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Clean Power Plan May Yield Billions in Economic Benefits and New Jobs
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released their proposed Clean Power Plan. As readers of this blog are already aware, the Clean Power Plan proposes carbon emission standards for coal-fired power plants, which are the single largest source of carbon pollution in the U.S., generating approximately one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Some specifics are that under the Clean Power Plan, states must expand their energy sources and use solar (photovoltaic and solar thermal), wind, geothermal, sustainably sourced biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydrology in order to decrease their carbon emissions.
Did you know that renewable energy technologies are characteristically more labor-intensive than intensely mechanized fossil fuel technologies? This means that the potential economic benefits may be substantial; not to mention the significant benefits for our climate and health.
The solar industry employed over 100,000 workers in jobs ranging from solar manufacturing and sales to installation according to the Solar Foundation in 2011. Solar jobs grew by 20% percent in 2013 and 2014 is expected to create 22,000 jobs. Furthermore, these statistics were reported before the EPA plan was released, which may further boost the renewable job sector.
Let's look at wind energy. The amount of domestically manufactured equipment used in wind turbines doubled from 35% in 2006 to 70% in 2011 with 560 factories directly employing 75,000 full-time employees.
The hydroelectric power industry also plays a role. Statistics show in 2009 it employed 250,000 people. As many as 700,000 jobs could be generated if the hydropower industry installs a new capacity of 23,000 – 60,000 megawatts (MW) by 2025. Rounding out our look at the renewable energy sector, the geothermal industry directly employed 5,200 people in 2010.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) estimated in 2009 that a national, renewable electricity standard attempting to cut 25% of carbon emissions by 2025 would generate 297,000 jobs, $263.4 billion in new capital investment, $13.5 billion in income to farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners, and $11.5 billion in new local tax revenues. Remember, the EPA proposed reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. So the potential economic benefits may increase over the UCS's estimates.
With these figures, we're not even taking into account a complete picture of the potential economic benefits from expanded renewable energy sources. Think about how direct job creation leads to indirect job creation. For example, when you hire additional employees, you may very well need a larger Human Resources staff.
All of this comes at a time when our country could deeply benefit from economic stimulation. The U.S. economy is still anemic, with unemployment rates remaining high, and a disturbing national debt that's expected to reach $20 trillion by 2020. We must embrace win-win scenarios such as these that combine healing our ailing planet with economic recovery. It's past time to forge the path to a low-carbon future.
Interview with Mr. Hans Wegner, Chief Sustainability Officer at the National Geographic Society
Carbonfund.org and National Geographic Society (NGS) have been partners in the fight against global climate change since 2009. Our relationship with NGS is managed by Mr. Hans Wegner, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Society whose leadership in the sustainability realm has been an inspiration to everyone at our Foundation.
In 2011, Han's leadership with the NGS "Green Team" led to his team receiving our For People and Planet award in the "Media" category for their efforts to reduce carbon dioxide (C02) emissions.
These efforts included reducing emissions from their operations by 80% with an additional goal of reducing emissions from their magazine paper and printing materials supply chain by 10% by 2015. The team has succeeded at numerous other efforts from obtaining Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Gold Status for their headquarters building to compost and recycling programs in their cafeteria.
Since the origin of our relationship, with NGS, the Society has been a key supporter of several of our projects including the Purus REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) Project in Acre, Brazil, and the Native Species Reforestation Project in Panama to offset the Society's respective travel and office emissions.
We had the opportunity to speak with Hans on his impressive 41 years at the National Geographic Society and his broader work in the sustainability realm.
1. Please describe your current role as Chief Sustainability Officer at NGS and what lead you to that position?
I came to the Society in 1973, with a background in commercial printing. I came here to work in one of the photographic labs, compiling film for wall maps for 1.5 years and subsequently became responsible for the production and then the manufacturing of the Magazine. During that time I also handled all paper purchasing for the Society so I became very conversant with the issues related to paper manufacturing and the paper market. I took particular interest in learning all I could about the environmental impacts of all aspects of paper making; from seedling in the ground to recycling of old paper products. I took great pride in working with our paper suppliers to make sure they abide by or exceeded all applicable environmental regulations.
In 2006 I headed up a group of concerned NGS employees who felt we as an organization could do more to reduce the impact our operations had on climate change and to raise our collective awareness of our responsibility to conduct our business sustainably. Our groups focused on measuring the carbon emissions that we as a company were responsible for, including those emitted on our behalf by our suppliers. We knew we had to know our corporate carbon footprint, not only in the aggregate, but by product line or service sector so we could have a roadmap for the remedial actions we wanted to take. On the basis of this information, we made our buildings carbon neutral, achieved LEED-EB Gold status for our complex, and certified our campus as Energy Star rated and implemented many energy saving features.
On the basis of our success, I was designated Chief Sustainability Officer in 2009.
2. How did you get started in sustainability work? Who or what inspired you to go into a career in sustainability?
I have always had an inclination to try to be environmentally responsible and I like to think of myself as acting on what I know to be true. This is what led me to set environmental policy for our paper suppliers when I was handling paper purchasing for the Society, implementing a requirement to use best forest management practices, to exceed the guidelines of the Clean Air and Water Acts. In the mid 1990's I became increasingly convinced of not only the fact of climate change, but the reality that it was human activity that was causing this phenomenon. Additionally human activity was consuming finite natural resources at obviously unsustainable rates. I was of course aware that the Society was publishing or producing related stories in our Magazine and TV productions on these subjects so the problem was not a lack of public awareness of the issues but rather a problem of failing to act on what we know. I felt compelled to make a difference and to act, so I began talking to people and knew there was a critical mass of my colleagues who felt strongly, wanted to help, and were willing to volunteer their time to make a difference. That led to the formation of the GoGreen Committee (Now Green Team) which has been meeting monthly since late 2006 and is leading the sustainability initiative at the Society.
3. What personal accomplishments in the sustainability realm are you most proud of?
I would have to say being instrumental in starting the sustainability initiative at the Society and thereby creating an awareness that we as an organization and as individuals could and needed to do more than we were.
As to specifics: 1) Focusing our efforts on knowing our carbon footprint and focusing our efforts at reducing that that footprint by eliminating waste where we found it and thereby eliminating the cost of that waste. 2) Setting and then achieving the goal of becoming a carbon neutral facility and qualifying our Buildings for LEED-EB Gold certification. 3) Doing the most comprehensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) ever done on a Magazine in cooperation with our paper and printing suppliers. This was completed in 2009. 4) Convincing the Society to become a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) driven company in 2012. 5) Committing the Society to the idea of offsetting our scope III carbon (all indirect emissions except for purchased electricity, heat and steam). To date, we have reduced our scope III by over 20% since 2008.
4. What are you currently working on in the sustainability realm?
We are working with our suppliers of printing and digital media storage to document their emissions on our behalf and to look into renewable energy for those emissions. We are working to achieve carbon neutral status for everything we do, and to send zero waste to landfill. My goal is to have sustainability become part of the culture of the Society.
5. What is your personal biggest sustainability challenge?
Changing behavior at our company and getting more companies to start addressing climate change. Behavior changes are hard. Energy has always been cheap in the US, and the challenge is to change that perception and get people to change their behavior and use less. The other challenge is for all of us to personalize climate change and take responsibility for that change. At the end of the day each of us must make a commitment to change if we are to solve this problem. We all have the tendency to wait for someone else to start. Don't wait for someone else. You do it. Each of us can start today by: not leaving lights on, shortening the showers we take, using mass transit, recycling everything we can, etc.
6. What is going to be the biggest challenge for sustainability in the next 20 years?
Complacency on the part of most of us. Dependence on someone else to do the job for us. Ignoring the noise from the fossil fuel industry to say everything is OK when it is clearly not. A Congress that is divided to the point of dysfunction, so no federal leadership is possible. The naysayers that persist in trying to say that this is not a problem, and it is bad for the economy to address this issue. The fear mongers who wish to use this issue to divide us rather than to say here is a challenge we can unite on and fix.
7. For the next generation of environmental professionals, what advice would you give?
You do not have to be an expert. Read and act on what you know. Make the business case that waiting is paramount to throwing money away and that America cannot compete with clean economies around the world. Make the business case that inaction, or little action, is far, far more expensive and costly to jobs and prosperity than the most drastic actions we take today.
8. How did Carbonfund.org help you achieve your sustainability goals?
Carbonfund.org has been able to find projects for us to help us offset our use of natural gas to heat our buildings and use in our cafeteria. It has also helped us find projects that offset our business travel. My question to any offset provider has always been: Can you get me a two 'fer or three 'fer? By which I mean I am looking for projects that not only reduce carbon buildup in the atmosphere by adding sequestration capacity, but does doing so expand the habitat for an endangered species (either flora or fauna) in an area, thereby enhancing the possibility of that species' survival? So I am always interested in finding projects that have multiple benefits with the primary one being carbon emissions reductions. So far, Carbonfund.org has done a really good job finding such projects for us.
9. Why did you choose to work with Carbonfund.org?
In keeping with the idea of sourcing locally, I liked that Carbonfund.org is in fact local to Washington DC metro area. I also like the fact of Carbonfund.org being a not-for-profit, as I believe that addressing climate change should not be a profit driven undertaking. That is not to say that we should not do business with for profit entities, it is just that if not-for-profit is an option; that is my preference so we can put more dollars into emissions reductions.
Forever Cheese Celebrates and Strengthens its Commitment to Renewable Energy
Forever Cheese is already renowned for their commitment to sourcing the finest cheeses and specialty foods from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Croatia and it has now been seven years since they have begun a commitment with Carbonfund to actively help the planet and further renewable energy.
"We are focused on wind and solar energy not just as a way for the future, but for now." states Michele Buster, President and Co-Founder of Forever Cheese. "We hope to be a role model for other companies, catalyzing them to support the development of renewable energy resources."
Since 1998, Michele and her business partner, Pierluigi Sini have been finding unique artisan cheeses and specialty foods to introduce into the US. They hand-select each item directly from the producers.
Some of their more famous products include Genuine Fulvi® Pecorino Romano, Rustico®, Drunken Goat®, Naked Goat®, Mitica® Marcona Almonds & Fig Almond Cake. Look for the brands Fulvi®, Sini® or Mitica® to find Forever Cheese products.
Carbonfund.org is very proud to have this great partnership with Forever Cheese to provide significant benefit to renewable energy projects around the United States along with additional support toward national reforestation projects.
"We greatly appreciate our partnership with Forever Cheese," said, Executive Director, Eric Carlson, "they are true industry leaders in their commitment to supporting renewable energy."
For more information, please visit www.forevercheese.com.
Could a Carbon Tax Be the Answer to Curbing Global Warming?
Most of the time, we do not take into account the complete costs to producing or consuming a good or service. This is because we focus on the explicit costs. For example, if we were to bake a loaf of bread, we would take into account the cost of the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, milk, and butter. Perhaps we would even calculate our labor time to make the dough and the cost of running the oven, but would we account for the carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere for the delivery truck that delivered the baking supplies? How about the CO2 emissions from the power plant burning fossil fuels to generate the electricity to run the oven? The problem is that we are not required to bear the full cost of production. Some of the costs to bake that loaf of bread were shifted to society as a whole.
Even if we did not bake the loaf of bread ourselves, we're still shifting costs to society as a whole just by consuming it. Our cars burn gasoline to drive to and from the grocery store, and regardless if we walked or biked, gasoline was likely also burned to deliver the bread to the grocery store in the first place. Sure the delivery truck paid for the gasoline, but many companies do not pay for the carbon emissions their operations generate.
We need to make some drastic changes to avoid the ills of global warming, which we are beginning to see affect our daily lives, but the logistics of transforming our world's energy system can be intimidating. The first thing we need to do is get off fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy sources. Easier said than done, I know. It will be a complex and time-consuming process converting power plants, vehicles/transport systems, homes and commercial buildings. Unfortunately, time is not on our side here. We really need to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050.
So then the question becomes how can we transition the world's energy infrastructure to sustainable sources by mid-century? One of the ways suggested is to implement a tax on CO2 emissions that begins low and gradually increases. There should be no mystery either about how much and at what intervals over time the tax will rise. Then people, businesses and governments can plan their fossil fuel exit strategy.
The revenues the carbon tax generates should be directed into subsidizing renewable energy innovation and overhauling energy infrastructure.
Ideally, the carbon tax should be global. Again there are logistical challenges to this climate change solution. The key is that we need a systematic and practical process. Isn't it time we started taking responsibility for the full costs of production and consumption? Society is bearing the cost as a whole, and society as a whole needs to be part of the solution.
US EPA Releases Second Year of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data
Ever wonder how large facilities in your state are doing regarding greenhouse gas emissions? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began collecting greenhouse gas emissions data in 2010 under the congressionally mandated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Program. In February 2013, the EPA's program released its second year (2011) of emissions data, which provides public access to emissions data by sector, by greenhouse gas, and by geographic region such as county or state.
The 2011 data includes information from facilities in 41 source categories that emit large quantities of greenhouse gasses. New this year is data collected from 12 additional source categories, including petroleum and natural gas systems and coal mines.
Highlights of findings from the 2011 data include:
- Power plants represent approximately one-third (33 percent) of total U.S. GHG emissions, making them the largest stationary source of GHGs in the country
- 2011 emissions from power plants were roughly 4.6 percent below 2010 emissions, demonstrating an ongoing increase in power generation from natural gas and renewable energy sources
- Refineries represented the third-largest source of GHG emissions, which increased by a half of a percent over 2010 data
- Overall emissions reported from the 29 sources tracked in both years were 3 percent lower in 2011 than in 2010
Transparency is critical to a better environment and the key to conquering climate change. If companies, communities and individuals take a look at how large facilities are doing in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and compare the latest data to national averages, perhaps we can find ways to cut these emissions and begin to curb global warming. Being better informed is also good for the businesses as they may identify opportunities to conserve energy and thereby save money.
Check out how individual large facilities in your state, county, and even zip code perform. Access this data through the Facility Level Information on Green House gases Tool (FLIGHT), which is a web-based data publication tool, or dig deeper through the EPA's online database Envirofacts that allows information searches via zip code.
Most Domestic Oil and Gas Companies Fail to Cut Emissions
According to a recently released report by the World Wildlife Fund, 58 of the United States' Fortune 100 companies set goals in 2012 to either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or use more renewable energy in their operations. However, oil and gas companies are lagging far behind in this movement. Eight of 11 domestic energy companies on the Fortune 100 have not set internal energy goals.
This is in direct contrast to 68 of the planet's 100 largest companies who recognize the impact of global warming and are making investments in greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy goals. Sadly, energy companies represent the lowest participation rate of any industry worldwide. The few exceptions are Hess and Chevron who have both set renewable energy and greenhouse gas targets, and ExxonMobil who set a greenhouse gas target.
Why have three quarters of the nation's industrial companies voluntarily set some sort of environmental target? There are a variety of potential reasons including: policy pressures, public relations or perhaps even the forward thinking that sees renewable energy's potential to someday be less expensive than, or at least competitive with, oil and gas.
And why haven't most oil and gas companies voluntarily set environmental targets? It may be because the very products they put on the market directly contribute to climate change. There is also a lack of urgency to act; little pressure comes from investors or policies. An example of a type of policy that was successful in the past is the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, which worked by making large companies publically accountable for which potentially toxic chemicals they use and where they are released. Then the information is posted on the EPA's website for anyone to see.
The planet would really benefit from a similar policy focusing on oil and gas company emissions, or better yet, a broader climate change policy such as a national carbon tax or cap-and-trade program. There are other options that could pave the way towards a cleaner energy future. The federal government could require that a certain percentage of electricity come from renewable sources and offer further tax incentives for wind and solar production. Many companies are setting their own internal goals, but for others such as the majority of the oil and gas industry, they're not going to do anything about increasing efficiency and reducing their carbon footprints until someone makes them.
News Corporation Overwhelmingly Misleading on Climate Change
Five years ago the CEO of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, claimed that news coverage of climate change in his media outlets would improve gradually. However, a recent study indicates that not only has that not happened, but that the preponderance of climate change information on Fox News primetime and in the Wall Street Journal's opinion page is overwhelmingly misleading.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a science-policy nonprofit, analyzed six months of global warming discussions on Fox News primetime programs (February 2012 to July 2012) and one year of Wall Street Journal op-eds (August 2011 to July 2012). UCS found that climate science was inaccurately covered in 93 percent of Fox News primetime programs and 81 percent of Wall Street Journal editorials.
The analysis found denial that climate change is caused by humans, dismissals of climate science as a legitimate science, and derogatory comments about select scientists. The worst part is that this misleading coverage encourages scientific distrust and portrays climate change as a left-wing idea, rather than based on scientific facts.
How many people are misled about climate science by these media outlets? Well the number is in the multi-millions. In 2011, Fox News Channel (FNC) was the United States' most popular cable news channel. During prime time, FNC reaches a median of 1.9 million people plus. The Wall Street Journal has over 2 million daily readers and the largest circulation among American newspapers.
There is nothing wrong with fully examining and debating the merits of policies aimed at addressing climate change. However, it is ludicrous and irresponsible to deny the overwhelming body of scientific evidence that climate change is man-made and happening right now.
The analysis shows that sadly these media groups continue to waste time and effort that could be put to better use in combating climate change. Readers of this blog already know that global warming is man-made and many are putting their energies toward what they can do about it by supporting organizations such as Carbonfund.org. These climate change leaders seek out quick and affordable ways for individuals and businesses to calculate and offset the carbon emissions they generate.
The science is clear. Invest in renewable energy sources and support reforestation projects because the time is now to build a clean energy future.
US Green Energy on the Rise
According to data recently uncovered from the Energy Information Agency, electricity coming from non-hydroelectric renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass) has doubled in the U.S. to almost 6 percent in a scant four years' time.
It's a bit surprising that this significant fact hasn't been splashed all over the news. Businesses are portrayed as not believing clean energy is worth the investment, but that is simply not true for all. Some companies see the wisdom and fiscal prudence in planning for climate change. The press appears to focus more on manufacturing problems in the sector.
While it is true that the green manufacturing industry is experiencing some growing pains, take solar panel makers for example, it's worth noting that the green industry is growing overall, and quickly too. China made enormous investments in solar, and they are the face of rising competition. They've brought down the price of panels by 65 percent in a mere 18 months. So this leads to fewer and bigger solar manufacturers, which is what happens in all mature industries. However, the explosion of growth in the solar industry comes from the businesses that sell, install, and maintain solar.
Perhaps renewable energy seems like small potatoes since it's only a fraction of total electricity generation. But the magic is in the industry's potential for exponential growth. If non-hydro renewables were to double three more times, they would provide nearly half of US electricity needs. That's more than we get from coal or natural gas right now.
The renewable energy industry's growth is not just limited to the U.S. either. Countries such as Portugal and Germany have transformed their power grids to generate 25 – 45 percent of their electricity needs from renewable sources.
The big question is if non-hydroelectric renewables can continue to double every four years? Well let's start by taking a look at what kind of growth would be required to do so. Non-hydro renewables need 19 percent annual growth in order to double every four years. Some sectors grow that much or more. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the solar sector is growing 30 percent annually.
The bottom line is that the payback time for investing in renewable energy is getting faster every day. Wise homeowners, businesses, and governments are ahead of the curve because they see that the future is in renewable sources.
More Evidence of an Increasing Market for Renewable Energy
The desire for renewable energy world-wide is on the rise according to a pair of recently released studies commissioned by wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas. Eighty-five percent of global respondents want more renewable energy in the market, says the Global Consumer Wind Energy Study. And 49% of those surveyed would be willing to pay more for renewable energy. The survey also illuminated that 45% believe climate change is one of the big three challenges facing the globe.
The survey polled 24,000 respondents in 20 countries and also found that 62% would buy products from companies who use wind energy. Almost three quarters of consumers indicated they would feel more positive if companies used wind as its primary source of energy.
The second study examines what companies do voluntarily for renewable energy production. Bloomberg New Energy Finance writes the Corporate Renewable Energy Index, which found that global investments in renewable energy capacity are overtaking those of fossil fuels; $237 billion compared to $223 billion. Furthermore, companies are increasingly committing to renewable energy. They purchased 40% of renewable energy last year.
The trend of businesses planning for climate change is not news to readers of our blog. However, it is encouraging to see companies actually making investments in renewable energy. It only makes sense as it lowers their risk. So these studies point to both consumers and corporations demanding more renewable energy. Isn't it time governments join the trend too? The scale goes from smaller to larger effects when consumers, businesses, and governments work together to lower global carbon emissions. We are looking forward to a clean energy future powered by renewable energy sources.
EPA Free to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions
We can do a lot as individuals to combat global warming. But it is undeniable that governments can do more since they harness the power of the collective. The Obama administration's strategy is to control global warming emissions through regulation. This week a huge victory was given to both the administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia. The decision was unanimous in upholding the agency's landmark rulings to control greenhouse gases.
The issue seems like a "no brainer" that the EPA should regulate greenhouse gases. However, dozens of lawsuits from industry groups and 14 states challenged four rules that aim to limit greenhouse gases. The biggest rule is the EPA's 2009 "endangerment finding" and the foundation on which the other three rules rest. The EPA contended, and was vindicated in this ruling, that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions constitute a danger to public health and therefore could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The three-judge panel acknowledged and gave credence to climate change as a real and legitimate threat to public health and safety. So now climate change deniers have less of a leg to stand on; the EPA based its case on sound science and careful research which stood up to a rigorous judicial review and emerged victorious.
The ruling cleared the way for the EPA to proceed with clean car standards and restrictive permits on power plants and other major industrial polluters. Perhaps now power plants will put increased effort into developing cost-effective and reliable methods to capture carbon emissions, or at least offset them. If not, the future will certainly be in renewable energy sources now that there are stricter limitations on greenhouse gas emissions.


text:
Sequence ID: 82767307
Warning: This sequence appears to contain Vector sequences.
See evidence: Vector
- Title: CRP601 Creeping bentgrass EST Agrostis stolonifera cDNA clone CRP232T_F02 3', mRNA sequence.
- Type: mRNA
- Length: 607 bp
- Organism: Agrostis stolonifera
- GenBank Accession: DV860869
- Name: LIBEST_018760 Creeping bentgrass EST
- Developmental stage: Field-grown mature plant inoculated with Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, the causal agent of dollar spot disease
- PubMed: 17497174

subset: commoncrawl


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About Your Bill - Billing
Take A Bill Tour
University Health Care offers two methods for you to pay your bill. One is online bill pay and the other is through check or credit card by phone or mail. For answers to other questions about billing or billing complaints, see the list of frequently asked questions below.
Bill Pay Online
You can now pay your bill online through MyChart. MyChart is a secure system that you can join with the activation code on your current paper bill.
Bill Pay by Phone or Mail
To pay your bill by phone or mail, you can do one of the following:
- Mail a check for the appropriate amount with the bottom portion of your bill
- Mail in your credit card information by writing it on the bottom portion of your bill
- Call and pay your bill over the phone
(801) 587-6303
1 (800) 862-4937
Representatives are available at these times:
Mon–Fri, 9:00 am–5:30 pm
U Hospital Self-Pay Billing Office
P.O. Box 30465
Please be sure to include these with your payment:
- Statement pay stub
- Account number
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Understanding Your Bill
To help you understand your bill, please see our bill tour and review the Frequently Asked Questions below. We want to make sure that when you receive your bill, you understand its contents and your financial obligations whether you are insured, not insured or demonstrate extreme financial hardship.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When will I receive my bill?
- What if I have insurance?
- When do I pay my co-payment and deductible?
- How will I know my insurance company has been billed?
- Do I have to pay a deposit?
- What if I do not have insurance?
- What if I am having difficulties paying my bill in full?
- What other funding options are there?
- What if I demonstrate extreme financial hardship?
- How do I contact the Self Pay Billing Office Customer Service about my hospital bill?
- How do I submit a billing complaint?
When will I receive my bill?
Approximately 30 days after services are rendered you will receive your first bill. You will receive a bill monthly thereafter until your accounts are resolved in full.
What if I have insurance?
To help us bill your insurance, please bring your current insurance information with you each time you are seen at the hospital or clinic. We will make every effort to collect insurance benefits from your primary insurance company if you provide us with your insurance billing information.
When do I pay my co-payment and deductible?
Please pay your co-payments and deductibles at the time of service (when you are at the clinic, hospital or other provider service).
How will I know my insurance company has been billed?
On your statement there is a section that states "Pending Insurance". Under this will be information about the amount that has been billed to your insurance.
Do I have to pay a deposit?
You are expected to make co-payments and/or estimated patient responsibility at the time of service.
What if I do not have insurance?
If you do not have insurance, your payment for the estimated charges of your visit is due in full before or at the time of service. In addition, you will need to sign an agreement stating the amount you will pay is only an estimate, and the remaining balance is due within 30 days after the discharge date.
What if I am having difficulties paying my bill in full?
There is a minimum monthly payment of $75 or your total patient balance divided over 12 months, whichever is the greater of the two. If you are unable to pay the minimum due balance please contact our customer service department and we will review other payment arrangement options with you.
What other funding options are there?
The following are options you may want to consider if your financial situation requires it:
- Financing through patient/guarantor's own bank, credit union, or other financial institution.
- Real estate or home equity loans, a second mortgage.
- Advances from employers.
- Community fund raisers.
- Loans from friends, family or church organizations.
What if I demonstrate extreme financial hardship?
For those with extreme financial hardship, a sliding scale arrangement is available. Strict income guidelines apply, subject to approval with documentation of income limiting the ability to meet the obligation.
The patient/guarantor must bring current financial information at the time of application, prior to your hospital/clinic visit. The following information is needed when you apply for financial assistance:
- Federal tax forms, or two months of pay stubs if W-2 is not available
- Credit card statements if used for basic living expenses
- Profit and loss statements from self-employed patients/guarantors
- Documentation regarding receipt of, or payment of child support or alimony
- Current pay stubs of disability income if applicable
For more information on financial hardship arrangements, please contact Self-Pay Billing Office at (801) 587-6303 or 1-(800)-862-4937, or if you are at the hospital you can visit the Financial Counselors in the Admitting Office located in the main lobby of the hospital at the check-in desk.
Our plain language policy summary may be found here for a copy of the financial assistance policy click here. If you would like to apply for assistance, please click here.
How do I contact the Self Pay Bill Office Customer Service?
You can speak to a representative or make an appointment to talk with a representative in person by calling
Self-Pay Billing Office Phone
(801) 587-6303 or (800) 862-4937
You may also email
How do I submit a billing complaint?
Contact the Self-Pay Billing Office by phone or email at the contact information directly above.


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Leather Oak
Leather oak acorn and leaves. Source: Mark S. Brunell
Quercus durata Jeps. (1909)
The Leather Oak, a California endemic, occurs primarily in the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. It is a species with strong affinity for ultramafic soils, a geochemical class of high magnesium, low calcium and nutrient deficient media. In appearance this is a shrub-like tree whose leathery leaves reveal its common name and obvious membership in the sclerophyll vegetation category, a morphological class of hard leaved species that may occur in such diverse places as Australia, Southern Africa, the Chilean matorral and the Mediterranean Basin as well as the California Floristic Province.
Q durata has two recognized varieties:
* var. durata, occurs at elevation 150 to 1500 m in the California North and South Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay Area and northern Sierra Nevada foothills. Upper leaf sufaces of this variety are severely convex
* var. gabrielensis occurs at elevation 450 to 1000 meters as a limited distribution taxon in the San Gabriel Mountains within San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties
Q. durata manifests as an evergreen shrub typically ranging from 100 to 300 cm in height at maturity, (Jepson) although it can not uncommonly reach 600 cm in height in circumstances where no burn has occurred for 30 to 50 years. Yellowish or gray twigs are generally tomentose, and the convex oval to elliptic leaves have spiny apexes and enrolled toothed margins. These leaves typically measure 1.5 to 3.0 cm and are dull puberulent above and short hairy pale green below; leaf petioles are approximately one to five mm; secondary leaf veins are conspicuous. The ovoid to cylindric nuts are 1.5 to 2.5 cm in size. The acorn cap is turbinate in shape and covers approximately one third to one half of the nut.
Sonoma Co. Calif. Source: C.Michael Hogan
Plant associations and distribution
Q. durata is considered highly tolerant of ultramafic soils, (Kruckeberg) those that are high in magnesium and low in calcium and also characteristically high in nickel and chromium content. These soils are often reddish soils are also typically nutrient poor. (Biedleman and Kozloff) Raiche has correctly pointed out that the botanical literature on Q. durata overstates the species reliance on ultramafic substrates, when, in fact, this oak is found on a variety of volcanic and other non-serpentine soils within the California Floristic Province. (Raiche. 2010)
Q durata is the dominant shrub in Sargent Cypress (Hesperocyparis sargentii) woodlands, which occur in coastal portions of Mendocino, Sonoma, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties as well as portions of the San Francisco Bay region. The Cedars in Sonoma County is an example of a Sargent Cypress coastal site. In more protected inland locales this woodland type may extend into a riparian zone where summer fogs persist. (Barbour et al.) Grey Pine (Pinus sabiniana) may occur with Sargent Cypress in northern California, while Coulter Pine (P. coulteri) is a common associate in central and southern California. MacNab Cypress (Hesperocyparis macnabiana) woodlands are a somewhat less common ultramafic plant association where the Leather Oak may be a dominant shrub.
Ultramafic chaparral is another common plant community that is found below elevation 500 meters from Santa Barbara County north through the North Coast Ranges and also within the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and portions of the California Central Valley. Here co-dominant shrubs are Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), Coffeeberry (Frangula californica), Interior Silktassel (Garrya congdonii). Buckthorn (Rhamnus crocea) and Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia). Scattered taller occurrences of California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica), Canyon Live Oak (Quercus chrysolepis) and Coast Live Oak (Q agrifolia) are also found here.
Q durata is found outside of serpentine environments (Alexander) such as within the Vaca Mountains of Solano and Napa Counties or Hale Ridge of Lake County. In these cases Leather oaks typically occur as isolated individuals within a backdrop of plant associations dominated by California Scrub Oak (Quercus berberidifolia) and Interior Live Oak (Q. wislizeni).
In the case of Q durata gabrielensis, this variety is commonly found in association with California Ash (Fraxinus dipetala), Chaparral Honeysuckle (Lonicera interrupta), Indian Warrior (Pedicularis densiflora), Silver Puffs (Uropappus lindleyi), Sand Fringepod (Thysanocarpus curvipes), Pinon Wormwood (Artemisia dracunculus) and Succulent Lupine (Lupinus succulentus)
Q. durata and a number of other California oaks have difficulty in re-establishing stands after forest clearing or in colonization of grassland at a chaparral-prairie boundary. This difficulty is not due to germination rates, but rather relates to the harsh environment of high solar insolation, summer aridity and herbivory in the grassland environment, based upon controlled studies at Jasper Ridge and other sites. (Williams et al.)
Q durata is sometimes afflicted by rust fungi of the genus cronartium.(Amer. Phytopathological Soc.) The Leather Oak is a host to other parasitic species such as Cynips washingtonensis, who construct spherical galls on Q durata as well as Valley Oak (Q lobata) and Coastal Sage Scrub Oak (Q dumosa). These young galls appear in early spring and can be quite numerously attached to twigs; this gall is typically engulfed in a mass of velvety hairs. The parasite Andricus crystallinus forms irregularly shaped pallidasal galls that agglomerate into masses on the leaves of Q durata, with individual galls being approximately eight to nine mm in length. The gall wasp Neuroterus saltarorius forms a small one millimeter subspherical gall on the Q durata leaf as documented in collected specimens from Brentwood, Marysville and Stockton, California.
Human use
Native American peoples utilized the Leather Oak as a source of food and medicine.After tannins were leached from the acorns, the resulting product was mashed and made into a nutritious mush, which in concert with other oak species was a culinary staple; one of the chief leaching methods was to place raw acorns in a cloth bag and leave this assembly in a stream for several weeks. Certain of the galls found on Q. durata galls are quite astringent, and their extracts were used by California tribes for treatment of dysentery, hemorrhage and diarrhea.
In modern times the leaf mulch from the Leather Oak is applied to gardens for its efficacy in repelling slugs and grubs. After pupation the gall extracts are utilized for tannins and dyes. (Grieve) Modern day uses also include a coffee product and a thickener for soups and stews.
- Jepson Manual. 1993. Quercus durata, University of California, Berkeley
- Linda H. Biedleman and Eugene N. Kozloff. 2003. Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey, 503 pages
- Arthur R. Kruckeberg. 2004. Geology and plant life: the effects of landforms and rock types on plants, page 194
- Michael G. Barbour, Todd Keeler-Wolf, Allan A. Schoenherr. 2007. Terrestrial vegetation of California. page 95
- Earl B. Alexander. 2007. Serpentine geoecology of western North America: geology, soils, and vegetation, 512 pages
- Roger Raiche. 2010. personal communication
- Kimberlyn Williams, Stephen D. Davis, Barbara L. Gartner and Steffan Karlsson, Factors Limiting the Establishment of a Chaparral Oak, Quercus durata Jeps., in Grassland, Symposium on Oak Woodlands and Hardwood Rangeland Management, Oct 31, 1990, Davis, California
- American Phytopathological Society. 1916. Phytopathology, Volume 6, page 229
- M. Grieve. 1984. A Modern Herbal. Penguin Books, Middlesex, England ISBN 014-046-440-9


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Ron Jakowski
this wiki
- For the petroleum company in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V, see RON. For the mission, see Nervous Ron.
Ronald "Ron" Jakowski is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as a main character in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online.
Ron Jakowski is a paranoid, conspiracy theorist. He is an associate of Trevor Philips and acting CEO of Trevor's business, Trevor Philips Enterprises. Ron also hosts his own podcast that's played during the community hour of Blaine County Radio.
Ron Jakowski was voiced by David Mogentale.
Ronald Jakowski was formerly happily married before his "best friend" Trevor Philips entered his life. Trevor convinced him that his wife was only holding him back in life, and was divorced by his wife. He then began to obsess over conspiracy theories. On his podcast, Ron also reveals he was formerly an accountant before he started believing conspiracy theories. He's also deep in debt and still has to pay his settlement fees to his former wife.
Now Ron helps Trevor expand Trevor Philips Industries and is acting CEO.
Rockstar describes him as if his best buddy Trevor Philips is like a shark, Ron is like a remora. Being "paranoid but terrified" of Trevor.
Ron is an unlikely friend of Trevor but as said above, he is terrified of him and so goes to great lengths to appease him whenever he can, such as when he let Trevor bully him into giving up his share of the profits of an arms dealing job the two carried out, especially if Trevor is close to losing his very short temper. Trevor describes Ron as a conspiracy theorist which fits with his paranoia and despite Ron's timidness, he acts as a sort of henchman for Trevor and helps him with missions such as sneaking around the Lost brotherhood base to plant explosives while Trevor watches and covers him through a sniper scope which indicates a level of trust between them, and when Trevor introduces Ron to Michael, he describes Ron as very loyal which can be seen throughout the game.
Ron, due to trying to appease Trevor whenever he can, will always agree with Trevor even when the latter insults him or his conspiracy theories, making him something of a "yes man" and despite his fear, he seems to genuinely look up to his friend and may even be oblivious to fact he is sometimes threatened with violence by him, this can be heard on his radio station.
Mission Appearances
- Mr. Philips
- Nervous Ron
- Friends Reunited
- Minor Turbulence
- Derailed
- Bury the Hatchet (Voice)
- Something Sensible (Option A/Post-mission message)
- The Time's Come (Option B/Post-mission message)
- The Third Way (Option C/Post-mission message)
- GTA Online
- Romance Isn't Dead (Boss)
- Fueling the Flames (Boss)
- Turbine Carbine (Boss)
- Daemon Run (Boss)
- Base Invaders (Boss)
- Crank Up the Volume (Boss)
- A Boat in the Bay (Boss)
- Wet Work (Boss)
- Landing Gear (Boss)
- Ron is a DJ host on Blaine County Talk Radio, where he plays messages from "callers". He makes references to Trevor Philips, calling him Philip Trevors, and plays a message of Trevor threatening Ron, if he is put on the show.
- Should the player "kill" Ron at anytime, 5000$ will be taken out of the player's bank account for Ron's medical payments. He will then send you a text explaining how the player is paying for it because he has to pay off settlement payments.
- Ron's phone number is 328-555-0198.
- Visiting Ron as Trevor, Ron spouts random conspiracy theories and constantly agrees to Trevor's verbal abuse.
- Should the player take Michael De Santa to Ron, Ron's random comments become hostile as does Michael's too.
- Based on the game's final outcome, Ron will send the player a different message.
- If the player chose Something Sensible, Ron will message Michael and Franklin, cursing them for killling Trevor and mourning over the loss of his best friend and business.
- If the player chose The Time's Come or The Third Way, Ron will message Trevor about leaving a customized Blazer near Trevor's trailer.


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Nautilus Floral Organic Duvet Cover & Sham
No longer available
Tiger-striped nautilus shells nestle among the flora in this bedding's enchanting underwater garden.
Woven of organic cotton grown according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program. To learn more about our environmental commitment
click here
Duvet cover and sham reverse to the same design.
Duvet cover has a button closure; sham has an envelope closure.
Duvet cover, sham and insert sold separately.
Machine wash.


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Jordan Reaves posted a double-double in all three games at the Wesmen Classic men's basketball tournament on the weekend and guided the Brandon University Bobcats to the consolation side championship.
Reaves put up 16 points and grabbed 13 boards in Sunday's consolation final, which Brandon won 75-53 over the Keyano College Huskies.
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Election Day turnout was heavy in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey, with many voters expressing relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation.
Lines were long in Point Pleasant, N.J., where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their hometowns.
Many there still have no power eight days after Sandy pummeled the shore.
Annette DeBona of Point Pleasant Beach says it was the happiest vote she ever cast in her life. She chose Mitt Romney, saying he can lift America out of a spiritual and mental depression.
Michael Sirchio, an insurance adjuster from Point Pleasant Beach whose own home was damaged in the storm, voted for Obama, saying he inherited a financial crisis and two wars, and did a good job ending both.
On New York City's battered Staten Island, voters bundled up and lined up in the early morning darkness outside tents functioning as makeshift polling places.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Podcast #27 – JustTrains.net Interview with Alex Ford Regarding Train Simulation Products
I interview Alex Ford, the Publishing Director from JustTrains.net regarding their rail simulator products plus add ons and also a little regarding their flight simulation offerings as well.
In this podcast we discuss the various rail simulations including Microsoft Train Simulator, Trainz, Rail Simulator and RailWorks.
Just Trains is the sister label to Just Flight, which began life in 1995 as a company named The Associates. The mission (that they had chosen to accept) was to supply the newly-emerging flight simulation enthusiast market with the latest and best software. Within three years the Just Flight name was firmly established as a brand and the company grew into the world's largest publisher of flight simulation software outside Microsoft.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:59 — 22.7MB)
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Development in Rural Areas
Social Audits in Afghanistan: Making Local Governance More Transparent
Posted on 08/06/2009
As Afghanistan struggles to rebuild a society which can supply its people's needs after years of conflict, one of the most widespread and persistent complaints is of corruption and the lack of accountability in government. Social audits, which are carried out with the agreement of the community development council and the community, allow local people to "audit" how funds are used, pose questions about the progress of a development project and ask about staffing and maintenance costs. View article
Multi-Input Area Development
Posted on 29/04/2009
The concept of "multi-input area development" has gained currency in recent years, reflecting a new understanding of the complexity of sustainable development. AKDN's approach arose in the Northern Areas of Pakistan following a visit by His Highness the Aga Khan to the rural development programme in the 1980s. On that visit, the Aga Khan saw the rural support program expanding naturally into health and education, but he also saw a need for micro-insurance, environmental projects, seismic-resistant home construction, village planning and the restoration of cultural monuments. AKDN's "Multi-input Area Development" approach is now applied in programme areas throughout South and Central Asia, the Middle East and both East and West Africa. View article
Clean and Green: Renewable energy for Afghanistan
Posted on 17/04/2009 by Ian MacWilliam
The district of Surkh-e-Parsa lies at the upper end of the Ghorband Valley, not far from where the road begins to climb the bare hills to the Shibar Pass. Three green valleys converge at the district centre of Lolinj. The local people grow wheat and tend their fruit trees, but they have always been poor. For them, even before the war, the notion of electricity was a distant dream. View article
© 2007 The Aga Khan Development Network. This is the only authorised Website of the Aga Khan Development Network.


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the Pokémon Wiki's quality standards.
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Please consider editing this page to improve it.
The Solaceon Contest is about to start and Dawn is eager to show off her Ambipom's spectacular Swift move. The competition includes both Jessie and Dawn's friend Kenny, who's also been helping Ash's Turtwig learn the Energy Ball move. Kenny and his Breloom make an impressive Contest entrance and Jessie brings out her Dustox for an explosive first act. Then Dawn takes the stage and Ambipom's swirling Swift lights up the entire stadium--but the judges don't seem impressed by Ambipom's pyrotechnics...
Backstage, everyone gathers for the first round results: Kenny and Jessie advance, yet Dawn is out of the competition. As her friends comfort her, she shrugs it off and puts on a brave face, staying to watch the Contest finals and cheer for Kenny. The last round of the Contest sees Kenny and his Prinplup battling Jessie and Dustox and Jessie wins the match as time runs out. Kenny leaves to train for his next Contest, but he's quietly concerned that Dawn no longer seems to be interested in competing.
Just as Kenny suspected, this latest setback has left Dawn deeply confused and upset. The next day, Dawn won't even get out of bed until Zoey, who saw what happened at the Contest, shows up and demands a battle. During the battle, Zoey shows Dawn that Ambipom's Swift move was pretty-too pretty! Ambipom was hidden by all the flash when Dawn should have been concentrating on showing off Ambipom itself. Somewhat cheered, Dawn takes Zoey's advice to heart as our heroes head for Veilstone City, where Ash hopes to win his next Gym Badge!
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The Opposite of 'Yuppie'? Naming Our Hard Times
The young, upwardly mobile professional was the defining American character in the 1980s, and caused us to coin the word "Yuppies." Today, the dominant trajectory is the reverse: Downward mobility, unemployment and poverty are the defining themes. We're in the Dumps -- so are Dumpies the new Yuppies?


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Brad242 BradFollow Brad242
29-year-old Male living in Hobart, Tasmania Australia
Have done a fair bit of traveling over the years, seen a lot of USA growing up (A lot of family trips), Thailand, Japan, Papua New Guinea. Looking at doing my first Contiki tour in August 2013 then continuing on to Canada and the rest of the world! I grew up as a Surf Lifesaver, worked as a Lifeguard for many years now work for the Justice Department, play water polo and ride a Harley Davidson.
Level 1 Traveler
1 tour
1 country


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ThreatSim: Securing Wattage When It's Needed
ThreatSim: Securing Wattage When It's Needed
Roger N. Anderson & Albert Boulanger
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
New York, New York 10027
The terrorist events of 9/11, when combined with the power
shortages we are all experiencing across the country this summer, suggest that
we as a country are not well prepared to meet what is sure to be a growing
threat to our ability to deliver electricity where its needed, when it is
needed, in the future. Our Power Infrastructure, in particular, delivers the
electricity that our entire economy depends upon. Take out the grid for more than about 12
hours (the operational maximum of most back-up power generation systems) and
you shut down the internet, stop all bank transfers, credit card and cash
machine transactions, pumps and compressors needed to transport drinking water,
fill your car or truck up with gasoline and diesel, deliver natural gas through
pipelines and storage facilities no longer work, and stop lights and other key
components of the transportation system like railroad and subway power and
signaling fail. Most manufacturing comes to a standstill (c.f. NY Times,
Figure 1. Thermal image of
power consumption in
Is it realistic to think that a coordinated attack on the national power grid could succeed in shutting down electricity across the country for a substantial time? We believe the threat is real, and that training in response and prevention should be a highest priority of the new Homeland Defense Department.
What does it take to build an accurate Electric Grid Threat Simulator? First and foremost, the topologies of the regional high voltage grids managed by Regional Transmission Operators (RTO's) and Independent System Operators (ISO's) must be combined on the computer with local power grids, and more generally, distribution networks managed by utilities such as ConEd in New York City, Keyspan on Long Island, PSE&G in New Jersey, and hundreds of other public and private generation and distribution companies across the country (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Northeastern high voltage electric grid on left is connected to local low voltage grids through vulnerable switching and transformer sub-stations (triangles at right).
An Electricity Threat Simulator
The burden of developing efficient electric grid threat simulators for war gaming must be shared by city, state and federal governments, the national labs, academia and electrical research institutions, but also by the power distribution, generation, and service companies themselves. It is they who will use the simulators to train their operators. Below we review the current state of affairs in Power Control Systems(PCS's) in this country and discuss the need for anti-terrorist training and simulation software that will allow us to determine the true threats and appropriate responses to sustained, coordinated attacks on the electric grid.
Of particular concern are the PCS's that control the production and distribution of electricity throughout the country. Below, we show that they will have to be very much more sophisticated and integrated than at present. It will take a whole new generation of technologies to unite the topologies of the electricity grid on its many scales. Luckily, much of this systems integration technology has been developed recently by the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing industries. The task at hand is its adoption by an electricity industry that is historically late adaptor of new technologies. That, in turn, will require experts and expertise imported into a corporate and governmental regulatory culture bred out of the electrical utilities of our grandparents: one that is notorious for being insular and slow to respond to technological change (not late, but the very last technological adapters).
9/11 has emphasized the need to fix the Electric Grid Threat Simulation and modeling system before the next attack. With this need in mind, let's review the present state-of-preparedness of Power Control Systems, and compare them to more modern, integrated command-and-control systems in the military and from other industries. We argue that there is little doubt that fixes must come quickly or our very economic stability may be at risk.![endif]>![if>
Figure 3. Seamless communications among Power Control Systems of the RTO, ISO and local utilities will be required to redistribute electricity in case of future terrorist attacks against the grid. Pictured here is the Connecticut Valley Electric Exchange. It's computers do not communicate easily with those from the regional network managers.
Today's Power Control System
Developing an adequate Electric Grid Threat Simulator to train operators of the multiple organizations required to respond to coordinated attacks is not a matter of simply joining the various computer systems that currently run the grids (c.f. Figure 3). As the Pentagon found in trying to integrate computer systems from the different armed forces, predictability declines as the integration tasks become more and more complex. Breakdowns occur that have not been foreseen from historical experiences with the smaller, more linear systems that in the past acted independently.
We participated in a detailed
analyses of current and planned technical improvements in the transmission and
generation Power Control System of a major regional electricity supplier
considered to be a technological leader in the electricity industry. The grid under its management supplies a
major urban area of the
The PCS in basic concept is really very simplistic. Since consumption is not known second-to-second (meters are not analyzed for consumption patterns, but are instead used only by the billing department), the computer merely balances the spin of power generator turbines under its control to keep the AC of the grid at as close to 60 Hz as possible. Any less and the computer revs up the RPM's of turbine generators; any more and the computer sells the excess power to the regional grid through itsbrokerage. Problems appear if the frequency of the AC in the transmission grid begins to drop below 59.99997 Hz (five nines) for computers, and below 59.997 (three nines) for electric motors, and then "all hell breaks lose" to quote an operator from the PCS.
The inflow and outflow of electricity is monitored in real-time at all Interconnect sites and at critical junctions of the company's own transmission lines. The data are transmitted to the PCS every 2 seconds. Simultaneously, real-time costs are computed for all generators used to produce power for the company. A diverse mix of natural gas, coal, oil, steam and nuclear energy fuels these generators. Costs to produce power for all generators and fuel combinations are constantly compared with prices available from suppliers. The PCS automatically selects the cheapest alternative at any time for adding power to the grid.
In addition, the PCS manages a one-way, real-time Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) network that sends an additional 230,000 measurement inputs to the PCS every 30 seconds. For emergencies such as hurricanes and tornadoes, the PCS has computerized controls that extend directly into circuit breakers for computer banks and expensive electrical equipment of major business customers.
The problem is that both the software and hardware of the PCS were designed (and often built) decades ago under the assumption that excess power would always be readily available from other utilities on the regional grids. If the computer didn't have enough generators to meet demand, it would purchase electricity from the regional grid at a fixed price. With de-regulation of the electricity industry, thousands of independent electricity producers are popping up all over the country to sell expensive power at times of high demand. In addition, choke points are popping up at critical and varying junctions of the electricity grid all over the nation.
Most operator tasks are not automated within the PCS, but depend upon the experience and awareness of the people themselves. The operational processes of the staff are procedure-based and well-documented, but are available only in paper manuals. The company does not use new software capabilities available for automating alarms, work-tag tracking, and the opening and closing of circuit breakers remotely. No trend analyses or problem resolution is done computationally, nor is a data historian used (common practices in other industries). The "technology cycle" for new computer software and hardware (still paired) has historically been 14-16 years, with the latest upgrade the most rapid in company's history (1988 to 2000). We found the PCS operators "bracing for a long next few years" and the software vendor lamenting the "incredibly long sales cycle in the power industry."
Perhaps more critical in today's world, while there is an excellent and well practiced plan for restoration of services from natural disaster outages (common), there is still nothing about terrorism (not yet anticipated when the procedures were last updated in 2000). Training has become a special issue: the operational staff is "too busy", and has erratically attended organization, and training sessions. The SCADA data that is used for training must be real-time, and cannot be replayed for instructional purposes. No case histories are used. There was no training simulator in this software update cycle, a casualty of budget cuts. It is ironic that the cost to maintain an up-to-date simulator became too high because of the rapidly changing configuration and complexity of the national power grid, and particularly of the rapidly expanding power input into the company's grid from independent power producers and customer co-generation facilities as the result of de-regulation.
The major drivers to operational costs of the company are Operations and Maintenance (O&M) of its facilities. Overhauls of generators and reconfigurations and modernizations of its power grid must be scheduled well in advance and coordinated with other regional suppliers in order to be transparent to customers. Software updates must be handled with particular care.
The company upgraded the PCS computer systems in 2001 to a client-server, UNIX architecture, supported by an Oracle database, and modern graphical User Interfaces (GUI). However, the networkability of the system still leaves something to be desired. Its Ethernet is just now being upgraded to 100Mbps, and top management for security reasons forbids use of the Internet for communications with the field and its own SCADA systems. The company Intranet is primitive at best, and no Microsoft products are found in the PCS at all (perhaps the last remaining industry for Bill Gates to conquer).
Operators are NOT utilizing many of the new features of the PCS software system. For example, the 2001 software design supports interoperability between the two types of UNIX workstations: one to control interaction between the company and outside power suppliers, and one for control of internal company power distribution. In spite of this feature, operators of one system cannot call up or interact with the other. Operators are trained to operate both systems, and they do rotate from one to the other on a regular schedule, but they are not allowed to let the computers communicate.
Work orders to substations and power linesmen are created on a computer, printed out, and then FAXED to the field offices by the PCS operators. These work orders are not tracked further by the PCS, although it has the capability to manage electronic work orders and automatically send e-mails.
Use of a Threat Simulator in the PCS?
Optimization within the PCS is a manual process executed by experienced personnel without much computer help. In our Case Study, expert systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for the complex scheduling required for power management "were looked at years ago by IBM. They tried to develop a prototype system. However, IBM declared their process to be too complex, and moved on to easier markets." This analysis was done in 1985, and the power company still considers it valid. IBM's opinion is that they tried to develop a prototype of too much of the operations at once, back then. New neural network and data mining technologies should make this a "very doable task in today's computational world" according to IBM.
It is ironic that the added complexity of the system made the keeping of an accurate computer simulator expendable. That would be like an aerospace company saying that its new planes are too complex to create a training environment for pilots -- other than flying the machine itself.
A Coordinated Terrorist Attack on the Power Grid
A new generation of American
engineers and managers must be trained in electricity production and
distribution under threat from terrorism.
An Electric Grid Threat Simulator for the PCS is required that will
train in the complexities introduced by terrorism, combined with the coincident
convergence of supply and demand across the electricity grid of
Automated variance detection, combined with "make-it-so" problems-to-solutions mappings, is a non-linear inverse problem that requires a simulator to teach operators how to solve. The integration of technologies required for this cross-system optimization problem will require an unprecedented degree of interdisciplinary collaboration among the various operators of the topology of the grid, from local to regional and national and international, in and of itself.
In a grid model with hundreds of thousands of failure points, training becomes problematic without proper computer simulators. The Electric Grid Threat Simulator must not be too general. It must focus on critical failures that have specific remedies. The chaining of these events is where the simulator becomes powerful. Each element of a transfer function that covers both the regional, national, and local grid topologies can then be transformed into responses. Closure can then be computed. Global behavior is then determined from the synthesis of the component models. Put directly, what are the threats, and what are the failure points. These must be determined through what we call a "Learning Harness" wrapped over the topological models of the various scales of the grid.
Consider a coordinated attack on the local components of the power grid. In order, they attack the microwave communications of SCADA data, then a power generator and a transformer substation, all within several minutes of each other. The cascading failures result in escalating problems throughout the local grid that don't at first affect the national high voltage grid (c.f., Peerenboom, 2001).
now, however, that this attack is followed a few minutes later by a coordinated
attack on the high voltage regional transmission grid. The first hit causes
problems in
4. Simulated terrorist attack on the Northeastern Power Grid. Note how quickly
the problem spreads from
Design of a Electric Grid Threat Simulator
In general, few PCS simulation environments exist to train new engineers and managers about how to respond to crisis scenarios of any kind. The case study revealed that fault detection and tracking of what has failed, where, and when, remains dependent upon operator experience and "instinct". We hope that the incentive for change got a significant boost on 9/11. No question the PCS can be better supported by computer intelligence in the form of a Electric Grid Threat Simulator for War Gaming.
As we said, we believe a Learning Harness is required in order to build such an Electric Grid Threat Simulation environment. The Learning Harness represents first a fundamental mapping of the business, security, environmental, and engineering processes and activities required to maintain and operate the grid under attack, and then a reinforcement learning feedback loop to optimize decisions across systems (Figure 5). This explicitly requires a concerted, confidential, unprecedented collaboration of all involved parties. These processes must be known in enough detail to develop computerized variance detection and contribute weights to the "credit assignment" problem of what to do to anticipate and fix the problems caused by terrorists. Known solutions to problems are kept in a best practices data historian. The system must learn from mistakes by tracking performance metrics of previous actions in much the manner of a chess, backgammon or checkers program. A key technology we use is the Suitability Matrix(sm). This is a linked set of matrix representations (a set of spread sheets) that use generalized weights as the values of the cells. It maps import of an attribute (a problem) to possible decisions (a solution). These matrices are "populated" using reinforcement learning, a type of dynamic programming, which optimizes decision-making under uncertainty and time (4D learning). Data gathering for such a system will provide the following:
- Eliminate the "wish I could have seen it coming" through multiple scenario planning
- Estimate risk on all decisions
- Identify solutions quickly
- Eliminate latency in getting the right actions to the right people
- Verify that actions are being executed properly in the field
Figure 5. The Electric Grid Threat Simulator must connect software applications that constantly re-compute each bullet indicated above – this framework has already been enacted for the Oil, Internet, and Aerospace industries (Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis, 1995).
The key foundation to our Threat Simulator is an adaptive feedback control system, which involves the solving of implicit and explicit inverse algorithms in a controller to minimize error and arrive at an optimal solution (Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis, 1996.). We adopt a mixture of AI, operations research, and systems engineering to build our controller. AI works well with discrete, richly structured, and nonlinear problems and control theory offers an overall framework for solving the linear and nonlinear components of the system-wide problem (Werbos, 1999, 2001). Certainty factors or probabilities to represent ranking of alternatives can be adapted by the Electric Grid Threat Simulator learning system over time (e.g. Neuneier, 1995, Werbos, 1998, 1999). This online learning is key to a successful Electric Grid Threat Simulator. In sum, our Threat Simulator implements a unified framework for generating corrective actions that individuals and automated systems in the organization must take to align the business to reality in the face of multiple threats.
The Learning harness uses metrics to gauge feedback and train for best responses. It uses a discrete forward model to compute event propagation. This is the same problem encountered by the Internet, and there are management programs that do just that to reroute message traffic in case of a failure in a router or a series of routers, automatically. The use of Codebooks within Internet fault detection software (Yemini et al, 1996, 1997, 2001) is a good example (see www.smarts.com). Causal analysis determines how each problem propagates through the topology, then "cost-to-go" simulation within a reinforcement-learning framework is used to determine automatic corrective actions Update the learning harness several times with varying simulated disasters, and it learns the correct responses. Priorities in response are then developed by the system depending upon a damage metric (Anderson et al, 1996, 1998a,b,c, 1999, 2000, 2001a,b, 2002).
electrical grid of
Anderson, R.N., Boulanger, A., Bagdonas, E., He, W., and Xu, L., Method for Identifying Subsurface Fluid Migration and Drainage Pathways in and Among Oil and Gas Reservoirs Using 3-D and 4-D Seismic Imaging, U.S. Patent 5,586,082, 1996.
Anderson, R.N., et al, Quantitative Tools link Portfolio Management with use of Technology, Oil Gas Journal, Nov. 30, p. 48, 1998a.
Anderson, R.N., Oil Production in the 21st Century, Sci. Am., 278, p. 86-91, 1998c.
Anderson, R.N., Esser, W., Energy Company as Advanced Digital Enterprise, American Oil & Gas Reporter, Jan. 2001a.
Anderson, R.N., Boulanger, A., He, W., Xu, L., Method and System for Automated Support of Real-Time 4D Business Decisions for the Upstream Petroleum Industry, U.S. Patent, applied for, 2001b.
Anderson, R.N., Boulanger, A., Mello, U., He, W., Wiggins, W., and Xu, L., 4-D Seismic Reservoir Simulation and Characterization Method and System, U.S. Patent, applied for, 2002.
Bertsekas, D.P., Tsitsiklis, J. N., Neuro-Dynamic Programming, Athena Scientific, 1996.
Neuneier, R., Optimal Strategies with density-Estimating Neural Networks, ICANN 95, Paris, 1995.
Peerenboom, J., Infrastructure interdependencies: Overview of concepts and terminology, Argonne National Laboratory, 2001.
Werbos, P.J., Elastic Fuzzy Logic System, U.S. Patent 5,751,915, 1998.
Werbos, P.J., Maximizing Long-Term Gas Industry Profits in two Minutes using Neural Network Methods, IEEE trans. On Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. 19, No. 2, 315-333, 1989. , U.S. Patent 5,924,085, 1999.
Werbos, P.J., 3-Brain Architecture for an Intelligent decision and Control System, U.S. Patent 6,169,981, 2001.
Yemini, S., Kliger, S., Mozes, E., Yemini, Y., and Ohsie, D., High Speed and Robust Event Correlation. IEEE Communications, May, 1996.
Yemini, Y., Yemini, S., Kliger, S., Apparatus and Method for Anaylzing and Correlating Events in a System using a Casualty Matrix, U. S. Patent 5,661,668, 1997.
Yemini, Y., Yemini, S., Kliger, S., Apparatus and Method for Event Correlation and Problem Reporting, U. S. Patent 6,249,755, 2001.


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Oakmont's Garcia, Vista girls are second at state meet
FRESNO -- Del Oro High School junior Trevor Stephens made it onto the top-10 podium by one second. Oakmont junior Karlie Garcia missed a state championship by one second. And Vista del Lago finished a glass-is-half-full second in Division III on Saturday in the CIF Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park.
Placer County schools sent enough competitors to fill a bus - teams and individuals from Divisions I through V - and left Fresno with positive results.
Garcia, Stephens and Vista del Lago led the charge. Garcia led the Division III girls race until the final meters, when Campolindo senior Carrie Verdon sprinted past. Verdon was timed in 17 minutes, 19 seconds in the three-mile race to Garcia's 17:20.
"It was a good race. I was trying to get a better start, because I usually I get really awful starts," said Garcia, who had an eight-second lead at 2 1/2 miles. "I just kinda went out and went for it."
Garcia won the Capital Valley Conference championship this season and raced to her second Sac-Joaquin Section Division III title.
Top-10 finishes by junior Madeleine Ankhelyi (third, 17:34) and sophomore Clare Carroll (sixth, 17:56) helped Vista del Lago place second as a team in Division III. Palos Verdes won with 103 points to the Eagles' 142.
Vista del Lago freshman Sierra Jaeger finished 32nd (19:10), junior Jennifer Morgan 43rd (19:28) and sophomore Alegra Mendez 59th (19:45).
"I'm very proud of our team," senior captain Chelsea Shill said of the Eagles, who finished 13th last year. "All our hard work and dedication, our early morning practices, our hot summer runs, everything just came down to this. We showed our hard work. Everyone just ran great."
Oakmont, with sophomore Marisa Carino finishing 24th in 18:54, finished 15th, and Del Oro was 18th.
Stephens was timed in 15:42, a personal record by about 20 seconds, according to the junior. Stephens said he felt comfortable for the first mile and had a strong kick at the end.
"He raced perfectly, from preparation to understanding what needs to be done and what was going to happen here, because it's different here, and then actually executing," said Del Oro coach Kevin Ostenberg, noting 12 of 14 Golden Eagles runners were in the state meet for the first time.
Said Stephens, "It's amazing. I've put in a lot of work this year and a lot of training."
Woodcreek's boys finished 12th and its girls 13th in the eighth trip to the state meet for each team.
Senior Hunter Tyler broke into the 15-minute group for the first time with a 15:53 and finished 18th individually. Junior Jon Horvath was 31st at 16:07, and senior Brandon Biando and juniors Justin Clark and Sam Devereux were 63rd, 70th and 75th in 16:32, 16:35 and 16:38.
"We were hoping to be top 10 or better. The boys ran really well, better than we ran at Clovis," Timberwolves coach Terri McKillop said. "We were happy they made those gains."
It was the first top-five time for Clark, who was the seventh or eighth man all season and ran a PR.
Junior Karina Nunes overcame an illness to lead the Woodcreek girls with a 19:05 time, 37th overall. Senior Samantha Gomez was 61st (19:43) and sophomore Rosemary Dipentino 62nd (19:43).
"Most girls would die for a 19:05. To put yourself in a race and pull that off was very good," McKillop said. "Rosemary Dipentino had a great race. She stepped up huge."
In other races:
* The Oak Ridge boys placed 18th and the girls, paced by freshman Ellie Velez in 42nd (19:14), were 15th in Division I.
* In Division II, Folsom's boys finished 20th. Individually, Granite Bay junior Trent Brendel finished 43rd in 16:06, and Grizzlies sophomore Katie Mersereau was 65th in 19:25. In the girls race, Roseville senior Shayna Powless was 99th in 20 minutes.
* Placer's boys were 16th and Del Oro 19th in Division III. Senior Christian Finkbeiner led the Hillmen by finishing 32nd in 16:14.
* Whitney junior Ryan Hodgens finished 48th in the Division III race in a time of 16:16.
* In Division IV, Bear River junior Alex Coffman clocked a 16:59 time to finish 75th.
* Foresthill senior Kelsey Zoller finished 83rd in the Division V girls race in 21:26. Roseville resident Neilson Powless, a freshman at Victory Christian, placed 12th in the Division V boys race in 16:11.
Contact Bill Poindexter at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at BillP_RsvPT.


text:
Tri-Art Retarder is a water based product designed to slow down the drying time of acrylic colors. Mix it with colors and mediums at up to 15% concentration to increase open time and allow for greater manipulation.
Retarder is essential in airbrush application. When used in correct proportion with Tri-Art Airbrush Acrylics and other airbrush acrylic paints, it extends the drying time of the paint and reduces buildup on the tip of the airbrush. It will not alter the integrity of the paint film.
Tri-Art Retarder is also effective when used with Tri-Art High Viscosity Acrylics for screen printing. It prevents the rapid drying of paint on the screen.
™ Tri-Art is a trademark.


text:
22 U.S. Code § 3903 - Members of Service
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The following are the members of the Service:
(1) Chiefs of mission, appointed under section 3942 (a)(1) of this title or assigned under section 3982 (c) of this title.
(3) Members of the Senior Foreign Service, appointed under section 3942 (a)(1) or 3943 of this title, who are the corps of leaders and experts for the management of the Service and the performance of its functions.
(4) Foreign Service officers, appointed under section 3942 (a)(1) of this title, who have general responsibility for carrying out the functions of the Service.
(5) Foreign Service personnel, United States citizens appointed under section 3943 of this title, who provide skills and services required for effective performance by the Service.
(6) Foreign national employees, foreign nationals appointed under section 3943 of this title, who provide clerical, administrative, technical, fiscal, and other support at Foreign Service posts abroad.
(7) Consular agents, appointed under section 3943 of this title by the Secretary of State, who provide consular and related services as authorized by the Secretary of State at specified locations abroad where no Foreign Service posts are situated.
Source(Pub. L. 96–465, title I, § 103,Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2076.)
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


text:
May 6, 2016
A big stash of pot was found on Sunday, some of it hidden in a child booster seat.
Beaufort County deputies say they were watching a home for suspected drug activity when a van with South Carolina tags arrived and then left the residence.
When stopped deputies say they could smell marijuana coming from the van, and a K-9 unit alerted on several locations inside, including the booster seat and a box with several wooded plaques. The plaques contained compressed bricks of pot, while several more pounds were found stuffed inside the child's seat.
In all, nearly 44 pounds of marijuana was seized, along with several thousand dollars in cash.
Jose Ortiz and Eduardo Rosales were charged with trafficking in marijuana by possession, trafficking in marijuana by transportation, and conspiracy to traffic in marijuana. Rosales was also charged with maintaining a vehicle to facilitate drug activity.
The two Charlotte men are being held on $100,000 bonds.
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Face 2 Face At Wrigley
One sunny July afternoon during 2007 I was sitting at Murphy's Bleachers' beer garden with a good friend of mine rehashing old memories and pouring down cold Old Styles.
My buddy was visiting from out of town for the Sting concert to be held that evening at Wrigley Field.
While taking in the sun we noticed a white van pull up and stop just past Murphy's on Sheffield Avenue.
To our surprise, out stepped Sting himself, who politely posed long enough for my pal to snap a picture.
From there Sting meandered into the park and we stumbled back to the beer garden.
And the next thing we know we're listening to the band practice on stage in center field! Cool memory for both of us.
Although, the Sting moment made me realized I was missing out by not having purchased a ticket to the show…thus, I'd make sure to be at the next Wrigley Field concert.
Of course, last year came and went with no concert held at Wrigley.
This year, however, Elton John's and Billy Joel's Face 2 Face Tour plays the Friendly Confines July 21st: yesterday I bought my tickets.
Section 240, seats 101 & 102 (third base side, middle deck)…it wasn't cheap, but it had to be done.
Seats are again for sale today on-line at Ticket Master.com.
- Lou Piniella says he's "saddened" with the news of A-Rod's PED use.
I'd like to ask Lou if he ever suspected Rodriguez was using while playing in Seattle.
- Speaking of PEDs, Jim Hendry offers up an interesting angle about the actual number of MLB players on steroids (courtesy MLB.com).
There was some speculation that as many as 50 to 70 percent of the players were "cheating," Hendry said. However, if you have 40-man rosters on 30 teams, that's 1,200 players. Half of that is 600. The report was that 104 tested positive in 2003 [It doesn't add up].


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James Fairlee is the most desirable of Coloradans these days: the true political enigma.
He is a registered Republican, a white man over the age of 65. He lives in a swing county in a swing precinct in Lakewood. He has a sign for Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter in his yard. He vacations in blue California and blue Oregon to visit his kids.
He does not make campaign contributions, has never attended a political rally or a precinct party. He didn't vote in the presidential election four years ago.
But by living his fairly routine, retired life he interacts with both political parties every day, even if he doesn't know it. With a database and its algorithms chock-full of voter patterns, Fairlee is politically confused.
So Mitt Romney volunteer Judy Merkel, donning red lipstick and a red coat with an elephant button on her lapel, rapped on his screen door Saturday morning.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going to vote," he said. "Normally I don't talk to anyone, but it's kind of like Christmas with the political season!"
In massive computer programs housed at headquarters for both Romney and President Barack Obama's re-election effort, people's lives are being analyzed and sorted into political universes from the precinct, to the block, the house and the individual.
Those universes are broken down by gender, by age, by demographic and neighborhood. Each campaign has a message for everyone: Women may hear about birth-control access and health care. Men may hear about the deficit and military spending. Latino voters will hear about immigration reform. Young people living in, say, Boulder may hear about student loans.
Strategists know the independent voters, the inactive voters, the registered D's, the registered R's and those who have donated to a campaign in the past. They know who has requested a mail ballot, who has already sent them in and who is still sitting on them at home.
Beyond that, they know the magazines and newspapers their universes subscribe to, the cars they drive, the ads they view on their computer. They know who is booking tickets to the opera and who is booking tickets to the Broncos game.
Then, those computers spit out lists of addresses and voter demographics to be toted around by volunteers canvassing on any given night or weekend.
In Colorado, where nearly every poll shows Romney and Obama effectively tied, the path to victory is a game of turnout.
If it feels like saturation, it actually is. The Obama campaign touts more than 60 offices full of volunteers who are both calling and knocking on doors a few times with every voter they identify as likely supporting the president. Romney's campaign boasts they have made 2.2 million "volunteer voter contacts," which means someone has made contact — either in person or on the phone.
"We're getting right down to a one-on-one level," said Romney's political director Rich Beeson, a native Coloradan working at the campaign's national Boston headquarters. "The quality of the data and the quantity of the data available to us right now is amazing ... We know where we need staff. We know who we need to talk to."
Merkel, the Romney supporter, is a Nebraska native who has lived in Colorado since 1979. She has gone door to door at least a dozen times and says she keeps the conversations to the economy and the military — the two things she cares about the most.
Just a few miles away, a handful of Obama volunteers know the key code to Charmaine Rose's unheated garage in Denver's West Highlands neighborhood.
The garage has a batch of folding tables and chairs, maps and yard signs, some stray campaign cellphones and usually a bag of potato chips. Most every afternoon and evening, the garage is morphed into the place where Obama staffers greet volunteers, hand them voter information and cast them off to bang on doors.
On the voter lists in this blue neighborhood are likely voters who haven't yet voted — either in early voting or by mail. Canvassers are armed with cellphones with individual voter information, including how many times a would-be voter has been contacted by a volunteer.
Obama staffers say the demographics of those newly registered reflect a boost for Obama. Only 15 percent of voters registered since July are white men, who tend to lean Republican. The rest are under 35, African-American or Latino. A whopping 85 percent of newly registered voters are women.
Rose, who often canvasses with her 6-month-old George strapped to her chest, says she sacrifices her time, her garage and a spare bedroom in her house (where an Obama field organizer is living) because she feels like the president "is out to help us."
For all the high-brow technology, both Obama and Romney staffers say the personal conversations volunteers have with their own neighbors make the biggest difference.
"What we want to focus on is doors. All the TV going on, all the mail dropping, a volunteer knocking on someone's door in Adams or Jeffco is the purest form of voter contact," Beeson said.
From the other side, Craig Hughes, one of Obama's Colorado-based senior advisers, agrees.
"We train volunteers to tell their stories, tell them why they personally support the president," he said. "That's the most important thing because it's personal and it's real."
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1645, firstname.lastname@example.com or twitter.com/allisonsherry


text:
Tassel Edge Lumbar Pillow Cover – Slate
Act fast! Items with prices ending in $0.99 are final sale.
No longer available
Trimmed + tasseled. Hand-crocheted by skilled Indian artisans, our craft-inspired Tassel Edge Lumbar Pillow Cover offers support without sacrificing style—prop yourself up while leaning back in your favorite chair or reading in bed.
14"l x 26"w
100% cotton in Slate.
Hand-crocheted tassels on two ends.
Accommodates a 14"w x 26"l Pillow Insert (sold separately).
Button closure.
Made in India.


text:
Free Ground Shipping with code MAMA on orders of $60+. View details.
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$10 off expedited shipping on orders of $60+ with code FORHER at checkout! Details.
With all of the love and care that go into each of Chef Michael's handcrafted chocolates, it's difficult for him to pick his favorites.... But he did it anyway! From his kitchen to yours, buen provecho.
SALE FOR $25: Select 16 piece size & add to bag. Discount reflected at checkout.
Availability: In stock
* Required Fields
5 piece includes: Firecracker Truffle, Nut & Honeylicious (Miel), Salted Chocolate Crunch (Pan Con Chocolate), Spiced Cabernet Caramel (Picante), Sweet Passion (Parchita)
9 piece includes: Firecracker Truffle, Hazelnut Latte (Gianduja), Nut & Honeylicious (Miel), Rosemary Salt Caramel (Romero), Salted Chocolate Crunch (Pan Con Chocolate) , Spiced Cabernet Caramel (Picante), Strawberry Seduction (Modena), Sweet Passion (Parchita), Wild Truffle
16 piece includes: Black & White, Firecracker, Hazelnut Latte (Gianduja), Maple Bacon Caramel, Marzipan, Nut & Honeylicious, Rosemary Salt Caramel, Salted Chocolate Crunch, Smoky Macadamia (Candela), Spiced Cabernet Caramel (Picante), Strawberry Seduction (Modena), Sweet Passion (Parchita)
32 piece includes: Black & White, Firecracker, Hazelnut Latte (Gianduja), Maple Bacon Caramel, Marzipan, Nut & Honeylicious, Rosemary Salt Caramel, Salted Chocolate Crunch, Smoky Macadamia (Candela), Spiced Cabernet Caramel (Picante), Strawberry Seduction (Modena), Sweet Passion (Parchita)
Chef's Favorites Bonbon Collection flavor profile:
Black & White: Creamy white chocolate almond hazelnut praline enrobed in dark chocolate. Contains dairy, tree nuts.
Firecracker Truffle: Chipotle caramel fudge, sea salt and popping candy in dark chocolate. Contains dairy.
Hazelnut Latte: Roasted hazelnuts blended with fresh vanilla and a hint of coffee. (Formerly known as Gianduja.) Contains dairy, tree nuts.
Maple Bacon Caramel: Maple caramel with crunchy bacon and bonfire smoked sea salt in milk chocolate. Contains dairy
Marzipan: Almond marzipan covered in dark chocolate & topped with a roasted macadamia nut. Contains tree nuts.
Nut & Honeylicious: Almond hazelnut praline with a touch of honey in milk chocolate. (Formerly known as Miel.) Contains dairy, tree nuts, honey.
Rosemary Salt Caramel: Salt butter caramel infused with fresh rosemary in milk chocolate. (Formerly known as Romero.) Contains dairy.
Salted Chocolate Crunch: Toasted panko breadcrumbs, olive oil ganache and a sprinkle of sea salt in dark chocolate. (Formerly known as Pan Con Chocolate.) Contains dairy, wheat.
Smoky Macadamia: Macadamia nut praline spiced with smoky chipotle in dark chocolate. (Formerly known as Candela.) Contains tree nuts.
Spiced Cabernet Caramel: Napa Valley cabernet caramel infused with spices in dark chocolate. (Formerly known as Picante.) Contains dairy, liquor.
Strawberry Seduction: Sweet strawberry caramel with a touch of tangy balsamic in dark chocolate. (Formerly known as Modena.) Contains dairy.
Sweet Passion: Exotic passion fruit cooked into soft caramel in a milk chocolate heart shell. (Formerly known as Parchita.) Contains dairy.
Wild Truffle: Dark chocolate ganache rolled in cocoa powder. Contains dairy.
Store in a cool, dry place. Enjoy our confections within a week to ensure freshness.
Handcrafted with ethically sourced cacao, gluten free ingredients and free of artificial preservatives, sweeteners, colors, flavors and hydrogenated fats. Manufactured in a facility that uses milk, soy, tree nuts and wheat on shared equipment. All flavors made with gluten free ingredients, except for Salted Chocolate Crunch, which contains gluten
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text: This is probably a genuinely stupid question but how do you keep ink in the print area on a clam shell press? having a hard time with this, it keeps running to the back and not leaving enough in the image area. this is on a cameo and I'm either loading at next to zero dwell or letting it come down and flood until I have just enough room to get my paws under there.


text:
May 6, 2016
Phoenix police have arrested a woman who allegedly drove off after forgetting that her 5-week-old baby was in a car seat on the roof of her vehicle.
Officer James Holmes said officers were called out early Saturday after witnesses found a child strapped in a safety seat in the middle of an intersection.
The boy wasn't hurt. He's now in the custody of Arizona Child Protective Services.
Authorities say the child's mother, 19-year-old Catalina Clouser, her boyfriend and their friends had been smoking marijuana earlier in the evening at a nearby park.
Upset that her boyfriend was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence, police say Clouser went to the home of friends and smoked more marijuana.
Clouser left around midnight. Police say she apparently put the sleeping baby on the roof and drove off, forgetting he was there.
Copyright 2016 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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