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The 58-40 Senate vote last week to stop production of more F-22 fighter planes was a welcome bit of sanity applied to Pentagon spending. Whether it will lead to less wasteful Pentagon procurement policies in the future or go down as simply a symbolic gesture is a more complicated question.
The F-22 was developed in the 1980s, when most people assumed the U.S. standoff with the Soviet Union would continue indefinitely. By all accounts it is a superior air-to-air combat plane that also has some bombing capability. However, there is now no other country in the world against which it can be used effectively. The F-22 has not been used at all in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And yet, due to the pork-barrel game that military procurement has become, the F-22 survived the efforts of several secretaries of defense to kill it. Previous Air Force leaders shrewdly spread subcontracts for the plane among 46 states. To override many of those parochial interests, it has taken almost a year of active lobbying by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, plus a threat from President Barack Obama to veto any defense spending bill that included money for more F-22s.
The Senate vote does not ensure the House members will vote for this common-sense elimination of funds to continue the F-22 program. The House version includes $369 million for advanced F-22 parts. But we hope the House would eventually offer similar support and send a united signal from Congress that future Pentagon procurements must fulfill the actual defense needs of the United States and not just create the maximum number of jobs and keep building needlessly complex weapons systems.
As Secretary Gates said in a speech last week, "We must break the old habit of adding layer upon layer of cost, complexity and delay to systems that are so expensive and so elaborate that only a small number can be built, and that are even usable only in a narrow range of low-probability scenarios."
Unfortunately, more thoroughgoing reform still appears unlikely. Ivan Eland, who before becoming director of the Independent Institute's Center for Peace and Liberty was a military budget analyst for congressional committees, said of the Senate vote: "This is a positive development but I really don't see it spreading to other weapons systems." More to the point, as with the F-22, most weapons systems involve subcontractors in as many states and congressional districts as possible to widen political support, no matter whether the weapon's need or usefulness in today's warfighting.
The ending of the F-22 program is a necessity and a small step toward fiscal responsibility by the federal government. It took President Barack Obama's administrative clout to end this congressional protectionism. While a president can't make a campaign out of every wasteful weapons system it was important that he and his military leaders took the first step toward restoring common sense to big-dollar decision-making by the top brass.
Whether this is a precursor of more widespread Pentagon procurement reforms to come, well, color us skeptical.


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7. Make meaning – why work?
(Part 8 of an 11 part series on how managers can improve employee engagement)
Finding direction through meaning
Meaning. For work to sustain and enrich people it must be meaningful. Those who have a why to work can bear almost any how and a sense of meaningful work instills a strong and rich intrinsic motivation. Progress, when it is meaningful, can be one of the best events of our day.
Finding and Defining Meaning. Paul Fairlie recently published an article on meaningful work and engagement in Advances in Developing Human Resources. He listed the common dimensions of meaning: having a purpose or goal, living according to one's values and goals, autonomy, control, challenge, achievement, competence, mastery, commitment, engagement, generativity or service to others, self-realization, growth and fulfillment. Fairlie conducted research on meaningful work with 574 respondents. He offered six implications for human resource development practice including deeper discussion and social connections, changing mindsets, and management education on models of human meaning. He concluded that meaninful work was a unique predictor of engagement, "meaningful work characteristics are an overlooked sources of employee motivation and engagement within organizations."
Here are 8 ways to create meaningful work:
- Trump how with why
- Build abundant leadership whys
- Stretch meaning, shrink money
- Get Pink with autonomy, mastery, purpose
- Master your Mojo
- Reframe your values as promises
- Lead on purpose
- Double your WAMI at work
Trump how with why. Viktor Frankl concluded that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living and that life never ceases to have meaning. To move this to the workplace, if you have a why to work you can bear almost any how. Not everyone is engaged in meaningful work, but maybe everyone can be. Part of making this happen is helping organizations, leaders, managers, and employees learn how to co-create meaningful workplaces. Part of making this happen is helping workers to perceive and experience the greater purpose in their work. In the workplace, meaning is co-created between the organization and individual. It is not something we give to another person — meaning must be built through authentic conversations about the why of work.
Build abundant leadership whys. David and Wendy Ulrich wrote They Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations that Win. The authors frame the book around some down-to-earth and meaningful questions around identity, prupose, motivation, relationships, teams, work culture, contribution, growth, learning, resilience, civility and happiness. They encourage us to ask ourselves:
- What am I known for?
- Where am I going?
- Whom do I travel with?
- How do I build a positive work environment?
- What challenges and interest me?
- How do I respond to disposability and change?
- What delights me?
The Why of Work is a practical book for leaders who are looking to instill meaning. As the authors state in their preface: "Leaders are meaning makers: they set direction that others aspire to; they help others participate in doing good work and good works; they communicate ideas and invest in practices that shape how people think, act, and feel. As organizations become an increasing part of the individual's sense of identity and purpose, leaders play an increasing role in helping people shape the meaning of their lives."
Stretch meaning, shrink money. Money matters but so does meaning, completion, competition and motivation to instill caring at work. Dan Ariely offered an insightful 4 minute video on work and meaning at Big Think. He outlines how motivation and engagement are created through meaning. I encourage you to watch this video. Here is a short snippet from the transcript:
Sure, we care about money and it's nice to get paid, but there's also a whole range of other things that we get–a need for achievement and completion, competition with other people, and a sense of progress and a sense of meaning. And all of those things really, really matter. But as we move to a knowledge economy that depends more on people's good intention and willing, and as the nature of work becomes more amorphic and work kind of interweaves with life in all kinds of interesting ways, as we move more and more to that kind of workplace, I think the relative importance of money is getting smaller and the relative importance of those other things could get… could get much larger…The first lesson is that we need to recognize how important meaning, completion, competition, motivations are in getting people to care and to work hard, and we need to try to encourage those…we need to do things that don't undercut those human motivations.
Get Pink with autonomy, mastery and purpose. Daniel Pink wrote the popular book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Meaning and motivation according to the research Pink gathered is created through autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Pink stated that purpose maximization is taking its place alongside profit maximization as an aspiration and a guiding principle. We need to use profit to reach purpose, lessen the emphasis on self-interest, and help people pursue purpose on their own terms. Pink believe this may not only rejuvenate our businesses and organizations but also remake our world.
Master your Mojo. Marshall Goldsmith offers MOJO to find meaning. Mojo means working with 3 elements:
- Identity (Who do you think you are?)
- Achievement (What have you done lately?)
- Reputation (Who do other people think you are? What do other people think you've done lately?) .
Reframe your values as promises. I appreciated Mike Morrison's slim book on The Other Side of the Card: Where Your Authentic Leadership Begins. Mike was the Dean of the University of Toyota. He stated that one side of our business card has writing and the other has meaning. The meaning is created on the blank side of the card. The book offers a number of short exercises to fill the white space of our work with meaning. One element of the book that really stood out for me was to reframe values as promises. Values are often nice sounding statements that frozen in a framed wall statement while promises are something we keep. Ensure that your values don't stagnate on the wall, think of them as promises, and then do all you can to keep the promises you make.
Lead on purpose. Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer have done some great research and writing demonstrating how important minimizing setbacks and maximizing progress is for engaged work. In the January 2012 McKinsey Quarterly they outline how leaders kill meaning at work. This occurs by "dismissing the importance of subordinates' work or ideas, destroying a sense of ownership by switching people off projects teams before work is finalized, shifting goals so frequently that people despair that their work will ever see the light of day, and neglecting to keep subordinates up to date on changing priorities for customers. The article includes a plea for executives to instill meaning in other and find meaning for themselves at the same time:
you are in a better position than anyone to identify and articulate the higher purpose of what people do within your organization. Make that purpose real, support its achievement through consistent everyday actions, and you will create the meaning that motivates people toward greatness. Along the way, you may find greater meaining your own work as a leader.
Double your WAMI at work. Michael F. Stager encourage us to fine our WAMI through a work and meaning inventory. People work for many reasons – some are obvious (I am paid to work), some are not as obvious (work is where my friends are). Research evidence and case studies testify to the reality that understanding how people approach work and what they get from it is vital to learning how to achieve the best possible outcomes for individuals and organizations. Meaningful work is a good predictor of desirable work attitudes like job satisfaction. In addition, meaningful work is a better predictor of absenteeism from work than job satisfaction. The Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) assesses three core components of meaningful work: the degree to which people find their work to have significance and purpose, the contribution work makes to finding broader meaning in life, and the desire and means for one's work to make a positive contribution to the greater good. To download the 10-item WAMI assessment and scoring key click here.
Five meaningful considerations.
- Create meaning rather than searching for it. Making meaning is a creative and co-creative process.
- Work with meaning while achieving meaningful results.
- Actively engage with some of the sources listed here to enhance your own meaning and help others create their meaning.
- Have wide eyes about your work so that you can see and experience the greater purpsse in what you do.
- Remind yourself that meaning is a process not an event. You don't simply find meaning one day, you engage in meaningful work every day.
Read these 7 meaningful sources:
- Paul Fairlie, Meaningful work, employee engagement, and other key employee outcomes: Implication for Human Resource Development. Advances in Developing Human Resouces. December 2011.
- Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning.
- Dave Ullrich and Wendy Ulrich, The Why of Work: how Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win
- Dan Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- Marshall Goldsmith, MOJO: How to get it, how to keep it, how to get it back if you lose it.
- Mike Morrison, The Other side of the Card: Where Your Authentic leadership Begins.
- Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, How leaders kill meaning at work. McKinsey Quarterly, January 2012.
Building the pyramid of employee engagement. Review the 8 previous posts listed below as we build the 10 block pyramid of employee engagement actions for managers:
- 12 Keys to Achieve Results with Employee Engagement
- 6 Ways Managers Can Maximize Performance through Employee Engagement
- 7 Significant Steps to Employee Engagement Progress
- 4 Ways Managers Can Build Relationship BACKbone into Employee Engagement
- Don't Blink: How to Foster Recognition for Employee Engagement
- 6 Powerful moments of employee engagement
- How to leverage 5 pathways for strengths based employee engagement.
Next post in this series: Experience Well Being.
David Zinger built the 10 block pyramid of employee engagement to help managers bring the full power of employee engagement to their workplaces. If you would like to arrange to have this course or workshop for your organization or conference contact David today at 204 254 2130 or firstname.lastname@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chris Young: Bald eagles make a comeback in Illinois
With more than 100 pairs nesting in Illinois now, the American bald eagle is ready to migrate off the state's list of threatened and endangered species.
The bald eagle already has been removed from the federal listing, and ornithologists say bald eagles are making a strong comeback in Illinois and elsewhere.
Seeing a bald eagle in Illinois once was a rare event for birders. Now eagles are abundant, especially during winter months. Last Sunday, 107 eagles were visible from the outdoors viewing deck at the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center at the Starved Rock Lock and Dam near Utica.
"Winter surveys are showing good numbers of immatures, indicating a healthy age structure," according to recommendations from the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board.
The board will review comments received and additional information at its Feb. 20 meeting in Champaign at the offices of the Illinois Natural History Survey.
"At that time, we would be prepared to take action on those species," says Anne Mankowski, director of the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board.
An additional public hearing probably will be necessary for some listing changes if new information is brought to light at the meeting, she says. The public comment period closes Feb. 6.
A lack of young eagles was one of the first warning signs that something was amiss more than 40 years ago. Observers were seeing very few young eagles, leading them to investigate why so few immature birds were surviving.
Now "the trajectory is really positive," says Mike Ward, an ornithologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey who served on the protection board's technical advisory committee for birds. "The same thing goes for sandhill cranes and Henslow's sparrows."
Still, despite the success of the eagle comeback, some people remain concerned about delisting the bald eagle and some other Illinois birds that are being found in greater numbers.
"I was surprised at how many people were up in arms about taking the bald eagle off the list," Ward says. "I think all of us on the committee (reviewing bird species) was really surprised at all the negative stuff coming out (from the public). I mean, we're on the side of birds. I don't think people realize how common some of these birds have become."
Ward says it is the goal of everyone working on behalf of endangered species to help rare birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and others recover — and find their way off the list.
Ward says the public is generally unaware of the committees of experts who are enlisted to advise the board. For birds, especially, counts conducted at various times of the year can provide a warning when the trends show declines over time.
"They didn't know there were technical advisory committees, and we are using the best data available," he says. "We have a lot of population data."
Ward says most people who expressed concerns backed off when presented with statewide population information. Many watch birds in just one part of the state and may not realize a particular bird is common elsewhere.
"These listings are based on statewide status for every species and are not site-specific," Mankowski says. "The board and the Endangered Species Technical Advisory Committees that advise the board did a pretty outstanding job for a group of volunteers."
The board has been without a budget or dedicated staff since 2000. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has helped support the board in the interim, supporting a contract position for director.
One reason for the comeback, Ward says, is that efforts to reduce pollution have paid off.
"It really shows that the Clean Water Act and cleaning up the environment in general has really helped these birds," Ward says. "We are reaping the benefits of these laws. This is positive news — not the usual negative news."
Ward says he would prefer attention be turned to Illinois birds truly in jeopardy, such as greater prairie chickens, loggerhead shrikes, black-billed cuckoos and the whippoorwill.
Little information on the status of some nocturnal birds, such as whippoorwills, is available, Ward says. But it appears the bird's signature call of the nighttime forest has all but disappeared in some parts of the state.
The board soon will review research proposals to address species such as the whippoorwills and its relative, the Chuck-wills-widow.
Ward says experts also are concerned about grassland birds such as upland sandpipers and birds that once flourished in field edges and woodlots.
Even Eastern kingbirds and field sparrows — birds that seem to be ubiquitous in summer — are declining.
"These birds need that messy agricultural landscape," Ward says. "These birds are all showing the same downward spiral. It is a difficult thing to stop."
Without a budget, the board has turned to the Wildlife Preservation Fund, which gets its money from a tax check-off on Illinois state tax returns.
Mankowski says the Wildlife Preservation Fund has been able to provide about $25,000 per year to help the board fund research to help rare species recover.
The board has funded 70 research projects in just over 20 years, she says. The Wildlife Preservation Fund funded most of those.
"If we get a budget again, we will crank up the amount of money we spend on research," says Mankowski, who has been the board's director since late last year. "We have big plans."
How many species are endangered?
The last review of the state endangered species list occurred in 2004. Currently, there are 144 animals and 339 plants classified as threatened or endangered.
If all of the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board recommendations are adopted, the number will drop slightly to 482. The list must be reviewed every five years.
What does it take to become endangered?
An animal is classified as endangered if it is in danger of extinction as a breeding species in the wild within all or a portion of its range in Illinois. A plant is endangered if fewer than 100 individuals are found in four or fewer areas.
Species are threatened if they could become endangered in the foreseeable future.
On the Web:
Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board and a complete list of recommendations can be found at: http://dnr.state.il.us/espb
Did you know?
Bald eagles do not get their characteristic white head and tail for about five years.


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Todd Porter picks Michigan to top Big Ten football conference
Illinois Fighting Illini
Coach: Ron Zook, second season, 4-19
2006: 2-10, 1-7
Key players: QB Juice Williams is as good as advertised. He needs to learn touch and how to slide instead of taking a hit. LB J Leman isn't huge, but he's good with great instincts. Ankle surgery in the offseason could slow him down.
Bottom line: Zook's reputation as a great recruiter is on the line this
year. The Fighting Illini should be much improved, and the schedule sets up well. Remember that Illinois led the Big Ten in rushing last year, and Williams and RB Rashard Mendenhall are back. Williams should become a passing threat this year, and freshman WR Arrelious Benn will make an impact.
Porter's projection: Get ready. The Fighting Illini will win more than they lose for the first time since 2001. Look for about a .500 conference record and sixth-place finish.
Indiana Hoosiers
Coach: Bill Lynch, first season
2006: 5-7, 3-5
Key players: QB Kellen Lewis led the Hoosiers in rushing and passing yards as a redshirt freshman. He has James Hardy as a target. Now, does he have time to throw the ball?
Bottom line: The Hoosiers will struggle this season and play with heavy hearts after the death of Terry Hoeppner, their former head coach who died in June.
Porter's projection: The Hoosiers won't win a conference game on the road. They might get upset by Akron. This will be a long year, and a 10th- or 11th-place finish is in store.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Coach: Kirk Ferentz, ninth season, 55-43
2006: 6-7, 2-6
Key players: DEs Kenny Iwebema and Bryan Mattison anchor the defense. Throw in LB Mike Klinkenborg, and this will be a tough unit to score on. RB Albert Young has to be a 1,000-yard back this year, or the offense under new QB Jake Christensen will struggle.
Bottom line: Some of the luster has been lost on Ferentz. The Hawkeyes should be better without QB Drew Tate, who wasn't a teammate's best friend all the time. Another season like 2006, and Ferentz might be wishing he thought more seriously about the Cleveland Browns.
Porter's projection: Missing Ohio State and Michigan helps this year, plus the defense returns eight starters. Iowa has Syracuse, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota and Western Michigan at home. Those can all be wins and help the Hawkeyes to fifth in the conference.
Michigan Wolverines
Coach: Lloyd Carr, 13th season, 113-36
2006: 11-2, 7-1
Key players: RB Michael Hart is a Heisman contender after more than 1,500 rushing yards last season. Throw in WR Mario Manningham and QB Chad Henne, who seems to have been around forever, and the Wolverines can put up a lot of points. LB Shawn Crable, a Massillon graduate, will be a key to how good the defense is.
Bottom line: The Wolverines are loaded in the right spots with Henne and Hart back. If Carr doesn't win the conference title this year, he won't have to worry about retirement. Another loss to Ohio State would seal his fate.
Porter's projection: Yes, it could come down to another showdown with Ohio State. But the Wolverines have Hart, Henne and center Jake Long returning for their senior seasons. Michigan wins the conference so long as it can handle going to Wisconsin and hosting OSU in consecutive weeks to end the year.
Michigan State Spartans
Coach: Mark Dantonio, first year
2006: 4-8, 3-7
Key players: RB Javon Ringer has to be the workhorse. Dantonio needs Brandon Long to anchor a defensive end spot and Kendell Davis-Clark to have the same instincts he did a year ago. Both players will be better because of Dantonio. QB Brian Hoyer should show signs he is ready to take over for Drew Stanton, but Hoyer is yet untested.
Bottom line: The Spartans lost credibility under John L. Smith. Dantonio will restore it, but it will have to come gradually. A tough schedule includes consecutive games against Pitt, Notre Dame and Wisconsin early on, then games at Ohio State and Iowa later.
Porter's projection: Ninth or 10th in the conference as Dantonio spends a season getting to know the hand he was dealt.
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Coach: Tim Brewster, first year
2006: 6-7, 3-5
Key players: The Gophers have turned out a fine stable of running backs over the years. Amir Pinnix could be next. He rushed for more than 1,200 yards last season. With Tony Brinkhaus at center, Pinnix should get 1,000-plus again. SS Dom Barber was honorable mention All-Big Ten a year ago and leads the defense.
Bottom line: The Gophers have Ohio State and Wisconsin at home. They play conference also-rans Indiana and Northwestern on the road. It could get ugly Oct. 27 at Michigan, though.
Porter's projection: The problem with Minnesota is its non-conference
schedule. The Gophers rarely play a Top 25 team, even rarer on the road. They started 2-1 last year and lost their next four against the Big Ten. This could be a one-win conference season: 10th or worse.
Northwestern Wildcats
Coach: Pat Fitzgerald, second season, 4-8
2006: 4-8
Key players: RB Tyrell Sutton ran for 1,000 yards in '06. QB C.J. Bacher returned from injury and seemed to grasp the position late in the year. Keep an eye on WR Andrew Brewer, who converted from quarterback. DE Corey Wootton and SS Brendan Smith lead the defense.
Bottom line: Fitzgerald has great energy. He also has Sutton and Bacher returning. The offense will be better -- but will it be good enough to contend in the top half of the conference?
Porter's projection: This is easily the most unpredictable team in the
conference. Last year, the Wildcats lost a 38-3 lead against Michigan State and were beaten by I-AA New Hampshire, but they played then-No. 2 Michigan close. With distractions diminished and Sutton in the backfield, Northwestern could be better. No worse than eighth.
Penn State Nittany Lions
Coach: Joe Paterno, 42nd season, 363-121-3
2006 9-4, 5-3
Key players: QB Anthony Morelli took his lumps last year, but he needs to be a leader. WRs Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood have experience. A.Q. Shipley is a throwback center.
Bottom line: The Nittany Lions will be at the top again. Most of the
offensive starters are back, but both tackle positions are losing anchors from a year ago, and Paterno is breaking in a new running back.
Porter's projection: The Nittany Lions averaged just 22 points a game last year, but with Morelli a year older and presumably wiser, that has to be better. A win over Notre Dame on Sept. 8 will create buzz, but Morelli has yet to live up to the hype that followed him to Happy Valley. Fourth place.
Purdue Boilermakers
Coach: Joe Tiller, 11th season, 75-49
2006 8-6, 5-3
Key players: At 233 pounds, Curtis Painter is the biggest QB in the Big Ten. He nearly threw for 4,000 yards last season. He threw 19 picks, too. OG Jordan Grimes is a two-year starter. Dorien Bryant may be the best receiver in the league and will be a high draft pick.
Bottom line: Easily the most experienced team in the conference. Another mediocre season, and Tiller will be the first Big Ten coach out of work. With Notre Dame and Ohio State in back-to-back weeks at home, the Boilermakers can get momentum with wins.
Porter's projection: Tiller always seems to get his team to a bowl game, but that's part of the problem. He could become a victim of his own success. The Boilermakers get welcomed to reality after facing Toledo, Eastern Illinois and Central Michigan the first three weeks. Then they get Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa. Another five- or six-loss season should put them in the middle of the pack again. Sixth.
Wisconsin Badgers
Coach: Bret Bielema, second season, 12-1
2006 12-1, 7-1
Key players: A new QB doesn't have to do much other than not screw it up. Tyler Donovan will get the first crack. RB P.J. Hill is a workhorse. He ran for 1,569 yards and scored 15 TDs in 2006. Luke Swan is faster than people think and along with fellow WR Paul Hubbard, they scored 10 TDs.
Bottom line: If the Badgers aren't 6-0 rolling into Happy Valley in the
middle of October, then something has gone drastically wrong. Bielema is the toast of Madison now. Underachieve this season, and he'll find out what it's really like to be a head coach at a major school with expectations. The Badgers have more talent than people realize.
Porter's projection It's no longer the Big Two. Wisconsin's program is
every bit as strong as Ohio State and Michigan. CB Jack Ikegwuonu is
impossible to throw on. Three starters return on the defensive line. Get the point? The schedule is tougher than most with games at Illinois, Ohio State and Penn State. But Michigan, which could determine the Big Ten title, is at home. No worse than third.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Coach: Jim Tressel, seventh season, 62-14
2006 12-1, 8-0
Key players: RB Beanie Wells has to become the star Ohio State thinks he can be. Much of the offense will fall on his broad shoulders. TE Rory Nicol will be a bigger part of the offense as new QBs settle in. LB James Laurinaitis is one of the best players in the country and won the Nagurski Award last season. FS Anderson Russell is a stud. RT Kirk Barton (Perry) is looking to finish his career strong.
Bottom line: The Buckeyes will feel the talent lost from last year. If QB
Todd Boeckman clamps down the position early, and musical QBs doesn't become the theme music, OSU could contend for a championship. But Wisconsin and Michigan are two of the last three opponents.
Porter's projection: Too much is missing from last season's unbeaten
conference team, but the Buckeyes are still the two-time defending Big Ten champs. If WRs Brian Hartline and Brian Robiskie can replace last year's production, the offense will be better than most think. Look for freshman RB Brandon Saine to become a playmaker. Having Wisconsin at home helps for a second-place finish. Lose that game, it's third.


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Made of PU leather, this western satchel has:
- Boot stitch on the front
- Whipstitch details
- Accented with antique silver studs
- Top zipper closure
- Inside a single compartment divided by a medium zippered pocket
- Inside of the bag includes a zippered pocket and 2 open pockets
- A zippered pocket on the back to conceal the handgun (9.5"x 5")
- A pocket on each side that snap close
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12.8" x 4.5" x 7.8" (Drop 10.5")
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Montana West Collections combines the best of traditional Western elements with contemporary design. We are a label that combines amazing quality and unique design with unbeatable price tags.


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Native Plants
Welcome to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's collection of 82,876 plant images.
This site is not designed for commercial use
or publication. All images are copyrighted and are the property
of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the photographers. Back to Image Gallery
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rate this image
Amphiachyris dracunculoides
Amphiachyris dracunculoides (DC.) Nutt.
Prairie Broomweed, Broomweed
Asteraceae (Aster Family)
USDA Symbol: AMDR
Image InformationPhotographer: Lytle, Melody
County: Travis
State: TX
Location Notes: Western Travis County.
Accession date: 2007-08-20
Filename: ML506_0049.JPG
Slide Index: broomweed 01.jpg
Restrictions: Unrestricted
Collection: Wildflower Center Digital Library
Original Format: Digital
Orientation: Landscape
Shot: Flower(s)
Date Taken: 2007-08-16
NPIN Image Id: 19601
Image VerificationThis image has not been verified. If you can verify this image, please contact the Native Plant Database Manager. Please include the NPIN Image ID in your correspondence.
From the Image Gallery
Additional resourcesUSDA: Find Amphiachyris dracunculoides images in USDA Plants
Google: Search Google Images for Amphiachyris dracunculoides


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哈希牛牛源码:ECB needs a formidable tool against fragmentation
Safety net: People walking in front of a euro sign in Frankfurt, Germany, as the ECB headquarters can be seen in the background. The challenge facing policy makers is not letting the financing costs of the most indebted euro members soar into non-viable territory. — AFP哈希牛牛源码(www.hx198.vip)采用波场区块链高度哈希值作为统计数据,游戏数据开源、公平、无任何作弊可能性,哈希牛牛源码开放单双哈希、幸运哈希、哈希定位胆、哈希牛牛等游戏源码下载、出售。
JOACHIM Nagel, the head of the German Bundesbank, is sabotaging European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde's plans for a comprehensive safety net to prevent yields of peripheral European countries from blowing out.
In a coruscating address this week, he argued that it's "virtually impossible" to determine whether a widened spread above benchmark German levels is justified, setting the scene for yet another brutal fight among policy makers that risks sparking a summer of discontent in the bond market.
As surging inflation ends the era of negative rates and quantitative easing in the eurozone, a glaring hole in the bloc's defences has been revealed.
When Italian 10-year borrowing costs spiked above 4% in mid-June, the ECB was forced to hold an emergency meeting to soothe markets.
Its pledge to "accelerate the completion of the design of a new anti-fragmentation instrument" has worked as a stop-gap; Nagel's speech, though, suggests nothing is settled yet.
His hardline approach risks leaving economically weaker euro nations, notably Italy and Greece, at the mercy of bond traders if markets start to doubt the ECB's commitment to counter any sudden spike in sovereign funding costs.
It's a back-to-the future moment that makes Lagarde's already difficult job balancing the interests of the 19 countries using the euro that much more strenuous.,
The euro is seriously unimpressed, weakening to a 20-year low against the dollar and close to breaching parity.
For now, the bond market has been more sanguine.
Italian yields are about a percentage-point lower since the ECB's emergency meeting, but that echoes declines in German and US yields in the same time frame. There's no room for complacency.
The challenge facing policy makers is not letting the financing costs of the most indebted euro members soar into non-viable territory.
How high is too high? Italy's central bank governor Ignacio Visco said in mid-June that the spread between Italian and German 10-year debt should be fewer than 150 basis points based on economic fundamentals – and certainly shouldn't exceed 200 basis points.
The outline of a so-called anti-fragmentation tool, which will be called the Transmission Protection Mechanism, is expected to be unveiled at the next ECB governing council meeting on July 21. But hopes for a "whatever it takes" bazooka to eliminate the threat of unsustainably high Italian or Greek yields look forlorn.
As I wrote last month, a sufficiently potent backstop need never be used.
The best example is the outright monetary transactions programme that former ECB President Mario Draghi heralded in 2012 to get a grip on violent spikes in peripheral nation bond yields, which has not been triggered to this day.


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On Monday, the Supreme Court let stand a March 2013 ruling that established—at least in the Ninth Circuit in the western United States—that extended and sophisticated forensic analysis of a digital device requires a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
The case, United States v. Cotterman, involves an American man who was driving back into the country from Mexico with his wife in 2007 and had his laptop cursorily searched, with a more advanced search then performed at a government facility 170 miles away. The Supreme Court declined to hear Howard Cotterman's appeal of the legality of the extensive search.As part of a routine check, a border computer system returned a hit for Cotterman—he is a sex offender convicted on several counts, including child molestation in 1992. The agents then searched his car, finding two laptops and three digital cameras, which they also inspected. Those devices had several password-protected files.
The border agents suspected, based in part on the existence of password-protected files, that Cotterman may have been engaged in sex tourism. They interviewed him and his wife and ultimately released them—but kept the laptops and one camera. The laptop was brought to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Tucson, Arizona, where an ICE agent performed intensive forensic search on the laptops. On one laptop, the search found 75 images of child pornography in the "unallocated space" of the hard drive, which is where deleted data resides.
Cotterman later argued for suppression of the evidence of child porn that turned up as a result of that forensic analysis. A lower court initially suppressed that evidence, which was then overruled (PDF) by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2013.
As the Ninth Circuit judges wrote:
Although courts have long recognized that border searches constitute a "historically recognized exception to the Fourth Amendment's general principle that a warrant be obtained," United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 621 (1977), reasonableness remains the touchstone for a warrantless search. Even at the border, we have rejected an "anything goes" approach. See United States v. Seljan, 547 F.3d 993, 1000 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc).
Mindful of the heavy burden on law enforcement to protect our borders juxtaposed with individual privacy interests in data on portable digital devices, we conclude that, under the circumstances here, reasonable suspicion was required for the forensic examination of Cotterman's laptop. Because border agents had such a reasonable suspicion, we reverse the district court's order granting Cotterman's motion to suppress the evidence of child pornography obtained from his laptop.
Cotterman's case was referred to in a recent case involving a New York-based student who had his digital devices searched at the US-Canada border. That case, Abidor et al v. Napolitano, was dismissed in December 2013.


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I've been singing one note lately – gardening. 😎
I won't put you to sleep by detailing what I've been doing. Let's just say I've been catching up on weeding, pruning, planting containers, and, of course, moving plants around because that's what gardeners do.
I've also taken some time to just sit and enjoy being outside in the beautiful weather we've been having. Windows are open, and the fragrance of the lilacs finishing up their season is unbelievable.
If you remember, the MGs are fighting rodents at a new native pollinator garden which we found out is a family of groundhogs. One garden tender is a resident, and he has set a trap. So far, he's relocated two members of the family, and we're hoping to relocate the entire group so the garden has an opportunity to prosper.
I worked out there on Saturday and found that the majority of the plants are recovering except for the lupines and butterfly weed. But, did the tomato cages with plastic fencing, chicken wire cloches, and dollar store waste cans all pinned to the ground with landscape pins work? Yes, they did. 🙂
I also went on a gardening tour last week to a fellow MG's home. She has a native lakeside woodland garden that is jaw-dropping beautiful. The most spectacular feature is a pond they created where a previous owner had dumped gardening waste into a depression in the ground. They added a liner, circulating pump, lined it with rocks, and planted it with native ferns and flowers. It is spectacular, and even though I took a ton of photos, I couldn't really capture its beauty.
Whatever you are doing this second week of June, I hope it includes some time outside doing whatever makes you happy. 78°F with moderate humidity make me a happy woman even with the darn black flies. 😎


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NBA: Anthony sidelined by sprained left ankle
NEW YORK (AP) — Carmelo Anthony will miss the New York Knicks' game against Oklahoma City with a sprained left ankle, unable to take part in a Christmas Day showdown with Kevin Durant.
Anthony was hurt Monday in a victory at Orlando and hoped to play Wednesday, but the Knicks announced he would not be in uniform about 50 minutes before tipoff.
It's the first game this season missed for Anthony, who averages 26.3 points, second to Durant's 28.1. Anthony edged him to win last season's scoring title.
The Knicks did have Kenyon Martin, who has missed the last five games with a strained abdominal muscle.


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Former LSU football standouts arrested on drug charges
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Four former LSU football players were arrested Thursday on drug-related charges, officials said.
The Baton Rouge Police Department said Jordan Jefferson, Tyrann Mathieu, Karnell Hatcher, and Derrick Bryant were all charged with marijuana-related offenses.
Mathieu and Jefferson were charged with simple possession of marijuana, Hatcher was charged with simple possession of marijuana (second offense) and Bryant was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
All four men were booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Booking records showed Bryant's bond was set at $9,000, Hatcher's was $3,500, while bond for Jefferson and Mathieu was $500 each.
According to jail officials, Mathieu and Bryant had bonded out by early Friday morning. Jordan Jefferson bonded out around 6 a.m.
Jefferson is a former LSU quarterback who started the BCS National Championship Game in January 2012.
Mathieu, a junior defensive back widely known as the "Honey Badger," was removed from the LSU football team earlier this year after what sources said was multiple failed drug tests. He is currently enrolled at LSU and was hoping to return to the team next season. Mathieu was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2011.
Both Hatcher and Bryant were defensive backs for LSU.
Officers were dispatched to an apartment at 262 West State in Baton Rouge around 3:30 p.m. in reference to a complaint about a man trying to force his way into the complex through a security gate, police said.
According to police news release: The man was confronted by a maintenance worker and words were exchanged. Before officers arrived, the man had been let into the complex by a resident and was seen going into an apartment. When officers went to the apartment and knocked on the door, it was answered by the resident, Tyrann Mathieu, age 20, police said.
"Officers immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana and obtained consent from Mathieu to search the apartment," a police news release said. "Inside, they found three other men, including the one who had allegedly tried to force his way through the gate. He was identified as Jordan Jefferson," police said. Police said the other two men were identified as Bryant and Hatcher.
Police said a search of the apartment found a marijuana grinder, digital scale and 10 bags of high grade marijuana. Seven of the bags were found inside Bryant's book sack, police said. All four men were taken into custody and arrested, police said.
Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved.


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Life with a dyslexic child is never dull. Our Son no 2 is sporty, clever, full of fun… and dyslexic. Moderately so, according to the experts. Rather than fret about it, we chose to embrace Son no 2's differences, giving lots of support where needed but dealing with much of it through humour. For instance, in our house we don't have left and right: we have left, and 'the other left'.
Our boy gets many words muddled. Imagine the embarrassment when, at a charity fete one summer, he announced in a VERY loud voice, "Oooh I want a go on that stall – I love cocaine!" He was in fact pointing at the Coconut Shy and wanted to win a coconut, not score a line of cocaine. It wasn't that kind of fete.
Or what about the time he desperately wanted a DVD of a film that he insisted was called 'Meet Steve'. I searched high and low for this DVD, in shops and on the internet, all to no avail. After quite some time I did find a DVD entitled 'Meet Dave'. "Oh yes, that's the one!" he exclaimed cheerfully when I mentioned it.
Then there was the time we went to a neighbours' bonfire party and he asked, again in a LOUD voice in front of a whole heap of people, "Will we be burning Ray Mears on the bonfire?" As everyone turned to look at him in bemusement, it was left to me to correct him: "Guy Fawkes. You mean Guy Fawkes." "Yes, that's the one!" he chuckled. To this day he still wants to burn Ray Mears on the bonfire every year. Poor chap, I have no idea what he's done to deserve that.
As for games, Scrabble is never a good idea to play with Son no 2. Unless you change the game to 'make as many rude words as you can with the letters you have'. You see, for some reason he can spell rude words reasonably accurately. Maybe that's a boy thing. Then there's I-Spy: a game particularly difficult to play with a child who often confuses the beginning sounds of words. You need to spend several hours guessing, plus ask for copious amounts of clues, to have any chance of even getting close to an answer. You might as well just guess any random words that come into your head. Or there's Hangman of course. We can never win a game of Hangman with Son no 2. He adds spare letters in the middle of words with out realising, which might be useful if you're playing in Czechoslovakian of course, but not in English.
Short-term memory is another strange area. We have a boy who can think several moves ahead in Chess or in a Magic the Gathering card game… yet give him a 2 step request (ie 'do this, then do that') and he is completely flummoxed. For many years, he failed to recall the days of the week in order, yet he could recite all the rules and regulations on how to play Warhammer. He struggles to read fluently, yet can accurately work out complex Chemistry formulae (which is more than I can do!).
School has been a bit hit and miss. Give Son no 2 a ball or a bat, or a running track… in fact anything to do with sports, and he will excel himself. Yet give him a book to read or a sheet of paper to fill with words, and he will struggle. There are times when we struggle too. One day he came home from school with some English homework written in his exercise book. He told me that he'd copied it off a board at school. At the top of the page he'd written: 'The Sobodret Cluce'. Apparently he needed to find out what that was for his next lesson. We were completely baffled. Once again, I trawled the ever-faithful internet but came up with a total blank. It was only after emailing the English teacher in a panic that we learnt what he actually needed to research: 'The Subordinate Clause'. Shame neither of his parents had heard of that either.
In History he had been learning about the outbreak of World War 2. I had to raise an eyebrow when, leafing through his exercise book, I saw he'd written an essay on 'Hitler and the Nancies'. I think that might have changed the entire course of history.
Or how about the Geography homework he had to complete, the title of which he'd written in his book as 'Latitud and Longaturd'. My, how things have moved on since I studied at school.
Cookery lessons have been something of an experiment to Son no 2. He's never brought anything edible home. Most dishes have been dropped on the way back from school or knocked off the work surface in the lesson… that's if they weren't burnt, squashed or exploded in the oven. Once he baked something and apparently forgot to add any sugar. He didn't know where the sugar had gone, only that he hadn't put any in. Or how about the time he made Apple Turnovers? Easy enough, so you would think. Unless you forget to cut holes in the pastry of each one, so that they explode in the oven before you even take them out. I'm sure his Cookery teacher must have had a breakdown by the end of the year. Only once did he bring home some delicious buns: spongy, moist and baked to perfection. When I congratulated him he admitted with a grin, "Oh I didn't bake them. I swapped mine with the girl next to me as mine were awful and she felt sorry for me." That's our boy, resourceful as ever.
I have to admit it seems that baking disasters run in the family. When son no 1 had to take Cookery at school, with relatively more success than his brother I might add, he once muddled up teaspoons with tablespoons when adding baking powder to muffins. Yes, you guessed it: they exploded in the oven too.
Science is one of son no 2's favourite lessons. He asks his teacher the most interesting questions, such as, "If someone farts on your pillow at night, will you wake up with pink eye in the morning?" Or "If you split an atom and put it inside your head, would you have a head left?" Recently, he came home from school most chuffed with himself, having found out the answer to a question that had been puzzling him for a while: "Why does it make a noise when you fart?" The reply, according to his long-suffering Science teacher is "because your bum cheeks rattle when the wind passes through." Not sure if that question will be on the GCSE paper, but Son no 2 was most enlightened.
Parents' Evenings are a total joy to experience when you have a dyslexic child. "So how is my boy doing?" I asked his Maths teacher at the last such event. "Good, now that we've passed his Origami phase," she replied patiently, "although I've still got one paper swan on my desk." ??
Picking which subjects to study for GCSEs has been something of a challenge recently. Pondering which options to take, Son no 2 came up with quite a random question: "Mum, if you take Biology do you also have to take Textiles?" "Erm no love," I replied somewhat confused. "What makes you ask that?" "Well," he replied seriously, "if you cut someone open on the operating table, you've also got to be able to stitch them up again." Fair point.
You see, our boy looks at things differently to most people. He has diverse views, which when questioned, make total sense. You just need to open your mind. He is a very capable boy with, according to one of his old sports coaches, 'the heart of a lion'. His humour is delightfully daft, and his ability to laugh at mistakes that he makes has made him a much stronger person. Far from defining him, his dyslexia is just a small part of who he is and how he functions. We wouldn't change him for the world. Besides, when given the choice, who wants to be the same as everyone else?
The final say should maybe rest with the teacher of a Business Studies class, with whom we spoke at a careers evening held at Son no 2's school. As we discussed the merits of the subject and whether or not it would play to our boy's strengths, the teacher exclaimed brightly, "Oh I know your son, I see him walking to school each morning. I love the way his hair bounces as he walks!" So if the GCSEs don't pan out very well, maybe we'll just sign him up for the next Timotei advert instead.


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Serves 8
For the Crust:
2 cups coarse chocolate cookie crumbs, plus 1/4 cup for topping (I used pareve oreo's)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted margarine, melted
For the filling:
3 cups pareve milk (or a combination of pareve milk and soymilk)
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ripe bananas (about 1-1/2 pounds total), peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
For the topping:
1 cup pareve whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks
2 tablespoons sugar
A few drops vanilla extract
Make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt margarine and sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add cookie crumbs and stir to combine well. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Bake crust 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.
For filling:
Heat the pareve milk over medium heat until warmed, but not boiling. Beat the yolks in a large bowl. Slowly whisk the warm pareve milk into the yolks and add the vanilla. Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in heavy medium saucepan. Over medium heat, gradually whisk in the egg, pareve milk, and vanilla mixture to the dry ingredients until custard thickens and you can see the tracks from the whisk in the bottom of the pan, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer custard to large bowl and fold in bananas; cover bowl with plastic wrap and cool custard completely in refrigerator, about 1-1/2 hours.
When custard has chilled, in a separate bowl, whip the pareve whipped cream, slowly adding the sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Fold in most of the remaining chocolate cookie crumbs, reserving a few for garnish.
Stir custard to loosen, if necessary. Spread over bottom of prepared crust. Top with whipped cream mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Scatter remaining chocolate crumbs over top just before serving.


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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – It looked at first as though Matt Brown had bitten off more than he could chew with three back-to-back fights.
But after a flat first round against Luis Ramos, Brown, who took the fight on short notice, took control and earned an impressive second-round TKO victory.
The fight served on the FUEL TV-televised prelims of UFC on FX 4, which took place at Revel Atlantic City in New Jersey.
It followed additional prelims on Facebook and preceded the FX-televised main card.
Ramos kept Brown off balance in the first round with a mix of low kicks and oddly angled punches, and when Brown tried to retort, he was stuffed against the cage.
But as it turned out, the battle for position affected Ramos more than Brown, who's well known for his unrelenting attack and big gas tank. The second frame saw Brown connect with several hard punching combinations that bloodied Ramos. Pressing for a takedown, Ramos tried to find solace against the cage. Instead, he met more punishment when Brown locked in a muay Thai plump and unloaded with knees and elbows.
Ramos managed to stay in the fight and even fire back at Brown. But more shots connected than he could stop, and the referee saw that he was odone. The wave-off came at the 4:20 mark of the second frame.
"I've dropped bigger, stronger people with less," Brown said in a show of respect to Ramos. "I wish I could have finished a little sooner than I did. But that's how it goes. He's a tough kid."
Brown (15-11 MMA, 8-5 UFC) now has won three straight while Ramos (19-8 MMA, 0-2 UFC) drops to 0-2 inside the octagon and could be on his way out of the UFC.
Up-to-the-minute UFC on FX 4 results include:
- Matt Brown def. Luis Ramos via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:20
- Dan Miller def. Ricardo Funch via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 3:12
- Ken Stone def. Dustin Pague via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
For more on UFC on FX 4, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
(Pictured: Matt Brown)


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National Zoo Getting 3 New Elephants From Canada
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A $2 million gift from businessman David Rubenstein will allow the Smithsonian's National Zoo to nearly double the size of its Asian elephant herd.
The zoo announced Tuesday that it will receive three female elephants in an open-ended loan from the Calgary Zoo in Canada, which is relocating its elephants to more suitable habitats.
The move will be funded entirely by Rubenstein, a co-founder of the Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group. In 2011, Rubenstein gave $4.5 million to the zoo's giant panda program. He has sat on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents since 2009.
The new elephants will arrive sometime in spring 2014, the zoo announced. They will spend at least 30 days in quarantine before joining the zoo's existing herd of four Asian elephants.
The zoo's elephant habitat reopened in March after a seven-year, $56 million overhaul that nearly tripled the elephants' living space. It can house up to 10 adult elephants and their young and includes a walking trail, sand and rubber floors and a shower the elephants can operate themselves.
The Calgary Zoo sustained $50 million in damage from floods that devastated the city in June, although the decision to relocate the elephants was made before the floods. The zoo, which is partly located on an island in the Bow River, remains mostly closed.
Two of the new elephants, Kamala and Swarna, were born in the wild and are nearly 40 years old. They were brought to the Calgary Zoo from an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka in 1976. The third elephant, Maharani, is Kamala's female offspring and was born in captivity in 1990.
Asian elephants are endangered in the wild, and their median life expectancy in captivity is about 50 years. The National Zoo has a 65-year-old elephant, the second-oldest in the United States. The older elephants from the Calgary Zoo are beyond breeding age, but Maharani could still produce offspring, said Pamela Baker-Masson, a zoo spokeswoman.
The new elephants are expected to stay at the National Zoo indefinitely unless they don't get along with the existing elephants or other unforeseen problems emerge, Baker-Masson said.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
for more features.


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Dec. 23, 2013 — -- intro:
The dates and deadlines associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, are a moving target. They seem to change by the week, if not more often, in response to government conflicts, website malfunctions, and consumer complaints. Most importantly, you may be worried about missing a deadline and therefore missing a chance to be covered – and instead being charged a punishing tax penalty. Here are the most important dates to know in the coming months.
quicklist:title:Tuesday, December 24, 2013—Deadline for Coverage Starting January 1st text:The 24th is the new deadline to enroll in marketplace coverage if you want a plan that begins as soon as possible (the earliest you can have coverage through a marketplace plan is Jan. 1, 2014). Not too long ago, the deadline was Dec. 15, 2013, then Dec. 23. The date changed in response to glitches on HealthCare.gov and state websites that made it difficult for many Americans to shop for insurance.
The websites are now working more efficiently, and you can enroll up until midnight on the 24th to get coverage starting January 1.
Read More: White House Extends Health Care Sign-Up Deadline by 1 Day
quicklist:title: Wednesday, January 1, 2014—1st Day of Coveragetext: Happy New Year's, and Happy New Coverage Day! If you enrolled in a plan by the December 23rd deadline, you can see a doctor and have full coverage for that visit starting January 1st. In addition, a recent date change means that you can be covered on January 1st without having paid—most insurance shoppers will have until January 10th to pay their first bill. Some states, however, maintain their own payment deadlines, so check with your state exchange to be sure.
Read More: 5 Tips for Choosing a Health Insurance Company
If you apply for coverage after December 23rd, your coverage will begin on a rather straightforward schedule. If you enroll during the first half of a month, your coverage begins the first day of the next month and after you've paid your first month's premium. If you enroll during the second half of the month, your coverage begins the first day of the second month following your enrollment and after you've paid your premium. For example, if you enroll on January 10th, your coverage will begin on February 1st. Waiting a few days more until January 16th, however, will mean that your coverage won't begin until March 1st.
quicklist:title: Monday, March 31, 2014—Open Enrollment Closes and Penalty Is Chargedtext: If you forget every other date, make sure that March 31st is the one that sticks with you. This is the last day for open enrollment—meaning that if you want an insurance plan through the federal or state marketplaces, you must enroll by this date. Past March 31st, you must qualify for a Special Enrollment Period to sign up for these plans. Don't forget that you can buy insurance at any time outside of the marketplace, but you will not have access to government subsidies that reduce your premium costs for non-marketplace plans.
March 31st is also the deadline to sign up by if you want to avoid the tax penalty. If you aren't exempt and cannot show proof of acceptable coverage, you will be liable for a tax penalty that will be withheld from your tax refund. The penalty in 2014 will be 1 percent of your income or $95 per adult and $47.50 per child in a household—whichever of the two amounts is greater. The penalty in 2014 may seem negligible, but it is set to increase substantially after 2014. Mark March 31st on your calendar and be sure to enroll by this date if you are planning on getting insured for 2014.
This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.
Napala Pratini writes for NerdWallet Health, a website that empowers consumers to find high quality, affordable health care and insurance.


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Daniel McCulloch and Rebecca Gredley
(Australian Associated Press)
Australia is no longer reliant on insecure international supplies of coronavirus vaccines after the national medical regulator approved locally made doses.
The first batch of Australian-made AstraZeneca drugs has been approved, with about 500,000 doses to go out each week.
Health Minister Greg Hunt declared "the trucks are rolling" as the locally produced vaccines are dispatched across the country.
"This provides the security of supply for the Australian general population rollout, which is fundamental," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
Mr Hunt said the European Union had put in place some "very challenging" hurdles to getting supplies to Australia.
"But we are in a strong position because of this Australian production."
Appearing before a Senate estimates committee, Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy admitted the European Union had blocked more than one shipment of coronavirus vaccines.
AstraZeneca has been trying to get much more to Australia but has been unable to deliver.
"There have been various attempts to make additional shipments," Professor Murphy said.
"We have no expectation that we will get the additional international AstraZeneca any time soon."
However, another 159,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines have arrived in the country.
More than 312,000 people have now been vaccinated in Australia.
A group of Indigenous leaders and politicians received their first jabs in Canberra on Wednesday as medical officers prepare to visit remote communities across the countries.
Mr Hunt said Australia remained on track for everyone to get a first dose of the vaccine by October.
CSL's Melbourne facilities are producing 50 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
The government is also looking to expand production through CSL, potentially beyond one million doses per week.
But the company is not at that level yet.
So far 62,000 people within the aged care sector have received the vaccine, including 4600 in the past 24 hours.
Phase 1b will see six million Australians get their jabs.
The program takes in everyone over the age of 70, along with Indigenous Australians over 55 and younger adults with a medical condition or disability.
Workers deemed critical or high risk can also apply.
European nations who halted their AstraZeneca rollout have since resumed vaccinating people with the jab after studies found it did not lead to blood clots.
Medical regulator boss John Skerritt said his European counterparts were concerned about the rollout restarting amid a decline in confidence caused by the pause.
He relayed to them the story of Samoa, where a vaccine mix-up in 2018 saw trust in jabs plummet.
The island nation later faced a measles outbreak where 83 children died as a result of vaccine hesitancy.
Australia did not halt the AstraZeneca rollout when issues were raised regarding blood clots.
"You only pause a vaccine program when you have very strong evidence, it is not a decision we take lightly," he told the Senate committee
But he conceded vaccine hesitancy was an issue.
"We're on the horns of a conundrum," Professor Skerritt said.
"We're not here to force people to get vaccinated. However, we want – for the good of Australian society and starting normal life again – to have as many people vaccinated as possible."


text:
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announces that 60 elementary teachers and 35 secondary teachers passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers (L.E.T) given by the Board for Professional Teachers on January 26, 2014 in 2 testing centers (Baybay and Catarman), per Board Resolution No. 35 Series of 2014.
The Board for Professional Teachers is composed of Dr. Rosita L. Navarro, Chairman; Dr. Paz I. Lucido, Dr. Paraluman R. Giron and Dr. Nora M. Uy, Members.
The requirements for the issuance of Certificate of Registration and Professional Identification Card (ID) are the following: 1) duly accomplished Oath Form or Panunumpa ng Propesyonal; 2) latest Community Tax Certificate (Cedula); 3) 1 piece passport size picture (colored with white background and complete nametag); 4) metered documentary stamp for the Oath Form; and 5) the Initial Registration Fee of P600 and Annual Registration Fee of P450 for 2014-2017. Successful examinees should PERSONALLY register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.
Related Downloads
- Full text of the Official Result of January 2014 Results of Licensure Examination for Teachers in Baybay and Catarman (Partial Release)
- List of SUCCESSFUL examinees in the January 2014 Results of Licensure Examination for Teachers in Baybay and Catarman (Partial Release)
- Board Resolution No. 35 (Series of 2014) - Partial Release of the Results of the January 2014 Board Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers (BLEPT) in Catarman, Northern Samar and Baybay City, Leyte


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|Lemon & Vinegar Garbage Disposal Cleaner Cubes
Those lowly plastic ice cube trays that have gone by the way side with all the automatic ice makers out there today, can be repurposed in a variety of ways other than ice to save you money and time. Never throw out little leftover bits of sauces/gravies/purees again!
The next time you see them at a yard sale, thrift store or even the dollar store pick a few up! Quite a few liquids and sauces can be frozen for use in cooking and household cleaning.
If you are looking for new ways to be frugal and live a frugally sustainable way of life, this is a great habit to get into. It makes you look at what your throwing out in a whole new way! I always have ziplock bags of ice cube foods lined up in my freezer, and you should consider it too!
|Store cubes in ziplock bags in your freezer for easy access!
Here's a few of my favorites!
Garbage Disposal Cleaner Cubes
Place pieces of lemon in each ice cube slot.
Fill each slot with vinegar.
Freeze. When cubes are frozen, pop them out into a ziploc bag labeled as garbage disposal cleaner and store in freezer. To use: Place 1-2 cubes down disposal, turn on the water and run the disposal. The vinegar and lemons will clean the disposal as they whirl around.
Pumpkin & Applesauce
I love to substitute pumpkin puree or applesauce in my baking in place of the oil in a recipe to reduce the fat. Whether you make your own pumpkin or buy a can (not pumpkin pie filling,just plain ol' pumpkin!) either will be just fine! Just, fill your ice cube trays. Freeze solid, then pop out of trays and store in labeled ziplock bags in freezer. Just pull out what you need based on the measurements mentioned earlier and microwave to thaw.
Tomato Paste
Sometimes you just need a tiny bit of tomato paste to thicken up your favorite sauce or soup. A whole can, no matter how small, is still just too much. So open a small can, fill your trays (I get about 8 cubes per can) and freeze till solid, pop out into a labeled bag and store in freezer. Just pop a cube into your sauce and watch it melt right into your dinner. Also little bits of leftover spaghetti sauce from dinner is great to freeze into cubes, no more waste!
Gravy / Soup Stock
Ever find that you have just a tiny bit of left over gravy and not sure what to do with it? For heavens sake, don't throw out all that flavor! Just pop it into your trays and freeze. Store your cubes in labeled baggies in the freezer. The next time you are making soups, casseroles, or even opening a store bought soup, pop a cube or two in for great flavor! Same if you cook meat in your crockpot or oven and get a bit of broth from it.
Yogurt or pureed fruit for smoothies
My kids love smoothies. To make it easier, you can freeze vanilla yogurt, or even mashed up fruit. Hey, we all end up with that one brown banana that no one wants to eat. Just mash it and freeze it for smoothies. (mashed banana can be used as an egg substitute too!) Same with any extra fruits. then pop into the blender with your other smoothie ingredients and wala, smoothie is done!
Coffee /Chai Tea Concentrate
I do not drink coffee or tea, so have no experience with this, but my coworkers are always dumping cold coffee out at work. What if you froze it or even Chai Tea Concentrate to make your next cold coffee drink?
If you have some herbs in your fridge that are getting a bit old, consider chopping them up and putting them in the ice cube slots and then fill each slot with water. These herbed ice cubes are great to pop into homemade soups and other dishes!
Baby food
Before the days of magic bullets and food processors I made my own baby food. It's a heck of a lot cheaper and with today's gadgets even faster then ever! I've seen those baby bullets and they look so cool,but I usually stored a much larger variety than the number of those cute little containers, plus you don't need to spend the money on it. Make them into ice cubes and store in labeled bags in the freezer. Then pull out what you need and thaw carefully in the microwave. You can even mix those weird blends your baby likes, such as pears and squash, etc. all in the same cube!
I'd love to hear what you like to use your ice cube trays for!
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Women who have sex with other women can pass on or get STIs. Know how to protect yourself.
Women who have sex with other women can pass on or get STIs. Know how to protect yourself.
Lesbians and bisexual women are not immune from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and it's important not to be complacent about getting tested for them, according to Ruth Hunt at the charity Stonewall.
Sometimes, lesbian and bisexual women are told they don't need to be tested for STIs. This is not the case.
A survey of lesbian and bisexual women by Stonewall revealed half of those who have been screened had an STI.
"Women can catch STIs such as
"Any one-on-one contact, such as oral sex or using the same hand when touching yourself and then your partner, can put you at risk. Two women that are both menstruating are at a higher risk, too."
If you have vaginal, anal or oral sex with a man, use a condom. When used correctly, condoms protect against unintended pregnancy and STIs. In addition to using condoms, find out about the form of contraception that suits you best.
If you think you could be at risk of unintended pregnancy, you have the option of using emergency contraception (the "morning after" pill or an IUD).
Thrush is caused by an overgrowth of yeast called candida. Symptoms may include vulval and vaginal itching, pain and soreness on penetration, burning when passing urine, and a thick, white discharge.
It's possible for women to transmit thrush during sex through touching and sharing sex toys. Thrush can be treated with medicated cream, pessaries and tablets, which can be bought from a chemist.
Go to your doctor if your symptoms persist. Read more about
This is caused by a virus, which can spread if you have vaginal, anal or oral sex, or share sex toys. It can also cause cold sores on the mouth and nose.
Symptoms include painful blisters and ulcers around the genital area, although some women may have no symptoms.
Antiviral tablets can help the healing process. Read more about
These are fleshy growths in the vulval and anal region. They may be itchy, but are usually painless.
They are caused by certain strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV), which are usually sexually acquired through skin contact, such as rubbing vulvas together.
Women with genital warts do not need more regular smear tests than those without them. There are a variety of treatment options, including freezing and medicated creams. Read more about
Trichomoniasis can be passed between women during any sexual activity that involves the exchange of vaginal fluid.
Symptoms include a frothy discharge, discomfort when passing urine, vulval soreness, and sometimes an unpleasant vaginal odour. Some women don't have any symptoms. It is treated with antibiotics.
Read more about
These STIs are caused by bacteria, which can infect the cervix, rectum, throat and urethra. There may be a discharge, but usually there are no symptoms.
If the conditions are not treated, the bacteria may lead to an infection in the fallopian tubes and infertility.
Chlamydia and gonorrhoea can be passed between women through shared sex toys, hands, and by rubbing vulvas together. Treatment is with antibiotics.
Read more about
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that causes a painless ulcer, usually in the genital area. It will disappear on its own, but other symptoms may appear. These can include a rash on the body and swollen glands.
If it is not treated, syphilis can cause serious nerve and body organ damage later in life.
In its early stages, syphilis is extremely infectious and can be passed on by close skin contact during sex. Treatment is with antibiotic injections or tablets.
Read more about
The vagina is self-cleansing, so there's no need to wash inside it (douching). Vaginal soreness and vulval irritation can be caused by overuse of perfumed soaps, bubble baths and shower gels.
After going to the toilet, always wipe from front to back (from vagina to anus).
Read about how to keep your vagina clean.
If you have any of the symptoms above or are worried you may have an STI, speak to your doctor or visit an STI clinic.
Getting tested regularly is a good idea to ensure you have a healthy sex life.
Read more about STIs.
Important: Our website provides useful information but is not a substitute for medical advice. You should always seek the advice of your doctor when making decisions about your health.


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Industry News for CareCreditSM
Costa Mesa, California 92626
800-300-3046 ext.4519
COSTA MESA, CA., May 2011 – CareCredit, the nation's leading healthcare credit card, now has exclusive resources available for chiropractors through their online Resource Center, including FREE marketing materials and educational tools to help enhance practice growth.
The new CareCredit online Resource Center provides practices with everything they need to help make care more accessible for their patients. From scripts that simplify the financial discussion and informative article reprints, to promotional signage and presentation materials, practices can use these resources to enhance the patient experience and reinforce their commitment to help more patients improve their health. Chiropractors can also order supplies, request free in-practice training and access everything they need to effectively manage the CareCredit portion of their practice in one easy-to-use location. Enrolled chiropractic practices can access the Resource Center and take advantage of their free CareCredit tools by going to www.carecredit.com/resource-center and logging in as Healthcare Providers.
CareCredit, a part of GE Money, is the nation's leading provider of convenient monthly payment plans specifically designed for healthcare. Currently at work in more than 140,000 practices in the U.S., CareCredit has helped more than 20 million patients for over 20 years get the care they want and need. For more information on the CareCredit program or to enroll, call 800-300-3046, ext. 4519 or go to www.CareCredit.com.


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Talking Cars: Intermittent sputtering, bucking
QUESTION: I have a 2004 Honda Accord that is having an intermittent problem. Upon acceleration between the speeds of 20 to 40 mph, the car feels as if it is sputtering or bucking. Occasionally at cruising speed you can also feel a slight sputtering or bucking. When I took it to a local Honda dealer, they test drove the car and felt the same vibration. They replaced all of the spark plugs and per the computer readout, also replaced my EGR valve, which they said would take care of the problem. Needless to say, the problem still exists. Any insight as to what may cause this situation would be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER: First, if the Honda dealer said this is the problem and charged you the repair, you should get a reimbursement on the money spent. The technician just needs to hook a scan tool up and take the car on a road test with you if your time allows. A sputter or buck under light accelerator conditions indicates a lean condition or ignition break down. An early opening EGR valve could also cause this condition. A simple bypass of the EGR for testing could also be done. The dealer can replace your old EGR valve and start fresh. A look at the actual engine temperature sensor, dirty throttle body are also possibilities.
QUESTION: I own a 2003 Ford Taurus and the only sign of rust is the right rear wheel well area. I asked the local dealer for a price to repair the rust and the price was almost $600. What do you think?
ANSWER: I have seen a lot of both Ford Taurus and Mercury Sables with rot and rust on the rear wheel openings. Over the years the average cost has been in the $300 to $500 range. The cost will depend on the amount of rust and rot. Keep in mind that in some cases rust will return in two years or less.
QUESTION: I own a 1997 Nissan Maxima with 124,000 miles and it failed the state inspection for a catalytic converter failure. The car runs perfectly, and there is no smoke coming out the exhaust. The estimated cost of repair is almost $2,000. Is there anything I can do versus paying the almost $2,000 for the repair? I am a single mom and just making ends meet. Thanks in advance.
ANSWER: There is a waiver process in our state that you should check into. You should have received an information package with a toll-free number to call for information. You need to call the toll-free number and set an appointment with the MAC center in your area. The people at the MAC center are great people to work with and they will send you to an approved Massachusetts registered repair shop for failure conformation. The dollar limit for repair is more than the state requires for a waiver.
QUESTION: I own a 1996 Ford Crown Victoria and have a rotted out fuel fill tube. I have call the dealer and every parts store around and cannot find a replacement. I also called the local salvage yards and all used fill tubes were rotted. Do you have any suggestions?
ANSWER: I have run into problems like this before, and in your case you can use an 1998 Crown Victoria fill tube and both the fill tube gasket for the 1996 and also the 1998 fill tube gasket and modify the lower fill tube mounting bracket and the job is done.
Junior Damato writes regularly about cars. You can send questions to him care of the Old Colony Memorial, 182 Standish Ave., Plymouth, MA 02360.


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Browsing by Author "Collins, Nathaniel, 1677-1756."
Showing 1 to 1 out of 1 results
TextEvans-TCP (Phase 1)On the much lamented death of the Reverend Mr. Noadiah Russel, late Pastor of the church of Christ in Middletown, who had his clayey tabernacle dissolved and his mortality swallowed up of life, December 3d. 1713. Aetatis Suae, 55.Date of publication:
1714Author(s):Description:Three columns of verse followed by an acrostic. First two columns signed: N.C. Third column signed: J.J. Attributed to Nathaniel Collins in Sibley's harvard graduates.This item contains 3 files (51.96 KB).Publicly Available


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Has The Apple Rumour Mill Gone Too Far?
As CCS Insight analyst John Jackson neatly put it: "Apple is in that rarest of all positions where the Street will punish them for anything less than an excess of success. If there's a positive spin on the iPhone story, it is one of latent demand."
Latent demand may be the consequence of romanced customers who believe what is around the corner will solve all their problems, but it is a trend Apple will hope isn't exacerbated. Predictable 'slumps' (if the Q3 figures can be seen in such a way) aren't good long term, but Apple can't shift from marketing practices so closely tied to its identity. The Apple Store must continue to needlessly go down when adding new products, a veil of absolute secrecy must be maintained to ensure excitement and build demand, keynotes must stick to a smug, drawn out formula of show and tell. And Apple will be fine… unless someone starts doing it better.
That someone may just be Samsung. Strategy Analytics this week announced the Korean giant shipped 51 million smartphones worldwide between March and June – the largest amount by a single vendor in history. Furthermore just 12 months ago Samsung shipped just 20.2m representing a 150 per cent gain. Of course Apple will think "this is ok, we aren't purely about volume" but Samsung is also coming close to Apple's famous hype.
In the run up to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy SIII the rumour escalated to iPhone levels: fans mocked up images, components were uncovered in blurry photographs and expectation went through the roof. The result: 10 million shipped SIIIs in under two months. If it can keep the momentum up and hit over 15m in a quarter Samsung will have a single model achieving 75 per cent of Apple's iPhone 4 figures last year. What's more Samsung has handsets at every price point and a less predictable release schedule – latent demand seems unlikely.
All the while Samsung and Apple continue to battle in court and legal rulings see Apple secrets brought out into the open. This week it was early iPhone and iPad prototypes, days before it was 58 per cent iPhone profit margins – all of which serve only to kill the mystery of the company's famous design process and make us angry about the prices we pay.
Make no mistake Apple is not trembling, such margins alone guarantee the iPad remains hugely dominant and iOS still woos most developers. What has been unearthed for the first time, however, is Apple's rhetoric is developing a distinct downside, a sense of stale predictability and this addition is far beyond 'one more thing'…


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Alabama is home to a wide array of natural areas that are managed by federal, state, and private agencies. The non-profit Nature Conservancy (TNC) has helped to protect more than 120,000 acres of environmentally significant areas in Alabama since the state chapter opened in 1989. TNC is a worldwide organization that specializes in acquiring wild lands that have significant natural or geological features or that support important wildlife or plant populations. The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the habitats they need to survive. To achieve this goal, TNC has developed a strategic, science-based planning process, called Conservation by Design, to identify the highest-priority places.
In many cases, TNC provides funds to donors and members for the initial acquisition of the land and then turns the land over to the state or federal government, either through an outright property transfer or through a subsequent sale. In Alabama, much of the land that is encompassed in what are now the Walls of Jericho, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, and Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge was originally acquired by the Nature Conservancy. Most of the land acquired through the efforts of TNC have been transferred to the state of Alabama or to the federal government, but TNC owns and manages 16 sites. These sites represent varied and distinct natural areas in Alabama and encompass more than 5,500 acres. The preserves range from the foothills of northern Alabama to the beaches of the Gulf Coast and run the gamut from leafy glades that host rare plants to caves harboring endangered bats. Public access to many of the preserves is limited because of their fragile nature.
Nature Conservancy Preserves
Barton's Beach on the Cahaba Preserve in Perry County encompasses 125 acres of Deep South wetland, with tupelo, river birch, and towering bald cypress trees festooned in Spanish moss. The preserve, acquired in 2000, boasts profuse hardwood forests and sandbars. The beach itself is actually a large sandbar that is a nesting site for turtles.
Brasher Woods Preserve in Etowah County is an 80-acre old-growth hardwood forest obtained in 1995. It is home to a variety of wildlife, including white-tail deer and migratory songbirds.
Chitwood Barrens Preserve in DeKalb County was initially purchased in 1985 to preserve the extremely rare green pitcher plant (Sarracenia oreophila), a federally listed endangered species. Its 53 acres protect other rare plants, including the longleaf sunflower and the Little River Canyon onion, which have extremely limited ranges.
Coosa Bog Preserve, in Cherokee County, was acquired in 1989. This tiny preserve, just 3.3 acres, is home to a large colony of green pitcher plants.
Dennis Cove Preserve was the first Alabama acquisition for the Nature Conservancy in 1981. It is a 159-acre area of bayous, tidal flats, and marsh along the mouth of Fowl River in southern Mobile County near the southern tip of Mon Louis Island. The flats and marshes sustain a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl, including ospreys, American egrets, brown pelicans, green herons, and great blue herons.
Dry Creek Preserve, acquired in 1986, is a 26-acre stretch of hardwood forest along the banks of Dry Creek in St. Clair County. It harbors one of only seven known populations of the endangered Alabama leather flower (Clematis socialis), which grows only in Alabama and Georgia. Although the site is relatively small at 31 acres, it supports migratory songbirds and a local beaver colony.
Gulf Creek Canyon Preserve, in St. Clair County near the private Horse Pens 40 nature park, sits high on a mountain overlooking central Alabama. Obtained in 1999, the preserve is split by Gulf Creek, which drains through a gorge several hundred feet deep. The 125 acres include an impressive array of vertical cliffs, a tumbling creek, and seasonal waterfalls. The upper reaches are covered with thick hardwood forests.
Kathy Stiles Freeland Bibb County Glades Preserve, also along the Cahaba River, was acquired in 1997 to protect a large variety of rare plants, eight of which are new to science and one—the dwarf horse nettle (Solanum pumilum)—had not been found since the 1830s and was believed to be extinct until its discovery here in 1993. Sixty-one rare plant species have been found on the preserve's 480 acres. The Little Cahaba River flows through the preserve, and the remains of Brighthope Furnace, Alabama's earliest known ironworks, are hidden in the thick forest.
Keel Mountain Preserve was acquired in 2001 to protect the Morefield's leather flower (Clematis morefieldii), an endangered plant found only in the immediate area. The preserve also encompasses steep rock cliffs, sinkholes, a sparkling creek, and a thick forest of oak, hickory, and pine. One particularly notable sinkhole, dubbed "Lost Sink," features a waterfall that disappears into its depths. The 310-acre preserve near Huntsville, Madison County, is home to numerous migratory songbirds and a large population of whitetail deer. It is associated with the 460-square-mile Paint Rock River Landscape Conservation Area, which is home to the Walls of Jericho natural feature.
Prairie Grove Glades, acquired in 1995, is the largest intact glade left in Alabama and is a haven for a dozen species of rare plants. A glade is defined as a small open area of naturally occurring vegetation. Most Alabama glades have been bulldozed or paved. The preserve's 191 acres in western Alabama near Moulton, Lawrence County, are a patchwork of open rocky areas covered with rare flowering plants, such as Harper's umbrella plant (Eriogonum longifolium var. harperi) and the Alabama larkspur (Delphinium alabamicum), and shaded groves of hardwoods and cedar trees.
Pratt's Ferry Preserve, on the south bank of the Cahaba River in Bibb County, was obtained in 1991. The preserve is only 12 acres but protects several rare wildflowers. One resident shrub, the Alabama croton (Croton alabamensis), is only found in the Cahaba River and Black Warrior River watersheds.
Rabbit Island is a 26-acre coastal marsh island, many of which are rapidly disappearing as a result of extensive coastal development. Located near Ono Island in Baldwin County, the island remains a wild and natural habitat for marsh rabbits, water snakes, and diamondback terrapins, and is also an important site for migrating shorebirds. The island was acquired in 1997.
Roberta Case Pine Hills Preserve was established in 1999 in Autauga County as a haven for one of the largest populations of the federally endangered Alabama canebrake pitcher plant (Sarracenia alabamensis), which is found nowhere else in the world. The preserve's 400 acres are home to a number of colonies of the plant, which thrives in seepages scattered among the longleaf pine forest that dominates the preserve.
Roberta Case Pine Hills Preserve was established in 1999 in Autauga County as a haven for one of the largest populations of the federally endangered Alabama canebrake pitcher plant (Sarracenia alabamensis), which is found nowhere else in the world. The preserve's 400 acres are home to a number of colonies of the plant, which thrives in seepages scattered among the longleaf pine forest that dominates the preserve.
Roy B. Whitaker Preserve, on the banks of the Paint Rock River in Jackson County, consists of open fields and river bottomlands that host a lush community of hardwoods. Acquired in 2005, the preserve covers 323 acres with more than 1.5 miles of Paint Rock River frontage. The Whitaker preserve is a key link in one of TNC's major efforts in Alabama: preserving and restoring as much of the Paint Rock River watershed as possible. The river and its major tributaries provide critical habitat for migratory songbirds as well as three rare species of fish, and 12 rare mussel species, including the pale lilliput (Toxolasma cylindrellus) and the Alabama lampshell (Lampsilis virescens), which are found nowhere else in the world.
Sharp-Bingham Preserve in Jackson County was originally purchased in 2004 and more than doubled in size with an additional land purchase in 2007. It is the largest of the Nature Conservancy's preserves in Alabama at 2,850 acres. It contains an extensive cave system, with 30 caves identified and perhaps miles of linkages waiting to be discovered. The cave system also hosts a resident population of the Tennessee cave salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus) and occasional bat populations.
Splinter Hill Bog Preserve, in northern Baldwin County, is a refuge for rare animals such as Bachmann's sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis), the Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus), endangered gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), and numerous rare plant species, including a dozen types of carnivorous plants. Acquired in 2004, the preserve has expanded to include more than 2,000 acres, owned by the Conservancy and the State of Alabama, that provide diverse habitats ranging from longleaf pine forests to swamps and rivers. The preserve is also an important stopover site for migratory songbirds.
Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay near the town of Fairhope, Baldwin County. It encompasses 6,525 acres of water, marshland, estuary, and forested wetlands. It is critical habitat for spawning fish and shellfish as well as many species of birds and mammals. It plays host to a major research center and is part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), a nationwide network of 29 coastal reserves managed for long-term research and education and interpretative programs on estuarine habitats.
Additional Resources
Birchard, Bill. Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Group in the World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Additional Resources
Birchard, Bill. Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Group in the World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Grove, Noel. Earth's Last Great Places: Exploring the Nature Conservancy Worldwide. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2003.


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There are many reasons to start you Huntley house search now.
When you start your Huntley House Search it is a good idea to have an experienced Huntley Realtor help you decide where you would like to begin your house search. Your Huntley agent can show you all the advantages the area has to offer. It is much easier to start looking for your Huntley house on line, this way you can browse thru many listings and pick out the best ones to go and take a look at.
Why would you buy a house in Huntley
Buying a home in Huntley, IL is a very good investment. There are lots of great subdivisions to choose from. Your Huntley Realtor can show you prices start at about 190,000 for houses that are about 15 to 18 years old and go up to 390,000 for brand new construction. Demand for housing in Huntley has stay high because it is a very desirable place to live. Most people that visit Huntley for the first time are amazed at how beautiful the area is.
Why Huntley is such a great place to live
Huntley has a small town charm in all of its subdivisions. The houses are mostly newer and a little larger than most areas. There are plenty of parks and a very open feeling to the neighborhoods. There are lots of families with children of all ages. A good Huntley agent can show you how fantastic school district 158 that has grown with the community. The village has planned its growth wisely and kept the feeling of a small community even though it has grown somewhat fast.
The advantages that Huntley has to offer
Huntley started out with the Prime outlet mall and Del Web. It also has an old time public square with a gazebo in the downtown area where people would come to meet and shop. There are restaurants and store downtown on Main Street. Route 47 has recently been given a makeover. It is now a four lane street with many improvements. I-90 will now have a four way on and off ramps interchange at Rt 47.
We will help you decide where to start your Huntley house search.
All the great new subdivisions in Huntley
Talamore is a beautiful master planned community located at the northern tip of Huntley with 2,000 homes that include townhouses, mid-range single family and higher end homes.
Loins Chase is at the western edge of town with 200 upper middle class single family homes.
Covington Lakes is on the east side of Rt 47 and has 500 upper middle class homes and townhouses.
Northbridge is an upper middle class neighborhood that has 350 single family homes.
Southwimd is on the eastern most side of Huntley and has 700 middle class single family homes.
Georgian Place is closest to downtown and has 350 middle class single family homes.
Heritage/Cider Grove is a little east and has 600 middle class single family homes.
Wing Pointe is on the southern part of town with 600 middle class homes and townhouses.
These are just the newest subdivisions, there are also others to choose from. Your Huntley Realtor can help you decide which one would be best for your needs. A good Real Estate Agent will listen to what you are interested in and then find you homes that meet your needs.
As you can see Huntley is a great place to search for your next house. Just give me a call or drop me an email and we can together decide how to start your Huntley house search.
Huntley House Search