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Bynum gets long prison term -- again
Defendant in 2010 shooting entered plea to second degree murder.
Bynum gets long prison term -- again Defendant in 2010 shooting entered plea to second degree murder. Check out this story on battlecreekenquirer.com: http://bcene.ws/1w4ws4s
Trace Christenson, Battle Creek Enquirer Published 7:32 p.m. ET Oct. 13, 2014 | Updated 1:25 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2014
Levon Bynum (Photo: Trace Christenson/The Enquirer )
A Battle Creek man was sentenced to at least three decades in prison for a homicide committed in 2010.
Levon Bynum, 23, was sentenced Monday to 30 to 50 years by Calhoun County Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt.
Bynum pleaded no contest in August to second-degree murder in the Aug. 28, 2010, shooting death of Larry Carter, 36, at Sam's Discount Party Store at 1205 W. Dickman Road.
Bynum was convicted of first-degree murder last year but the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled he should have a new trial. The appeals court ruled that an expert from the Battle Creek Police Department's Gang Suppression Unit exceeded what was permissible to testify about gang membership and that testimony may have led the jury to convict Bynum of premeditation.
The Michigan Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals ruling that Bynum was entitled to a new trial.
Officer Tyler Sutherland testified as an expert witness on gangs, gang membership and gang culture with a particular expertise about Battle Creek gangs.
Judge Sindt overruled a defense objection to the witness, concluding that the evidence was relevant to prove Bynum's motive for shooting the victims.
In 2013, the appeals court ruled 2-1 for a new trial, saying general testimony about gangs was relevant and helpful to the jury, but that Sindt erred in allowing Sutherland to testify that past experience and several police reports showed that Bynum had a propensity for violence.
The Supreme Court agreed.
"The error in allowing this testimony to be admitted was plain," the majority wrote, quoting the appeals court ruling. "Although 'there was overwhelming evidence that Bynum participated in the shooting that led to Carter's death and that his self-defense theory was not particularly persuasive,' the evidence of Bynum's premeditation 'was threadbare, at best.' "
Two other defendants in the case also are serving prison terms for second-degree murder and Bynum quickly agreed to enter the plea when he was returned to the county from prison.
In court Monday afternoon, Bynum told the judge he didn't have anything to say.
Call Trace Christenson at 966-0685. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson
Read or Share this story: http://bcene.ws/1w4ws4s
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The public libraries are home to special collections that highlight what makes Lancaster County unique.
For children under 14, a parent or guardian signature is required. In addition to the standard type card that fits in your wallet, we also offer a key-ring card that will help ensure that your library card is always at your fingertips.
Most borrowed materials may be returned at any local library, regardless of where the materials were checked out.
Chasquido aquí para el uso de tarjeta de biblioteca. Impramalo y complete la informacion. ¡Tome la formulario completada a su biblioteca local para obtener su tarjeta de biblioteca!
For more information about Library Cards, Borrowing & Return Information, click here.
How do I find out about your circulation policy?
Information on eligibility for a library card can be found here.
In addition to renewing your books in person at your local library, you may call your local library or renew your books and other materials by telephone (717-394-1721) or online.
Enter your 14-digit barcode number for individual items. For all materials on your record, Press #. If the item is overdue, appropriate fines will be attached to your record. Items will be due two weeks from today's date.
NOTE: Not all items can be renewed with the Telephone Renewal System. Some reasons an item may not be renewed are: another borrower has requested the item; that type of material is not eligible for renewal; you already renewed the item once; or, because of overdue fines on your record.
When this service is unavailable, items must be brought to your local library for renewal. Fines will be charged for overdue material.
If you are unable to renew your items, please call your local library.
For more information on library procedure, consult Library Circulation Policies.
For information about online renewal of material, visit our online renewal help section of our catalog.
How do I download audio books and e-books?
You may download these items by visiting our OverDrive platform.
How do I return my borrowed items to the library after hours?
Our public libraries have special book drop boxes located near the entrance to their buildings. Simply drop your items in these boxes, which are emptied by library staff. All items are then checked in when the library opens.
How can I donate books, videos, CDs, audiobooks, etc. to the library?
The public libraries in Lancaster County hold book sales throughout the year, so your donations help to increase their sale inventory. Please be sure to donate items that are in good condition that is a condition that you would consider buying. Please check with your local library to find out their procedures for collecting these donations.


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Nearly 1,100 companies from all over the world have confirmed their attendance at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), the organizing committee said at a ceremony held on Saturday.
Some 25 companies, most of which are leaders in high-end intelligent equipment or automobiles, signed contracts with the organizers at the ceremony.
The organizing committee said the exhibition area will exceed 180,000 square meters, and new manufacturing technology will be showcased for the first time at the expo, which will be held in Shanghai in November.
The committee invited 47 non-exhibiting companies including state-owned enterprises, large private enterprises, and foreign companies to attend the ceremony.


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Fireweed Collective
after the flames comes fireweed
Fireweed Collective grew out of the hearts and minds of young Alaskans concerned about the future of our home. We came from many different backgrounds, but we all shared a dedication to our communities, a common vision of a just and sustainable future, and an understanding that we were going to have to build this future for ourselves. We also recognized the need for this to take the form of a statewide network, not only to create a unified young people's movement in Alaska, but also to support and uplift each other through this endeavor. We recognize that movements don't start in boardrooms; they start around good food, good company, and laughter. Our work requires us to bring our full selves, so we nurture the full self. We strive to uplift and celebrate our different skills, cultures, and communities as we work for the long haul to bring change to Alaska.
In 2019, as Fireweed was forming, Alaska faced many dire challenges that gave young Alaskans a sense of just how urgently this change is needed. Across the state, the escalating climate crisis caused droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, terrifying salmon die-offs, and dangerously thin ice. Meanwhile, Alaska came under the power of Governor Mike Dunleavy, who quickly made it his main objective to slash state support of essential programs that serve elders, youth, and families, as well as the education, arts, and transportation services that hold our communities together. Meanwhile, he left untouched massive subsidies to the same oil and gas corporations that continue to perpetuate the climate crisis and poison our state. But we fought back. As our forests burned and our communities reeled from these threats, we came together, raised our voices, and took action. Due to the direct work of Fireweed Collective members, as well as many others, Alaskans dodged some of the worst of these budget cuts (for now) and are starting to come together in even greater numbers to demand a different future for our state.
We are Fireweed and we shall grow from the ashes of these challenges to build a regenerative and thriving Alaska for all of us. Join us!
Fireweed Collective AK recognizes that the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska never ceded their rights or resources to Russia or the US. Fireweed Collective stands in solidarity with Indigenous people and communities in their fight against colonial powers for self-determination. Find out whose land you're on here.
Join young people across Alaska in the fight for a just and sustainable future! We accept new members monthly. Apply here!
What is the fireweed collective?
Fireweed Collective is a statewide alliance of young Alaskans dedicated to community building, leadership development, and activating our generation for a just and sustainable Alaska.


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Novastar Ventures
A flexible approach
We worked with this Kenya-based team to ensure our investment terms worked for the early-stage businesses they wanted to back.
Novastar Ventures is a fund manager that invests in innovative early-stage businesses that provide goods, services, and economic opportunities for low-income populations in Africa. Novastar works across sectors, including off-grid energy, agriculture, and education. We invested in Novastar's first fund in 2014.
Pre-investment partnership
The investment was new territory for CDC, as it was the first commitment made by our Impact Fund – part of our Intermediated Equity team – which backs highly developmental investment funds.
Andrew Carruthers, one of Novastar's two founders, appreciates that the then new team were able to be flexible in their approach: "We found the team very helpful and pragmatic. They helped us look at the fund terms and mechanisms to ensure it worked for the businesses we were investing in, even though the set up was different from the deals CDC's investment committee was approving at the time."
CDC's backing also helped encourage other investors to support their first fund: "They were our anchor investor. They have built a track record of investing in sub-Saharan Africa over a long period, so it provided a strong message to the market. They also played an important role in liaising with other investors during the first and second close of the fund. In the end, we were oversubscribed," adds Steve Beck, Novastar's other co-founder.
Building a lasting relationship
As the fund began making investments, we worked with the team to develop the environmental, social and governance framework for the fund's portfolio. Steve says that both he and Andrew had direct interaction with our dedicated departments. "They helped us get our 'arms around' the issues. They were very understanding of the types of businesses we invest in – usually start-ups – and there was a willingness to adapt their procedures to meet our needs, as well as theirs."
According to both founders, we continue to play an active role amongst the group of limited partners (LPs) invested in the fund.
"We have good relationships with all our investors. Nevertheless, CDC tends to take a lead and steers debates among our advisory groups and other LP committees."
Andrew Carruthers, co-founder, Novastar Ventures
Whatever the issue, Andrew adds that it's always easy to speak to someone here: "I have been made to feel very welcome to drop in at any point. We are so focused on working on the ground, it's helpful to speak to CDC to get an understanding of what's going on in the wider market. This open communication means, if there is a problem, it can be dealt with up front."
Investment stories
Working together to improve job quality
How a Kenyan company is helping farmers with irrigation
Adding value in India
Building a relationship over time
Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda
Enabling renewable power generation


If you're one of the more than 120,000 plumbing businesses out there, you know how crowded the market is getting. While the demand for plumbers is rising, so is the number of businesses.
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This is a basic one but it's better to address it. You won't survive in the modern world without a website.
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Triangle Esprit 30th Anniversary Edition Antal Loudspeakers
Written by Aron Garrecht Aron Garrecht
Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
Created: 01 October 2011 01 October 2011
Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
One of the advantages of reviewing equipment professionally is that I can experience products that would otherwise be difficult or even impossible for me to hear. My choices, like those of many SoundStage! Network readers, are limited by geography -- there are few audio dealers in my area. This becomes an even greater limitation when I'm interested in a product from a smaller company or, even worse, one based overseas. So when I was asked if I'd like to review a pair of limited-edition speakers built in a small town somewhere in northeastern France, I jumped on it.
Based in the small town of Soissons, Triangle Manufacture Electroacoustique has, over 31 years, earned a reputation for class and distinction with its entirely in-house designing, testing, and building of high-quality loudspeakers. With four model lines -- Color (entry level), Esprit, Genèse, and Magellan (flagship) -- Triangle keeps things simple and intuitive for prospective customers. One of their more recent models, and the focus of this review, is the 30th Anniversary Edition Esprit Antal ($3895 USD per pair).
Even as I removed the Esprit Antal AEs from their substantial double-boxed packaging, I knew that these speakers were special -- so special that merely looking at them provided me with more questions than answers. What was obvious, though, was that the Antal AE is very much based on the Antal Ex -- the two tower models have in common a three-way, bass-reflex driver configuration in the same 42.5"-tall cabinet. Each model also measures 8"W x 14"D, weighs 50 pounds, and stands on a clever five-footed plinth, borrowed from Triangle's Genèse line, that's designed to dissipate resonances into the floor via a channeling spike. This was about all I could confidently surmise through observation alone, so I read the literature, then contacted Richard Kohlruss, of local distributor VMAX Services, for the lowdown.
I was surprised to learn just how much time, research, and innovation have been poured into the Antal AE and the rest of the Esprit line. The Antals AE and Ex share the same computer-designed MDF cabinet construction. The design itself is highly refined, and uses laser accelerometry to pinpoint and model deformations in the cabinet across the audioband, to determine the optimal placements and quantities of internal bracing, as well as the best spots for the drivers and the forward-firing port. The Antal AE's cabinet is brilliantly finished with ten coats of hand-rubbed Piano Black lacquer, which in my opinion is alone worth the $1000 price hike over the Ex.
Inside this classy enclosure are two of Triangle's own T16EF100SGC1 6" bass drivers, which, in the company's efforts to reduce weight and maximize rigidity, have injected-aluminum baskets and fiberglass diaphragms. Directly above these boomers is another Triangle-designed driver, the T13EF84MD1 4.5" midrange cone, with an ultralight diaphragm of cellulose fiber that's said to offer an exceedingly natural tonal character. All three of these drivers are shared with the Antal Ex, as is the three-way crossover design that feeds the woofers everything below 250Hz, and the tweeter everything over 2.5kHz.
Sharing a separate chamber with the midrange driver is Triangle's TZ2500 tweeter, also found in the Antal Ex and now upgraded for the Antal AE: The titanium diaphragm within the compression chamber of the regular TZ2500 has been upgraded with a waveguide of machined aluminum, similar to the version used in the Magellan line. Triangle has also completely remodeled the tweeter's phase plug for a more linear in-room response, to take full advantage of the upgraded housing.
Considering the drivers' low mass, it comes as no surprise that Triangle claims for the Antal AE a fairly high efficiency of 91dB, and that little power is needed to properly energize the speaker. What did surprise me was that, despite the Antal AE's nominal impedance of 8 ohms, Triangle says that both it and the Ex can dip into the low 3-ohm range when approaching their 40Hz bass extension. Because of this, Triangle suggests that a modest 120Wpc from a high-quality amplifier will be enough to drive a pair of Antals to their full potential.
With its coats of hand-rubbed lacquer, polished compression chamber, golden-hued phase plug, and raised grille, the Antal AE is a visual stunner with an aura of pure class. There is a problem, however, in that the grille is attached with old-school fastening buds of easily breakable plastic. This surprised me, as Triangle has gone to the trouble of providing, to receive these buds, high-quality raised mounting receptacles. Magnetic fasteners like those used on most other speakers at or near this price would be more in line with the high quality of the rest of the cabinet.
I have always held in high regard companies that research, design, and build 100% of their products themselves -- not only because this has become a rarity, as more and more companies outsource these tasks, but also because I think it speaks volumes about the pride in craftsmanship and its products that a company must have to keep development and manufacturing in-house when much cheaper options are so readily available. Triangle is such a company, and it shows not only in their product quality, but in how well they perform.
When I positioned the Esprit Antal AEs along a long wall of my 25'L x 15'W room, I began by placing them some 3' from the front wall, toed in about 15°. While listening to a few reference tracks I find helpful when positioning speakers, I found that that first attempt at placement yielded a very wide, deep soundstage, but that the bass was light, woody, and somewhat muddy. An hour of repositioning taught me that the Antal AEs benefit from a bit of boundary loading: they ended up only 8" from the front wall. The soundstage still extended well beyond the speakers and into the room, but without the depth the first positions afforded. In the end, I chose accurate bass reproduction over great depth of field.
When I asked Richard Kohlruss if I'd gotten it wrong, he confirmed my final positioning choices, noting that, like most other Triangle speakers, the Antal AE is designed to be positioned close to the front wall, to work well in the limited spaces of many European homes. Triangle also recommends that these speakers be used in rooms of 320 to 540 square feet, but I had good results when I briefly used them in my smaller, 250-square-foot room. With the positioning out of the way and connections made, I was ready to become acquainted with the sound of the Esprit Anniversary Edition Antals.
I began my listening sessions by cueing up "The Thrill Is Gone," from B.B. King & Friends: 80 (CD, Geffen 0602498842461). This track has a particularly punchy bass line, and I was curious to see how the Antals would fare. Listening at first with the absolute volume level on my Rotel RSP-1098 preamp set low at "40," I was pleased to hear that the bottom end didn't fall through the floor with the Antal AEs, as it does with so many other midsize tower speakers. In fact, the bass line remained punchy, and was complemented by King's full yet nondominant voice, accompanied by a rich piano and a smooth electric guitar.
What do I mean by "nondominant"? Well, I don't mean "recessed." Listening at low levels can often result in a midrange-prominent sound in which you hear little else but voices and some of the higher frequencies. That wasn't the case here: the Triangles maintained a good balance of voices and the subtle punch of the bass line. This was supplemented by an appropriately balanced top end; the sounds of cymbals were very sweet but subtle. It was surprising to hear such a unique balance: detail and resolution, but with no sizzle or excess sparkle on top.
Such a balance was not a bad thing, but it was unexpected -- I expect to hear more sparkle and sizzle from an aluminum horn-loaded tweeter. Instead, I was treated to a very natural sound that didn't seem to highlight any specific region of the audioband at the expense of other regions. Impressed by the Antal's sound at lower volumes, I hit the Repeat button and turned up the Rotel's volume to "65." I again tried to hear any significant faults in the bass, and what I came up with was that the Antal AE gave no reason for complaint -- unless you're a bass junkie. For a speaker of this cabinet volume with two decent-sized bass drivers, it had an uncharacteristically shallow bottom-end limit of 40Hz. That aside, I found the Antal's bass fast, rhythmic, and well textured, no matter what I played. Paul Chambers' double bass in "So What," from Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (CD, Columbia/Legacy CS 64935), was rich and forceful, and detailed enough to give it an almost plucky character. It never left me wanting.
Listening to "So What" was a particular pleasure -- I couldn't help but marvel at how solid and "in the room" Miles's trumpet sounded. The imaging was simply spectacular. I enjoyed a similar experience when listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Three to Get Ready," from Time Out (CD, Columbia/Legacy CK 65122) -- Paul Desmond's alto saxophone was dead center, presented with reach-out-and-touch-it realism. I then went in search of something with a bit more of an acoustic nature, and settled on Patricia Barber's Café Blue (CD, Premonition/Blue Note 737). Listening to her cover of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe," I was treated to a very well-articulated reproduction of a double bass on the right, while on the left, fingers snapped crisply, their leading edges very well defined, the sounds then decaying into the room. Finally, Barber's voice was solidly planted just left of center stage, tightly focused and sounding very three-dimensional, with excellent microdynamics. Throughout my listening sessions, the Antal AEs never missed a beat -- with speakers that imaged this well, listening to music was not only entertaining, it was downright fun!
Eager to listen to some more dynamic material, I loaded Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (CD, Capitol CDP 82136 2) and skipped ahead to "The Great Gig in the Sky." The Antal AEs had no problem handling the soft piano passages one moment, Clare Torry's large-scale voice the next. The nuances of Torry's voice were so well portrayed that I almost winced every time I sensed her voice getting ready to give out. The levels of detail, realism, and natural tonal color reproduced by Triangle's cellulose-fiber midrange cone were impressive, especially for the price. The fact that it worked so well with the Antal AE's aluminum tweeter was testament to how advantageous it can be for a company to develop and make its own drivers in-house: these two components are a match made not in Heaven, but at Triangle.
Comparing the Triangle 30th Anniversary Edition Esprit Antal to other speakers was a refreshingly simple process: The Antal AE had such a distinctively charming character that it was easily identifiable. The most appropriate comparison I could make from among the speakers I had on hand was with my reference, KEF's XQ40 ($5500/pair).
Performance-wise, the Esprit Antal AE and the KEF XQ40 are almost polar opposites. Each is a great-sounding speaker, but they differ in their strengths and weaknesses: wherever one excelled, the other didn't. When I listened to "Keith Don't Go," from Nils Lofgren's Acoustic Live (CD, Vision Music VMCD1005), the Antal AE not only removed the subtle glare that the KEF XQ40 exhibits during this track, but Lofgren's voice was more focused and less thin, and the strings sounded more natural, adding to the recording's musicality and realism. However, the KEF was a bit more articulate in the bottom end, demonstrating increased weight and impact as the strings resonated. Although sounding more natural overall, the Triangle lacked the KEF's speed, and couldn't quite define the leading edges of Lofgren's voice.
When I switched back and forth between the speakers during B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone," the differences, again, were not subtle. Through the KEF, cymbals had sparkle and shimmer, and the bass, though not quite as punchy as through the Triangle, was cleaner and more present at lower frequencies. The Esprit Antal AE sounded sweeter and less visceral, but the XQ40 couldn't keep up with the Triangle's reproduction of the electric guitar, making it sound less natural, and lacking the smooth texture the Antal showcased again and again. In fact, no matter the material, the Triangle always excelled with stringed and percussion instruments. Finally, B.B. King's voice was not as fleshed out or as focused through the KEF as it was through the Triangle, which took away some of the individuality and dimension that I enjoyed so much with the Antal.
Overall, each model did a formidable job with micro- and macrodynamics, maintaining subtleties and nuances of instruments, and creating before me a holistic picture. They just went about it in very different ways. Playing these speakers at high levels during my listening sessions revealed something else of interest worth noting. Based on the efficiency ratings of 91dB for the Triangles and 90dB for the KEFs, I would have expected to be able to set the volume and leave it, switching between speakers without adjustment. That was hardly the case. I needed to turn the Rotel RMB-1095's volume up to "65" with the Triangle to achieve the same volume level I experienced at "62" with the KEF. This wasn't a big deal -- the Rotel has tons of headroom -- but if you plan on pairing the Antals with a nice little tubed amp, it's something you may want to think about.
À la fin
Quite early in this review, I came to the conclusion that Triangle's 30th Anniversary Edition Antal is a very charming loudspeaker. And whether because of the naturalness of its midrange or its superlative imaging capabilities, the Antal AE also proved to be a very musical speaker. Add to that an elegant cabinet finished with ten coats of hand-rubbed lacquer standing on a five-footed, antiresonant plinth, and it's easy to forget any shortcomings.
I have been charmed by these speakers, and commend Triangle Manufacture Electroacoustique for offering such a high-value product at such an attainable price. Every time I listened to them, they had a way of luring me into the music and not letting me go. Is there any better definition of a good loudspeaker? Not in my book.
. . . Aron Garrecht
arong@soundstagenetwork.com
Preamplifier -- Rotel RSP-1098
Amplifier -- Rotel RMB-1095
Sources -- Rotel RCD-1055 CD player, Oppo BDP-93NE universal Blu-ray player
Power conditioner -- Rotel RLC-1040
Cables -- Analysis Plus Copper Oval-In interconnects, Black Oval 9 speaker cables, Transparent Audio digital cable
Speakers -- KEF XQ40
Subwoofer -- JL Audio Fathom f112
Price: $3895 USD per pair.
Warranty: Five years parts and labor.
Triangle Manufacture Electroacoustique
Avenue Flandres Dunkerque
Z.I. Les Etomelles
02 200 Villeneuve Saint-Germain
E-mail: info@triangle.tm.fr
Website: www.triangle-fr.com
North American distributor:
VMAX Services
CP 8, 1217 Greene Ave.
Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2T1
E-mail: info@vmax-services.com
Website: www.vmax-services.com
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Our good friends at Four Points consulting are holding a webinar in collaboration with Human&Kind on Digital Transformation at 8am GMT on Friday 3rd November.
The webinar will explore the real 'jobs to be done' within Digital Transformation. Ravi is a director at Four Points, he has serious experience in delivering large scale change programmes with brands like ebay, Santander and G4S. Rasmus is the Co-Founder of Human&Kind, a future design and culture agency, he is a Futurist with experience in transformation, technology, people, entrepreneurship and communication.
Four Points is a Four Points is a Strategy, Organisation Design, Project and Change Management and Executive Coaching Consultancy with extensive experience in Digital Transformation, building their client's capabilities through agile and innovative practices to leading businesses.
Human&Kind is a Zurich-based future design and culture agency with experience in Transformation, Technology and people.


Through the mid to late 80's, Izzy's name sake collections were gracing runways and stores across North America, earning her glowing reviews from the fashion community and consumers alike. During these years, Izzy developed her trademark style that has influenced her throughout her career.
From the luxurious build of the infamous fur coat worn by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, to edgy pieces created for David Bowie's Dead Man Walking music video, Izzy's contribution to the film industry has been incredibly extensive and included original designs, reproductions and period pieces.
A revolutionary and completely unique brand of clothing, designed around a seated frame, to provide a superior choice for wheelchair users since 2009. IZ Adaptive pioneered the way for adaptive clothing and pushed boundaries within the fashion world, making the world more accessible, not just through clothing, but also through raising awareness around disability issues and raising the profile of disabled models.
Celebrating Izzy's bold and groundbreaking career, the Royal Ontario Museum ran a six month exhibition in 2014 'Fashion Follows Form: Designs For Sitting'. The exhibit contextualized the innovative 'IZ Collection' garments within Izzy's oeuvre and historical 18th-19th century fashions also designed for a seated, L-shaped frame.
A collaborative offering, with Adrian Mainella, IZMA transformed the beauty and warmth of Canadian wild fur into modern icons of attainable luxury. Designed with 4 key concepts in mind: wear-ability, versatility, functionality and longevity, the line was an early part of a movement within the fashion industry towards a focus on sustainability.
Launched to rave reviews at World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto, the MIZ line was dedicated to the female Boomer, in both fashion and function. Featuring bold lines and striking prints plus Izzy's signature leather pieces, MIZ seamlessly blended style and comfort with each season.
These charitable projects challenge stereotypes and highlight the numerous causes Izzy has contributed to. Each project presented unique design challenges, from collaborating with Starlight Canada to redesign hospital gowns for sick teenagers, to being the first designer in the White Cashmere Collection to feature a model to use a wheelchair. Izzy created a gown created from bathroom tissue – raising money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Association.
Numerous artists have worn incredible Izzy Camilleri custom designs on the stage, but none more iconic than the metallic suits worn by Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip on their historic Man Machine Poem Tour in 2016.


Legacy at Mountain Lakes in Morris County, N.J. has become a popular destination for young buyers migrating to the suburbs for comfortable and luxurious homes, open space and good schools. The neighborhood is situated in one of New Jersey's most prominent residential settings with a top-notch public school system that's continually cited by renowned publications for its excellence.
Two separate housing collections are offered at The Legacy, each with host of upscale design elements. The "Carriage Home Series" will feature three-bedroom townhomes ranging from 2,162 to 2,236 finished square-feet of luxury space and boasting 2 ½ baths and one- or two-car garages. Two layouts – the Midvale and Hillcrest – are highlighted in the "Carriage Homes" priced from $579,900. The Carriage Series homes were designed with the needs of today's young suburban home buyer in mind, as they feature expansive living spaces, exquisite finishes and a modern, three-story layout.
Residences in the community's "Signature Home Series" feature three bedrooms, 2 ½ baths and either 2,829 or 2,853 square feet of luxury living space, priced from $799,900.
Situated at the intersection of Morris Avenue and Fanny Road, Legacy of Mountain Lakes offers a superb Morris County location characterized by winding country roads, bucolic lakes and heavily wooded terrain. With its attractive setting and close proximity to convenient transportation, the community unquestionably offers a prestigious address. The community features easy access to Routes 46, 287 and 80, putting residents just minutes from world class shopping, entertainment and major business centers. The quaint but sophisticated colonial town center of Morristown with top-rated restaurants, shopping and nightlife is about a 10-minute drive away.


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Q: How rendering of price.phtml in catalog product listing page is happening? Catalog Product listing page's template file is list.phtml. Where the rendering of all the products in category happens using foreach loop.
I am confused about the rendering of the price.phtml. Because there is no block for it in handle <catalog_category_default>
Now, <?php echo $this->getPriceHtml($_product, true) ?> returns price of the product.
How this method is linked to price.phtml ?

A: Product price display
The method getPriceHtml() is defined in the block class Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_Abstract.
The method uses a price renderer which depends on the product type:
$type_id = $product->getTypeId(); // e.g. simple, configurable, bundle, grouped, ...
$this->_preparePriceRenderer($type_id)

The price renderer is a block with an associated template. Both depend on the product type.
If there is no block or template defined for the specified product type, it defaults to the catalog/product_price block and the catalog/product/price.phtml template.
Where are the price renderers and templates for product types defined?
The price blocks and renderers usually are specified using layout XML, so modules which add new product types can easily add their own renderers, too. For example. the bundled product adds it's price renderer as follows in the bundle.xml layout file:
<default>
    <reference name="catalog_product_price_template">
        <action method="addPriceBlockType">
            <type>bundle</type>
            <block>bundle/catalog_product_price</block>
            <template>bundle/catalog/product/price.phtml</template>
        </action>
    </reference>
</default>

Custom price templates or renderers
Using the same mechanism it's also possible to override the default renderers. If you want to just change the template, and keep the default price block type, simply call addPriceBlockType in the layout file with the default block (see above) and your template.
Rendering the price block
The code to actually render the price block looks like this:
$this->_preparePriceRenderer($type_id)
    ->setProduct($product)
    ->setDisplayMinimalPrice($displayMinimalPrice)
    ->setIdSuffix($idSuffix)
    ->toHtml();

The $displayMinimalPrice and $idSuffix variables are optional arguments to the getPriceHtml method.
public function getPriceHtml($product, $displayMinimalPrice = false, $idSuffix = '')

The $idSuffix is used in the price template to complete the CSS id of the <span> tag surrounding the actual price, for example:
<span class="price" id="price-excluding-tax-<?php echo $_id ?><?php echo $this->getIdSuffix() ?>">

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Ivanhoe is a battle-themed online slot from Elk Studios that's based on Sir Walter Scott's 1820 historical novel of the same name.
The plot is set in medieval England and concentrates on the tensions between the Saxons and Normans in post-Norman Conquest England. Scott's hero is called Wilfred of Ivanhoe who is the son of a Saxon nobleman, and in Elk Studios' online slot, Wilfred joins Richard the Lionheart in the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. What makes this slots game so unusual is its use of three reels – a feature which is usually associated with classic slots – combined with arcade game-style pixellated graphics and a multi-level Free Spins Bonus which makes the gameplay feel like the story is unfolding. If you're feeling intrigued, grab your trusty steed and join us as we delve deeper into the inner workings of the game.
Elk Studios is an online slots designer that hails from Sweden. It's a comparatively new company compared to the likes of NetEnt and NextGen Gaming as it's only been around since 2012. But in less than a decade since its inception, Elk Studios has made an exciting collection of mobile-friendly slots including Sam on the Beach, Wild Toro, Hong Kong Tower, and Poltava. Many of these titles boast uniquely developed betting strategies that allow players to automatically place and alter bets using a choice of three tried and tested playing styles.
The Ivanhoe slot sits against a tapestry-effect Medieval scene of crowds gathering to watch a jousting contest, with two trumpeters announcing the opening of the tournament at either side of the screen. Both above and below the reels, you get a moving landscape which aims to replicate the journey taken by Ivanhoe and Richard the Lionheart in the Third Crusade.
The reel set is just three rows wide and three rows high, and it displays many symbols that are common among classic slots such as melons, lemons, cherries, bars, and 7s. However, there's also a gold crown (presumably that one which belonged to Richard the Lionheart) and a red-and-white banner.
The sound effects are in keeping with a classic slot.
In the main game, Ivanhoe does not use a wild symbol, but it does have a bonus symbol which is represented by the red-and-white banner marked "Ivanhoe Bonus". Land three of these banners across the reels, and you get five free spins in the first level (Ambush) of the bonus game. There are five levels in total (Ambush, The Joust Part 1, Robin's Rescue, The Joust Part 2, and Return of the King), and to move up a level, you must first win the specified number of coins. With each rise in bonus level, you gain more chances to win bigger prizes as extra free spins and larger multipliers (of up to six times) are awarded.
A wild symbol (the Crown) is also introduced in the bonus game, and it can substitute for any symbol except the Banner bonus symbol.
Ivanhoe uses three reels, three rows of symbols, and seventeen paylines, and has a high RTP (Return to Player Rate) of 96.30%.
Ivanhoe is a highly innovative game that fans of Elk Studio titles will adore. But, it also holds appeal for players who enjoy classic slots, arcade games and fruit machines due to its exciting and eclectic mix of graphical styles and gameplay. Try it now for a chance to win up to 300,000 coins!


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Rediff.com » Sports » The sole Indian on the F1 grid
The sole Indian on the F1 grid
September 17, 2018 09:52 IST
'Tata Communications will play a critical role as we enable a new vision at Formula 1.'
IMAGE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton speaks. Photograph: Tata Communications/Twitter
The split second decisions that reigning world champions Mercedes take during a race are a result of real time data provided by Tata Communications, Formula One's connectivity partner since 2012 and now the only Indian presence in the paddock.
The Pune-based provider of telecommunications solutions and services is also proud of its association with Mercedes since 2013.
Under the new owners, F1 has embarked on an intense digital journey in times when more people are live streaming race content than watching it on television.
"Tata Communications will play a critical role as we enable a new vision at Formula 1," sport's CEO Chase Carey had said after taking charge.
While the F1 teams and drivers get all the attention, working tirelessly behind the scenes during every race is Tata's talented team on track and as well personnel back at its UK base.
Come to think of it, the listed company, formerly known as VSNL, is the only major Indian presence in the sport after the unceremonious exit of Vijay Mallya from Force India last month. No Indian driver has made it to the pinnacle of motorsport since 2012 and the Indian Grand Prix in Greater Noida was dropped after three seasons.
"We are very proud of what we are able to achieve with Formula 1. The sport is a capability showcase for us, the place where our world-class technology meets top-notch engineering. The association also means that we are constantly contributing to innovation in the sport," Tata Communications Formula One boss Mehul Kapadia said on Monday.
While the company is powering F1's digital revolution, it provides Mercedes uninterrupted on track data which the German giants can share with their men back at the factory in Brackley, England. The close strategy calls that the team is able to make will be a lot tougher if it was not for the seamless data provided by Tata Communications.
The owners of one of the largest submarine cable networks in the world also work with 20 plus broadcasters, enable radio communications besides generating reams of data.
"Formula 1 has come a long way and has fully embraced technology. When we started, it operated on speeds lower than of a broadband. Now you can expect constant innovation, not only to keep itself connected on cutting edge technology but also to enhance the fan experience," added Kapadia.
Related News: Tata Communications, VSNL, Mehul Kapadia, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton
F1: Hamilton opens 40-point lead with Singapore GP triumph
Ferrari 'door open' for Schumacher's son Mick
I'm my own worst enemy in title race, says Vettel
U-19 WC: Australia down Pakistan to reach semis
Police likens Delhi riots to 9/11 in Khalid bail plea
No excess State control for self-run trust: SC
Women's Asia Cup: India sign off with consolation bronze
Tatas give F1 fans a taste of virtual-reality
Soon, F1 fans may race virtually with real drivers in live races


About $10 million is needed to run a legal weed campaign in the massive Golden State and the DPA has access to that kind of funding, but will not be plunking it down this year.
The death of Progressive insurance founder and reform advocate Peter Lewis seems to have played a role in DPA's decision.
Lewis was "leaning strongly toward moving forward," Lewis' laywer Graham Boyn told the Times. "But, unfortunately, that was less than a week before he passed away. We continued the exploration process, but it was a difficult context without him there."
DPA's opponents are going to cheer the decision, especially the leaders of the three other legalization measures out there. But as of last week, none had shown that it can get enough funding to gather signatures and run a campaign.
The whole situation reminds me of something the Electronic Frontier Foundation's John Gilmore said to pot activists at a conference at Fort Mason in January 2013: "We can't depend on rich people to die at the right times to make things happen."


text:
← Pennsylvania, Bradford Co: Horse race track owner files appeal with Hearing Board after DEP says water contamination not linked to fracking. High percentage foals born after fracking experiencing health problems
Where did Tory-Touted 'Free Market' Go? More theft by the oil & gas industry enabled by a politician? Premier Brad Wall begs Ottawa to make Canadians pay to clean up after billion dollar profiting oil & gas companies finish ravaging Saskatchewan →
NDP Royalty Fraud? 3rd most profitable industry in the world assembles crack team to 'quietly' seek more subsidies, loyal media cheers. Alberta's Big Oil Bias: Billions in subsidies & lies for oil, gas, bitumen, frac'ing; $5 million for municipal solar, $0.5 million for farm solar, $0 for home solar, $0 for the many poisoned by oil & gas, $0 for families with frac health harms, 0$ for contaminated or lost water
Posted on February 6, 2016 by Jessica Ernst
2015 05 18: Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF, 'Shocking' revelation finds $5.3tn subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world's governments The Guardian
[Are subsidies, including the scam of carbon taxes that only benefit polluting companies and their corrupt enablers (especially in Alberta and BC), the real reason for the massive frauds, lies, cover-ups by academics (most notable in Canada: Council of Canadian Academies frac panel) regulators and politicians to keep enabling more and more devastation by fracing with more and more massive deregulation while lying to the public and harmed, promising enhancing/creating regulations to make fracing safe?]
2015 05 19: A costly mistake, Energy subsidies do not just gobble money. They help cook the planet too The Economist
BIG mistakes in economic policy making abound. But it would be hard to find a worse one than energy subsidies. Recent research has shown that they enrich middlemen, depress economic output and help the rich, who use lots of energy, more than they do the poor. [Mistake or intentional?]
…the authors reckon that the total drag on the global economy caused by fuel subsidies now amounts to a stonking $5.3 trillion each year, or 6% of global GDP—more than world spends on health care. Poorer countries dole out the largest amount of subsidies; some spend up to 18% of their GDP a year on them. The lion's share goes to coal, the most polluting fuel. By contrast renewable-energy subsidies, mainly given out in the rich world, amount to a mere $120 billion. And they would vanish if fossil fuels were taxed properly. [Emphasis added]
2015 07 19: CHINA LEADS IMF LIST OF $5.3 TRILLION IN GLOBAL ENERGY SUBSIDIES Bloomberg
China is the biggest contributor to global energy subsidies that the International Monetary Fund estimates at $5.3 trillion, equivalent to 6.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product. China tops the list in dollar terms, the Ukraine as a percentage of gross domestic product and Qatar as measured per capita, the IMF said in a July 17 report.
… 'Most energy subsidies arise from the failure to adequately charge for the cost of domestic environmental damage,' the IMF said in the report.
'The fiscal, environmental, and welfare impacts of energy subsidy reform are potentially enormous.' [Emphasis added]
2015: OIL AND GAS SUBSIDIES EXCEED RENEWABLE SUBSIDIES Bloomberg
As world leaders converge on New York for a United Nations gathering that's expected to have a strong emphasis on climate change, the [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] is pointing out 800 ways rich industrial nations support fossil fuels with taxpayer money, along with a handful of countries that are catching up quickly. [Emphasis added]
2015: The 15 Most Profitable Industries Forbes
Oil and gas extraction maintains its third place spot as America's domestic production of oil and shale gas continues to increase and energy imports decline. The profit margin increased from 15.1% to 16.4%.
No. 2 Legal Services Net Profit Margin: 17.8%
Legal services topped last year's list with a profit margin of 18.3% but falls down to second this year with a 17.8% margin. Despite the small dip, the industry's overhead costs remain low. There's little need for heavy investment costs, other than salaries, and demand is constant.
[And how much of legal services profits are oil and gas industry harm and pollution caused: fighting responsibility, accountability, clean up, data disclosure, trials and restitution? Emphasis added]
Alberta oil industry needs 'man on the moon' vision: former executive by Gary Lamphier, Calgary Herald, 30 July 2015; Edmonton Journal, 1 August 2015
These are dark days for Alberta's energy industry. If anything, the outlook seems to grow more depressing by the week. Any lingering hopes for a quick rebound in oil prices have been crushed…
….an industry that's literally fighting for its life.
… Mitton, de Bever and more than a dozen other influential players, inside and outside of the province's oil industry, are quietly working behind the scenes to advance their agenda. They want the province to be as focused on improving the industry's economic viability [aka demanding more subsidies and handouts which is exactly what the Royalty Review Panel and Notley et al gave them, by lowering royalty rates, including carbon tax as cost, and increasing subsidies] and boosting innovation as it is now on improving energy royalties and curbing carbon emissions.
To advance the cause, they met recently at the Calgary offices of an innovative oilsands junior, Oak Point Energy — where de Bever is chairman — to map out a game plan.
Besides de Bever, …the group included veteran Calgary oilman Jim Gray, University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon, Ernst & Young Orenda chief Barry Munro, and James Cleland, global general manager of General Electric's GE Heavy Oil Solutions division.
…Judy Fairburn, chair of Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, attended the meeting in Calgary. De Bever says she understands the issues and is keen to encourage more collaboration between government, industry, academia and financial sources of support. [Emphasis added]
2015 07 17: Seize the day, The fall in the price of oil and gas provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix bad energy policies by The Economist
The plunging price of oil, coupled with advances in clean energy and conservation, offers politicians around the world the chance to rationalise energy policy. They can get rid of billions of dollars of distorting subsidies, especially for dirty fuels, whilst shifting taxes towards carbon use. A cheaper, greener and more reliable energy future could be within reach.
The most straightforward piece of reform, pretty much everywhere, is simply to remove all the subsidies for producing or consuming fossil fuels. Last year governments around the world threw $550 billion down that rathole—on everything from holding down the price of petrol in poor countries to encouraging companies to search for oil. By one count, such handouts led to extra consumption that was responsible for 36% of global carbon emissions in 1980-2010. [Emphasis added]
PA Fossil Fuel Subsidy Report
PA dishes out $3.3 billion in fossil fuels subsidies while state faces $1.5 billion deficit
PA Fossil Fuel Subsidies that could be quantified in fiscal year 2012/2013 total $3,256,593,027.
With that amount, PA could:
· Pay tuition and room and board for *170,000* Pennsylvania High School Graduates to attend college.
· Fund the annual repair or replacement of *2000* of Pennsylvania's backlog of structurally deficient bridges.
· Install solar panels on *123,000* Pennsylvania homes.
· Pay the annual salary of *50,000* Pennsylvania School teachers.
2015 11: Empty promises: G20 subsidies to oil, gas and coal production Oil Change International and Overseas Development Institute
DOWNLOAD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT
COUNTRY STUDIES: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China ,France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia,Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
Empty promises: Appendix 2 data base (.xls)
Back in 2009, leaders of the G20 countries pledged to phase-out 'inefficient' fossil fuel subsidies. Indeed, few subsidies are more inefficient than those to fossil fuel production. Yet the evidence presented in this report points to a large gap between G20 commitment and action. That gap is reflected in $452 billion in average annual subsidies from G20 governments to fossil fuel production in 2013 and 2014. To put this figure in context, it is almost four times the amount that the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates was provided in all global subsidies to renewables in 2013.
This report documents, for the first time, the scale and structure of fossil fuel production subsidies in the G20 countries. The evidence points to a publicly financed bailout for some of the world's largest, most carbon-intensive and polluting companies.
… Governments in the G20 and beyond should act immediately to phase-out subsidies to fossil fuel production. [Emphasis added]
Psst, Trudeau: IMF Now Pegs Our Fossil Fuel Subsidies at $46 Billion, Fastest way to transition Canada to a green economy? Quit the giveaways The Tyee
According to IMF economists, Canadian carbon-based fuels should be taxed an additional $17.2 billion annually to compensate for climate change, $6 billion for air pollution, $14.9 billion for traffic congestion and $2.1 for traffic accidents. Tacking on another $3.5 billion for uncollected value-added taxes, $880 million for road damage and of course the $1.4 billion in direct subsidies, we arrive at almost $50 billion annually that could help transition to a greener economy.
[A few questions:
How much for water contamination and permanent loss from fracing?
How much for the endless unpaid leases & damages by greedy companies walking away from their responsibilities via changing names and bankruptcies in Alberta and elsewhere?
How many billions ahead in TILMA, NAFTA, FIPA, TPP, CETA lawsuits when provinces or Canada implement new laws to protect Canadians from the phenomenal frac quakes and tarsands harms that are becoming more and more impossible to propagandize away?
How many trillions will Canadians have to pay when the endless frac health and water harms require jurisdictions to shut fracing down, forever, or die of thirst?
How much for permanent food land loss by frac and drilling waste spills and intentional dumping?
How much for destruction of homes, rendered too toxic or too explosive to live in?
And who is going to end up paying for the many hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells, leaking hydrocarbons into groundwater and the surface?]
IMF Pegs Canada's Fossil Fuel Subsidies at $34 Billion
In such giveaways we're a world leader, a fact rarely noted when federal budgets are debated.
Justin Trudeau has a problem. How can Canada meet our international climate commitments so recently inked in Paris with an increasingly empty economic larder? [Courtesy Harper & Encana et al] The International Monetary Fund may have the answer. Last summer, the IMF updated its global report on energy subsidies and found that Canada provides a whopping $46.4 billion in subsidies to the energy sector in either direct support or uncollected taxes on externalized costs.
Globally, this figure balloons to US$5.3 trillion or 6.5 per cent of the world's GDP. To put that enormous sum in perspective, the global giveaway to the energy sector amounts to 40 times more money than is contributed in aid to the world's poorest people.
And what could Canada do with another $46 billion each year? In terms of badly needed public transit, we could immediately pay for both the new Broadway SkyTrain line and the Bloor Street subway extension in Toronto, and still have $40 billion left over. There are also 120 kilometres of proposed light rail projects in the country we could finally build and only be down to $35 billion. Remember, these badly needed infrastructure investments are one-time expenses and the subsidies identified by the IMF rack up every year.
Other urgent needs include building and maintaining affordable housing, estimated to be about $3 billion annually. The public portion of a national pharmacare program might amount to an extra $1 billion each year (though it could also save us money too). That still leaves billions of annual public revenue that could provide tax relief to those shifting away from fossil fuels as well as transition training for displaced workers in our beleaguered oil sector.
So is Ottawa going to eliminate all $48 billion in giveaways identified by the IMF? Of course not. …
But shouldn't we be going easy on the fossil fuel industry, which is obviously going through some hard times? Nonsense. Of course we need to scale up support for the thousands of workers displaced from a collapsing oilsands sector and help them transition to more sustainable [and healthier, safer] careers. But the corporate entities masquerading as humans under the law and their investors that made bad bets on global commodity prices should take their lumps in the marketplace like the proud free traders they are.
… Trudeau has so far taken the Canadian political scene by storm, and he should continue to act boldly on the energy-pricing file. [Emphasis added]
2016 02 05: Rainy Days in Alberta Whose Saved Nothing to Cope With It. Time to Cutback, Diversify and Change The Mud Report
2016 02 05: How much output has the worst oil slump in decades halted? Just 0.1%, much of it in Canada [How Stupid is that?] Financial Post
Even as millions of barrels of oil are pumped at a loss at current prices, only a fraction of the production has been shut, industry research group Wood Mackenzie said on Friday. Only 0.1 per cent of global production has been curtailed because it's unprofitable, according to the report that highlights the industry's resilience.
The analysis, published ahead of an annual oil-industry gathering in London next week, suggests that oil prices will need to drop even more — or stay low for a lot longer — to meaningfully reduce global production.
OPEC and major oil companies like BP Plc and Occidental Petroleum Corp. are betting that low oil prices will drive production down, eventually lifting prices. That's taking longer than expected, in part due to the resilience of the U.S. shale industry and slumping currencies in oil-rich countries, which have lowered production costs in nations from Russia to Brazil.
Just 100,000 bpd out of the 96.1 million bpd of oil pumped worldwide have been closed so far since the price plunge, most of it in Canada's oil sands, conventional U.S. projects and aging fields in Britain's North Sea, according to the research. [And federal and provincial governments are helping pimp bitumen pipelines to cross the country for export? How many billions will Canadians have to pay to subsidize them? How many more billions for health, spill and explosion damages ahead? How Stupid is that?]
The bulk of the most expensive to produce oil is in Canada, where 2.2 million bpd is "cash negative" at current prices, most of it in oil sands and small conventional wells. An additional 230,000 bpd in is Venezuela's heavy oil fields, and 220,000 bpd is in the United Kingdom.
Those operators, Wood Mackenzie said, were likely to store their oil to sell later, only shutting fields if mechanical or maintenance problems required investments they "can't rationalize" at current prices.
For major oil companies, a few months of losses may make more sense than paying to dismantle an offshore platform in the North Sea, or stopping and restarting a tar-sands project in Canada, which may take months and cost millions of dollars. "There are barriers to exit," said Plummer.
In the United States the research found that aggressive cost cutting [What's that doing to the subsurface, aquifers, environment, homes, communities, health?] had enabled more of the shale plays to make money [on subsidies & hedging?] — and survive — at lower prices. [Emphasis added]
Does such a dishonest "opinion" belong in a formal royalty review regarding billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas industry, get out of jail free cards, and rock bottom give-aways of Alberta resources?
What's the NDP and panel afraid of? People around the world reading Slick Water, Andrew Nikiforuk's new book on frac'ing that covers some of the Ernst vs Encana lawsuit?
As a partner, the Province brings many things to the table, including:
– Rule of law – Our province is a safe and stable place that has a functioning democracy, independent courts, a trustworthy justice system and the rule of law.
[What good is the rule of law when oil and gas companies routinely break the law with regulators and Alberta government ignoring these law violations, or if citizens speak out publicly, fraudulently cover-up and enable them and the resulting harms and contamination?
Where is the rule of law in Alberta failing to file criminal charges against Encana for illegally fracturing multiple drinking water aquifers and contaminating the water supply?]
Opinion: Royalty decision compounds past mistakes by Reagan Boychuk, February 7, 2016, Edmonton Journal
Albertans have just had their back ends loaded.
Early last September, before any of the royalty review's town halls or expert group meetings, the panel met with industry in Calgary.
Panel chair Dave Mowat suggested the royalty regime could be simplified while still keeping the feature of a "back end loaded" system, and asked the oilpatch's help figuring out how.
After months of apparent theatre, the royalty review didn't just keep all of the royalty cuts that plunged one of the world's leading oil and gas producers into ongoing deficits. It actually expanded and made them permanent.
Albertans should be very concerned.
'Back end loaded' royalties mean oil companies get paid first and fastest, with only token royalty payments until all their drilling and fracking costs have been paid with free oil and gas.
This shifts remaining risk onto Albertans, who have to wait second-in-line for many years to recoup their (dwindling) share of the wealth generated from their resources.
This perverse setup is the legacy of the last royalty review in 2010, when a desperate Progressive Conservative dynasty threw billions in free oil and gas at industry to win back their favour after the 2007 review.
The first and only time Alberta ever had an independent and public review of royalties was in 2007. What it found was not flattering for oil and gas companies who'd pocketed hundreds of billions of dollars in excess profits under Progressive Conservative governments.
The PCs watered down the 2007 panel's recommendations so much Alberta never actually collected a bigger share of our resource wealth, but industry was livid we ever threatened their outsized profits and poured resources into the Wildrose party. [Nice gratitude eh?]
"The royalty review was critical to the rise of Wildrose," Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Brat told a reporter in 2012. "That's when the money started to flow to the Wildrose. … It gave them some anger to work with. They mobilized."
Barely a month after the Wildrose nearly matched their fundraising for the March 2008 election, the PCs cut royalties $1.2 billion over five years.
In October 2008, the Wildrose elected a new leader and the next month the PCs cut royalties another $1.8 billion over five years.
With the Wildrose passing the PCs in the polls, March 2009 brought yet another $1.5 billion in royalty cuts.
Still, it wasn't enough to satisfy the jilted oilpatch. Another royalty review was convened — this time excluding the public.
The multibillion dollar royalty cuts that came from behind closed doors in 2010 have left the province broke. And the NDP just made them permanent. Even worse, their new royalty regime explicitly emulates a revenue-minus-cost model, which has almost always been a failure.
As former Alberta Energy executive director Barry Rodgers warned in a Sept. 2015 report: "Having studied some 500 of the world's oil and gas fiscal systems for 156 countries and 245 separate jurisdictions it is safe to say (revenue minus cost) has been the single biggest cause of governments actually capturing far less of their resource revenues than they first expected, and deserved."
Regan Boychuk is an independent researcher and was a member of recent review's oilsands expert group. [Emphasis added]
2016 02 02: Critics Slam Alberta's New Royalty Review as Policy Disaster by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee
The recommendation of an Alberta review panel not to raise royalty rates paid by oil and gas companies to the province is an economic disaster and represents a capitulation to Big Oil and its financial backers, say a variety of critics.
Released last Friday, a five-month review into the royalty system argued that low global oil prices had placed Alberta in an existential quandary and that no increases should be considered in royalty rates.
Royalty rates are not costs or taxes, but a price a company must pay to the owner for the right to develop the resource.
For 35 years, the former Tory government of Alberta consistently lowered royalty rates to among the lowest in the world. At the same time it saved almost nothing for future generations.
But the long-delayed review, commissioned by the new NDP government in 2015 as the result of an election promise, concluded that the "current share of value Albertans receive from our resources is generally appropriate."
The review added that Albertans should stop focusing "on questions of 'are the rates right,'" and look more "on what changes need to be made to our royalty framework to position Alberta and our energy industry to address the challenges of a very different environment and outlook for the future." [More deregulation for the unconventional oil and gas 'n frac industry?]
The review then recommended maintaining current royalty rates for wells drilled before 2017 and setting a generic rate — five per cent — for all new oil and gas wells drilled after 2017, a policy equivalent to grading and selling all cuts of beef as hamburger.
Such a policy, if adopted, would lower Alberta's royalties by another billion dollars a year, estimated Jim Roy, an Edmonton-based royalty consultant and a former senior advisor on royalty policy for Alberta Energy.
The new generic rate will reduce the current 30 per cent royalty rates for high-valued products such as propane and butane to five per cent.
Alberta's total royalty revenues from hydrocarbons in fiscal year 2015/16 were approximately $2.8 billion — a mammoth decrease from modest highs of $10 billion or more during the boom years.
Investor, not owner friendly: expert
Roy said the government's review is completely off base and doesn't address the real issues.
"We have low prices now. Why encourage more production and more investment which will only bring oil prices lower?" [And masses more harms to already heavily harmed rural Albertans?] asked Roy.
Given that the global oil glut has largely been caused by overproduction by Canadian bitumen miners and U.S. oil shale frackers, Alberta should increase royalties to decrease production and thereby eliminate inefficient and high-cost energy extractors, Roy said.
Since 1998, oil sands production has soared from nearly 800,000 barrels a day to more than 2.3 million barrels a day, largely due to cheap credit, low royalties and other government incentives and subsidies.
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the province has also been driven by a three-year royalty moratorium imposed in 2009. That royalty holiday guarantees companies high returns up front and little for the owner of the resource until the well is exhausted.
Fracked wells typically experience 60 to 80 per cent depletion rates after three years of operation.
The review takes the perspective of an investor, not the perspective of an owner, charged Roy. "In order to optimize returns to Albertans, the government needs to think like an owner," added the royalty expert.
Two of the review panel's key members — Dave Mowat, president of the Alberta Treasury Branch and Peter Tertzakian, managing director of Arc Financial Corp — both work for firms that invest billions in the oil patch.
The panel's analysis, according to Roy, "ignores the effect of increased production of Alberta bitumen on either the local price of bitumen or the world price of oil. The plan appears to be to increase Alberta production at the maximum possible rate despite low prices… This strategy may help American consumers, but does not help Alberta owners."
Roy's analysis, reported in The Tyee last year, found that the province's last royalty review in 2007 actually shorted the province more than $12 billion in royalties during a time of high oil prices.
Former premier Ed Stelmach promised Albertans that the new formulas for calculating royalties would increase Alberta's "fair share" of hydrocarbon profits by $2 billion a year, beginning in 2009.
But that didn't happen. Instead of increasing royalties by $2 billion a year, Alberta's "fair share" plummeted due to bad forecasting and major flaws in how the province collects natural gas and bitumen royalties, Roy said.
As a result the province, which has recorded annual deficits of billions, has failed to collect $12 billion in royalties over the last five years, he said. The new review failed to correct those problems, Roy added.
In 2010, an industry-drafted, behind-closed-doors "Competitiveness Review" further eviscerated recommended increases and made rates lower than they were before the 2007 during a period of high oil prices.
'Shockingly bad,' says researcher
Regan Boychuk, an independent researcher who sat on one of the review's advisory expert panels, called the review's conclusions "shockingly bad."
"The review simply rearranges the chairs on the deck of the Titantic and locks in all the bad decisions and Tory giveaways of the past," he said.
One critic interviewed by The Tyee also said that raising royalties wouldn't affect economic activity because the worldwide average government take is already about 60 per cent.
In Alberta, the share has plummeted from a 40 per cent high during the Peter Lougheed years to less than four per cent today.
Increasing very low royalties in fiscal systems that have a low overall government take will not have any significant impact on the competitive position of such resources, said analysts.
Low royalties 'a foot on the accelerator' [Rachel Notley = Ralph Klein?]
Barry Rodgers, a former high-ranking Alberta civil servant in the Department of Energy and a fiscal systems expert, noted the review barely mentions that the former Tory government consistently failed to save revenue (except under Lougheed), collect its fair share as mandated by the government policy, or report to citizens in a transparent and open manner on royalty issues.
Instead the Tories consistently lowered royalties during periods of price volatility, resulting in a downward trend for royalties over the last 35 years.
These low prices, which guaranteed companies easy returns regardless of their performance [Illegally fracturing community drinking water aquifers?], actively contributed to over production, reduced competitiveness and encouraged little or no innovation. Low royalties also overheated the economy.
Source: Rodgers Oil and Gas Consulting.
According to Rodgers, the current royalty review got off to a bad start by assuming that Alberta's royalty system worked well and just needed some fine-tuning. [Bad start or intentionally set up by Notley to do precisely that?]
But the province's royalty system is broken, he argued, and has been causing serious damage by subsidizing uneconomic activity. The report even notes that 27 oil sands projects, which inefficiently inject steam into the ground to melt bitumen, may never reach payout "due to excessive cost overruns."
The new review also repeats mistakes of past royalty reviews, which repeatedly responded to earlier price collapses by lowering royalties, Rodgers said.
These low royalties, in turn, stabilized economic activity but became dismal failures when commodity prices began to rise again. Oil remains the world's most volatile commodity.
"The lower royalties then acted like a foot on the accelerator," explained Rodgers, "at a time when prices were already high enough to attract the levels of investment needed."
In the process, low royalties served as a hyper growth policy that aggressively pushed into existence large, long-lived projects "that are difficult to stop and start in response to commodity price fluctuations."
The province's chronic low royalties also caused another problem, he said: as a declining royalty share became significant enough, it caused the public to "distrust in the resource management system."
In other words, low royalties made it impossible for the government to earn extra revenue when prices were high and deprived the owners of the resource their fair share.
The only way for Alberta to break this disastrous royalty pattern is to slow down development, said Rodgers, as well as curtail extreme projects that need royalty relief by increasing royalties in a system that saves wealth in trust for future generations.
Alberta's royalty policy, said Rodgers, is not consistent with the fundamental resource and environmental management notion of "In-Trust."
That notion, long abandoned by the Tory party, reflects the principle "that current generations have a moral obligation to not leave future generations worse off."
Missing comparisons
Although the review claimed that Alberta's royalty rates are comparable to other jurisdictions, it failed to compare Alberta to the jurisdictions that matter most such as Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. The review, for example, makes but one mention of Norway.
Boychuk also said that the review failed to provide true comparisons that took a critical look at real government pricing around the world.
To gauge the appropriateness of bitumen royalty rates, for example, the review hired Wood Mackenzie, a firm that advises oil and gas companies.
It based its conclusions that current rates were adequate on the imaginary performance of a 35,000-barrel-a-day steam plant operation that might extract bitumen by 2022, Boychuk said.
"That's not a comparison to real rates that are currently employed by other countries. Wood Mackenzie offered no meaningful comparison with other countries such as Venezuela or Saudi Arabia," said Boychuk.
According to research by Rodgers, for example, Norway charges resource developers 78 per cent of the net income from oil and gas production while Alberta charges 50 per cent for conventional oil and 37 per cent for natural gas.
The report, however, avoided such comparisons other than noting that British Columbia has the lowest royalties for natural gas and that Saskatchewan managed its hydrocarbons to generate economic activity as opposed to wealth for the resource owners.
Gil McGowan, leader of the Alberta Federation of Labour and a long-time champion of royalty reform, rebuked the NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley for supporting the review.
"Some people say the NDP have come face to face with reality. I say what happened can best be described as the government being captured by industry," McGowan told Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell.
"I honestly think the government has made a profound political mistake," he said. "We don't believe progressive governments have to become conservative to deal effectively with economic issues or to succeed politically. That's a fallacy."
In its submission to the royalty review panel, the Fort McMurray First Nation called for modestly higher bitumen royalties and warned the Notley government not to listen to advice offered by financial institutions such as those represented by some members of the review panel.
"The financial institutions that constitute the capital markets obtain their revenues by providing services to savers and borrowers. Large projects such as in the oil sands, and the companies that invest in them, are valuable revenue sources and attractive clients to these institutions. The inclinations of these institutions will always be to want to see more attractive investment opportunities, from which they will benefit by providing them with financial services. They are not likely to provide unbiased, objective views on matters such as royalties."
In another submission, the economist Mark Anielski reported how the province would have benefited if it had kept Lougheed's approach to a robust and healthy royalty regime.
"Had Alberta maintained a 30 per cent royalty rate on the share of the value of the oil and gas produced between 1971 to 2014, Albertans would have generated $471.4 billion in oil and gas royalties. Had 50 per cent of these royalties been invested in the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund with annual average return of five per cent per annum we would now have an investment account worth over $481 billion."
The current savings fund holds less than $20 billion. [And how many billions in pollution and health deficits that industry will never take responsibility for, and regulators will never make them?]
From the comments to above article:
Diana Daunheimer annie_fiftyseven
Did our Premier have a frackian slip when she said in her Modern Royalty Review address that "the ground is shifting dramatically?"
annie_fiftyseven Diana Daunheimer
Oh my. Well I'm sure the AER's PR machine will be quick to address that, and explain that it really wouldn't feel like anything more than a Protti driving by … smiling and waving … meep meep.
Alberta to offer solar panel rebates to farms, municipalities by Bob Weber, The Canadian Press, February 5, 2016, Calgary Herald
The Alberta government is adding another plank to its climate-change platform by providing more than $5.5 million to build on programs to help farms and municipalities install solar panels. [What a fracking insult]
"This is just the beginning," Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Friday.
"By investing now in proven programs we will be better prepared to ramp up our efforts as the price on carbon pollution is phased in."
Up to $5 million is being offered to defray the cost of setting up solar power in buildings such as offices, fire halls and community centres.
A similar program worth $500,000 will be offered to farmers.
The money extends a program already being offered through the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. That program has already helped six Edmonton community leagues install solar panels, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 55 tonnes every year.
The agricultural solar program builds on a pilot that saw 61 projects reduce greenhouse gases by more than 360 tonnes and add almost 500 kW of capacity to Alberta's electricity grid.
The new money is expected to fund about 160 projects and reduce carbon emissions by up to 8,400 tonnes over the next 25 years.
Phillips noted that an earlier $2 million solar power grant for municipalities was immediately taken up.
"There's a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and uptake for these kinds of programs,"she said. "It's very likely that this will not meet all the demand, but it is a way for us to begin ramping up those efforts."
The program offers rebates of up to 75 cents per watt. According to figures from a provincial report, that's not quite enough to make the cost of solar power equal to that purchased from the grid.
"It's intended to provide an incentive," said Phillips. "It may not equalize, but it's intended to remove the barriers."
Farmers will be able to apply for the rebates starting Monday, while municipalities have to wait until March. [Emphasis added]
Ryan Jesperson: "The Australian coal miners are foreign. … The foreign ones are the ones fucking up the eastern slopes!" Corb Lund livid: "I've dug my heels in now." High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass: "The only foreign-funded money that's coming into this province right now with the coal stuff is the Ozzies' money. That's it. You're being very hypocritical to pin that on anybody in this province that this coal fight is foreign-funded. It's not. It's BS. It's just us. It's just Albertans." November 25, 2021