When CSL made their statement last Friday, it was noticeable that they didn't actually claim that any of my report was false. To me, that implies that the content of the report is true.
CSL should be answering questions right now, but are maintaining silence.
What encryption methods do your new devices, the Gradeshift and DigiAir, use?
How often are the keys changed on these devices?
If there was a serious security issue requiring the firmware to be updated, who pays for it?
Do these devices have SMS controls? If so, what is the PIN and how do I change it?
Are any of the device in my estate using the encryption mentioned in the report?
I suspect answers won't be forthcoming.
A few posts ago, we managed to disassemble the firmware from the CSL Dualcom site.
The entire listing is available here as a zip. There is a lot of blank space in the file which needs to be trimmed down, but for reference this file will be left as-is.
I have also put the code on github. It's not ideal as you can't use the web interface to show the code/diffs, but it is a good way of recording history as mistakes will be made.
The process of turning diassembly into something useful isn't easy. I find the most useful things are to find very commonly called subroutines first, and work out what they do. If they aren't obvious, skip them.
The raw listing doesn't show us the frequency with which subroutines are called. Python, to the rescue again. We trim out the fluff from the file. 0x1000-0x2000 is the string table, which the disassmebler doesn't know about and tries to turn into code. The processor has a mirrored address structure so everything in the range 0x00000. Everything above 0x1FFFF isn't the code – it's special function registers and a mirror area.
0xE1B2 looks like a good place to start.
First thing to be aware of is that disassembly is not an exact science. Sometimes you will see an address CALLed but you can't find it. This probably means that the disassembly is misaligned in that area – look a couple of adresses above and below. This is not the case here.
We can see immediately above 0xE1B2 there is a POP and RETB, the end of a subroutine.
B is always set to a value over quite a wide range. It's probably a number or a ASCII character.
A is set to either 0, 1, 2 or 3. This is likely some kind of option or enumeration.
So we are branching to other addresses based on the parameter in A.
There's one thing to note about this function. There is no immediate RET instruction there. These have to be dealt with in the code that is branched to.
It's pretty long and complex. But there is one really key piece of info in there – the special function register SSR02L. Looking to the 78K0R data sheet, this is "Serial status register 02". It's pretty likely this function concerns serial. It has a return at the end as well.
If we look 0xE16C, this has reference to SSR12L. Another serial port.
Called the sub :sub_Serial_UnknownA_e1b3. The : denotes that this is the actual sub. It is something to do with serial – the first unknown sub to do with serial. I have put the address on the end just to keep track of where it is.
Search and replace on !!0E1B2H with this new name. "sub_Serial_UnknownA_e1b3" now shows instead of the raw address – when I see it called I know it is something to do with serial.
Put some brief notes above the sub so I know what it is doing.
I'm now going to do similar for the other high-frequency subs. Again, I am building up a broad picture, not going into extreme depth at this stage.
The ICCID is written on the outside of the Dualcom GPRS, stored in the EEPROM, read in from the GRPS modem, and read in from EEPROM immediately before a long, random looking, string is sent to a remote server. It seems quite important.
The Dualcom board also frequently checks for received SMS.
It might be worth taking a look at the SIM to see what is on it.
From previous projects, I have an Omnikey Cardman 5321 card reader. This reads both RFID cards and smart cards. We can put the SIM card in a carrier and read it with this device.
SimSpy II is a free utility which can read most data from SIM cards inclouding ICCID, IMSI, Kc (which can be used to decrypt communications), SMS messages and more.
Unfortunately, nothing too interesting comes up. The card never seems to have stored any SMS. There's no numbers in the phone book. We might end up coming back to this at some point.
We've now got the code disassembled. The disassembler has no concept of what is connected to the microcontroller though, so we need to work out which ports/pins/peripherals are used by which parts of the board. What is P11.1? What about P7? These are all I/O, but meaningless without looking at the physisal board.
The best way of doing this is using a continuity tester and buzzing the board out. It's not worth exhaustively mapping out the PCB at this stage – just the interesting bits. There might even be some mistakes.
A meter with a quick continuity beep. Some have a lag. I've not got time for that. I use my Amprobe AM-140-A for this – it's very quick, if a bit scratchy sounding.
Fine probes. I really like the Pomona 6275 probes – they are very sharp and very small.
Pop one end on the peripheral and just brush the other along the sides of the microcontroller. Not too hard or you risk dragging metal between the pins. It makes it very quick to find where things are going.
Watch out for transistors and resistors in the way though e.g. the inputs from the alarm are likely transistor buffered, and some of the peripherals might have resistors to divide voltage.
IC8 is the socketed 93C86 EEPROM.
P111 means port 11, bit 1.
IC11 is the SMT 93C86 EEPROM.
(this looks like it would work with a standard Renesas debug tool – the MiniCube2).
I'm not bothered about the other parts at the moment. We can come back to them if we need to.
Next step is to identify a few basic functions inside the disassembled code, probably starting with EEPROM reading.
I find reverse engineering is about building up a broad picture instead of working in-depth on any one aspect of the system. Dip into one bit, check what you are seeing is reliable and makes sense, dip into another area to get more detail, repeat.
We've done this with the logic trace – seen the long string sent, looked at the EEPROM access, checked what this in the .prm file, and seen that it is the ICCID. Now I would like to look at the firmware on the device.
CSL Dualcom have v353 hex file available for download on their site. The board I am looking at uses v202. That's a big difference.
Get a v202 (or anything nearer to v202 than v353) hex file downloaded. A quick Google doesn't help here.
Upgrade the board I have to v353. This would require the EEPROM to be updated, possibly other changes. I don't want to break this board.
Recover the v202 firmware from the board I have. There is a programming header – it could be possible to get the code off. But it may not be possible.
Live with the difference and hope that there is enough consistency between the two to be helpful.
I'm going to run with 4. It's the lowest effort, and I think it will work. The EEPROM structure between some of the different board seems identical – this is backed up by there only being a single Windows programming tool for the board, regardless of firmware version. In my experience, smaller embedded system firmware is quite consistent as new functionality is added, even if the toolchain changes (this really doesn't hold true when you move up to anything bigger running Linux).
What can we do with the firmware? Well, we need to disassemble it. What does that actually mean? It means changing the raw machine code back into human-readable assembly language i.e. F7 becomes CLRW BC (clear register BC). This probably doesn't meet everyone's idea of human readable, but it is a lot better than machine code.
Some microcontrollers (like the ATmega series) have easy to understand and even read machine code. 90% of instructions are a fixed length (16bits). The number of instructions are limited and there are only limited addressing modes. With some practice you can make sense of machine code in text editor.
The 78K0R is not like this.
All of the enclosed red cells are MOV instructions. That's a lot of them. There are 4 of these maps, with a total of 1024 cells. ~950 of them are populated.
There are several addressing modes and the instruction length varies from 8bits to 32bits. This makes the machine code incredibly hard to read.
We need an automated disassembler. Google isn't much help here – these microcontrollers aren't as popular as x86, ARM, AVR, or PIC .
There are two toolchains widely available for these processors. Renesas Cubesuite and IAR Embedded Workbench. There is a chance that one of these has either a disassembler or a simulator that allows a hex file to be loaded.
After a lot of messing around, it appears that Renesas Cubesuite can load the hex, disassemble it, and also simulate it.
3. Go to Project -> Create new project.
7. Find your hex or bin file and load it (hex is preferable as it seems the disassembler takes into account the missing address space).
9. The simulator starts up and you can see the disassembled code.
Great – now we can get to work trying to see what the processor is doing.
The next post will likely be buzzing the board out to find out which I/O is connected to what so we can make some sense of the code.
From this view, it might look like the EEPROM access is too late for it to be used to generate that long string. However, in microcontroller terms, there is ~0.3ms between the end of the EEPROM access and the start of the first character on serial (I suspect the '1' is a start character). I've not checked the crystal speed, but it's between 2MHz and 20MHz. Even at 2MHz, that's 600 instructions – plenty of time to act on the EEPROM data.
The trace is maybe a little confusing here. The green bordered binary is the DI line – the microcontroller to the memory. The yellow bordered binary is the DO line – the memory to the microcontroller. The Saleae Logic software has no decoder to deal with Microwire, so we need to use the SPI decoder set with a bit-width to deal with both the receive and transmit sides.
According to the data sheet for the EEPROM, this should be 29 clock cycles. For whatever reason there is an additional clock cycle here though – the very short transition in the middle of the trace. So we set the SPI decoder to 30bits.
The first 3bits of the green bordered binary are 0b110 – a read command. The next 10bits are the address – 0b00 1001 1000 – i.e. 0x098. After this point, we can ignore the green bordered binary.
The last 16bits of the yellow bordered binary are the value from memory – 0x4489.
We should be able to find this in the .prm file. 0x098 is 152. The prm file has a byte per row, and 2 bytes on the first row, so we should need to go to row 304 of the file – and there we go – 89, 44. Perfect.
Strangely each of the addresses is read twice. Why? Not sure at this time.
What data do we get back?
This is the ICCID – the unique ID assigned to the SIM card in the GPRS modem.
Could the board be using the ICCID as a key to encrypt the data?
Now we can take a look at the data in these traces. Let's start with the communications with the GPRS modem.
The serial comms to the GPRS modem are normal ASCII characters, and it uses the AT command set. The GPRS modem is a Wavecom board – we can download the AT command set documentation.
AT&D2 OK Circuit 108 (DTR) Response When in on-line data mode, deassert DTR closes the current connection and switch to on-line command mode.
AT+CMEE=1 OK Mobile Equipment Error Enable +CME ERROR: <err> result code and use numeric <err> values.
The whole CSV file of this trace can be downloaded here.
What can we see going on?
The board is reset and some basic settings are sent (don't echo commands, use DTR to close connection, turn on numeric errors).
Setup SMS messaging to store messages on the ME (the GPRS modem, as compared to the SIM). There seems to be room for 100 messages in the modem.
Setup three PDP contexts. I think these are essentially GRPS connections. The first two are generic and have no username/password – they might be Vodafone APNs. The third is a csldual.com – likely a private APN. An APN is a gateway between a GRPS connection and an IP network.
Setup three Internet accounts. These are credentials used with the PDP contexts. The generic ones have no username or password, but the csldual.com one does – dualcomgprsxx and QO6806xx.
The board periodically checks for network registration and signal strength. The signal strength is shown on the 7-seg display when idling. The GPRS modem is connected to the home network with decent signal strength.
The board then repeatedly scans the first 15 SMS slots for messages. There are no messages, so we get errors back. This is quite interesting – what is it that gets sent to the board as SMS?
The board then tries to connect to the same IP again. This time it succeeds, and some data is sent back and forth. This is a string of ASCII text which looks, from a human perspective, fairly random.
What things are of note in this trace then?
The APN and the username and password used are constant across several devices and the Sample.prm I have looked at. It seems curious to require a password but for it not to vary.
SMS messages are checked for frequently, suggesting something important is received by SMS.
There is no notion of time/counters/nonce in any of the communications.
There doesn't seem to be any authentication of the APN/server with the GRPS Dualcom board.
What data is used to authenticate a given APN? If the username and password are constant, is the ICCID and other data used?
Can anyone send SMS to the GPRS modem, or is there some form of blocking performed by the network in the other direction?
Whilst the notion of time/counters/nonce isn't essential for strong/good encryption, it does make things easier.
A common failing of embedded systems that do use encryption is that they don't change the key. Encryption with a fixed, known key is not really much better than no encryption.
It's been possible to spoof a cell site for a few years now using Software Defined Radio. If the APN/server can be spoofed, then the signalling might stop working.
Gather more traces and see if any patterns can be spotted in the data going between the board and server.
Look at EEPROM accesses whilst the GPRS modem is being used.
Disassemble the firmware and see if we can spot anything interesting.
I'll see what takes my fancy next time I sit down and look at it.


What Is the California Building Code?
Many people involved in building design, construction, or even construction litigation are under the erroneous impression that the prevailing building code in California is the Uniform Building Code (UBC) and that it is adopted and amended by local cities and counties. While this has historically been true, it is no longer completely accurate. Although localities may and still do "adopt" the UBC and other related codes, such action is a confusing and redundant exercise. All of California is now governed by the 1995 California Building Standards Code, as amended since 1995, which is also known as California Code of Regulations, Title 24, governed by the California Building Standards Commission.
The 1998 California Building Standards Code, which is based on the 1997 Uniform Codes, is now available and will go into effect on July 1, 1999. Localities can adopt amendments that make the code only more rigorous; they cannot diminish it. Any local amendments have to be filed with the state with certain findings.
PART 1 Building Standards Administrative Code 1995 edition (contains administrative regulations of the California Building Standards Commission, and regulations of all state agencies that implement or enforce building standards).
PART 2 California Building Code 1995 edition (contains general construction standards and references the Uniform Building Code).
PART 3 California Electrical Code 1995 edition (contains electrical standards and references the National Electrical Code).
PART 4 California Mechanical Code 1995 edition (contains mechanical standards and references the Uniform Mechanical Code).
PART 5 California Plumbing Code 1995 edition (contains plumbing standards and references the Uniform Plumbing Code).
PART 6 California Energy Code 1995 edition (contains energy conservation standards).
PART 7 California Elevator Safety Construction Code 1995 edition (contains elevator construction standards).
PART 8 California Historical Building Code 1995 edition (contains alternative construction standards for qualified historical buildings).
PART 9 California Fire Code 1995 edition (contains only fire safety maintenance standards and references the Uniform Fire Code).
PART 10 California Code for Building Conservation 1995 edition (contains building conservation standards and references the Uniform Code for Building Conservation).
PART 12 California Reference Standards Code 1995 edition (contains construction testing standards).
The California Building Standards Commission website is at: www.bsc.ca.gov.


As my practicum project is allowing me to explore the different communities and bloggers of special interest groups I wanted to highlight one blogger I find most interesting and insightful. Mark Bittman is a writer for the New York times and has his own food blog embedded into the news paper. He idea of the food industry has been evolving with the recent increase in a need for local sustainable establishments and practices. Each week Bittman disseminates a slew of informative, thought provoking and definitely intruging links to other articles, blogs or websites regarding similar food issues. This week I have taken some screen shots of what I found most important to my practicum.
Bittman is using the the various links in order to connect people with real time news about food issues through the article from the Los Angeles Times about how San Francisco has put a price tag on McDonald's toys so they can not be given away for free with kids meals.
The issues that Bittman stresses to be most important are directly inline with Slow Food ideals as he informs his readers on how to reduce their carbon footprint and support the local movement. However, he does not do this in a biased manner. Like many other pieces written for the New York Times Bittman delievers information solely for the purpose to inform. This is illustrated in his link to the article, 'Is the locavore food movement bad for the environment and economy?'.
Another helpful link that I found on this week's list was for those who are passionate about supporting their local ideals and wanting to have a farm is with the typical hoop house. Hoop houses usually are quite an ordeal depending on the size of your garden, however Bittman offers an article explaining windowfarms. This could be especially helpful to those of us who live in cold climates for a majority of the year. This is allowing people to fully enthrall themselves with supporting the Slow Food movement.
Finally the last link that I definitely thought I needed to share even though it may not be essential to the Slow Food argument is the introduction of horse meat! I was terrified and appalled that this could be a future menu item at a restaurant, the only comment I can make is I hope it is locally raised and they went in peace.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and next week make sure to check out Bittman's next post! Bon appetit.


It is the summer of 1940. A woman rides her bike through the English country-side. Dawn has broken and the land begins to stir with the sound of birds and farm animals. But this summer the wind carries another sound as well, that of warplanes rising into amber skies.
This is the summer of the Battle of Britain and the inhabitants of this small island nation struggle for their very way of life against a menacing foe amassed along the eastern coast of Europe.
The woman stops, gazes upward and offers a silent prayer, as Spitfires from 92 Squadron roar skyward to search out and destroy the encroaching fighters and bombers of Hitler's Luftwaffe.
During the Battle of Britain there were three groups equipped with Spitfires. They were #11 Group in the south, #10 Group in the west and #5 Group in the northeast. They were all three flying mainly Spitfire MK IIs.
What sets a Phillips work of aviation art apart from others is his prowess as a landscape artist. This Anniversary Fine Art Edition Canvas captures all the vivid color and brilliance of the original William S. Phillips work of art. At 30" x 20" this exclusive release of "On Wings as a Prayer" matches the size of the original painting and is 35% larger than the paper print released in 1999. This is one of Phillips' most revered and sought-after works of art and a prize for the collection of any true aviation enthusiast.


Which is more effective to treat Insulin Resistance: Diet & Exercise or Metformin?
I know diabetes management requires Metformin but I'm talking about pre-diabetes – Insulin resistance with a family history of type II diabetes.
I would definitely say diet and exercise. Diabetes management does not necessarily require metformin. There are a lot of people that can manage diabetes for a while after dietary and exercise counseling and there are a lot of people that are diet controlled diabetics. Exercise is one of the most important things for your body to control insulin resistance as well as reduce your risk of so many other things. Giving medication should be done secondary to diet and exercise management.
The first line treatment of type 2 Diabetes is diet, weight control and exercise. You are only given medication if your blood sugar levels remain high despite lifestyle changes such as I have mentioned. Although there is a family tendency with type 2 diabetes, type 2 diabetes is generally associated with being overweight and mainly affects people aged >40. It occurs overtime, not not overnight.
It was your question I answered the other day about PCOS wasn't it? You are not taking Metformin at the moment for Type 2 Diabetes Prophylaxis. The reason you are taking Metform is because you have PCOS. Metformin is commonly given to people suffering from PCOS because women with PCOS are usually insulin resistant. This basically means that cells in your body are resistant to the effect of a normal level of insulin, so more insulin is produced to keep the blood sugar normal and it's this raised level of insulin in the bloodstream that is thought to be the main underlying reason why PCOS develops.
The raised level of insulin causes the ovaries to make too much testosterone. A high level of insulin and testosterone interfere with the normal development of follicles in the ovaries. As a result of this, many follicles tend to develop but often do not develop fully. This causes problems with ovulation; hence period problems and reduced fertility one often gets with PCOS.
Metformin is a drug that is commonly used to treat people with type 2 diabetes. It makes the body's cells more sensitive to insulin. This may result in a decrease in the blood level of insulin which may help to counteract the underlying cause of PCOS, this is why you have been prescribed it.
Having PCOS does mean that you are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes though. The best exercise you can do is aerobic exercise or basically anything that works the large groups of muscles such as your legs, arms and shoulders etc. In answer to your question; The best thing you can do right now to prevent diabetes later down the line is staying as close to your ideal weight as possible and exercise.
No, diabetes management does not necessarily require metformin; however, the vast majority of patients who are obese and severely insulin resistant and refuse to exercise do require it.
The answer to your question is diet & exercise. And I MEAN . . . REGULAR . . . SUSTAINED . . . AEROBIC . . . exercise!!! This is a proven treatment for pre-diabetes in those patients who are both willing and able to do so.
Conversely, those obese pre-diabetics who cannot are destined for metformin.
A caveat: some patient may have only modest success in partially reversing insulin resistance, and they may need to be treated with metformin nonetheless. Every patient is different, and treatment must be individualized.
Recently, one of my patients who I had successfully treated with metformin for nine months had started an AGGRESSIVE aerobics exercise regimen. She ended up losing 42 pounds — more weight than she had lost prior to having been on metformin treatment. All of her indices for pre-diabetes and insulin resistance (i.e, 2-hour glucose, fasting insulin level) completely normalized. She has been the ONLY patient whom I've recommended discontinuing metformin treatment (temporarily) after the fact and to continue with diet/aerobic exercise alone for pre-diabetes management. Obviously, this anecdotal case is the extreme exception to the rule, but it can be accomplished.
I think your diet & exercise regimen is excellent. I cannot say with certainty whether your low-dose metformin (250 mg daily) will be of benefit (the lowest dose of metformin that I've used to clincial benefit has been 500 mg daily), but you and your doctor will be the ultimate judge.


Lip Gloss Gossip: Beauty Army Monthly Subscription Review!
There are a lot of monthly beauty sample subscriptions out right now. Last Fall I subscribed to Birchbox, and I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it sucked! I chose the monthly option so I could cancel whenever I wanted to and I'm glad I did. Each month I didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth. The samples were so tiny and it was always stuff I didn't care for.
I still was really interested in some kind of monthly subscription, so I looked into it and found Beauty Army.
Beauty Army is similar to Birchbox, where you subscribe to monthly samples, but it's $12 a month whereas Birchbox is only $10.
With Beauty Army, you get to choose your own samples!
When you sign up, you take a beauty profile questionnaire, they show you a series of photos and you choose which look or style you like best. After that they give you a custom list of products to choose from based on what your answers are.
There are 9 samples for you to choose from and you are able to pick 6 samples to order.
I really liked the option of being able to choose my own samples, so I signed up for the monthly subscription.
The box it comes in is adorable! Then when you open up the inside it has the cute pink camo!
When you open it up, everything is wrapped individually in pink tissue paper, which is another cute touch.
These are the samples I chose, and I have to say these sample sizes are fantastic!
I got a Indie Lee Coconut Citrus body scrub, SheaTerra Organics Bananas & Baobabs Body Creme 1oz, Freeman Pssssst! Dry Shampoo 1.76 oz, Joico Restorative Treatment 1.7 oz, BlingTone eyeshadow in Caribbean Queen, and Weleda Hydrating Facial Lotion.
Overall this is great beauty sample subscription. You definitely get your money's worth and I love how you can choose your samples. I'll be posting reviews on these products soon!
I'm definitely going to stay subscribed to Beauty Army for awhile.
If you are looking for a monthly beauty sample subscription, give Beauty Army a try, I think you all will like it!
Are you already signed up for Beauty Army? What do you think of it?
Disclaimer ~ I paid for this subscription myself.
This looks really cool! Its nice that you can choose the samples you want. You are right, the sample sizes do look big, LOL!
That dry shampoo is my favorite. I think I will sign up for Beauty Army.
@Alina, Thos is my first month but so far I'm quite impressed!


text:
US states split on allowing citizen ballot initiatives
published on October 31, 2018 - 12:51 PM
Written by AP National Writer, DAVID CRARY
(AP) – Every two years, citizens across the U.S. manage to place some eye-catching measures on state election ballots, posing questions to voters that can be divisive and sometimes historic. But more than half of states offer no such opportunity.
Twenty-four states – mostly in the Western half of the country – have ways for citizens to bypass the Legislature by gathering signatures and taking proposals directly to voters. In one of those states, Illinois, the process is so restrictive that only one citizen initiative has ever passed.
In the other 26 states, there's no option for ballot measures – and no sign that politicians are eager to create one.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the first state to adopt the initiative process was South Dakota in 1898. Since then, 23 other states have followed suit, but none since Mississippi in 1992.
"Overall, the breakdown isn't changing," said Patrick Potyondy, the NCSL's legislative policy specialist. "Whatever state you're from, you think your process is normal."
States with an initiative process include liberal bastions such as California and conservative strongholds such as Idaho. There's similar diversity with non-initiative states, which include Republican-controlled Texas and Democratic-dominated New York.
In the 1970s and '80s, some leading Texas Republicans favored creating an initiative process, and until 1994 that stance was part of the state GOP's platform. With Republicans in full control of state government since then, there's been no serious discussion at the statehouse of allowing citizen initiatives.
"It hasn't been talked about for 20 years," said Republican Jerry Patterson, who served three terms as state land commissioner. "If you're out of government, you're in favor of initiatives. If you're in government, they become not so appealing."
Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said the initiative process became entrenched in many Western states during the progressive area of the early 1900s.
"It was part of the reaction to political party corruption to allow citizens to directly offer initiatives," he said. "Texas has always been more skeptical of citizen involvement. … The lawmakers and lobbyists think the deals they cut are preferable to any decision the voters might make."
At New York's statehouse, there's been little serious discussion of the initiative process since Republican George Pataki touted the concept during his tenure as governor from 1995 to 2006. With the Legislature and major labor unions opposing any change, it would likely take a constitutional convention to allow it, but 83 percent of voters in 2016 rejected holding such a convention.
Likewise, in the states that allow citizen initiatives, there's been no serious talk of abandoning the process. But political battles have been waged over efforts to restrict it.
In California, Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013 vetoed a bill passed by his fellow Democrats in the Legislature that would have limited the use of paid circulators to collect signatures for proposed ballot measures. Labor unions backed the bill, saying it would "prevent billionaires and wealthy corporations from hijacking the ballot initiative process." Brown said the bill was flawed, but encouraged further efforts to improve the process.
In 2014, Brown signed a bill inviting groups that were promoting initiatives to work with lawmakers in the hopes they could strike a compromise and keep the measure off the ballot.
Because of its size and relatively accommodating initiative process, California has produced some of the most tumultuous and expensive ballot-measure campaigns.
Of the eight initiatives on California's Nov. 6 ballot, the costliest thus far is a measure that would cap profits for dialysis clinics. A health care workers' union has spent about $20 million to support the measure. Major dialysis providers and their allies have contributed about $100 million in opposition, seeking to prevent the measure from becoming a model for other states.
More than $35 million has been contributed by supporters and opponents of a proposal to repeal California's gas tax.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, previously worked for a good-government advocacy group in California, giving her a clear picture of the states' contrasting policies.
"I've worked in the two extreme examples of how much dysfunction there can be," she said. "In California, there's too much direct democracy and in New York there's none. Neither is the right solution."
"I came out of California feeling its initiatives were out of control – and now I'm nostalgic for them," she added, recalling instances when California lawmakers would tackle difficult issues to defuse a potential initiative campaign.
Lerner expressed interest in a compromise proposal floated unsuccessfully about 20 years ago in Vermont.
Called the Citizen Initiative, it would have enabled voters – if they gathered enough signatures – to put a policy proposal before the Legislature and require an up or down vote on it.
Josh Altic, a ballot-measure expert at the online political encyclopedia Ballotpedia, said the high spending on initiatives in California and elsewhere provides ammunition for critics of the process, who see it as vulnerable to powerful out-of-state forces.
"The narrative for those people is that this isn't a grassroots process," he said. "This is a process that's easy to use for large wealthy interest groups and hard to use for the average citizen."
California has placed more than 370 citizen initiatives on its ballot since adopting the process in 1911, with about one-third winning approval. In contrast, Illinois has voted on a policy-making initiative only once, in 1980, when voters reduced the Legislature's size from 177 members to 118.
Initiatives in Illinois can be used only to change the structure and function of the Legislature, said Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the state election board.
Craig Burnett, a political science professor at Hofstra University on Long Island, said powerful politicians in non-initiative states generally don't want to give citizens a means of bypassing lawmakers. But overall, he said, the initiative process is popular wherever it exists.
"It can be misused or manipulated – it can be a little silly at times," he said. "But on the whole, it ends up being a positive avenue for voters to express themselves."
California company recalls vegetables over listeria fears Posted: October 23, 2017 at 12:33 pm
(AP) — A California company has voluntarily recalled packaged vegetables
Grandmother of slain Sacramento man calls for police changes Posted: March 26, 2018 at 1:45 pm
(AP) — The grandmother of an unarmed black man killed
Pelosi claims 'overwhelming support' for 2nd act as speaker Posted: November 15, 2018 at 1:04 pm
(AP) – Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she has "overwhelming support"
Late-winter storms ease California's dive back into drought Posted: April 2, 2018 at 1:19 pm
(AP) — Storms hitting at the end of California's rainy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Kyle, TX – Jan. 18, 2019 – Alsco is pleased to announce the grand opening of its new Kyle, Texas, mixed laundry plant on Jan. 23, 2019, at 9:00 a.m., at 449 Vista Ridge Drive, Kyle, Texas 78640. City Mayor Travis Mitchell, City Manager Scott Sellers, and Alsco leaders will be speaking at the ribbon-cutting event. The Kyle plant will serve the greater Austin, Texas, area. The new facility, which contains 96,000 square feet and sits on approximately 9 acres, will be able to process up to 100,000 pounds per day of linens and uniforms with 100-percent accuracy.
Although Alsco has served the greater Austin area for over 25 years, the new facility will allow Alsco to continue to grow its services in the area. It will also bring a positive impact to the City of Kyle, where Alsco will employ 160 full-time employees to support its operations.
The facility also employs cutting-edge technology to reduce Alsco's impact on the environment. This includes water and energy saving technologies such as the Norchem water filtration system, which will allow the plant to reuse approximately 70 percent of its water and meet the city of Kyle's wastewater standards.
After Alsco had chosen the site for its new plant in Kyle, TX. The city of Kyle asked Alsco to participate in the Texas Capital Fund. This fund created an additional opportunity for the city to receive grant money if Alsco met certain requirements. These requirements included spending a certain amount of money on capital improvements and hiring a specific amount of full-time employees. Because Alsco met these requirements, the city received nearly $1 million in grant funds.
Alsco will also be contributing $200,000 to the City of Kyle to be used for improvements to infrastructure, such as, the wastewater treatment plant.
Alsco provides linen and workwear rental services to customers that include restaurants, healthcare, the automotive industry and industrial facilities. With over 180 locations and more than 20,000 employees, Alsco provides world-class service to over 355,000 customers in 14 countries. Learn more at https://alsco.com.


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culturally-involved-capital
March 10, 2009 • Media Economics • by Stephan Russ-Mohl
Shares for the People
Die Furche, February 6, 2009 David Montgomery threw in the towel. The "locust investor" was recently forced to sell a portion of his press empire, including flagship publication the Berliner Zeitung. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune and...
The Italianisation of Journalism
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Jim DuCanto just keeps making stuff. @RollCageMedic caught up with him in Dublin and chewed the cud, the fat and the kids toys.
I have kids. You might have kids.
Even if you don't have kids you probably were a kid at some point in the past. Kids chew up and spit out plastic toys. Plastic can be recycled but that is perhaps better called down-cycling. Jim DuCanto however is up-cycling left over smashed up Star Wars toys to make me and you better at what we do.
@jducanto is a well known anaesthetist (aka anaesthesiologizer) and inventor of the SALAD (Suction Assisted Laryngosopic Airway Decontamination) simulator as well as the Hi-D Airway Suction Catheter and the intubatable Wookie head and the Uescope Intubating Stylet and some other stuff.
Maybe you have wanted to design a piece of equipment, or a therapy. Jim has gone through that process and talks about what drives him to make these airway toys and openly discusses the commercial and altruism balance of airway device development. Matt and Jim then get into 3D printing for task simulators and clinical equipment. If you have ideas maybe you should get creative.


Life Begins at 8:40 is a musical revue with music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg, and sketches by Gershwin, Harburg, David Freedman, H.I. Phillips, Alan Baxter, Henry Clapp Smith, and Frank Gabrielson.
The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on August 27, 1934 and closed on March 16, 1935 after a run of 237 performances. It was devised and staged by John Murray Anderson, choreographed by Robert Alton, and starred Ray Bolger, Brian Donlevy, Luella Gear, Frances Williams, Dixie Dunbar, and Esther Junger in addition to Lahr. Among those who contributed to the costume design were Raoul Pene Du Bois and Irene Sharaff.
A concert revival at the Library of Congress on March 22, 2010 was recorded and released on CD by PS Classics. This performance featured Rebecca Luker, Brad Oscar and Faith Prince, and the orchestra was conducted by Aaron Gandy.
This page was last edited on 25 March 2018, at 17:13 (UTC).


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Home News Announcement
Applications now open for UNFCCC-UNU early career climate fellowship
The UNFCCC–UNU Early Career Climate Fellowship Programme offers young people from developing countries a unique opportunity to start their career at the interface between international climate policy development and research.
Fellowships may last from six months to two years, and fellows are selected based on their skills and backgrounds according to the needs of the United Nations University and the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was set up in 1992 as a response to the problem of global warming.
Upon completion, the Early Career fellow will be well equipped able to work in their home countries or internationally, deploying the valuable experience and insights they have gained in Bonn, Germany, where this fellowship is based.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said of the programme: "Young, qualified professionals from developing countries represent one of our best resources for building capacity for climate action. As we move with determination into the new era of implementation of the Paris Agreement, we need to equip young people with the skills to green economies and build resilience, and this initiative is an example of how organizations can prepare young people for the challenges of the future."
Professor Dr. Jakob Rhyner, Director of UNU-EHS, said: "There are 1.8 billion young people in the world today, more than ever before in human history, and about nine out of ten live in developing countries. Efforts for sustainable development and climate protection must build on their enthusiasm and ideas. The UNFCCC-UNU-EHS Early Career Climate Fellowship Initiative offers young people from developing countries a unique possibility to start their career at the interface between international climate policy development and research."
Academically outstanding young graduates from developing countries who are in early stages of their career, especially women from the least developed countries, are encouraged to apply.
Applications are accepted two times a year. In 2018, applications will be accepted within these two phases:
Phase 1: 1-28 February 2018
Phase 2: TBD
For inquiries, please contact climatefellows@ehs.unu.edu.


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