Raid shuts 3 motels on troubled strip of Tukwila

Hundreds of police and federal agents raided and then shuttered a trio of troublesome motels in Tukwila, where police say the owners arranged drug deals and the front-desk clerks charged visitors a fee to direct them to the rooms of tenants who were selling drugs or sex.Tukwila police said that during the past two years, the motels — within two blocks of one another — have accounted for nearly one in six calls for service to the police department. The motels have been the scenes of rapes, assaults, drug dealing, prostitution and at least three overdose deaths in recent years, according to court documents.

Tukwila Mayor Jim Haggerton said the motels in question had been a blight since the International Boulevard area was annexed by the city.“We’ve had problems and challenges from a few owners from the beginning,” Haggerton said.The complaint alleges that there were 223 calls for police service to the Boulevard Motel between July 1, 2012 and June 20, 2013. The structure has just 27 guest rooms — the largest of the three.

According to Assistant Chief Bruce Linton of the Tukwila Police Department, owners of the three motels have rejected numerous efforts to clean them up.According to court documents, one of the owners, Kulwinder “Chris” Saroya, told police in 2010 that “normal people will not come to [his] hotel so [he has] to do business with Offering High Rug cleaning Services and prostitutes to make money.”

The motel owner/managers — Saroya, Jaspal Singh and Lakhvir “Larry” Pawar — were arrested and appeared before a U.S. magistrate Tuesday afternoon on charges of distribution and attempted distribution of crack cocaine in a series of deals with a paid confidential informant during the past five weeks. Four others, including motel tenants, also were charged.Singh, Saroya and Pawar were ordered detained by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler during their brief appearance in U.S. District Court.

As law-enforcement officers boarded up every window and door of the motels, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said at a news conference at the Tukwila Community Center that the action ought to serve as a warning to owners of other troubled properties. She emphasized that the Department of Justice will use every tool to combat what it considers “drug-involved premises,” including forfeiture.

To that end, federal prosecutors filed a 48-page civil complaint claiming the motels and some other properties — including Saroya’s recently remodeled 4,480-square-foot, 6.25-bath home in SeaTac — will be forfeited because they were purchased with the proceeds of criminal activity.

The federal lawsuit alleges the “owners of the properties are engaged in, encouraging and making significant cash profits from criminal activity at the Target Motels,” wrote Special Agent Joe Miller of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Mattress Cleaning Services, in a sworn affidavit.

It alleges the owners were involved in money laundering and a series of complex business transactions apparently designed to hide ownership of the businesses.The early-morning raids snarled traffic along Highway 99 as hundreds of police poured into the motels, rousting tenants and boarding up the rooms.

While there was grumbling and a few arrests, no officers were injured, and the raids and evictions proceeded peacefully, said Tukwila Police Commander Eric Drever.One federal law-enforcement officer snapped a photograph of a cardboard sign, posted near the command center, whose spray-painted scrawl read: “Thank You for Cleaning Up ‘Our’ City! God Bless!”

In preparation for the raid, police had road crews come to the area very early Tuesday morning to make it look as though roadwork was being done. But the real reason was to close off portions of Highway 99 to allow officers easy access to the motels.Sealing off the lanes “allowed us to deploy quickly and safely,” Drever said.He said social-service agencies were on the scene to provide “humanitarian relief” to motel patrons who were not being sought by law enforcement.

The lead agencies on the raid were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Tukwila police, but Drever said many federal, state and local agencies participated, including the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Renton and Seattle police departments, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Agriculture, which was involved because some of the alleged illegal activities involved food stamps.

In addition, a King County Animal Control crew was there to help with pets displaced by the raid. The law-enforcement contingent at the scene also included two large moving-van style trucks and a line of four portable toilets.Among those displaced by the raids was Jacob Shaffer, who was staying at the Great Bear Motor Inn. He was detained for two hours by police and was without lodging after he paid $290 Monday night for a room for a week.

“I woke up to what sounded like flash grenades and people kicking doors open ... I didn’t expect anything like this to happen. I’m a law-abiding citizen,” said Shaffer, who said he is a fisherman headed to Alaska in a couple of weeks.

Spencer Hospital is First and Only Hospital

Xenex's room disinfection system uses pulsed xenon technology to deliver high-intensity, broad spectrum ultraviolet-C light to quickly kill microorganisms on surfaces without contact or chemicals.  The UV-C light penetrates the cell walls of microorganisms, essentially fusing their DNA, leading to instant damage, the inability to reproduce or mutate, and destroying the organism. Uniquely designed for ease of use and portability, Spencer Hospital's Environmental Services staff operates the Xenex device without disrupting hospital operations. The system is capable of disinfecting a room in as little as five minutes and can disinfect over 30 rooms per day, so hospitals use the device continuously to reduce contamination levels throughout their facilities.

"We are very excited at Spencer Hospital to pioneer the use of this new technology that has shown to significantly reduce the microbial load on high-touch surfaces in patient rooms in a relatively short period of time," remarked DeeAnn Vaage, Offering Office cleaning Services. "It is our goal to continually enhance the care we provide and since some infectious organisms are especially difficult to kill, even with the best cleaning products, Xenex's UV room disinfection device will help us improve patient safety and reduce our patients' risk of developing a healthcare associated infection."

Numerous hospitals that have implemented the Xenex room disinfection system have documented reductions in the presence of drug-resistant microorganisms and observed a return on investment through operational cost savings.   In hospital trials, Xenex has consistently shown to be more than 20 times more effective than standard cleaning practices and a study performed at MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated that the Xenex system was more effective than bleach in reducing C. diff. in patient rooms.
Todd Rominger, Director of Environment Services, commented, "A big thank you goes to our Auxiliary volunteers who voted to purchase the Xenex technology using funds they've raised through various events and Gift Shop proceeds." As the donors, the Auxiliary board selected a fun name for the machine, dubbing it "Violet" in honor of the unit's ultraviolet technology.

While the vendor-supplied studies on the Xenex system were impressive, Rominger explained that prior to purchasing the device, his team conducted its own study to evaluate the efficacy of the Xenex system.  Hospital personnel conducted a trial in patient rooms and ORs, which demonstrated that while the hospital's traditional cleaning methods well exceeded industry standards; they were even more impressed when after using the Xenex technology the presence of micro-bacteria was almost non-existent – making the rooms safer for future patients.

"We are very excited to have the Xenex system as we have seen it can make a great difference in our health care mission," Rominger said. "According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), healthcare associated infections, caused by deadly pathogens such as MRSA, C. diff, pneumonia and Acinetobacter, are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Our Environmental Services team does an excellent job which yields success in curtailing infection rates; however, this technology will help our great efforts be even better."

"The most important step in infection control begins with a End Of Lease Cleaning on mvpcleaning and that's what the Xenex room disinfection system accomplishes. In just 5-10 minutes per room, our device can eliminate the deadly microorganisms and superbugs that cause infections. We have proven repeatedly that the science of our pulsed xenon light makes it incredibly effective against the most challenging bacteria, viruses and even C. diff spores," said Dr. Mark Stibich, Chief Scientific Officer of Xenex.

Speaking outside Cabinet yesterday, Mr Fitzgerald said he was “disappointed” that Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) president Belinda Wilson had taken the matter to the press, promising to pull 130 teachers from what the union says are a belaboured school in New Providence and one in Grand Bahama.

Ms Wilson would not reveal the name of the schools or principals, but said she would do so if Mr Fitzgerald fails to meet the demand of the union, teachers, parents and members of the community surrounding the campuses, to remove the principals.

Yesterday, Mr Fitzgerald explained the issue in question has been discussed and his ministry “sees no issues” with school opening, next week.

“The schools are prepared. We’re finalizing the painting, this week, and the cleaning of the grounds and we have no major issues from that standpoint. The teachers will be in place as well,” he said.

“With regard to the issue raised by the president of the union with regard to sit-out of school in Nassau and one in Grand Bahama. I’ve had the opportunity to review the situation, to discuss it with the PTA, as well as with the school boards at both of the schools I knew she was concerned about.

“I’m satisfied now that the principals will be returning to school and that they have the support of the majority of teachers as well as administrators and school boards and PTAs at those various schools.

“Having said that, I expect that all teachers will report to work on Monday morning – no industrial dispute has been filed, as far as I’m aware of – and any teachers that do not report will understand that, as far as I’m concerned, they are withholding their services and they know what course of action I will take after that; so I expect that they will report to work.”

Mr Fitzgerald said he has spoken with the principals regarding the issues that were raised by Ms Wilson and – “we have addressed those and we expect to have a smooth transition for the new school year.”

He said it was “unfortunate” that Ms Wilson would make her concerns public as he and Ms Wilson had been attempting to work out the problems, privately, and the issue in question does not go against the industrial agreement.

“She had already spoken to me about it and she and I have addressed many issues in the past and I would have anticipated if she would have waited for me to do my investigation and had a response after that, but she pre-empted that and made comments to the public which I thought were unfortunate – particularly in light of the fact that there is no industrial issue ongoing,” he said.

“These are decisions that we consult with the union on, but at the end of the day we are the final decision maker with regard to it. She raised her concerns, I looked into those concerns, and I made her concerns and those of the teachers known to the principal – and I think moving forward, we have addressed those.

India on radar of Elevance Renewable for biorefinery

The US-based Elevance Renewable Sciences Inc, a high-growth specialty chemicals company, has plans to set up additional biorefineries throughout the world, including India, said a company official, without giving any specific details about the timing, place and scale of the future biorefineries.

“The timing and location of our biorefineries will be coordinated with our customers' supply chain needs. Currently, our emphasis is on meeting the significant needs identified by our customers for our announced biorefineries in Indonesia and in the US (Natchez, Mississippi). We are having discussions regarding timing for additional biorefineries throughout the world, and our discussions have included India at various times,” said Andy Shafer, Executive Vice President, Sales & Market Development, Elevance Renewable Sciences, when asked whether Elevance was planning to start a biorefinery in India in an email query.

Elevance Renewable Sciences in a joint venture with Wilmar International has set up a biorefinery at Gresik, Indonesia, from which they have begun shipping commercial products, including novel specialty chemicals, to customers from last month.

The 1,80,000 metric tonne manufacturing facility is the first biorefinery based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology. The renewable performance specialty chemicals, olefins and oleochemicals will be used in personal care products, detergents and Offering High Standard Cleaning Services, lubricants and additives, engineered polymers, and other specialty chemicals markets.

“Elevance has secured several strategic partnerships with global market leaders, such as Arkema and Stepan Company, to accelerate rapid deployment and commercialisation of the high-performance specialty chemicals in end user applications. In addition to the demand from Elevance’s strategic partners, we have already secured offtake for a substantial portion of the products the biorefinery will produce. Wilmar’s existing oleochemicals business will consume the oleochemicals produced in the biorefinery, which represent approximately 50 percent of the production when we are using palm oil as our feedstock,” said Shafer.

Wilmar International has presence in India and supplies oleochemicals to customers in the country. When asked about the plans to market specialty chemicals, manufactured at the Indonesian biorefinery JV, in India, Shafer said, “The markets and industries that Elevance is serving are large and global. We expect that several biorefineries will be needed as our technology is adopted. All of our biorefineries will supply globally. Biorefineries will be located close to customers and feedstock supplies to enhance service, reduce costs and minimise our environmental footprint.”

On the TTIP impact on GCC industries and sectors, Hill and Knowlton Strategies said standards adopted under the partnership will become globally binding with third party trading countries and they will have significant impact on the aviation, energy and financial services sectors.

Specifically, the report said this could mean that the GCC energy sector will have to comply with rigorous sustainability standards as demand grows for clean energy solutions, while the financial services sector will face a new regulatory environment of corporate governance, accountability and transparency.

In the aviation sector, TTIP negotiations could result in the emergence of transatlantic carriers with transnational ownership and control structures, Hill and Knowlton Strategies said.  With the EU and the US home to nine out of the 10 top global airlines by reported revenue in 2011 this would increase momentum for global reform of ownership and control rules.

While many aviation market access barriers such as route restrictions, frequencies, capacity and pricing have already been lifted, there are some remaining critical barriers that will be discussed in TTIP negotiations.

For example, preferential treatment may be granted reciprocally to European and American airlines under TTIP, putting third-country companies like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways at a disadvantage, the study said.

Energy security and access to energy are high on the US-EU agenda and TTIP will certainly not adopt any provisions that would jeopardise relations with the GCC or affect imports of crude oil or LNG. 

However, TTIP would create the largest global market for energy imports and both the EU and US have stated that the emphasis will be on the unrestricted as well as sustainable access to raw materials.  This would pressure GCC providers, like Sabic and Qatargas, to comply with sustainability standards.

Discussions on specific rules for energy and raw materials for state owned enterprises have also been tabled with TTIP, along with incentives to further trade in clean energy.  Each of these proposals will have an impact on how GCC energy companies go about their business with the EU and US.

In the financial services sector, the initial EU negotiating mandate has signalled that the TTIP should promote regulatory compatibility, aiming to reduce costs stemming from regulatory differences.  The TTIP would de facto set global financial Regular Residential Cleaning Services , particularly regarding surveillance, transparency and reporting requirements, as well as investor protection.

If new standards are adopted, they will likely also apply to Gulf countries’ financial services providers active in the EU or US.  Such standards could entail additional compliance requirements both in these countries as well as in the Gulf. 

Specifically, SWFs like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Saudi Arabia’s SAMA Foreign Holdings and the Kuwait Investment Authority that acquire US and European assets will be impacted by the TTIP. 

“GCC industry leaders must take a proactive role in preparing for the TTIP.  By monitoring negotiations and assessing their business impacts, GCC firms in the aviation, financial services and energy sectors can mitigate any costs to their operations, while also voicing their concerns through GCC-EU negotiations to ensure their interests are consolidated,” Hill and Knowlton Strategies said.

Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/!

Lab Safety At The University Of California

One year ago, the University of California entered into a lab safety agreement with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The agreement was the result of a 2008 laboratory fire at UC Los Angeles that led to the death of a chemistry staff researcher.

Prosecutors subsequently charged the largest university system in the U.S. as well as UCLA chemistry professor Patrick G. Harran with felony violations of the California labor code. As of C&EN press time, Harran was still facing trial on these charges, but the deal struck between the district attorney and UC meant that prosecutors dropped the charges against UC. In return, UC embarked on a prescribed safety program that involves administering lab safety training, enforcing personal protective equipment (PPE) policies, and documenting laboratory standard operating procedures (SOPs) in chemistry and biochemistry departments at all 10 UC campuses.

Timelines for UC to execute the agreement were tight: UCLA had to be compliant within three months, and the remaining campuses within six months. Implementation of the program was hampered in some places by lack of good personnel management systems, by poor laboratory layouts, and by the thousands of chemicals that needed SOPs. But the schools succeeded. Now, UC is focusing on going beyond the agreement, developing new training and PPE policies that apply to all laboratories—not just those in chemistry departments—as well as new tools to help all researchers work more safely.

“We have been trying to think globally in all our initiatives and to develop an improved laboratory safety culture throughout the UC system,” says Erike Young, director of environment, Offering Office cleaning Services, and safety (EH&S) for UC’s Office of the President. Some of the efforts are part of a 2010 strategic plan predating the legal settlement.

For training, the settlement requires that all principal investigators and laboratory personnel complete a general laboratory safety training program. The program must cover topics such as identification and evaluation of laboratory hazards, as well as university policies regarding responsibilities for laboratory safety at both supervisor and lab worker levels. The general training does not replace the need for more specific training related to equipment and procedures in individual laboratories.

The real challenge, she points out, was figuring out who needed the training. The school had implemented a computer system several years ago to track who was trained, but it is difficult to use, she says. Also, it was difficult to identify visiting scholars and some postdoctoral researchers as being part of the department, especially those who were paid by their home institutions. And although no one ever said it to Decker directly, some researchers seemed to think it was presumptuous of UC Davis to require training of experienced researchers from other institutions.

“There isn’t any wiggle room in the settlement; it’s very clear that everyone has to be trained,” Decker says. “Communicating that to some scholars and their hosts was a bit tricky.”

Other schools faced similar challenges. At UC Berkeley, “when my chancellor asked me how many people were in the College of Chemistry, I couldn’t answer,” said chemistry professor and former college dean Richard A. Mathies at a June meeting of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee focused on academic lab safety. In the end, UC Berkeley trained about 900 people in a two-month period that included Thanksgiving, fall semester finals, and the winter holiday.

“That tells you something about the mind-set of students in the lab,” Mathies said. “When you give them something that makes sense and they believe it builds value, they’ll do it.” He conceded that a few members of the college still needed to be pushed to comply.

Going beyond settlement compliance, in June of this year, UC instituted a new systemwide policy that establishes minimum general training requirements for people working in all research, End Of Lease Cleaning on mvpcleaning, and analytical laboratories, as well as areas such as stock and storage rooms.

The training policy dictates that all workers, including faculty, must complete a general safety training program before being granted unescorted access to laboratories or technical areas. The general safety training must cover general safety culture, the campus chemical hygiene plan, hazard analysis and controls, personal protective equipment, emergency response, and rights and responsibilities. Training must be refreshed at least every three years.

In line with the new policy, UC also rolled out an online Laboratory Safety Fundamentals training program. Campuses may use the online training, conduct their own, or combine the two.

Production of the online program cost $40,000, Young says, and UC jointly owns the content with Vivid Learning Systems. Parts can be easily customized by other institutions, and Vivid Learning Systems expects to market it to other schools this fall, Young says.

Workers who do the online program must still go through a site-specific safety orientation that covers topics such as locations of eyewash stations and the laboratory safety manual, as well as training on the specific hazards and procedures of their workplace. UC is also working on a supplemental training program for supervisors, which Young expects to release this fall, as well as a management academy to help faculty and other supervisors better understand their responsibilities.

A second main component of the settlement agreement involves PPE. The agreement sets out a minimum standard for anyone working in or occupying laboratory areas: full-length pants; fully closed shoes; lab coats, including flame-resistant coats for working with flammable liquids or pyrophoric materials; and appropriate gloves and eye protection for handling any hazardous chemical, biological, or radiological material. “Employees shall not bear the cost of any required PPE,” the agreement says, and departments are charged with the responsibility for laundering items as necessary.

Implementation of the PPE policy was fairly straightforward, some UC campus representatives say. “The chair of the safety committee told me that she sees all lab personnel wearing appropriate PPE now, no questions asked,” says Ilan Benjamin, chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department at UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, which instituted many safety program changes before the settlement agreement, unannounced PPE inspections showed 94% compliance in 2012, up from 76% in 2011.

In some places, laboratory infrastructure created a challenge to meeting PPE requirements. Older buildings on many campuses combine desks and benches in the same space, raising the question of whether students really must wear lab coats and eye protection when sitting at their desks. Some labs responded by using hazard analysis to designate “clean” areas where PPE is not required and personnel may eat or drink, even though they’re technically in a lab.



Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/!

Kentucky plant closure disrupts

Jim Rodgers assumed his job as an electrician at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant would take him all the way to retirement.After all, for six decades the government-owned uranium-enrichment plant was synonymous with job security and some of the region’s best wages. It supported multiple generations and supplied a steady stream of revenue to the community’s restaurants, dry cleaners, real estate companies and other local businesses.

And yet, with a decade or more to go in his working life, Rodgers, 53, is now brushing off his resume and looking for a new job, possibly in another city or state.“It’s not one of these little bumps in the road,” Rodgers said. “It is literally life changing.”
In May, the operators of the Cold War-era plant located a few miles outside Paducah in McCracken County announced they would shut it down. They laid off about 160 employees at the end of last week and expect to let another 100 go in October. Uranium-enrichment work ceased weeks ago.Altogether, it looks like more than 1,000 workers will be pushed out of their jobs, losing generous salaries that will be nearly impossible to match elsewhere in the region. The McCracken County plant was one of the area’s largest employees, and the average salary for plant workers, Offering Best Upholstery Cleaning Services, was $125,000.

The plant opened in 1952 to develop enriched uranium for military reactors and to produce nuclear weapons. It began selling uranium for commercial reactors in the 1960s.The plant has been run by several operators through the years, the most recent being Maryland-based USEC Inc. under a lease deal with the U.S. Department of Energy. USEC announced in May that it was ending work at the plant, citing soft demand for enriched uranium along with steep production costs.

“The plant put Paducah on the map,” said James Harbison, a retired maintenance worker. “And its leaving is going to take it off the map, unless we get something in here. There are no jobs around here comparable to that one there.”Spokesman Doctor Stephen Bird insisted it is not to fund profits: "The important thing is that we get the balance right. We are talking about further increases in that period of less than inflation recognising the pressure on individual customers' household bills.

"Profits are a necessary part of the way we finance service for our customers because they enable us to fund the capital investment. But the important thing again is getting that balance right and making sure that our customers are satisfied."Chief Executive Chris Loughlin said: "We still need to invest in our networks to maintain the achievements of the past such as reduced leakage rates, record tap water quality and transformed bathing waters.

"There are also new challenges to face including population growth, the likelihood of more extreme weather and higher bathing water standards from 2015. Our aim is to invest in the right things at the right time to both improve our services and give the region the reliable 'always there' infrastructure it needs."In some areas like water resources, we don't need to invest in expensive new reservoirs. However, in other areas such as our programme to improve raw water quality on the moors, if we don't invest sooner rather than later we could end up facing much higher costs in the future.

"We believe we are close to striking the right balance between the needs of customers, the environment and the economy. Although no one likes to see bills increase, we should be able to keep future increases below the rate of inflation.

"However, before we finalise our plan in December, we need to hear whether customers think we are getting it right. Should we invest more or less in each area? I urge everyone to get involved in WaterFuture to make sure we do the best job for you."

Charles Howeson Regional Chair of the Consumer Council for Water told Pirate FM: "It's not actually an increase; it's not something South West Water benefit from. All of our bills get adjusted by inflation and in this case South West Water is proposing to put in a package of measures which are at or below inflation which customers have requested and I think that's pretty good news."

He added: "I warmly welcome South West Water's response to CCWater's encouragement to share some of its success with customers and not just shareholders; although we will need to look in more detail at exactly how this will benefit consumers.

"People who live in this region have an acute understanding of the problems of high bills and the need for investment in making sure we have a safe, reliable and clean water supply and Cleaning franchise.

"Customers in the region continue to face some of the highest water charges in England and Wales; we will continue to work with South West Water to encourage more investment in the future."The money will be used to bring forward programmes to improve a number of beaches in the area, making improvements to the sewer network and in helping vulnerable customers.

He went on to tell Pirate FM: "It's not actually an increase; it's not something South West Water benefit from. All of our bills get adjusted by inflation and in this case South West Water is proposing to put in a package of measures which are at or below inflation which customers have requested and I think that's pretty good news."

Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/Cleaning-service_c1!

School has changed a lot over four generations

A number of local students, either starting or returning to classes this year, represent the second, third and even fourth generation of their families to attend Cloverdale schools.One of them is 5-year old Coby Haug. When he begins Kindergarten at Jefferson School next Wednesday, he will be following in the footsteps of his great grandfather, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Presently, he has nine cousins in the district, from Kindergarten to high school, two others who have already graduated, and three more like his baby brother who are still too young to attend.Coby’s mom, Danielle Bird Huag, 30, and her mom, Patty Santana Bird, 56, were reminiscing recently about how things have changed for school children over the years.

For instance, when Coby’s great grandfather, John Santana, graduated from Cloverdale High School in 1934, manual typewriters were considered standard office equipment. Students didn’t learn to use electric typewriters until the 1960’s, and computers in classrooms didn’t come along until the 1980’s.Unlike her grandfather, and even her mother, Haug, never knew school without access to computers.

When Santana was growing up, the land next to his family home was a prune orchard. Like other children of that era, he was expected to help out during harvest regardless of Regular Residential Cleaning Services , which probably meant he got up even earlier during the week to get his chores done.Today, the prunes are long gone, and in their place is a baseball field. Family members, including Santana himself, have all been avid ball players. Bird was a Hall of Famer at Santa Rosa Junior College, and both of her sons were Hall of Famers at Mendocino College.

Currently, several family members coach local softball and little league teams so the field is often used for many of their practices, as well as by other family members just for fun.Haug, who played volleyball, basketball and softball, fears school sports might die out with this generation, a pretty sobering thought for anyone in this sports-minded family.

Bird met her husband, Dexter, while both were students at Cloverdale High. Their three children, Damien, T.J. and Danielle, all went to local schools, and each one is now sending their own children through the school system.Bird recalls, “When I was in school, teachers were also bus drivers, after school activity advisors and coaches.”

She says there were a lot more activities then, too, such as pep rallies, pep bands and concert bands, as well as classes like wood shop, auto shop, metal shop and agriculture.Bird rode the school bus until she got into high school, then her dad drove her.

”I alternated between taking the school bus and riding with grandpa,” says Haug. “Now we have no school buses so mom does it.”Bird lauds the schools for getting kids involved in community service projects, pointing to school groups like the Interact Club and Key Club and events like Community Unity Day, where students help clean up the cemetery, work in the History Center garden and at other locations around town.

“There is a lot more interaction like this between boys and girls now than when I was in school.”At the same time, she notes she and her classmates had a lot more freedom than kids today. “We were able to leave campus for lunch and Offering Office cleaning Services, if we had a permission slip, even go downtown.”An elementary school teacher in Ukiah, Haug credits her career choice to her second grade teacher, Claudia Plumley-Frandsen, who went on to become Superintendent of Cloverdale Unified before retiring in 2011.

“She really inspired me. She made learning fun in a way that made me to want to emulate her.”Sadly, one of the things that has changed over the years is the physical interaction between students and teachers. No longer is it acceptable for a teacher to hug a student or give them a pat of encouragement on the back or arm.

“If a child hugs me, I hesitate to hug them back,” says Haug, “and that’s really kind of a shame.”During Bird’s high school years, classes for girls were geared more towards home economics and learning how to care for a family.“Boys were encouraged to go to college, but for us, having a high school diploma back then was sufficient.”

Haug believes schools are now going to be focusing more and more on technology and college readiness at an earlier literacy age.“By the time Coby graduates from high school, he’ll probably need to pursue a Masters or beyond just to fit into the workplace.”

However, as someone who remembers the emotional rollercoaster of results day, I want to wish pupils and parents the very best of luck for tomorrow. However the cards may fall, there are always options which can lead you down highly rewarding paths.The good news is that forecasts for UK employment show demand to fill jobs in more highly skilled occupations are still growing.

Of the 13.5 million jobs that will need to be filled by 2017 over half will be for managers, professionals, and technical occupations. Almost all of the employment growth in the recent decade of prosperity was for people with degree-level qualifications.

While there will always be a persistent number of low-skilled jobs in the economy, overall numbers have declined.The demand for people to fill elementary roles such as cleaning or security services is to replace those retiring or leaving the workforce - it is often not the creation of new jobs.

Traditionally lower skilled jobs have served as labour market entry points for many moving out of unemployment, and their decline emphasises the need for everyone to have a strong platform of basic skills.  Failure to grasp these basics when young will affect future life-chances and increase the likelihood of disengagement from the workforce.

So, as a result of the changing nature of our workforce, A-levels are likely to remain one of life’s major milestones for many years to come; marking the end of one journey and the beginning of the next.It seems appropriate therefore to pause and stake stock; to consider what employers need from our schools system but also look forward at the impact the changing economy is having on workforce needs.

Wales, of course, has its own educational system, devolved from its English neighbour’s. While we have many challenges we also have much to be proud of in Wales, particularly the emphasis that successive Welsh governments since devolution have placed on education.

Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/.

New approach to home air maintenance

Michelle Doty has had to get her hands dirty many times during her 14-year marriage to husband Jeremiah Doty, but she wasn’t expecting to do so on the job of the home maintenance service they have operated together since 2008.“I went out on one of our air duct cleaning jobs in Battle Ground and one of our guys called in sick so Michelle filled in for the day as my helper,” Jeremiah said. “She tore me apart the whole day, asking me why I wasn’t hand-washing the registers or cleaning the back of the dryer when I pulled it out to access the duct. Was I going to clean the lint trap and vaccuum the carpet afterwards?”

At the time, Michelle was only working part-time for their home-based company, but her husband challenged her to take over the Air Duct cleaning portion of the business. A few months later, she’d quit her day job and took Jeremiah up on his challenge.“It wasn’t the first time I’d gone out with him on jobs so I knew I’d picked up enough of how to do it from him that I could manage it well,” Doty said.

J&M Services provides gas piping and ventilation maintenance to homeowners throughout Clark County and Doty’s detail-oriented approach has been paying dividends.“It’s not that what we did before didn’t work, but I think what happened is I found a more efficient way to do it so our customers know we’ve done a thorough cleaning,” said Doty.

What sets J&M’s service apart from their competition is their insistence that a home’s air system isn’t clean until it meets their standards, which as Jeremiah explained, means not scrimping or Best Carpet Cleaning Services.“Most companies set time limits or quotas for their cleanings. They may make one or two passes with a roto-brush in a duct and they might call it good,” Doty said. “I’ve read some bad press recently on Air Duct Cleaning and what people may not know is the majority of those companies do primarily carpet cleaning and might not know the best way to clean a heating and vent system out.”

For Michelle, the attention to detail is not just practical, but it goes to helping homeowners who deal with health issues triggered by the buildup of particulates in the air.

“When you have someone who has allergies triggered by pollen and dust, those things collect in heat registers and the air vents, so cleaning them out can be beneficial,” Michelle said. “Because of that, we’re not happy until we can fully clean out the systems and we also hand wash and sanitize the registers to be as clean as we can make them.”

Another area Doty says their approach pays off is in the cleaning of exhaust ducts connected to clothes dryers, which can not only affect the efficiency of the machine, but can also become a fire hazard if left unchecked.“The main issue is that the lint that comes off the clothes as it goes through the dryer can stick to the side of the duct and build up over time until it blocks it off entirely, and it can make it harder to get your clothes dry,” Doty said. “It also can become very flammable, which obviously can be very dangerous to the home, so we go through and remove every piece of ducting and scrub them out before reinstalling them.”

J&M’s Air Duct cleaning service is available starting at $150, with heat vent cleanings at $18 per vent and $26 per vent return, which is responsible for cold air circulation.“We also double check the system to make sure we’ve cleared out as much dust and material as possible,” said Doty. “It’s a good idea for homeowners to get their systems cleaned out every 1-3 years depending on the age and size of the home. For dryer systems, depending on the amount of use, it’s a good idea to do it once or even twice a year.”

While Michelle doesn’t do as much field work as she used to over the last few years, she’s brought in other women to be part of her four work crews and has noticed it’s made a difference on their customers.“I can’t say why exactly, but when we’re out on a job and a client may need to step out to the store or pick up their kids and they just tend to trust us a bit more with their home because we’re women,” Doty said. “It’s also helped us build our reputation as a credible company, which always helps us.”

Jeremiah added that even though Michelle didn’t have a business background prior to taking over her side of J&M, her impact on the company has been noticable.“I just can’t believe how strong a person she’s become,” Jeremiah said. “We are truly 50/50 partners and she even dreams about work now, which she used to get irritated at me about all the time.”

“It is good that they took our word seriously and decided not to involve students in this,” he said, noting that they would stick to their demand until the money was found – even if it needed waiting for a month.

“We started this campaign in 2011 and a committee was established by management which concluded that we should be given 800 per cent salary increment. It beats our understanding if they have, Offering Stream Carpet cleaning Services, failed to give us a mere 100 per cent salary increment,” Kakinda tells The Observer.

He  argues that the staff action should not be taken in bad faith because they are also parents and students who deserve better.“We want very to teach but we just ask our employer to give us a salary worth our energy,” he says, adding that Makerere teaching staff are the poorest paid in East Africa.

His claim however, flies in the face of arguments by former Vice Chancellor Venansius Baryamureeba – that some Makerere academic staff are overpaid. Kakinda is, however, scared that Makerere’s lecturer turnover is likely to increase because more people are getting frustrated despite their excellent works.

Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/.

Chinese take up navel grazing

They endured years of drought that posed challenges to production. And when the drought ended, came the floods and hail storms.In more recent years, the nation's orange producers also faced a declining market for their fruit in the United States, a market that had been a cornerstone of the industry for about 20 years.

But after years of trying big investment and careful negotiations, orange growers have apparently peeled open a new market with Offering High Rug cleaning Services - China.This year, the citrus industry is on track to export about 500 shipping containers of oranges direct to China, a massive five-fold increase on last year. Two years ago just five containers were exported direct to China, and three years ago none.
Advertisement

However, before direct exports to China commenced in 2011, it is likely that some oranges shipped to Hong Kong made it to mainland China via the so-called ''grey trade''.Citrus grower Tania Chapman, chairwoman of Citrus Australia, described the rise in exports to China as ''monumental growth''
'At the moment, we cannot keep up with the demand,'' she said. Aside from taste, other factors have helped drive the growth.

''This year particularly, the US has been kicked out of China because of protocol issues, so that is one thing in our favour. But two, in China there's been a massive increase in middle-class income and it's that middle-class income that can afford to buy the imported citrus,'' Ms Chapman said.

In the Murray Valley, 45 growers are certified to grow fruit for China, but Ms Chapman, who farms at Colignan, south of Mildura, tips that number to ''double easily''.The falling Australian dollar, which is now trading at about US90￠ , has helped lift returns for growers. ''Last year with the high dollar and all of the other increased costs, sometimes growers struggled to cover the cost of picking in their returns. This year the falling dollar itself has covered those costs,'' Ms Chapman said.

''We've got a point of difference. The quality that we send there is what they're after. And for us it should always be - maintain the quality, maintain the standard, keep the point of difference because that's where the returns are going to be,'' he said.

BlackBerry, which pioneered mobile email with its first smartphones and email pagers, said on Monday it had set up a committee to review its options, sparking a debate over whether Canada's one-time crown jewel is more valuable as a whole or snapped up piece by piece by competitors or private investors.

The company said Prem Watsa, whose Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd is BlackBerry's biggest shareholder, was leaving the board as BlackBerry determines its next steps.Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper said Fairfax was talking to industry and private equity players about possibility taking BlackBerry private. Fairfax did not respond to requests for comment.

Other potential buyers of BlackBerry assets, if not the company itself, could include deep-pocketed Canadian pension funds, as well as some of its rivals.BlackBerry, once a stock market darling, has bled market share to Apple Inc and phones using Google Inc's Android operating system, and its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones have failed to gain traction with Mattress Cleaning Services.

Three of Canada's big pension funds declined to comment. But senior executive at two of the others said they and their peers would definitely consider partnering with private equity in any deal for BlackBerry.

Legal experts say any deal taking BlackBerry private would work best if it had Canadian involvement."There is little question that the federal government would prefer a made-in-Canada approach," said Subrata Bhattacharjee, co-chair of the national trade and competition group at the Heenan Blaikie law firm in Toronto.

"A foreign strategic investor would certainly have to consider some very significant regulatory issues, including domestic and foreign antitrust concerns ... Some foreign investors might also have to address national security concerns," Bhattacharjee said.BlackBerry said board member Timothy Dattels will chair the new committee, which will also include BlackBerry Chief Executive Thorsten Heins.

Dattels is a senior partner at private equity firm TPG Capital and a former top investment banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc . His appointment to BlackBerry's board in June last year sparked a flurry of speculation that the company might consider a leveraged buyout or going private.

The new BB10 devices hit store shelves this year just as the high-end smartphone segment was showing signs of saturation in markets such as the United States. Samsung Electronics recently reported results that fell shy of expectations, while Apple earlier this year reported its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade.

Tech safety tips for you before you travel

Just like the destination itself, logging onto a foreign free wifi hotspot can be a journey into the unknown and one that could be full of unpleasant surprises.

There's no question that smartphones and tablets have revolutionized the way we live and that's why when it comes to taking a holiday with them, rather than from them, there appears to be no debate: the phone and the slate and often even a notebook are as high on the list as packing clean underwear.

And because of this, holidaymakers need to keep in mind their digital as well as their personal safety if taking a vacation this summer.

You may feel it's fine to use a hotspot at an airport or a renowned hotel but in general a public hotspot is just that: the opposite of private. As Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor at Offering Office cleaning Services, says: "It may feel private because you're using your personal device, but it's not." He advises against using a public hotspot for anything personal or for anything that requires you to enter a password or user details. Stick to browsing.

From hotel lobbies to cafes and bars, a number of places offer free computer access. Unless you can 100 percent guarantee that they're not brimming with malware or keystroke-registering viruses, use them for checking the weather, following sports or reading the headlines, but nothing else.

Sullivan suggests setting up a special one-off email address specifically for use during a vacation so that if it's an emergency and you have to use a public wifi hotspot or communal PC to get in touch with someone, the damage is minimized. "That way if someone hacks your vacation email account, they might see emails with your mom and the cat sitter, but they won't have access to the other sensitive data that would be in your main email account," he says. Setting up a one-off account will also somewhat minimize the impact of losing or of having a phone or tablet stolen.
Sullivan suggests setting up a special one-off email address specifically for use during a vacation so that if it's an emergency and you have to use a public wifi hotspot or communal PC to get in touch with someone, the damage is minimized. "That way if someone hacks your vacation email account, they might see emails with your mom and the cat sitter, but they won't have access to the other sensitive data that would be in your main email account," he says. Setting up a one-off account will also somewhat minimize the impact of losing or of having a phone or tablet stolen.

For most people the content on their devices is just as important as the devices themselves. So make sure they are totally backed up before the holidays start and if the smartphone is serving as a camera too consider using some form of cloud storage for preserving images -- such as Apple's iCloud if you have an iPhone -- or, for Android users, think about swapping out and storing the SD cards.

If you're using a real, high specification camera, rather than a smartphone for capturing memories, think about the professional photographer's trick of covering the device in duct tape and stickers so that the camera looks like it's falling apart rather than a state-of-the-art imaging unit and therefore avoiding unwanted attention.
For a number of years, Apple has offered a free ' Find My Phone' service and app that enables iPhone and iPad owners to track and locate a missing device and, in the case of theft, remotely erase its contents. Make sure it is set up before you go. For Sony Xperia users, there is a similar Sony-specific service that is currently rolling out globally, while at the beginning of End Of Lease Cleaning on mvpcleaning, Google announced that it will be launching the same type of find-my-phone service currently available to iPhone users to the larger Android device-owning community before the end of the month.

About 2.5 million tons of the Brazilian output would be earmarked for processing at the Alabama rolling mill for as long as six years, while the remaining 500,000 tons would be shipped to CSN's Brazil-based operations, the people said. Timing for the deal was unclear, but one of the people said a deal wasn't likely to happen this week.

The two plants, part of an ambitious plan begun last decade to conquer the American steel market, have already cost ThyssenKrupp more than $15 billion without delivering a profit. Book value for the two mills is $4.5 billion. Since the plants opened in 2010, ThyssenKrupp has written down their value by $10.7 billion.

Cleaning up the Steel Americas portion of its balance sheet tops ThyssenKrupp's to-do list. Credit-rating service Standard & Poor's late last year said the sale is crucial for ThyssenKrupp to reduce debt and protect its credit ratings. ThyssenKrupp is expected to report a slight quarterly profit on Tuesday.

Arizona banker dies after lengthy illness

James Simmons, one of Arizona’s most powerful bankers during an era when a small group of movers and shakers helped set policy for the state, died Wednesday morning at age 88 after an extended illness.Simmons, who was born Nov. 9, 1924, in Wichita Falls, Texas, went from president of a small bank in west Texas — where he was a close friend of George H.W. Bush — to chairman, president and chief executive officer of the parent of United Bank of Arizona. The Phoenix firm ranked as the state’s fourth-biggest bank in the late 1980s, employing more than 1,000 people.

After the company was purchased in 1987 by London’s Standard Chartered PLC, at the dawn of the interstate-banking era, Simmons briefly served as chairman and CEO of Valley National Bank of Arizona, the state’s biggest independent institution, which eventually was acquired by Banc One and then J.P. Morgan Chase. The United Bank operations eventually became part of Citibank when Standard Chartered sold less than two years later.

Simmons also was a key member of the Phoenix 40, a group of influential business and political leaders formed in 1975 to provide a plan for the Valley amid its brisk growth. Among other accomplishments, the group helped to curb fraudulent land sales, pushed to reorganize the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, reformed and strengthened the grand-jury system and advocated for a tax increase that facilitated construction of the Offering Office cleaning Services, Arizona 51, and Loops 101 and 202.“He was a very dynamic individual who cared so much for this community and loved his family,” said Patricia, his wife of 40 years.

Bill Shover, a Phoenix 40 founder and longtime executive with Central Newspapers Inc., the former parent of The Arizona Republic, described Simmons as highly personable, loyal and tenacious — a civic-minded executive willing to take risks to get things done and not willing to take no for an answer.

As one example, he credited Simmons with raising money, entirely from private donations, for Phoenix’s bicentennial celebrations in 1976 that included bringing the anchor of the USS Arizona here and building a memorial to the sunken warship at the state Capitol.

After attending college in New Mexico and serving as a Naval lieutenant during World War II, Simmons earned an MBA from Harvard. He worked briefly as a bank examiner with the Federal Reserve, became CEO of a small bank in Texas at age 26, then moved to Commercial Bank & Trust in Midland, Texas.

As president and CEO of that institution, Simmons began a lifelong friendship with future President George H.W. Bush, one of the bank’s directors, and his family.

“We met twice a week for five years,” Simmons once said of the relationship with Bush.

Their friendship included backyard barbeques where two future presidents — the elder Bush and his son, George W. Bush — swam in the same pool, said Clark Rorbach, a stepson of Simmons.

Decades later, Simmons served as co-chairman, with Tucson auto dealer Jim Click, of the George H.W. Bush presidential campaign in Arizona.

A photo that used to hang in Simmons’ Phoenix office in a Central Avenue high-rise showed Bush with his arm around Simmons. Bush signed the photo, “To my friend with lasting appreciation. George.”

Simmons moved to Phoenix in 1959 and became the first president of Guaranty Bank, which was consolidated with three other institutions into United Bank of Arizona. The latter eventually grew to nearly $3billion in assets at the time of its sale to London’s Standard Chartered.

“Things were growing so rapidly when we first started that it was a real challenge,” he told The Republic. “I’ve never thought of doing anything else.”

Along with the Bush photo, a Phoenix Gazette article described other features of Simmons’ office, including plush carpet, Oriental rugs, a photo with him and Arnold Palmer and sweeping views of the northeast Valley. The story recounted that there was also a “End Of Lease Cleaning on mvpcleaning, which he claims is seldom used, and his own bathroom.”

After the senior Bush became president, he reportedly wanted to appoint Simmons to a five-member panel overseeing policy for the Resolution Trust Corp., the government entity entrusted with cleaning up the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s and early ’90s. The panel included Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

However, Simmons withdrew his name from consideration after criticism of his leadership at United Bank, which was posting losses in the wake of a real-estate slump at the time.

A legal cloud also hovered over the potential appointment. After several of United’s big loan customers defaulted following the sale to Standard Chartered, the British bank eventually sued auditor Price Waterhouse over some questionable financial documents. It won a jury verdict of roughly $340million that was later overturned.

Betty Rambo, Simmons’ longtime secretary, dating from 1959 in Texas and extending to the Valley National boardroom, once described him as “the kind of employer who has let me do whatever I was capable of doing.”

Simmons took over for two years at the helm of Valley National and its parent corporation in 1988, when Howard McCrady resigned after heart bypass surgery. Richard Lehmann, the heir apparent, took over in 1990 from Simmons.

A longtime civic booster, Simmons sat on the boards of Del Webb Corp., Arizona Public Service, Holsum Bakery, Shamrock Foods and other local companies. He also was associated with various local charities and civic groups and served as acting CEO of Samaritan Health Services, the precursor to Banner Health.

Simmons once bristled at a negative story about Arizona that appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 1987. The story cited air and water pollution, transportation bottlenecks and other fallout from the state’s rapid growth.

“It left the impression we are wild-eyed growth people and we didn’t care, and I don’t think that is true,”’ he said at the time. “’I am sure there are things we should have done, but when you grow as fast as this state has grown, you just can’t do everything that you have to do in the way you would like to do it.”

Kazakhstan fund chief aims

Umirzak Shukeyev is trying to clean up some of the most opaque corporations in one of the world’s most inscrutable countries. It is not a job for the faint-hearted.

Mr Shukeyev is head of Samruk-Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan – a sprawling empire of state-owned companies that symbolises the oil-fuelled power of the Kazakh state. Over lamb kebab in the Kazakh capital, Astana, the former regional governor admits he is a fairly recent convert to western capitalist values. “At the start I didn’t really understand corporate governance,” he admits. “I do now.”

Mr Shukeyev’s attempts to impose order on Samruk come at a tricky time for Kazakhstan Inc. The country’s image has been hit by the scandals surrounding ENRC, one of its biggest and Testimonials mvpcleaning. The London-listed miner has been plagued by governance scandals, boardroom bust-ups and whistleblower allegations of fraud – and now the Kazakh government is teaming up with the company’s three oligarch founders to take it private.

Some fear other Kazakh groups could now be tarred by the ENRC brush. “There’s a lot of guilt by association,” says one western consultant in Almaty, the Kazakh commercial capital.From oil and gas to railways, telecoms, banking, power generation and airlines, Samruk – named after a mythical Kazakh bird – dominates virtually every sector of the Kazakh economy. It has about $100bn in assets, representing just over half of Kazakhstan’s gross domestic product.

Critics say it is an unruly and disorganised behemoth, and that those assets would be much better off in private hands. “The government is never a good manager,” says Dosym Satpayev of Risk Assessment Group, a think-tank in Almaty.Mr Shukeyev, 49, is out to prove the naysayers wrong. His vision is of a state enterprise that retains its crucial social function as a big employer and service-provider but also drives economic growth: a Kazakh version of Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

“The idea is to use the resources of Samruk’s companies to kick-start entirely new sectors [of the economy],” he says, “rather than just sitting there holding these stakes.”

To achieve this, Mr Shukeyev and his team are trying to inject western commercial values into Samruk’s sleepy subsidiaries. They have launched “people’s IPOs”, designed to raise funds for investment, establish the real market value of the fund’s assets and convert millions of Kazakhs to popular capitalism. The first unit to list was KazTransOil, the national oil pipeline operator, which raised $400m when it debuted on the Kazakh stock exchange last year.

Others are to follow: Kegoc, which operates Kazakhstan’s electricity grid; Samruk-Energy, the national power company; and KazTransGas, owner of the country’s natural gas pipeline network.

But some are sceptical of Samruk’s privatisation plans. Critics wonder whether the IPOs will increase liquidity, considering the small size of the stakes being floated and the venue – Kazakhstan’s thinly traded stock exchange. Legal problems forced the postponement of plans to float Air Astana, the national airline, which is 49 per cent owned by BAE Systems. There are also doubts about how Samruk can attract investors into Kegoc when transmission tariffs are so heavily regulated by the state.

And then there’s the question of whether Samruk’s companies will ever fully meet western corporate governance standards, especially in the light of the ENRC affair. A notoriously murky place, Kazakhstan comes 133rd out of 174 countries in Transparency International’s corruption index, behind Togo and Contact mvp cleaning. After one particularly big fraud was uncovered at Samruk subsidiary Kazpost a few years ago, it was forced to declare a loss that wiped out three years’ profit.

Despite the misgivings, there is recognition that Mr Shukeyev, a keen saxophone player, has the power to clean things up. He is close to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocratic president who has ruled Kazakhstan for more than 20 years. He was appointed to run Samruk in December 2011, replacing the president’s powerful son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, who was swept aside following bloody clashes between police and angry workers in the western oil town of Zhanaozen.

Mr Shukeyev has sought to make Samruk more efficient, spinning off non-core assets such as hotels, decreeing that all investment projects across the group should have a commercial return and shedding 2,000 office staff – a bold move, considering the trouble in Zhanaozen was triggered when striking oil workers were sacked. His moves are part of a plan proposed by PwC to take out $500m in cost savings over three years.

The fund has also sought to improve management through foreign hires. It recently recruited Nick Malone, a former executive at software group SAP, as its chief information officer, with a mission to centralise all the group’s IT and software, and help reduce corruption by creating an electronic procurement platform. One foreign oil executive in Astana says he was shocked Samruk lacked any enterprise-based software for the whole organisation.

But the drive to hire outside talent has been complicated by a rule that no manager in a state company can earn more than the Kazakh prime minister. During the financial crisis, there was also a three-year moratorium on bonuses. These restrictions are being relaxed, however, and Mr Shukeyev says he wants to have one western vice-president in every Samruk subsidiary.

He also is looking to expand the fund, branching into petrochemicals and real estate development. One unit, Tau Ken-Samruk, is slated to become a major player in the Kazakh mining sector, and there are plans to increase Samruk Energy’s generating capacity. A new subsidiary called Samruk-Kazyna-Invest will provide seed funding for small high-tech start-ups such as solar panel manufacturers.

Budget machismo races ahead of common sense

In the real world, it is the performance of the economy that matters. The budget numbers are a secondary issue, a means to an end. The economic end we seek is sustainable growth, in jobs and standard of living.

We could try to put the budget back into surplus now, but to do so we would have to make at least $30 billion a year of spending cuts and/or tax rises. That amounts to taking 2 per cent out of an economy in which growth is running at only 2.25 per cent to start with.

What would happen if we did that? Very likely, Australia would go into recession. Unemployment would rise rapidly, output would fall. Welfare spending would rise, and revenue would fall, so we would be back in deficit, and would have to make even steeper budget cuts to get back into surplus. Europe provides plenty of examples of the consequences of this policy error.

Which would you choose? To get the budget back into surplus even if the economy goes backwards, or to keep the economy growing, even if the budget goes backwards?It's important to get our priorities right. The budget deficit is the result of Offering Office cleaning Services, not the cause of it. One of Wayne Swan's worst mistakes as Treasurer was to lock himself into a commitment to deliver a surplus in 2012-13, and treat it as a test of good economic management - a test he then failed.

The collision between budget fashionistas and the real world of the economy is most intense when the car industry is the issue. Budget hardliners want to end the $400 million a year of direct assistance to the car industry. They say it is not the role of government to hand out cash to favoured industries, and the car industry has failed to give us a good return on that investment.

The Coalition has joined that bandwagon. It has pledged to cut budget handouts to the industry by $250 million a year in each of the next two years, slashing the subsidy by almost two-thirds. Think about what that might mean.

Labor has trailed along behind it, axing its green car plan, and now proposing to axe tax breaks for cars bought through salary sacrifice - which the industry says make up 20 per cent of its domestic sales.Well, axing car subsidies or tax breaks looks like a budget saving. But everyone knows that the future of the Australian car industry is now hanging on a knife edge. The car industry is supported by governments all over the world. The dollar's fall has given the industry new hope, but it's still high relative to Australia's cost base.

Industry leaders have warned repeatedly that without consistent and globally competitive government policies for the industry, manufacturing in Australia will not be sustainable. I don't think they're kidding.Ford has reached that point already, and will stop manufacturing in 2016. If Holden or Toyota follow, that would be the end of the industry. Few component manufacturers could survive with only one domestic buyer; most would also close. In theory, Australia could export its End Of Lease Cleaning on mvpcleaning to the world, but without a manufacturing base, that wouldn't last either.

At last count, Australia had 50,000 workers employed in car and component manufacturing, producing $5 billion of net output a year, and generating $3.7 billion of exports. The Cruze, Commodore and Camry are three of the top five passenger cars on the sales charts.

What would the loss of all that do to the economy? Or to the budget? It's good to be economically pure, but I'd rather see economic common sense. We're not seeing it from either side at present.The fringe-benefits tax break for cars is a rort that makes no economic sense; former treasurer Peter Costello says Treasury was constantly urging him to remove it. But it provides a crucial support to local manufacturing: the industry says 20 per cent of Australian-made vehicle sales come through the tax break, whereas they have less than 10 per cent of the total market. If you take the tax break away without risking the future of local manufacturing, you need to replace it with something substantial that is better-targeted.

Industry Minister Kim Carr has won a promise from his colleagues of another $200 million of unspecified assistance for the industry over an unspecified period, as well as a requirement that all cars in the Commonwealth's own vehicle fleets be Australian-made. At best, that is a bare minimum needed to offset the loss of sales through salary sacrifice.

Similarly, the Coalition's plan to cut industry support risks shutting down a $5 billion-a-year industry to save $500 million. It would dwarf the impact of the carbon tax, which Toyota estimates at $115 per vehicle, not the $400 the Coalition claims. It was a foolish pledge, and one hopes it too will be jettisoned during the campaign.

Whether the car industry survives in Australia will depend on three factors: where the dollar settles, whether consumers return to Australian cars, and whether our next government puts common sense ahead of budget machismo.

The polls suggest the Coalition will be the next government, yet it has told us nothing about how it would handle the serious economic challenges we now face with the end of the mining investment boom. Some of these were spelt out last week in a fine speech by Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens (see rba.gov.au), warning that we face a big fall in mining investment, with no certainty that other private investment will rise enough to offset it.

Stevens pointed out that it is not simply the mining investment boom that has passed, but also the credit boom. Double-digit growth in household debt was our dodgy high-performance supplement propping up economic growth in the Howard-Costello years. But now it is gone.

While the growth of mining exports will help offset the fall in mining investment, and the lower dollar and lower interest rates will help some areas - not least, car manufacturing - we face big risks ahead. Our next government must be ready to throw overboard any policies or debt obsessions that prevent it meeting the challenge head on. It is not encouraging when on the car industry, both parties are treating the budget as a higher priority than the economy.

Read the full products at http://www.mvpcleaning.com.au/Cleaning-service_c1.

Douglass Reunion holds 44th annual banquet

Tying into the evening’s theme of “The Future Is Now,” the keynote speaker for the 44th annual Douglass Reunion Bulldog Banquet pleaded with attendees to keep the Douglass community thriving for generations to come.

The reunion is held each year by the former students of the Douglass School, which served African-American children in Calloway County prior to integration, and their descendants. The evening’s keynote speaker, Kwanda Lynn Hornbuckle Trice, is a 1992 Calloway County High School graduate, and graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in human services and received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She said she joined the U.S. Navy, where she worked as a labor relations specialist, with the Offering High Rug cleaning Services of her family and later was a contact representative for the Social Security Administration.

Feeling that government work wasn’t for her, she moved into the higher education field as a professor at the University of Phoenix, Savannah State University and the University of the District of Columbia. She is currently a doctoral student at Howard University, where her research centers on political leadership among women of color. Earlier this year, she launched ECHOS (Eloquent Commitment to Helping Our Sisters), LLC in Alexandria, Va., which provides courses, workshops and seminars that specialize in preparing young women as they make educational and professional transitions throughout their lifetime.

Trice started by talking about a multitude of problems in the world, including rising poverty, lack of clean water, AIDS in Africa and other continents, and unfair trials, torture and lack of political freedom in many countries across the globe. She lamented the status of African-Americans, condemning the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which she said is allowing states to pass laws enabling voter discrimination without federal oversight. She said Kentucky was the second most disenfranchised state in the nation, largely because of laws barring convicted felons from voting, and that this overwhelmingly affects black males.

Trice said that although she no longer lives here, she still has a deep love and commitment to the Douglass community. She said the members of that community should not be satisfied with where they stand in Murray and Calloway County, encouraging them to run for office and achieve more influential positions within important institutions such as businesses and the school systems.
“Growing up in Murray and smack-dab in the middle of the Douglass community, it was often celebrated just to have one African-American face in everything,” Trice said. “Those are great strides, but we have to want, and we have to strive for more.”

Trice said the community must raise its standards, and that the Douglass alumni and their younger family members could not be content with just a few of them aspiring to power and influence in the larger community. She said it would take hard work and commitment from everyone to keep the Douglass community relevant in the coming decades.

“The Douglass community — God bless all of it — is still running after 44 years,” she said. “The people that have held this thing together, I give you nothing less than praise, Mattress Cleaning Services — and nobody else should have a doggone thing to say about it if you did not show up at the community meetings, if you did not let your voice be heard. However, it has declined. It is nowhere near what it used to be 25 years ago.”

She said one of the big reasons the community has struggled in the last two decades is that so many people who have moved away and settled elsewhere and now have commitments to those new communities. Trice mentioned several people — both relatives and mentors — who were deeply influential in her life and made her want to aim high. She asked who would fill their roles in the future for the children growing up now.
Following tradition, the Douglass Reunion committee presented its annual awards, starting with the Ratliff scholars and honor students, who were presented with recognitions by Cami Duffy and Illah Grant. Brandon Redd was named this year’s Ratliff Scholar. Thurman Foster presented Dante Howard with the L.P. Miller Athletic Award, and Carruth Kitrell presented Kirby Kiana Pittman with the Roderick Reed Performing Arts Award. Patricia Jackson presented L. Jerome “Jerry” Brandon, Ph. D. of Georgia State University with the L.B. Tinsley Award.

When AIN recently asked its readers to prioritize the factors that they look for when selecting an FBO, an overwhelming 85 percent said they considered excellent customer service most important (followed by 68 percent who listed fuel pricing). Many respondents noted that while an FBO might not have the nicest facilities at an airport, the quality of the staff continued to draw them back.

The facilities’ managers understand this. Many provide customer-service courses for their employees while others send staffers to companies such as Ritz-Carlton for training. Some FBOs have tasked their service representatives to “do whatever it takes” for the customer, whether that means having a hot cup of coffee waiting when he enters the building or locating a favorite meal from a local restaurant.

Some FBOs feature an arrivals/departures canopy, a large framework with a roof, adjacent to the terminal so you can deplane, sheltered from the rain or sun. Many have elegantly appointed lounges, some with panoramic windows overlooking the runways or even massive fireplaces. Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi service is rapidly becoming standard.

If you’re on a business trip, you might consider using the FBO as a temporary office. Many locations offer conference rooms, some equipped with audio/visual systems. Business centers with computers and printers are also common.

Aircraft storage. FBOs offer aircraft parking and storage, either in a hangar or on the ramp. Some have dedicated space for transient aircraft, but if you are attending a major event in a city (such as the Super Bowl), that space may be reserved.