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Thiruvananthapuram: Dr. J Hareendran Nair, Founder and Managing Director, Pankajakasthuri Herbals, believes that it is only in a fantasy world that an entrepreneur would prosper unhindered by roadblocks and setbacks. On the contrary, he believes that setbacks in business actually embolden one in his or her journey to success. "Entrepreneurs should not be overly affected by small problems in their businesses," he says drawing from his own experience.
Pankajakasthuri has emerged over the years as a popular Ayurveda brand in Kerala providing much needed relief to a large number of people, if one goes by the testimonials and the expanding market for its medicines. In this issue, we introduce the man behind Pankajakasthuri products, Dr. J Hareendran Nair, for our readers
Rumours about the presence of heavy metals and toxic chemicals in Ayurvedic medicines sold over the counter had affected Pankajakasthuri Herbals, too. Pankajakasthuri Herbals and Dr. Nair hit a bad patch following such allegations, which according to him, were mischievously directed at him. On the other hand, he admits that hundred per cent pure raw materials are difficult to source. "Manufacturing of medicines adhering to GMP standards can effectively weed out malignant chemical molecules from raw materials," he says. But the company did not take long to tide over the crisis.
Unlike many other brands in the industry, Pankajakasthuri, named after Dr. Nair's mother Pankajam and daughter Kasthuri, has never had an Ayurveda legacy to boast about. But this Ayurveda doctor says that it was the authenticity of products, his commitment and honesty which helped him come out of the predicament and bounce back. He realised that the public would not take him at face value unless he proved the company's worth. "It is your inherent goodness that will help you wade through difficult times. Hard work and honesty will pay off and I have proved it by reviving Pankajakasthuri Herbals," Dr. Nair says.
Dr. Nair's survival has set an example for entrepreneurs. Sitting at the helm of Pankajakasthuri Herbals, he no longer wants to recall the names and instances which caused his temporary downfall. However, he still takes strong exception to bad-mouthing and gossiping in the healthcare field. "It is not at all correct to say effective Ayurvedic medicines are being made using some of the ingredients of English medicines. As a result of such rumours, some people try to taint the industry by alleging that there are chemicals and heavy metals present in Ayurvedic preparations. And it is not uncommon to find some lobby of modern doctors backing such false propaganda," Dr. Nair says based on his experience and adds: "In the initial years, it was quite disheartening to be at the receiving end of such allegations. But now, I realise that even the general public is aware. They know such discrepancies in medicinal ingredients could be brought to light by testing samples at a nearby lab."
According to Dr. Nair, rumours about the presence of toxic materials in his medicines had created problems for the company. But the purity of the preparations was brought to the public domain through repeated and advanced lab testing procedures.
From an ethical businessman's point of view, Dr. Nair is still continuing his fight against the discriminatory regulations being imposed on Ayurvedic medicines. In December 2018, the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) published a notification in the Gazette of India prohibiting advertisement of Ayurveda, Siddha or Unani drugs.
In order to check the publication of misleading advertisements of medicines, Rule 170 of Drugs and Cosmetics (Eleventh Amendment) Rules, 2018, states that manufacturers or agents of Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani (ASU) drugs should not participate in the publication of any advertisement relating to any drug for the use of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder, syndrome or condition without obtaining prior permission from a State Licensing Authority or Drug Controller. Besides, the rules also prohibit the promoters or manufacturers from using brand ambassadors to promote such products. The regulation of advertisement of ASU drugs is governed by the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 (DMROA Act).
"We submitted an application seeking permission to publish advertisements before a committee. But I was given to understand that the procedures to obtain the license should have been completed within a brief window of time immediately following the publication of the Gazette notification. So when we realised that we could no longer obtain the approval, we approached the court and obtained a three months' stay on the order. We are currently advertising our products based on that stay," he says.
Dr. Nair points out that while the amendment in the rule completely prohibits advertisements of ASU drugs, there are no such restrictions on advertisements of allopathic drugs (English medicines). "It is an unacceptable decision since it violates right to equality," he argues. "Originally DMROA Act was intended to curb advertisement of malevolent and hollow promises of treatment, healing and magical remedies. It is a crime no matter who does it. I fully agree with it. But it should not result in curbing advertisement of genuine Ayurvedic products manufactured by strictly following all stipulations," he adds. Pankajakasthuri has also made a representation to the AYUSH Ministry in this regard.
The man behind Pankajakasthuri reiterates that it is necessary to publish advertisements to market products. However, he categorically says that the brand does not make fraudulent claims for making profit. "If I promise my customers through an advertisement that I will completely cure someone of a certain medical condition, that is indeed a crime," Dr. Nair says. The drug manufacturer has put out an advertisement of its medicine for diabetes in the past with a statutory caution that diabetes is not fully curable. "We also publish an advertisement promoting our medicine Orthoherb for joint pains. But in that also we do not make any extraordinary claims. Instead, we share testimonies of our users to reach out to the market," he says.
According to DMROA Act, incurable Rheumatoid Arthritis, which manifests itself as knee and joint pain, is a medical condition for which drugs should not be advertised and the same rule applies to asthma and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). So an obvious suspicion may arise in the minds of the readers whether Pankajakasthuri is cheating gullible customers suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis into buying its product by generalising the symptoms of the illnesses, which is knee and joint pain.
When asked about it, Dr. Nair says: "No. That is not our intention. Moreover, in our advertisements we also say that it is the user's personal opinion and urge viewers to consult a doctor before taking any decision based on such opinion. We are just introducing a medicine before the public through the advertisement and not cheating the public."
Being a physician himself, he assures that the company's medicine for knee and joint pain has a success rate of 85 per cent. "The medicine has been registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) after furnishing substantial proof," he says. Meanwhile, Dr. Nair also cautions that the medicine may not be effective in all cases. For example, Rheumatoid Arthritis is systemic degenerative auto-immune disease medicine, in which case the medicine may not be that effective, he says.
The rejuvenative therapy division of Pankajakasthuri, Harmony Healthcare, is another segment which Dr. Nair is focusing on to develop in the future. Harmony Healthcare has had over 40 centres across India in the past. However, following difficulties in managing logistics and manpower he had to cut down the number of centres. At present, work of a new Harmony resort for rejuvenation therapy is underway at Kandala near Kattakada, says the doctor. "We are hoping to fully operationalise the resort in two to three months." The 25,000-sq. ft. facility with 16 treatment rooms is mainly aimed at providing rejuvenation therapies to foreign nationals and people who require them. "It will offer a serene ambience to the guests who undergo various therapies in a village setting." The resort which will focus on medical tourism will employ close to 25 people.
The company is planning to improve the quality of export products as it is very much concerned about the presence of contaminants. Explaining how contaminants creep into raw herbs, Dr. Nair says: "There are some plants like Chittamrithu (Heart-leaved Moonseed) which absorbs almost every metal mineral from the soil. For example, if a certain herb is grown near a battery dump yard, it is most likely that the plant will have presence of lead in it. It is the same case when herbs like Brahmi are cultivated near seashores which may show high salt content in them. In most cases, these metals and minerals are eliminated during the stage of processing which involves washing, drying and boiling. However, we want to take extra steps to neutralise the contaminants which may still be present in the raw materials," he says.
Pankajakasthuri Herbals exports its products to 13 countries and the Ministry of Health in Malaysia has classified its products as medicine. The company also has plans to expand its area of operation within the country. At present, Pankajakasthuri has its products marketed in States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Maharashtra. "I wish to expand our operations to North Indian States as well. Our focus will be on gaining national acceptability for Pankajakasthuri products,'' he says.
The company selects vendors who can provide uncontaminated and purest raw materials. Once the raw material refining and cleaning are completed at the company's factory at Poovachal, the quality of raw material herbs are compared against standardised charts. During the process of manufacturing, quality of drug components is tested at the in-house lab and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Lab. "We do not market any product without getting certified after extensive laboratory testing," he says.
The production facility of Pankajakasthuri Herbals is a 1.5-lakh sq.ft. four-storey building equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. "Most machineries are tailor-made for us so as to help retain the original quality of medicines, especially of those classical Ayurveda concoctions like kashayam, lehyam etc. The Group currently employs 760 people.
"The prayers, cooperation and collective effort of all my employees are the reasons for the company's achievements till date," says a contended Dr. Nair. The company has an annual turnover of more than Rs. 100 crore. "Of course, my focus will be on increasing the turnover in the coming years. But more importantly, I will work relentlessly for increasing the acceptability of Ayurvedic medicines through continuous research and development programs.
Dr. Hareendran Nair feels the greatest achievement in his illustrious career as an Ayurveda practitioner is that he could help generate widespread acceptance for the ancient medical system. "At a time when people started distancing themselves from Ayurveda, I was able to contribute to the collective efforts of many stalwarts in the field to make it acceptable and accessible," says Dr. Nair.
The Pankajakasthuri man became an Ayurveda doctor in 1983 after graduating from Ayurveda College in Thiruvananthapuram. Although Pankajakasthuri was established at a slightly later stage in his career, Dr. Nair has always been able to gauge people's perception of Ayurveda as an acceptable form of medical stream.
Until a decade-and-a-half ago, there was not as much skepticism among the takers of Ayurveda as it is today. Lifestyle diseases which are caused by various habits could be treated by Ayurveda. However, the change in perception or as Dr. Nair says, the ''manufactured perception'' about Ayurvedic medicines, often force people to think twice before going for Ayurveda treatment. "People are worried about the presence of carcinogenic heavy metals in Ayurvedic concoctions and other side effects. In the past, Ayurveda was accepted by all by understanding its purity," says Dr. Nair brushing aside such claims.
What makes Dr. Nair unique in Ayurveda practice has been his efforts to formulate medicines which could heal certain medical conditions like asthma. There is a common perception that Ayurveda medicines can offer only temporary reprieve. One such achievement of Dr. Nair is his medicinal creation – Breathe Easy – which, for the last 31 years, has been a very popular product in the market. Besides India, Breathe Easy is sold in 13 countries, treating allergic cough and sneezing, asthmatic bronchitis, allergic bronchitis, eosinophilia and sinusitis. "Breathe Easy's formula makes broncho-dilation, expectoration and immune-modulation possible, thereby increasing chances of healing the disease," Dr. Nair says.
At Pankajakasthuri Herbals, all medicinal formulations for manufacturing are prepared by Dr. Nair himself by applying the science of Ayurveda. For finding the correct medicinal formulations, he spent two years in research and development following his resignation from a research project of Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Government of India during 1987.
The future of any company is largely dependent on its ability to devise an effective succession plan, which helps nurture future leadership. "On that count, I am happy that I am able to groom the next generation to take the company forward," he says. Dr. Nair's nephew Arun Visakh Nair is the Director of Sales and Marketing. His two daughters - Dr. Kasthuri and Dr. Kaveri are now pursuing PG in Ayurveda at Pankajakasthuri Ayurveda Medical College. Kishan Chand, son-in-law of Dr. Nair is the Executive Director of the Group. Besides, his nieces Dr. Lekshmi and Dr. Ayswarya are also involved in the business.
Dr. J Hareendran Nair
Age: 58 Years
Drives: Audi Q7
Favourite Cuisine: Kerala
Family: Asha (Spouse), Dr. Kasthuri and Dr. Kaveri (Daughters)
Loves to do in free time: Listening to music


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Is tyler oakley gayI am 22 years old and I live in a big house uptown with my two sisters. Our parents died in an accident two years ago, leaving me in charge of the family. Our uncles offered to let us move in with them, but we refused to leave our home. My sisters and I were very close even before the accident and now more than ever. I am a couple years older than Tracy and Kelly is the youngest.
That had to have smarted, but he deserved it for the whopper he'd fed me. He must have taken hold of the pillow because when I tried to pull on it to swing again, there was resistance. And then I was being pushed onto my back. I shoved at him, and we rolled back and forth with me on top then him. I ended up in the original position but with my hands held over my head on the mattress, the pillow pressed lengthwise between us.
Fragile at the core but with a tough outer shell. Braving the path alone and pressing on because he had faith that it would all be worth it some day. My eyes fluttered open at his fingertips brushing against my forehead. When I looked at him again, he was worrying his lower lip.
Maybe I hoped in the back of my mind that Jolie would move out to be with him. or break up, either option solving the problem. But a year later, here we still were. Him silently rubbing it in my face with his mere presence that he'd gotten one up on me, coming and going as he pleased.

subset: commoncrawl


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Can Bruno Mars Top Beyoncé's Super Bowl Show?
Well, he's no Beyoncé but he'll do. Football is back, and with it comes a look forward to February's Superbowl XLVIII. While we won't know the teams for awhile, we do know who'll be playing for our entertainment when the million-dollar commercials and the actual football take a break. That halftime entertainment will be Bruno Mars, our favorite tiny Hawaiian pop powerhouse.
The 2014 Super Bowl will take place February 2 at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, and with the announcement that Mars will headline the halftime show, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that there's "more buzz around this Super Bowl" than any other Super Bowl that has ever existed ever. Right.
Considering that last year's Super Bowl halftime show featured so many Beyoncés that it literally knocked the power out in the second half of the game (allegedly), it'll be interesting to see if there's anything short of literally ascending to heaven that Mars or the NFL could do to top that.
As for what Mars will perform at The Allegedly Best Super Bowl Halftime Show That Doesn't Involve Beyoncé that is also still up for debate. Maybe "Gorilla?" "Treasure?" "Locked Out of Heaven" seems likely, as does "Grenade."
Relive some of Mars' musical moments below.


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Jesse Puljujarvi appears to be headed back to Bakersfield after a disappointing start to the season in Edmonton. His one goal in 11 games isn't what many expected from him in a season where the Oilers are desperate for scoring wingers.
Puljujarvi's development hasn't gone as planned, but Oilers haven't set him up for success since drafting him fourth overall in 2016.
I'm sure both Puljujarvi and the Oilers aren't happy with the situation.
Puljujarvi hasn't averaged more than 13:22 a season in parts of three years in Edmonton. It's clear Todd McLellan doesn't trust Puljujarvi, opting for players like Ty Rattie, Drake Caggiula, or Alex Chiasson instead.
The Oilers haven't received the type of talent they thought they picked fourth overall in 2016. Players drafted near Puljujarvi have surpassed him at this point. Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine are bonafide stars. Pierre-Luc Dubois is on track in Columbus. Matthew Tkachuk and Clayton Keller, both picked after Puljujarvi, are already talented scorers in the NHL. Mikhail Sergachev had a stellar rookie season with the Tampa Bay Lightning last year, scoring 40 points in a limited role.
The Oiler must get value out of Puljujarvi. Spending time in the minors at 20 doesn't write him off as an NHL player, but it wouldn't be surprising if both the player and agent wanted a fresh start elsewhere with the way Edmonton's handled Puljujarvi.
What could the Oilers get in return for Puljujarvi? Former high-draft picks have been traded before, so we can refer previous trades of to gauge a potential return.
Puljujarvi is in his third season after being drafted. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm limiting comparisons to top-10 drafted forwards traded no later than during or after their fourth season after being drafted with scoring like Puljujarvi (0.25 points per game).
Gilbert Brule
Drafted:6th (2005)
PPG before trade: 0.22
Traded for: Raffi Torres
The Blue Jackets picked Brule sixth overall in 2005 and moved him four years after later. Brule didn't score much in his time with Columbus and only played 16 AHL games. Columbus traded Brule after a 9-point campaign to Edmonton for Raffi Torres. Torres had just scored 15 goals and 34 points the year before and had a 27-goal season to his name.
James Sheppard
Drafted:9th (2006)
PPG before trade: 0.22
Traded for: Third-round draft pick
Minnesota traded Sheppard four years after drafting him. He had a strong year in the QMJHL after being drafted but couldn't translate that beyond a couple mediocre seasons in Minnesota. The Wild got a third-round pick from San Jose in return for Sheppard.
Nikita Filatov
Drafted: 6th (2008)
PPG before trade: 0.30
Traded for: Third-round draft pick
The Blue Jackets traded Filatov just three years after drafting him. Columbus got a third-round pick from Ottawa. Filatov didn't have much success in Ottawa either. Filatov scored well in the minors but not in the NHL. He eventually returned to Russia, leaving the NHL with an infamous quote.
Magnus Paajarvi
Drafted:10th (2009)
PPG before trade:0.36
Traded for: With a second-round draft pick for David Perron
Paajarvi had more success than Puljujarvi before being traded to St. Louis, but most of that came in his 15-goal rookie season. Paajarvi scored 0.28 points per game the next two seasons combined. Edmonton traded Paajarvi along with a second-round pick to St. Louis for David Perron after his third NHL season. Paajarvi was in the fourth year after being drafted but the Oilers still got solid value for a disappointing pick.
Nino Niederreiter
Drafted:5th (2010)
PPG before trade:0.05
Traded for: Cal Clutterbuck and a third-round draft pick
The Islanders completely mismanaged Niederreiter. After scoring 1 point in 55 games in 2011-12, the Islanders kept him in the AHL for 2012-13. Niederreiter's camp was understandably upset at the Islander's treatment and requested a trade. The Islanders traded Niederreiter to Minnesota for Cal Clutterbuck and a third-round draft pick the following summer. Clutterbuck was a decent bottom-six guy who hit a lot. Niederreiter developed into a two-way guy capable of 40-50 points in Minnesota.
Niederreiter was traded three years after being drafted, the season Jesse Puljujarvi is currently in.
It's hard to get value for a high draft pick after they've struggled to score in the NHL. The good news is most of these players (Brule, Sheppard, Paajarvi) were traded a year from where Puljujarvi currently is in his career. There's time for him to turn it around. If the Oilers wanted to make a move soon, they could expect a decent middle-six guy or perhaps a top-six guy if they packaged a draft pick with Puljujarvi. Peter Chiarelli needs to win now. A veteran forward who can score 40 points might be attractive to him.
Patience could be the best option. Jonathan Drouin requested a trade three years after being drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Drouin scored 0.45 points per game at that point, far more than Puljujarvi, but the Lightning didn't trade him. Drouin returned next season and scored 53 points. The Lightning traded him the following summer for Mikhail Sergachev, who was a year removed from being drafted ninth overall by Montreal.
I'd look for other young players who haven't established themselves, like a diet version of the Maxi Domi-Alex Galchenyuk trade.
Wait too long and you're looking at a third-round draft pick or bottom-six forward in return.


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Dusk falls on Fourth Avenue in the Richmond District as Officer Lewis Bronfeld of the San Francisco Police Department's Burglary Detail cruises the area in an unmarked squad car. Bronfeld slows the vehicle as he and his partner, Officer John Cleary, squint at a double-parked 1981 Toyota pickup with a camper shell on the back.
"This one here, this could be it," Bronfeld says to Cleary. A shadowy figure with a ponytail runs toward the truck hefting a box on her shoulder.
"Bingo!" shouts Bronfeld, and for two seconds the scene turns NYPD Blue as Bronfeld does a U-turn and roars back toward the truck, his beams on high. The young woman, a Latina, freezes in the glare. Behind her in the truck cab sits a 40-ish Latino.
"Police!" says Cleary, stepping out of the car and waving his badge at the pair.
Bronfeld joins Cleary.
"Do you have any ID?" Bronfeld asks them. "Do you speak English?"
He opens the truck bed's rickety hatch to find another young Latina, eyes glassy with fright, sitting amid the booty.
"Buenas noches," Bronfeld says as he surveys the cache of 50-some shopping bags stuffed with discarded newspaper, piled neatly as bricks. A short older woman in long peasant clothes emerges from behind a car.
"Yeah, we'll be here awhile," Bronfeld says as he busts the newspaper thieves.
Yes, newspaper thieves.
The cans, bottles, newsprint, and cardboard stacked at city curbs were once considered just garbage. But no more. During the last 15 years, a free-lance industry on wheels has established itself to cash in on trash. First there was the "Mosquito Fleet," so dubbed by the refuse industry because they're so pesky, who piloted pickup trucks to gather recyclables. Later came marching armies of scavengers, wielding nothing more than shopping carts. The renegade recyclers come from all walks of life, but currently most of them are Cambodia immigrants, the homeless, or impoverished Latinos.
The rise of the renegade recyclers — estimated at 300 pickups and hundreds of shopping carts — parallels both the advent of mandated curbside recycling and eight months of escalating prices for scrap paper and aluminum (not to mention the homeless-hostile Matrix program). As recently as May 1994, some recycling programs were paying scrap dealers $5 per ton to take old newspapers off their hands. Today, scrap newspaper commands between $75 and $130 per ton. Scrap corrugated cardboard, which went for $20 to $75 per ton last May on the West Coast (where prices are higher), sold for $140 to $160 per ton in May 1995.
"Paper has seen a tremendous spike in the past year," says Amy Snell, editor of the trade journal Recycling Market. "It's a combination of new mills coming on-line that require recycled tonnage and consumer demand for recycled paper products."
Other recyclables have increased in value, too: The scrap value of HDPE, the plastic from which milk jugs are made, has risen from 5 cents per pound last year to 22 cents per pound. Aluminum cans have almost doubled in price and now fetch as much as 50 cents per pound.
All of which has made your blue recycling bin glitter like gold. Recycling theft has broken out across the continent — from Los Angeles to New York, from Toronto to Houston — and city recycling officials are scrambling to stop it. Recyclable aluminum cans and paper that have real cash value have historically subsidized the recycling of valueless tin cans, which means that the wholesale pilfering of the good stuff indicates that the city programs end up recycling little more than … trash.
According to David Assmann of the city Recycling Office, San Franciscans are enthusiastic about S.F.'s recycling. A whopping 84 percent of the population recycles about 18.1 pounds of material per week (94 percent of college graduates recycle, but only 76 percent of high school grads). The potential value of all of San Francisco's recyclables is $19 million, of which the official haulers recover about $9 million. Assmann estimates that the scavengers collect $2.3 million worth of trash. (The remainder of the recyclable trash is mixed in with the garbage and cannot be recycled.)
The city's garbage guerrillas prowl the streets by night, pushing shopping carts and driving ramshackle trucks, filching the newspapers and cans set at the curb for the official recyclers. They dumpster-dive during the day for precious cardboard in SOMA, and beg small businesses for permission to take empty boxes. You turn away as they rummage waste receptacles in the Financial District hunting for a discarded soda can.
Their numbers have grown to the point, says Ed Dunn of the nonprofit S.F. Community Recycling, that "effectively the city has two recycling systems."
One is legal and the other very much against the law. And the competition for curbside trash is so intense that San Francisco recycling officials are now aiming their big guns at the tiny mosquitoes.
Bronfeld and Cleary issue two $76 public health citations for scavenging from recycling bins. One goes to the 40-ish man, who is culpable as the driver. He, it turns out, is the father of this family of Guatemalan refugees. One of his daughters gets a citation for hefting the blue bin. The other daughter, inside the truck, receives only admonishments because she didn't touch the blue bins. The mother draws a bye.
The father is driving with a suspended license, so he is written a traffic citation and his truck is ordered towed. Bronfeld estimates that the fines will total about $1,000 by the time the family retrieves their car and leaves court.
To document the crime scene, Bronfeld poses the father in back of the battered Toyota, its hatch up to show the goods, and snaps a Polaroid. Cleary pokes at the roughly 700 pounds of newspapers, worth about $30 at the recycling depot.
"See, he's got quite an operation here," says Cleary. "Is it easy? He just drives along and picks it up!" [page]
"In a way I feel bad for him," confides Bronfeld as he fills out paperwork on the hood of the police car. "He's unemployed, and I don't know where he's gonna get the money. It's not gonna be pretty."
Bronfeld is right. The family speaks no English and is poor among the poor.
A patrol car arrives carrying a Spanish-speaking officer who explains the citations to the family, and then gives them a ride home to the Mission. Bronfeld and Cleary head back to the station to complete the evening's paperwork. Meanwhile, the Mosquito Fleet buzzes through the mean streets.
Payroll for the SFPD's burglary detail's once-a-week, four-hour overtime shift is covered with a $125,000 grant from the proceeds from the city's recycling program. (Beat cops have also been writing tickets.) Three months into the enforcement program, the special details have issued 122 $76 public health citations and towed nine vehicles. In the course of their garbage dragnet, they've also arrested eight people for other offenses. The police keep a mug file of those Polaroids — most of the subjects are Asian and Latino, posing stiffly beside their trucks. Although recycling authorities say the program is supposed to target fast-moving truckers who rob from the blue bins, one photo shows an African-American man beside a shopping cart, another an elderly Asian man with a plastic bag.
San Francisco's recycling program is mandated by a 1989 state law that requires California cities to divert 50 percent of all solid waste from landfills by the year 2000. Unlike New York, where citizens are required to recycle by separating paper and bottles, the program is voluntary in San Francisco.
The program is funded by the monthly garbage bills paid by property owners and, to a lesser extent, the sale of the recyclables. Sunset Scavenger, a subsidiary of the Norcal trash conglomerate, is enjoying the fifth year of a seven-year, no-bid contract to collect and haul recyclables to West Coast Recycling. West Coast is another Norcal subsidiary, and it processes the recycled materials.
Because Norcal already holds a monopoly on residential — and most commercial and municipal — trash collection in the city, veteran recycling activists like Ed Dunn interpret the police crackdown as another example of Norcal's efforts to maintain an absolute monopoly over San Francisco trash. The police, viewing the conflict through the lens of the legal code, treat the Mosquito Fleet as simple thieves.
Bob Besso got into recycling back in 1973, when he left the Air Force, first working at nonprofit recycling centers. Today he is program manager for Sunset Scavenger's recycling division.
"Part of my whole life was to bring recycling to the point where it was part of the mainstream of our society and part of everyday life," he says, driving a company station wagon around the Richmond.
Besso is famous within the company for his midnight drives in search of scavengers. For years he's gone out alone on his scavenger hunt, with a video camera and a cellular phone, to hunt for the culprits who steal from his blue boxes. He keeps a whole scrapbook of perpetrators in his office.
"I have fought and kicked to get into a position where now I feel like I'm getting something accomplished, and I'm having this program essentially dismembered by thieves," he says.
It's a lonely life, though, all this driving around and hiding behind walls with his lights off.
"My girlfriend's given up on me. A lot of people at work actually have, too," he says. Sometimes, when he confronts a thief with one of his Xeroxed copies of a police memo stating that taking from blue bins is illegal, he fears for his life. Is recycling worth dying for?
"Yes," he says.
Although Basso admits that the recycling program isn't imperiled by theft, he worries that scavengers will drive off some citizen recyclers. To make his point, he offers this letter from a customer:
"Gentlemen: Just a little note, it is indeed very frustrating having to place recyclable items in the box for you to pick up and have some bum pick them up before you do." Besso says his office gets as many as 40 complaints a day, although the city's 1993 recycling survey failed to find a single individual who had quit recycling because of scavengers.
And so he continues his mournful rounds, every once in a while jerking the car to a halt and staring into a blue bin, only to find a bit of a purple egg carton and a steel can that once contained chicken broth.
"I just take it personally," he comments.
He says there is only one way to stop the scavengers.
"I don't want to sound like a monger or something, but if a citation is issued I would like to see that the citation is turned over to the IRS and the INS. I think that would really put the breaks on it."
West Coast Recycling, the city's largest buyback center, is located at 17th and Rhode Island at the foot of Potrero Hill. The corrugated-steel depot sits like a wart among the chichi warehouses in a basin that stretches west through the Mission to the Castro, north through SOMA to the Embarcadero, and via Third Street out to Bayview.
As the center prepares to open at 7 a.m., streams of shopping carts, bicycles, and battered trucks — all laden with recyclables — approach the depot like iron filings tugged toward a magnet.
The first arrival is an African-American man toting a large plastic janitor's bin. Next is an Asian guy carrying a pole yoked over his shoulders, two bags of crushed cans dangling from each end. A white guy speeds in on an old bicycle ferrying milk crates filled with cans, while a group of Latinos approaches slowly pushing shopping carts wobbling under their loads. An elderly Asian woman pulls a small cart filled with cans behind her. All disappear into the gloom of the building. [page]
One by one, the trucks of the Mosquito Fleet enter the weighing station. Some trash-pickers have neatly refitted their truck beds with wooden sides, complete with ladders and elaborate rope riggings. Others have merely slapped two sheets of plywood to the sides of the truck to corral the piles of contraband cardboard. A few Sunset Scavenger recycling trucks, even a Volvo station wagon, wait in a line that stretches around the corner. A church group serves coffee on the corner until 7:30.
As the morning progresses, a shiny white truck labeled Protector Shopping Cart Services arrives to retrieve the stolen Safeway carts. As the Protector employee struggles to anchor all nine of the carts in the back of the pickup, a raffish white fellow dressed in a black stocking cap, red shirt, and khaki pants secured with rope exits the depot. Dragging a convoy of three Safeway carts behind him, he waves at the cart collector, then gives a radiant smile.
He's "Bill Doe," a 44-year-old junk-picker.
Watching the latecoming Mosquito Fleeters from curbside — "The wretched cart people," Bill calls them — he offers his commentary on the unfolding scene.
Irksome to Bill are three white guys in Road Warrior costume pushing two shopping carts filled to the rims with cans and bottles.
"Shopping carts with no bags," Bill says. "That's just so illogical."
The cargo of a shopping cart topped off with cans and bottles is worth about $5 at West Coast Recycling, Bill says. The way to make real money is the way he does: tie 25 heavy-duty plastic bags to a cart. Bill boasts that he is one of the few recyclers who can make $50 in a night's work — and he offers the receipt to prove it.
The state sets rates for the buyback of cans that centers must either meet or exceed. Glass is redeemed at 5 cents per pound; the current state rate for aluminum cans is 2.5 cents per can or 68.25 cents per pound. Some centers, like West Coast, add a percentage of the scrap value to the redemption value of aluminum cans, bringing the total to 85 cents per pound.
A tattooed urban primitive with an obvious drug problem staggers toward the door clutching a small bag of cans.
"Pathetic," says Bill, who doesn't drink. "Most of these guys are unfocused and have no goals."
Talking about his work outside West Coast on another day, Bill offers the self-assessment that he is lazy. Aside him are two wired-together shopping carts, festooned with no less than 27 sacks of sorted recyclables. It took Bill 11 hours to gather this load from the hilly curbs of Bernal Heights three miles away, but he's still full of self-reproach, even though it's worth $46.
"I just don't go at it like I should."
Bill says he grew up in Ohio, spent part of his adolescence in a mental ward, and entered the Marine Corps in the late '60s. After he received an honorable discharge in 1972, he bounced around doing jobs from telephone operator to short-order cook. In 1989, he moved to San Francisco for the literary life.
"I wrote science fiction," he explains, "just to bring clarity to situations."
He ended up homeless shortly after he got here — "I just couldn't get it together" — and has been scavenging for the past three years. "It's almost oxymoronic," he says, "picking through garbage cans for a living. How do you call it a life?"
Now he sleeps each night under an awning near West Coast, stashing a color TV and a flight bag in the weeds.
"When you live outside, every single place you sit down you have to pay," he says. "There's no sense of privacy except in the bathroom."
The balance of Bill's income goes to a companion he calls "his sister, who lives in a downtown SRO." The story is believable if only because Bill tells it the same way during five separate interviews.
Why doesn't he get another job and lead a more comfortable life?
"This is a step into something," he insists. "I would rather do this than be a short-order cook. I make more money, and I don't have to deal with anything."
Argue this point with him, and he spells it out in cold cash: $46 divided by 11 hours is $4.18 per hour — slightly less than minimum wage but tax free.
There are tricks to this business, he says. The first is to have a good route. Sometimes friends offer Bill their routes for a night or two; sometimes he returns the favor. He dreams of finding a treasure trove of white ledger paper in some hard-to-reach place. Mostly, though, the tricks are more practical, like backloading the cart so it's easier to navigate. Or, when you are on a steep hill wheeling 800 pounds of booty, steer the cart to the curb where the bags will drag along the sidewalk and act like brakes.
Sometimes Bill hires others to watch his filled carts when he's loading more than two. He pays $10 or 15 percent of the take, but it's hard to find reliable guys who won't fall sleep or wander off.
"A lot of guys spend their money on alcohol and drugs," Bill says. "They're not real happy people."
He estimates that pinching from the blue bins boosts his income by a factor of four or five.
"It's stealing," he says. "It don't matter why. Everything is just a rationalization. Hell, even Jeffrey Dahmer could say he was hungry."
The two carts Bill pushes into West Coast Recycling today are filled with 401 pounds of glass, 364 pounds of newspaper, 7.6 pounds of cans, and 66 pieces of plastic. First he sorts the glass into bins by color, has it weighed, and asks an acquaintance to guard these carts while he fetches the one filled with newspaper. Bill's colleagues move at half-speed in the dusty light, as though they are under water. [page]
Dropping his cans at a conveyor belt and taking a receipt, Bill finally visits the cashier, who pays him his $46 in cash. Still stowed in the carts are one small TV, two pairs of electric shears, some size 9 sneakers, and a stuffed pink dog. He plugs the TV and the clippers into a West Coast wall socket; all are dead, so he discards them. He tries to give the pink dog away.
"When I take stuff out of the blue bins, I don't feel good about it," he acknowledges, "but when I find a bunch I'm just happy as hell."
West Coast Recycling could say the same. In fact, the Norcal empire benefits financially whenever the renegade recyclers steal from the blue bins. Sunset is paid by ratepayers to collect and haul recyclables to West Coast; the refund and scrap value of those recyclables goes into a special impound account that subsidizes the cost of pickup and hauling. The fewer recyclables collected, the less that goes into the fund that is earmarked for enforcement or rebates to ratepayers.
Meanwhile, recyclables nicked by the likes of Bill and the Mosquito Fleet also go to West Coast, which "buys low and sells high" like any good capitalist company. But this time Norcal gets to keep the profit.
But West Coast General Manager Leno Bellomo bristles at the suggestion that his company is profiting from theft.
"The sad fact of the matter is that if we don't take it they're just going to go to another competitor who's going to take it regardless," Bellomo says. "It's not our fault the program is experiencing this theft. We have signs up [to discourage theft], we make casual statements, but again, they are very, very casual. You know, we have a business to protect here."
Applying the maxim that it is not what one makes but what he saves that makes him rich, [the Italian] manages to turn the very dirt of the streets into a hoard of gold.
— Photographer Jacob Riis in his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives
At the turn of the century, Italians were the underprivileged ethnic minority in America that was locked out of wage jobs by limited English and rampant racial prejudice. According to Riis, prior to the wave of Italian immigrants, New York City paid scavengers to rake through its garbage and reduce the mass before it was dumped into the sea. But within years of the Italian arrivals ("He knows not only no word of English, but he does not know enough to learn," writes Riis), the new immigrants were so busy picking trash that the city made them pay a total of $80,000 for the right to scavenge.
In turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Italians ruled the trade, too. A man who owned a horse and cart — and a gun to ward off claim jumpers — could support his family on others' rubbish. They recycled everything, even selling the swill to hog farmers.
By the beginning of World War I, the streets of San Francisco were so crowded with independent haulers (the city still had no formal garbage collection) that no one was making any money. To deter new entries into the trade, the free-lance garbage men formed refuse associations that made each man an owner in the garbage collection company. "This corporation must protect itself against competition and from degenerating into drones of useless shareholders," read the bylaws of Sunset Scavenger.
Sunset Scavenger, one of the early refuse associations, incorporated in 1920. SPA, later renamed Golden Gate, incorporated shortly after. In 1932, after much strife over garbage routes, the city was home to 36 garbage companies that competed to provide service to 97 collection districts.
The trash haulers amassed immense political power along with the trash, and two of them, SPA and Sunset, flexed their power in 1932 — and secured a lock on residential garbage pickup — when the city charter was rewritten. The charter bestowed upon the 36 established haulers monopoly rights to 97 collection districts to haul residential trash.
"By 1935 only SPA and Sunset remained in the formal competition and Sunset bought the last operating company, Mission Scavenger in 1939. From then on Sunset and SPA divided up the city into two more or less unified areas. The cooperatives had taken over," writes Stewart E. Perry in his 1978 book San Francisco Scavengers. (The consolidation of the business was completed in 1987, when Golden Gate and Sunset were merged into Norcal.)
Scandal plagued the operation in the '30s, as witnessed by these Chronicle headlines between 1932 and 1935 — "Collection Racketeering," "Garbage Collection 'War' " — and this one from 1937: "Collection Monopoly of Sunset Scavenger Protested." And the rancor over the monopoly continues: A 1993 suit against the city by independent hauler WRT failed to break Norcal's grip, and in the last elections, voters defeated Proposition K, which would have opened up the city to other haulers.
"This is the oldest battle in San Francisco, and it's not over yet," says Deputy City Attorney John Cooper.
While the law is excruciatingly specific about who can haul trash and the illegality of pinching recyclables from blue bins, it is vague about another Mosquito Fleet commodity: cardboard.
Cardboard occupies "a gray area in the law," as Assistant DA Candace Heisler puts it, as long as the cardboard isn't torn to regulation size and deposited in a blue bin. The 1990 anti-scavenging section of the public health code states that "the city and its duly authorized collectors have the exclusive right to collect recyclable materials placed for collection in public sidewalk and street areas." [page]
But whether cardboard on the sidewalk has been abandoned or has been deposited for the city's authorized recyclers is a matter of interpretation. If the intent of the person who unloads his cardboard is to recycle, then taking it from the curbside on recycling day appears to be illegal. But if the gatherer has secured permission for the 'board, then it is a simple transfer of a property right.
Norcal has several trucks that pick up cardboard from businesses for free. Norcal considers this a "service": Bob Besso estimates that between wages and machinery it costs Norcal $150 per ton just to pick it up. Compare that to the Mosquito Fleet, who pick up the cardboard and bring it to the depot, selling it for only $100 to $120 per ton.
Even so, the ambiguity of the law and its enforcement has resulted in a number of $76 citations from the Police Department to cardboard gatherers — some of them denizens of "Mediterranean" Avenue.
Mediterranean Avenue (its name changed here to protect its residents) is a narrow one-way street of decrepit three-story houses. It's the kind of low-rent place where every door is grilled and spiked with metal but half of the door locks are broken. A dozen kids speaking three languages — Spanish, Cambodian, and English — play in the street. "Fuck you," shouts a 3-year-old girl wearing a secondhand prairie dress.
A group of kids romps in the bed of a Mosquito Fleet truck, one of five on the street, stomping aluminum cans vigorously. Four of the avenue's truck owners are Cambodian: Ra, a boyish-looking man who is married with seven young children on AFDC; a 60-year-old man who mails money back to his children in Cambodia;, a middle-aged couple; and a fourth man who makes himself inconspicuous. The fifth scavenger is a grizzled Latino who approaches his work philosophically.
"You got no job, what you gonna do?" he says. "You gonna have to steal? You'd better pick up cardboard on the street."
The Cambodian recyclers employ their countrymen who live on the block. Few speak English, so translation is provided by Jane, a 22-year-old doughnut shop employee who is related to the middle-aged couple. She confides that many of the women receive SSI benefits for mental problems.
Ra, one of the more experienced of the cardboard haulers, recounts the story about getting a $76 ticket from a plainclothes officer while heisting cardboard from the curb on Geary Street. An English-speaking Cambodian who accompanied Ra to court wanted to fight the ticket, but Ra declined.
"If it would be me I would go to court and say this is not right," interjects Jane. "But all they want is to live peacefully and go pick up cardboard to get outside money."
"I found the cardboard to pay the $76 ticket," laughs Ra, who appears to be in his 30s. "Then I stopped for a week."
Ra and his wife collect cardboard in shifts: He drives the truck four or five hours a day and then watches the kids while she goes out with a shopping cart, often tying cardboard onto her head and to her back when the cart is full. They earn between $50 and $100 a week for this work, says Ra. Because their kids are on AFDC, the earned income is illegal, which means if they're caught they could lose their government benefits. Is it worth it?
"Of course," Ra says laughing. "You make outside money."
The sentiment is universal on Mediterranean Avenue, where most of the scrappers view cardboard as their main hope of rising out of welfare.
"My mom-in-law used to tell me that I should work, go pick up cardboard with her, and maybe someday we'd buy a house or own a store or something like that," says Jane. "Yeah right! I'm going to go pick up cardboard!"
On Fillmore Street, 28-year-old Sey, another Cambodian hauler, sits by the window of his apartment, keeping an eye on his 1986 white Nissan pickup and its load of cardboard.
"Nobody'll steal it," Sey says, "because they know it's mine." Nonetheless, he's watching.
Sey's one-bedroom Victorian is decorated Cambodia style: The floor is covered with woven mats, the windows with bright red-and-green lace curtains; a red shrine with offerings of fruit leans against one wall. Near the ceiling hang portraits of family members and Asian pop stars. Incense burns thick and heavy. Sey's elderly mother sits cross-legged on her bed in the room while Sey's wife and two children slip in and out.
Sey regards his truck as the bridge to an "American" lifestyle.
"I decided I needed to do something with my life," he says, so four months ago he quit his job at United Parcel and enrolled in an auto mechanics program. That was when he bought the truck, replaced the transmission himself, and started building a cardboard collection route. (He asks that his last name not be used because it would embarrass his vocational school.)
Unlike Ra, Sey earns enough from his labors to support his family: About $50 for a daily four-hour shift. (The price of cardboard has fallen in recent weeks and now his daily take is more like $35.)
"I know all those people [on Mediterranean]," he laughs. "Any time they need help, they come to me." Sey, who endured torture and starvation at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, fled Cambodia at the age of 13 and learned English with ease. Most of Mediterranean Avenue's Cambodian residents were older when they left the mother country, so their language skills suffer. Even so, Sey got a ticket for "transporting cardboard," which is not yet against the law. The court dismissed the ticket.
Sey has parleyed his English into dollars by asking businesses like the Police Credit Union to hold their cardboard for him. [page]
The earnings of a picker "depends on where they get their cardboard from," Sey says. "Whether they get it from the street or from a big company which will stack it up for you."
There are other secrets to the trade: One is to lay a rope on the bottom of the truck before depositing any cardboard. At the depot, Sey can hitch the rope to a pole and pull the whole load out at once.
"It's hard work, but it's better than working for somebody else. With this, nobody bosses you around. You can kick back and take your time."
"Taking your time" is relative. "There's a lot of competition," Sey says. "If you see a couple of boxes of cardboard and you don't have enough people to carry them, somebody else will come along and get them."
"It is messy and embarrassing," he says. "Sometimes when you are collecting cardboard, people spit in front of you. Like the day before yesterday, I saw two big boxes of cardboard and when I pulled up to them this guy leaned out of his window and said something to my little daughter. Then he said to me, 'You wanna piece of me?' 'No,' I said, 'I don't wanna piece of you. I wanna piece of cardboard.' "
Cardboard is hard to spot in the dark. Driving her mid-'80s Honda Prelude slowly down Cole Street, 37-year-old Cambodia-born Saroueun peers into the gloom and finally spies a haphazardly stacked pile outside a fruit stand.
"Cardboard!" she shouts to her 12-year-old son, Sophath, who is snoozing in the back seat.
Saroueun enters the shop and wins permission to take the boxes. She and Sophath break the fruit boxes down, kicking the sides to rip out the staples. Saroueun slides them neatly into the trunk and cruises off to Clement, Taraval, and West Portal.
"You know, around here I'm so scared," she says as she drives down Haight and Sophath rides lookout. "When I see the people, I don't want to get out."
Last month, police wrote Saroueun a court summons for two counts of theft when she removed cardboard from the doorstep of a restaurant. She says the police made her unload the cardboard from her car and threatened her with arrest when she refused to sign the ticket.
"The police give me ticket, but I know I right," Saroueun says determinedly, and adds that she wanted to go to jail to prove her point that she was doing nothing wrong. What stopped her from volunteering for the handcuffs was that a friend was riding along, and Saroueun didn't want to inconvenience her.
Saroueun, who came to the states in 1984, has six children (ages 5 to 14) and a husband. The children survive on AFDC; the husband receives SSI because his was hit by a land mine back in Cambodia. It destroyed one of his lungs and embedded shrapnel in his brain.
She has scavenged cardboard for five years — never touching the blue bins, she says — and it has provided her family with its only outside earned income since her arrival. A week's work of cardboard free-lancing yields only $20 toward the grocery bill.
A few stores agree to set their cardboard aside for Saroueun, and she asks for permission to take cardboard at most places. But tonight on darkened Clement Street, she furtively yanks boxes from the curb and stuffs them into the trunk, checking over her shoulder for police.
After an hour's work, the trunk is full and she stops at a convenience store to ask if she can comb the dumpster. "Sure," says the manager, and he offers her boxes that haven't been discarded yet.
Sophath, who wears baggy gangsta jeans, all but disappears when he jumps into the dumpster emblazoned with a Sunset Scavenger logo. He happily hurls a trove of cardboard out onto the ground: flat pizza boxes, Snickers boxes, Frito-Lay boxes, two kinds of salami boxes, fresh tomato boxes, Charmin boxes, and a box that once contained cookies called International Delights. The heap is almost as tall as the car. The two quickly stuff the load in the back seat, leaving only enough room for Sophath to lie atop it in the fetal position. The night's work will yield $7, minus the $1.50 spent on 7UPs.
Back at Saroueun's apartment in a Hunters Point housing project, which is furnished with a collection of castoff furniture, the family debates whether Americans are fatter than Cambodians because of nature or nurture.
"Over there they had to hunt their food," observes Sarath, Saroueun's 14-year-old daughter, whose heart-shaped face seems much older than her years. "So they probably look a bit bony."
Sarath's younger brother sits on the floor wolfing a slice of microwave pizza.
At the end of July, Saroueun sold her Honda for $300 in hopes of buying a pickup to haul cardboard. But if she doesn't get that truck, she hopes for a job washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms. Never formally employed in the U.S., she has worked all of her life. In Cambodia, her father was a charcoal maker and she helped him cut, haul, and process logs as early as she can remember. When she reached the age of 9, her father indentured her to a Cambodian Chinese family that made her sew for seven years.
Daughter Sarath's dream is "to get a really good job and be able to support the people I live with without being on welfare." Sometimes she tells her family that she will be a lawyer and ride in a limousine. But she really wants to be a pediatrician or a nurse.
"The money thing is really hard," she says pensively.
Saroueun's husband can't gather cardboard because of his health, but he often begs his wife not to go. [page]
"It's dangerous," he says. "You go too many hours and get not too much money, just [enough] to pay for gas." He pauses. "Picking up cardboard is more exercise and not too much money!"
At Saroueun's court date on the morning of July 28, she arrives at the Hall of Justice with an English-fluent Cambodian neighbor named Borin, who is accompanied by his wife and toddler. Borin helps feed his growing family by pier fishing in the bay.
Saroueun bites her lip in the elevator but says she is not nervous. No one is sure how much the fines for theft and petty theft will set her back. A court clerk estimates the petty theft fine at $50, but won't guess the fine for the other charge. The clerk directs Saroueun to the Bureau of Criminal Information, where she finds a bureaucratic maze of windows.
"Do we take a number or what?" says Borin.
Finally a police officer shows the Cambodians a list of names typed on adding machine paper and taped to a window. These are the cases that the DA's office decided not to pursue; Saroueun's name is on the list.
It takes a moment to register, and when it does, Saroueun is furious that she won't have her day in court to prove that she has done nothing wrong.
The salad days may be drawing to a close for the Mosquito Fleet, even though the market for recyclables remains robust. Jerry Powell, editor of Resource Recycling, predicts prices for recyclables will stay high through the next decade, driven by lack of tree fiber, consumer demand for recycled products, and a radical shift in the role of recycling.
"It used to be people in Volvos [who recycled]," says Powell. "Now Charlie Six-Pack in his pickup is recycling, too. Recycling is now a legitimate industrial supply mechanism rather than a political strategy."
But the market for recyclables is extremely cyclical. The prices for newsprint are now falling from their all-time highs, as are cardboard prices. Previously, cardboard soared 400 percent to nearly $200 a ton, but prices are now slipping below $100 a ton. The drop is so precipitous that many scavengers no longer go out every night.
Meanwhile, the city is stepping up its enforcement program. Both the San Francisco Police Department and the city's Recycling Program are talking with the DA's office about increasing the penalty for taking recyclables from a public health code violation to a criminal theft charge. Meanwhile the Recycling Program has commenced a campaign aimed at getting citizens to call the police on scavengers.
At the state level, the Department of Conservation has announced a grant program for cities taking anti-scavenging measures. And there are some plans afoot to prevent buyback centers from accepting recyclables from people using stolen shopping carts. Also, an April letter from Oakland's acting recycling supervisor asks the Department of Conservation to rethink AB2020, the "Bottle Bill," and "dramatically" reduce the redemption rates for cans and bottles.
The crackdown isn't a grass-roots thing: A 1993 poll for the San Francisco Recycling Program showed that only 3 percent of San Franciscans support ticketing to scavengers. Some of the charges aren't even sticking. The Municipal Court dismissed not only the charges against Saroueun, but Sey as well.
That's not much to show for a program whose $125,000 price tag makes it one of the most expensive enforcement programs in the nation, according to Jerry Powell. In L.A., according to wire service reports, city officials budgeted just $15,000 for police overtime. And they got results: Every month $8,000 worth of newspapers are not stolen from their program.
Bill Doe has already sensed the shift in the winds: He's just checked into a Matrix hotel room.
He made the decision on the spur of the moment when the Matrix van with its pair of social workers appeared at the corner of 15th and Carolina, not far from the West Coast Recycling depot.
"They got me a little program," he says wearily. "I don't like being manipulated, but after all, we're just street people and we're lucky to get any damn thing."
He fears the worst is yet to come.
"If Jordan is re-elected, they're really gonna come down on us," he muses. "Overnight they'll take the carts away."
He's standing outside West Coast Recycling with his two carts, waiting for the door to open. At his feet he has gathered a 5-pound jar of peanut butter, a pair of women's shoes, two telephones, and a frying pan.
Three weeks ago, he told of his decision to get off General Assistance (GA) and pick through the recycling.
"I didn't want to be a slug or a vegetable or a GA person," he said then.
Now he looks at his carts with an air of defeat.
"I have these grandiose plans that never work out.


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text:
We're sorry, but this sub-class is over. The last meeting was Friday, March 15, 2019.
Big Bad Wolves, Red Capes, Magic Beans, and Glass Slippers! In Fairy Tale Frenzy, campers are invited to step inside a world of magic and adventure! The teaching artist will select a fairy tale that students will stage throughout the week, exploring ways to use their Actor?s Toolbox of body, voice, and imagination to bring a classic story to life.
Courtney Potter is beyond excited to be a part of NCT's incredible teaching artist team. A Nashville native, she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Belmont University; she performs, directs, designs, writes, and teaches. She believes in the power of stories, and the importance that storytelling has on our society as a whole, as well as on the individual.
25 Middleton St.
Nashville, TN 37210
Tel. 615.254.9103


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Not that popular polling is always the best way to govern, but the current capacity of the Republican controlled federal government to ignore public opinion is amazing. For example, the Republican tax plan has a 26% approval rating [PR] 91% of Democrats, and perhaps more importantly, 61% of independent voters disapprove of the plan. 66% of Republicans approve of the plan, but we have to remember 37% of the American public identifies with the GOP. [HP]
While we're remembering the horror at the Sandy Hook Elementary School five years ago (and not forgetting the massacre at the Las Vegas music concert) we know that 32% of Republicans, 83% of Democrats, and 62% of independents support stronger guns laws in this country. Overall support for stricter control of firearms stands at 60%. [PR]
The FCC decision to eliminate the net neutrality rules, some of which go back to the less than golden age of dial up, isn't popular either. Polling found that 83% of registered voters disliked the idea, 75% of whom were Republican and 89% of Democrats. 86% of registered voters who were independent didn't like the idea either. However, the FCC marched on with a 17% approval rating for its new "light touch" policy.
It seems that whenever the President* starts feeling the heat from Congressional, popular, or media sources he retreats to his anti-immigration rhetoric. The Wall seems either literally or metaphorically important to him, but it isn't all that much in the eyes of the nation he's supposed to be leading. 36% of registered voters support The Wall, while 62% oppose it. [PR] Voters were given three choices about Dreamers, stay and apply for citizenship, stay but not as citizens, or leave the country. The December Marist poll found 58% supporting the stay/citizenship option, 23% supported stay but not as citizens, and only 15% supported deportation. As of the week of December 6th the Quinnipiac Poll found 77% supporting the stay/citizenship application option, 7% supported the stay with no citizenship option, and only 12% supporting the deportation option.
It's been a while since we've seen polling about Vladimir Putin, the other half of the Trump-Putin bromance. There was some polling done last Summer which might be instructive. Last July only 15% of Americans had a positive feeling about Putin, and as of late June 2017 approximately 50% of Americans felt the President* was too friendly with the Russian leader. [PR]
A person might think that a leader who isn't stone deaf to public sentiment or stonewalling to protect his self image might want to consider how best to reach toward a broader audience, and to cultivate something more than a 32% approval rating. Apparently that consideration isn't getting much traction in the current White House.
Nor does it seem like the first session of the 115th Congress is paying much attention either. In fact, it looks like the GOP is doing the drafting of the Democratic Platform for 2018 — Net Neutrality, DACA, common sense gun regulation, immigration reform, and real tax reform for working Americans. The 32% President and his 37% party are perhaps doing the best they can to elevate the Democratic Party in the mid term elections?


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KARACHI – Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) has started first PhD Defence Thesis Examination and with this has now started producing PhDs.
Dr. Jahan Ara Ainuddin from Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, DUHS was the PhD candidate. Her thesis was approved by subject expert from outside Pakistan and awarded first PhD degree from Dow University. She completed her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Nasim Karim, Professor & HOD, Department of Pharmacology, Bahria University Medical & Dental College, with co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Zaman Shaikh, Ex‐ Director, NIDE & Professor of Medicine. The panel of external examiners including Prof. Rashid Latif, Hameed Latif Hospital Lahore, Prof. Dr. Abdul Jabbar, Professor of Medicine & Consultant Endocrinologist, Sr. Medical Advisor, Dubai, Prof. Dr. Munawar Alam Ansari, Department of Pharmacology, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro‐Sindh and two internal examiners, Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Afsar, Dean, Faculty of Medical & Allied Sciences, Department of Medicine and Prof. Dr. Ayesha Khan, Professor & Chairperson, Department of Guyenne & Obstetrics.
An Open Defence Session was held today on 21st November 2013 at Dow International Medical College, Ojha Campus. Prof. Dr. Masood Hameed Khan, Vice-Chancellor, DUHS explained brief history of successes of university under his leadership. He informed that the Research output at the time of inception of DUHS was 42 and now it has been increased about 4 times approximately to 150. He appraised the efforts of the Research Department and also encourage to the faculty to go ahead and carry on their researches because university is the place where knowledge is created and it also provides the platform for the researchers.
Prof. Junaid Ashraf, Principle, Dow Medical College in his address gave details process of examination and postgraduates activity of the Dow University. He congratulated Dr. Jahan Ara Ainuddin to become first PhD Candidate of Dow University.
Prof. Dr. Nazeer Khan gave brief introduction of Research Activities and PhD program running at DUHS. Later Prof. M. Umar Farooq, Pro-Vice Chancellor, DUHS shared his feelings at this remarkable achievement of the university and also expressed their best wishes to Dr. Jahan Ara Ainuddin, for her PhD defense examination.
Later on, Dr. Jahan Ara Ainuddin started her presentation. After her oral presentation, examination was conducted in front of audience where examiners asked the questions and Dr. Jahan Ara Ainuddin answered them. After the small break of refreshment, one of external examiners Prof. Rashid Latif was requested to announce the result.


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What is a Technology Workshop?
Thanks for the great response to our advertisement in the July issue about our free Technology Workshop to learn to fix computers. It seems that many of you are having a fun summer and just can't get to the Collinwood Recreation Center from 3-5pm on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, but your questions and interest are great. We thought this month we would answer your questions.
- When will this free workshop end?
This portion of the workshop ends on August 24th, but we are waiting for the approval to continue through December so you have the chance to stop in after school and learn how to be a computer technician.
- Do I have to come every day?
Nope. When you do come we would like for you to stay for the full two hours.
- What age do I have to be?
We only allow high school students (grades 9-12).
- Is their homework and tests?
Not at all. You will learn how to check laptops and desktops to see if they work properly or if they can be fixed. The more sessions you attend the faster you get proficient in the 15-20 specific steps.
- Can we check out my home computer to see if it can be fixed or made to work better?
Yes, we can, if we are caught up with the other work we must complete.
- Do I have to have prior knowledge of computer design and troubleshooting?
None at all! Just come with the desire to learn and we will teach you.
- Are you sure this is absolutely FREE?
You bet. All you do is provide your time and the will to learn!
All great questions and I am sure you will have more for us. Just call me, Gary Minadeo, at 440-840-6164, if you need more information. Please do come to at least one session before August 24th to meet us and see what we are doing; we guarantee that even if it is not right for you that you will see we have a great program that may interest your friends and family.
Gary Minadeo
Director, Special Programs, for 501c3 Classrooms to Corporations company dedicated to motivating high school students to join the information technology maintenance community - free!!!


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Oxford opens its first ever gin distillery
Once dismissed as an old fashioned drink, gin has seen an extraordinary rebirth in recent years with sales rocketing in bars and supermarkets alike.
Last year, 40 million bottles were sold in Britain - that's enough to make more than one billion gin and tonics.
Its surge in popularity has led to a dramatic rise in the number of gin makers setting up business.
Bombay Sapphire opened its distillery in Whitchurch three years ago and now Oxford has its first ever distillery.
Mel Bloor went along to find out more.
Mel spoke to Tom Nicolson, Founder of The Oxford Artisan Distillery, George Bennett from Sandy Lane Farm and Master Distiller, Cory Mason.


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Mercat de les Flors Lleida 59, 08004 Barcelona
Director Leandro Mendoza is back at the Grec festival this year after receiving a great reception at last year's festival, with a unique play in Spanish about a circus company named Gaudual who find themselves lost in the woods, near a river. There, they encounter three Ecuadorian peasants who offer the company a place to stay, and together they create a utopian circus in their natural surroundings. Get set for an exciting visual production and a heartwarming tale. General admission is €18.
More information here.


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Our PLA clear Cups / Lids are compostable in commercial compost facilities, and not designed for composting in your backyard pile. Compost is a great way to improve vital soil resources and divert waste that would otherwise be land filled. Made from 100% renewable resources and made with Ingeo™, a plant-based plastic. Great for displaying cold food.
Our 280ml BioCups are weights and measures approved for alcohol service.
- Brim full capacity: 306ml (10oz)
- Diameter top: 80mm
- Product dimensions: 103mm
- Pieces per carton: 2000
- Pieces per sleeve: 100
- Carton dimensions: 67 x 40 x 33cm
- Carton total weight: 13.8kg
- Manufactured: Taiwan
- Price quoted exclusive gst


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by Ben Pickard
Kitty, you have produced and raised a fine young man. Without trying to patronise you or belittle your issues, if you never do another thing again that you deem 'worthwhile', that will be enough. Who knows? The next thing is you're a grandparent...
Thanks Ben ... this wasn't reflecting my 'now' ... more a pondering on how I might feel when I'm at the end of my life - hopefully not like this. Thanks for your lovely comments though and my fine young man had better NOT make me a grandmother any time soon! Lol :-) x
by Michael
A descriptive piece, reflecting on how you feel, that is certainly a real situation, but glad to see not present :)
Thanks Michael I appreciate that :-) x
by C Cattaway
Beautiful, descriptive, & thoughtful. Remorseful but not regretful. Well done x
Thanks so much Catherine :-) x


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Hi everyone,
I would just like to ask for your prayers in behalf of our Sister in the Lord Jan. You may have seen her in the comments sections of several different pages on this site.
She's either scheduled to have, is having, or just had, a double bypass and needs your prayers. Please take a moment, and stand in the gap on our sister's behalf. Make some noise Saints! Thank you and God bless.
In Christ,
Similar Posts:
- Thank You for your Donation!
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Astoria, Oregon, is a small city on the northern Oregon Coast, but it's not directly on the Pacific and therefore not one of Oregon's seaside communities. Perched along the banks of the Columbia River facing Washington State, and also bordered by Youngs Bay and Youngs River, Astoria is a river town with a revitalized downtown, a vibrant Riverwalk, restored Victorian mansions and bungalows, rich history and a definite edginess that the locals cherish.
At the very northwest tip of Oregon, Astoria is a perfect place to begin or end a U.S. Highway 101 road trip of the Oregon Coast. However, it's a destination in its own right, and Portlandians frequently make the two-hour trip to spend the weekend in Astoria's hip breweries, coffee shops and trendy restaurants, inns and Sunday Market. Astoria's hilly downtown streets, trolley, water views and cultural offerings are reminiscent of San Francisco, only in smaller, less expensive and less crowded conditions.
On this site we'll lead you to all Astoria's wonders, from its art galleries, used bookstores and antique shops to its traditional seafood restaurants and chef-driven bistros.
Things to Do in Astoria, Oregon
Astoria's most famous landmarks are the Astoria-Megler Bridge that leads to Washington state and the 125-foot Astoria Column that sits 600 feet above the town. Driving across the bridge and climbing the column afford panoramic views of the rivers and bay. You can also visit Fort Clatsop National Memorial, the endpoint of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, to explore historic exhibits, living history exhibitions and hiking trails. The Columbia River Maritime Museum has interactive activities about life on the river, and the Oregon Film Museum offers insight into movies that were filmed in Astoria, including The Goonies. Click around this site to find everything to do in Astoria, including historic attractions and indoor and outdoor recreational opportunities.
Discover Warrenton, Oregon
Five miles west of Astoria, across Youngs Bay via Youngs Bay Bridge, is the city of Warrenton, Oregon. With coastlines along Youngs Bay, the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, Warrenton is defined by water. Fishing for sturgeon and salmon is prosperous in Youngs Bay, and Warrenton contains both a charter fishing port and major commercial fishing port. Warrenton's biggest claim to fame is as the home to Fort Stevens State Park. This 4,300-acre state park includes wide, clean Pacific beaches, camping facilities, lake swimming, hiking and biking trails, the Peter Iredale shipwreck and Fort Stevens, a Civil War-era fort that was in service through World War II. This site includes everything you need to know when visiting Warrenton,Oregon, from information about the beaches and state park to where to eat, drink, shop, fish, play and rest in Warrenton.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far is Astoria, Oregon from the nearest major airport or city?
From Portland International Airport (PDX), it takes about an hour and 40 minutes to drive to Astoria, Oregon. It takes about two hours to drive to Astoria from Portland on U.S. Highway 30.
How far is it from Astoria to Warrenton, Oregon and Fort Stevens State Park?
It's about a 15-minute drive from downtown Astoria across the Youngs Bay Bridge to downtown Warrenton, Oregon. The state park entrance is about five minutes farther.
What is the population of Astoria and Warrenton?
Astoria, Oregon, is home to around 10,000 people, while Warrenton, Oregon has a population of around 5,000.
Can I climb the Astoria Column?
Yes, the 125-foot high column is open to climbing. Walk up the 164-step circular stairway and you'll be rewarded with a commanding view of Astoria and the Columbia River. It's free to climb, but there's a $5 parking fee.
Is it always rainy in Astoria and Warrenton?
The summers are mildly warm and dry with the most amount of sunshine. Fall and spring are rainy, and winter can be downright stormy with dramatic winds coming off the ocean and river.
Can I swim at Fort Stevens State Park?
Ocean swimming is not recommended due to cold water and dangerous currents. Freshwater swimming is available in Coffenbury Lake.
Can I drive on the beach at Fort Stevens State Park?
4WD beach driving is allowed in some areas at certain times of the year. Be sure to check online or at the visitors center for specific rules and regulations.


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With summer rapidly approaching, and the weather heating up, it's the perfect time to turn our attention to warm weather weddings and events. If you're planning an outdoor wedding in the warmer months, you'll want to give some extra though to keeping your guests cool and comfortable.
The biggest part of keeping guests cool in summer is to give them some shade. Whether you opt for a frame tent or a pole tent, giving your guests ample coverage from the sun can be much-needed as the temperature rises. It also offers protection from any unexpected wedding day showers! Within a tent, you can also choose from a variety of cooling systems including air circulation fans, evaporative coolers, or even air conditioning units.
Another important part of keeping guests cool is keeping them hydrated. Add coolers around your venue so that guests are never too far from a cold drink. We offer a variety of styles, so there's something for any wedding theme or look. Guests will also need a place to sit down when it's hot, and a lounge area is the perfect choice.
To find out how to use any of these for your Nashville wedding, get in touch today!


text: 5 HVAC Industry Technologies Driving Efficiency 07/16/2018 | By Ken Burns It's no longer "business as usual" in the world of HVAC: New technologies are turning the industry on its head by making the training, manufacturing and installing processes more efficient. Many instruments in the trade are getting a facelift, new applications are being introduced, and other key operations are using digital tools and internet connectivity. The impact of modern technologies on the HVAC industry seemingly has no end in sight. Here are five of these new technologies and how they are driving efficiency for users and service technicians alike. 1. 3D Printing The evolution of 3D printing started as a marathon in the 1980s and evolved into a sprint around 2013, when the technology became more accessible and affordable. Today, the speed and versatility of 3D printing means it's creating everything from bespoke medical devices to specialized prototypes and parts for HVAC units – and even the units themselves. In the HVAC industry, 3D printing is used to create missing or custom pieces with precision; these 3D printed custom pieces are also more efficient and durable than their traditional counterparts. That's because they are created with a layering process that leaves no seams, offering better resistance. Related: Internet of Things: How IoT Devices Enable Predictive Maintenance While 3D technology makes it easier to replace a single part, it could also reinvent how manufacturers construct entire HVAC units. For instance, 3D printing may provide a solution for a customer who needs a customized unit installed in a particularly awkward spot. The 3D printer could create a custom unit in half the time – and with less material waste– than traditional manufacturing methods, resulting in a quicker turnaround and less of an environmental impact. 2. Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is a favorite simulation method used in the video game industry, but this technology has additional, more practical uses. Companies in various industries are using VR to help with employee training, virtual tours, live streaming events and other real-world applications. In the HVAC industry, VR could help clients visualize the blueprints of a room or building for better spatial recognition. It could be used to view the inner workings of a machine so technicians could see how to best service and repair a unit. VR could even be used to show potential clients a virtual representation of their proposed HVAC system, offering customers newfound transparency into the construction of their system. VR also aids in the training of employees, allowing new hires and seasoned veterans alike to try their hand at servicing or repairing HVAC units and other equipment in a risk-free environment. 3. Smart Thermostats Digital thermostats offer many advantages over traditional models, including accessibility and ease of use, with most smart thermostats being controlled from a smartphone or tablet. Smart thermostat technology gives users the ability to remotely manage the temperature in their home to help them save money on energy costs. Beyond their usability, smart thermostats have helped to revolutionize HVAC systems. With smart thermostats, HVAC units are now more energy efficient, customizable, and compatible with smart home technologies. 4. Internet of Things From cars to refrigerators, universal wireless connectivity, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), is changing how devices work and interact with one another. Smart thermostats are one example of the HVAC industry ties to the IoT. For example, a Wi-Fi connected HVAC system could use preventative diagnostics to detect potential errors instead of relying on user recognition or a system malfunction. Upon detection (and with help from IoT-connected devices), the system could send a service notification to the owner or repair team. It could also take measures to remedy any further damage, like resetting or powering down the system. Internet-enabled HVAC units (with the help of smart thermostats) are also more capable of detecting changes in their environment and making automatic adjustments to keep a room or space comfortable. 5. Air Purification Technology advances in HVAC aren't just for convenience – they're also improving health and safety. Air purification methods are getting smarter as customers push for ways to keep air safe. Specifically, consumers are focused on getting rid of VOCs and common allergens, which can cause poor air quality. On topic: 4 HVAC Tips to Improve IAQ One of the ways that technology is improving air purification is through the monitoring of air quality and air filters online. Some of the top air purification technologies have come from NASA. For example, a system can notify a user when a filter needs to be replaced or when the air quality is poor. These systems expertly marry energy efficiency with streamlined air cleaning methods for the best air quality. HVAC Industry Embraces Technology The HVAC industry is entering the 21st century in a major way. Users are demanding more intuitive, energy efficient models, and the industry is responding in turn with smarter technologies. End users aren't the only beneficiaries: HVAC companies are also seeing positive gains in how they service their customers. These exciting technological advances could help create a more cost-effective and more energy efficient industry in the not too distant future. Kevin Burns is the President of Bob Jenson Air Conditioning in San Diego with over 29 years of experience in the HVAC Field. He has worked in every aspect of the industry and has trained dozens of people. He has a passion for doing what's right for each home and customer and sets this standard for his entire team. Two hand-picked articles to read next: 5 Air Purifying Indoor Plants Drive HVAC Efficiency with Internet of Things Functionality Previous ArticleMake Sure Your Solar Power Purchase Agreement Is ProfitableNext Article Read more on Energy Management » Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email Share Share Other Open Social Related Coverage 4 Lighting Strategies for Energy Efficiency GridOptimal Initiative Changes Power Grid Interaction How School District Cut 62 Percent in Energy Spending Related Articles Energy Management How to Increase Productivity and Engagement in Outdoor Spaces Energy Management 10 Lighting & Interiors Money-Saving Products for 2019 Energy Management Try These 14 Sustainable Solutions In Your Facility Energy Management 5 Winter Pests – And How to Evict Them! Go get our newsletter! Join our Buildings Bulletin community now! 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text: Red wine. Southern Rhône, France. Organic. 100% Syrah. "A Côtes du Rhône that needs to be tasted to be believed, the 2016 Domaine de Ferrand Côtes-du-Rhône La Ferrand comes from older Syrah vines around the estate (just to the north of Châteauneuf du Pape) and was brought up in barrel (I think this is the only wine from the estate to see oak). Its deep ruby/purple color is followed by a vivid bouquet of blueberries, ground pepper, violets, and floral notes. I'd probably guess Cote Rotie in a blind tasting and it's medium to full-bodied, has a layered, elegant texture, beautiful tannins, and a great finish." — 93 Points, Jeb Dunnuck, (May 2019)


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Brand: vendor-unknown
Part #: 800-1307
Availability:Out of stock
Ross forged piston set for Datsun L28 engines in 87mm bore size. Includes six pistons (1mm oversize) with pins, locks and NPR (made in japan) ring set. Available in flat top (approx 10:1 compression).
*Check out our tapered ring compressor PT# 800-2133 for easy piston installation.
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Toolz Speaks Out On Several Life Issues Including Her Miscarriage
Nigeria's on air personality, Tolu Oniru-Demuren, popularly known as Toolz, has opened up about some personal issues including the loss of her pregnancy.
She made the disclosure in a recent interview with genevieve magazine.
The OAP talked about issues ranging from miscarriage, depression, marriage and her romantic life.
See what she shared on her Instagram page below:
The past few weeks have been so manic, but in between the madness I was lucky enough to shoot with @genevievemagazine. It's such an honour to be on their cover yet again! This was perhaps the hardest interview I've ever had to do, but I pray someone gets inspired or encouraged by my journey. One of the main reasons why Sablier is so important to me is because I did a lot of work on it while I was in hospital last year. It kept me sane, and helped me keep my mind together. It is available digitally to buy, via this link: http://genevievemagazine.com/product/may-emagazine-issue/ (link in bio) and will be available in print soon. A big thank you to everyone at @Genevievemagazine – Aunty @Bettyirabor your support has just been amazing! Sonia, @hyperfashun – stylist of life!(even though you didn't want me to rock that short wig) @lillianopaul @ahamibeleme @ferdinandshair – God bless you all xx
Naija News recalls Toolz recently launched a lingerie line for plus size women.
"I want ladies, irrespective of their size or body types, to be confident and love themselves, and essentially embrace their beautiful, because beauty is from within and is not dependent on what society dictates," she said.