text:
Securitization Issues — Throughout the trials and tribulations of pouring over thousands of documents, the same issue keeps popping up in my head. Why are attorneys claiming to rely ONLY on the Pooling and Servicing Agreement (the "PSA") to establish REMIC failure and nothing else?
How many cases have you read in the last two years that there was strict reliance on the use of the PSA to win a foreclosure case?
I have read of very few instances that go into extreme detail in an attempt to educate a judge (unless you're in one of the "sand states", which got hit the hardest and well before the rest of the nation caught on), who really didn't major in securities law (unless you happen to be "seated" somewhere in the Southern District of New York), all the while opposing counsel is objecting to entering the PSA into evidence at trial. At the end of the day, who has the note with the right to enforce it seems to be the bottom line. This issue has also come under severe scrutiny, because when MERS and securitization are involved, it means the promissory note you signed is now an electronic memory and does not consist of what the bank's attorneys claim is "the original note". (I will save the forensic discussion of promissory notes for another argument and another article!)
Perhaps it's because some well-meaning individuals out there in the legal world told the attorneys that the crux of their argument was in the PSA.
I say, "No, it's not just the PSA! You're only eating half the enchilada!"
I am writing this piece (not for my own self-gratification) for the sake of those who have gotten past Securitization 101. I know most of the blog readers understand what a PSA is and what it contains. They subscribed to this blog in the past because there was something worthwhile posted on here, so the assumption is … the PSA to the readers of this blog is at least within their sphere of knowledge. This may be a little "deep" for those of you reading this post for the first time.
In my travails, I have discovered that the "blind eye" seems to include such terms as "Cut-off Date" and "Closing Date", when referencing the PSA, yet these terms are not found in the PSA. They are merely referenced. To find these two dates, what must one do? Go to the front of the bloody 424(b)(5) Prospectus and find it within the first few pages of the document's definitions.
I am not being paid by SECINFO.COM to tell you that it is much easier to search for REMIC information on this website than many of you have experienced on SEC.GOV. I only use SEC.GOV to order complete certified copies of the 424(b)(5) Prospectus, because I want to eat and digest the whole enchilada. Why? Because I'm hungry for the truth, that's why. I want the truth, the WHOLE truth and nothing BUT the truth (the WHOLE truth). That means, if I have to peruse a bloody 400+ page prospectus that defines the parameters of how a REMIC behaves, I'm going to get this knowledge in my craw, because it's going to come in real handy and some point and this is an RMBS Trust we're talking about, it's somebody's house that is affected by what's in this bloody document!
If man's thought processes anything like electricity, it's following the path of least resistance. There are "securitization gurus" out there in the hinterland that I tip my hat to because they've gone above and beyond the call of duty in reading and understanding the entire "enchilada" (the sales pitch), and you know who you are, but they keep pointing to Section 2.01 (or its relative counterpart in some other types of PSA's) and not referencing (and including as evidence) the WHOLE truth.
I say, the judge needs to "get smart" in order to play the game. But … most won't.
I've also heard that judges in America really don't give a shit about you and whether you lose your home. You didn't make your payments so you deserve to, whether someone else made them for you or not. Judges just want to clear their court dockets as quickly as possible to convince the populace and hierarchy that keeps putting them on the bench that they are efficient in their duties and that their political careers and pensions are priority #1 (and go play golf and vacation with their families).
If you wonder what others are saying about judges across America, just dial up The Robing Room and see for yourself!
It seems like the foreclosure defense community just wants to "cut to the chase" to inform the judge that the "path of least resistance" is out there. All of us lazy folk don't have time to read the whole enchilada. ("Your Honor, we know you have a full docket today, so out of professional legal courtesy, we're not going to waste your time … because after all, we're 'officers of the court' and we have a duty to represent the concerns of the court first, the public second and our clients … in last place! We have a business model to run, Your Honor, and we can't do that wasting time in court, when we can make money playing the delay game. Oh, wait! That's part of Your Honor's game too! Drag the proceeding out as long as possible so the homeowner runs out of money, gives up and walks away, right? Either way, the banks win!")
The foregoing thought process sounds like many a pissed-off homeowner that has lost faith in America. You know what? I don't blame you. I've lost faith in America too. I've learned that you cannot depend on the charity of others in your quest to survive. However, we live in a society that condones and promotes such behaviors (it's called socialism) and the multiculturalized American society gobbles it up like a hot enchilada. But … they eat it so fast they don't take the time to digest it and it passes through their systems like "shit through a goose" (to quote Gen. George Patton). Yet these same pissed off homeowners are quick to criticize anyone else that's trying to do the right thing, as if we're all destined to be miserable in life.
This is the chief concern when I don't see the entire 424(b)(5) Prospectus (in certified form) being offered as evidence at trial. One can always "tab" the document with miniature, self-adhesive type notes or make reference to those sections of the document in their written arguments so the judge will see it. Bankruptcy judges have to deal with this all the time, because they're concerned about debt, not chain of title.
So the question then becomes: Does securitization actually have anything to do with chain of title? Do you know the answer?
It's just that Wall Street's idea of "pure intellectual masturbation" hasn't permeated into the crevices of America's primary educational system. Kids in school today don't even learn "Checkbook 101". Nope! They just want their allowance so they can go out and blow it on junk. Wait a minute! That sounds kind of like Wall Street in 2008 when everyone in the securitization game was being compensated into the millions so they could go out and party in blow, booze and hookers, doesn't it? Now, I suppose some of you out there are also picturing Dante's Inferno, right? Especially the Third, Fourth and Eighth Circles.
When it comes to securitization, you simply CANNOT cut corners. If you'll notice, the entire 424(b)(5) Prospectus document, in whatever form, has some commonalities:
- It was signed under penalty of perjury under the Sarbanes-Oxley ("SOX") Act.
- Virtually ALL of the REMICs have Cut-off and Closing Dates.
- The chain of title to the subject property (under attack) probably contains an Assignment of Mortgage or Assignment of Deed of Trust that makes reference to a REMIC by name (if it's written correctly, some aren't). This is where the REMIC shows up in the chain of title and becomes a "party" in the "adverse claimants to title" category.
- Most if not all of the time, the Assignment in question (also suspect to this very day) was drafted by the employees of the mortgage loan servicer you're trying to deal with, using MERS or some other "made up" interest so the servicer can "hide behind the scenes".
- All prospectuses make reference (somewhere in the document) of who the "players" in the securitization game are, generally they're right up front. These are offered to investors right up front, prior to investing, which also promoted the caveats (there were no guarantees), when the creators of the REMICs knew exactly what they were doing in running the reader around in circles (the "pure intellectual masturbation") until they're so confused they don't know which end of the document is "up".
- All make reference to who collects the money to support the distribution payments to the investors at the other end of the REMIC who claimed to be harmed when the REMIC drags you into court or announces it's selling your home on the courthouse steps.
- In some way, shape or form, most if not all prospectuses contain a Pooling and Servicing Agreement of some sort, which explain HOW mortgage loans are supposed to be conveyed into the trust pool and when.
The problem is, none of the banks ever followed their own rules. The servicers of the mortgage loans began paying your mortgage loans for you when you hit your financial "tipping point" and couldn't make them any longer (or wouldn't because you found out the truth). When the borrower stops making payments, the servicer starts making the payments for the borrower. This is mandated by the Prospectus, but again, how convenient THAT was left out of the legal equation brought before the Court. We couldn't have the judge thinking some rich uncle was making our mortgage payments now, could we?
Some REMICs have a third party involved. That third party is called the Credit Risk Manager. It's generally an outside company that is paid a fractional portion of the REMIC's gain to monitor the activities of the mortgage loan servicer. This would mean that this entity has documentation (that it gets on a regular basis, IF it's doing its job properly) being supplied to it by the servicer and the Trustee (if certain aspects of the REMIC's operations are applicable) for evaluation to make sure that the servicer is doing its job correctly in compliance with the REMIC's own governing regulations.
To insist that the Credit Risk Manager may be in breach of his fiduciary duties to the REMIC would depend on three (3) things:
(1) The Credit Risk Manager (if one is shown, not all REMICs have them) was not compliant in keeping track of the servicer and its records;
(2) The Credit Risk Manager failed to report the failure of servicer compliance to the Trustee; and
(3) The Credit Risk Manager was getting a paycheck for doing nothing.
This is another classic example of REMIC failure!
The judges just want to give your homes to the bank. They really don't have time for details. Right?
Again, I post the following for your consideration: Ocwen's Letter to 6 Government Agencies
The foregoing transmission is 9 pages long. I would suggest, as part of your digestion process of "the whole enchilada", you focus on the parts of the Prospectus that talk about payments being made to investors to keep the REMIC going. What happened in 2008 was pure "overload" on Wall Street's financial system. When you read this Ocwen transmission, you will probably be infuriated, because this affects NOT JUST OCWEN, but EVERY mortgage loan servicer out there!
Read the 9 pages again! The servicers are the parties doing the foreclosures in the name of the lender. The problem is, you don't have a written agreement with the servicer. You have a written agreement with the Lender. If the lender's out of business, the servicer is still collecting mortgage payments and is still paying the REMIC's investors. When you stop making the mortgage payments, along with your taxes and insurance payments, the servicer makes them for you!
In the case of a GSE, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae or Sallie Mae (WHAT? Student loans are securitized too?), they too manage REMICs and are knee deep in securitization failure just like the rest of the published REMICs contained within the SEC's databases. If there is default insurance involved anywhere in the securitization process, someone got made whole (or at least the payments kept coming in to pay investors), so who is "harmed"?
The way that the OCC Asset Securitization Handbook contemplated the path of cash flows through the securitization chain started at the top, with the Borrower. Even U. S. Bank, N.A. admits the Borrower is a party to the Securitization Chain in its 4-page brochure, here: US Bank Brochure – Role of the Corporate Trustee
So then, why do bank attorneys in court keep downplaying that the Borrower has nothing to do with the Assignment of Mortgage, when the Borrower clearly is AT THE TOP OF THE CHAIN? (taken from p. 8, virtually right up front, just like the Cut-off and Closing Dates are located in a Prospectus).
The "Originator" and "Servicer" work in tandem with (but independent of) each other to make the loans and then collect the payments so the investors who "buy into" the securitization scheme get paid (on the distribution date, generally the 25th of every month). The "Rating Agency" issues ratings for the bonds the investors would be able to buy (this is shown in the Prospectus, NOT in the PSA). How much more evidence do you need that the Borrower's payments to the chain have everything to do with compliance of the entire Prospectus, even when the Borrower DOESN'T MAKE THE PAYMENTS!
For the purposes of this discussion, we move within the path of the securitization chain to discuss WHO makes your payments when you can't.
The following item was taken from the front end of the Prospectus (NOT in the PSA, which I why I say ya'll spend so much time focusing on the PSA, you miss the good shit**):
So, if you think I'm making this stuff up, think again. This paragraph (taken out of the front end of a Free Writing Prospectus in conjunction with the REMIC paperwork offered on SECINFO.com, which I subscribe to) explains the same thing that the 9-page letter Ocwen wrote about who makes the payments when the Borrower doesn't. So, these are the "baker's dozen" questions I leave you with:
- Is your written contract (the Security Instrument) with the mortgage loan servicer or with the lender?
- Does it say anything in your Mortgage or Deed of Trust that the Servicers may change during the life of your loan?
- Did anyone tell the mortgage loan servicer to make your payments for you when you couldn't?
- Did the mortgage loan servicer handling your loan tell you that it was making your payments for you when you couldn't?
- Did the foreclosure mill law firm mention in the foreclosure complaint that the servicer made the payments for you?
- When you asked the servicer (in discovery or through a QWR) for a payment history, did the servicer disclose ALL the payments made (including the payments the servicer made)?
- Did the servicer's law firm misrepresent the character and status of the debt as being in "default" when it really wasn't? [FDCPA § 807(2)(A)]
- As the result of Question #7, has the servicer been wrongfully trashing your credit reports? (FUTURE CREDIT DAMAGE, actual harm under Spokeo v. Robins)
- As the result of Question #7, did the foreclosure mill law firm attempt to collect payments from you that you believe were already paid by the servicer?
- As the result of Question #7, did the foreclosure mill law firm allege that the REMIC was the Plaintiff when the servicer had been paying the REMIC's investors all along?
- If the servicer had been making the payments all along, was the REMIC and its investors actually harmed?
- In deed of trust states, are you non-judicial foreclosure victims now kicking yourself because you didn't realize this information was in the Prospectus … and you could have truly fought this?
- If you retained an attorney to fight your foreclosure, why didn't your foreclosure defense lawyer pick up on this? (Remember, the path of electricity?)
Therefore, it would stand to reason that if everyone stopped making their mortgage payments on known securitization chains, the mortgage loan servicers now in existence would go broke overnight making everyone's payments, as there isn't enough money in their coffers to support doing that. All of the RMBS's on Wall Street would go under on the distribution date following the borrowers' loan payment stoppage.
See how easy it would be to collapse part of the U.S. economy?
We're not talking about the TBTF institutions that started all this garbage, we're talking about the loan servicers that are the real parties filing foreclosure complaints trying to collect their "servicer advances" before the REMIC itself, which has been getting paid all along, gets any residual payments. It's the servicers that are lying to the courts in an attempt to reimburse their coffers for all the money they've stolen from everyone's escrow accounts to keep securitization afloat!
Eventually however, the investors would get stung.
Ignorance is bliss.
For now, I rest my case.
**The information shown above came from SEC filings on behalf of the Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities I Trust 2006-AC1.


text:
Getting a show on network television is not for the faint of heart. If a program doesn't feature cops, lawyers, doctors or some combination of all three, creators have to just cross their fingers and get down on their knees — they know they need divine intervention to get their shows made.
And yet, "Lost" has survived for the past six seasons, and not only that, it's become a hit. One of the rarest of rare birds, "Lost" is a dramatic series with more than a twist of the paranormal. It confuses, baffles and frustrates the heck out of its loyal fan base. In return, that fan base went from mere loyalty to actual devotion, if not outright obsession.
But on May 23, fans' umbilical cords will be cut for good as the series comes to an end after six roller-coaster seasons. Now viewers are the ones crossing their fingers and getting down on their knees, hoping fervently that show creators/shepherds J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse know how to put a period at the end of this long, complex, frustrating and wonderful sentence.
U.S. & World
No matter how the show resolves, there will be some disappointment along with the closure. But afterward … ah, afterward. In the great empty afterward of post-"Lost" (which is not the same as being "found"), what is an obsessed fan to do?
Go back to the beginning
Naturally, for this show, it's important to go over the past and see what clues may have been missed or answers that could have been found. Expect a DVD-rental and purchase surge among those who don't already have their personal copy of the series. Knowing the ending of the show will shed fresh light on every previous episode.
"Lost" may never become a "Star Trek" (reruns alone, most likely run in non-sequential order, would be almost impossible to understand), but there's a chance to see it again — not for the first time, but the second. And then the third.
Find like-minded programming
It is out there, though nothing quite with the scope of "Lost." Best advice: Start getting into "Fringe," a show that will no doubt benefit from the J.J. Abrams imprimatur "Lost" began with. Already that series has its own embedded puzzles and symbols, so it's time to get caught up in the mysteries of the glyphs.
Other sci-fi-tinged shows exist. There are programs such as Syfy's "Warehouse 13" and "Caprica" to ABC's "V" (not recommended: "FlashForward," which is on the verge of cancellation), but thus far they all seem fairly linear and not likely to tweak the imagination the way "Lost" has. Then again, fans looking for a twisty, long-lasting and long-running mythology could do worse than to check in with BBC America's "Doctor Who."
And for those who can wait until the fall, Abrams has yet another series coming to a network near you: NBC has picked up his reactivated-spy drama "Undercovers." Since Abrams was the writer behind "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," let's just say some fans are already organizing viewing parties.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Start an archaeological dig
Online, that is. In case there are obsessive fans who haven't thoroughly checked out the peripheral content associated with the series, now's the time: ABC has already run two alternate-reality games, there are tie-in books and fan art, plus endless hours can be spent searching out the show's various Easter eggs and unresolved mysteries and questions. (What, you think the finale will tie up every loose thread?)
Or what about some actual puzzles? There are four "Mystery of the Island" jigsaw puzzles that reveal clues to particular seasons and divulge spoilers, but they're fun just as they are. Warning: You'll probably need a black light to get the full picture once the puzzles are complete.
Prepare for the inevitable LostCon
Wait, what's that you say? There have been "Lost" conventions? Well, yes. Of a sort. The series itself had a sneak peek premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2004, and each year since, some members of the cast have put in an appearance there, but that's not it. An early "Lost" convention was held in 2005 in Burbank, Calif., and in 2008 there was one in Northampton, England. But one planned for last year — Abrams, Inc. — ended up being canceled.
It seems inevitable that a regular LostCon should sprout somewhere in the California area — or perhaps even Hawaii, where the show filmed. In a recent interview, the owner of Lostpedia noted that he'd already registered the domain Lostpediacon.com.
Of course, all of this implies that fans aren't planning to let the show fade away. "Star Trek" became what it is today after the series was off the air. Without repeated, continued fan interest in the universe and canon it spawned, there would be no spin-offs, no blockbuster Hollywood motion pictures — in essence, no franchise.
Once the show ends, it is in the hands of its fans, who may decide to drop the ball and move on to the next shiny object, or turn it into a kind of fetish. And no one will know whether that can and will happen — until after May 23.
Or, just listen to the gods on this one
Of course, there's always the advice of Cuse and Lindelof, who will at some point be coming up with their Next Weird Thing. (Apparently called "The Hunted Ones," if you believe what Stephen King speculated on in his "Under the Dome" novel.) The show's architects are quite certain fans will find other interesting television toys to play with.
"But we also hope our fans don't go anywhere," said Lindelof. " 'Star Trek' fans stayed committed to that show and 40 years later, there's still this massive fan base. It's our hope that someone who considers themselves to be a 'Lost' fan will still call themselves a 'Lost' fan in 15 years — and that they have a fond remembrance of the show."
"But they don't have to stop watching TV and movies. They can watch other things," said Cuse.
"As long as they consider that 'Lost' is the greatest thing to ever happen to them," Lindelof said with a smile in his voice.
Randee Dawn is a freelance writer based in New York, and was born with a remote control in her hand. She is the co-author of "The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion," which was published in 2009.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
For several years, there has been a shared vision of a space for women to come together. Over the years, it has evolved and at one point it was thisclose to becoming a reality. At that time, my friend-colleague-fellow visionary, Molly of TalkBirth, wrote this about WomanSpace (click here to read her full piece):
I visualize a center. A place where women can come together to learn, to talk, to develop, to grow. A safe place. A nurturing place. A supportive place. Hostess to LLL meetings, book clubs, birth circle, birth info nights, prenatal yoga classes, birth classes, birth art workshops, pregnancy retreats, journaling workshops, craft classes, crafty mamas meetings, a miscarriage support group, postpartum mamas support group, birth counseling/consultation sessions, dancing for birth, prenatal bellydance, drop-in support chats, blessingways, red tent events, meet the doulas night, Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal groups, women's spirituality circles, playgroups, baby massage classes, baby/tot yoga, girls' coming of age classes, an ICAN chapter, Friends of Missouri Midwives meetings. A gathering place. A woman's place.
It will have a large, open meeting room, access to a bathroom and another, smaller room that could be an office, consult room, or playroom. We will have counter space to plug in some minimal cooking implements (like a microwave). There will be comfy couches, chairs, toys, a lending library of books and films as well as perhaps toys/games/puzzles. There will be big pillows on the floor and beautiful art all over the walls. Other women wishing to have groups/classes for women, could also use the space for their groups/events.
For me, the time has come. I feel strongly that this is my community (not "my" as in ownership, but as in responsible to), one in which I am most intimately involved. I love my community and I want it to grow, to thrive and to be all the things I know it can be…one facet of which is a women's center. In addition to all those items listed in the above vision, I also see a need for women-owned and women-supportive businesses to have a physical space to showcase their wares.
Here's what I see in my vision:
I walk in the door and see beautifully painted walls adorned with art from local women artists. A room off to the side holds information and products from the many women who are trying to earn some income for their families with fun products, like Jamberry Nails, Passion Parties, Lilla Rose, Scentsy, Mary Kay and so on. Down the hall on Tuesdays, baby sounds can be heard from the postpartum group. Wednesdays would be a different group of women and Thursdays would be yet another group of women. In the kitchen, delightful goodies from a woman-owned catering business are on display. There's a freezer stocked with frozen meals to deliver when a woman has a time of need. Outside, a lovely garden is maintained by some women who love to grow things. On another side of the yard, a woman is giving an art class to a mixture of young and old. I turn around to see this beautiful space and take a deep breath. There is something for every woman here. It changes, as the community changes, filling the needs where possible…maybe a doula foundation someday to provide doulas to ALL women, maybe a women's clinic with women care providers providing woman-centered care. The possibilities are truly endless. The specifics may change, but the vision of shared community, sacred WomanSpace will endure.
Yesterday, I attended the Rainbow Group's "Day of Hope" Prayer Flag Project. It is a very moving celebration/remembrance event for families who have experienced pregnancy/infant loss. The coordinator of the event had written some thoughtful words on prayer flags for us to decorate, if we so chose, and I decided that "courage" needed to be my flag. I brought along the flag I made for my own baby-start last year, so I chose to have this flag represent what is happening in my life journey *right now*.
My "artistic" rendering (toddler scribbling?) of the fire represents the burning to bring forth this vision and the house represents the literal house I see. If you click on the image to make it bigger, you'll see the house is composed of many bricks. This was a genius suggestion made by my daughter when I was laughing about how awful my drawing skills are. "Just put bricks in it", she said. I sort of grumbled and then realized the beautiful poetry of bricks. Yes! Bricks indeed! The women of this community are the bricks that will hold the house together. We may not build the actual house with our hands, but we will lay the foundation for WomanSpace with our blood, sweat, tears and continue pouring ourselves into it. This will be our space. WomanSpace


text:
Renteria optimistic about closer options
CINCINNATI -- When a team has only had six save opportunities through most of the first month of the season, it's fair to assume closer options aren't first and foremost on the mind of a manager guiding a struggling team.
But Cubs skipper Rick Renteria, while not having to do too much strategizing regarding the ninth inning, has had reason to be optimistic about some of his late-game options in the 'pen.
He was asked specifically about Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon, who each have earned one of the two Cubs saves this season. Rondon has been especially impressive in the early stages of the season, having allowed two runs (one earned) over 12 1/3 innings. He's walked four, fanned 14 and has a 0.73 ERA. His lone save occurred on April 11 in St. Louis.
Strop earned his save during the opening series in Pittsburgh on April 3. So far this year he has a 3.48 ERA over 12 games, spanning 10 1/3 innings. He's had two scoreless outings since allowing four runs (one earned) to the Diamondbacks on April 23.
"We'll continue to watch how we use them," Renteria said. "They're both capable, obviously.
"The ninth inning, no matter what the score is, is not an easy inning to close out. [Rondon has] shown some calmness; so has [Strop] and some of the other guys in terms of their makeup. I'm sure that -- until they continue to get into those particular situations, over an extended period of time -- will actually determine how we view them or what we think they can or cannot do."


text:
Wenner Funeral Home and Cremation Services
Cold Spring & Richmond, MN
Helping Families and Friends Honor Their Loved One
The Wenner Funeral Home was established in 1863, and has remained in the Wenner Family for six generations. Our commitment for
over one hundred fifty years has been to assist those who have been
touched by the loss of a loved one with personal service and dignity -
all at a reasonable and affordable cost. We provide services in
establishing memorials, estate and funeral pre-planning/funding, funeral and cremation services,
assistance with cemetery plots, markers, monuments and mausoleums. We
provide out-of-town arrangements, consultations in death, grief and
bereavement and community speaking.
The staff members of Wenner Funeral Home are available 24/7 to help guide your family in creating a meaningful ceremony to honor the life and memory of a loved one. A ceremony can be anything you wish it to be: simple or elaborate, traditional or unique. No matter how it's tailored, such a ceremony is an important step in recovering from loss. No matter what your situation, we are here to help.
Find an Obituary
Most Popular Flowers & Gifts
Featured Services
Honoring Life
It's important to take the time to acknowledge the uniqueness of the deceased: the individuality of their personality, and the uniqueness of their life's path.Learn more
Grief Support
Our local, on staff grief companion is available to you in person and over the phone to help you through this difficult time. We also provide online support via our website. No matter how you feel at this moment, you have our commitment - you're never alone.Learn more
Community Events
We give every family in our community unique opportunities to learn, share, and remember. It is our intention to enrich lives, educate minds, and ease sorrows. Events are updated weekly so please check back often.Learn more
Funeral Etiquette
Accepted customs of dress and behavior in a funeral have changed over time, but courtesy never goes out of style. Here's what we'd like you to know about funeral etiquette.Learn more


text:
The Full Experience
When you enroll to volunteer abroad with CCS, what lies ahead is an experience that's sure to end up on your list of life-changers; a one of a kind adventure. By combining meaningful volunteer work, a rich variety of eye-opening cultural activities, free time for adventures, real opportunities to engage with local people, and a safe and comfortable home away from home, CCS guarantees that your time abroad will be genuine and immersive. With CCS, you get the complete experience.
- Position Impact Through Volunteer Work
- Real Cultural Immersion
- A Safe Home Away From Home
- Adventures During Free Time


text:
- Did you mean
- urban agricultural garden soil less
Search results
Alumni Career Spotlight: Tiffany Atkinson
Fishes in Urban Environments," focused on fisheries research in Ohio streams. I also completed research ... this group I helped organize a community-based event for urban families to learn how to fish ... for Pathways positions as students or recent graduates. These positions can lead to permanent federal ...
Do's and Dont's for Getting Your Yard and Garden Ready for Winter
branches. You may also find interest in working the soil in your flower beds and gardens before the ground ... outside. For those who spent a lot of time working around the yard and garden this summer, and many maybe ... excess soil. Spread the bulbs/corms out on some newspaper in a well-ventilated area for a week or so to ...
Study finds health trade-offs for wildlife as urbanization expands
wildlife as urbanization expands Research on tree swallows suggests city living may offer advantages, but ... suggests. But urban life comes with a big trade-off – health hazards linked to poorer water quality. ... larval stages in contaminated water – than their counterparts breeding in less urban areas. The study was ...
Seminar for the Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Sustainability and Ecological Engineering
of the challenges to the sustainable management of our natural resources in urban and rural areas. ...
Grazing Crop Residue
field is a more readily available form of nutrients for next year's crop. While healthy soil contains ... residue will help to protect the soil over the winter until crops are established next spring. Thinking ... the safest option that promotes the best return to soil health, weed control, and field readiness in ...
Advanced Principles in Environmental Science
social science frameworks required to manage critical air, soil, and water resources. Graduate 3.0 ...
Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture
sustainable agriculture. Since agriculture is a complex social-ecological system which integrates a wide range ... enable students to assess the sustainability of agricultural systems. Undergraduate 3.0 Spring 2021 Brian ...
World Soil Day 2020
https://u.osu.edu/worldsoilday/_blank Image Slide Gray Marquee ...
Field Management Post Harvest… What Now?
residue, in the spring while planting include attaining good seed-soil contact or disease issues due to ... as inoculum for diseases and slow soils from warming up and drying out in the spring. Sanitation of ... hand, it can act as a mulch that lessens the impact of rain falling on the soil, lessen the amount of ...
Alumni Career Spotlight: Olivia Carros
company that leads tours and trains divers in the Puget Sound. I am currently training as a Divemaster to ... hopefully start leading tours next year! What does a typical day look like? I manage and assist with a wide ... development, agricultural resilience to climate change, affordable farmland access, and food system ...


text:
What is the connection between Petra, Nazca and Greenock?
Any ideas? No, well, I didn't either until recently, but the answer is…they all have extensive aqueducts.
I'm Billy MacRae and I work as a Landscape Assessment Officer at RCAHMS and what I get excited about in archaeology is that it is not just about the extraordinary and exceptional, but also the ordinary and everyday things which were part of the experience of life in the past.
The Loch Thom-Overton aqueduct, or "Greenock Cut", as it is sometimes known, is a fantastic example of 19th century engineering and ingenuity. The Greenock Cut is also a symbol of the desire to harness and manipulate the landscape for what many believed was the advancement of society.
The complete water system comprises reservoirs, sluices, workers' bothies and obviously, the water course itself. It was devised and built to power the industries in and around Greenock and also provide clean drinking water for an expanding population. The fact that this aqueduct provided Greenock's water supply until 1971, a working life of over 140 years, is a testament to the skills and hard work of those who designed, built and maintained it. The industrial heritage of Inverclyde, the mills, factories and refineries were only made possible by civil engineering works like the Greenock Cut.
The other great thing about landscape archaeology and the Loch Thom-Overton aqueduct in particular, is that you don't need to visit a museum or sit in the bottom of a muddy trench to appreciate it. There is a pathway which runs the length of the aqueduct and forms part of the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. This landscape bears witness to many thousands of years of human activity. While you are there, you could also look out for the remains of rig-and-furrow cultivation, hut-circles, cup-and-ring marked rocks, and there's even a Roman road and fortlet not too far away.
As for Petra and Nazca (try Googling "Nabatean aqueduct" and "Nazca puquios"), they are pretty impressive too, but not quite so easy to visit for a stroll at the weekend.
This is what I've chosen for Day of Archaeology, but why not tell us your favourite archaeological sites in Scotland on Twitter using #MyArchaeology.


text:
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Real Estate, Bubbles, & the CMBX Index – Still Showing Severe Stress…
Heck, some who didn't pay attention are now homeless and living the lyrics of the Rolling Stones…
The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter:
The bubble in residential real estate is what first got me interested in bubble dynamics. I owned many rental properties and began to notice how the rents that I was able to obtain were simply not enough to pay for the cost of owning homes – something had changed, obviously. I wasted no time and promptly began to sell all my real estate holdings, despite being quite good at the leverage it up game. Friends and family thought I had gone off the deep end! Not so much anymore.
Now, almost everyone is all familiar with that, but most people remain unaware that Commercial Real Estate (CRE) was at least as out-of-whack. How did I know? Because CAP rates were at HISTORIC lows. All this means is that the ratio of rents received to the capital invested was less than at any other time in modern history. For a good review of bubble dynamics, I included my recap of Hyman Minsky's Seven Bubble Stages near the beginning of my article Half Way to Zero.
Back in late 2006 I pointed out in my newsletter that China was, in fact, experiencing a bubble. I included the following chart of the Shanghai index and mentioned that its parabolic phase would not end well:
Today, this is what that chart looks like:
As you can see by that chart, owning investments on the back side of parabolic curves is not fun. Well, just a couple of months later in March of 2007, I warned in my newsletter that commercial real estate typically lags residential by approximately 18 months. I then showed a chart of how vacancy rates were spiking:
And how the homebuilder's index had peaked in July, 2005:
I was watching for a peak in CRE by using IYR, the Ishares Dow Jones Real Estate Index ETF. I included this chart showing the parabolic advance:
And then I showed this chart showing how support had been broken and that the peak in CRE was almost EXACTLY 18 MONTHS TO THE DAY!
Was I short IYR at that time? YOU BET I WAS, it was the most profitable trade I had in the year 2007. And here's a look at a chart showing the parabolic rise and collapse on the back side of the curve:
I've been harping on those bubbles, haven't I? Exponential rises are always followed by collapses, and the losses happen faster than the gains – EVERY TIME!
But that's all history. By now people are beginning to realize that not only did we build too many houses, but we also built too many shopping malls, too many Starbucks, and just too many of almost everything. What about the future? Is the move in CRE over? Has all the misallocation in supply been reflected in price?
Today we have a new tool to help us tell what's happening in the Commercial Real Estate arena. A company called Markit provides credit spreads on CRE companies given their various commercial credit ratings. Their indexes track the spreads and present them in graphical form via their CMBX index charts. Here's where you can find the Markit CMBX Index Charts.
As the spreads rise, they show more stress in CRE as investors are demanding more money to assume risk. I can tell you that I believe defaults on CRE have just begun, and now the spreads are beginning to rise again as you can see in the following series of charts:
While the AAA chart may not be making new highs yet, most of the others are. How many CRE companies would fall under the AAA rating? Ah… not many. That monkey pretty much sums up how CRE owners are feeling right about now!
So, I was looking at those CMBX charts and noticed that they look awfully familiar… They look just like the chart of IYR, which looks just like a chart of the SPX, which looks like all the other indices but turned upside down!
So, I took my IYR chart and inverted it in a mirror image:
My, oh my – that's the same chart pattern. Don't tell your friends, but there's a divergence here. Do you see it? If the CMBX is making new highs, IYR should be making new lows, but it's not. It's looking more like the triple A charts than the triple B. Is all CRE triple A? No? I thought not.
So, the question then becomes is that parabolic collapse over and was the November low THE low in IYR? It could be, that 74% haircut was pretty dramatic and is in the range where parabolic declines can end. They can also end in 90% losses too. Well, if the CMBX is leading and you look at these breakouts, it leads to me to believe that that parabolic collapse may not yet be over.
When making investment decisions, short or long, I like to look at the Point & Figure (P&F) charts to help me determine if I'm on the right track. Here's a P&F of the Dow Jones Real Estate Index that shows a target that is still beneath us. I note that the IYR P&F just flipped and is showing a breakout higher with a higher target. Here's both, which is correct? That's for you to decide, I'm just providing the evidence on this one!
If we haven't seen a bottom in IYR, we are obviously much closer to one that we were in 2007! Picking bottoms is a fool's errand, however. While the prospect of quick gains from a big bounce sounds tempting, it is still completely possible to lose 50% of your investment or more on a continued collapse.
Me? I believe it's best to get involved long when the fundaments are in place to support sustainable growth. I don't think we're even close in that regard and with spreads still widening, any long bet here should be considered short term, least that divergence between spreads and price get you.
Oh, and I know a lot of people reading this like to play short IYR by investing in SRS, the double inverse of IYR. As IYR goes down, SRS is supposed to go up. Without getting into a big discussion of why, SRS does not do the job over time – only on a daily basis. Thus SRS is NOT to be bought and held – here's a two year chart of SRS, it should look more like the inverted chart of IYR above, instead it looks more like the upright chart!
Here they are overlapped, if SRS was tracking it would reside up in the region of the blue circle:
So, watch the CMBX index to help determine if the underlying stress has lifted on CRE.
And, if you're wondering how to tell when the time is right to invest in residential real estate for your situation and your area, it's simple and it takes just a few minutes of research. Start by identifying what you believe to be a good rental property then add up all the costs of owning it WITH CONVENTIONAL 30 YEAR FINANCING. Include everything – principle, interest, taxes, insurance, and maintenance. Then look through the classifieds and talk to realtors about similar homes in the area and see what that type of property receives in rents. If the amount you can rent it for is less than the amount it costs you, then it's no investment at all, it's a beast of burden. Hey, isn't that a Stone's song too?
The same can be said for people who have held their homes and are now underwater, pouring tons of money into increasing taxes, utilities, and upkeep. During the bubble, everyone wanted to own multiple homes, now they are finding that their own homes are also beasts of burden. But enough of the Stones, no EconoTunes article on parabolic collapsing property values can go by without including a song entitled "Landslide!"
Stevie Nicks – Landslide:
DoctorMad Weekend Update - A General doesn't blink when staring into the eye of massive BULL
The bulls looked an awful employment report straight in the eye at 8:30 EST and charged straight at the bears routing them from their lines. The rest of the day was spent with follow up as the bulls chased the bears all the way back to 870.
However, note the falling volume today. There was one big volume spike at the open and after that it was anemic with no further impulsion. The falling volume is a bad sign for the bulls and shows that their supply lines are already starting to get extended. The problem with rising prices and the reasons all bear market rallies end on low volume is that as prices rises it takes more and more cash bids just to buy the same amount of stock you could have bought for half the price when market prices were lower. As an example, think of how much less FCX stock you can buy today for 10 million bucks with the share price at 30 compared to when it was at 15 a couple of months ago. As prices rise and bulls extend their lines eventually they run out of ammo. They just don't have enough of those 10 million dollar bids available to support a higher price level and eventually the bear ammo (natural, forced, and fear based selling) overtakes them. And unless the bulls have fundamentally altered the supply/demand picture for stocks from supply > demand to supply < demand, the bears will once again push them to new lows. The main point I am trying to make is watch the volume closely! When will "sell the news happen"? When the bulls run out of ammo and the last sucker puts his troops in the bull camp or pulls his bears.
NQs - Take a look at how the Nasdaq has traded after the previous major tops on October 12, 2007, May 19 2008, and yes I'm calling January 6, 2009 another major top. We may still come all the way back to test those highs, but I highly doubt the bulls have the firepower to break out. Notice how shallow the initial down channel is on the NDX off these major highs especially when compared to the steep DJI, RUT, or SPX down channels off of the major highs. During each of these initial few weeks following a major top you have had the bulls all fly into the safety of tech and you hear stories about how tech is safe, insulated, and cheap only to have those bulls get slaughtered later on during the second half of the bear campaign [that's a great point, Doc]. Note also the same wave basic wave structure within all 3 channels up to this point including what could be a similar throwover. It is also possible that the NDX will make its major top later on as the RUT did on June 5, 2008.
Here is a chart of the NQs showing how they have behaved during the beginning of previous major declines:
The next obvious line of resistance is the top of the SPX triangle line.
ES - The key to focus on is the pink C wave channel. That puppy could go all the way to 945 and this would still probably just be wave 2. Any shorting you do before the channel breaks is front running, which might not be a bad idea if you catch it near the top of the channel range. The smart trade next week is going to be to short a break of the pink channel or the retest once from the underside after the channel breaks. I'm also throwing out a channel projection that looks unlikely as more upside seems probable and nobody is looking for this to immediately reverse after today's mini breakout (contrarian indicator perhaps). The reason I put it out there is that it fits like a glove along the bottom half. If it does hold and pan out you can all call me a genius later.
- DoctorMad
Heck Doc, I already do think you're a genius! To have survived this war with your troops in tact proves it, especially on the real world battlefield where your troops can easily be KIA'd by the dark and evil enemies to free enterprise that lurk behind Wall Street!
Bank Failure Friday – Another Triple…
State regulators close three banksWhile I certainly don't mind being COMPLETELY disrespectful to the fallen – I just don't think I can stand another week of Queen screaming out "ANOTHER ONE'S GONE, AND ANOTHER ONE'S GONE, AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!" So, no matter how appropriate that song is for Bank Failure Friday, this weekend I just won't play it.
FirstBank Financial Services of Georgia and Alliance Bank and County Bank of California become latest victims of banking crisis; nine banks have failed in 2009.
By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- State regulators shuttered three banks Friday evening, bringing the total number of bank failures this year to nine.
Deposits at FirstBank Financial Services based in McDonough, Ga. will be taken over by Regions Bank (RF, Fortune 500), based in Birmingham, Ala., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
FirstBank's four branches will reopen on Monday as Regions Bank branches, the agency said.
FirstBank held assets worth about $337 million, and held deposits worth about $279 million at the end of December, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said. Regions Bank has agreed to purchase about $17 million of FirstBank's assets.
Meanwhile, deposits at Alliance Bank out of Culver City, Calif. will be assumed by California Bank & Trust from San Diego.
Alliance Bank held assets totaling $1.14 billion, and deposits of $951 million, the FDIC said. California Bank & Trust agreed to purchase $1.12 billion of Alliance's assets at a discount of $9.9 million.
California Bank & Trust also agreed to share some of the asset losses with the FDIC, the agency said.
Alliance Bank's five offices will reopen Monday as branches of California Bank & Trust.
Finally, County Bank of Merced, Calif. was closed late Friday. The FDIC said that Westamerica Bank of San Rafael, Calif. will assume all of the deposits of County Bank.
County Bank had total assets of approximately $1.7 billion and total deposits of $1.3 billion. Westamerica Bank (WABC), in addition to assuming the deposits, agreed to purchase all of County Bank's assets.
The FDIC said County Bank's 39 offices would reopen as branches of Westamerica. Branches with Saturday hours will reopen Saturday while the remaining branches will reopen Monday.
Customers who banked with FirstBank, Alliance Bank or County Bank will automatically become customers of the new deposit holders, and will retain their account protection under the FDIC, which insures single accounts up to $250,000, and joint accounts up to $500,000, the government agency said.
Over the weekend, those customers will be able to use checks, ATMs and debit cards as normal. Customers who have taken out loans from a failed bank should continue to make regular payments, the FDIC said.
Altogether, the three bank failures will cost the FDIC about $452 million.
The unfolding financial crisis continues to take a toll on banks. If banks continue to fail at a rate of at least one per week, on average, then 2009 could see twice as many failures as in 2008. Last year, 25 banks were closed nationwide, which was the highest annual total since 1993, when 42 banks went under.
Economists expect the number of failed banks to continue rising this year as the financial crisis plays out and the economic outlook remains dark.
Instead, I bring you a little Kansas that's a little more peaceful in terms of bank failure music – and it may be more soothing to the ears of the elderly who are being forced to work countless hours of overtime at the FDIC, it's fitting to play at funerals, AND it's a fine song to play as our fiat money makes its eternal journey back to the fiat gods.
Kansas – Dust in the Wind:
Friday, February 6, 2009
End of Day/Week 2/6
On the day, the DOW gained 217 points, the S&P jumped 2.7%, the NDX rose 2.6%, and the RUT was in the lead, as it usually is, by gaining 3.4%. The XLF was really looking forward to the bailouts/distortions/moral hazards and rewarded those betting in the casino with a 7.5% gain.
Internals were very bullish today with advancing issues over decliners by 5 to 1 on the NYSE and about 4 to 1 on the Nasdaq. New lows fell substantially and volume was 91.7% on the advancing side. Those 90% up days are significant, especially if we get another within the next 3 trading days. Who knows, perhaps Big Bang Monday will produce one? Hey, the very scientific poll on my blog is saying 7 to 1 that Monday will be a big bust, so if we view that in the same light as a put/call ratio, perhaps it's truly bullish and we'll get that 90% up day Monday!
Let's start on the charts by looking at a 3 month weekly. Remember last week that I pointed out that inverted hammer… well, we got an up week that followed. Volume was pretty good, too, slightly higher than the previous week:
Now let's zoom into a 30 day SPX chart were we see an ascending triangle in red, and that we are slightly below a complete retrace of the entire last wave. There are a couple of ways to count this, but I'm not going to go over them here as it would take a while. Suffice to say that if you think there's only one possibility, you would be wrong. Again, we are still in that overall large triangle and playing inside them can be very difficult. As far as the stochastic goes, we are overbought on all timeframes up to 60 minutes. Today was a good reminder that they can stay overbought (or oversold) for quite a while. The oscillators are HISTORY indicators, BUT if you want to put the odds on your side, you will short when they are overbought and go long when oversold – obviously. We managed to close above the 850 pivot area and that is now support. The next longer term pivots above are at 912/13, and then 935. If you look real closely on this chart, there is a small gap that's open just below 930:
Next I want to take an internal look at the NDX on a 30 day chart. Here we are very close to a 100% retrace which opens up the possibility of a double top. Note the open gap on this chart that was filled today. There is a fresh sell signal on the 30 minute stochastic and on the NDX all stochastics are now overbought all the way up to the DAILY chart. If you look at the RSI on the bottom of the chart, you will see that there is a pretty sizable bearish divergence in place with the last peak lower than the previous, but the price much higher than the previous. This is also true when you look back nearly a month at the last peak… again, although we are equal in price, the RSI is lower:
Now let's look at a DOW daily. Very bullish candle and good volume, but not progressively more than yesterday. On the DIA and SPY volume was lower today than yesterday. The DOW is still way below its 50dma and note the rapidly descending upper Bollinger which would provide additional resistance if the DOW were to run that high. We do have a buy signal on the daily stochastic, but are still on a sell signal on the weekly:
Next is the DOW's P&F chart. It broke higher, reversing the last sell signal and producing a bullish target of 9,250:
Next up is the P&F for the transports. They also broke higher producing a higher target. Have you seen that the Baltic index has been advancing? Don't get too excited, when something has fallen 90% leaving only 10%, then a 50% move of what's left is only like 5% of its previous self. The rest of the indices were already on buy signals, thus the consensus in the P&F world is that higher is in the future:
Now let's look at the SPX daily. Again nice candle that ran into the 50dma and stopped. 850 was an important hurdle, now you can see resistance at 880, and then at 912. Here, too, the upper Bollinger is pointing down pretty sharply. Usually the steeper it is, the more resistance it offers:
Here's a chart of GS, just to show those interested that there's an outside hammer on the upper Bollinger band and in overbought conditions. The other financial don't show this, it's just a pigman central thing. I wouldn't be long Goldman on that… oh wait, come to think of it I'd rather own an all tobacco and oil portfolio than to let one share of GS touch my account (unless I'm short that is – lol)!
Since I brought up that NYSE Advance/Decline line divergence last week, here's a current chart comparing the A/D line (red/blk) against the SPX. Remember that the A/D jumped over the SPX on this chart and the gap was getting wider. Today I note that the gap between the two has, in fact, narrowed slightly but is still divergent:
Overall, a good week for the bulls in equities, but they are being suckered by interest rates and the bond market. My short bond position has been a nice play for quite awhile, remember that most people don't realize what's happening until most of the move is over. The TNX broke to new highs today…
Market moving economic data will be light next week. Monday will be a lot like today for me in that it is all going to be news and sentiment driven on big bang bailout dreams. I believe this news gets sold at some point, I'm just not sure exactly when. The market's overbought short term and needs a rest.
And did you hear? Heck, the NDX is UP for the year, don't you know (is that saying much)? CNBS was SHOUTING IT OUT, but they neglect to remind people that it's down 73.5% since the year 2,000 or 42.4% since Oct. 2007… shhhhh
I'm sure that no matter what happens on Monday, the tape will be painted to suite the likes of Goldman and the direction of their bets. Today there was no question. It was a day they painted black…
The Rolling Stones – Paint it Black:
Marc Faber Interview...
Marc Faber interview on Bloomberg (10 minutes):
States Beginning to See Reality… But will they Face it?
This is the same convoluted thinking that got them into this mess to begin with. The states are comprised, after all, of the same tax payers who provide the tax income on the Federal level. It doesn't matter what level of government the money comes from, it ALL comes from the same taxpayers.
States to Congress: Send money fastWow, that's some kind of math genius there. Loveridge sounds "ready to go." How come so many of these whizzes wind up in government? Unbelievable the misunderstanding; no wonder we are where we are… if only we can get people who are in debt up to their eyesockets and taxed to death to go shopping and spend more money they don't have. That'll solve our problems. And did I see the words "trickle down" in there? Uh, huh, that's sound math too. Of course adding further tax burden onto those constituents will really help.
Governors and mayors nationwide are hungry for billions from the economic rescue plan to create jobs and fill budget gaps.
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Massachusetts state workers and retirees face higher deductibles and co-pays on their health insurance.
Many welfare recipients in Tennessee may lose their state-funded child care.
And kids in Riverside, Calif., will likely have to continue walking to school on the roadside instead of on sidewalks.
These are but a few of the programs and projects that the weakening recession has put on the chopping block as state and municipal officials wrestle with widening budget gaps.
At least 46 states are facing shortfalls in their budgets as tax revenues dry up. They are making harsh cuts to social services, putting infrastructure projects on hold and laying off government employees.
That's why governors and mayors are pressing federal lawmakers to pass the stimulus package, which could send billions of dollars into their coffers. The funds could help reverse planned budget cuts and revive their economies by putting people back to work on public construction projects.
States could receive as much as two-thirds of the stimulus package funds, which top $900 billion in the current Senate version. The majority of the money is being targeted for programs such as education, Medicaid, infrastructure and unemployment. But governors will also get billions to help close their budget gaps.
"It allows them the flexibility to fund their priorities," said David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors Association. "The money is not going to fill all the gaps, but the states are willing to make the changes they need to make for the long run."
The Senate was racing to vote on the package by Friday, and Congress hopes to send a reconciled bill to the president next week.
Though most of the rescue money is going to the states, some will trickle down to the cities. Many mayors, who converged on Washington this week to urge lawmakers to pass the stimulus bill, already know how they can use the funds.
The mayors have put together a "Ready to Go" report that details 18,750 local infrastructure projects in 779 cities that can be started as soon as funding is received. The projects, which represent an investment of $150 billion, would create 1.6 million jobs in 2009 and 2010.
The states can use their infrastructure allotments to fund these projects. Plus, the cities will receive more money from community development block grants contained in the package.
In Riverside, Calif., Mayor Ron Loveridge said much of the stimulus money he receives will go to the city's water mains, roads, community centers and sidewalks. Not only will it provide long-term improvements, it will help reduce the city's unemployment rate, now at 10.5%, far above the nation's 7.2% level.
And once people start working again, they can start shopping again. That will help the city close its $14 million budget gap by increasing sales tax revenues.
"It stimulates the economy by providing jobs," Loveridge said.
The truth is that government has grown to gargantuan and unsupportable size. The only way to get the math to work is to do the exact opposite of what is being proposed. In other words, government must shrink and taxes must be raised. If you fear higher taxes killing the economy, you would be right, but the root of the tax problem can be found in the debt. It's an ugly situation no matter how you look at it, and getting out of it will not be painless.
I've been talking about how we've reached debt saturation, that's what the math says (Death by Numbers), and it's why we're experiencing deflation (Inflation or Deflation – It's a Mystery…).
Now I'm going to tell you that the same people who are debt saturated are also tax saturated. Again, incomes do not support the current combination of debt and high taxes. Therefore, defaulting to clear the debt must occur by someone. The banks have weaseled their way out, the automakers have weaseled their way out, and now the States want to weasel their way out.
But guess what? The debt and budget short falls are still there. If there's a light bulb that's lit in the political or Keynesian economic world, I don't see it. Put a fourth grader on it, at least they will be able to understand how the math doesn't work!
TARP Shortchanged Taxpayers... DUH!
No doubt that Paulson "The Pump" and his Kashkari sidekick Mini-me are living in a Goldman Sachs inspired fantasy. The stuff "loaned" into the TARP program is undoubtedly the worse of the worse. Odds of recovering anything near their estimates? Zero.
TARP Shortchanged Taxpayers by $78 Billion, Watchdog Panel Says
By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. taxpayers are being shortchanged by about $78 billion through the Treasury Department's bank bailout, the panel overseeing the program said.
The Treasury, when it was headed by Secretary Henry Paulson, received bank assets worth about $176 billion in exchange for capital purchases of $254 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report today.
"The loss estimate is conservative," said Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. "It could turn out that those assets in the end are worthless. These are massive handouts to favored institutions to try to make up with taxpayer money the mistakes they made with investor money."
The public's stake in the nation's banking system continues to grow as first the Bush administration and now President Barack Obama's team work to pull the U.S. out of the deepest recession in at least two generations. TARP, which is part of the more than $9 trillion the government has pledged to rescue the financial system, has guaranteed $350 billion to banks so far, with another $350 billion set for use in coming months.
Treasury spokesman Isaac Baker declined to discuss the panel's report directly. He said Treasury officials have already "prevented a systemwide collapse" and plan to make an announcement next week.
"We will outline a comprehensive strategy to strengthen our financial system in order to provide American businesses and families the credit they depend on, while strengthening transparency and accountability measures so that taxpayers know where and how their money is being spent and whether it's achieving real results," Baker said today in an e-mail.
Neel Kashkari, who runs TARP as a holdover from the Bush administration, told a Mortgage Bankers Association conference on Dec. 5 in Washington that the government isn't "looking for a return tomorrow."
"We are looking to try to stabilize the financial system, get credit flowing again, and over time, we believe that the taxpayers will be protected and have a return on their investment," he said.
The oversight committee faulted TARP's "one-size-fits-all investment policy" for the shortfall.
"The use of standardized documents probably contributed to Treasury's ability to obtain speed of execution and wide participation, but it meant Treasury could not address differences in credit quality among various capital infusion recipients," the report said.
TARP Money
More than 200 companies, from New York-based Citigroup Inc. to Saigon National Bank in Westminster, California, have received TARP money, according to Bloomberg data.
"From day one, it's been apparent that Treasury's interest leaned more favorably toward that of the bank's, with taxpayers as simply an afterthought," said Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican on the Financial Services Committee. "Unfortunately, the actions of the Treasury ultimately resulted in negative, albeit foreseeable by some, consequences for the banks, and questionable benefit for the taxpayer."
TARP hasn't succeeded in clearing bad assets from banks' balance sheets, which would allow the companies to lend money and get the economy going again, said Gregory Miller, chief economist at SunTrust Banks Inc. in Atlanta. The KBW Bank Index of 24 financial institutions has fallen 58 percent from Sept. 15 through yesterday.
'Hasn't Helped'
"It hasn't cleaned up the asset side of bank balance sheets and it hasn't helped bank uncertainty about bank balance sheets at all," Miller said. "Uncertainty has now overwhelmed economic decision making."
Paulson, who was succeeded last month by Timothy Geithner, designed TARP as a possible money maker.
"This is an investment, not an expenditure, and there is no reason to expect this program will cost taxpayers anything," Paulson said Oct. 20.
January Jobs... Unemployment Rate 7.6%, Loss of 598,000
Well, the market is evidently thinking that this wasn't a total disaster. Of course to any of the real people behind this huge number, it is.
U.S. Jobless Rate Soars as Payrolls Plunge by 598,000
By Shobhana Chandra
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. climbed to the highest level since 1992 in January and payrolls tumbled as the recession showed no sign of abating.
The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.2 percent in December, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Payrolls fell by 598,000, the biggest monthly decline since December 1974, after dropping by 577,000 in the previous month.
The loss of jobs, at employers ranging from manufacturers like Caterpillar Inc. to retailers such as Macy's Inc., is shattering consumer confidence and crippling spending. President Barack Obama is likely to use the first employment report since he took office to prod lawmakers into agreeing on a compromise economic stimulus package by the end of this month.
"We're losing jobs at an alarming pace and bracing for more weakness," Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis, said before the report. "The private sector is flat on its back at this point. The government needs to step in with a stimulus, the sooner the better."
Treasuries slipped while stock-index futures headed higher after the figures. Contracts on the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index gained 0.3 percent to 843 at 8:34 a.m. in New York. Benchmark 10-year note yields rose to 2.92 percent from 2.90 percent late yesterday.
Deeper Cuts
With a revised decline of 597,000 jobs in November, revisions subtracted 66,000 workers from previously reported payroll figures for the last two months of 2008. The U.S.
economy has now lost a total of 3.57 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, the biggest employment slump of any economic contraction in the postwar period.
Last month's losses mark the first time since records began in 1939 that job cuts exceeded half a million in three consecutive months.
Payrolls were forecast to drop 540,000, according to the median estimate of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates of the decrease ranged from 400,000 to 750,000.
The jobless rate was projected to jump to 7.5 percent. Forecasts ranged from 7.3 percent to 7.6 percent.
Here's a link directly to the BLS Announcement.
These adjustments are huge again. If it were up to me, I'd dismantle the BLS and start over:
"The change in total nonfarm employment for November was revised from -584,000The BLS changed some of the methodologies again – ugh. Details can be found within the BLS Announcement.
to -597,000, and the change for December was revised from -524,000 to -577,000.
Monthly revisions result from additional sample reports and the monthly recalculation of seasonal factors. This month, the annual benchmarking process also contributed to these revisions."
Here is an employment chart from John Williams. It reflects unemployment numbers that are closer to the way they used to be calculated and, as you can see from the U6 number (15.4%), it is huge. This chart will automatically update once John Williams gets the data in:
Morning Update/ Market Thread 2/6
Well, sometimes it takes a while to digest the data. Futures ramped a little on this "non-end-of-the-world" employment report, but like the old adage goes, it's a recession when your neighbor looses their job, it's a depression when you lose yours. The trend in unemployment is undeniably up at a dramatic rate, and when we cut through the bull of seasonal adjustments and "birth/ death model" adjustments, we find a 15.4% unemployment number which is much closer to the way the data used to be reported. Thus, keep in mind that it is NOT VALID to compare the 7.6% number to depression era data. I don't know what you want to call the threshold for depression, but I believe we are already there.
Okay, remember that the 30 and 60 minute oscillators are overbought and thus I would expect pressure to be exerted on the downside at some point this morning. Futures are already fading from their mini-pump.
Bonds are down again, it's interesting that on the last FOMC announcement and now on this employment report that it has been the bond market reacting dramatically. There's a message in there, do you hear it Mr. Bernanke?
Appreciate the good participation on the thread yesterday, keep your good input coming. Here's a current chart of the futures just prior to the open:
Good luck to your day,
Thursday, February 5, 2009
DoctorMad – The General is set to Rumble
Intense fighting as evidenced by the increased volume the last couple of days as the bulls and bears edge ever closer to one another and their entrenched lines. This is heading for a climactic battle very soon. We could potentially spend one more day trapped in these ranges, but by early next week the winner will be clear. You better make sure your troops are either on the winning side or you hedge quickly if it breaks against you. The ensuing retreat of the losing side is likely to be chaotic and disorderly with huge follow up by the victors.
- DoctorMad
U.S. Auto Suppliers May Seek $25.5 Billion in Aid...
Comrades… have I mentioned the new Blogger Savings Bailout Solution to you yet? I haven't? You can call it BS BS for short, or to keep it really simple, just plain old BS squared.
U.S. Auto Suppliers May Seek $25.5 Billion in Aid for Industry
By Alex Ortolani
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. auto-parts suppliers, struggling with losses as sales dwindle, may seek as much as $25.5 billion in government aid to prevent an industry collapse.
Three proposals for federal action could be used together or separately to shore up partsmakers, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association trade group said today in a statement. A presentation to the Treasury Department this week spelled out amounts for each program that weren't given in the statement.
The appeal for help is aimed at widening the Treasury's commitment to the auto industry as the U.S. market sinks to its lowest since the early 1980s. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are working to avert bankruptcy with $17.4 billion in loans and face a Feb. 17 deadline to prove they're viable.
"When one aspect of the automotive market fails, especially with its just-in-time structure, it ripples across the industry rapidly," said Mary-Beth Kellenberger, a Toronto- based analyst with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
A $10.5 billion aid program was the costliest of 3 "bridge solutions" in the trade group's 11-page presentation to the Treasury Department this week. That document didn't indicate that the programs might all be used, for a total of $25.5 billion. They were labeled "options" in today's statement.
Calls and e-mails to the Treasury Department for comment weren't immediately returned.
About 40 U.S. suppliers filed for bankruptcy last year, according to the trade group's presentation. The "stress is now compounded" after automakers bought fewer parts because of extended plant shutdowns in December and January, MEMA said.
'Closing Entire Companies'
"Without appropriate action, automotive suppliers will be unable to return to required operations in March 2009 without shuttering facilities or closing entire companies," according to the trade group, which is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
One scenario for aid would be for GM and Chrysler to have access to a $7 billion revolving line of credit created from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to pay suppliers faster than usual. Payments could be made 10 days after parts are shipped, instead of the usual 45 to 55 days, the trade group said.
A second suggestion would be for the government to guarantee promised payments from automakers should one of them file for bankruptcy or be unable to pay. That would provide about $10.5 billion in available funding, helping suppliers use the promised future payments as collateral for bank loans, according to the presentation.
Under the third proposal, $8 billion of TARP funds would be made available to suppliers in need of capital. That scenario also includes the option of commercial banks being called on to use TARP funding to provide credit to partsmakers.
You see, Bloggers across America are vital to the free flow of information and without their help, your country may be facing a "mini depression." Statistics show that 2,269 Bloggers per month have been forced to give up their web site dreams and have, Ugh, actually been forced to go back to work to pay their bills! The shame of it all, can you believe it? Who would have ever thought that we could lose such a priceless resource to the American way of life.
That is why the BS squared foundation was formed to lobby the Treasury for only $2.86 billion in TARP funds. There is no time to waste – Bloggers everywhere are suffering, thus the need to expedite and to circumvent normal Congressional channels, we are certain you understand.
Bloggers everywhere are losing their homes, their wives, their dignity, but more importantly, their Riunite Rosato! Don't let this happen to a Blogger you know! Please give generously, won't you?
I formally call upon all Bloggers to stand united for BS squared. Thank you.
To contribute to the save the BS squared foundation, please give generously to email@example.com...
Visa, Master Card, and Amex accepted… PayPal is preferred!
End of Day 2/5
Thank you for your input!
Okay, I'm going to keep this one fairly short… (or not)
On the day the DOW finished up 106 points (although it *felt* like a thousand – lol), the S&P gained 1.6%, the NDX is experiencing its second coming and finished up 2.4%, while the small caps in the RUT just didn't draw as much attention as tech (for what reason I do not know) finishing up 1.5%. The XLF reversed hard intraday and managed to finish up 1.6% - BAC put in a hammer bottom on high volume while gaining 3% on Ken Lewis's doubling-down on his insider buying (how'd that first batch work out?). Seems like people all around are acting a bit desperate…
Internals were positive by about 2 to 1 on advancing issues, and volume was slightly better than 2.5 to 1. I'm not sure if we satisfied the McClelland Oscillator's signal from yesterday or not, but I'll find out tonight and if it's significant, I'll let you know in the morning.
As far as tomorrow goes, the release of the unemployment numbers will be everything. Is the market expecting a disaster and have that priced in already? Sure doesn't seem like people fear it much by the way the past several days in the NDX went. The VIX couldn't stay over 46 and closed at 43 and change… elevated, to be sure, but is it commensurate with what's happening on the jobs front? I DON'T KNOW. We're going to find out tomorrow, and I think that makes all the charts I'm about to show you a moot point.
But let's look anyway.
Starting on a 20 day, 30 minute SPX chart I see an RSI divergence as annotated by those red lines. The peaks in price are almost level, but the peaks in RSI are lower… that's a bearish divergence – albeit a small one on a short time scale. Note the green channel lines… we touched the top one but failed to break it. Note the 30 minute stochastic – overbought, meaning lower prices tomorrow are likely, and the 60 minute is likewise overbought. Note something else interesting on this chart… see the dark blue lines that crossed yesterday above the candles? Those lines are from the beginning of the triangle back in October of last year, and they finally crossed but we are in the same old area, 4 months later.
Here's a six month chart showing where that triangle originated (sorry for the busy "working man" charts. BTW, if you look at the SPY chart and see that giant hammer, it's a bad print):
And just because I haven't shown a clean looking chart in awhile, here's a daily SPX with all the garbage turned off so you can see that there is still a clear triangle/ pennant pattern in play:
Next is the one month chart of the DOW. This candle looks a lot like all the others except for the NDX. Higher volume day, but again, generally lower prices and generally higher volume on down moves as a whole – although this is obviously looking pretty much like a triangle or flat. On the daily stochastic, my settings have yet to produce a buy here, but have on all the other major indices:
Next, let's check out the risen one, the NDX. That is one big candle, with a massive 50 point range. Ran right into resistance at 1,250 which is coincident with the upper Bollinger. Note how the daily stochastic is almost overbought already, that's just plain old diverging from the rest of the market. It did break that blue line which would correspond to the green channel line on the SPX and is a breakout higher. But is it just a throwover? Also note here that the green 50 day average is now upsloping, that's pretty bullish, as is completely engulfing yesterday's tombstone doji, which obviously did not verify a reversal of the uptrend:
All that said – if I could see nothing else in the market, I would think we are about to go to the moon based on all that. So, let's look inside the NDX at the 20 day, 30 minute chart. Again, we see the breakout above the upper boundary, but look at the RSI and compare the red line there to the prices up above. That is a very substantial bearish divergence, one that should not be ignored. It is, however, on a short time frame and correcting it may not mean a huge move is required. Also note the overbought stochastic indicator that just issued a sell signal by having the fast cross below the slow:
Be careful if you are long GLD here… another outside hammer was posted today right up near the same resistance line as the last one. The last one did confirm, gold prices fell nearly $50 an ounce in the next two days, but as you can see jumped back up. Maybe it'll make it back above resistance if it keeps trying, but beware of outside black hammers, especially in sets that could produce a double top:
Overall, because everything is moving sideways in a triangle it is very confusing to people. One day we see an upright Head & Shoulder pattern, the next day it morphs into an inverted H&S pattern. The truth is that unless you are very quick at catching corners, playing inside of triangles or sideways patterns is an account robbing experience. I've managed to do well recently, mainly on the back of my larger bond market plays.
And to sum up the media, our government, our President, and all the Pigmen out there… all I can say is grow up, possess and demonstrate some morals and ethics, stop acting like children, understand and take care of the math, and stop acting like a gang of desperadoes…
The Eagles – Desperado:


text:
Having tackled the haggis pakora, we turned our attention to huevos rancheros, which is commonly translated as "country-style eggs".
This most Mexican of delicacies traditionally requires nothing more than corn tortillas and eggs topped with a chilli-spiced tomato sauce. Additional elements might include refried beans or sliced avocado, and queso blanco, (literally "white cheese"), is a common topping in the US variant of the recipe.
We decided to go with the Americanized huevos rancheros, and deathmatch regulars will recall we knocked up some queso blanco - effectively cheese curds - as a prelude to last year's parmo v poutine showdown.
It's hardly rocket science - involving simply milk, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and some cheesecloth - but you'll have to do it the night before tucking into your Mexican treat. Here's my son Rui applying himself to the task:
Once you've got your queso blanco sorted, assemble the following:
Per person you're looking at two corn tortillas, two eggs, half an onion, two tomatoes, some avocado, half a teaspoon of chilli powder, and a handful of coriander leaves.
It's as simple as this:
Lovely. So, with the regular gourmet jury assembled, guest waiters Andrés (the tall one) and Diego (the short one) were on hand to present the rival dishes:
You'll note that this time round our serving staff are not wearing their SPB t-shirts. The above photo was taken last Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the Spain versus Italy footie deathmatch, so now you know why.


text:
How can we help?
Search results
Results for
No results for
How do I know if I'm entitled to compensation?Check Compensation
Air Passenger Law Featured
What are my rights regarding Coronavirus/Covid-19?
If your flight is cancelled because of the Coronavirus
You are entitled to:
A full refund of your ticket
An alternative flight (when flights are rescheduled).
If you're stranded at the airport because of a cancellation you're entitled to care. That includes:
- Meals and refreshments.
- Access to communication.
- Accommodation when necessary.
At this point in time, we cannot accept claims for compensation for flight cancellations caused directly by Coronavirus, as the airlines must prioritise the health and safety of their passengers and crew first and foremost.
This includes flights to and from any areas affected by a travel warning or ban.What if I don't want to fly?
If you decide not to travel due to the Coronavirus you should contact your airline to find out what their refund policy is, or to see if they have specific guidelines covering the outbreak.Was this information helpful?
My flight was delayed less than 3 hours but I missed my connecting flight. Can I claim compensation?
For EU flights, the answer is most likely "yes." Under European regulation EC 261, eligibility for compensation is based on the length of delay at your final destination. If your missed connection makes you more than 3 hours late overall, you should be eligible, provided all of your connecting flights were part of the same flight reservation, under the same booking reference number.Was this information helpful?
What are the extraordinary circumstances that are beyond the airlines' control?
The airline is not liable under EU regulation EC 261 and other similar air passenger laws if the flight disruption was due to "extraordinary circumstances." These are scenarios which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken and include situations like medical emergencies, strikes initiated by airport staff or air traffic control, serious adverse weather conditions, and Air Traffic Control restrictions, to name a few. In addition, events that qualify as "Force majeure," such as wars and riots, as well as "Acts of God"—hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.—also exempt the airline from liability.Was this information helpful?
Are delayed flights eligible for compensation?
The answer depends on your flight details.
EU flights – EU flights should be eligible for compensation if the flight and the delay meet some basic criteria:
- The flight must be arriving at an EU airport on a European carrier or departing from an EU airport on any airline.
- The delay must be greater than 3 hours at the passenger's final destination.
US domestic flights – Delayed flights from one US city to another with US carriers are not usually eligible for compensation.
International flights – Flights from one country to another, even within the EU, may be eligible for expenses or damages resulting from the delay.
There is more information on our Know Your Rights pages, but if you have any doubts or questions about your disrupted flight's eligibility, the fastest way to check is to use the AirHelp eligibility check and enter your flight details.Was this information helpful?
How do I know if I am entitled to compensation and how much am I entitled to?
You can check if you're entitled to compensation for your disrupted flight(s) and how much are you entitled to via our Eligibility Check. It takes only a few minutes and is completely free of charge.Was this information helpful?
My airline refused to compensate me after my disrupted flight - what can I do?
If you think you're entitled to compensation for your flight problem and the airline won't do anything about it, not to worry! We can possibly still help you. File a claim for your flight to see if we can get that compensation for you. We'll even take the airline to court if they don't meet their legal obligation to you.Was this information helpful?


text:
Quaker Boy Waterproof Turkey Box Call
Built with new technology eliminating the need to maintain the call. The new ergo grip paddle handle is designed so you can sound like an old hen or young hen on the right or left side of the call. This call will work equally as well on wet stormy or hot dry days. Never needs chalk or sanding. The Curve Lid Boat Paddle The patent pending curved lid stays horizontal and slides across the side wall like a guide, automatically producing a yelp every time. Because of the patent pending curved lid design the contact area between it and box is elongated by almost three times that of a straight lid. It acts as a guiding rail that forces the call to yelp when it is closed. The lid is crafted of furniture grade mahogany and is precision cut to match the hand selected butternut bottom. This contrast in wood designed and crafted to precision specifications results in the ultimate turkey call.
SPECIFICATIONS:Mfg Item Num: 13646 Category: GAME CALLS Type :Turkey CallSpecies :TurkeyMaterial :Wood


text:
NEW YORK -- Robert Caro, Junot Diaz and the late Anthony Shadid were among the finalists announced Wednesday for the National Book Awards.
Other nominees included the novelists Dave Eggers and Louise Erdrich and nonfiction writers Anne Applebaum and Katherine Boo. Twenty authors, five each in four competitive categories, were picked. The winners will be announced Nov. 14 at a ceremony hosted by the commentator and performer Faith Salie.
Major New York publishers have complained in recent years that such high profile books as Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" and Jeffrey Eugenides' "The Marriage Plot" have been overlooked in favor of more obscure titles. But this year's picks include some of the most talked about literary works of 2012, from Caro's "The Passage of Power," the fourth of his epic Lyndon Johnson series; to Diaz's "This is How You Lose Her," a series of stories about love; to Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity," widely praised as a masterpiece of nonfiction narrative.
The nominees include five Pulitzer Prize winners (Caro, Shadid and Anne Applebaum among them), a National Book Award winner (Caro) and two MacArthur "genius" grant recipients, most recently Diaz. Judges also picked five debut books, including Kevin Powers' "The Yellow Birds," which some critics have cited as a rare major novel about the Iraq war; and Domingo Martinez's "The Boy Kings of Texas," a memoir. Panels of fellow writers that change each year choose the awards.
The NBAs are administered by the nonprofit National Book Foundation, which has long sought to strike a balance between making the awards a mark of literary excellence and of popular appeal. Past hosts of the ceremony have included Steve Martin and Garrison Keillor and this year's picks were revealed Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Book foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum said that no changes were made in the selection process, but that extra steps were added to prevent a fiasco like in 2011, when a miscommunication between judges and the foundation led to Lauren Myracle's being mistakenly announced as a young people's literature finalist. Her nomination was then withdrawn, a humiliation for the author and an embarrassment for the awards.
"When the panel chair called in we asked for author, title, and publisher," Augenbraum said of this year's process. "Then we pulled our copies of the books, checked the information, and then later a different staff person called the panel chair back to verify all the information."
The fiction finalists were Diaz, Powers, Eggers ("A Hologram for the King"), Erdrich ("The Round House") and Ben Fountain, for "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk." Besides Caro, Martinez and Boo, nonfiction nominees were Applebaum for "Iron Curtain" and Shadid for the memoir "House of Stone." Shadid, a New York Times foreign correspondent who previously worked for the Washington Post and The Associated Press, died of an asthma attack in February at age 43.
In poetry, the finalists were David Ferry's "Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations," Cynthia Huntington's "Heavenly Bodies," Tim Seibles's "Fast Animal," Alan Shapiro's "Night of the Republic" and Susan Wheeler's "Meme."
The young people's literature finalists: William Alexander's "Goblin Secrets," Carrie Arcos's "Out of Reach," Patricia McCormick's "Never Fall Down," Eliot Schrefer's "Endangered" and Steve Sheinkin's "Bomb: The Race to Build _ and Steal _ the World's Most Dangerous Weapon."
Judges looked through nearly 1,300 books, including 479 nonfiction works and 311 for fiction.


text:
The week in review
Testiest first meeting of the year: The Albemarle Board of Supervisors goes into 3-3 deadlock mode January 4 over the nomination of Duane Snow as chair and adding anti-bypass supes to the Metropolitan Planning Organization. Ann Mallek remains chair; Snow and Rodney Thomas remain on the MPO.
First Sikh mayor: In a less contentious meeting January 3, former city planner Satyendra Huja unanimously is elected by City Council.
Skeeviest attempt to lure boys: Gordonsville resident James Dollins, 43, gets 30 years in prison January 4 for creating a Facebook page of "Kelly Redkin," a fictitious 19-year-old UVA coed, and using it to amorously contact boys between the ages of 13 and 16, many of whom, at Dollins' request, sent nude pictures of themselves, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Weirdest kidnapping: A 21-year-old woman tells police she's taken at gunpoint at 2:30am January 5 from her Quality Inn hotel room off Interstate 64 in Staunton, driven around the area for several hours and released in Stuarts Draft, the News Leader reports. Arrested are Joshua Lawhorne, 27, and Misty Sorrells, 25, both of Greenville, and Sean Jamrose, 36, of Stuarts Draft.
Latest alleged indoctrination-of-Albemarle-school-students: Kid Pan Alley, which holds songwriting workshops at Woodbrook Elementary, is accused of influencing third graders, who allegedly write a song about Occupy Wall Street called "Part of the 99." Some parents are not amused. National blogs, including the Huffington Post, swarm the story.
Worst crash: A southbound ambulance on Route 20 in Buckingham crosses the center line shortly after noon January 6 and hits a cement mixer, according to a release. Ambulance driver Timothy K. Southern, 21, of Waynesboro, dies at the scene and patient Howard L. Watson, 82, of Dillwyn, dies at UVA Medical Center. Route 20 is closed for almost five hours.
Greatest literary loss: Poet Eleanor Ross Taylor, 91, dies December 30.
Best dean: MBA mag Poets & Quants picks Darden's Bob Bruner as the business school dean of the year,
Best get: Michelle Obama comes to town January 11 (after Hook deadline) for a $1,500-a-head fundraiser for her husband's reelection campaign at the home of Dave Matthews Band drummer Carter Beauford.
Most memorable first date: Jamie Page, 17, is out on Saturday night January 7 when a Chevrolet drives head on into and on top of the convertible in which she's a passenger at Hydraulic and U.S. 29, according to NBC29. Albemarle resident Donald Edward Straus, 51, is charged with driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of .15 in the four-car crash. The teens in the crunched convertible aren't injured.
Most derelict historic landmark: The bathhouses of the Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs, which date from 1761 and 1835, have made the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "threatened" list and Preservation Virginia's 2010 "most endangered historic sites in Virginia," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The pools are owned by the Homestead, the luxury resort down the road in Hot Springs.
Most welfare fraud cases: Police allege that Selena Jones, 47, Susan Taylor, 46, and Kianna Taylor, 22, bilked city social services out of nearly $30,000, according to NBC29.
Biggest winery sale: AOL founder Steve Case and his wife, Jean, buy the financially troubled Sweely Estate Winery for $10.2 million, which is believed to be one of the largest real estate sales in Madison County, according to the Madison County Eagle.
Oddest allies: The ACLU files a brief in support of Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman, who are suing to get their names on Virginia's primary ballot. The civil liberties org argues that the state's prohibition against out-of-state petition circulators violates the candidates' First Amendment rights when collecting 10,000 signatures. A judge has blocked the mailing of absentee ballots until after a January 13 hearing.


text:
Help students engage with a fictional or historical character by creating an annotated illustration.
Help students engage with a fictional or historical character by creating an annotated illustration.
This strategy helps students synthesize and articulate the most important takeaways from a variety of resources containing information about a particular topic or theme.
Provide a creative way for students to engage with a text by transforming a line they find meaningful into a poem.
Help students identify and analyze the key characteristics of the three most common types of news articles.
British-Somali poet Warsan Shire gives voice to the experiences of refugees in this poem about "home."
Poet Warsan Shire tells the story of a young Somali-born refugee in this poem from the film Brave Girl Rising.
Read about the meeting of student activists from committed to ending gun violence from Parkland and Chicago.
A New York Times article addresses the role that social media played in rapidly bringing the events in Ferguson to national attention.
Learn about the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and consider the racist themes that were on display.
French writer Amin Maalouf describes the connection between violence and issues of identity and belonging.
Survivors of the ghetto-camp Terezin share stories about their underground publication Vedem and other acts of spiritual resistance.
A high school student describes how his neighborhood in Los Angeles helps him feel connected to the traditions of his family's "old world" heritage in Mexico.