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23 U.S. Code § 603 - Secured loans
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(a) In General.—
(1) Agreements.— Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Secretary may enter into agreements with 1 or more obligors to make secured loans, the proceeds of which shall be used—
(A) to finance eligible project costs of any project selected under section 602;
(B) to refinance interim construction financing of eligible project costs of any project selected under section 602;
(2) Limitation on refinancing of interim construction financing.— A loan under paragraph (1) shall not refinance interim construction financing under paragraph (1)(B) later than 1 year after the date of substantial completion of the project.
(3) Risk assessment.— Before entering into an agreement under this subsection, the Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall determine an appropriate capital reserve subsidy amount for each secured loan, taking into account each rating letter provided by an agency under section 602 (b)(3)(B).
(b) Terms and Limitations.—
(1) In general.— A secured loan under this section with respect to a project shall be on such terms and conditions and contain such covenants, representations, warranties, and requirements (including requirements for audits) as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.
(2) Maximum amount.— The amount of a secured loan under this section shall not exceed the lesser of 49 percent of the reasonably anticipated eligible project costs or if the secured loan does not receive an investment grade rating, the amount of the senior project obligations.
(3) Payment.— A secured loan under this section—
(A) shall—
(i) be payable, in whole or in part, from—
(4) Interest rate.—
(A) In general.— Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and (C), the interest rate on a secured loan under this section shall be not less than the yield on United States Treasury securities of a similar maturity to the maturity of the secured loan on the date of execution of the loan agreement.
(B) Rural infrastructure projects.—
(i) In general.— The interest rate of a loan offered to a rural infrastructure project under this chapter shall be at 1/2 of the Treasury Rate in effect on the date of execution of the loan agreement.
(5) Maturity date.— The final maturity date of the secured loan shall be the lesser of—
(6) Nonsubordination.—
(A) In general.— Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the secured loan shall not be subordinated to the claims of any holder of project obligations in the event of bankruptcy, insolvency, or liquidation of the obligor.
(B) Preexisting indenture.—
(i) In general.— The Secretary shall waive the requirement under subparagraph (A) for a public agency borrower that is financing ongoing capital programs and has outstanding senior bonds under a preexisting indenture, if—
(II) the secured loan is secured and payable from pledged revenues not affected by project performance, such as a tax-backed revenue pledge or a system-backed pledge of project revenues; and
(ii) Limitation.— If the Secretary waives the nonsubordination requirement under this subparagraph—
(I) the maximum credit subsidy to be paid by the Federal Government shall be not more than 10 percent of the principal amount of the secured loan; and
(7) Fees.— The Secretary may establish fees at a level sufficient to cover all or a portion of the costs to the Federal Government of making a secured loan under this section.
(8) Non-federal share.— The proceeds of a secured loan under this chapter may be used for any non-Federal share of project costs required under this title or chapter 53 of title 49, if the loan is repayable from non-Federal funds.
(c) Repayment.—
(1) Schedule.— The Secretary shall establish a repayment schedule for each secured loan under this section based on—
(2) Commencement.— Scheduled loan repayments of principal or interest on a secured loan under this section shall commence not later than 5 years after the date of substantial completion of the project.
(3) Deferred payments.—
(A) In general.— If, at any time after the date of substantial completion of the project, the project is unable to generate sufficient revenues to pay the scheduled loan repayments of principal and interest on the secured loan, the Secretary may, subject to subparagraph (C), allow the obligor to add unpaid principal and interest to the outstanding balance of the secured loan.
(B) Interest.— Any payment deferred under subparagraph (A) shall—
(4) Prepayment.—
(A) Use of excess revenues.— Any excess revenues that remain after satisfying scheduled debt service requirements on the project obligations and secured loan and all deposit requirements under the terms of any trust agreement, bond resolution, or similar agreement securing project obligations may be applied annually to prepay the secured loan without penalty.
(d) Sale of Secured Loans.—
(1) In general.— Subject to paragraph (2), as soon as practicable after substantial completion of a project and after notifying the obligor, the Secretary may sell to another entity or reoffer into the capital markets a secured loan for the project if the Secretary determines that the sale or reoffering can be made on favorable terms.
(e) Loan Guarantees.—
(1) In general.— The Secretary may provide a loan guarantee to a lender in lieu of making a secured loan under this section if the Secretary determines that the budgetary cost of the loan guarantee is substantially the same as that of a secured loan.
(2) Terms.— The terms of a loan guarantee under paragraph (1) shall be consistent with the terms required under this section for a secured loan, except that the rate on the guaranteed loan and any prepayment features shall be negotiated between the obligor and the lender, with the consent of the Secretary.
Source(Added Pub. L. 105–178, title I, § 1503(a),June 9, 1998, 112 Stat. 245, § 183; renumbered § 603 and amended Pub. L. 109–59, title I, §§ 1601(d), 1602(b)(3), (5), (d),Aug. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 1240, 1247; Pub. L. 112–141, div. A, title II, § 2002,July 6, 2012, 126 Stat. 614.)
2012—Pub. L. 112–141amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section related to secured loans.
2005—Pub. L. 109–59, § 1602(d), renumbered section 183 of this title as this section.
Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(1), in subpars. (A) and (B) inserted "of any project selected under section 602" after "costs", added subpar. (C), and struck out concluding provisions which read as follows: "of any project selected under section 182."
Subsec. (a)(3). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1602(b)(3), substituted "602(b)(2)(B)" for "182(b)(2)(B)".
Subsec. (a)(4). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(2), substituted "The execution" for "The funding" and struck out before period at end ", except that—
"(A) the Secretary may fund an amount of the secured loan not to exceed the capital reserve subsidy amount determined under paragraph (3) prior to the obligations receiving an investment-grade rating; and
"(B) the Secretary may fund the remaining portion of the secured loan only after the obligations have received an investment-grade rating by at least 1 rating agency".
Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(3)(A), inserted "the lesser of" before "33 percent" and "or, if the secured loan does not receive an investment grade rating, the amount of the senior project obligations" before period at end.
Subsec. (b)(3)(A)(i). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(3)(B), inserted "that also secure the senior project obligations" after "sources".
Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(3)(C), struck out "marketable" before "United States Treasury securities".
Subsec. (b)(8). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1602(b)(5), substituted "this chapter" for "this subchapter".
Subsec. (c)(3) to (5). Pub. L. 109–59, § 1601(d)(4), redesignated pars. (4) and (5) as (3) and (4), respectively, in par. (3)(A), struck out "during the 10 years" after "at any time", in par. (3)(B)(ii), substituted "loan" for "loan beginning not later than 10 years after the date of substantial completion of the project in accordance with paragraph (1)", and struck out heading and text of former par. (3). Text read as follows: "The sources of funds for scheduled loan repayments under this section shall include tolls, user fees, or other dedicated revenue sources."
Effective Date of 2012 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 112–141effective Oct. 1, 2012, see section 3(a) ofPub. L. 112–141, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 2012 Amendment note under section 101 of this title.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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What is RM Cash
User Tip: If you're unsure of your vehicle type, you may skip the machine type selection box.
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"Customer service is priority #1 at Rocky Mountain ATV/MC. We value our customers and strive to be the best shopping experience- when you buy from us, you are buying lifetime service."
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Comments On May 18, 2014:I needed a new basket when installing my new auto clutch and so I went with this company's basket. It is a machine piece unlike the stock cast piece. It has hard coat anodizing and fitment was perfect.
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Comments On Oct 14, 2013:bought recluse clutch basket to go with z-start Pro on my dirt bike. works very well. very smooth with no surprises. looked a little funny where the kickstart gear installed but went together fine and works amazing! took a high strung mx bike and made a killer woods bike!
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Comments On May 29, 2013:I was hesitant due to the price but I have run a Rekluse clutch in a few bikes and know they make a high quality product. I am a thrifty shopper so shelling out this much doe was tough. My stock basket was notched pretty bad so time for an upgrade. I researched and read many reviews of other brands. I am sure they are good but the Rekluse is a complete kit and I know that they make a tough product. It comes with the dampers, hardware, new backing plate, drill bit (for stock rivets), and lock tite. Just re-use the stock ring gear and thats it. Very easy to install if the proper tools are available. For the little bit of an extra cost I believe its a very good value for the money. After the install I thought I messed up my clutch due to the ease of the pull. Nope.....everything worked perfect and now my Rekluse auto clutch engages smoother and faster. Great product. Thanks RM and Rekluse!
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subset: commoncrawl


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The Ghawar is a non-pilotable private jet in The Ballad of Gay Tony.
The single-engine design is unusual for business jets, which mostly have dual (and sometimes triple) engines for performance and reliability - such as the Shamal. While not used on large business jets, the Ghawar's engine configuration is similar to that being used on the (now cancelled) Very Light Jet, the PiperJet.
The Ghawar's fuselage resembles the Bombardier Global Express private jet.
The interior of the plane is only seen during Departure Time; it is smaller than it appears on the outside and has a total of eleven chairs. The cockpit can be seen if the player looks closely when Ray emerges with a grenade, although it is rather nondescript. There are twenty-four windows inside the plane, all of which are bulletproof.
Ray Bulgarin's Ghawar
In the mission Departure Time, Ray Bulgarin attempts to flee Liberty City in a blue Ghawar while Luis Lopez destroys his heroin shipment in Funland. Timur is left behind and killed by Luis at Funland, who steals a Bati Custom, and then goes after the jet with Yusuf Amir's help in evading several cars of Russian assassins along the way to the airport. Luis catches up with the plane and boards it just as it takes off, and kills all the Russians on board. Upon emerging from the cockpit, Ray is shot by Luis, causing the live grenade he was holding to detonate, tearing the plane in half. Luis manages to parachute to safety while the halves of the destroyed Ghawar plunge into the sea.
- During Departure Time, the plane doesn't actually move, as it simply hovers in place until the Russians are killed and Ray exits the cockpit.
- A Ghawar is seen taking off in the final credits of TBoGT.
- The plane's serial number is LJK 24051972. 2405172 or 24-05-1972 is a reference to Sam Houser's birthday.


text:
Thanks to an aunt's love of genealogy, Christyne discovered both Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe were members of her extended family tree on her mother's side, so she firmly believes her love of writing has always been her destiny.
Her father served in the Air Force for twenty years which explains why she was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and why she spent her youth all over the world before settling in New Hampshire with her family to attend high school. She followed in her family's rich military history and joined the United States Navy where she fell in love with romance novels after someone remembered women were serving aboard seagoing vessels and sent a box full of paperback romances to her ship, the USS VULCAN AR-5.
She started pursuing her own writing career six years ago, selling her first ever 'finished' manuscript in 2006. She made her first sale to Silhouette Special Edition two years later! She writes contemporary romances full of life, love, a hint of laughter and perhaps a dash of danger, too. Christyne loves the challenge of the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back and the journey of joy and hardship two people go through. And there has to be a 'happily ever after' or she's just not satisfied.
When she's not writing, she can be found hunting for treasures at yard sales and antique fairs to add to her memorabilia collection of women who served in the military, watching classic romantic movies and the great movie musicals of the '40s and '50s and reading books by her favorite authors.
She lives in central Massachusetts with her family and works full time as an executive assistant at an energy technologies company. You can email her at email@example.com or visit her Web site.


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May 6, 2016
Deputies said though Alison Hill bonded out of jail on charges of manufacturing meth a little more than a month ago, she was re-arrested for similar crimes on Wednesday .
Deputies and officers with the Goldsboro and Wayne County Drug Task Force said 34-year-old Alison Hill was charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver precursors to methamphetamine on December 6th, 2012. While Hill had bonded out of jail and was awaiting her court date on those charges, deputies said they caught her red-handed again. On Wednesday, January 30th, Hill was charged with four counts of purchasing pseudoephedrine to be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Deputies said the Mount Olive woman's criminal history linked to meth dates back to 2007.
Hill was placed in the Wayne County Jail under a $150,000 secured bond.
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 email@example.com.


text:
Board By Design Blokkey Organizer
No longer available
The key to staying ahead. The Blokkey is a compact, all in one organizer that holds your eyewear, phone, mail and and other small personal items. Handmade in Colorado out of reclaimed ash wood, this organizer also has earth magnets embedded in the backside to hold up to four sets of keys.
10"w x 1"d x 7.5"h.
Handcrafted from reclaimed ash wood; includes 4 embedded magnets.
Mounting hardware included.
Made in the USA.
what west elm is doing to help you get a little greener.


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Engine Additives
Sea Foam Motor Tune Up Treatment 16 oz. SF-16$6.99
SEA FOAM Motor Treatment is a 100% pure petroleum product that safely and effectively cleans internal fuel and oil system components, helping your gasoline or diesel engine run cleaner and more efficiently. SEA FOAM is an EPA-registered product, and will not harm engine components, seals, gaskets, catalytic converters or oxygen sensors.
SEA FOAM liquifies gum and varnish deposits or internal engine components, removing carbon deposits, freeing sticky valve lifters and rings curing rough idle, pinging and hesitation problems. By using SEA FOAM to eliminate varnish and carbon buildup, mechanics can more accurately diagnose mechanical problems that may exist. That is why Sea Foam has been so popular with professional mechanics for over 65 years.
As a fuel system additive, Sea Foam will clean fuel injectors, clean carbon, gum and varnish deposits, add lubricity to fuel, stabilize fuel for 2 years and control moisture.
As an oil system additive, Sea Foam controls moisture, gum, varnish and residue deposits.
Small Engine Applications
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How to use Sea Foam in Tune-Up of Small 4 Cycle Carbureted Engine Lawn Mowers, Tillers, Edgers, Snowblowers, etc.
- 1. Start engine. If engine will not start, check spark and compression. If engine has spark and compression, pour a small amount up to 1/2 ounce into the carburetor throat. SEA FOAM will act as starting fulid and will start the engine unless there is a mechanical or electrical problem. With engine warm, keep on high idle and slowly pour one ounce through carburetor throat. Make sure exhaust is well ventilated when using in the carburetor as fumes will be extreme for a short time.
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Stanadyne Performance Formula Diesel Fuel Treatment 16oz.$6.99
Stanadyne Performance Formula Diesel Fuel Treatment
Treats 60 Gallon of Fuel
Experts have studied this treatment and it's endorsed by some of the big OEM's. Probably one of the most comprehensive, multi-function diesel fuel additives on the market today.
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Store at room temperature
Add before re-fueling
Note: All Stanadyne Diesel Fuel Additives can be blended with each other and "double-dosing" is not damaging - although it may not provide twice the benefit. Where engine and vehicle OEMs have approved Stanadyne, most of them recommend Performance Formula, which should be used year-round to ensure protection against fuel related problems.Learn More
Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement + Cetane Boost (32 Oz.) 1025-12$6.99
Product Description:
Diesel Fuel Supplement +Cetane Boost is a winterizer/antigel that is used in the cold winter months to prevent fuel gelling and keep fuel-filters from plugging with ice and wax. When temperatures drop, paraffin (wax) in ULSD fuel will gel stopping fuel from flowing through the engine, and water in the fuel can freeze on the facings of fuel-filters, blocking fuel flow. This Arctic Formula provides trouble-free winter operation for diesel fuel.
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- Effective in all diesel fuels, including ULSD and biodiesel blends
- Does not contain alcohol of any kind
- Safe for use in all diesel engines
- Will not void engine manufacturer's warranty when used as directed
Power Service 911 Diesel Fuel Supplement Treatment Quart 8025$6.98
Diesel 9·1·1® is the product diesel-engine operators call on when they have a winter diesel fuel emergency.
- Treats 30-75 Gallons
- Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) Compliant — contains less than 15 parts per million (ppm) sulfur
- Effective in all diesel fuels, including ULSD and biodiesel blends containing up to 20% biodiesel (B20)
- De-ices frozen fuel-filters — no requirement to change fuel-filters
- Prevents fuel-filter icing
- Reliquefies gelled fuel in minutes — no tow truck needed
- Removes water from fuel system — extends life of fel-filters, fuel-injection pumps and fuel injectors
- Contains Slickdiesel® for maximum fuel lubrication — protects fuel injectors and pumps against Low and ULSD wear
To Deice Frozen Fuel Filters
Water is dissolved in and carried by all diesel fuels. At temperatures below +32°F, water that has collected in fuel-filters freezes. This causes decreased fuel flow to the engine and results in reduced engine power or engine shutdown.
To de-ice frozen fuel-filters, check to insure that diesel fuel in the equipment fuel tanks is not gelled. If fuel is liquid:
- 1. Remove fuel-filters.
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- 3. Fill fuel-filters with 50% Diesel 9•1•1® and 50% diesel fuel.
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- 5. Start engine.
- 6. If outside temperature is below +20°F, add Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement® +Cetane Boost® as directed to prevent further gelling.
Sea Foam Deep Creep Multi-Use Penetrating Lubricant 12 oz DC-14$7.49
Save time and effort. Effectively use this Multi-Use Penetrating Lubricant on hundreds of equipment, shop, and household items. Compare Deep Creep's quick-acting, petroluem-based formula against any of the leading penetrating oils and sprays. Deep creep cuts through corrosion and deposits of all kinds to loosen and lubricate parts. Spray Deep Creep to protect parts from corrosion. Soak rusty parts with Deep Creep and watch as it restores them to excellent working condition.
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Deep Creep Cleans, Penetrates, and Lubricates these Shop Items:
- Throttle Plates
- Engine Parts
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Deep Creep Cleans, Penetrates, and Lubricates these Household and Sporting Good Items:
- Locks
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- Fishing Reels
- Drawer Slides


text: Since 1959, the Giacomini family has been raising cattle in Northern California's verdant coastal fields, initially selling their milk to the local creamery. They eventually took on cheese making themselves, producing their Original Blue, California's first classic blue-style cheese, in 2000. Today, all four cheeses made by Point Reyes Cheese Farmstead Cheese have won awards around the world. This collection highlights a pound each of two of their most popular offerings: Their creamy, pungent Original Blue and tangy, grassy Toma, along with a package of crisp Rustic Bakery crackers. Perfect for snacking, these cheeses make entertaining easy, even for large groups.


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Commercial Trucking Training & Programs
Driver Training Schools (Commercial)
Champlain Valley Driver Training School
60B Gonyeau Road
Milton, VT 05468
Courses: Commercial Vehicle and Bus Training
Web Site: http://www.getcdl.com
Phone: 800-664-4060
Fax: 802-247-2720
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Giroux General Transportation
4 Cambria Street
Barre, VT 05641
Courses: Commercial Vehicle Training
Web Site: www.cdlschoolinvt.com
Phone: 802-476-4679
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Northeast Driver Training, LLC
10 Transport Park
Rockingham, VT 05101
Courses: Commercial Vehicle, Defensive Driving
Web Site: www.northeastdrivertraining.com
Phone: 802-463-9194
Precision Driver Training School
Courses: Class A Commercial Vehicle Training
Website: www.vtdrivered.com
Phone: 802-754-2842
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Stafford Driver Training School
8 Stratton Road
Rutland, VT 05701
Courses: Commercial Vehicle Training
Web Site: http://stafford.rutlandcitypublicschools.org/drivertrainingprogram/
Phone: 802-770-1178
Fax: 802-770-1066
Email: email@example.com
CDL Skill Test
You must make an appointment to take the CDL skills test. "Walk in" applicants will not be permitted to take the CDL tests. You can schedule an appointment for the skill test by calling (802) 828-2085 Monday - Friday, 7:45 A.M. - 4:00 P.M., except for holidays.
A scheduling deposit fee must be submitted to the Department before you may make an appointment for the skill test. Once the deposit is received by the Department, you may call 828-2085 to make an appointment for the skill test. It is important that, whenever possible, you call for an appointment personally. The operator will have questions regarding vehicle class, endorsements and test history - information which someone else calling for you may not have available. If you appear for the skill test as scheduled and pass, the deposit fee will be applied to license fees. If you do not appear for the skill test at the scheduled time, you will forfeit the deposit unless you give the department 48 hours notice of cancellation. If you fail the skill test, a subsequent test will be scheduled without an additional deposit. However the subsequent test fee is still payable at the time of actual testing.
You can pick up a CDL application and commercial driver manual at a DMV Customer Services Office near you. You should bring the completed forms with you when you go for your scheduled appointment.
When you come to your scheduled appointment, you must bring the following items with you:
- All Driver Licenses or Learner Permits issued to you by any state
- Birth certificate
- Proof of residency
- Proof of legal presence, if applicable
- Social Security Number
- Proof of liability insurance and a valid registration certificate for the vehicle you will use for your skills tests. You will not be allowed to take any of the skills tests without these
- Department of Transportation (DOT) Medical Card, if applicable
- The vehicle used for the skills test must have a valid inspection sticker and meet all inspection requirements
- For School Bus Endorsement: Completed medical form, DOT Medical Card, School Bus Endorsement Application (with knowledge test score recorded by examiner) and School Bus Clinic Completion Card
For a school bus exam, the Universal Medical Evaluation ( 289.52KB) or DOT Approved Physical Examination form ( 35.4KB) is required. The date of the medical examination must be within the last 2 years (prior to endorsement testing).
Cancelling Exam Appointments
If your skill test is canceled by DMV you will not lose your deposit fee.
If you must cancel a skill test, please call (802) 828-2085 at least 48 hours prior to your appointment. If no notice of cancellation is given, a new scheduling deposit fee must be submitted to reschedule an appointment.
Skill Tests & Test Vehicles
You must provide a vehicle which represents the license class for which you have applied, for the pre-trip inspection and road test. The vehicle must have clean, operable safety belts - school buses are exempt. The cargo portions of all vehicles, especially tank vehicles, must be empty at the time of your road test. The vehicle must pass inspection, at the time of the test, to be used for the skills test.
If you wish to be licensed to drive a commercial vehicle equipped with air brakes, you must pass the air brake knowledge test and provide a commercial vehicle with air brakes for your skill test. If you take a skill test in a vehicle without air brakes, you will receive an air brake restriction on your license. This means you can only operate commercial vehicles, for the class license you have, that do not have air brakes.
If you take the skills test in a commercial vehicle equipped with air-over-hydraulic brakes, you will be issued a CDL with an air-over-hydraulic brake restriction. You will be issued a special restriction card restricting you from operating vehicles equipped with a standard air brake system, but not from operating an air-over-hydraulic brake system.
Pre-Trip Inspection Test
A pre-trip inspection will be required before the skills test. If your vehicle fails the pre-trip inspection for safety reasons, it will be considered a test failure and you must make an appointment to retake the pre-trip inspection test. A subsequent exam fee will be assessed for your next test. It will not be necessary to provide a new test scheduling fee. If you fail the skills test three (3) times, you must wait six (6) months before you can retake it.
Vision Test
The Motor Vehicle Examiner may give you an eye test before you take the commercial driver license knowledge tests. This test will measure how well you see. If you wear glasses or contact lenses to pass the vision tests, then you will be required to wear them when you drive. A corrective lenses restriction will be placed on your CDL. If you fail the eye test, you will be given an eye referral form which must be completed by an eye doctor and returned to the department within 30 days. Your vision must be corrected before you will be issued a CDL. If you have monocular vision, call CDL information in Montpelier (828-2085) for further information.
Commercial Driver Training
Commercial vehicle training, which provides instruction in the operation of commercial vehicles. These training programs provide the following services:
- CDL A - A state-approved driver training program for entry-level tractor-trailer drivers. This 148-hour (minimum) course, which is consistent with national training guidelines, provides a combination of classroom, range and on-the-road instruction.
- CDL B - A state-approved driver training program for straight truck drivers. This 74-hour (minimum) course provides a combination of classroom, range and on-the-road instruction.
- Upgrade - Drivers holding Class B CDL licenses can receive training to upgrade to a Class A license by successfully completing a 74-hour (minimum) course which provides classroom, range, and on-the-road instruction.
Each of these courses help prepare prospective truck drivers for taking CDL written and skills tests. Vehicles are provided for students to take the CDL skills test. All tests are given at DMV test sites.
Employment - Check with individual schools to find out what types of job-placement services might be available.


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Felt Wine Bottle Carrier
Act fast! Items with prices ending in $0.99 are final sale.
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May 6, 2016
A Raleigh couple who are accused of killing a Kinston mother will be tried together for the crime.
Grant Hayes and his wife, Amanda, are charged with killing Laura Ackerson back in 2011 in Raleigh. The woman's dismembered body was found days later in a Richmond, Texas creek. Texas authorities believe Ackerson was killed in North Carolina, dismembered, and her body transported in coolers in a rented truck to Richmond.
After a hearing this morning in Wake County, Judge Donald Stephens ruled that the two would be tried at the same time. Their trial is still scheduled for May 20st in Wake County.
Grant Hayes was the father of Ackerson's children and the two were involved in a custody battle when the woman was murdered.
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text: |From the east, take I-40 to exit 283 (I-540 N) towards US-70. Merge onto I-540 E, and then take exit 3, Lumley Road, in 1.1 miles. Turn left onto Lumley Road and then take the first right onto Arco Corporate Drive. Destination will be the first large building on your right.


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Barking in dogs' + people's faces...Why?
Am wondering what people think about this behavior from Bella. We adopted Bella about two months ago. I don't know a LOT about how she was cared for previously, but we think she was abused (a bit, not severely), and not well socialized with dogs and people.
When we are out and about, or at the dog park, if she's feeling shy or insecure usually she just avoids the dog or person in question, and over the past weeks, she's improved immensely. When I introduce her to people, she warms up pretty quickly now and seems to enjoy being petted, etc.
Sometimes however, she gets right in people's or dogs' faces and barks intensely. With the dogs, I think often it's her way of inviting them to play. IF the dog responds playfully, she plays back. But sometimes the dog gets its ruff up, and then she gets fiercer and louder. Today she was barking at a man. She went right up to him and barked and barked. She was not snarling or snapping, just barking and seeming agitated. He was very nice and knelt down, and I formally introduced them and then she calmed down and let him pet her.
My questions to the experienced folks out there, especially with rescue dogs: How would you interpret this behavior? I know she is insecure but she does seem to be making lots of headway in that department. So, what does the barking mean? How should I handle it? And, is there a way to train her out of it? I am concerned that someday she's going to meet an aggressive dog who doesn't like it. At least with people I can verbally explain her background, etc. But I would like it to go away eventually.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Kathleen, mom to one human, age 20, two canines, and a bunch of fish.
I bought the dogs a ranch, part one
I bought the dogs a ranch, part two
Without seeing her, my guess would be that she's saying "I'M A LITTLE NERVOUS ABOUT THIS ENCOUNTER, JUST FYI."
It's probably too much energy added to insecurity, and she's taking it out vocally. My guess would be that it improves if she learns more appropriate ways to show her nervousness and to learn that she doesn't need to be nervous.
For example, you could set up friendly strangers who stop petting and look away when she's barking and only pet her (still looking away to help ease her nervousness) when she quiets down.
You can't "train" other people's unfriendly dogs, so I'd prevent those encounters for now. If she barks from excessive nervousness and other dogs respond with nervousness or aggression, that'll just teach her that her nervousness is justified. You need to teach her that it's unnecessary.
Is this happening on leash - off leash or both? A dog's body language says a lot about how they are feeling in a situation. What is her body language telling you? When she approaches a dog or person, what is her tail position -relaxed, up, down, tucked? Rear legs under her, like she may flee? Front end balanced, braced, or even a little forward? Ears - back or forward?
'Don't pity the rescue dog. Adopt one. And be proud to have their greatness by your side.'
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OutWest (12-27-2012)
My GF has a GSD mix whose very submissive and is the bottom in the pack. When we introduced Bear into this pack, he would run up to Bear and bark bark bark right into his ear. Bear would cower and look at him like, "***, dude." Then he'd give a play bow. He would also rush Bear and slam him in the neck with his nose and bark bark bark anytime Bear played with the leader of the pack.
In summary, I think it's a confidence issue. She's not quite sure how to interact with these new experiences, so she barks.
I hope this made sense.
Hecate's Hellhound, Bearer of Mischief, CGC - "Bear"
Hecate's Hellhound, Gypsy Magic - "Gypsy"
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OutWest (12-27-2012)
Kathleen, mom to one human, age 20, two canines, and a bunch of fish.
I bought the dogs a ranch, part one
I bought the dogs a ranch, part two
Legs tucked (ready to run) and foaming at the mouth when barking are signs of fear related stress. Keep in mind that stress builds (accumulates) before the dog shows outward signs and it also makes them more quick and likely to 'react' to certain stimuli. Barking at something for a fearful dog (her back legs braced to run and in all likelihood, tail down or tucked under are signs she is afraid) is an attempt to make that thing go away, to create space. If she is barking at a person or dog and it doesn't move away or offer a calming signal (play posture or turning away is a calming signal) it increases her anxiety and the intensity of her bark. It could be that the dog park is 'too much' for her on some days. Whether it is too much going on all at once - too many dogs and/or people (some dogs just get overwhelmed in large play groups) or the style of play that she doesn't understand or like, or a certain dog 'type' that triggers her, or consider that possibly she has been there too long (for her) and she is too stressed over all (even overexcitement is stressful for a dog).
She has only been with you a couple of months, there is a lot going on in her world that is new and possibly concerning (stressful) for her, she may need more time to understand that life is great!
'Don't pity the rescue dog. Adopt one. And be proud to have their greatness by your side.'
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OutWest (12-28-2012)
Its hard to tell because I haven't seen it but honestly I would guess that she is barking because it works. She is confused or insecure and wants some kind of attention or play or security, and barking has been seeming to work. When my dogs bark at me (which they do especially when we are getting into really high energy training in agility or working on things using pure shaping which can be frustrating) I turn my back and ignore them. I tend to think that dogs do the behaviors that work to get them whatever they want.
Bella is till doing a lot of barking and I'm still unsure how to manage it. I think she's figured out that the behavior is unwanted but still wants to do it. Today she barked at several unfamiliar dogs at the dog park, and at a boy (about 10) with whom she'd been friendly a few mixtures earlier. My daughter got some video footage of her in action. If any of the you have the time and inclination to look at it and let me know what you think about her demeanor, body posture, etc., I'd really appreciate it. I don't think it's genuine aggression--i think its insecurity--but I just don't know what is going on. Today she spent most of her time at the park on leash by my side. Any input is welcomed!
Kathleen, mom to one human, age 20, two canines, and a bunch of fish.
I bought the dogs a ranch, part one
I bought the dogs a ranch, part two
In both of those, the barking looks like her attempt to initiate play. It doesn't look particularly nervous, but it's not exactly graceful dog communication, so it's not working that well for her. The corgi in the first video, for example, found it annoying and told her so.
I don't see as much insecurity as I expected, but she certainly isn't a very confident communicator either.
I think these situations might be a little out of her social abilities for now. Anything that's creating barking jags is probably a situation you should try to avoid until her confidence is higher. A couple of barks here and there are fine, but any time you see her bleeding off all her excess stress by barking, it's probably a situation that's going to make the problem worse, rather than better, since repetition of a habit helps ingrain the habit.
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May 5, 2016
The Dallas Mavericks re-signed free-agent guard Delonte West on Thursday. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The 6-foot-3 West originally signed with Dallas as a free agent on Dec. 13. He averaged 9.6 points, 3.2 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 24.1 minutes in 44 games last season. He missed 21 games after fracturing and dislocating his right ring finger on Feb. 15 against Denver.
The former St. Joseph's star was drafted 24th overall by Boston in 2004, and has averaged 9.7 points, 3.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 432 games in eight seasons for Boston, Seattle, Cleveland and Dallas.
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Dollar Value of Ecosystem Services
Credit: Michael S. Klein/Stock Illustration Source.
The value of ecosystem services typically goes unaccounted for in business and policy decisions and in market prices. For commercial purposes, if ecosystem services are recognized at all, they are perceived as free goods, like clean air and water. Is accounting for these services an idea whose time has come?
This Focus article, written by David C. Holzman*, appeared first in Environmental Health Perspectives—the peer-reviewed, open access journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The article is a verbatim version of the original and is not available for edits or additions by Encyclopedia of Earth editors or authors. Companion articles on the same topic that are editable may exist within the Encyclopedia of Earth.
Accounting for Nature's Benefits: The Dollar Value of Ecosystem Services
Healthy ecosystems provide us with fertile soil, clean water, timber, and food. They reduce the spread of diseases. They protect against flooding. Worldwide, they regulate atmospheric concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. They moderate climate. Without these and other "ecosystem services," we'd all perish.1
One hallmark of the history of civilization is an ever-increasing exploitation of ecosystem services coupled with substitution of technology for these services, particularly where ecosystems have been exploited beyond their ability to provide.2 Agriculture is a hybrid of exploitation and substitution that enabled people to live in greater, denser populations that drove further exploitation and substitution. Modern plumbing made close quarters far less noxious but led to exploitation of ecosystems' ability to break down sewage, and to substitution with expensive sewage treatment technologies. Exploitation of fossil fuels led to a slew of modern conveniences, including fishing fleets that are so effective at catching their prey that they threaten fisheries globally.3,4 All this exploitation strained ecosystems, but in the past, when the population was a fraction of what it is now, these strains were local rather than global phenomena.
In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA),5 a sweeping survey conducted under the auspices of the United Nations, found that approximately 60% of 24 ecosystem services examined were being degraded or used unsustainably.6 "Every year we lose three to five trillion dollars' worth of natural capital, roughly equivalent to the amount of money we lost in the financial crisis of 2008–2009," says Dolf de Groot, leader of the Research Program on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
The value of ecosystem services typically goes unaccounted for in business and policy decisions and in market prices. For commercial purposes, if ecosystem services are recognized at all, they are perceived as free goods, like clean air and water. So it's not surprising that much of the degradation of ecosystems is rooted in what the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an independent group of U.S. scientists and engineers, describes as "widespread under-appreciation of the importance of environmental capital for human well-being and . . . the absence of the value of its services from the economic balance sheets of producers and consumers."7 PCAST and other groups are working to build recognition of ecosystem services and, importantly, to valuate them—that is, calculate values for these services to help policy makers and resource managers make rational decisions that factor important environmental and human health outcomes into the bottom line.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
In July 2011 PCAST called upon the federal government to assess quadrennially the condition of the nation's ecosystems and the social and economic value of services they provide. The goal was to improve methods for evaluating those services and to establish an ecoinformatics initiative to pull together existing knowledge and gather new information in a format that interested parties can easily use. 7
But the concept of valuating ecosystem services is not new. John P. Holdren, now science advisor to President Barack Obama, introduced it to students in his class "Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems" at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1970s. He emphasized that technological substitutions for ecosystem services are often costly, sometimes to the point of impracticality, and that sometimes an incomeplete understanding of how they function makes such substitutions impossible. Geoengineering to mitigate global climate disruption in the face of increasing emissions, for example, is widely viewed as extremely risky, because the climate is so complex.
In 1997 Robert Costanza, Distinguished University Professor of sustainability at Portland State University, Oregon, and colleagues first estimated that ecosystem services worldwide are worth an average $33 trillion annually ($44 trillion in today's dollars), nearly twice the global GNP of around $18 trillion ($24 trillion in today's dollars).8 Although the $33 trillion has been difficult to substantiate, this study was widely praised for drawing attention to the value of ecosystem services, says Rick Linthurst, national program director of the Ecosystem Services Research Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Payments to preserve ecosystem services date to at least the early 1980s, when the United States implemented wetland and stream credit banking,9 but the idea really took off in the mid 1990s. For instance, in 1996 Costa Rica began paying landowners $42 per hectare per year to preserve forest.10 At the time, that country had the highest deforestation rate in the world; now it has among the lowest, says Gretchen C. Daily, Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University.
China responded to a devastating drought in 1997, followed by massive floods in 1998, by inaugurating various payments for ecosystem services and a policy for conserving areas that are important sources of ecosystem services. These are known as Ecosystem Function Conservation Areas. Among the benefits: soil erosion fell sufficiently to cut sediment in the Yellow River by 38% over the period 2000 through 2007, and carbon sequestration rose by an estimated 1.3 billion tons between 1998 and 2010, says Jianguo Liu, the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University. But he adds that some benefits probably came at the expense of natural capital elsewhere in the world, as declines in forest cutting coincided with a rise in imported timber.
In 2010 the World Bank launched a program to help countries incorporate the value of ecosystem services into their accounting systems with an eye toward managing ecosystems to maximize economic benefit.11 Colombia, beset for several years by unusually persistent and damaging rains, is one of five pilot countries working with the bank.
Elsewhere, Norway is paying Indonesia $1 billion to preserve rainforest for carbon storage and sequestration to limit the impacts of climate change.12 And in Vietnam, an investment of $1.1 million in mangroves, which protect coastal regions from flooding, saved $7.3 million annually that would have gone to maintaining dikes. 1
A number of agencies of the U.S. federal government are conducting research on ecosystem services. The EPA is assembling a national atlas that can overlay visual information, like that used in Google Earth, with ecological and economic analyses to reveal variability in ecosystem service provision. The agency also has pilot programs in four regions of the United States enabling interested parties to project different resource-use scenarios into the future to help guide decision making now.13
And in 2007 environment ministers from the G8+5 countries14 agreed to begin analyzing the global economic benefits that derive from ecosystems and biodiversity, and to compare the costs of failure to protect these resources with the costs of conserving them. In the ensuing years, the resulting initiative, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB),15 has produced a series of reports for decision makers at the international, national and local levels aimed at enabling practical responses.
Another leader in guiding decision makers on payments for ecosystem services is the Natural Capital (NatCap) Project, cofounded by Stanford's Daily in 2006.16 NatCap has created software called InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) to model tradeoffs among environmental, economic, and social benefits, so that decision makers can explore the implications of alternative land-use scenarios. For any given piece of real estate, InVEST can take existing data on various ecosystem services—each of which may fall under a different field of study—and provide one consistent platform for assessing all of them together, to determine the optimal use(s) of that land, says Heather Tallis, lead scientist of NatCap. For example, "trade-off curves" can reveal how much timber can be harvested before causing major profit loss to hydropower, flood damage, or loss of biodiversity. The tools are available free through NatCap.17
What Are Ecosystem Services?
Ecosystem services are highly interdependent and often overlap. These services are typically categorized under 4 types: provisioning, regulatory, supporting, and cultural.21
Like factories, provisioning services maintain the supply of natural products: food, timber, fuel, fibers for textiles, water, soil, medicinal plants, and more.
Regulatory services keep different elements of the natural world running smoothly. They filter pollutants to maintain air and water quality, moderate the climate, sequester and store carbon, recycle waste and dead organic matter, and serve as natural controls for agricultural pests and disease vectors.
Supporting services can be thought of as the services that maintain the provisioning and regulatory services. These services include soil formation, photosynthesis, and provision of habitat. Healthy habitats preserve both species diversity and genetic diversity, which are critical underpinnings of all provisioning and regulatory services.22
Finally, cultural services are defined as the intangible benefits obtained from contact with nature—the aesthetic, spiritual, and psychological benefits that accrue from culturally important or recreational activities such as hiking, bird watching, fishing, hunting, rafting, gardening, and even scenic road trips. Increasingly, these services are being tied to tangible health benefits, especially those related to stress reduction.23
NatCap's consulting group is currently working on numerous projects within the United States and with 15 other countries in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, North America, and Asia. Foremost among those countries is China, which is spending a total of around $100 billion—more than any other country—to preserve forestlands through logging bans, to buy farms that are perched unsustainably on steep slopes for conversion to forests, and to restore wetlands.18 The Chinese government will shift farmers either to more sustainable locations or to other occupations, says Daily. NatCap is using InVEST to assess how many resource-intensive livelihoods—in farming, forestry, herding, and other fields—could be supported sustainably in a certain area under given practices, and to evaluate how shifting inhabitants to an alternative mix of livelihoods would impact natural capital and ecosystem services. This helps inform the investments needed to enable desired shifts, as well as to ascertain who will benefit and who will be hurt by the shifts, and to determine appropriate compensation, says Daily.
Assigning a Dollar Value
Ecosystem services are valued, ideally, by how much human welfare they can provide. The most convenient measure of welfare is dollars, although at this early stage of development of the science, that is not always a practical measure.
Values for provisioning services [see sidebar, "What Are Ecosystem Services?"] are relatively easy to determine. The simplest and least controversial methods to assess value draw on existing prices in the marketplace, says Emily McKenzie, manager of the NatCap Project at the World Wildlife Fund U.S. office. For example, coastal and marine ecosystems support the production of fish. The value of this service can be assessed based on revenues, a function of the price and quantity of harvested fish.
Thus, the value of the provisioning service is equal to how much all of its current and future production is worth today—what economists call its "present value." The further into the future the production lies, the lower the present value of the service. That's because money invested today in a safe investment, such as a Treasury bill, almost certainly will grow. If Treasury bills are earning 3%, $100 invested today will become $103 a year from now, $106.09 two years from now, and so on. That means that $106.09 two years from now is no more valuable than $100 today.
Many ecosystem services, such as scenery, recreational value, and most regulatory services, including those moderating infectious disease, lack a market price. One way to address this problem involves asking people what they would pay for a particular service, says Stephen Polasky, Fesler-Lampert Professor of ecological/environmental economics at the University of Minnesota; this is called "stated preference." Another method, "revealed preference," involves determining values from related actual purchases, such as the money people spend to travel to bucolic tourist destinations, or the extra cost of a house with a water view over a similar nearby house without the view.
Another valuation technique is estimating "replacement cost." This is the cost of the least expensive technical fix as a replacement for an ecosystem service. For example, New York City recently paid landowners in its watershed more than $1 billion to change their farm management practices to prevent animal waste and fertilizer from washing into the waterways. In doing so, the city avoided spending $6–8 billion on a new water filtration plant and $300–500 million annually to run it—the replacement cost of the natural filtration provided by waterways.1 "Protecting the watershed [along with the ecosystem service it provides] can be said to be worth at least six to eight billion dollars because that is the cost of replacing the service," says Polasky, who notes that the value of clean water is far higher still.
Quantifying the Impact of Ecosystem Disturbances on Infectious Disease [Click Image to Enlarge.]
The idea that ecosystem services influence human health has been around for quite a while, says Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. Only more recently have researchers begun investigating the hypothesis that services provided by healthy ecosystems include moderating infectious disease.
There is growing evidence—some experimental and some correlational—that a decline in biodiversity can boost disease transmission and that "preserving intact ecosystems and their endemic biodiversity should generally reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases," Ostfelt and colleagues wrote in a recent review on the topic in Nature.24 When ecosystems are simplified or fragmented, as human development is wont to do, the changes often favor proliferation of more efficient vectors and wildlife reservoirs of infectious disease—chiefly arthropods and rodents, respectively—partly by reducing the population of predators that keep these creatures in check.
The most efficient natural reservoirs of disease "tend to be the weedy, resilient species with a 'live fast and die young' life history," says Ostfeld. "Those are the species left standing when we disturb or degrade the ecosystem." He explains that predators that feed on the natural reservoirs tend to be more sensitive and disappear first when ecosystems are disturbed.
There is direct evidence supporting an inverse relationship between biodiversity and infectious disease. In South America, for instance, converting forest to cereal production increases rodent populations, contributing to epidemics of viral hemorrhagic fever, says Samuel Myers, a research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health of the Harvard School of Public Health. Dams, irrigation systems, and deforestation have been linked to increases in malaria and schistosomiasis, diarrheal diseases are associated with road building, and dengue has been tied to urbanization.25 Nonetheless, "[t]here is a big gap between the research showing associations between changes in natural systems and health outcomes, and actually being able to quantify the specific health benefits or costs of incremental changes in the system," Myers and colleague Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin–Madison wrote in the 2009 edition of Annual Review of Environment and Resources.25
Illustration by Michael S. Klein
The value of an ecosystem service depends on local and/or regional socioeconomic conditions as well as supply and demand. Thus, the value of clean water is much higher in New York City's watershed, where it serves 19 million people7 than it would be in, say, Alaska, says Polasky.
When it comes to valuating ecosystem services, the economics is the easy part—easy being a relative term. The major difficulties have more to do with the fact that ecology is a relatively young science, and there is much that we don't yet understand about it, says Polasky, echoing colleagues. "Nature is probably the most complex system we know of," Daily explains.
Huge Error Bars and Heroic Assumptions
Part of the problem, generally speaking, is that the multiple uncertainties about how ecosystems do what they do add up to "huge error bars," says Polasky. Dollar values are often based on "heroic assumptions" that don't stand on much data, says Lisa Wainger, a research associate professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
A Complex Undertaking [Click Image to Enlarge.]
The science that underlies ecosystem services is cumbersome. Taylor Ricketts, director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, measured the productivity of bees as pollinators of coffee plantations in Costa Rica. The bees live in forests near the plantations. In a series of carefully controlled and lengthy experiments, he found that coffee plants within a kilometer of the forest were fully pollinated, whereas those beyond a kilometer received insufficient pollination, producing 20% fewer coffee beans. Using these results, Ricketts calculated that two forest patches were contributing $62,000 worth of pollination services annually to a single coffee farm. If those forests were destroyed, that farm would suffer a 7% drop in productivity, he estimated. Thus, the present value of the annual $62,000 would be the value of the service provided by those forest patches.26
However, pollination is just one of many ecosystem services performed by that forest, with others including carbon sequestration, support of biodiversity, and water purification, to name just a few, says Ricketts. At this early stage of the science of valuating ecosystem services, often it is impractical to determine the value of more than one or a few services. Part of the difficulty of determining the value of all the services within an ecosystem is that the methods for obtaining the necessary information are often so different for each service.
In some cases, the studies required may be enormously time-consuming or otherwise difficult. For example, Ricketts' pollination studies involved comparing coffee production among five similar trees at each of three different distances from the forest, after hand pollinating flowers on some branches at each location to simulate maximum pollination activity, allowing bees to do the job on other flowers, and covering some flowers to simulate no pollination. Measuring a forest's capacity to purify water might involve determining the purity of a stream that runs through the forest after passing a pollution source by assaying pollutants at regular distances to determine how quickly they are declining. Assaying biodiversity involves taking a census of all plants, animals, and invertebrates on a plot of land. Ricketts says a thorough determination of ecosystem services from a single piece of land might involve 20 different studies for as many services.
Illustration by Michael S. Klein
For instance, scientific understanding of feedback among the many ecosystem services remains wanting—"If you have more carbon in soil, are plants better able to take up nitrogen?" asks Polasky, as one example. A good deal of ecological uncertainty stems from a lack of information about basic natural history. The PCAST report notes that "groups of organisms likely to be most important in ecological terms, such as species that determine soil fertility, promote nutrient cycling, or consume wastes . . . are among the least familiar and least visible—e.g., fungi, nematodes, mites, insects, and bacteria. Populations of ecologically dominant marine organisms, most of which are either invertebrates or microbes, are just as poorly understood."7
Climate change magnifies all these ecological uncertainties. It's "the mother of all externalities," writes Richard S.J. Tol, a professor of economics at the University of Sussex, "larger, more complex, and more uncertain than any other environmental problem."19 Over the rest of the century, global climate shifts are likely to be the biggest driver of ecosystem change and may greatly reduce Earth's carrying capacity, according to PCAST.7
It also remains difficult to link changes in the delivery of ecosystem services to changes in human welfare. "There are many mysteries about which species confer what dynamics to ecosystems or what benefits to people," says Daily. "We really don't know how much biodiversity is needed to sustain and fulfill human life."
But more precise knowledge of the economic value of those ecosystem services that can easily be valuated "would not, in itself, provide insight into what fraction of the benefit would be lost in consequence of a given type or degree of ecosystem disruption," according to the PCAST report.7 There are thresholds in ecosystem function beyond which carrying capacity plummets. History and prehistory are littered with thresholds breached, from the degeneration of the Fertile Crescent into today's desertified Middle East (probably due to mismanagement of irrigation, says Daily) to the deforestation, extinction of all wild land birds, and human population collapse on Easter Island.2 One of the biggest fears about the impact of climate change is that global thresholds will be breached, but the ability to predict such with anything approaching precision is currently beyond ecological science.
Despite the challenges, considerable progress has been made over the last decade toward improved techniques for linking changes in ecosystem services to changes in human welfare. Part of that improvement is due to modeling methods, including InVEST, as well as to greater numbers of ecological studies, and part is due to improvements in the data, says Polasky. The field has been boosted by the revolution in GIS (geographic information system) technology and so-called spatially explicit data: "We now have very good images that enable us to know the heights of plants and elevations of terrain, and really good sensors that show us what's on the ground," Polasky says. "You can combine that with monitoring. If we increase the deforestation upriver, we can monitor the sediment downriver. That's been a huge help."
Health & Ecosystems: Analysis of Linkages (HEAL),20 a consortium of more than 25 conservation and public health institutions, has embarked on the first rigorous, systematic attempt to measure the human health impacts of changes in a variety of natural systems. HEAL's projects are designed to evaluate what are thought to be key connections between the environment and health. Examples include the relationships between subsistence hunters' sustainable access to wildlife and their children's nutritional needs (particularly as related to iron and key micronutrient deficiencies); between upland deforestation on islands such as Fiji, erosion and waterborne diarrheal diseases in children, and downstream coral reef health and productivity; between deforestation patterns and malaria in the Amazon and other major forest systems; between landscape fires in Sumatra and smoke-related cardiopulmonary illness in the broader region downwind; and between fishers' access to Marine Protected Areas, food security, income to purchase health services, and the psychological dimensions of having a "sense of place" related to coastal resource security.
Perhaps most importantly, says Steve Osofsky, HEAL coordinator and director of health policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, the project seeks to quantify all these types of relationships related to communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases, nutrition, and the social and psychological dimensions of health. In Osofsky's words, "If it cannot be measured, it cannot be managed."
The ultimate goal of valuating ecosystem services "is to improve human well-being overall," says Daily. She cautions that there will always be people who lose out in any policy decision. However, she says, "The aim is to design these investments in natural capital so as to advance human development and alleviate poverty at the same time. This is the Holy Grail."
References and Notes
- TEEB. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Local and Regional Policy Makers. Geneva, Switzerland:The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study, United Nations Environment Programme (2010). Available: http://www.teebweb.org/ForLocalandRegionalPolicy/LocalandRegionalPolicyMakersChapterDrafts/tabid/29433/Default.aspx [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- Diamond J. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York, NY:Viking Adult (2005).
- The state of the oceans, part 1: eating away at a global food source. Environ Health Perspect 112(5):A282–A291. 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a282
- The state of the oceans, part 2: delving deeper into the sea's bounty. Environ Health Perspect 112(8):A472–A481. 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a472
- The MA represents the work of 1,360 experts from 95 countries. The reports focus on the connections between how changes in ecosystem services—usually involving deterioration—affect human well-being, and, based on these findings, call into question the ability of ecosystems to sustain future generations.
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board. Statement of the MA Board. Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being. Washington, DC and Nairobi, Kenya:World Resources Institute and United Nations Environment Programme (2005). Available: http://www.maweb.org/en/BoardStatement.aspx [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Report to the President. Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy. Washington, DC:White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President (Jul 2011). Available: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast_sustaining_environmental_capital_report.pdf [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387(6630):253–260. 1997. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/387253a0
- EPA. Wetlands Fact Sheet: Mitigation Banking Factsheet [website]. Washington, DC:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (updated 12 Jan 2009). Available: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/facts/fact16.html [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- Costa Rica's Payment for Environmental Services Program: intention, implementation, and impact. Conserv Biol 21(5):1165–1173. 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00751.x
- The World Bank. Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES): A Global Partnership Program [website]. Washington, DC:The World Bank (updated 29 Nov 2011). Available: http://go.worldbank.org/1FM01NZUO0 [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- Norad. Real-Time Evaluation of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative. Contributions to National REDD+ Processes 2007–2010. Country Report: Indonesia. Oslo, Norway:Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (2010). Available: http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/MD/2011 /vedlegg/klima/klima_skogprosjektet/Eval ueringsrapportene/Report_16_2010_Indonesia_web.pdf [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- EPA. Ecosystem Services Research: National Atlas [website]. Washington, DC:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (updated 1 Mar 2012). Available: http://www.epa.gov/ecology/quick-finder/national-atlas.htm [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- The G8+5 includes the heads of government from the G8 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), plus the heads of government of five emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa).
- TEEB [website]. Geneva, Switzerland:The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study (TEEB), United Nations Environment Programme (2012). Available: http://www.teebweb.org/ [accessed 5 Mar 2012].
- The Natural Capital Project (NatCap) Project is a partnership among Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund.
- Natural Capital Project [website]. Stanford, CA:The Natural Capital Project (2012). Available: http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/about.html [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China's policies for ecosystem services. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(28):9477–9482. 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706436105
- The economic effects of climate change. J Econ Perspect 23(2):29–51. 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/jep.23.2.29
- One Health Commission. Health & Ecosystems: Analysis of Linkages (HEAL) [website]. Ames, IA:One Health Commission (2012). Available: http://www.onehealthcommission.org/en/resources/health__ecosystems_analysis_of_linkages_heal/ [accessed 6 Mar 2012].
- Daily GC, et al. 1997. Issues Ecol. Ecosystem services: benefits supplied to human societies by natural ecosystems. : 1–16. http://www.esa.org/science_resources/issues/FileEnglish/issue2.pdf
- Embedded in nature: human health and biodiversity. Environ Health Perspect 112(1):A12–A13. 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a12
- Cultivating healthy places and communities: evidenced-based nature contact recommendations. Int J Environ Health Res 21(1):41–61. 2011. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/09603123.2010.499452
- Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases. Nature 468(7324):647–652. 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09575
- Myers SS, Patz JA 2009. Ann Rev Environ Res. Emerging threats to human health from global environmental change. : 223–252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.environ.033108.102650
- Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(34):12579–12582. 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0405147101
Editor's Notes
- *David C. Holzman writes on science, medicine, energy, economics, and cars from Lexington and Wellfleet, MA. His work has appeared in Smithsonian, The Atlantic Monthly, and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
- Citation: Holzman DC 2012. Accounting for Nature's Benefits: The Dollar Value of Ecosystem Services. Environ Health Perspect 120:a152-a157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.120-a152
- Online: 01 April 2012
- Writer David C. Holzman first heard about ecosystem services in current presidential science advisor John P. Holdren's class "Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems" at the University of California, Berkeley, in winter quarter, 1975. The late Lee Schipper, Holzman's original mentor on energy issues, had recommended the class.


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More rain in an area that burned in the High Park wildfire in Larimer County has led to at least two mudslides.
One slide left about 50 yards of debris and rushing water on Colorado Highway 14, leaving that part of the road impassable Thursday afternoon. The Colorado Department of Transportation was working to clear the road.
A roughly 100-foot mudslide was reported in Buckhorn Canyon.
No evacuations have been ordered.
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Universal 80011 Laser Printer File Folder Labels, 3-7/16in x 2/3in, White, 750/Box | (Priced per Pack) UNV-80011
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Tenant Affidavit to Restore Case to Calendar Program
Ce programme est en anglais. Une traduction française est disponible dans les menus contextuels dans le programme. Cliquez sur le lien intitulé français: c'est facile, c'est gratuit et c'est en français. Vous devez répondre en anglais sinon le tribunal rejettera vos documents.
This free and easy DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Form program will ask you questions and make papers you need if you want to go back to court to ask the judge to do something in your New York City Housing Court case. When you finish the program, you can print a paper called an "Affidavit in Support of an Order to Show Cause." Give the Clerk the papers along with copies of any proof. The papers ask the judge to let you come back to court.
You can use this program:
1. To ask for more time to do what you were ordered or agreed to do, or
2. To make the landlord do what he or she was ordered or agreed to do, or
3. To go back before the judge for another reason.
You should not use this program if there is a default judgment against you because you missed your court date or didn't Answer the Petition. There is a different DIY Form program that will help you make the papers you need to make an Affidavit to Vacate a Default Judgment.
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Go to the Tenant Affidavit to Restore Case to Calendar Program
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The Power of Independent Thinking
Bush, Obama, and Presidential Power
Recorded: Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Ron Paul, Richard Shenkman, and Ivan Eland, author of Recarving Rushmore, discuss which presidents were the best and worst at promoting peace, prosperity, and liberty.
Experts: Ivan Eland, Ron Paul, Richard Shenkman, David J. TherouxType: TelevisionIssues: Defense and Foreign Policy, Government Power, History (U.S), Politics
Bush, Obama, and Presidential Power
Recorded: Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Part 1 |
Part 2
Part 3
Was George W. Bush the worst president ever? Ivan Eland examines Bushs presidency and those of his predecessors to determine if their policies promoted peace, prosperity, and liberty while upholding the Constitution they swore to protect.
Experts: Ivan Eland, Ron Paul, Richard ShenkmanType: Independent Institute EventIssues: Banking and Finance, Bureaucracy and Government, Civil Liberties/ Human Rights, Constitutional Law, Culture/ Society, Defense and Foreign Policy, Democracy, Economic History and Development (U.S.), Economic Policy, Freedom, Government Power, History (U.S), Nationalism, Political Ideology and Philosophy, Politics, Privacy, Terrorism and National Crises
Dinner to Honor Sir John Marks Templeton
Recorded: Thursday, October 1, 1998
Part 1 |
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Experts: Sir John Marks Templeton, David J. TherouxType: Independent Institute Event


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Carbonfund.org Makes it Simple and Affordable for the Institute to Reduce its Climate Footprint
Santa Rosa, CA. September 23, 2005 —How does an organization that trains leaders about environmental and social justice deal with the paradox of its participants creating tailpipe emissions driving to and from classes and meetings? "We retire carbon credits," said Ron Sundergill, President of the Leadership Institute For Ecology and the Economy.
The mission of the Institute is to train community leaders to create public policy that balances environmental and social equity concerns with economic interests to build sustainable communities. Participants in the training program meet one day every month, usually driving a car to attend.
Sundergill noted, "It's always bothered us that when people drive to our program to learn how they can make this a more sustainable world, we add CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Sometimes we even feel a bit guilty for preaching to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while our activities actually contribute to the problem.
"I've seen activists compromised when labeled as hypocrites because they drove their cars to testify in support of legislation for cleaner air, even when they had no alternative but to drive.
"Recently, we discovered Carbonfund.org and realized they could sequester the estimated 30 tons of carbon created by our program annually, making the Institute 'carbon neutral,' We're very excited that we can tell others that they can do the same for their families and organizations," Sundergill explained.
"Carbonfund.org is thrilled to add the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Environment to our growing list of companies and organizations that are reducing their climate footprints easily and affordably," says Carbonfund President Lesley Marcus Carlson. "We created Carbonfund.org because the threat of climate change is too great to pass on to our children. We have to act now."
Carbonfund.org's concept is simple. We all contribute to climate change and global warming when we use energy in our homes, drive our cars and fly cross country or buy food and other goods. Carbonfund.org makes it easy for people to calculate their emissions and donate to offset them. Carbonfund.org uses the donations to support carbon dioxide reducing projects, such as wind energy, energy efficiency and sequestration. Donations to Carbonfund.org are tax deductible.
"We have created the easiest pathway for anyone to reduce their climate impact to zero," adds Carlson. "This is a bottom-up approach that is incredibly simple and affordable. For about $8 a month anyone can reduce their climate footprint to zero. No politician or businessman can take away your right and ability to offset your climate impact."


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37 U.S. Code § 602 - Payments: designation of person to receive amounts due
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(a) Active duty pay and allowances, amounts due for accrued or accumulated leave, or retired or retainer pay, that are otherwise payable to a member to whom this chapter applies and who, in the opinion of a board of medical officers or physicians, is mentally incapable of managing his affairs, may be paid for that member's use or benefit to any person designated by the Secretary concerned, or by any officer to whom he delegates his authority under this section, without the appointment in judicial proceedings of a committee, guardian, or other legal representative.
(b) The board shall consist of at least three qualified medical officers or physicians, one of whom is specially qualified in the treatment of mental disorders, appointed from available medical officers or physicians under his jurisdiction by the head of whichever of the following is providing medical treatment for the member, or by a person designated by that head—
If the hospitalization or medical care of the member is not provided by the United States, the board shall be appointed by the Secretary of the department having jurisdiction of the member.
(c) A payment made to a person who is designated under this section discharges the obligation of the United States as to the amount paid.
(d) A person serving in a legal, medical, fiduciary, or other capacity, may not demand or accept a fee, commission, or other charge for any service performed under this chapter.
(e) This section does not apply in any case in which a legal committee, guardian, or other representative has been appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction, except as to payments made before the paying agency of the department concerned receives notice of that appointment.
(f) A person who is designated to receive payments under this section shall furnish satisfactory assurance that the amounts received by him will be applied to the use and benefit of the incompetent member, and, where the payments may reasonably be expected to be more than $1,000, shall provide a suitable bond to be paid for out of amounts due the incompetent member.
Source(Pub. L. 87–649, Sept. 7, 1962, 76 Stat. 483; Pub. L. 96–513, title V, § 516(17),Dec. 12, 1980, 94 Stat. 2939; Pub. L. 101–189, div. A, title XVI, § 1621(b)(1),Nov. 29, 1989, 103 Stat. 1604.)
|Revised section
|Source (U.S. Code)
|Source (Statutes at Large)
|37:352 (1st sentence, less 31 words before provisos and less provisos).
|37:352 (last proviso of 1st sentence, 2d sentence, and last sentence).
|June 21, 1950, ch. 342, §§ 2, 3 (less 1st 28 words), 64 Stat. 249; Aug. 7, 1959, Pub. L. 86–145, § 1, 73 Stat. 297.
|37:352 (31 words before provisos of 1st sentence).
|37:352 (1st proviso of 1st sentence).
|37:352 (2d proviso of 1st sentence).
|37:353 (less 1st 28 words).
In subsection (a), the words "or persons" and "or officers" are omitted, since, under section 1 of title 1, "words importing the singular include and apply to several persons, parties, or things". The words "to whom he delegates his authority under this section" are substituted for the words "as the respective Secretaries may designate for such purposes" to obviate confusion between persons "designated to receive payments and those who perform the Secretary's functions under the section. The words "the necessity of" are omitted as surplusage.
In subsection (c), the words "or persons" are omitted for the reasons given in the preceding paragraph. The words "discharges the obligation" are substituted for the words "shall constitute a complete discharge".
In subsection (d), the words "under the authority of" are omitted as surplusage.
In subsection (e), the words "have been" and "including a requirement" are omitted as surplusage. The words "or persons" are omitted for the reason stated in the explanation under subsection (a), above.
1989—Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 101–189substituted "Department of Veterans Affairs" for "Veterans' Administration".
1980—Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 96–513substituted "Department of Health and Human Services" for "Department of Health, Education, and Welfare".
Effective Date of 1980 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 96–513effective Dec. 12, 1980, see section 701(b)(3) ofPub. L. 96–513, set out as a note under section 101 of Title 10, Armed Forces.
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Suit up, ladies. There's a war going on, apparently against us.
Now, some say that's not true. Or it is true, but it's the liberals waging it and not the right-wing throwbacks to the caveman era.
Just more of that up is down shit we got from the Bush administration for eight years.
The Republicans wanna have it both ways too. The Obama administration is bad for women, but women are doing great in this economy! Yahoo! Helps, of course, that their base apparently can only consider one statement at a time, and so any contradictory statements are not considered when a new one comes along.
So when an Ed Gillespie says on Meet the Press "The U.S. economy is a hostile workplace for women under President Obama … It's still the economy, and women aren't stupid," the Republican sheeple don't remember that women have always been at the bottom of the heap. Women make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, and that didn't just happen since January 20, 2009.
So what does presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and the rest of the cabal intend to do about it? I'll let Joan Walsh answer that.
It's undeniable that Romney and the GOP support policies that disproportionately hurt women. They want to cut back the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-wage workers; most recipients are women. They want to slash Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security; women make up most of those programs' beneficiaries, too. To the extent that they, as well as GOP governors, are pushing public worker layoffs, those hit women harder too, since they're more likely to work in the public sector than men.
They wanna do other things too, like put restrictions on abortion that lock the doctor's opinion out of the matter. That's Georgia, where the legislature has passed a bill that bans abortion after five months — regardless the health of the fetus, the health of the mother or even if the fetus is dead. Because? One of the bill's prime sponsors says that he's delivered calves and pigs dead and alive, so it should be ok for humans too.
But it's not all about women it seems. The Tennessee legislature has been trying for a while now to ban use of the word "gay" to mean homosexual. They've not been successful … yet, but they did manage to pass a vague bill requiring sex education to preach against "gateway sexual activity," without explaining what that means. Kissing? Holding hands? Running your fingers through someone's hair? Got me.
And then of course there's the myriad politicians who don't think it's a good idea to ban bullying against gay people. Gay journo Dan Savage, speaking to the National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle, ran into a little of this in high school students. From David A. Graham:
In the course of his talk about bullying, Savage pointed out anti-gay activists sometimes cite the Bible to justify their beliefs and behavior. He then went on to point out that the Bible sanctions any number of activities we don't allow today, including slavery and the stoning of women who are not virgins when married (the full text, if you don't want to watch the video, is here), strictures he referred to as "bullshit." In protest, some (presumably) Christian members of the audience walked out. As he wrapped up the inflammatory section of his remarks, Savage apologized for offending anyone, but undercut that apology somewhat by adding, "It's funny, as someone who's on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-assed some people react when you push back.
Here's the video in case you do want to watch it:
And before you start whining about how do you know they're Christians and weren't just upset about the foul language — they're journalism students, ferchrissake. If "bullshit" upsets them, they're in the wrong business.
So really, it's not just a war on women. It's a war on everything good and decent, despite attempts to characterize it as something dirty and bad.