a requirement for the Gorsuches, who plan to make the house their “forever home.”

“We’re not going to do this again,” Karilyn said. “We didn’t like the idea of moving; this was very hard on us. We wanted something easy to take care of.”

“That’s why there’s no carpet throughout the entire house,” Ben added.

In the living room, a fireplace flanked by built-in bookcases features a glass-tile surround in hues of gray, black and white. A breakfast bar divides the space from the kitchen, which has dark-stained, tall cabinetry and a marble backsplash the couple installed themselves.

In the formal dining room, the midcentury table, chairs and china cabinet were passed down from Karilyn’s family. Her mother did the needlepoint upholstery on the seats.

Also downstairs is a bedroom used as a home office, a guest bath and the master suite, which features a king-size bed dressed in blue and taupe paisley bedding. The en-suite bath has a retro marble-tile floor, a fully tiled bath and shower and gray and white marble countertops. Upstairs is a loft-style sitting area, a guest bath and two more bedrooms.

The couple have more projects they plan to complete: door screens, garage shelving and additional attic storage.Buy today and get your delivery for £25 on a range of solarstreetlamps for your home. But after a painstaking search and move, the couple are finally settled and happy in their new home.

Saying a Last Goodbye To Gulistan Co-Workers

I had worked many hours in developing carpet colors at the Wagram plant and wanted to say goodbye to my co-workers at that location.

The "dye house" was located on the backside of a huge plant that had once housed a J.P. Stevens towel manufacturing and dyeing operation. Gulistan leased a small portion of that mostly empty plant to use for dyeing carpet. Not long ago, 38 employees worked at Gulistan's Wagram plant. Nowhere near that many worked there when I visited the plant on Jan. 10.

I spoke with a 55-year-old laboratory technician who had dyed thousands of small carpet swatches over the almost 24 years I worked with Gulistan. I used many of those swatches to create "color lines" for styles reviewed for introductions.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic.

I visited Range Two, a "fluid-dye range" that applied color to the majority of Gulistan carpets. Range One dyed some carpets, and some goods were "hue infused" in "becks" (large vats), but Range Two was high-speed and served as Gulistan's dyeing workhorse.

The Range Two manager said he was uncertain about where he'd find employment. He's in his 50s.

His assistant told me about anticipated "screening tests" causing concern among soon-to-be-let-go employees. She said that a large soup-processing plant near Wagram requires job applicants to take several tests.

"They cost you 10 dollars apiece,Ubisense RTLS solutions go beyond the traditional definition of a “luggagetag” to a new class. and they're not easy," she said.

One woman I spoke with worked at Range Two "roll-up," where just-dyed carpets were still being inspected during my visit and rolled onto cardboard core tubes. The goods were slated to ship to the Aberdeen plant, where they'd be "back-coated" with latex, sheared and given a final inspection.

Another lift driver who spent workdays motoring around the plant with huge rolls of carpet impaled one at a time on a long steel rod located on the front of his lift-truck expressed concern. In his 40s, he worried about "those screening tests."

A young man sitting at a table in the Wagram break room said he planned to "go back to school."

I talked with more employees and walked past rolls of undyed goods on my way out of the plant. Colors would soon flow onto those carpets, and the dye house would close. I envisioned the plant sitting someday as a dark, lonely, cavernous hull - another empty textile mill dotting the North Carolina landscape and serving as a symbol of a bygone era.

On Friday afternoon, Jan. 11, my job ended. I said "so long" to my Aberdeen co-workers and took personal belongings to my truck. Leaving hardly seemed real.

Near the company gatehouse, I turned right on N.C. 5 and drove past the Gulistan sign standing in front of the main manufacturing plant and headed for home.

The gloriously fun costumes-and-more Life of the Party store has been an Old Town fixture throughout my 31 years in Fort Collins. I’ve gone there to buy party supplies, costumes, magic tricks and, in its early years (when it partnered with the Toy Dungeon), one very important stuffed Koala bear.

Now that “Life” is threatened. Owner Pat Talley needs to sell the store and retire, but she’s having a hard time finding a buyer. I can’t imagine running a more entertaining retail outlet with such a devoted and delightful audience. Life of the Party is a lifesaver for everyone from theatrical groups to CSU Greeks to pole dancers, who buy their 8-inch heels and “club” dresses there.

Another popular item is the Cosplay Kids products used during Denver conventions of this Anime favorite. Talley also began running a successful eBay venture five years ago that keeps her local postal carrier busy toting boxes full of goodies around. They ship items to France, Poland, Canada, Argentina and all around the world. According to Talley,Bathroom solarpanel at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. eBay has been a real blessing in keeping the business going.

Talley began her retail career working in her father’s Colorado Springs toy store. When she moved to Fort Collins in 1981, it seemed only logical to create her own toy wonderland. This became the Toy Dungeon at 133 S. College Ave. The store’s small costume section soon outgrew its small space in the store so,We maintain a full inventory of all lanyard we manufacture. in 1986, Talley expanded next door into the “Julian’s” building with Life of the Party.

After 25 years in that location, Talley downsized and moved to her present East Mountain location, across from Old Town Square. She donated a huge amount of stock during that move.

The present outlet has an old-timey feel to it and is so jam-packed with wonderful things that I can easily lose an hour just examining everything — and having a blast doing it.

Now that we’re threatened with losing Fort Collins’ only such store, I have to wonder where we’ll turn for costumes, makeup, wigs, etc., during the Tour de Fat, as well as for Halloween, Mardi Gras, theme parties,This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif. theatrical productions and so much more. Nowhere else can we find a comprehensive offering of everything you need for such events.

Boart eyes two-year turnaround

The result came on the same day that the firm announced that Richard O'Brien -- the chief of New York Stock Exchange-listed Newmont Mining -- would become Boart's chief executive, replacing ousted chief Craig Kipp.

Boart chairman David McLemore, who has been acting in the role since Mr Kipp's exit, said the firm's main indicators of rig use and order backlog of drilling products had stabilised but the global outlook for mining services remained unclear. It was looking to restructure its cost base in preparation for any resurgence.

"Our customers clearly are re-setting their cost base and . . . they're going to expect (us) to negotiate a new price for 2013 versus 2012 and we're well into that cycle, and it looks like our planning for pricing going into 2013 is also in line with that, " Mr McLemore said. Despite recent action to create greater efficiency at the company, which slashed global job numbers and moved manufacturing to low cost centres, Mr McLemore -- who will step down as chairman but remain on the board -- said the biggest challenge remained on the cost side as Boart looked to put in place a structure that was more resilient.

"So that it's a true overhead that's got leverage on it in the good times,Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and bobbleheads at wholesale prices." he said. "We don't have any headcount numbers on that, but we do know that our operating margins have got to improve by 2 or 3 per cent to be in line with our peers . . . my view in terms of us leading the industry, in terms of our operating margins, it's a two-year journey,The term 'stonemosaic control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag." he said.

Drilling products revenue, including equipment and performance tooling, fell by 13 per cent for the period to $US495m, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slumped by 19 per cent to $US107m. The firm gave no specific guidance for this year but said consensus expectations for revenue between $US1.7 billion and $US2bn was in line with its forecasts.

Deutsche Bank analyst Craig Wong-Pan said although the outlook remained uncertain it was a good result, with Boart coming in at the top end of guidance.

"The working capital will continue to build and we won't see a recovery in that working capital until the second half of this financial year," he said.

Total revenue was flat at $US2bn, in line with earlier guidance, while EBITDA came in slightly above revised guidance at $US322m -- a long way from initial expectations announced last year of $US460m. Board member Barbara Jeremiah was elected to the chairman's position.

Bucks County Fire Marshal Walter M. Carwithen said the cause of the fire is unknown at this time and under investigation. The ruins were still smoldering as of Saturday morning. Damage to the building, furnishings and equipment could go as high as $150,000.

The three-building complex, topped by a 19th century bell cupola, formerly served as the Doylestown Public School.

The fire, which was reported at 2:15 p.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic.m. Friday, apparently started in the abandoned third floor of the main grey stone building and spread to the second floor. The roof later collapsed in flames. The red brick annex adjacent to the main building was heavily damaged by smoke, water and falling debris.

A torch 50 feet high, five stories above the top of the hill around which Doylestown is built, was visible for at least four miles. It consumed the building's cupola in a sunny, cold setting of rainbows from the spray of firemen's hoses.

Firemen from nine volunteer fire companies, two rescue squads and an ambulance corps were involved. Fire companies fought the flames for more than three hours before getting the fire under control. Four provided auxiliary service.

Close to 1,000 persons ringed the site. As spectators left, more arrived on the scene.

Since 1966, when the county bought the complex for $80,000, the main building housed offices of the Bucks County Public Schools Intermediate Unit 22, the Central Bucks YMCA, the Bucks Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Bucks District Soil Conservation Service and the U.S. Navy recruiting office.

The brick addition, built in 1912, was used as a major storage facility for priceless county records, including deeds, wills and marriage licenses, some dating to the 1680s. A third building to the rear of the main building, constructed in 1925, is vacant. It escaped serious damage.

Dr. Albert Neiman, assistant executive director of the Intermediate Unit, whose office was on the second floor of the main building, discovered the flames in a former science laboratory on the dusty third floor.

"I smelled the smoke and ran upstairs. There were flames shooting up. Everybody started to yell to get out,Bathroom solarpanel at Great Prices from Topps Tiles." he said.

Neighborhood children and county officials formed chain lines to pass on cartons and files of documents. Pulled from the smoldering complex were about 300 hardbound marriage license dockets and more than 600 metal files of wills.

In addition, thousands of other records of the prothonotary and district attorney were safely left in wire-mesh pens in the annex after the flames were repulsed. Also saved was a collection of 75 stuffed big game animal trophies, valued at $100,000, donated to the county for educational purposes.You can siliconebracelet Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.

County building supervisor John Hofman coordinated the effort to save the records. He said a county truck took the material to the county-owned Roads and Bridges Building on Route 413 in Buckingham Township.