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Penguin Computing announced a microserver based on Calxeda's EnergyCore SoC. Ultimate Data X1 (UDX1) system is promised to run in a power envelope of just 5 watts and is targeting application areas in I/O heavy areas, including big data scenarios.
According to the manufacturer, the UDX1 can be configured with up to 48 server nodes, with up to four processor cores per node. The system uses a Ethernet-based switch fabric with a bandwidth of 10 Gb and allows up to 144 TB of HDD capacity.
"Power and cooling are the biggest facility challenges for most data centers, on the other hand typical cloud computing, web 2.0 and big data applications are based on scale out architectures," said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Penguin Computing."A new generation of power efficient high density servers is required to run these workloads efficiently."
Penguin will be offering the UDX1 as a rackmount server and as an option next to its Opteron 4200/6200-based Altus servers as well as an alternative to its Xeon E3 Relion servers. Pricing and availability were not announced.
Click here to go back to ToC
Wolfgang GruenerWolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.
See here for all of Wolfgang's Tom's IT Pro articles.


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- July 12, 1993
- Vol. 40
- No. 2
Life After Death
Single Moms with Aids Struggle with a Heart-Wrenching Question: Who'll Raise My Children After I'm Gone?
In its second decade, the disease has found no shortage of lives to ruin in the U.S. (Since the late 1970s, AIDS has claimed 182,275 lives; 107,045 people currently have the disease.) Once confined primarily to men in high-risk groups, AIDS is now spreading fastest among women of childbearing age. (In New York City AIDS is the No. 1 killer of women between 15 and 44.) Many of those women have children who will be left parentless. "In seven short years we will have 85,000 orphans because of AIDS, "says Sandy Scott, the director of Tanya's Children, a Los Angeles-based organization that tries to find adoptive families for children soon to be orphaned by the disease. To avoid having their children shuffled between foster homes or housed in institutions, a growing number of women are using their last months to plan something better. Here are the stories of five who were forced to look beyond their own families for homes, and who, by necessity, found very different solutions.
A Chicago mom and her son brace for the end
In 1988, after one of her best friends died of AIDS, Ida Greathouse watched in dismay as her friend's orphaned son was shuffled between four foster homes in seven months. Greathouse, who had been found HIV positive four years earlier, says she "made a promise to myself that my son would not suffer that pain and injustice." Says Greathouse: "Women should be able to make the final decision about where their children go."
Now 40, Greathouse had discovered her illness a decade ago when her boy, Silvano, 10, was an infant. "I felt like a death sentence had been handed down to me," says the Peru, Ill., native who, because of her IV drug use and multiple sex partners, had been a high-risk candidate for AIDS. "At that time women were only living six months to a year after the diagnosis."
As her son grew older and her health remained stable, Greathouse gradually became active in AIDS causes in Chicago and, when he was old enough to understand, told Silvano about her illness. "I cried a lot. I thought my mother was going to die," he says. "But she told me she was going to live as long as she could, so I knew we could still do stuff together."
One of the things they did was look for a permanent guardian for Silvano. His natural father is thought to have died of AIDS in 1984, and Greathouse's current husband also suffers from AIDS and has been living in a residential care facility since March 1992. Her family, from whom she has been estranged since her teens, was willing to adopt Silvano, but Greathouse didn't feel he'd adapt well to their conventional lifestyle. "They wanted to change Silvano's name to Americanize him," she says.
Silvano's guardian angels came in the form of Robert "Rock" Simcina and Paul Gutierrez, a gay couple whom Greathouse and her son met three years ago through a volunteer program that delivers meals to AIDS patients. The four became fast friends, and, as Greathouse's health worsened—for the past six months she has suffered from anemia and neuropathy, a disabling nerve disorder—Paul and Rock began spending more time with the boy. "It stuck in my mind that there were things like biking and tennis that his mother couldn't do with him," says Rock.
Recognizing the growing bond between her son and Paul, 32, and Rock, 33, Greathouse decided to ask the men to care for Silvano after she died. "I was thrilled," says Paul. Notes Rock: "He was the child I'd always hoped for."
Greathouse says she doesn't worry that Paul and Rock will influence Silvano's sexuality—"I know he's a heterosexual." She has bigger concerns. If she dies before the governor of Illinois signs legislation allowing parents to establish standby guardianship, she fears her family will contest her will. She is also trying to prepare Silvano for her death by discussing with him which oilier possessions he'd like to keep and what will become of her body. She would like her ashes to be spread over Lake Michigan; Silvano wants to keep them in an urn. "We're still talking that one out." she says.
Too ill to care for her son, an L.A. mother settles for Sunday visits
Two-year-old James Spindola is'nt quite sure what to make of his mother. When he visits her each Sunday at Rue's House, a residential shelter for HIV-positive mothers and their children in L.A., he approaches cautiously. "Hey, Twinkle Toes," she squeals, reaching out to hug him. But James is reticent, and his foster mother, Vera Lee, has to nudge him toward his mom. "At first I was jealous of the bond between Vera and James and how attached he is to her," admits Jennifer Spindola, 26. "But Vera understood. She said I would always be his mother."
It is Vera, though, who will raise James. Plagued by frequent attacks of AIDS-related asthma and pneumonia. Jennifer—who believes she contracted the disease from James's father, an IV drug user—has been too ill to care for James, and her doctors aren't optimistic about how much longer she will live. "It does hurt, and it is scary that I might not be here for his next birthday or Christmas," she says. "But when I can't fight this disease anymore, I will be able to let go because I know James is taken care of."
That wasn't always the case. When Jennifer's health began to decline shortly after James was born, the infant. was bounced from foster home to foster home. James's father, who left Jennifer when she became pregnant, didn't want anything to do with him. And Jennifer didn't want James raised by her parents because of her own unhappy childhood. Afraid for his future, she contacted Tanya's Children. The foundation workers introduced her to Vera, 45, a nurse's aide at an L.A. AIDS center, who had been looking for a child to adopt. "I am getting older, and it's hard to find the right man these days," she says.
When Vera, a single mother, first met Jennifer last October, she brought a photograph of her daughter, Kia, 24, a college junior. She promised Jennifer that James too would attend private schools and college. "She had done such a good job raising her own child." says Jennifer. ""I thought I would give her a try."
The next day. Vera began the guardianship paperwork, a process that should be completed later this month. In the meantime, James is making himself at home in Vera's L.A. house, where he has lived since December. "He seems to have adjusted well," says Vera. "He kisses and hugs me a lot. He always wakes up smiling.
For Jennifer, however, the adjustment has been much tougher. Clutching a large stuffed toy to her chest, she recalls waking up at Rue's House thinking about her son sleeping happily in another woman's home. "Some nights when I wish I was holding James. I hold this bunny rabbit for comfort," she says sadly. "But I know this is the best decision for both of us."
Jarred by her recent diagnosis, a mother of three starts her search
In April, Mary Cross was called to her eldest son's West Hollywood, Calif., school where the second grader was being reprimanded. Not only had Robby bitten a classmate, reported the principal, but he had said some mean things about his mother. "Robby told me a really bad lie about you," the principal reported. "He said you have HIV and that when you were young you used to do drugs in your arm."
"I said, 'All of that is true,' " says Cross, 43. "Then the principal whirled around and said to Robby, 'Your mother has HIV. You can't go around biting people; you could give it to them.' "
Outraged, Cross says, she retorted, "He doesn't have it, I do!"
Now 7, Robby has had a turbulent past and, along with his brothers, twins Keith and Dennis, 6, faces an uncertain future. Cross was found to be HIV positive a year ago and in January suffered an incapacitating bout of shingles, a viral disease sometimes associated with HIV. That episode scared her enough to begin looking for a home for her three sons. "What I am going through is hell," she says.
Cross admits to years of heroin addiction and claims not to know which men in her past fathered her children. She is estranged from her family—including brother Randy Cross, a former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman turned CBS sports commentator—over their disapproval of her lifestyle. She is uncertain how she got AIDS. "No one can tell me," she says. "I either got it sexually or through intravenous drug use."
A good day, says Cross, who now takes AZT and an antibiotic, "is not being in bed all day." But her best day will be when she finds someone she trusts to adopt her children. While she hopes the adoptive parents would send the boys to "nice schools," her first priority is keeping the three, all of whom have tested negative for HIV, together. Robby is healthy, but Keith is learning-disabled, and Dennis, who has cerebral palsy, still wears diapers. "Keith is an overwhelming life force," Cross says protectively. "Dennis has a sweet disposition, and Robby is very bright."
To find a home for her boys, Cross too has been working with Tanya's Children. Last May a caseworker at the foundation told Cross that a family in New York State was interested in adopting the boys. But her health has temporarily stabilized, and Cross has been procrastinating. "I don't know how to mentally prepare for what I have to do," she says.
Although she has explained her illness to her children, only Robby seems to grasp its severity. He is now struggling to brace himself emotionally. "I found out that I am a really brave kid," says the 7-year-old proudly. "Because when I took a blood test for HIV, I didn't cry."
A Maryland mother and daughter move in with a foster family
"There will come a point when I'll want to discontinue medications," says Catherine Williams, 37. who was found to have AIDS last year. "I will not let them put tubes in me, and I don't want to suffer." When that time comes, Williams will know that her daughter, Elizabeth, 4, who is HIV positive;, will he cared for. After a prolonged search for the right foster home, Williams believes she has found it, in a while clapboard farmhouse amid the rolling green fields of suburban Maryland.
There, Bill and Paulette F. (who asked that their last name not be used), live with their three children, one of them a 3-year-old girl with AIDS whom they adopted last year. Williams and her daughter moved in two months ago.
Williams, a former caseworker with the Maryland Department of Social Services, believes she contracted AIDS from a former lover who died of the disease. She began looking for a foster home for Elizabeth shortly after they were both found to be HIV positive in early 1991. When she asked social workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she and Elizabeth were being treated, about a foster home, they were at a loss. "That's when I got my first panicky twinges," she says. "Since then it seems like I've made 50,000 telephone calls. I'm a professional social worker and it's taken me two years. What happens to the average person?"
Williams admits that finding a home for her daughter might have been easier it she had relented on her insistence to meet the adoptive parents, something most adoption agencies do not permit. She also ruled out placing Elizabeth with the child's father, who is dying of cancer and from whom Williams has been separated since shortly after Elizabeth's birth. Williams's elderly parents are also too ill to care for the girl.
Last fall Williams met Bill, 50, and Paulette, 39, through a Baltimore church. The couple had served as foster parents to numerous HIV-positive children in their native New Jersey. When Bill, a computer technician, was transferred to Maryland in 1991, they began looking for an AIDS family to live with them. "I thought if the offer came, if the family were interested in taking us, I wouldn't dawdle around," says Williams. "I've never had any misgivings about Bill and Paulette."
Elizabeth, who has suffered from chronic rashes and ear infections but who has not developed full-blown AIDS, understands that her mother is sick. She has slowly built a bond with Paulette and Bill. For Williams, who has been in and out of the hospital several times this spring, learning to let go has been both a trial and a relief. "I feel bad about leaving her. As much as I love her, I won't be there for her," she says. "Everyone calls for their mom when they're sick. She won't have that. But I know that Paulette and Bill will keep my memory alive for her."
The solution for a Florida mother: separating her two children
When Sophie Newman of Pompano Beach, Fla., was seven months pregnant with her second child, she complained to her obstetrician about a while fungus that had developed in her mouth. The doctor diagnosed thrush, a bacterial infection commonly associated with AIDS, and urged Newman to be tested. A week later she learned that she was HIV positive.
For Newman, 41, discovering her HIV status was the beginning of a devastating series of events. Unsure how long she had been infected (she had been sexually involved with an IV drug user years earlier and received a blood transfusion after a car accident in 1980), she decided to have her daughter, Lauren, then 6, tested. Lauren, too, proved to be HIV positive. "You can't explain the feeling," says Newman of her reaction.
The only good news came when her son Zachary was born 10 weeks later. Although he tested HIV positive at birth, he converted to HIV negative after 18 months when his own antibodies replaced his mother's. Happy with the knowledge that her son, now 3, was healthy, Newman began the unsettling task of finding adoptive families for him and his sister, now 9. Their fathers were out of the picture; she stopped seeing Lauren's years ago. As for Zachary's father, she says, "I have no idea where he is or what he's doing. These are my kids. These are my babies."
Newman's parents, Herbert, 65, a retired trucker, and Bernice, 61, a toll supervisor for the Florida Turnpike, agreed to take Lauren but told Sophie that the prospect of caring for both an HIV-positive child and a toddler was too overwhelming. "They live in a one-bedroom condo," says Sophie. "Grandpa is home, but he can't handle dealing with a 3-year-old."
So Newman turned to her best friend, Andrea While, who lives nearby. For four years White, 37, a scheduler for a home nursing agency, and her husband, John, 42, an information operator for Southern Bell, had been trying to have a second child. Like Newman, Andrea is white; like Zachary's father. John is African-American.
"I was trying to keep my children from being separated, but at this point I have no choice," says Newman. "Nobody is going to take care of Lauren the way her grandmother is. And Andrea and Johnny have been together for 15 years. They have a house, they have a daughter. They're an interracial couple who want a son. I'm giving them one."
Sophie and her children see the Whites often, and John has already performed such surrogate dad duties as taking Zachary for his first haircut. "That was cool," says White.
For now, Newman and her children continue to live, somewhat precariously, in a neat two-bedroom rental home. Newman has been hospitalized once with an undiagnosed fever, suffers from severe headaches and is tired all the time. Despite her poor health, she cherishes every day. "My children keep me alive," she says. "Zachary looks at me sometimes and says, 'Mommy, don't cry.' " But she does.
MARY H.J. FARRELL, CYNTHIA SANZ, SUSAN K. REED and MICHAEL NEIL
BARBARA SANDLER in Chicago, VICKI SHEFF-CAHAN in Los Angeles, ROCHELLE JONES in Maryland and MEG GRANT and DON SIDER in Florida
- Contributors:
- Barbara Sandler,
- Vicki Sheff-Cahan,
- Rochelle Jones,
- Meg Grant,
- Don Sider.
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The life of Steve Jobs
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Where They See Freeloaders, I See Hungry Children: Hunger Awareness MonthCecily Kellogg
I was four or five. Still small enough to ride in the front of the grocery cart at the store, which I loved and my mother probably loved because it kept me corralled. We finished our week's shopping, our small groceries barely covering the bottom of the cart.
My mom was putting our purchase on the counter for the cashier when she pulled out a cheap cut of steak, two days past its "sell by" date and on sale for less than a dollar. Then my mom pulled out her wallet and readied her foot stamps, the bright pieces of paper obvious to anyone who looks at them.
The woman behind us in line looked at the counter, looked and my mom's hand with the food stamps, sniffed, and said, "Well, I wish the government was buying ME steak."
My mother was utterly humiliated.
I've told this story many times before, so I apologize for telling it again. But this year, one of the biggest gutting of the food stamp program ever has happened, and I'm terrified for those families who live like my mom and I did in the early '70s. My mom was working, too at a minimum wage job. She earned $210 a month. $150 was rent. $30 was for bills and gas for our VW Beetle. That left her $20 a month to feed us with, and buy things like shampoo if the car didn't break down, if I didn't need new clothes, if if if.
We would have starved without food stamps to feed us.
I thought of this when I read about Dustin Rigby of Tennessee, called a "reluctant user of food stamps" in a recent New York Times article. And Tarnisha Adams who had to leave her job because of cancer. They both eat only once a day so their children have enough to eat and Mr. Rigby hunts to supplement his food supply.
Do you think it's healthy for a cancer patient to eat once a day? I don't, and I'll bet medical professionals would back me up.
The reality is this: you cannot feed a family on a full-time minimum wage job. Even McDonald's had to admit this fact when they published their infamous "budget" for their employees, showing how even a single person couldn't truly support themselves on minimum wage; they were required to have two jobs to meet the very low month income needed to survive.
What if you have multiple children? What if you're caring for an elderly parent? How, exactly, does a parent work full-time at more than one job and parent or even afford day care?
And if you say, "Well, they shouldn't have had kids then" I'm going to have to come over there and flick you unless you have some sort of magical life-management powers that you can share with everyone.
Here are the stats you should know about food stamps (from Feeding America, and SNAP is the food stamp program).
76% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households receive 83% of all SNAP benefits.[i]
SNAP eligibility is limited to households with gross income of no more than 130% of the federal poverty guideline, but the majority of households have income well below the maximum: 83% of SNAP households have gross income at or below 100% of the poverty guideline ($19,530 for a family of 3 in 2013), and these households receive about 91% of all benefits. 61% of SNAP households have gross income at or below 75% of the poverty guideline ($14,648 for a family of 3 in 2013).[ii]
The average SNAP household has a gross monthly income of $744; net monthly income of $338 after the standard deduction and, for certain households, deductions for child care, medical expenses, and shelter costs; and countable resources of $331, such as a bank account.[iii]
I know some people are sneering at this. "Food stamps are for freeloaders. There is rampant abuse of the system."
Stop right there. Feeding America has something to say to you.
- Given SNAP's exceptional efficiency, it is simply not possible to achieve significant savings without directly impacting participants. About 95 percent of federal SNAP spending goes directly to benefits and the remaining spending covers important services like employment and training services that help participants move from welfare to work, nutrition education that empowers individuals to make healthy choices on a limited budget, and federal oversight and trafficking prevention for the roughly 200,000 retail stores that accept SNAP benefits.[xiii]
So, this September, in honor of Hunger Awareness month, pick up the phone and call your congressional representatives and tell them to fund SNAP. Send an email. A letter. Hell, send a carrier pigeon.
Because these aren't freeloaders. They are families, with hungry children. We are too rich a country to let children go hungry. Come on now.


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Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE:D)
Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
July 31, 2009 10:00 am ET
Greg Snyder – Director, IR
Mark McGettrick – CFO
Tom Farrell – Chairman, President and CEO
Gary Sypolt – CEO, Dominion Energy
Hugh Wynne -- Sanford Bernstein
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Andrew Wessel [ph] -- Macquarie Capital
Greg Gordon -- Morgan Stanley
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Dan Eggers -- Credit Suisse
Good morning and welcome to Dominion's second quarter earnings conference call. On the call today we have Tom Farrell, CEO; and other members of senior management.
Greg Snyder
Good morning and welcome to Dominion's second quarter earnings conference call. During this call, we will refer to certain schedules included in this morning's earnings release and pages from our second quarter earnings release kit. Schedules in the earnings release are intended to answer the more detailed questions pertaining to operating statistics and accounting.
Investor Relations will be available after the call for any clarification of these schedules. While we encourage you to call with questions in the time permitted after our prepared remarks we ask that you use the time to address questions of a strategic nature or those related to third quarter 2009 guidance or 2010 outlook. If you have not done so, I encourage you to visit our Web site, register for e-mail alert and view our second quarter 2009 earnings documents.
Our Web site is www.dom.com/investors. In addition to the earnings release, we also have added a slide presentation that will guide this morning's discussion that can be accessed through our Web site.
And now, for the usual cautionary language. The earnings release and other matters that will be discussed on the call today may contain forward-looking statements and estimates that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our SEC filings, including the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, for a discussion of factors that may cause results to differ from management's projections, forecasts, estimates, and expectations.
Also on this call, we will discuss some measures about our company's performance that differ from those recognized by GAAP. Those measures include our third quarter and full year 2009 operating earnings guidance and our outlook for 2010, as well as operating earnings before interest and tax, commonly referred to as EBIT. Reconciliation of such measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures we are able to calculate and report are contained in our earnings release kit.
I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Mark McGettrick.
Mark McGettrick
Thank you, Greg, and good morning everyone. Joining me on the call this morning is our CEO Tom Farrell; and recently appointed heads of our principal business units, Dave Christian from Dominion Generation; Gary Sypolt from Dominion Energy; and Paul Koonce, who moved from Dominion Energy to lead Dominion Virginia Power.
Tom Farrell will update you on regulatory proceedings and other operational and strategic issues following my overview of second quarter financial results, third quarter operating earnings guidance, and our revised outlook for 2010. We will then be happy to answer your questions.
Dominion had a strong second quarter. Operating earnings were $0.68 per share, $0.02 above the upper end of our quarterly guidance range. We were also able to add to our 2010 hedge positions at levels that support our operating earnings outlook.
In addition, we added to our 2011 Millstone and natural gas production hedge positions, which is consistent with our stated strategy of averaging in hedges for these assets over time. We have also completed nearly all of our 2009 financing needs with several successful transactions last quarter. You can find a complete reconciliation of operating earnings compared to quarterly guidance on pages 33 to 39 of the earnings release kit.
GAAP earnings were $0.76 per share for the second quarter. The major difference between GAAP and operating earnings was related to a downward revision in our nuclear decommissioning asset retirement obligation for Millstone Unit One. A reconciliation of GAAP to operating earnings can be found on Schedules 2 and 3 of the earnings release kit.
Now I'll review the second quarter operating results for our individual business units. The details of these results are also included in your earnings release kit. I'll begin with Dominion Virginia Power.
Second quarter 2009 EBIT for Dominion Virginia Power was near the midpoint of our guidance range. Kilowatt hour sales were down 2% from the second quarter of 2008. While lower than last year, these results compare favorably with the Mid-Atlantic region, where power demand was down about 6% for the quarter, and the country as a whole, where demand was down about 5%. Offsetting the sales decline were higher electric rate rider and military privatization revenues.
Although sales to industrial customers continue to be down compared to last year, weather adjusted sales to residential and commercial customers have held up well. Last quarter we told you that our earnings sensitivity was about $0.035 per share less than we originally forecasted for 2009 if the sales variance experienced in the first quarter were to carry through for the remainder of the year. Using that same logic to the second quarter, the sensitivity for the remainder of the year has declined to less than $0.02 per share.
Second quarter EBIT for Dominion Energy was in the upper half of our guidance range. Higher than expected transportation and storage revenues as well as sales of other products and services at gas transmission were key contributors to the strong performance.
Finally, at Dominion Generation, second quarter EBIT was also in the upper half of our guidance range. Strong performance was driven by lower than expected planned outage and O&M expenses in our regulated generation fleet and higher than expected margins in our merchant fleet. Overall, we are very pleased with our operating results for the second quarter.
Now, moving to cash flow and treasury activities. Cash from operations was $425 million in the second quarter and $1.9 billion for the first six months of the year. Cash flow has exceeded our expectations and has had a positive impact on our financing needs. Some of the strength in cash flow is from sources that are temporary in nature, such as a recovery of a significant amount of our deferred fuel balance. Liquidity was also very strong at $3.8 billion. For statements of cash flow and liquidity, please see pages 17 and 53 of our earnings release kit.
We successfully completed the number of financing transactions during the quarter. We raised $685 million through an offering of hybrid securities targeted toward retail investors. The rating agencies impute an equity credit equivalent of at least 50% of the principal amount of these securities.
We also raised $350 million through our Virginia Power ten-year senior notes offering. We were extremely pleased to see the extent to which credit spreads had improved, tightening from over 400 basis points at the height of the financial market crisis to just 138 basis points when we issued these notes. When you combine with the benefits of a pre-issuance hedge, our 5% coupon was reduced to an effective interest rate of 4.27% for this 10-year debt.
We entered into pre-issuance hedges on treasury rates earlier this year at very attractive levels for the vast majority of our anticipated debt issuance for 2009 and 2010. Also, the percentage of debt tied to variable rates is much lower than our target because of our low levels of commercial paper outstanding. For that reason, we entered into fixed floating swaps on $500 million of our fixed rate debt to capitalize on the significant initial positive carry and take advantage of our view that short-term rates will remain at relatively low levels in the near term.
Our equity needs are largely satisfied for the year and are very modest for 2010. We reported on our last call that we had raised $250 million of equity from external sources. The only equity left for the balance of the year is a modest amount from our dividend reinvestment and direct stock purchase plans.
In 2010, we expect to raise $250 million from the automatic issuance plans and only need about $150 million from market issuances. For the balance of this year, our financing plans include $500 million to $800 million of debt at Dominion. If cash flow continues to remain strong, we expect to come in at the low end of that range.
Now to the third quarter and our outlook for 2009 and 2010, Dominion expects third quarter 2009 operating earnings in the range of $0.88 to $0.93 per share, compared to operating earnings of $0.94 per share in the third quarter of 2008. Complete details of the company's third quarter 2009 guidance can be found on pages 40 to 46 of Dominion's earnings release kit.
Favorable drivers in our forecast for the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2008 include the impact of changes to base rates, revenues from the Cove Point expansion project, and a lower effective income tax rate.
Unfavorable factors again relative to the third quarter of 2008 include the effects of mild weather in July, higher interest expense, and lower gas and oil production in the company's E&P operations resulting from the expiration of overriding royalty interest associated with former VPP agreements.
While annual guidance is based on the assumption of normal weather, the weather in July was milder than normal in Virginia, as it was in much of the Eastern half of the country. We do not yet have the final sales figures for the month. However, we believe that assuming normal weather for the rest of the quarter, our results will fall within our guidance range.
In addition, we experienced an unplanned outage at Millstone Unit Two in July. The unit had been running at 100% capacity factor for the year and even with this outage, our nuclear fleet should still meet its targeted availability for the year. The costs of this outage are also included in our third quarter guidance range.
With our strong results for the first half of the year, and our forecast for the third quarter, we are able to affirm our 2009 operating earnings guidance of $3.20 to $3.30 per share.
Let me turn to 2010. While it is certainly possible for us to earn within our original range, we think it is prudent at this time to update our operating earnings outlook for 2010 from a range of $3.33 to $3.50 per share to a range of $3.20 to $3.40 per share. While the economy is showing signs of stabilizing, the timing and strength of economic recovery along with its impact on commodity prices and financing costs remains uncertain at this time.
Tom Farrell will discuss in more detail our pending request for higher base rates for Virginia Power.
We have updated our filing to comply with two recent commission rulings and a number of other issues. Our updated outlook for 2010 incorporates a range of potential outcomes from these factors as well as our ability to manage operating expenses.
Many of the questions we get about our operating earnings outlook relate to hedging and commodity prices. Our 2010 outlook still incorporates a range of natural gas prices of $6.75 to $7.25 per million BTU.
Since our last earnings call on April 30th, we have taken steps to reduce our sensitivity to 2010 commodity prices. We have been able to transact at levels that support our outlook even in a generally bearish commodity market. We have added to our 2010 hedge positions for Millstone, our New England fossil assets, and natural gas production. As was the case in our previous activity, the timing of these new hedges was weighted toward the first half of the year.
The current low power price environment in New England has enabled us to make market purchases during certain times of the day to meet existing power hedges at similar margins, allowing us to bank very low cost coal for consumption in 2010. This has also allowed us to postpone certain low cost coal deliveries into 2010.
The result for us is a below market cost of coal for 2010. That in turn enables us to capture spark spreads from these new hedges that are consistent with the commodity price view that is incorporated in our operating earnings outlook. This highlights our flexibility in achieving our hedging targets. Overall, our sensitivity to $1 move in natural gas prices in 2010 is now only about $0.11, down from $0.15 per share in April.
Although the range of natural gas prices reflected in our 2010 outlook is above current forward market levels, we have reasons to be somewhat optimistic about the recovery of prices as the economy begins to grow. Those of you who follow the market know that the rig count is down about 60% from its peak.
We are beginning to see the effects of this in the reports on domestic production. Gas prices could decline even further near term as storage inventories reach record levels and restrictions are imposed by system operators. As a result, the rig count may continue its downward trend short-term until gas prices begin to rise. It will likely take a fairly sustained price signal above current market prices to support a resumption of the level of drilling that is necessary to offset domestic production decline rates, meet demand, and fill storage next year.
On the other hand, should the current recession extend beyond 2009, we should expect natural gas prices to remain lower. However, in this scenario, we would also expect to continue to experience less inflation in non fuel O&M expenses and lower cost borrowing costs than we have included in our outlook. There will undoubtedly continuing opportunities to arbitrage between commodities as long as there is volatility in the marketplace.
Also, the hedges we have put in place for 2010 tend to be weighted toward the first half of the year. This provides greater protection during the recession extending into next year, while still providing the opportunity to participate in the upside later next year as the economy gains strength.
As we have said before, it is important to examine the dynamics of our entire business model when estimating Dominion's future earnings prospects rather than focusing on a single isolated sensitivity. I will now turn the call over to Tom Farrell for an update on operational, regulatory, and strategic issues.
Tom Farrell
Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us. As I have done in our previous calls, I will begin with a brief update on our safety and operational performance. Safety has been and will continue to be one of our core values. I am pleased to report that across every one of our business units, measures of safety performance improved in the second quarter over the prior quarter and over the same period last year.
Dominion includes operational excellence as another core value. During the second quarter, our nuclear fleet achieved a net capacity factor, excluding refueling outages, of 100%.
We completed a refueling outage at Suri Unit One in 23 days, a station and fleet record. As of July 3rd, Millstone Unit Two had been online for 368 days when it had to shut down to repair a small leak in the reactor cooling system. It returned to service last week. We still expect our nuclear fleet to meet its full year operational expectations. Operations at our coal and combined cycle merchant plants were also excellent during the quarter, with an equivalent forced outage rate of 3.9%.
Dominion Energy also had a strong quarter. On April 1, Dominion Transmission began providing storage service from its 4.4 Bcf USA storage project and placed the Cove Point expansion project into commercial service. DTI achieved a year-to-date reliability rate of 99.8% at its Hastings extraction plant and delivered 7% more wet gas volume this second quarter compared to the same quarter last year.
Our E&P team drilled 103 wells in the second quarter and 165 wells in the first half of the year, without a single dry hole. Well costs have declined 15% this year and are down about 25% since this time last year. Our second quarter 2009 lifting costs have declined by 7% to $1.26 per Mcfe from $1.35 a year ago. Our DD&A rate has also dropped but by 29% from last year to $1.39 per Mcfe from $1.97, all of these excluding VPP volumes.
At Virginia Power, we reduced our average minutes out, excluding major storms, to 114 minutes for the rolling 12 months ending June 2009 from 120 minutes at the end of the first quarter. We also improved our response time on customer calls and made several improvements in our ability to respond to customer inquiries.
We continue to make progress on our infrastructure growth projects. In our regulated Virginia Power fleet, we added another 24 megawatts in May through upgrades at one of our peaking facilities.
Since September 2007, we have added 784 megawatts of capacity as part of our Powering Virginia growth plan. We commenced construction of the Bear Garden power station on April 1. The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center is now over one-third complete. Both projects are on schedule and on budget. As you recall, both projects earn enhanced rates of return.
On the merchant side, as of May, all of the chiller system upgrades as Fairless Works were complete. This added 60 megawatts to the station's capacity in the second quarter, bringing the total upgrades completed over the last year to 120 megawatts. We also began construction on one of our major environmental projects, the addition of two natural direct cooling towers at our Brayton Point generating station.
On the nuclear front, we are pleased with the interest and participation of the vendors in the first comprehensive competitive solicitation for a new nuclear unit by a utility company in the United States. We have been talking to a number of vendors since January and have received six proposals in response to the RFP we made in March. We are currently evaluating these and anticipate making a decision by the end of the year.
In the renewable growth arena, Dominion has reached an agreement with BP Wind Energy to split the development assets of Phase II of the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm. Dominion will develop 15 megawatts of additional wind capacity at the site and BP will retain the remaining 200 megawatts. We expect to close that transaction in the fourth quarter.
We began construction on our Meadowbrook-to-Loudoun 500kV transmission line, which is part of our $900 million transmission enhancement program over the next two years. We have installed over 91 structures and 15 miles of 500kV conductor. We also began clearing the Carson to Suffolk line. Both of these projects, which also earn enhanced rates of return, are on schedule for completion in 2011. Finally, on July 16, we received an order from FERC authorizing the upgrade, modification, and expansion of the Cove Point pier.
Now, a few comments on our regional economy. The health and direction of the nation's economy continues to be of major concern to everyone. Last quarter we told you that because of the low industrial concentration in our service territory, Dominion's earnings are much less sensitive to changes in the economy than they are to the effects of weather. We also benefit from the stable revenues from the unusually high governmental and military presence throughout our service territory.
Weather normalized regulated electric sales for the second quarter were down 2% over the second quarter of 2008 because of lower industrial demand, but regulated electric based revenue was down only 0.5%. Revenues actually increased nearly 2% when you include the impact of rider revenue from our growth projects. So while Dominion has been affected by the economic downturn, its impact has been mitigated by our customer mix and the relative economic strength of our service territory, particularly when compared to other companies.
Also on our first quarter call, we told you there were signs that the Virginia economy had hit bottom. That is still the case. Unemployment, which nationally was 9.7% in June, on its way certainly above 10%, was only 7.3% in Virginia as a whole and just 6.7% in our service territory. New connects for the first half of the year were 14,665, which is on pace with our annual forecast of about 30,000. A recent CNBC survey ranked Virginia as the number one state in the nation doing business in 2009, the second time in the three years of this survey. We believe as we exit this year we will see increasing weather normalized sales and continued revenue growth at Virginia Power.
I want to update you on the progress in our various regulatory proceedings. As we told you in last quarter's call, we filed the base rate case seeking the first such increase in Virginia in 17 years, along with our annual fuel case, riders for our Virginia City and Bear Garden generating plants, and an electric transmission rider.
Earlier this week, we filed two additional riders to capture costs plus return on investment and a margin on O&M expenses associated with the demand side management and smart metering programs. We are moving to secure up to $200 million in funding from the Federal stimulus plan for these investments. I'll address each of these proceedings separately.
First, on June 29, the Commission approved the electric transmission rider with a $68 million annual increase effective on September 1. The ruling required us to move about $10 million of the requested revenues to base rates from the transmission rider. Somewhat related, we will be posting our 2010 annual electric transmission rate with PJM on September 15.
This FERC approved formula rate methodology is forward-looking and has a true-up provision to ensure the full recovery of cost. It is filed each year to keep revenues and earnings on pace with what we expect to be substantial additional investment in infrastructure as well as NERC related compliance capital and O&M expense.
Second, in the fuel case, the company along with Virginia's consumer counsel asked the commission to reschedule the evidentiary hearing from July 16. The motion was granted and the hearing was rescheduled to September 1 to allow more time to resolve overlapping issues between the fuel case and the company's pending base rate case and rate adjustment clauses. Customers' bills were reduced by $3.64 per megawatt hour on July 1 in accordance with our request.
Third, the State Corporation Commission ruled on two matters related to the company's base rate filing. On June 29 the commission ruled that the rate period for evaluating the cost of service will be the 12 months beginning September 1, 2009 through August 31, 2010. While this differed from the 27-month period contained in the company's original filing, it confirmed the commission will use a forward-looking test period to set base rates.
On July 14, the Commission ruled that the company's capital structure as of December 31, 2008 is to be used in computing its overall cost of capital and revenue requirements. The company's original filing used the estimated cap structure as of December 31, 2010, reflecting the approximate midpoint of the rate period that was filed.
Commission held that the 2007 law requires the use of an end of period capital structure for this initial base rate case only. The law grants the commission discretion to select the capital structure other than in the test year in all future biannual reviews.
Last Friday the company filed an amended application that complies with both of these rulings while preserving our objections. The revenue increase requested in the amended filing is about $40 million lower than the original filing. In September, we will implement the base rate increase which we are requesting.
Finally, hearings in West Virginia and Pennsylvania on the pending sales of Peoples and Hope are scheduled for August. We expect approvals in time for closing by year-end.
As Mark mentioned earlier, we are updating our operating earnings outlook for 2010, lowering the range a little bit below 4% from $3.33 to $3.50 per share to a range of $3.20 to $3.40 per share.
Our 2010 commitment to achieve a 55% dividend payout ratio remains unchanged. The new outlook incorporates a range of potential outcomes from the base rate case as well as the timing and strength of the economic recovery, electric load growth, and changes in commodity prices.
Unfortunately, despite Virginia's relative strength, the recovery of the overall economy remains uncertain. When we provided our 2010 outlook in January, our expectation was that the overall economy would begin to see some improvements in the second half of this year. It is no longer clear that, that will be the case. It now appears that significant improvement will not occur until 2010.
Taking all of these factors into account, we are confident in affirming our 2009 guidance and in our revised 2010 outlook. We will be in a position to provide further details on the impact of the rate case on our operating earnings outlook after we receive a final order. Consistent with our past practice, we plan to provide earnings guidance for 2010 and our outlook for 2011 at the beginning of next year.
Let me finish by giving you my thoughts on one of the major issues facing our industry at the moment, the prospects for enacting a Federal legislation on climate change.
As most of you know, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, otherwise known as Waxman-Markley, was passed by the House with a seven vote margin. Comparable legislation is currently being considered in the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain. One thing we do know is this legislation if enacted will have a profound impact on virtually every sector of our economy.
For those of you who may not have read the 1,200 plus pages, the Bill passed by the House imposes energy efficiency standards on homes, commercial buildings, and appliances. It requires the purchase of emissions credits to drive your car, operate your business, or conduct any activity that involves the production or consumption of energy. It creates a host of new federal, state, and local authorities that will oversee the implementation of these regulations.
The Waxman-Markley bill sets a cap on carbon emissions that is 3% below 2005 levels by 2012. This may sound like a relatively easy target to achieve. But CO2 emissions have been growing about 1% per year and are expected to be about 7% higher than 2005 levels by 2012. This makes the actual reduction from a business as usual case more like a 10% cut. There's not a lot this nation can do with its generating fleet between now and then except burn a lot more natural gas instead of coal.
And as I am sure you are aware, the cap continues to decline, limiting emissions to 17% by 2020 and ultimately 80% below 2005 levels by 2050. As challenging as this may seem, the Bill that passed the House was a significant improvement over the Bill that was originally introduced in the Energy and Commerce Committee in terms of its potential impact on the electric power industry and its customers.
Thanks to the leadership of Congressman Rick Boucher from Virginia, a number of changes were made to the Bill that mitigated some of the near term impact on electricity customers.
The Edison Electric Institute, working with Mr. Boucher's office was able to craft a program where a significant percentage of the emissions allowances are allocated to local distribution companies to help their customers offset the higher electricity costs, should this Bill become law. There is also an allocation of allowances to merchant coal generators based on an estimate of the emissions costs that would not be recoverable through market prices. EEI and its members are working to make further improvements to the Bill.
Looking ahead, I am frankly not sure if the Bill will make it through the Senate or not, especially this year. One possible alternative to a comprehensive climate change Bill is a standalone renewable and energy efficiency program. In the end, legislative initiatives to combat climate change will present significant challenges for the electric industry, our company, our customers, and our investors. Thank you and we are now ready for your questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
(Operator instructions). Our first question comes from Hugh Wynne with Sanford Bernstein.
Tom Farrell
Good morning, Wayne.
Hugh Wynne -- Sanford Bernstein
Good morning. Wonder if you could help me understand a little bit the premises for the 2010 revised guidance. I understand that we're cutting the earnings growth outlook from 4% to 6% to 0% to 3%, partly reflecting the expected outcome of the Dutco [ph] rate case, partly reflecting the level of gas prices. You're assuming $6.75 gas to $7.25 gas if I heard you correctly. And I also understand from your disclosures that you are about 60% hedged with respect to your power sales in New England. So I guess the first part of my question is why this relatively high expected gas price, let's say $7 on average, relative to the forward strip of $6? And then secondly, if you perhaps could elaborate a little bit on the expected impact of the Dutco rate case on the earnings outlook for next year?
Mark McGettrick
Hugh, this is Mark. Let me take first part of that. In terms of the commodity price outlook, even in the second quarter of this year, gas prices approached the bottom of our range and bumped up on the $6.75. And we were able to take advantage of that both on coal and gas and a few Millstone hedges. We mentioned a number of times that we protected ourselves on the front end of 2010. And so based on the production information we see out there, we think it's still a reasonable assumption that gas could get into $6.75 to $7.25 range next year. Now granted, that may occur later in the year than what we originally thought and that's why we've been protecting ourselves on the front end. But we still believe that $6.75 to $7.25 is going to occur in 2010. And if it does so that our open positions at the end of next year will take advantage of that.
As far as the rate case, we considered the rate case, we considered commodity prices, and we considered what our view was on financing cost next year and what our opportunities might be on expense costs. And in aggregate, we decided it was prudent at this time to adjust our range. Even though as I said in the text, it is certainly possible we could still reach the old range depending what the outcome is along all those lines. On the rate case, our range assumes a range of potential outcomes from the regulatory proceeding, which we don't know exactly what they will be, but we tried to reflect orders to-date in a range and what we think are reasonable outcomes going forward. We also mentioned 0% to 3% in terms of growth rate, that really is going to depend on where we come in this year, so I don't know how your math worked, but that growth rate again could be higher than that depending on what the final orders look like, what final commodity prices look like, and where we finish in our range for 2010.
Hugh Wynne -- Sanford Bernstein
Thanks Mark. And then I guess just to finish it off, if we do see gas prices in the second half of next year that are closer to the forward curve, the sensitivity that we should be, which is about $1 below your estimate -- sensitivity we should be using is this one on page 10 that earnings might be then $0.11 lower in 2010 for every $1 that the gas price is below this $6.75 to $7.25 range?
Mark McGettrick
Yes, I think if you look at that and as a single item which again we encourage everybody to look at it's a whole basket of opportunity that we have. But if you look at just the commodity price, I think it would be a fair assumption that if it's where it stands today, we would be at the lower end, and if it approaches the $6.75 to $7.25, we would be at the upper end.
Hugh Wynne -- Sanford Bernstein
Great. Thank you very much.
Tom Farrell
Thank you. I think we're a little bit more hedged than you listed there, Hugh, but it's all in the hedging slide on some of the assets.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Patterson with Glenrock Associates.
Tom Farrell
Good morning, Paul.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Good morning. Just on the coal arbitrage that you mentioned being able to buy power and stockpile cheap coal, what's the financial impact of that in '09 and '010? I'm sorry if I missed that.
Mark McGettrick
The financial impact in 2009 is immaterial. Paul, what we've been able to do is 24/7 prices at NEPOOL in the second quarter have been running in the $30 to $35 range, well below what our dispatch cost is for some of our marginal coal plants, namely at Salem. And so what we've done is we've been able to cover our hedges out of Salem and be able to bank coal to move it in 2010. This is a very low priced coal, and also to shift some deliveries from '09 to '010 as well. So the impact on '09 is immaterial, and on '010 what is allows us to do is to affect margins and dark spreads in the range of the $6.75 to $7.25 that we mentioned previously.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Okay. So I guess I mean that goes back to Hugh's question. I'm trying to get a sense as to how much this coal arbitrage is helping out in 2010 on a dollar basis?
Mark McGettrick
We're not going to give a dollar figure for our coal margins, and we never have before. What I would encourage you to look at again is that as we made these hedges our statement was they supported our outlook of $6.75 to $7.25, so that's consistent with what our range would be. And the open positions are really just what our exposure is left.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Okay. Then just on rate case, I know you guys increased the ROE expectation there because of the higher leverage and I was just wondering what other factors might have -- I mean, I realize that you decreased it by $40 million, but it would seem to me that maybe there are other factors that could be influencing the revised filing to bring it in at $250 million. Could you give us a little bit more flavor? I would assume maybe $10 million of that is from the transmission. Are there any large components that are driving that?
Mark McGettrick
Paul, you hit two of the three. The third one was the bad debt exposure gone up a little bit. I think its $6 million number in that range that we also added to update the case. It's those three components that put you to $250 million from what had been just about I think it was $287 million or number like that, just below $290 million.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Right. The Bear Garden, some of the staff was suggesting that part of that go into base rates. That is not in this filing; correct?
Tom Farrell
That's correct. I think that position is untenable. But we will file shortly another document that says if it turns out that's correct, which like I said, we don't believe it is, then we'll transfer those funds, that recovery just to the base rate case. It won't make any difference overall in what happens, I mean, the staff testimony says it should be recovering base rates instead of the rider. We think it's more appropriately recovered in the rider.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Just finally, the ARO benefit, what happened there?
Mark McGettrick
ARO is the calculated benefit for the decommissioning trust in terms of liability expense, and periodically companies update that based on best estimates today, structure of decommissioning going forward, and I guess we're a little fortunate there, Paul, is that Unit One at Millstone is in the early stages of decommissioning. So we have much better actual cost on what it may cost going forward and probably are a little further along than some other companies in terms of plans on decommissioning. So we update our cost estimates and took a one-time reduction below the line to reflect what we think are the current expected costs to finish decommissioning for Unit One.
Paul Patterson -- Glenrock Associates
Okay. Great. Thanks a lot, guys.
Tom Farrell
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Wessel [ph] with Macquarie Capital.
Andrew Wessel -- Macquarie Capital
Hi, good morning. Another question on the hedging activity. You mentioned that you expect downward pressure on natural gas in the near-term. We agree with that view. So I understand that the 2010 hedges are weighted toward the first half of the year. But if that's the case, why not add more hedges for 2009? If you expect a recovery around mid-year 2010, why add hedges on 2011 output now? How would you describe your view on gas in 2011?
Tom Farrell
Well, first, in 2009 we're almost completely hedged anyway for the rest of the year for our assets. We have a small open position at Millstone but we're comfortable, that's about as far as we want to go for hedging. In terms of 2011, we did put some hedges in recently for 2011, and it really goes back to we're not a big risk taker here. We're going to average in our hedges and not keep huge open positions going into any calendar year. We typically have done that over a three year period and we're going to continue with that philosophy. Now depending what our view is it might be a little slower or a little quicker depending on where we're going into a year. But we felt the positions we had in 2011, we wanted to start closing those and we thought the hedge price we had out there, which I think the average is about $72 on power as you look at what we put in place are fair on averaging basis. Our view that gas price is going to rise, it's just do nothing but increase that price in terms of the average basis as we go forward. But it's really the risk profile that we want. We want to balance that and average in over time.
Andrew Wessel -- Macquarie Capital
Okay. Great. And then just one last question on the 2010 guidance. You mentioned operating expense control; can you elaborate or quantify some of the key moving parts there relative to your previous expectations?
Tom Farrell
We will get into the details of the operating expense and our other opportunities in January when we talk about more specifically on guidance. I guess what I would mention to you is we have $3.3 billion in operating expenses. And we're going to look closely what our opportunities might be to optimize those over the next couple years if there are any.
Andrew Wessel -- Macquarie Capital
Terrific. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Greg Gordon with Morgan Stanley. (Operator instructions). Go ahead, Mr. Gordon.
Greg Gordon -- Morgan Stanley
Good morning, gentlemen.
Tom Farrell
Good morning, Greg.
Greg Gordon -- Morgan Stanley
When I look at the guidance, the range of gas price assumptions now is the same as it was in your prior guidance, and you're saying that you've been able to optimize your fuel position for next year. So should I presume that the actual outlook as you see it embedded in the guidance, at least for the merchant business, is the same? Or is it that heat rates are lower in your outlook now or some other thing is driving lower expected margins in that business, vis-à-vis the lower guidance?
Mark McGettrick
I think the assumption should be it's the same. Again, if the actual gas prices and correlating power prices turn out to be lower than what the $6.75 to $7.25 is, that would drive us more toward the bottom. And if it lands in that range, we should be middle to the top.
Greg Gordon -- Morgan Stanley
Great. I understand that. So then the change in the guidance really relates more to changes in the assumed outcome in Virginia and financial market conditions and expense control, the other items you delineated on page 10 of your presentation; right?
Tom Farrell
Greg, I think it's all of the factors. As we said in our script, certainly, it is certainly possible that we could earn in that original forecast that we gave in January. The economy though seems to be bouncing along a bottom for an extended period, although I believe you all study things all across the country much more closely than we do. Our service territory here in Virginia compared to many is I guess you can't call anything robust, but in a relative manner it is. And that will continue. But as we were looking out we want to try to give you our best thinking when we have it about what's going to happen in 2010. We've hedged some more Millstone. It's now at 60%. The coal assets in New England are now at 65% for 2010. Mark mentioned to you that have over $3 billion in non-fuel O&M expense at the company. We made some O&M cuts as we entered this year against what our budget was. We have other opportunities if necessary. Our interest expense if we stay in a recession for a longer period of time is going to be lower than is in the forecast. We're hopeful is that people will look at all of the variables that we have, things we can control in a positive way, and things we can't control. It's when you take all those factors into account that we think it was prudent at this stage to give a forecast for next year that reflects all of those factors.
Greg Gordon -- Morgan Stanley
Great. Okay. Thank you.
Tom Farrell
Thank you, Greg.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Nathan Judge with Atlantic Equities.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Good morning. Wanted to ask a bit on demand and the impact of weather. I know you've reduced or taken some type of adjustment for your outlook on July weather. Unfortunately, the sun hasn't shown much. Can you just give us an idea of what that weather were to continue into August, what kind of impact that would have and what your now forecast looks like for demand for the rest of the year?
Tom Farrell
The weather forecast for August are normal and the same for September so we don't expect there to be any other serious deterioration, you make a lot of money around here if you get a hot week. So I can't tell you. I unfortunately can't answer that question, because it looks like weather will be normal for the balance of the quarter. But there's lots of things we can do, and we're very confident in our 2009 forecast. The sales growth at both our residential and commercial customers is flat or positive for the year-to-date and we expect that to continue. Our new connects is on our budget. July has been a good month for that. The industrial customers continue to lag. We think as the economy goes along, that will start increasing and as the new connects get into our system, we believe that we will come out of the end of the year as we've been saying since the beginning of the year; we'll exit 2009 with some positive sales growth. We do have revenue growth even in that down sales situation because of the way our regulatory system here works and our rider revenues that we're getting from the Southwest Virginia case are in rates already. The transmission increases will be in rates and our filing will be in rates. That latter part subject to refund. The other two are not subject to refund. So as we exit the year, we think we're not going to be wild growing at a really rapid pace, but we expect to have positive sales growth by the time we get to the end of the year. And I think we can handle the weather with what we've had happened so far.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Just a clarification. Can you quantify how much you reduced your expectation this year for or you made adjustments for this year related to the June or July weather?
Tom Farrell
July weather.
Mark McGettrick
Yes, Nathan, it's in our guidance kit. If you look at both Virginia Power and generation, we reduced our guidance range or I should say incorporated in our guidance range $39 million worth of EBIT to reflect lower weather in July.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Very good. Do you have a sensitivity to gas prices related to 2011?
Mark McGettrick
We do not. We're going to talk more about 2011 on our January call as we typically would.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Very good. And then just on E&P, I know you accelerated the number of wells you've drilled, and when you look at lifting cost, lifting costs have come down. But they seem to have fallen less than what a 60% decline in rig rates across the country would suggest that they maybe perhaps cost of rig rates would have fallen. Could you just give us some bit of idea of what's going on in there and your opportunities and challenges at this point?
Tom Farrell
I'm going to ask Gary Sypolt to answer that question.
Gary Sypolt
Actually, we have seen costs drop on our conventional drilling. Most of it's been tied to steel cost that hasn't been a significant drop. But when you look at it, you see that we did drop our drilling costs, you said insignificantly, we actually were fairly proud of that drop. But the drilling costs themselves in Appalachia for rigs haven't dropped significantly yet because we have seen a great decline in Appalachia, not similar to the 60% you've seen across Texas and other parts of the nation.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Okay. And you may have said this. I apologize if I've missed it. But you've made some adjustment to your base rates and fuel costs and things of this nature. Now could you just give us an idea of what the impact of the customers, net-net of all these adjustments would have been?
Tom Farrell
Well, if you looked at all of it, I guess it was originally about under a 7% increase and since there's a little bit coming out of the revenue requirement, it will be closer to 6% probably increase overall. (inaudible) when you take all of it into account.
Nathan Judge -- Atlantic Equities
Thank you.
Thank you. Our last question comes from Dan Eggers with Credit Suisse.
Dan Eggers -- Credit Suisse
Good morning. I know we spent a lot of time talking about 2010 and the new onus to hunker down in line. But if you look at the demand outlook from here, are you seeing any need to re-evaluate some of the capital programs either in absolute terms or in potentially pushing out some of the timing if demand is not as good as you originally anticipated?
Tom Farrell
No. The PJM came out just a couple of months ago and reaffirmed that Virginia still needs a lot of new power generation before we get just out over the next 10 years, over 2019. We've done 785 megawatts of upgrades already. Bear Garden is approved and under construction. The Southwest Virginia case is approved and under construction. We're looking at further expansions of Warren County for combined cycle. Also our Possum Point facility we're looking at. And we've got our new wind farms also that we're looking at in Southwest Virginia and some biomass projects.
North Anna is we're just going to have to see how these bids come out and we have to have the power in this state. It's a mandate from our legislature and I think the commission's view of that is best enunciated not by us, but by them in the Bear Garden order if you have a chance to review that, what they think the power needs are and the way they want us to go about meeting those. If North Anna turns out that we can't come up with a proposal that we're satisfied with and the commission's satisfied with on the risk sharing and the cost, then we will have to supply the power with other methods, whether it's more gas-fired plants or other means. It won't be from purchasing power out of the markets, because that is contrary to the legislative mandate and the governor's energy policy plan that was adopted last year.
On the Dominion Energy front, we are looking hard at the Appalachian Gateway project because while there is a plenty of gas in Appalachia, there is not plenty of infrastructure in Appalachia to get the gas to market. So that we will be looking at. We did an open season. It was fully subscribed at rates that we like. We have another project we're looking at in Appalachia. East Ohio, we will be doing the bare steel pipe replacements with the Cove Point Pier expansion. That project is fully subscribed to our shippers, so those costs are covered. So our transmission upgrades are going forward. They're approved, under construction. We will be filing for substantial additional funding for our transmission infrastructure, electric infrastructure, with some of the new NERC requirements, and other upgrades that are necessary. So we will trim our capital budgets as we go along, as we always do. But the demand situation in Virginia is relative to other places, still quite good.
Dan Eggers -- Credit Suisse
So separate from some economic adjustment to 2010, no change to long-term growth rates then?
Tom Farrell
That's correct.
Dan Eggers -- Credit Suisse
Okay. Thank you.
Tom Farrell
Thank you.
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Hurricane Isaac Update: Casualty Losses and Your Taxes
August 29, 2012 : Jenna Bromberg - Past Contributor
Additional reporting by Teresa L. Clark.
With Hurricane Isaac bearing down on parts of the country this week, we know many of our clients and tax offices have been or will be affected by the storm. Our partners at the American Red Cross have already deployed trained disaster workers with relief supplies, opening shelters to assist those displaced by the storm.
Affected by the storm? Here's what you need to know about casualty losses and your taxes:
If you've sustained property damage or loss, start the claims process by calling your insurance agent. Also, consult a tax professional for guidance on what types of damages qualify for casualty losses, which are tax-deductible, and how to claim the loss on a federal tax return.
The earlier insurance claims are filed, the sooner the reimbursement process can begin and your home can be restored to its pre-storm condition. Here's how that happens:
- Insurance reimbursement information is needed to accurately calculate a casualty loss claimed on a tax return
- Losses in a federal disaster area can be claimed on an original or amended tax return for the year prior to the loss to get a tax refund sooner
- IRS disaster relief, in the form of extended tax deadlines, is generally offered to taxpayers in federally declared disaster areas qualifying for individual assistance
- The IRS will waive the usual fees and expedite requests for copies of tax returns for people who need them to apply for benefits or to file amended returns claiming disaster-related losses
- H&R Block clients – even do-it-yourself filers – can visit any office to request copies of their tax returns
- Taxpayers may be able to defer taxes on any gain from insurance proceeds by replacing damaged property with a like item
- Generally, property losses not covered by insurance are tax-deductible.
If you weren't affected by the storm, Hurricane Isaac can serve as a reminder to all of us to make sure important financial documents are part of our emergency kits. The Federal Emergency Management Agency advises keeping insurance policies, deeds, property records, stocks, bonds and other critical documents in a safe deposit box. Paper copies of these documents, past tax returns and pictures/videos of valuables can be kept with disaster supplies in a fireproof, waterproof container for quick access in case of emergency. Scanning and saving these documents on a USB flash drive, CD or DVD allows for easier storage and portability. All taxpayers should ensure they have securely stashed away the tax and other financial documents they could need after a disaster strikes.
H&R Block is proud to be an American Red Cross Disaster Responder. Our donations ensure the Red Cross can respond immediately to threats like Hurricane Isaac so victims receive the help they need during and after crisis strikes. For more information on the American Red Cross disaster response or to help in your community, visit the Red Cross here.
[Image via The American Red Cross]


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- This wonderful story of a reunion between two cousins thus reuniting lots of other family is what we, as family researchers, dream about. Thank you for sharing David and DO HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME IN MARCH 2011 - it'll be spring too! cheers sonya staffolani
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Spruce budworm
Defoliation of white spruce by spruce budworm larvae is a fact of life again this summer in Region I. Larval surveys of white spruce stands in Becker, Hubbard, Beltrami and Cass Counties were carried out and completed by June 26th. Stands defoliated for each of the past five to six years were fed on again this summer. Aerial surveys carried out in July of 1996 detected spruce defoliation in Cass County just east of Cass Lake. These stands were sampled for the first time and results confirm that new infestations have taken place on spruce plantations that are twenty to thirty years old. Results of surveys indicate that defoliation is increasing in geographical distribution in Region I and also into white spruce stands situated between Region I & Region II in the Chippewa National Forest.
This defoliator of spruce and balsam continues to spread to plantations in central Minnesota. By June 25th, budworms had nearly completed feeding and causing damage to shoots, needles and next year's buds. Surveys earlier in June in northeastern and central Minnesota revealed that numbers of budworm had increased in several areas.
Fortunately, spruce and balsam can tolerate several years of heavy budworm damage before top kill and entire tree death occurs.
Silvicultural tools to manage budworm impact include harvesting of mature trees, breaking up large tracts of host trees and thinning of closely planted trees. Chemical control is most effective on isolated stands or shelterbelts of white spruce. Insecticides containing the bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, are recommended and sold as Attack, Bactospeine, Biobit, BT, Biospray, Dipel, Foray, Javelin, or Thuricide. Chemical control should be aimed at very young budworms next spring when the buds are just loosing their bud caps.
Egg mass surveys will be done later during the summer and summarized in the fall Newsletter and Annual Report.


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New Jersey has ruled against a Christian group, saying it discriminated against a lesbian couple when it barred them from using their property in 2007.
Five years ago, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association refused to allow the couple to use its boardwalk pavilion for a civil union ceremony. The venue had been advertised for weddings.
The church argued that the pavilion was an extension of its wedding ministry. But in January, a New Jersey judge rejected that argument.
On Tuesday, New Jersey Division on Civil Rights Director Craig Sashiharathe upheld that decision, saying the association violated the state's anti-discrimination law.
He said since the group that runs the pavilion receives tax breaks, anyone can use the facility.
The association lost its tax-exempt status in 2007 and stopped renting out the pavilion for weddings. It had been used for some Sunday church services and youth ministry programs.
Judge: NJ Church Illegally Banned Gay Ceremony
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A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, WHEN HE WAS going through a tough divorce, Tommy McDonald, a road-rugged trucker out of Colbert, Okla., got a little help from some unlikely friends: 22 second-grade pen pals from Brighton Elementary School in KansasviUe, Wis. "Their letters made me laugh," says McDonald. "One wrote, 'Don't worry, everything will get better.' "
McDonald, 53, earned that support through a unique program called Trucker Buddy International, which links 3,500 long-distance drivers with 100,000 inquisitive schoolkids in the U.S. (plus a few in Guam, Hungary and Japan). He and the children at Brighton Elementary, who will start fourth grade in the fall, have been corresponding since the fall of '92.
That was shortly after another trucker, Gary King, decided he would fight the monotony of the longdistance haul by writing postcards—first to U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf and then to his children's classmates in Williams Bay, Wis. When the kids wrote back, King showed their letters to other drivers at truck stops. The idea caught on instantly with fellow drivers, and Trucker Buddy was born. "It gets lonesome when you're out there on the road for a long time," says King, 49. "Being a Trucker Buddy gave me a new sense of pride in myself." King has since retired and lives in Arizona City, Ariz., from which he and wife Carol, 48, get schools and truckers together through word of mouth and trucking journals.
One of his earliest pairings put Tommy McDonald with Brighton Elementary district administrator Laurie Wright, who liked the idea of introducing "true-life experiences" into the school's geography and English lessons. "When I got that first batch of letters, I was hooked. I almost immediately started calling them my kids," says McDonald, who has two grown children of his own.
"Their writing has definitely improved," third-grade teacher Shawn Keller says of her students. So has McDonald's. Last December, the trucker took a college correspondence course in children's writing because he wanted to pen cautionary short stories for his pals. One tells the story of Charlie the fly, who (though a window is open) tries to escape McDonald's cab by banging against the windshield. The moral: People often don't see the easiest way.
The kids like the stories but appreciate most having a friend they can trust. "I always have someone to write to if there's no one around or people are being mean," says Jenna Hainey, 9, "and he won't tell your secrets."
BARBARA SANDLER in Kansasville
Precious Cargo
updated 08/07/1995 AT 01:00 AM EDT
•originally published 08/07/1995 AT 01:00 AM EDT


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A salute to the women who served
Betty LaCource of Frederick County shows a portrait of herself as a Petty Officer 1st Class in the U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARs). LaCource served from 1944-46.
Members of Girl Scout troops 40687 and 40942 of Winchester presented the colors Saturday at the beginning of the Veterans Day program honoring women who served in the military at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center. (Photo by Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star)
Bette Cossentine of Stephens City talks about her years in the U.S. Air Force from the early 1970s to 1990s and shows a formal mess dress uniform she often wore to events at a training academy were she was stationed.
WINCHESTER — For the female veterans who attended a salute to their service on Saturday at the Godfrey Miller Historic Home and Fellowship Center, it was a time for sharing.
Event coordinator Sandy…
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James Colaianni
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James F. Colaianni (born, Paterson, New Jersey, August 6, 1922) is an American Catholic lay theologian, author, publisher, lawyer and activist.
In 1939, Colaianni graduated from St. Joseph's High School in Paterson, NJ and attended Seton Hall University. Colaianni served in the US Army during World War II in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany, attaining the rank of Technical Sergeant. Following his Honorable Discharge, his subsequent anti-war convictions began to emerge.
In 1950, Colaianni married Patricia Kelly Colaianni, who serves as a senior editor of his publishing company, Sunday Sermons. They are the parents of Karen (Colaianni) Johnson, founder/director, KJPR Publicity and Artist Relations, Janice Sosebee, former radio newscaster/ now federal disaster relief worker, Pamela Colaianni (deceased), James F. Colaianni, Jr., publisher/author, Louis Colaianni, author/voice coach, and John Colianni, jazz pianist.
Colaianni was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1948, after attending John Marshall School of Law. While in law school, he coached high school basketball and won a State Championship. In the same period, he produced a series of widely publicized debates between William F. Buckley Jr. of National Review, and William Clancy of the liberal Catholic magazine, Commonweal.
He earned his master's degree in Theology from the Institute of Lay Theology (ILT), based at the University of San Francisco, in 1963. As a member of the ILT, he served as Adult Religious Education Director from 1963 to 1965 at our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic parish in Redwood City, California.
He was Managing Editor, Associate Publisher and Religion Editor of Ramparts Magazine from 1965 to 1967. In the August 1966 issue of Ramparts, Colaianni's article, "Napalm: Small Town Diary," documented resistance to the establishment of a napalm plant in Redwood City, California. This was the first article in the national press to condemn the manufacture and use of napalm in the Vietnam War. Colaianni led a protest of thousands against the use of napalm as a military weapon in Vietnam. He made national news as a spokesperson for the anti-napalm and anti-war movements, appearing on such programs as the NBC Nightly News with Walter Cronkite and the "Huntley-Brinkley Report."
Colaianni advocated the abolition of celibacy in the priesthood of the Catholic Church in his book Married Priests & Married Nuns (McGraw Hill). Another book, The Catholic Left: The Crisis of Radicalism in the Church (Chilton Publishing), is a study of the phenomenon of liberalism in the Catholic Church in America. Colaianni served as Executive Director of the National Liturgical Conference, Washington D.C., 1967–1970. In that capacity, he produced one of the first "rock masses," on the national scene, featuring Minnie Riperton and the Rotary Connection, at the Liturgical Conference National Convention, Milwaukee Arena, Milwaukee, WI, 1969, with thousands attending.
Beginning in 1970, Colaianni was publisher and principal author of SUNDAY SERMONS, specializing in resource material for the preaching clergy, with worldwide distribution. To date, Colaianni has written more than 2,000 sermons on a wide range of topics, many of which have been anthologized. He was also publisher of the Manual of Clinical Nutrition, 1985, and the journal Clinical Nutrition, edited by Dr. David M. Paige of Johns Hopkins University Medical School. These were distributed internationally to physicians and other health-care providers. He also published the Public Domain Report "Music Bibles and Public Domain Report newsletter 1993-1998, the first publication to catalog literary works, musical compositions, films, and works of visual arts as they entered the US public domain. The publication was edited by Scott A. Johnson, Colaianni's grandson. Sunday Sermons is currently published by James F. Colaianni, Jr.
With New York City-Village Gate's Art D'Lugoff, Colaianni was a co-producer of the musical One Mo' Time at the Village Gate North, in Toronto, Canada. He was sole producer of Jazz America at the historic Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C.
He presently resides in southern New Jersey.
See also[edit]
|This article contains embedded lists that may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. (January 2016)
- Mitchell, George, How Do Those Guys Manage to Produce A Sermon Each Week? The Wall Street Journal; Mar 14, 1972; 1, Front Page.
- Ramparts, vol. 4, 5, 6 numbers 1–12, 1965–1967
- MacGuire, John – Review, The Problem of Celibacy, MARRIED PRIESTS AND MARRIED NUNS. New York Times, September 29, 1968, book review, Page BR63.
- Davies, Lawrence E., Napalm Foes Petition for Vote To Bar Factory in Coast City. New York Times, April 17, 1966, Page 8.
- Fiske, Edward B., End Papers. New York Times, October 26, 1968, page 35.
- Turner, Wallace, Pacifists Balked in Napalm Fight; Judge Rejects Plan that would Shut Coast Plant. New York Times, May 21, 1966, page 4.
- ABC Evening News for Monday, November 11, 1968, Catholics/Bishops Meeting, — James Colaianni speaks of crisis of authority problem in Catholic Church. Reported by Frank Reynolds.
- Bid to Red Irks Catholic Publication. The Catholic Standard, official publication of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has criticized the Liturgical Conference for inviting Communists to speak at its annual meeting. Washington Post, June 29, 1968, page B9.
- Bowman, James H., Snake Dance Ends Liturgy Session. Hundreds of Christian worshippers snake-danced on the floor of the Milwaukee Arena Monday in a worship service at the close of the first of the four-day National Liturgical Conference. Washington Post, August 30, 1969, page A13.
- Hitchcock, James, The Recovery of the Sacred, Ignatius Press, 1995. Colaianni, James, 134–135.
- Parham, Philip, Letting God: Christian Meditations for Recovery, HarperSanFrancisco, 1987. Colaianni, James, front matter, dedication.
- Jenkins, Philip, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice, Oxford University Press, 2003. Colaianni, James, cited.
- McGreevey, John T., Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North, University of Chicago Press, 1998. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Gleason, Philip, Contending with Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 1995. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Polner, Murray and Jim O'Grady, Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Westview Press, 1998. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Edwards, Dwight, Revolution Within: A Fresh Look at Supernatural Living, Waterbrook Press, 2001. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Sipe, A. W. Richard, A Secret World, Routledge, 1990. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Abbott, Elizabeth, A History of Celibacy, Da Cappo Press, 2001. Colaianni, James, cited.
- Mathisen, Robert, Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader, Baylor University Press, 2001. Colaianni, James, page 665.
- 1922 births
- Living people
- People from Paterson, New Jersey
- American theologians
- Lay theologians
- American male writers
- Roman Catholic activists
- Seton Hall University alumni
- American anti–Vietnam War activists
- American magazine editors
- American publishers (people)
- Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area


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RATINGS: 923 WEIGHTED AVG: 3.78/5 SEASONAL: Series IBU: 60 EST. CALORIES: 291 ABV: 9.7%
Barley, wheat, rye and oats provide the foundation for this big stout. Layers of complex flavors slowly emerge from the glass: espresso, roasted fig, creme brulee. Belgian yeast provides a plum-like fruitiness, noble German hops reveal spicy, herbal notes, while the rich, velvety mouthfeel mellows to a dry, smoky finish. Such a robust beer stands well by itself, but also makes a wonderful end-note to any rich, indulgent meal. Discover the secret of combining this roasty ale to sweets, by pairing with dark chocolate or caramel, or even by pouring it over ice cream.
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This year's asparagus crop reared its head approximately three weeks early, due to the warm temperatures that rolled through early this spring.
Scott Walker, of Walker Brothers Farm Market in Pittsgrove Township, said the early warmth caused this year's asparagus crop to peak early, but then the cold snap slowed the plants down.
"It started about three weeks early and feels like we've been picking forever," Walker said.
Walker Brothers Farm — which Walker said is the largest asparagus seed producer in the world — has approximately 30 acres of asparagus, all of which are in full production.
"The big push is happening right now," Walker said. "Some farmers are even starting to shut their fields down. Now is the time. In another two weeks or so, it will be done."
Growing asparagus is a long process that starts with a seed.
"We have all hybrid varieties, which are made with certain male and female plants," Walker said. "It starts with a tissue culture from our parent plants, which are all clones. It's pretty cool."
Bees are brought in to the field of parent plants to take the pollen from the male plant and put it in the female flower, Walker explained.
"The plants ripen in late summer and in October, we harvest the seeds," he said.
Once the asparagus seed is planted, roots begin to form, which eventually produce the edible stalks and a fern-like growth above the surface of the field, Walker explained.
This root is then dug up and either transferred to a different field, or sold to other farms.
"Once you plant a crop, you don't harvest it until two years later," Walker said. "There's more to growing asparagus than you realize."
According to the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board, asparagus is one of the most nutritionally well-balanced vegetables in existence.
Asparagus is low in calories and sodium, and contains no fat or cholesterol, according to the MAAB. It is also a good source of potassium, fiber, folacin, thiamin and vitamin B6.
Contact Kelly Roncace at email@example.com.


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Linux Kernel 3.7 Posted, Big Gains for Tiny ARM Machines
Before changing his runlevel to "X'mas/holiday," Linus Torvalds posted the latest stable version of the Linux Kernel, version 3.7. The new kernel, among a ton of changes, fixes, and improvements, brings big gains for the ARM machine-architecture, including support for 64-bit memory with the newest ARMv8-laden SoCs.
The new kernel could form the foundation of the latest versions of Android that drive tablets and smartphones with copious amounts of RAM. The kernel follows a true multi-platform model to that effect. More than consumer devices, the need for large memory with ARM-based machines comes with the growth of ARM micro-servers, especially after Intel stepped up competition with low-Wattage x86 chips earlier this week.
In addition to ARM-friendliness, a new notable feature with Linux 3.7 is support for signed kernel modules, which will only support code approved by a software publisher or local netadmin.


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I love lace and roses! This Christmas tree is carved from vanilla cake and filled with chocolate mint buttercream. It is covered in lace modeling chocolate and decorated with modeling chocolate roses.
CakeCentral.com is the world's largest cake community for cake decorating professionals and enthusiasts.
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text: Alabama Works to Improve Access to Healthy Foods by on Tuesday, October 1, 2013 We're in the very beginning stages of our Healthy Food work in Alabama, but want to take a quick moment and provide you with education on food deserts. A food desert is a community with little or no access to healthy foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet. Residents in these areas, which include many urban and rural parts of our state, lack supermarkets in their neighborhoods - forcing these families to rely on unhealthy fast food and snacks. We can address this issue in Alabama by reducing economic barriers, provide healthy choices, and most importantly, educate local consumers about the benefits of healthy eating. In Alabama, the American Heart Association is laying the ground work to launch a policy campaign around alleviating barriers through an effort called healthy food financing, which provides grocers, farmers markets and other food retailers with financial incentives to locate in food deserts. We still have a long way to go to pave the way for this work and will provide additional opportunities for education to our volunteers on this very important topic. « Now share your story Share This


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6 Comments
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and "play" submission
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kabalentot Artist
cool vector +1
cool idea. Voted
nice placement and design, but a little small
nice design, +1
Twistedgraphic Artist
Nice. Great placement. +1


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The Multi-Max™ MM40-03 Ultimate Tool Kit features the MM40 Multi-Max oscillating tool, two attachments and 27 Multi-Max accessories. The kit includes the Cutting Depth Guide and Dust Extraction attachments, the Carbide Flush Cutting Blade, the innovative Multi-Knife and Drywall Jab Saw accessories, and more. This kit has everything you need to: cut with precision, cut tough materials, sand, remove grout and scrape. Storage bag included. Two year tool warranty.
This tool is available as part of a kit.