text:
Die World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) (ehemals International Federation for Alternative Trade, IFAT; dt. Internationale Föderation für alternativen Handel) ist ein globales Netzwerk von Organisationen des Fairen Handels aus über 70 Ländern.
Die Mitglieder sind Produzenten-Kooperativen und -Vereinigungen, Export-Gesellschaften, Importeure, Einzelhändler, nationale und regionale Fair-Trade-Netzwerke und Finanzinstitutionen, die der Fair-Trade-Bewegung angehören. Die WFTO repräsentiert demnach die gesamte Handelskette, vom Produkt bis hin zum Verkauf.

Das Ziel der Organisation ist, die soziale Situation benachteiligter Produzenten zu verbessern, die Zusammenarbeit von Organisationen des fairen Handels zu fördern und sich für eine größere Gerechtigkeit im Welthandel einzusetzen.

Geschichte
Nachdem bis in die 1980er Jahre zahlreiche kleine Initiativen fair gehandelte Produkte aus Entwicklungsländern importiert und vertrieben hatten, entstanden Ende der 1980er Jahre Zusammenschlüsse und Dachverbände des Fairen Handels. Sie sollten die Anstrengungen der einzelnen Initiativen koordinieren und ihnen eine gemeinsame Stimme geben. Dazu zählte nach der European Fair Trade Association (EFTA, 1987) und der niederländischen Organisation Max-Havelaar (1988), der ersten Initiative der Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), auch 1989 die International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT). Sie hatte anfänglich 30 Mitglieder, die meisten Groß- und Einzelhändler.

Mit der zunehmenden Zahl an Organisationen, die im fairen Handel aktiv waren, wurde es in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren immer schwieriger, auf Vertrauensbasis zu handeln. Kunden fürchteten zunehmend Greenwashing. Der Druck mündete in der IFAT zur Definition von Prinzipien und Leitfäden und 1999 zu einem dreistufigen Monitoring-Prozess für registrierte Mitglieder, der aus einer Selbsteinschätzung (Self-Assessment), einer Prüfung der WFTO-Mitglieder untereinander (Peer-Review) und einer externen Verifikation bestand.

Im Jahr 2003 änderte die IFAT ihren Namen in International Fair Trade Association, sechs Jahre später in World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).

Der Monitoring-Prozess der Organisation war mit einigen Problemen verbunden: Für den Fall, dass eine Organisation ein Self-Assessment nicht oder unvollständig ausfüllt, enthielt er keine definierten Sanktionen. Ressourcen waren laut Davenport und Low (2013) oft nicht ausreichend vorhanden, um die Einhaltung des Prozesses zu kontrollieren und zum Beispiel das Peer Review durch andere WFTO-Mitglieder durchzuführen.

Um diese Schwächen zu beheben, einen breiteren Kundenkreis außerhalb der Weltläden zu erreichen und angesichts des Erfolgs des Fairtrade-Produktsiegels der FLO, beschloss die WFTO, selbst ein Gütesiegel einzuführen. Mit diesem sollten Unternehmen, die als Ganzes nach den Prinzipien der WFTO handelten, ihre Produkte auszeichnen können. Im Jahr 2013 war auf Basis des Monitoring-Prozesses ein weiter gehendes Garantiesystem definiert mit besser prüfbaren Kriterien und Sanktionen definiert. Erste Mitgliedsunternehmen der WFTO absolvierten den Zertifizierungsprozess.

Seit der Gründung hat sich die Mitgliedsstruktur der Organisation stark gewandelt. Die Mehrzahl der knapp 400 Mitglieder kommt mittlerweile aus südlichen Ländern.

Aktivitäten
Die Kernaktivitäten der Organisation umfassen:
 Die Marktentwicklung des Fairen Handels
 Die Vertrauensbildung in den Fairen Handel
 Bereitstellung von Vernetzungsmöglichkeiten
 Öffentliche Stellungnahme zum Thema Fairer Handel
 Regionale Zusammenarbeit mit Produzenten

Zur Marktentwicklung und Vertrauensbildung bei den Kunden entwickelt die WFTO Prinzipien, einen Unternehmensstandard und Label.

Im Unterschied zur FLO befasst sich die Organisation vor allem mit Kunsthandwerk und anderen handwerklich hergestellten Produkten und Lebensmitteln, die in kleinen Mengen hergestellt werden. Die WFTO konzentriert sich auf Standards und Zertifizierung von Unternehmen als Ganzes, die in allen Belangen nach den WFTO-Prinzipien handeln müssen. Dies unterscheidet die WFTO deutlich von der FLO, unter deren Dach vor allem in größerem Stil gehandelte Lebensmittel, wie Kaffee, Tee, Südfrüchte gehandelt und als Produkt zertifiziert werden und deren Siegelnehmer auch nicht fair gehandelte Produkte herstellen oder vermarkten können. Der Anteil von Handwerksprodukten und in kleinen Mengen produzierten Lebensmitteln ist relativ gering, im Jahr 2011 betrug er höchstens 10 % des Umsatzes im Fairen Handel.

Davenport und Low (2013) zufolge bestehen die Erfolge der Organisation in der Definition von Prinzipien des Fairen Handels und darin, gemeinsam mit den anderen Mitgliedsverbänden der FINE, die Politik auf den Fairen Handel aufmerksam gemacht zu machen. Darüber hinaus biete die WFTO ihren Mitgliedern aber wenig Mehrwert. Nach der Finanzkrise 2008 gingen Umsätze der WFTO-Mitglieder und auch die Zahl der WFTO-Mitglieder zurück, gleichzeitig sei 2011 die WFTO bis an ihre Grenzen belastet gewesen.

Organisation
Die WFTO unterscheidet zwischen vorläufigen und registrierten Mitgliedern. Registrierte Mitglieder müssen den dreistufigen Monitoring-Prozess durchlaufen haben. Nur sie haben volle Rechte und dürfen das WFTO-Log im Geschäftsverkehr nutzen.

Mitglieder in Asien, Europa und Lateinamerika haben sich zusammengeschlossen, um regionale Vertretungsgremien zu bilden:
 COFTA (Afrika)
 Die Cooperation for Fair Trade in Afrika (COFTA) ist ein Netzwerk afrikanischer Produzentenorganisationen, die mit benachteiligten Kleinproduzenten arbeiten.
 WFTO Asia (Asien)
 WFTO Asia, die asiatische Vertretung arbeitet in 15 Ländern und umfasst 90 Organisationen. Mitgliedsländer repräsentieren vor allem den ärmsten Teil des Kontinents: Bangladesch, Kambodscha, Indien, Indonesien, Korea, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippinen, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Osttimor und Vietnam. Sie nehmen unterschiedliche Rollen im Fairen Handel ein, es sind unter anderem Produzenten, Kooperativen, Händler, NGOs, und glaubensbasierte Organisationen darunter.
 WFTO Europe (Europa)
WFTO Europe, früher IFAT Europe, ist das europäische Vertretungsgremium und besteht aus rund 80 Mitgliedern, darunter Organisationen und Netzwerke des Fairen Handels und unterstützende Organisationen.
 Das Netzwerk Europäischer Weltläden, engl. Network of European Worldshops, abgekürzt NEWS!, ein Zusammenschluss aller europäischen Weltläden und Mitgründer der Dachorganisation FINE, wurde 2009 in die WFTO Europe integriert.
 WFTO LA (Lateinamerika)
 WFTO LA – Associacion Latino Americana de Commercio Justo – besteht aus mehr als 50 Mitgliedern aus 13 lateinamerikanischen Ländern. Der Sitz ist in Areguá, Paraguay.

Daneben gibt es noch Regionalbüros in diesen vier Regionen und zusätzlich für die Region Pacific (Nordamerika und pazifischer Raum), zu der Neuseeland, Australien, Japan und Kanada gehören und für die es keinen eigenen Regionalverband gibt.

Seit ihrer Gründung hat es in der WFTO einen Trend zur Regionalisierung und Stärkung südlicher Produzentennetzwerke gegeben. Während die Zahl der Mitglieder nach der Gründung zunächst stetig stieg und sich mehr als verzehnfachte, ging sie nach der Finanzkrise 2008 in einzelnen Jahren zurück.

Standards und Zertifizierung

Zehn Prinzipien
Der WFTO-Standard umfasst zehn Prinzipien. Alle Mitgliedsorganisationen müssen diesen Prinzipien folgen. Zu jedem Prinzip definiert der Standard für die verschiedenen Organisationen – Produzenten, Handelsorganisationen oder sonstige Nicht-Handelsorganisationen – eine Reihe von einzuhaltenden Kriterien. Das WFTO-Garantiesystem soll die Einhaltung der Kriterien durch Selbsteinschätzung, Besuche anderer WFTO-Organisationen und externe Audits sicherstellen.

Die zehn Prinzipien sind:
 das Schaffen von Chancen für wirtschaftlich benachteiligte Produzenten
 Transparenz und Verantwortlichkeit
 Partnerschaftliche Handelspraktiken
 Zahlung fairer Preise
 Ausschluss von ausbeuterischer Kinderarbeit und Zwangsarbeit
 Geschlechtergleichheit, Versammlungsfreiheit, keine Diskriminierung
 die Sicherstellung guter Arbeitsbedingungen
 Unterstützung beim Aufbau von Handlungskompetenz und Wissen ("Capacity Building")
 Öffentlichkeits- und Bildungsarbeit für den fairen Handel
 Umweltschutz

Die Organisation definiert selbst keine Mindestpreise für einzelne Produkte. Die Kriterien fordern von den Mitgliedern einen transparenten, verifizierbaren Prozess, der Kosten und Gewinnmargen offenlegt und auf den sich die Handelspartner einigen. Marktpreise und Fairtrade-Minimumpreise sind zu berücksichtigen. Produzenten sollen einen Preis erhalten, der einen "tragfähigen Lebensunterhalt" ermöglicht. Beschäftigte müssen mindestens den örtlichen Mindestlohn oder Marktlohn erhalten, je nachdem, welcher höher ist. Ein die Lebenshaltungskosten deckender Lohn ist anzustreben.

WFTO-Label

Mitglieder der WFTO, die sich durch das eigenständige Monitoringsystem der WFTO überprüfen lassen, können ihre Produkte seit 2013 mit dem Label "WFTO Guaranteed Fair Trade" auszeichnen. Firmen, die dieses Label nutzen, erfüllen die zehn Prinzipien für fairen Handel.

Das sogenannte "WFTO Guarantee System" wurde unter anderem deshalb entwickelt, weil das verbreitete Fairtrade-Zertifizierungssystem der FLO International nur für einzelne Produkte definiert ist und nur Produzenten sogenannter Commodity-Produkte (Rohstoffe, vor allem in größerem Stil hergestellte Lebensmittel) miteinbezieht. Im Kunsthandwerk sind dagegen Produktstandards aufgrund der Vielfältigkeit und Komplexität technisch schwierig zu definieren und umzusetzen. Das WFTO-System soll hier eine Alternative bieten, indem es die Unternehmen des Fairen Handels selbst zertifiziert. Im Gegensatz zum Fairtrade-Siegel der FLO International ist das WFTO-Label also kein reines Produktsiegel. Es soll stattdessen Organisationen auszeichnen, deren Kerngeschäft der Faire Handel ist. Wenn es die regelmäßigen Überprüfungen besteht, kann das Unternehmen das Label auf all seinen Produkten verwenden.

Im Jahr 2013 durchliefen zehn Organisationen im Rahmen eines Pilotprojekts den Zertifizierungsprozess:
 Pachacuti (GB)
 People Tree (GB and Japan)
 Ayni (Bolivien)
 El Puente (Deutschland)
 Kumbeswar Technical college (Nepal)
 ATS (Nepal)
 Selyn (Sri Lanka)
 Creative Handicrafts (Indien)
 Thanapara Swallows (Bangladesch)
 Smolart (Kenia)

Nach und nach sollen alle Mitglieder diesen Prozess durchlaufen. Sie haben dann die Möglichkeit, das WFTO-Label zu erhalten.

Siehe auch
 Liste von Fairtrade-Siegeln

Literatur

Weblinks
World Fair Trade Organization

Einzelnachweise

Internationale Wirtschaftsorganisation
Gegründet 1989
Organisation (Fairer Handel)
Organisation (Gelderland)
Culemborg
Wirtschaftsorganisation (Niederlande)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
We only investigate when it is reasonable, appropriate and proportionate, and continually assess a case to make sure we're taking the right course of action. We carry out investigations in line with our legal obligations, including those imposed by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010.
Deciding to open an investigation
Generally, we expect to engage with a scheme, trustee, employer or any other person(s) potentially facing enforcement action to set out our concerns before we start a formal investigation. Our aim in most cases is to resolve or mitigate any risks without the need for enforcement action, but where this is not achieved we may open an investigation.
In some circumstances we may consider the risks to be sufficient to open an investigation immediately – for example if we receive a whistle-blower report with evidence of the imminent misappropriation of scheme assets or if there is other need for immediate action, such as information to suggest there is a risk that documents or other evidence could be removed, tampered with, or be destroyed.
Our assessment as to whether to open an investigation is risk-based and takes into account all relevant factors. Such factors may include, for example, the impact of any conduct on the level of scheme funding, whether there are any particularly concerning features or behaviours, as well as a consideration of our available resources.
Generally, in cases where we believe we could use a combination of our criminal, penalty or regulatory enforcement powers, (for example, with employer-related investment or avoidance activity), we carry out an early assessment to identify which powers may be available to us, based on the facts of the individual case, and may carry out dual track investigations in circumstances where we may wish to pursue a power in more than one category.
If we decide not to open an investigation, should further information of relevance come to light later, we may then revisit this decision.
Opening an investigation
If we decide to open an investigation, we start by gathering information and establishing the facts, in most cases through the use of our regulatory information-gathering powers.
We assess the applicability of any powers or other regulatory tools once we know the facts, and then decide whether and how to proceed in a risk-based and proportionate pursuit of our statutory objectives (see 'deciding to use enforcement powers' section below for more information). We continue to review our approach as we gather more information and evidence to ensure our enforcement activity remains effective and in line with the required procedures and rules (see enforcement procedures).
The degree of engagement with those we are investigating depends on the nature and complexity of the issues. In some cases, we may move to enforcement without engaging with the relevant parties, for example to protect scheme assets where there is evidence of a scam and where engagement may put scheme assets at further risk.
In all our interactions, we aim to be consistent and fair and for the process to be as transparent as possible for all parties.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Il Campionato del mondo di parapendio è una competizione internazionale di parapendio a cadenza biennale organizzata dalla Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), a partire dalla stagione 1989 (anche se il primo campionato del mondo di parapendio si tenne nel 1987 a Verbier, si considera come prima edizione quella del 1989 di Kössen).

Regolamento
Gli ultimi campionati hanno visto iscritti un massimo di 150 piloti, scelti alcuni mesi prima delle gare a seguito di apposite preselezioni. Le medaglie vengono assegnate nelle categorie maschile, femminile e nazionali. Hanno preso parte all'ultimo mondiale 21 donne, il resto dei 150 piloti erano uomini.

Ogni squadra nazionale può essere composta da un massimo di quattro piloti.

Durante il campionato vengono eseguite al massimo 10 gare (task), con un giorno di riposo obbligatorio.

I piloti decollano dopo mezzogiorno e volano su un'area di volo prestabilita fino a 200 km di distanza. I piloti devono sorvolare delle boe: il pilota più veloce vince la giornata di gara. Il pilota con il maggior numero di punti alla fine della competizione, vince la classifica generale e quindi il mondiale.

Le giornate di gara sono scelte il mattino, in base alle condizioni meteo, e sono quindi soggette a modifiche.

Edizioni

Note

Voci correlate
 Coppa del mondo di parapendio

Sport dell'aria


text:
Social Welfare History Project
Constitution and By-Laws for Community Leagues
Pamphlet explaining how to organize a Community League as a branch of the Cooperative Education Association of Virginia. Includes instruction and tip for conducting an initial organizational meeting, and the Associations Constitution and By-Laws.
From p.4
"Not only school patrons, but all residents of the community should be urged to attend this initial meeting. There should be songs and recitations by pupils, and the services of some local speaker and leader should be secured for an address....
OUR MOTTO: Every public school in Virginia a community center where the citizens may unite for the improvement of their educational, social, moral, physical, civic and economic interests."
Note: Mary Cooke-Branch Bunford was president of the Cooperative Education Association from 1910 to 1925.
Co-operative Education Association of Virginia
M 9 Box 98, Adèle Goodman Clark papers, 1849-1978, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries
The copyright and related rights status of this Item has been reviewed by the organization that has made the Item available, but the organization was unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the Item. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
Social Welfare History Image Portal
Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries
Cooperative Education Association, education, Mary-Cooke Branch Munford, Virginia
Co-operative Education Association of Virginia, "Constitution and By-Laws for Community Leagues," Social Welfare History Image Portal, accessed January 31, 2023, https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/50.
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text:
1MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/612F469A6EA84F6BAE882D2B94A4B421/img/8FFD3F52E0544DB8BBA67CD2FE6D4A44/000_hm51q.jpg
McIlroy-Johnson charity match in Philippines cancelled – Reyes
TV5 CEO Chot Reyes says he was told 'CAA was in breach of contract'
Naveen Ganglani
@naveenganglani
Published 12:45 PM, November 16, 2016
Updated 12:45 PM, November 16, 2016
CANCELLED. Golfer Rory McIlroy will no longer be coming to the Philippines for a charity match. File photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP
MANILA, Philippines – Chot Reyes, the CEO of TV5, announced through Twitter on Wednesday, November 16, that the scheduled charity golf match between Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson in the country later this month has been cancelled.
"Super-bummed that the Rory McIlroy - Dustin Johnson Golf for a Cause has been cancelled. Was told that CAA was in breach of contract," tweeted Reyes, also the head coach of the Philippine national basketball team.
Super-bummed that the Rory McIlroy - Dustin Johnson Golf for a Cause has been cancelled. Was told that CAA was in breach of contract
— Chot Reyes (@coachot) November 16, 2016
No further details have been given, so far.
The duo were originally scheduled to face off at Pradera Verde Golf and Country Club in Pampanga, Philippines, from November 28 to 30.
The two golfers were also supposed to visit the country for the first time.
Jason Day, Australia's world number one, was initially supposed to challenge McIlroy but he pulled out due to an injury. – Rappler.com
Filed under:Dustin Johnson•Golf for a Cause•Rory McIlroy•charity match•golf•Chot Reyes


A very accessible small-scale urban neighbourhood with modern canal-side properties, designer apartments, shops and cafés/restaurants, characterized by attractive canals, beautiful building façades, delightful streets, and green inner courtyards will soon be built. Holland Park will be a lively neighbourhood with about 5000 residents, located only 10 minutes from the heart of Amsterdam and adjacent to Bergwijkpark in Diemen Zuid. Excellent residential services and facilities, easy accessibility, and unique architecture will all combine to make it a very attractive neighbourhood to live in. After moving in, Holland Park residents will be able to enjoy the beautiful view from their designer apartments overlooking the attractive canals.
Holland Park will be a sustainable neighbourhood on a human scale. The overall concept is designed to offer potential residents a wide range of choices and options. The inspiration for Holland Park is also based on similar previous projects such as the Java Island quarter in Amsterdam and the Sluseholmen district in Copenhagen, both of which have proven to be very successful residential concepts. The construction in Holland Park will be based on sustainable components and will comply with all the newest standards in the area of energy consumption and environmental impact.


I'm doing some research for a fantasy novel I'm writing. I wonder if you'd mind helping me get some of the details right?
The novel is set in a world where the sky is completely blanketed with debris from a comet. The people in the novel have retreated to a cave system high in the mountains until the weather recovers (in about 10 years time).
I'm wondering about things like whether they would get any sunlight for vitamin D? Would one of those skylights do the job, even with the debris cover in the sky?
If I set it in a lava type cave, would they have a dirt-ground area to sleep on? Or would an erosion cave be better? The soluble ones are damp, aren't they, and that wouldn't make a conducive living environment.
What kind of food would they have, given that external animals aren't going to venture there much due to the terrible conditions outside?
I know they'd have cave rats, salamanders, lots of bugs and bats (can you eat bats?) But what about anything with vitamin C in it? Does anyting besides mushrooms grow inside a cave?
I'm thinking that to avoid some of these survival problems for my characters, the caves could be set high up in the mountains which could peek just above the cloud cover, so that the cave skylight could provide real sunlight (just in one tiny area of the cave). They could potentially grow a little food there. Is that realistic?
Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.
There are various blind fish and white shrimp that I have heard live in underground streams. And I have seen greenery growing in popular caves which I guess survives on the constant passage (daily) of cavers lamps. Good luck with the book - maybe you could post us a chapter to enjoy on here when your done.
Thanks for your comments (and those who replied offlist). Apparently surviving from just what's in a cave isn't very realisitc. Since it's a fantasy novel, I'll just invent something for my characters to live off.


Last month at Davos, George Soros turned around completely on China, echoing the Trump administration (of all things) in warning the world against the rise of China versus his previous stance.
The main reason for this shift in Soros' attitude on China stems from his fear that the European Union will not achieve its goals of becoming the next great world power and subjugate the Chinese, but rather dissolve like the Soviet Union on which it is based.
He finally aired those fears in another of his infamous op-eds over at Project Syndicate (link through RT here). In sum, they are simply that Europeans must chuck off that which makes them individuals for the sake of Mother Europe.
The European Union is the highest ideal and, as such, should be that for all decent Europeans. This is the highest form of collectivist thinking.
And it's time to circle the wagons against the ravening hordes of people who don't like getting slowly bled to death, their culture eradicated, their neighborhoods destroyed and their dignity as people shot in the face with tear gas.
I've read megalomaniacal treatises in my life, but this one was impressive to say the least.
At least he didn't lament the EU's mistakes by invoking omelette's and eggs.
I could (and maybe should) go into a point by point counter of all of Soros' terrible assumptions but we've all heard variations on this Marxist twaddle for years.
The important part of this op-ed is not the substance, which itself designed to be chum for conservatives to lose their minds over, but the reason it was written in the first place.
People with power only come out of the closet and plead like this when they are losing. Empires don't negotiate, they dictate. The same goes for billionaire financiers who are the product of the bubbles they helped blow but refuse to accept the responsibility for when they pop.
No, that's the fault of those savage Euroskeptics not being sufficiently committed to the cause. Y'all aren't woke enough in Soros-land.
People like Soros buy influence behind the scenes to get what they want. Soros outing himself from behind the curtain is telling of how anxious he has become.
Instead of sounding like a prophet, he comes off as a clueless old leftie with a lot of money in his pocket talking his book.
To those truly woke to Soros' schtick, I say what else is new?
He is no different than the tired and moldy Marxists in the Democratic Party here in the U.S. and their useful idiots, arguing that Socialism hasn't failed, it simply hasn't been properly implemented yet.
So 150 million dead people (not counting the wars) in the 20th century wasn't refutation enough?
You can rebrand it 'Democratic Socialism' or 'Stakeholder Capitalism' all you want, but in the end it is still just a bunch of dudes and dudettes, sitting around playing god while the rest of us toil waiting for the costs of going along with them rising above the cost of overthrowing you.
Welcome to the World Socialism Built.
Democratic Socialism has been the dominant political ideology of the age, going back to the Progressive Era. Y'all have been in charge in some form or another for the past 90 years and Soros thinks the reason his social engineering experiment called the EU is failing because of outdated political party systems he sees as vestiges of the fight between labor and capital.
I'm not shocked George has gotten this all wrong since he made his money fixing currency markets, having gotten his money neither through labor or the creation of capital goods.
Soros mistook getting uber-rich in a corrupt system somehow validated his sense of superiority, versus just being a crook.
Hubris is the downfall of all rulers and would-be Emperors. And if he lived in a different time he may have been able to pull this off.
But global communications, the natural forces of decentralization and the basic laws of both physics and economics caught up with him before his dreams could come to light.
If there was ever a moment that signaled the end of the European Union, it was George Soros admitting, in public, that we should look on all his works and despair.
Join My Patreon if you need any further black-pilling on Socialism.


text:
JWK International Corporation
B-297758.3: Aug 31, 2006
View Decision
Ralph O. White
WhiteRO@gao.gov
Kenneth E. Patton
PattonK@gao.gov
JWK International Corporation (JWK) protests the failure of the Department of the Air Force to select its proposal for award under request for proposals (RFP) No. FA8601-05-R-0050, for fuels management services at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. This protest follows the agency's reevaluation of proposals and reselection of an awardee in response to our decision sustaining a protest by United Paradyne Corporation (UPC). United Paradyne Corp., B-297758, Mar. 10, 2006, 2006 CPD para. 47. JWK argues that the Air Force's evaluation of its past performance and the agency's "best value" tradeoff determination were unreasonable.
View Decision (PDF)
B-297758.3, JWK International Corporation, August 31, 2006
DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release.
Matter of: JWK International Corporation
File: B-297758.3
Wayne A. Keup, Esq., for the protester.
David B. Dempsey, Esq., and Kristen E. Ittig, Esq., Holland & Knight LLP, for Four Winds Services, Inc., an intervenor.
Major Jeffrey Branstetter, Department of the Air Force, for the agency.
Jennifer D. Westfall-McGrail, Esq., and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
1. Protest that agency should have considered experience of protester's proposed key personnel in evaluating protester's past performance is denied where record demonstrates that agency had a reasonable basis for deciding not to consider the qualifications of individual employees under the past performance evaluation factor.
2. Agency reasonably determined that exceptional performance by protester's proposed subcontractor on contracts that involved only a portion of the work required under the solicitation was insufficient to demonstrate that protester could be expected to perform the effort solicited at issue successfully.
JWK International Corporation (JWK) protests the failure of the Department of the Air Force to select its proposal for award under request for proposals (RFP) No. FA8601-05-R-0050, for fuels management services at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. This protest follows the agency's reevaluation of proposals and reselection of an awardee in response to our decision sustaining a protest by United Paradyne Corporation (UPC). United Paradyne Corp., B-297758, Mar. 10, 2006, 2006 CPD para. 47. JWK argues that the Air Force's evaluation of its past performance and the agency's –best value— tradeoff determination were unreasonable.
The RFP, which was issued on June 2, 2005, contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract and provided for the evaluation of proposals on the basis of three factors: mission capability, past performance, and price. Mission capability was to be evaluated on an acceptable/unacceptable basis, with only those proposals receiving ratings of acceptable proceeding to evaluation of past performance and price. Past performance and price, which were of approximately equal weight, were to be traded off against one another to determine which proposal represented the best value to the government.
The solicitation provided for the assignment of performance confidence ratings to offerors based on their past performance. There were six possible ratings: exceptional/high confidence, very good/significant confidence, satisfactory/confidence, neutral/unknown confidence, marginal/little confidence, and unsatisfactory/no confidence. RFP at 45. Of significance to this protest, the RFP defined a rating of marginal/little confidence as follows:
Based on the offeror's performance record, substantial doubts exist that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort. Changes to the offeror's existing processes may be necessary in order to achieve contract requirements.
Id.The RFP advised that the evaluation of past performance would be accomplished by reviewing offerors' relevant present and recent past performance; the solicitation defined relevant contracts as contracts for similar services with similar scope and complexity. The RFP provided that a –relevancy determination— of the offeror's present and past performance, including joint venture partners and/or major subcontractors, would be made. Contracts were to be rated for relevance in accordance with the following scale:
Highly Relevant: Past/present effort involved essentially the same magnitude of effort and complexities this solicitation requires including both facility and support operations.
Relevant: Past/present effort involved much of the magnitude of effort and complexities this solicitation requires including both facility and support operations.
Somewhat Relevant: Past/present effort involved some of the magnitude of effort and complexities this solicitation requires including facility or support operations.
Not Relevant: Past/present effort involved little of the magnitude of effort and complexities that solicitation requires.
RFP at 46.
Nine proposals were received by the July 13, 2005 closing date. All were determined to be technically acceptable. After evaluation of past performance and price, the source selection authority (SSA) selected the proposal of Four Winds Services, Inc. (FWSI), to which the agency evaluators had assigned a performance confidence rating of satisfactory/confidence and which offered a price of $7,898,073, as representing the best value to the government. The agency awarded FWSI a contract on December 1.
UPC subsequently filed a protest with our Office challenging the Air Force's evaluation of its past performance. By decision dated March 10, 2006, we sustained UPC's protest, finding that the agency's approach to evaluating offerors' past performance was unreasonable. We explained that the agency had used the following methodology, which was not disclosed to offerors in the RFP, to arrive at a performance confidence rating for each offeror. After assessing the relevance of each contract identified by the offeror in its proposal, the Air Force had averaged these ratings to arrive at an overall relevance rating. It had then integrated this rating with a quality of performance rating, which it obtained by averaging the point scores on the performance questionnaires furnished by the offeror's references. We found that the agency's approach--averaging together relevant and non-relevant experience--was unreasonable because it penalized offerors with relevant experience, such as UPC, for their non-relevant experience. We concluded that the agency's methodology was further unreasonable in that it gave equal weight in the calculation of offerors' quality of performance ratings to highly relevant and non-relevant performance. We recommended that the agency reevaluate the past performance of UPC and the other offerors using an appropriate methodology, that is, one that took into consideration the relevance of a particular contractual effort in determining the weight to be assigned the offeror's performance of it. We further recommended that the agency make a new source selection decision, and, if a firm other than FWSI were selected, that it terminate the award to FWSI and make award to the offeror selected.
The Air Force performed a reevaluation of offerors' past performance in response to our decision. To avoid penalizing offerors with more relevant experience for their less relevant experience, the agency evaluators assigned each offeror the relevance rating of its most relevant contract. In JWK's case, this resulted in a contract relevance rating of somewhat relevant, while in FWSI's case, it resulted in a rating of highly relevant.[1] The agency also reevaluated offerors' quality of performance, excluding from consideration performance on non-relevant contracts. The reevaluation resulted in quality of performance ratings of exceptional for JWK (and all other offerors except FWSI); FWSI's quality of performance was rated as very good.
The evaluators then integrated the relevance ratings with the quality of performance ratings to derive a performance confidence rating for each offeror. In JWK's case, the agency assigned a performance confidence rating of marginal/little confidence, finding that since the protester's most relevant performance was only somewhat relevant, there was substantial doubt that it would perform successfully.[2] In this connection, the evaluators noted that it was –a logical conclusion . . . to have little confidence in a contractor that only performed a small portion of the critical elements, even though those few elements were performed exceptionally.— Reevaluation Summary Assessment, May 12, 2006, at 3-4. The evaluators assigned FWSI a performance confidence rating of very good/significant confidence.
The performance confidence ratings and prices of all offerors were as follows:
Offeror Performance Confidence rating Price
JWK Marginal/Little Confidence $7,411,769
FWSI Very Good/Significant Confidence $7,898,092
Offeror A Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Offeror B Marginal/Little Confidence [deleted]
Offeror C Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Offeror D Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Offeror E Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Offeror F Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Offeror G Exceptional/High Confidence [deleted]
Source Selection Decision Document, Reevaluation, May 15, 2006, at 2.
The SSA determined that FWSI's offer represented the best value to the government, reasoning as follows:
The price for JWK is 6.56% lower than the cost of the selected contractor (FWSI), and I considered the $486,304 savings. However, JWK received a Marginal/Little Confidence Integrated Assessment rating, that as defined, indicates, –substantial doubts exist that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort.— I felt this was a fair [rating] since this offeror had only limited experience in Fuels Management. I considered the savings offered but compared it against the associated risks. The environmental and safety issues, which are a significant part of this contract, rely on the experience level of the contractor and the Very Good/Significant Confidence rating received by FWSI is well worth the 6.56% additional cost.
I also considered [Offeror A], with a rating of Exceptional/High Confidence, and the third lowest [price]. However, with past performance and price being considered as approximately equal on this acquisition, the expenditure of additional monies for a degree of better performance is not considered to be in the best interest of the Government.
Source Selection Decision, May 15, 2006, at 4.
JWK initially asserted that the assignment to its proposal of a relevance rating of only somewhat relevant was unreasonable because the proposal included a detailed explanation of the experience of JWK's proposed subcontractor, Maytag, in performing –undeniably relevant— fuels management contracts. Protest at 5. The protester also argued that it was inconsistent with the agency's original rating scheme, pursuant to which a relevance rating of somewhat relevant combined with a quality of performance rating of exceptional yielded a performance confidence rating of satisfactory/confidence, for the agency to have assigned its proposal a performance confidence rating of marginal/little confidence.
As we noted in our decision on UPC's protest, as a general matter, the evaluation of an offeror's past performance is within the discretion of the contracting agency, and we will not substitute our judgment for reasonably based past performance ratings. United Paradyne Corp., supra, at 4. A protester's mere disagreement with the agency's judgment does not establish that an evaluation was unreasonable. Hard Bodies, Inc., B-279543, June 23, 1998 98-1 CPD para.172 at 3.
The Air Force responded to the protester's first argument by explaining that in assessing the relevance of previously performed contracts, the evaluators had considered the extent to which the contracts involved performance in each of five areas in which services were required under the instant RFP (i.e., distribution, bulk storage, cryogenics, fuels lab, and accounting). According to the agency, the protester and its subcontractor demonstrated little or no experience in several of these areas; accordingly, the agency argued, since the protester's past efforts involved only some of the magnitude of the effort and complexities required by the instant RFP, a rating of somewhat relevant was appropriate. In support of its position, the agency furnished a –relevancy chart— for the contracts submitted by JWK/Maytag, which showed that the evaluators had assigned all four of the JWK contracts and three of the five Maytag contracts point scores of 0 for relevance, and that they had assigned the remaining two Maytag contracts point scores of 6 and 4 (out of 10) for distribution, 3 for bulk storage (both contracts), 8 for cryogenics (both contracts), 1 and 0 for fuels lab, and 0 for accounting (both contracts).[3] The –relevancy chart— also showed that prior contracts had been evaluated in a final –roll-up— category based on the number of the above areas that they encompassed (i.e., a contract that involved work in all five areas was to be awarded a score of 10; a contract that involved work in four of the five, a score of 8; a contract that involved three of the five, a score of 6; etc.); both Maytag contracts received scores of 6 under this criterion.
With regard to the protester's second argument, the agency explained that in its initial evaluation, it had given equal weight to relevance and quality of performance in determining performance confidence ratings, while in its reevaluation, it had –assigned greater weight to more relevant past performance by eliminating Non-Relevant contracts and considering only those contracts determined to be Somewhat Relevant, Relevant, or Highly Relevant.— Memorandum of Law at 4. According to the agency, –[s]ince the 'quality' and 'relevancy' components were weighted differently in the original evaluation and the re-evaluation, it is only logical that the integrated past performance confidence ratings resulting from the two evaluations would differ.— Id.
In response to the agency's explanation, the protester took issue with the agency's rating of its past performance, arguing that it should have received a score of 8 rather than a score of 6 in the –roll-up— category for one of the Maytag contracts and that the agency had improperly failed to take into account the experience of its proposed key personnel. JWK further argued that in its reevaluation the agency had improperly reduced the significance of quality of performance and placed too much significance on relevance. According to the protester, since the RFP was silent as to the relative weights to be accorded these factors, they should have been treated as equal. The protester also argued that it was inconsistent with the terms of the RFP for the agency to have assigned its proposal a performance confidence rating of marginal/little confidence since this rating contemplated a finding by the agency that an offeror's performance was in need of improvement, and the agency made no such finding in its case.
In response to the protester's argument regarding the scoring of one of the Maytag contracts in the –roll-up— category, the contracting officer conceded that an error had been made and that the score should have been 8 rather than 6. The contracting officer maintained that the error had not resulted in any prejudice to JWK, however, because even with the additional points, the contract would still have been rated as somewhat relevant, a position that the protester does not dispute. Accordingly, we need not consider this argument further. See GC Servs. Ltd. P'ship, B-298102, B-298102.3, June 14, 2006, 2006 CPD para. 96 at 7-8 (prejudice is an essential element of every viable protest).
Regarding JWK's argument that the experience of its proposed key personnel should have been considered in the evaluation of its past performance, we recognize that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) advises that –[t]he evaluation [of past performance] should take into account past performance information regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement when such information is relevant to the instant acquisition.— FAR sect. 15.305(a)(2)(iii). We have previously interpreted this section as permitting an agency to decide that information concerning key personnel is not relevant, however. Olympus Bldg. Servs., Inc., B-282887, Aug. 31, 1999, 99-2 CPD para. 49 at 3-4; see also Blue Rock Structures, Inc., B-287960.2, B-287960.3, Oct. 10, 2001, 2001 CPD para. 184 at 5. Here, the contracting officer explains that the agency assessed the potential ability of offerors to perform under the mission capability evaluation factor and their actual experience in performing the type of work required under the past performance factor. In the contracting officer's view, the individual skills and qualifications of personnel do not provide information as to how the company or its subcontractors have performed the requirements of the performance work statement on other contracts, nor do they give any indication as to the offeror's quality of performance on contracts similar in scope and complexity to the effort here. Addendum to Contracting Officer's Statement of Facts, July 12, 2006, at 1. We think that this explanation provides a reasonable basis for the agency's decision not to consider the experience of proposed key personnel in evaluating JWK's past performance. Accordingly, we conclude that the agency reasonably exercised its discretion in deciding not to consider the qualifications and experience of proposed key personnel in its evaluation of JWK's past performance.
The protester also argues that because the RFP was silent as to the weights to be assigned relevance and quality of performance, these two subfactors should have been treated as equal in the evaluation of past performance. The cases cited by the protester in support of its argument, Stone & Webster Eng'g Corp., B'255286.2, Apr. 12, 1994, 94-1 CPD para. 306 and Informatics, Inc., B-194734, Aug. 22, 1979, 79-2 CPD para. 144, are distinguishable from the case at hand in that they involved solicitations that identified separate subfactors to be considered in the evaluation under a factor, which the RFP here did not do. In this connection, while the solicitation here clearly contemplated consideration of relevance and quality of performance as part of an integrated assessment of past performance, it did not establish relevance and quality of performance as separate subfactors. In any event, we do not think that the record before us demonstrates that the agency in fact gave greater weight to relevance than to quality of performance in the evaluation of past performance; rather, the record demonstrates that the agency considered the relevance of the protester's prior performance in determining the weight to give that performance, and that, in the protester's case, because the relevance of the performance was low, the weight given to the quality of that performance was low.
In support of its argument that the solicitation contemplated the assignment of a performance confidence rating of marginal/little confidence only where the agency found an offeror's prior performance to be in need of improvement, the protester cites the second sentence of the RFP definition of that rating: –Changes to the offeror's existing processes may be necessary in order to achieve contract requirements.—[4] The protester contends that this language indicates that an offeror's ability to perform will be questioned only to the extent that the agency has identified changes that the offeror will need to make to perform successfully. We disagree. The sentence in question provides that changes to the offeror's existing processes may be required, not that they necessarily will be required. Thus, we think that it was consistent with the solicitation for the agency to conclude that, based on the protester's lack of more than minimally relevant experience, there existed substantial doubt as to its ability to perform successfully.
Finally, with regard to the protester's complaint that under the first evaluation, exceptional performance on somewhat relevant contracts yielded a performance confidence rating of satisfactory/confidence, whereas under the reevaluation, exceptional performance on somewhat relevant contracts yielded a performance confidence rating of marginal/little confidence, the methodology used by the agency in its initial evaluation was flawed in that, among other things, it failed to take into account the relevance of a particular contractual effort in determining the weight to be assigned an offeror's performance of it; as a result, the fact that the second evaluation yielded a different result in no way indicates that the reevaluation was flawed.
The protest is denied.
Gary L. Kepplinger
[1] While JWK submitted information on four contracts that it had performed itself and five contracts that its proposed subcontractor, Maytag Aircraft Corporation, had performed, the Air Force determined that none of JWK's own contracts was even somewhat relevant since none of its contracts was a fuels management contract and only two of the Maytag contracts were somewhat relevant. FWSI submitted information on seven contracts; of the seven, four were determined to be not relevant, two were determined to be somewhat relevant, and one was determined to be highly relevant. Five of the remaining seven offerors were assigned relevance ratings of highly relevant and two were assigned ratings of somewhat relevant.
[2] The other two offerors with relevance ratings of somewhat relevant and quality of performance ratings of exceptional also received performance confidence ratings of marginal/little confidence, whereas the five offerors with relevance ratings of highly relevant and quality of performance ratings of exceptional all received performance confidence ratings of exceptional/high confidence.
[3] The –relevancy chart— contained very detailed guidelines for the assignment of points for relevance. In the area of –distribution,— for example, the chart provided for the assignment of points as follows:
All including mobile and hydrants and vehicle maintenance 10
Mobile and Hydrants only 7
Mobile with Vehicle Maintenance 6
Mobile only 4
Hydrants only 4
Vehicle Maintenance only 2
Agency Report, Tab 3(g).
[4] As previously noted, the RFP defined a rating of marginal/little confidence as follows:
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OneSource PCS, LLC
We sustain the protest.
Kaiyuh Services, LLC
We dismiss the protest.
B-419293,B-419293.2
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With the availability of music streaming services for phones and the ability to take your music collection with you everywhere you go, people are turning away from traditional radio stations. To make sure you can enjoy the tunes on your phone while on the jobsite, DeWalt has come out with the new DCR006 Jobsite Bluetooth Speaker.
You won't find an AM/FM tuner on this "radio", this lightweight, portable, compact music station connects to a compatible phone via Bluetooth 4.0 and receives the audio wirelessly through the air waves. An AUX port provides another way to connect the speaker to your phone or MP3 player, but that means leaving your phone out in the open.
The DCR006 Jobsite Bluetooth Speaker can be powered with either the included AC power adaptor or with a DeWalt 12V or 20V Max battery pack. The Bluetooth Speaker even features a USB power port so that you can charge your phone if the need arises. With two 2-1/2"speakers, DeWalt says the unit produces full, rich, sound.
The new DCR006 Jobsite Bluetooth Speaker will retail for $89.00 and be available in November.


What the "Joshua Principle" means for the EPA is that scientists who receive agency grants for their research are now barred from serving on any of its independent advisory boards. This opens the door to more industry and political representation on the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), and the Science Advisory Board (SAB). The EPA's most ardent critics in past administrations cheered the directive, which was announced at a "Live Press Event"—though it was unclear that many reporters were invited to attend.
These boards are independent, but appointed by the administrator, and serve as a type of peer review on the agency's work, reviewing the rigor and integrity of how the agency uses science to support its rulemaking. One high-profile example from the Obama administration was the SAB's critique of the EPA's 2015 finding that fracking had not led to"to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States." The SAB responded by noting inconsistencies between that conclusion and "the observations/data presented in the body of the report." There are widespread implications of appointing industry-sympathetic members, especially as Pruitt's EPA plans to take a new look at many of the EPA's scientific conclusions regarding climate change, air pollution, and water pollution.
Well-known climate change deniers Smith and Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) joined a parade of white men who gave speeches at the EPA headquarters heralding the new era of its scientific review. Pruitt's new appointments to chair the EPA's high-profile panels also spoke. The new chair of the Science Advisory Board is Michael Honeycutt, a toxicologist who had once received industry support for a past failed bid to head SAB. Paul Gilman, a former EPA adviser who left the agency in 2004 for a waste-to-energy company Covanta Energy, will be in charge of the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors. And the Clean Air Safety board will now be headed by Tony Cox, a private consultant who's authored research saying the benefits of pollution reduction are overstated.
Uh, What on Earth Is Scott Pruitt Talking About in This Bizarre Clip?


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SP to field strong candidate against Sonia
New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) The Samajwadi Party today asserted that it would try to queer the pitch for Congress President Sonia Gandhi by fielding a strong candidate against her in the May 8 Rae Bareli Lok Sabha byelection.
''We will definitely field a strong candidate against Ms Gandhi,'' said SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mr Yadav, who was addressing a joint press conference with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu, said the SP had definitely a strong presence in the Rae Bareli constituency, which was evident from the party coming out triumphant in four assembly segments in the last assembly elections.
He said the party would decide its candidate and the name would be announced in ''three-four days.'' Asked whether it would be possible for the SP to give a strong fight to the Congress President, he said, ''Rae Bareli is not a big issue. We have some 50-60 seats which are our strongholds. I can fight from at least 25 parliamentary and 40-50 assembly seats.'' Mr Yadav was referring to Ms Gandhi's decision to recontest from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat which she vacated last month following the 'office of profit' controversy.
He said Ms Gandhi was not in a position to weaken his party.
UNI SKS/NAZ LS BD1944


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Keith Rande was selling both his hand-carved wooden birds and his memoir, Boot Polish, Bears and Bush Sense: Adventures of a British Columbia Conservation Officer at the 100 Mile House Christmas Craft Fair in mid-November. (Patrick Davies photo - 100 Mile Free Press)
Brush with Bella Coola grizzly bear detailed conservation officer's new book
Keith Rande has self-published a book: Boot Polish, Bears and Bush Sense
Patrick Davies
Few people have a fight with a grizzly and live to tell about it.
Keith Rande, a former Conservation Officer, not only survived his battle with a bear but is sharing the tale in his self-published first book, Boot Polish, Bears and Bush Sense: Adventures of a British Columbia Conservation Officer.
Rande had been tracking the female grizzly, who had been relocated from Kitimat with two cubs, near Bella Coola in 1987 after it started killing livestock in the area. One of the cubs had also been shot and wounded.
"She just got the jump on me, knocked me down, and worked me over before the guys with me shot her while she was right on top of me," said Rande, who spent a week in hospital after the incident. "It was a sad ending for that bear and we pieced the story together after the fact. It's just typical with what happens with problem bears when they come into contact with humans."
The story is one of several compelling short tales – some of them funny, others sad – that Rande collected during his time as a B.C. Conservation Officer from 1983 to 2014. He decided to pull the tales together in a book in 2020, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, who reminded him of more stories to include.
"You just think of interesting and bizarre things that happened, funny and sad. I made notes of those and in the winter of 2019 instead of watching TV, I just got on my computer," Rande said. "You just relive it and it's amazing how your mind can store stuff that you've forgotten about but when you get into it again it starts filtering back."
Most of his stories revolve around encounters with animals that Rande interacted with as part of his job in Kamloops, Meritt, Bella Coola, Squamish, Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
One of his favourites involves a moose calf that mysteriously escaped from the back of a horse trailer years ago.
He and a friend were on the way to release a pair of rehabilitated twin moose into the wild near Dawson Creek in 1996 but somehow lost the female on the way.
"We got there and the trailer's sliding door, which we'd latched, had somehow come unlatched and slid open. We just envisioned something terrible happening along the way," Rande said. "It turned out it had come loose on a logging road where we were doing 30 km/h. You could see in the snow where it had come out as it dragged its front legs on the ground with its back end still in the trailer. Eventually, it flopped out, got up and trotted off into the bush."
Rande said he and his friend swore each other to secrecy and blamed the disappearance on aliens.
Working as a conservation officer meant every day was different for Rande. Some days he was enforcing environmental laws, other days he would police anglers and hunters, and every now and then he would track and trap animals.
"You name it, I deal with it. On the coast I dealt with raccoons and black bears while up north it was grizzlies, moose and deer," Rande said. "I think most conservation officers really do enjoy working with the wildlife and that was really the part I truly did enjoy."
Rande said he always wanted to work in 100 Mile House. Although he didn't get the chance, he decided to settle here, keeping himself busy in the outdoors, or carving wooden birds and playing guitar.
Boot Polish, Bears and Bush Sense is available on Amazon and at the Parkside Art Gallery. Rande can also be contacted via Instagram: @wardenauthour on his website at www.keithrande.com.
"If you have any kind of appreciation for nature and the environment, I'd encourage you to pick it up and read it," he said. "Even though there are stories of me having to destroy animals during the course of my job that was a sidebar to what happens out there."
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
Bella CoolaConservation
Keith Rande lived in Arras West of Dawson Creek in 1993. (Photo submitted)
Top animal videos from B.C.'s Vancouver Island in 2021


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Katherine Van Horne
L'Academie Julian, Paris, France 1967
Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France 1967
BA Hollins College, Roanoke, Va. 1968
MFA Program UC Davis, Davis, Ca.1969 Studied under Roy De Forest and Wayne Thiebaud
California College of Art, Oakland, Ca. 1987-1989
Santa Reparata Printmaking, Florence, Italy 1986
Felipe Ortega Ceramics, LaMadera, New Mexico 2004, 2005
Primavera Gallery, Ojai California
OjaiStyle, Ojai, California
Ojai Studi Artist
Ojai Valley Inn
Artwork Found In:
Frances Restaurant, San Francisco
Octavia Restaurant, San Francisco
Azu Restaurant, Ojai
William Sonoma Home
Katie Van Horne is a celebrated painter of both her native California landscape and the human form. Katie is most known, however, for painting portraits. Her commissions range from drawings of infants and children, to doing formal sittings of heads of institutions. She has also done a number of personal, informal and reflective compositions of her clients and their children. Katie's talent in capturing character extends to animals as well; Katie has done a number of portraits of beloved family dogs and horses.
Hundreds of Bay Area families treasure portraits and landscapes by Katie. Her commissions have also taken her to Southern California, the Northwest, Northeast, Midwest, Washington, D.C., Florida and internationally to paint. Katie currently lives in Ojai, California and is a member of The Ojai Studio Artists Association.
For most of her portraits, Katie uses the combined media of watercolor and pastel, but her love of the directness and myriad possibilities in illuminating both the figure and landscapes have led her to work in both simple, clean dry-point etchings and various dynamic abstract monotype printmaking techniques. Gesture-washes of the figure or landscape are hallmarks of her work. Sculpture is also a favorite medium, bringing new dimensions and opportunities to represent her subjects. Each discipline or practice informs and revitalizes the others, helping to keep attention fresh and to stay attuned to the subject matter at hand.
Portraits and Figure Drawing
Conversations with KvH
© 2023 by Katie Van Horne. Proudly created with Wix.com


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Onboard Our Ships
Easy Rome
5 hours | Rome (Civitavecchia) | ROM-290R O M - 2 9 0
St. Peter's Square and Basilica
Shopping Opportunities, Easy activity
A 90-minute drive from the Port of Civitavecchia through the countryside begins your motorcoach adventure. Once in Rome, your narrated drive will take you past the city's highlights, allowing for photo opportunities from the comfort of your seat.
No trip to Rome would be complete without viewing the expansive, medieval fortress walls that were designed to protect Vatican City, the Pope and the city's 1,000 inhabitants. Despite its size, the Vatican prints its own stamps and mints its own coins and even has a supermarket just for residents.
The significance of the Catholic Church in Rome cannot be overstated, as is evident in the preservation of its spectacular basilicas and churches. The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the great basilicas f Rome. Tradition has it that this magnificent structure was built on the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary, and that the floor plan was miraculously laid out in snowflakes after a storm.
Make sure your camera is ready to capture the landscaped greenery of Villa Borghese, the city's largest public park. Originally built on a vineyard, The 1911 World Exposition was held on its grounds, and some of the pavilions from different countries are still in existence.
The city streets are a unique experience, and surprises are revealed around every corner. Immortalized in Felini's film, "La Dolce Vita," Via Vittorio Veneto is one of Rome's most famous boulevards. Bustling with activity, the shops and cafes epitomize the cosmopolitan flare of Rome.
No trip to Rome would be complete without seeing some of its most significant historical landmarks. Don't miss a shot of the Colosseum, one of the grandest of all Rome's monuments. An imposing and beautiful site, the building was once used by Emperors to entertain the public with spectacular gladiator games.
Your tour highlights the significance of religion in Roman culture and the next two landmarks are no exception. Tempio Maggiore di Roma, the largest Synagogue in Rome, was built after Italy's unification and the emancipation of Italian Jews. The Synagogue was uniquely designed in a Persian and Babylonian style, which offers a wonderful contrast to much of the city's Baroque ornamentation. Along the shores of the Tiber River stands the Castel Sant'Angelo. Note the statue of Archangel St. Michael, the angel who, it is said, ended a plague that struck Rome in 590 AD when he appeared above the city.
The magnificence of St. Peter's Square must be experienced, and a stop (45 mins) here is a wonderful opportunity to experience this bustling square on foot. There is some time for you to shop for souvenirs and view the historic Basilica before boarding the motorcoach for your return to port.
For tours that offer more in-depth exploration with actual visits to one or more sites, see the other options in this port..
This tour does not operate on voyages ending in Rome (Civitavecchia).
The drive between Civitavecchia and Rome is approximately 1 1/2 hours each way, subject to traffic conditions.
There may be an additional walk of approximately 15 minutes to reach Vatican's Square from the designated bus parking area.
Guests must be able to walk approximately 0.6 mile over uneven surfaces.
Guests wishing to visit St. Peter's Basilica must be aware that proper attire that covers shoulders and legs must be worn by both men and women - mini-skirts, shorts and capri pants are not acceptable.
At St. Peter's Basilica visitors must pass through metal detectors. Large bags or umbrellas, bottled water, video cameras, knives or scissors must be checked at the desk.
Guests are advised that long queues to enter St. Peter's Basilica are to be expected.
Please be aware that Basilica might close for security reason at any given time without previous notice.
Please be aware that ongoing restoration work is often being carried out at the various venues visited.
Lunch is not included on this tour. Most shops are closed on Sundays and holidays and maintain seasonal hours.
This tour may operate in reverse order.
Depart from ship for a narrated drive of Rome
Air Conditioned Motorcoach
Free time in St. Peter's Square
Re-board your motorcoach and return to your ship


The idea of an intruder alarm is to deter a potential burglary. A burglar does not want any attention, he just wants to get in and out with as little fuss as possible. Our burglar alarms are professionally designed and installed to suit your lifestyle. Multiple codes for family and friends let you control who can enter your home and control your home security system. If you have pets and want to give them freedom to certain areas, this can be built into the design of the intruder alarm and this will generally cost no more than a standard system.
Installing quality security measures is an investment in the safety and security of your home. We use only top quality equipment from the market leaders (Scantroinc, Visonic and Elemdean). It is a long term investment that will reduce the risk of being a victim of crime and will bring considerable peace of mind.


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You are here: Home Media Blog Trading Hours 4 A.M. Last Call Research Update: "Splash Effect" Means One City's Party Is Another City's Pain
4 A.M. Last Call Research Update: "Splash Effect" Means One City's Party Is Another City's Pain
Six cities' plans to paint the town red will splash blood across the whole California map.
Despite outright rejection in last year's legislative cycle, the deep pockets of big nightclub promotion companies have persuaded the California legislature to revisit 4 a.m. last calls. The current version of the bill, still written by Scott Wiener but now labeled SB 905, only permits six cities to extend bar service hours. Those cities are San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, and the City of Los Angeles.
Despite the tweaks to this bill, the problems plaguing it remain obvious. Sensible last call policies are valuable policies that reduce harm without criminalizing drinking. A study on Norway during a period of patchwork last call hours shows that extending them increased assaults by 17% per additional hour. In Sydney, Australia, efforts to deal with runaway chaos from overconsumption inspired a 2-hour reduction in bar hours that reduced violence by 22% to 45%, depending on the area. Other studies on drunk driving shows that 51% more drivers got in alcohol related crashes when leaving bars with extended last calls.
More simply, keeping a bar open later means the people there will have drunk more. Far from being under debate, more drinking underlies the ostensible economic benefits accruing the handful of massive nightclubs that are sponsoring this bill. What these operators, and their reckless proxy, Sen. Wiener, are trying to hide is how easily they will avoid any of the consequences. Instead, these consequences will be borne by the tens of millions of Californians outside these newfound "party zones," as drunk drivers pour out of the city center and into quiet outlying communities. The results will be disruptive and expensive at best, lethal at worst.
In California, fatal alcohol-related crashes an ongoing crisis. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, fully 20% more people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2016 than 2014. At the rate fatal crashes are increasing, the death toll will double between 2016 and 2024. This spike persists despite efforts to promote designated drivers, despite the claims of ride-sharing services… and despite the vacant platitudes of SB 905 supporters who want to profit and while hoping someone else deals with the aftermath.
By definition, DUIs do not occur at the place where the driver got drunk. Ventura County alone out of all California counties tracks the behaviors of drunk drivers going through its DUI diversion programs. They found that drivers had traveled an average of 7 miles before getting arrested, with a maximum of 150 miles. Around 15% of young adults were arrested returning from either Hollywood or Santa Barbara-both at least 30 miles from the Ventura County border.
With that in mind, Alcohol Justice assembled the Splash Maps for SB 905. These maps show 7-mile and 40-mile "splash zones" where the drunk driving damage will occur. In addition, we compiled lists of cities within the splash zones. (If you feel your community was not included in the list and should be, please let us know.)
splash zone MAP
splash zone city LIST
LOS ANGELES & WEST HOLLYWOOD
SAN FRANCISCO & OAKLAND
READ MORE about how Sen. Wiener exploits the deaths young Californians to pass a bill endangering many more.
READ MORE about how late last calls will hurt California.
TAKE ACTION to stop SB 905 and choose California lives over nightlife lobbies.


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This ground beef is delivered vacuum packed and frozen to preserve fantastic flavor and goodness.


This multi-functional basket is designed to hold a box of tissues. It can also find purpose in any room throughout your home. It has a wood base and dyed reed accents, with color choices offered during class..


This lovely one bedroom garden flat is ideally located one minute's walk from the shops and restaurants of Southfields. It's a 15-20 minute walk to the tournament. With a double bed and sofa bed it can sleep up to 4 people.
To the front of the flat is a large sitting / dining room with a large L shaped sofa which can become a comfortable double sofa bed. There is a large TV with Virgin Tivo service and Amazon Fire TV. The dining table seats 4 people. The kitchen is light and well equipped with an oven, hob, fridge freezer, coffee machine and washing machine (there are racks for drying clothes). Glass doors open out onto the garden which has a patio and lawn with garden furniture and a BBQ.
The bedroom has a standard sized double bed and off here is the bathroom with a bath and overhead shower, basin and WC.
Wifi is available throughout the flat. Free parking permits can be provided for the tournament dates. A dog lives here but not during your stay!


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2. prosinec 2014 Markéta Šonková komentáře
Vietnam War still prevails as one of the most traumatic incident in history of the United States. Sometimes it is called as the first television war. But is it true media caused that the USA lost the Vietnam War? Examine this question with Markéta Šonková in her article!
Zdroj: Wiki
It is no news that mass media and television in particular have been shaping public opinion. It is also no news that media have been manipulating information. It is more than true when it comes to the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War is also referred to as "The First Television War" or as "The Living Room War", thanks to the wide media and television coverage of the events both in Asia as well as in the United States. Also, since the sixties marked a boom of the television, it was only natural that the Vietnam War was covered not only by the printed press, but also by the television. Showing people in their living rooms the vivid pictures of what was going on in Vietnam meant a turning point in the perception of war conflicts. For the first time in the human history were people so directly confronted with the atrocities and events of the war and could thus feel the atmosphere of the conflict even if they were miles away in their homes in the United States. Television companies were well aware of that and were also well aware that if it bleeds it leads, so the pictures and the coverage which got back to the US were often more dramatic than was the reality, and thus the public opinion might have been shaped by the news that was not necessarily true. However, the television networks did not transmit only the combat footage; they also transmitted the anti-war movement footage. In the end, the television companies and networks have been repeatedly attacked by politicians that they caused the failure of the war. Notwithstanding these accusations, as professor John A. Cloud from the U.S. Naval War College notes in his article Vietnam: A Censored War, "[The] wars are not won and lost on the television screen". This essay will thus examine the way the news, and the television news in particular, was presented to the American citizens, how and if it reflected the reality, and in what ways it might have shaped the public opinion.
The American media have been repeatedly accused that they caused, or at least heavily contributed, to the fact that the United States lost the Vietnam War. These accusations are more than topical when the television and the TV coverage are concerned. From the psychological point of view, camera and film footage made people more aware of what was going on, since the "television undoubtedly affords a more direct experience of war than newspapers, radio, or even cinema newsreels" (Mandelbaum 161). The printed news can hardly have the same effect as the film and the television have. Photographs are very powerful indeed, but it is still the television that transmits both the image as well as the sound and thus makes the experience probably the most real, given the living room conditions, and since the 1960s marked the television boom (Mandelbaum 158), the way to the living rooms was easier than ever before. Television thus became "an electronic window on the world, shaping perceptions of the ordinary citizens and even affecting high-level policy decisions. The war was never far away, it was right there in our living-rooms. Every night" (Pike). On the other hand, it was Michael J. Arlen, an Armenian-American writer and author of Living Room War, who raised an interesting question when he asked whether "were Americans watching [the] television or [whether] were they watching the war" (qtd. in Rollins 429), and Cloud also mentions that even though the audience of the TV news during the wartime quite naturally expanded, any "huge audiences rarely formed during the eight years of media attention given to the Vietnam War . . . [because] for many, the war was just another story".
Regardless the question mentioned above, the fact remains, as Frank D. Russo, American lawyer and the author of "A Study of Bias In Television Coverage of the Vietnam War" article, states, that for many Americans was the "television the sole source of national and world news . . . [and thus any possible] 'bias' of television news coverage of the Vietnam war [was] a question of tremendous national importance" (539). More importantly, Russo claims that "not only that TV [was] the primary source of news for most Americans, but that it has widened its lead over the other media as being the most believable source" (539). This makes clear that people tended to believe what they were presented on the television screen. And there were 35 million of these TV screens in the American households that were tuned to news every evening (Russo 539). Contrastingly, Michael Mandelbaum, professor from The Johns Hopkins University, thinks that even though the TV became the main medium for acquiring the news, the Americans might have, paradoxically, received less information than they would have from the press, because they were used to use the TV as the background noise to their everyday tasks (159). Nevertheless, the TV companies were aware of their rising influence and "in an effort to polish the public image of television that the 'quiz show' scandals of the fifties had tarnished, the three major networks did increase the number of hours they devoted to news programs. To cultivate a reputation for seriousness and civic-mindedness, they began to put documentary on the air" (Mandelbaum 158) and as a result were "in 1963 the evening national news programs . . . expanded from fifteen minutes to a half hour" (Mandelbaum 158). Apart from the effort to polish the public image, the reasons for this were particularly financial, since these programs were "extremely profitable for the networks" (Mandelbaum 158).
As was mentioned before, there is a wide notion that the Vietnam War was unpopular and that it was mainly because the TV networks were showing people the unpleasant side of the war. However, professor Daniel C. Hallin of the University of California found out that "only about 22 percent of all television reports from Vietnam before 1968 showed actual combat . . . The American people simply did not see gore night after night" (qtd. in Cloud). The turning point in the television coverage was the Tet Offensive, where "the American defense of Saigon was militarily successful but [was] a public perception nightmare for the policymakers" (Smith, Background Report). As Mandelbaum mentions, the 1968 media coverage of the Tet offensive caused that the public was presented with a distorted picture of what really happened in Vietnam. He claims that "for reasons having to do not with political bias but with the habits of journalism, Tet was portrayed as a military defeat for the United States" (159). However, it was not only the TV, but all the media that were covering the Vietnam War that made the very same distortion of events, which as a result made the Johnson Administration less popular, because the Tet footage showed that the enemy was still very capable of fighting, contrary to the claims of the Administration that the war was being won and coming to an end (Mandelbaum 159).
The distortion of the information was, however, connected not only to the Tet:
The producers of the news programs encouraged their Saigon correspondents to shoot film of combat, especially before 1968. Combat scenes tended to be more dramatic, more exciting, and therefore - and this was the primary consideration - more likely to attract viewers than other kinds of coverage (Mandelbaum 159).
Simply, if it bleeds it leads, and thus the footage usually portrayed the Americans engaged in some kind of successful mission that was, however, not "tied to any particular event . . . which may have helped to give an unduly optimistic impression of the war, and contributed to the public´s disillusionment when events proved the optimism unwarranted," as it happened with the impact of the Tet coverage (Mandelbaum160). Arlen also "chronicled [in his book Living Room War] a history of rigged enemy casualty figures, over-statements about the effectiveness of 'search-and-destroy missions' and air raids, and lies by senior administration officials about the need for more troops [and] all the while, this information went unquestioned by TV news" (qtd. in Cloud). As Cloud adds, "the military´s war had become the media´s war", because it was the media who with their choice of footage dictated how will be the information presented to the audience. It was no longer the army who was the sole "constructor" of the war, because since the media reported the reality differently, it was in fact also the media who directed the war and its course (Cloud). However, it was again not only the television that was presenting the news in this distorted way.
On the other hand, television networks did not broadcast only the war pictures, but also the events connected to the anti-war movement. Their role in the anti-war protests was, however, not an active one, in the sense that the television would actively promote the anti-war movement or the war opposition, but it influenced the way it was expressed:
It served as a network of communication through which people in one part of the country discovered that others elsewhere shared their feelings about the war, and saw how they could demonstrate those feelings publicly. It became, as well, a forum for propagating antiwar views. The antiwar movement did not expect to stop the war itself, but rather hoped to persuade the American public that it ought to be stopped. This message could reach many more people through television than in any other way (Mandelbaum 164).
In that respect, the television networks behaved similarly as they did with the combat footage – it was a spectacle that earned them money. Thus, it is possible to claim that "the antiwar movement was the equivalent, on the home front, of combat footage in Vietnam itself; it made for good television" (Mandelbaum 164). Retrospectively were the media accused by their opponents that the "TV coverage during the Vietnam War era gave undue attention to antiwar protests, singlehandedly creating even more public opposition and prompting congressional hostility to the war effort" (Cloud). After the Tet, the number of protests naturally increased and thus the television covered the protests, too, "but never did the media support the antiwar movement with fervor" (Cloud). It is also true that the movement as such became in the end as unpopular as was the war itself, for it was associated with the counterculture which was despised for its connection to disorder and revolt (Mandelbaum 165-166), so even if the media would have intentionally promoted the anti-war movement, it is disputable what effect it might have had on the course of the war when the movement as such became unpopular. Taking this into consideration, the media propagated both, the battle as well as the anti-war footage, so it can be hardly claimed that they favoured any of those parties, they just sold what could be sold.
Whatever the main interest in the choice of the topic was, there is an undeniable power of the message the pictures carried, because according to Mandelbaum, "it was not the conceptual framework for interpreting the pictures of violence that appeared on American television screens that shaped public attitudes toward the war . . . but [it was] the pictures themselves" (161). According to Marshall McLuhan´s theory, "print, the linear medium, breaks the world down into artificial categories, while the electronic media, especially television, recreate the 'plural simultaneity' of real life. [Thus] print divides and distances people from one another; [while] television engenders feelings of solidarity and sympathy" (qtd. in Mandelbaum 161). This claim implies that the vivid pictures the Americans saw made them feel solidarity which caused the wave of requests to discontinue the war, regardless any possible commentaries accompanying the reportages or the intended message of the footage. It was the power of the picture as such that determined the reaction. However, as Mandelbaum continues, "there is little empirical evidence of how people reacted to seeing the war on television" and one of the options he proposes is that "the constant exposure to the war on television may have made Americans apathetic about the killing half a world away" (161-162), and since the TV as such can have an alienating effect, the constant exposure might have diminished the desired outcome of the message. It might have made the war look as something trivial, "with the pictures of battle seeming no more urgent or alarming than all the others that regularly paraded across the small grey screen" (Mandelbaum 162).
There is one more important issue to be considered, though. Interestingly, even though the Vietnam War was, according to the former CBS News president Fred Friendly, "an undeclared war with no censorship" (Russo 543), the censorship was there, however, it was not imposed by the military, but by the media themselves (Cloud). Cloud further on comments that the media did not question the administration policy, or at least not until the public favoured the withdrawal of the troops from Vietnam by the end of the war anyway. As he mentions, "the reasons [for this self-imposed censorship] ranged from fear of offending the parents of soldiers to conservatism among the network brass" (Cloud). In that respect, the accusation of the then vice president Spiro Agnew that it was the fault of the media that the credibility gap appeared (Smith, Background Report) could be questioned, as well as could be questioned the true reasons for the "openly adversarial relationship [that] developed between the press and the presidency during the Johnson years. . . [and that] continued to grow with his successor" (Smith, Background Report). The media reported the events distortedly, but the distortion was not aimed at harming the administration, it was targeted at getting the audience and thus subsequently profit. It is nevertheless true that after Vietnam, the military censorship started to play an important role, which was particularly apparent during the Gulf War in the 1990s (Cloud). As Christiane Amanpour who works as an international correspondent for CNN confirms, the military learned the lesson and today
. . . you [as a journalist] either have to join what some of my colleagues have called the 'propaganda machine,' or you don´t go and cover it at all, which is much more different than in Vietnam, where reporters were invited to come along on helicopters, they were given transportation; they were given access. This has changed totally, which makes it so much more difficult for journalists today to actually cover wars if they want to go with the big militaries (Smith).
In conclusion, the Vietnam War definitely was the first television war, but it surely was not the first unpopular war in the history of the American warfare. It is true that the public opinion influenced the American policy regarding the Vietnam War, but as Mandelbaum asserts, "the correlation between the outcome of the war and the way Americans learned about it [that is from the television] . . . is spurious; or, if not plainly spurious, at least not proven and not plausible" (158). It is also true that the public opinion changed after the Tet, and so did the TV coverage, however, the networks still kept covering both the combat as well as the anti-war protests. To claim that the TV networks were largely responsible for the failure of the Vietnam War would require a proof for the assumption that "the way people receive information determines how they respond to it" (Mandelbaum 161), which would eliminate viewers´ personal assessment of what they watched. It is beyond the scope of this essay to draw any conclusion why the Americans lost the war in Vietnam. The aim of this essay was an attempt to evaluate the way media, particularly the television news, presented the materials connected to the Vietnam War. To generalize and claim that all the networks were biased would be hardly possible; on the other hand, to claim otherwise is likewise impossible. It is apparent that the information has been for multiple reasons distorted and thus the message reaching the target audience in their living rooms was not necessarily accurate. It is questionable, though, how much it was responsible for the final failure of the whole war.
Cloud, John A. "Vietnam: A Censored War." The Harvard Crimson. 09 March 1991, n. pag. Web. 16 Jun. 2013. .
Mandelbaum, Michael. "Vietnam: The Television War." Daedalus. 111. (1982): 157-169. Web. 16 Jun. 2013.
Pike, Douglas, dir. Vietnam War: The Impact of Media. Acurracy In Media, Inc., 1984. Web. 16 Jun. 2013. .
Rollins, Peter C. "The Vietnam War: Perceptions Through Literature, Film, and Television." American Quarterly. 36. (1984): 419-432. Web. 16 Jun. 2013. .
Russo, Frank D. "A Study of Bias in TV Coverage of the Vietnam War: 1969 and 1970," The Public Opinion Quarterly, 35. 4 (Winter 1971-1972): 539-543. Web. .
Smith, Terence. "Covering the War." NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 20 Apr. 2000. Web. 16 Jun. 2013. .
--. "Covering the War: Background Report." NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 20 Apr. 2000. Web. 16 Jun. 2013. .
Šonková, Markéta. Vietnam, the First Television War [online]. E-polis.cz, 2. prosinec 2014. [cit. 2023-01-28]. Dostupné z WWW: <http://www.e-polis.cz/clanek/vietnam-the-first-television-war.html>. ISSN 1801-1438.


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Werner, Gregory 2014 Evaluation
Fourth Judicial District - District Court Judge
Honorable Gregory R. Werner
The Fourth Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance recommends, by a vote of 5 to 1, that Judge Gregory R. Werner BE RETAINED.
Judge Werner was appointed to the District Court in August, 2006. Judge Werner graduated in 1987 from the University of Colorado School of Law. Prior to his appointment to the District Court, Judge Werner was in private practice, primarily in the area of civil litigation, emphasizing insurance defense issues. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado in 1983. Judge Werner is active in the community through his work with the State mock trial competitions for high school students, and his involvement with Judicially Speaking, a program to inform students about the legal process. He has served as a youth coach, and works with a high school lacrosse program.
The Commission conducted a personal interview with Judge Werner, reviewed opinions he has authored, reviewed his performance in the courtroom through observations, and reviewed surveys sent to both attorneys and non-attorneys. Of all attorneys surveyed about retention, 76% recommended retaining Judge Werner (slightly below the statewide average of 80%), 14% recommended not to retain, and 10% made no recommendation. Of non-attorneys surveyed, 87% recommended retaining (in-line with the statewide average), 5% not to retain, and 9% made no recommendation. (These percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.)
Judge Werner has presided over civil and criminal cases during his term of office. He is consistently rated above average by non-attorneys in all areas of his job performance, while attorneys rate him somewhat below the statewide average. Attorneys expressed a view that he was a stern judge, but also rated him as above the statewide average in his neutrality towards the parties appearing before his courtroom.


Abstract: We incorporate financial linkages in EAGLE, a New Keynesian multi-country dynamic general equilibrium model of the euro area (EA) by including financial frictions and country-specific banking sectors. In this new version of the model, termed EAGLE-FLI (Euro Area and GLobal Economy with Financial LInkages), banks collect deposits from domestic households and cross-country interbank market and raise capital to finance loans issued to domestic households and firms. In order to borrow from local (regional) banks, households use domestic real estate as collateral whereas firms use both domestic real estate and physical capital. These features - together with the full characterization of trade balance and real exchange rate dynamics and with a rich array of financial shocks - allow to properly assess domestic and cross-country macroeconomic effects of financial shocks. Our results support the views that (1) the business cycles in the EA can be driven not only by real shocks, but also by financial shocks, (2) the financial sector could amplify the transmission of (real) shocks, and (3) the financial/banking shocks and the banking sectors can be sources of business cycle asymmetries and spillovers across countries in a monetary union.


Hello everyone and thank you for visiting my website. My first novel '292 Albion Place' is available on Amazon Kindle. By following the links on this website you will be able to find out more about me, the background to the book and see pictures of the locations featured in it. I hope you will enjoy your journey into the world of my novel. If you like mystery and crime mixed in with a little spookiness and cake then my latest novel 'Seeing is Believing' now on sale is the one for you!


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HomeFishingFreshwater FishingCrappie/Bream'Don't pass up a bridge,' crappie angler says
'Don't pass up a bridge,' crappie angler says
January 15, 2017 Kinny Haddox Crappie/Bream, Freshwater Fishing, Sidebars
There's one piece of structure on Lake D'Arbonne — or any lake, for that matter — that Sam Roberson said you don't need a depth finder to locate.
"Well, looky here: It's a bridge," Roberson said during our trip. "I don't care where I'm fishing, if there's a bridge, I am going to have to give it a try for crappie. The areas around bridges are popular fishing spots, and there is a good reason.
"Structure there is going to hold crappie, especially in the winter."
Roberson said it might be deeper water where the bridge was constructed or maybe the pilings and rocks below offer good hiding spots for baitfish and crappie.
Maybe the narrowing down of a lake where a bridge is serves as a natural funnel to bring fish to one location.
Or maybe the current creates ridges and gullies on the bottom.
No matter what the reason bridges hold fish, Roberson said they should all be probed with lures.
"Don't pass up a bridge," he said.
On D'Arbonne, there are three areas with major bridges: the main lake bridge on Highway 33 between Farmerville and Ruston, the Highway 2 bridge on the Bernice Highway, and the Stowe Creek bridge on Highway 15 to West Monroe.
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About Kinny Haddox 538 Articles
Kinny Haddox has been writing magazine and newspaper articles about the outdoors in Louisiana for 45 years. He publishes a daily website, lakedarbonnelife.com and is a member of the Louisiana Chapter of the Outdoor Legends Hall of Fame. He and his wife, DiAnne, live in West Monroe.