Casey House launches campaign to raise money for new home

By Justin Skinne
Need for organization that helps people with HIV/AIDS growing

 Downtown Toronto's Casey House is embarking on a massive multi-year project that promises improved support for those living with HIV/AIDS.
Casey House has offered palliative and home care, outreach programs and other services since 1988. Provincial funding allowed the organization to purchase an old house at 571 Jarvis St. and it is now working to refurbish the home to better meet the needs of Casey House clientele.
Downtown Toronto resident Bruce Lippett knows the value of Casey House first hand. He was diagnosed with HIV 21 years ago and used the organization's services last year due to complications brought on by illness that debilitated him and threatened his life.
He spent three weeks at St. Michael's Hospital and was discharged before he was ready to care for himself. Rather than being left to his own devices, he was able to stay at Casey House while he recovered more fully.
The care he received there far outstripped his expectations.
"The first thing I realized is that I had all these people telling me, just sit back, eat, rest and get well and let them do everything else," he said. "I came in there (weighing) 120 pounds and came out at 153 pounds."
Though he no longer stays there, Lippett has a personal nurse who still visits him to ensure his health does not deteriorate to the point where he requires additional emergency care.
He said the improvements to Casey House services the new facility will offer will be a boon to countless people.
"It's a home, not a hospital. You go in there and you're treated like family," he said. "The original building is small and space is limited. To be able to expand will make more opportunities for them to work in the community and accommodate more people in the community."
The redevelopment will cost about $10 million, of which Casey House has raised some $3.3 million. The organization has launched a capital campaign that will work toward raising the necessary funds to turn the old house into a new and improved facility.
"We're looking to add a purpose-built health-care centre," said Casey House CEO Stephanie Karapita. "We'll be able to have more in-patient care that meets 21st century patient care standards."
Karapita noted the current facility has tiny rooms for in-patients and small, shared bathrooms. The new facility will offer bigger living spaces and separate bathrooms.
The need for a change in the way the organization operates is necessary given the changing demographics of the clients it serves.
"One-third of the beds we have are filled by women on any given day," she said. "Back when we first started, that wasn't the case - we worked exclusively with men."
The centre will continue to provide sub-acute care, with nurses and meal services making house calls to ensure those living with HIV/AIDS can continue to live at home.
In ensuring health care needs are met, those individuals will have less need to fill emergency room and acute care beds at hospitals.
"People with AIDS are now living with the disease and aging with the disease," Karapita said. "They're often isolated and marginalized and because of that, their health care is constantly deteriorating."
While the number of in-patient beds will remain the same, the new facility will increase Casey House's ability to provide care in the community.
Such an increase in service is essential as incidences of HIV/AIDS continue to rise. Karapita noted that from 2003 to 2008, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS increased by 31 per cent.
For more information on Casey House or to donate to its capital campaign, visit www.caseyhouse.com

Right-sized home not always biggest

By SHELLIE CHOWNS, Special to QMI Agency
When making a home purchase, there's real value in recognizing when enough is enough.
Bigger isn't always better, and there can be significant benefits to right sizing your home. Since the 1950s, a typical four-person family home has increased from 1,000 square feet to 2,500 square feet on average.
"Housing has always been this competitive sport, and there has always been a negative connotation to being small,'' says Genevieve Ferraro, who lives outside Chicago and runs a website called the Jewel Box Home, dedicated exclusively to small-home living.
"Status has been acquired by trading up and moving up.''
For the most part, this thinking is still mainstream, but some now consider responsible living practices as the social measuring stick of home ownership status.
I made the decision several years ago to right-size my family home. Although we found the transition difficult in the beginning, it has worked out well in the long run.
I'm not suggesting families sell everything and move into a one-room hut, but I would never recommend purchasing the largest home you can possibly afford just for the square feet.
Take time to seriously consider how much space you need by assessing your housing needs for the next five years and making your decision based on that.
It doesn't make sense to purchase too much or too little house based on a long-term goal because the average Canadian moves every five years.
A right-sized home could be less expensive to purchase, and a smaller sticker price means you can spend more on features or finishes that will make your home feel comfortable.
Ensuring your home is energy efficient and right-sized for you and your family will result in a smaller carbon footprint. Value-engineered large homes and many smaller homes require fewer raw materials to construct. That means fewer trees needed, and less manufacturing, packaging and trucking during construction.
Smaller homes and energy-efficient larger homes require less fuel and electricity to operate, allowing you to feel good about your environmental impact while saving money every month.
Ensuring your new home design makes the best use of all the available space is another way of getting the most bang for your buck. Open concept designs and flex spaces can make the main living areas of any size home very versatile, and smart storage solutions make great sense all around.
Smart traffic flow, finished lower and upper levels and multi-function common areas are some of the ways families can maximize their living comfort in a right-sized home.
If you have the need for occasional use spaces such as a craft room and a guest bedroom, consider creative room designs and storage solutions to make a single space work for both purposes.
Carefully chosen maintenance-free materials on the exterior of any size home will require less effort and cost to maintain in the long run, and fewer square feet and low-maintenance finishes on the inside can also cut down on upkeep, cleaning and dusting.
If you're wondering what the right size home is for you, determine what rooms you'll need, and how to best furnish them to be comfortable, versatile and cozy.
The London Home Builders' Association has several builder and renovator members who can help you plan the perfect new home or renovation that is right-sized for you and your pocket book.
Visit our website at www.lhba.on.ca for a complete listing of builder and renovator members.
Shellie Chowns is president of the London Home Builders' Association.

Kevin McCloud: How to build your dream home

By Christopher Middleton 

The path to creating your dream home can be fraught with peril. Kevin McCloud, king of self-build, shows Christopher Middleton how to ensure your project is successful. 

People who appear on Grand Designs are always running out of things: time, or money, mostly. But however bad things look, they never seem to lack confidence.

“On the whole, people who opt for self-build don’t suffer from self-doubt,” observes Kevin McCloud, the programme’s long-standing presenter, with a wry smile. “In the 15 years we’ve been doing the programme, I can’t recall a single self-builder who has ever turned to me and asked, 'Do you think I’m doing the right thing?’ It just doesn’t go with the territory.”

That said, given the continuing growth in self-building, and the likely relaxation in planning laws, there will be plenty of people willing to pick McCloud’s brains when he speaks at Grand Designs Live in Birmingham next week. Before the ground is broken, they’re all ears. It’s only once the project is under way, he says, that self-builders put the earplugs in and the blinkers on.

“Of course without a certain amount of self-belief, nay arrogance, none of these projects would ever be built. If people approached the construction of their own home in a spirit of fear and dithering, worrying about all the things that could go wrong, then the majority of these projects would be killed stone dead at birth.

“That doesn’t mean, of course, that some of those difficulties couldn’t be anticipated and avoided. Almost all the problems that arise on this kind of project are due entirely to the frailties and defects of the human beings involved.”

The most common failing, he says, is the self-builder’s exaggerated faith in his or her own powers.
“I see it all the time,” says McCloud. “People who can put up a shelf, so think they can
put up a house. People who run their own IT business, so think they can run a construction project. And people who go it alone, instead of paying for professional help.”
It is this, more than any other mistake, he believes, that puts a self-build project on shaky foundations from the start. “It’s a recurring source of downfall,” he says. “People’s insistence on being in charge of the project themselves, instead of hiring an experienced project manager, is often misguided in the extreme.
“A seasoned project manager, for example, knows that if you are going to dig a trench for the pipes and cabling, you need to start negotiating with the utility companies at least a year in advance. And you need to order the pipes and cables at least eight weeks in advance.”
McCloud concedes that the unexpected should always be expected. “Sometimes, of course, you get hold-ups that no one could have anticipated,” he says. “Even so, a manager who is skilled in the use of flow charts can work around those delays, so that they don’t mess up the whole schedule.
“I can’t stress the importance of long-term planning too strongly. Every self-builder should spend three years on planning, and just six months on the really expensive bit, the building.”
Having persuaded the self-builder that a project manager is a good idea, McCloud has definite ideas about managing the manager – and the budget. He recommends that, instead of feeding the project manager little cash morsels every now and then, self-builders should give serious consideration to paying them a fixed wage.
“If the project’s going to take a year, then employ your project manager on a salary of £50,000 for that year,” he suggests. “And make sure that he not only shows you the bills submitted by the contractors working on your building, but that you pay those bills direct.
“This gives you so much more control than handing a management contractor £100,000 not just to manage the project, but to hire and pay the contractors. In that situation, you, the client, find yourself becoming more and more removed from the decision-making.
“Little by little, you find quality and design values going downhill, until you end up with so many compromises that instead of being excited and inspired by the finished building, you are left disappointed.”
It’s a subject on which he can speak with some feeling, as his own firm, HAB (which stands for Happiness, Architecture, Beauty), has recently been involved in putting up a 42-home development called The Triangle in Swindon. Eco-friendly specifications abound, such as triple glazing, low-energy heat and ventilation systems and cycle racks in the front porch.
However, it hasn’t all gone exactly to plan. As well as facing criticism for everything from a lack of parking spaces to the proximity of neighbours, McCloud has had his work cut out trying to keep the scheme true to his original vision.
“That’s the trouble with a design-and-build contract,” he sighs. “You give your drawing to the builder, who agrees to produce that scheme for a certain price, only along the way modifications are constantly made, as a result of which everything gets blander and cheaper. Every day, I have to push for quality, every day I have to jump up and down, which I don’t like doing one bit.”
At which point, he breaks off to read out his latest angry email to the construction team, talking about aspects of the work being “a poor reflection” on HAB, and “urging” them to “action it now”.
“Unless you make this kind of fuss, everything just reverts to the default position, which is, 'We’ll change this, but no one will notice.’ That phrase is the elephant in the room on any project. And it means that when the building is complete, it won’t be special and heart-lifting with all the things you dreamt of. It’ll just be everyday and average.”
As to the degree of cardiovascular uplift that the Swindon scheme achieves, the nation will be able to decide for itself in late autumn, when Channel 4 will show a special three-part fly-on-the-bulldozer documentary following the course of the project.
In the meantime, the latest Grand Designs series is back on Channel 4, with yet more pioneers setting out across the prairies of self-build in the hope of ending up with their ideal home. For those of us without that dream to follow, of course, the show provides a comfortable vantage point from which to watch the muddy trench warfare such undertakings often turn into. But for those viewers who already have a self-build twinkle in their eye, the sight of couples fighting the combined elements of wind, rain and council planning departments serves to inspire, rather than deter.
“Let’s face it,” says McCloud, “What real challenges are we set today? We are not plagued by poverty, or required to dig around the clock for victory. So what more life-enhancing challenge could there be, in this consumer age, than to build our own home? For once, this isn’t about buying, it’s about making.”
In order to make that making less stressful, here are McCloud’s 10 maxims of self-build. Essential reading – and warning – for anyone with the build-your-own dream.
Let the show commence
Kevin McCloud will be at the NEC, in Birmingham, from October 7-9, hosting Grand Designs Live, the home improvement, self-build and design show. There are opportunities for homeowners and aspiring self-builders to have free 30-minute consultations about their own potential Grand Design (0844 854 1348; www.granddesignslive.com). Tickets cost £14 per adult in advance. Children under 15 are free.
The search is on
The final judging is currently taking place on this year’s Daily Telegraph Homebuilding & Renovating Awards, which are given for Britain’s best new self-builds and renovated homes. Judges have spent the past two weeks visiting houses and assessing entries. These ranged from astonishing handcrafted oak frame homes to sharp, modernist-style remodelling schemes. The winners will be announced in the Property section in mid-November.

The Belfry’s top chefs auctioned off for Macmillan Cancer Support

The highest bidder for executive chef Patrick Harness will enjoy Sunday lunch cooked for four in their home while pastry chef Dean Cole will be auctioned to hold a chocolate masterclass for two in the resort's pastry kitchen.
The gourmet treats will be on offer at The Belfry's Moth Ball on October 29 when brides will have the chance to celebrate their big day again by stepping back into their wedding dress.
Bridesmaids, mothers-of-the-bride, mothers-of-the-groom, hens and friends are also invited to wear their wedding attire once more for the ladies-only night at the resort in Wishaw, Sutton Coldfield.
Tickets, which include a three-course meal along with the auction and a raffle, are available at £39 each, with £5 going to Macmillan Cancer Support. Simply the Spa at The Belfry is also donating vouchers with £5 off its treatments within the ticket price.
Raffle prizes include vouchers for an Indian head massage at Simply the Spa, a printed picture canvas from Aurora Graphics, a real Christmas tree from Newlands Nurseries and a Red Letter Day gift. Dinner for four at The Curry Republic, a No7 beauty hamper from Boots, an ESPA hamper and an AquaSpa session for four at The Belfry will also be raffled for the charity.
Samantha Baker, who is helping to stage the fund-raiser at The Belfry, said: "The Moth Ball is proving to be really popular with tickets selling fast among ladies who want to dress up in a wedding outfit they have worn either as a bride, as part of a wedding party or as a guest, and let their hair down with the girls. We have got some fantastic prizes and are hoping they will raise as much money as possible for Macmillan Cancer Support."
Party-goers can make a weekend of the Moth Ball with tickets also available with an overnight stay for just £79 per person, with £10 going to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Cat Yates, fundraising manager for Birmingham South and Solihull for Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "Without events such as this, Macmillan would not be able to provide the practical, medical, emotional and financial support for people affected by cancer."
Tickets are available by phoning The Belfry's special events team on 0300 500 0405
Source http://www.eatoutmagazine.co.uk/

Virginia Home Improvement Company Saves Customers Money Through New Website

CBS Home Improvements, a Virginia home repair company, launched a completely-redesigned website that it says will help save its customers money and time on their home repair projects. The new website features more in-depth information on the company’s services, money-saving tips and articles, and an offer that can save new customers up to $950 on their first project with the home improvement company. 

CBS Home Improvements, a Virginia home repair company, launched a completely-redesigned website that it says will help save its customers money and time on their home repair projects. The new website features more in-depth information on the company’s services, money-saving tips and articles, and an offer that can save new customers up to $950 on their first project with the home improvement company. CBS Home Improvements specializes in all kinds of projects, including home repair and commercial add-on construction. The new website provides customers one easy-access location to help them make informed choices that can help them avoid extra costs on their home repair projects.
Cameron Sutton, a managing member of the Virginia home improvement company, and 22-year veteran in the construction business, explains that the new website is an important aspect of their overall plan to help customers save money during these difficult economic times: “People still want to repair and improve their homes, whether they are looking to sell or stay put. Through this new website, we provide our customers with quick, easy access to insightful information about the best ways to complete a job, make recommendations about the best materials to use for a particular project, and stay in contact with our customers from start to finish on a home repair. Virginia customers demand quality, and that’s what we deliver. We are constantly looking for ways to help our customers save money without sacrificing quality, and the new website is one of our tools to accomplish that.”
According to the new website for the home improvement company, they have been in the Virginia home repair business for 18 years. What is even more telling is that 85 percent of their clients are referrals from customers who were happy with their home repair. Virginia customers have hired them for everything from roofing replacement and bathroom renovations to basement finishing and kitchen remodeling. In addition to residential construction projects, they have completed many commercial construction projects as well. Their high rating with the Better Business Bureau reflects how happy their Virginia home repair customers have been, and one customer said, “They took our vision and put it into place with attention to detail and quality. They never tired of answering our questions or making necessary changes. They stayed on schedule and kept the area tidy throughout the whole process, which really impressed us.”
Mr. Sutton explains, “Our home improvement company motto is, ‘Where Vision Gets Built’ and that’s what we strive for with every Virginia home repair project. Our new website can help current customers and potential customers see how it all comes together. It shows them how to save money and time on their projects. The reason our customers keep coming back is that their ideas, their visions, their homes matter to us, and they see that. There’s no better feeling for us than knowing that we did a great job that made our customers happy.”
For more information:
Cameron Sutton
C.B.S. Enterprises, LLC
DBA: CBS Home Improvements
904 Princess Anne Street, Ste C-6
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(703) 670-3200
Source http://www.prweb.com/

Pro teams losing may not mean losing money

ITHACA, N.Y., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Revenue sharing, television contracts and other non-gate income make it possible for MLB teams to make money whether they win or lose, U.S. researchers say.
Stephen Mosher, professor of sport management and media at Ithaca College, N.Y., noted that the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have just posted their 19th consecutive losing season -- the longest stretch of futility in any major professional American sport -- have been making millions of dollars annually.
In fact, the cost of signing top-flight players to lucrative contracts would take a deep bite out of annual profits, leading some analysts and economists to conclude that if the Pirates turned themselves into winners, they wouldn't be helping their bottom line, Mosher suggested.
"The situation with the Pirates is just one example where a team would benefit more from losing than winning," Mosher said in a statement. "Many of the owners of franchises intentionally lose money because it helps the bottom line for their other businesses."
Should the Indianapolis Colts, who are infinitely less formidable with their star quarterback Peyton Manning out indefinitely after neck surgery, consider tanking the rest of the season to put themselves in better position to draft a top quarterback in the next NFL draft? Mosher asked.
"Such moral dilemmas are routinely presented to professional sports teams, but more often than not, the moral issues take a back seat to the business and entertainment goals of organizations," Mosher said.
"Given that sport is one of the few remaining enterprises in our culture that actually claims to develop good citizens and build character, is losing deliberately the best way to run an organization? The claim that 'we owe it to the game' needs to be considered very, very seriously."

Source http://www.upi.com/

Arizona Trying New Ways To Assist Homeowners

by Catherine Reagor  
Federal funding to help prevent foreclosures in Arizona is being expanded to more people because the effort has failed too many homeowners, according to the state agency charged with overseeing the program.
Of the $268 million allotted to the state since 2010, only about $4 million has been spent as of this week.
About 200 homeowners have received various forms of aid, far shy of the 4,000 the housing agency hopes to help.

Officials and housing advocates say mortgage lenders are the reason for the breakdown: Much of the aid was intended to be used to pay off a portion of what a struggling homeowner owed, as long at their lenders agreed to forgive an equal amount.
But large banks and the federal mortgage agencies that back many loans have been slow to respond or have not agreed to loan modifications, despite the federal backing for the program, officials say. Though dozens of applicants qualified for that form of aid, only three had their banks agree to the loan modifications.
"We have done and are doing everything we can to spend this money on homeowners who desperately need it," said Michael Trailor, director of the Arizona Department of Housing. "Lenders are making promises and commitments they aren't keeping."
Trailor said he has sat down repeatedly with lenders that have agreed to step up efforts to approve loan modifications approved by his agency but still the deals aren't going through.
He also sat down with regulators of the two mortgage backers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and appealed to them to work with the program several times during the past year, he said. But he and housing directors in other states that received the federal funds, known as the Hardest Hit Housing program, have been turned down by the mortgage giants.
In response, the Arizona Housing Department is now easing requirements for people applying for aid and has expanded the program to use the money in other ways.

Short-sale aid

Last week, officials launched a program to use the funds to help borrowers complete short sales.
Such sales can help "underwater" homeowners, who owe more than their homes are now worth. In a short sale, the bank agrees to allow a sale for less than the balance of the loan, letting the homeowner avoid foreclosure and take less of a credit-record hit.
The state agency is now offering homeowners $4,500, plus money to pay closing costs such as the real-estate agent's fee, if they work with their lender to complete a short sale. It started taking applications for its short-sale assistance last week, and several real-estate agents already have made inquiries.
Trailor said the aid doesn't keep a family in their home, but at least it gives them money to move on.

Unemployment aid

Early this year, after completing only one successful loan modification with the federal money, the housing agency began putting more resources into a program to pay the mortgages of homeowners who are unemployed or underemployed.
Depending on their income, eligible homeowners can receive up to $2,000 a month help with their payments for as long as two years.
Michele and Steven Allman were struggling to make the $850 payment on their Maryvale house earlier this year. He had been out of work hanging drywall for two years.
The couple, in their 50s, wanted to keep their home to retire in but were afraid they would lose it to foreclosure before the end of the year. Then they heard about the state Housing Department's program to help people pay their mortgages.
"We got a postcard in the mail about the program and thought maybe we could get some help," said Michele, who was working but for less money and fewer hours and not making enough to pay the mortgage. "We knew it was taking forever to get loan modifications and we might not get the money."
The couple applied and were approved within weeks. Now Arizona's federal money is going toward paying more than $700 of their mortgage each month.
Before recent changes to Arizona's plan, the Allmans wouldn't have qualified because at least one of the home's borrowers had to be fully employed. Now, if one borrower is unemployed and the other is underemployed, they can qualify.
"This is our home," she said. "We recently needed a new roof, and we did the work because we didn't have the money but wanted to take care of our house."
The state Housing Department has been able to help 169 Arizona homeowners keep making their mortgage payments and is encouraging more people to apply. About $3.6 million of the federal funds has gone toward this program.

Loan modifications

In March, Bank of America committed to working with Arizona's housing agency to finalize thousands of loan modifications, reducing what borrowers owed in exchange for a partial payoff.
The program can reduce a homeowner's principal by as much as $100,000 if the bank agrees to forgive half. That can translate into a monthly payment reduced by more than $1,000.
The state agency estimates at least 30,000 BofA borrowers in Arizona could be eligible for the aid.
But the lender has yet to complete one of the program's loan modifications, housing officials said. The bank didn't return calls to comment. Similar problems have stalled efforts to help borrowers with other banks or with federally backed mortgages.
So far, the program has completed three loan modifications and spent $63,000.
"It's been more than disappointing working with the major lenders, but we aren't giving up," said Reginald Givens, foreclosure assistance administrator for the state agency.
The first loan modification under the state program was done in January with National Bank of Arizona. Kim Hensley, a counselor with Genesis Housing Services, a non-profit housing counseling service, worked with a Phoenix homeowner to obtain an $80,000 principal reduction.
"The Housing Department has worked to create some really good programs, and they are really trying to help people," she said.
She noted that so far, counselors have found success reducing principal only on loans made by small banks. "I have found to do one of these loan mods, you have to stay away from the big lenders," she said. "They aren't interested and are just wasting everyone's time."
She has also been able to help homeowners with some of the Housing Department's other programs funded by the federal money, including assistance in paying off a second mortgage. About $42,000 of the state's federal money has been spent on second-mortgage assistance.

Easier to qualify

In the past, housing advocates' main criticism of Arizona's Hardest Hit Housing plan was that it was too difficult for most homeowners to qualify. They had to be two months behind on their mortgage, show at least one of the borrowers was fully employed and have bought their house before 2007.
The state agency's effort to loosen some of its requirements so more homeowners will qualify is receiving the approval of more housing counselors.
Instead of missing two months of mortgage payments, Givens said, struggling borrowers can now show financial documents to prove they are about to fall behind.
Applicants still have to owe more than their houses are worth, proving they can't sell to avoid foreclosure. Investors still aren't eligible for aid to keep homes they don't live in.
And the most controversial eligibility requirement also still stands. Borrowers can't have taken out a second mortgage for anything except to purchase the home.
Bob Bingham applied for aid from the Housing Department and was denied because he took out a second mortgage on his Ahwatukee Foothills home in 2006 to pay for his daughter's college education.
"I think the Housing Department needs to look at that requirement on a case-by-case situation," he said. "I didn't buy a big car or even spend the money on a nice dinner. The money I put into my home for several years helped put my daughter through college. What's wrong with that?"
Trailor and Givens say they will begin looking at more applications on a case-by-case basis to try to qualify more people who have been making their mortgage payments and trying to do the right thing, instead of splurging on luxury items and then expecting to be bailed out.
The Hardest Hit Housing money came from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that expired in October of last year. Arizona, California, Nevada, Florida and Michigan received funds from the Hardest Hit Housing fund.
Just over a year ago, the Treasury Department approved Arizona's plans for using its first allotment of Hardest Hit money, $125 million. Then last December, it gave the state an additional $143 million.
The other states that received funds are also struggling to spend the money. All states must spend their funds by the end of 2017 or lose them.
"I wanted to have helped hundreds of Arizona homeowners reduce their balances and modify their loans by now," Trailor said. "This has truly been the most frustrating experience I have encountered. I have money to give lenders to help slow foreclosures, and they won't take it."

FEMA budget crunch makes Des Moines home buyout plan uncertain

 By Jason Pulliam
String of disasters limits federal money for long-term relief

 The city of Des Moines bought the home at 2348 E. 36th Court, next door to Randy Johnson’s, after flooding in 2010. / BILL NEIBERGALL/The REGISTER
A federal freeze on money for some forms of disaster relief has clouded prospects for a $7.8 million buyout plan that nearly 60 flood-weary homeowners along Des Moines’ Four Mile Creek are counting on.
Hurricane Irene and a recent string of other natural disasters have drained the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s coffers. And ongoing congressional budget battles make it unclear when FEMA will have money to help finance long-term disaster relief projects like the one in Des Moines.
Since city officials are unsure of when they will be able to cement buyout plans, homeowners like Randy Johnson are left to wait and wonder when they can finally put the historic 2010 flood behind them.
“There’s more stress and more uncertainty,” said Johnson, who was among more than 60 homeowners who this month received letters from the city saying buyout plans were on hold. “This is really outside Des Moines’ hands … Unfortunately at the moment, that’s just how the federal government is operating, and we just kind of have to deal with it.”
The situation revives many of the same worries and frustrations that dozens of homeowners suffered during the 2010 floods that caused over $3.6 million in property damage.
Many of those same homeowners also experienced major floods in 1993, 1998 and 2008.
That’s why there was new hope and optimism in November when city officials told residents FEMA grant money was available to buy properties in Four Mile Creek’s 100-year flood plain.
Those plans came to an abrupt halt in August when the cumulative impact of Missouri River flooding, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires and Hurricane Irene put a squeeze on FEMA’s disaster relief budget.
The agency went into “immediate needs funding” mode, meaning it would dedicate its resources to help meet immediate needs of survivors of those disasters. Longer-term disaster recovery projects such as reconstruction of public buildings, roads and bridges fell under the funding freeze.
The agency is doing its utmost to stretch resources and ensure immediate needs of recent disaster victims are met, said Rachel Racusen, FEMA’s public affairs director.
Currently, FEMA has about $150 million for disaster relief. That account will need to be back up over $1 billion before the agency can move forward with longer-term disaster relief projects, including Des Moines’ flood buyout plan.
The U.S. Senate earlier this week approved a short-term budget bill that included $2.65 billion for FEMA. That bill is still subject to approval in the U.S. House. Philosophical disagreements over whether the increase for FEMA should be matched by cuts to other parts of the federal budget continue to make the outlook uncertain.
If the $2.65 billion for FEMA is approved, more dust in the federal bureaucracy will have to settle before FEMA officials know how that money will be allocated to them.
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said he is frustrated by the holdup. The buyouts will help affected property owners get back on their feet and minimize the area’s long-term flood risks, he said.
“A lot of these folks are in very tough situations and we need to help them,” Cownie said. “It is unfair that there are political games being played around this in Washington, which inhibits the work of FEMA to take care of these projects. … We need to move forward and not play games with people’s lives.”
Properties in the Four Mile Creek flood plain account for the overwhelming majority of those in the buyout plan.
Buyouts of two flood-prone mobile home parks that were hit with heavy damage in 2010 are not affected by the freeze. That process is nearly complete because the city tapped a different, $7.1 million pot of money from the state.
To qualify for a buyout, the properties had to have “substantial” flood damage, defined as equal to 50 percent or more of the estimated market value of the home. The program is voluntary.
If Des Moines receives the buyout money, it could then take about a year to get all of the properties acquired and demolished, said Phil Wageman, the city’s real estate manager. The $7.8 million would cover costs for property acquisitions, demolitions and other administrative costs.
City officials want parts of the flood plain where homes are located to revert to green space so the area has a stronger natural defense against future floods.
Twelve properties were bought out in the Four Mile area after the 2008 floods.
Johnson, the east-side homeowner, is among those who volunteered to participate in the buyout program. The floodwaters that spilled out of Four Mile Creek’s banks midway through August 2010 filled the first floor of Johnson’s home.
Johnson said the cleanup took a couple of months after the water receded.
“Once the water left, that is when things got really nasty,” Johnson said. “The first floor was covered with mud and silt. Trying to clean that up took a lot of effort. It was difficult to get back to a place where you could live there.”
He moved back in October and stayed there until July, when he closed on a new house about 10 minutes away. The reason Johnson decided to buy a new house was because of how difficult it was to live in his heavily damaged former home, he said.
“In general, I think most people are patient and are hoping that the buyouts won’t drag out for too long,” Johnson said. “The fear some have is that the buyouts won’t happen at all or will be forgotten about until the next flood.”
U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Democrat whose district includes Des Moines, expressed optimism that the buyouts will move ahead.
“I am confident that with a budget compromise reached this week, the initiative to buy out properties on the Four Mile Creek flood plain will move forward and these homeowners will finally get the peace of mind they deserve,” Boswell said.
Ruby Leaming has lived near Four Mile Creek since 1952. There was a bad flood in 1954, but nothing like the one from last year, Leaming said. “It was scary,” she said. “The water came up so fast there wasn’t anything we could do.”
She had six feet of water in her basement and the cleanup took several weeks. She said that she looks forward to a buyout so she can move.
“You don’t know how long you are going to have to sit here before they decide to approve the money,” she said. “That part is stressful.”

John Lewis decorates Rosie Millard's home

By Rosie Millard

Domestic oracle John Lewis casts its discerning eye over Rosie Millard’s home decor – with intriguing results . 

 

Domestic oracle John Lewis casts its discerning eye over Rosie Millard’s home decor – with intriguing results

I am about to take a dose of my own medicine. Rather than making pronouncements from my kitchen swing – an accessory so many readers seem to hate – I’m going to receive some advice myself.

And who else to give it but that reliable domestic oracle, John Lewis? For more than 20 years, their Home Consultation Service has been snooping around British homes, inspiring their owners to bold makeovers.

The concept is simple: if you can’t be bothered to inspect 400 different curtains at one of their stores, let someone else make the choices for you. For £200, redeemable against purchases from their soft furnishings department, an expert will visit your house and come up with a whole new look for you.

I book an appointment with Susie Pope, a seasoned consultant. Waiting for her to arrive is quite nerve-racking – I’m not used to having my own home judged.

Then the doorbell rings and in she comes. At once she casts a sharp look at my hall, which I have spent 40 minutes tidying in preparation.
“Striped carpet on the stairs,” she says impassively. Is this a good thing, I ask? She nods. Phew.
We go into the kitchen, where things are less to her satisfaction. “You have no curtains here,” she observes. I mutter something about dirt, cooking grease and clean lines. But this does not seem to wash.
“What about when you go down into the kitchen late at night? Passers-by might see…” she says. See what? Me drinking vodka from the bottle? Eating chocolate cake with my fingers?
“…you in a nightdress,” she finishes. Then she pulls out a photo album filled with examples of immaculate kitchens with perfect pelmetted windows. “I think you need Roman blinds over this window by the sink, and a voile at the garden end. And here,” she says, pointing to an inoffensive (but now she mentions it, dull) square cushiony thing where the children sit when they won’t eat. “You could have a more interesting chair than that,” she explains.
Unsurprisingly, John Lewis has a number of suitable new chairs for sale. Pope produces a fat wodge of catalogues from her bag.
“How about this?” she says, showing me a Jester chair, all curves and velvet. It is lovely but, at £999, out of my price range. We then discuss something called a Snuggler. This, I learn, is a piece of furniture halfway between a sofa and a chair. I have immediate visions of me snuggling up with my children and reading them Maurice Sendak stories, just like a perfect mother should.
Then Pope whips out a tape measure and shows me exactly where it could go in the room. The John Lewis example she suggests is still a bit pricey, but I log the look in my head for the future.
She says that many of the people she works with are newly retired. They have time and space to redecorate their homes, and usually money to spend too. The budgets of most of her clients are between £8,000 and £10,000, but they often don’t know quite which way to go.
“They might not have changed things for 25 years, and maybe their children are resisting them doing anything different,” she explains. “People are emotional about their houses, understandably, and they don’t like change.”
Still, Pope says, with a bit of encouragement from her, homeowners are becoming bolder.
“Boutique-hotel chic is very in,” she says. “People are up for daring, opulent colours, but beige is, at last, out.” As is terracotta, apparently, and anything coloured with a tint of peach. And lose the stripped floorboards.
“Shall we go to your bedroom?” asks Pope.
I swallow, recalling that it is beige, with acres of stripped-wood flooring.
Yet it is here that she comes into her own. Pope suggests dumping a dull shelving unit in favour of a long, stylish number at the end of the bed.
She spots a tear in a (beige) lampshade and asks why I don’t replace it with a teal green alternative. She recommends a rug or two for the floor, and points out that the reason I find reading in bed so hard is because the room has atrocious lighting.
“Lighting has been revolutionised,” she says. “There are so many options. Abandon this tiny central light and put in a big chandelier. And why is there no mirror? How can you check your outfits?”
She peers into a grim dark corner beside the cupboard. My husband favours this for the storage of various sporting accoutrements, which he insists must reside in our bedchamber.
“Get rid of this straight away,” she commands. “Push the cupboard right up against the wall.” I’m beginning to like Susie rather a lot.
With the addition of cushions, candles and a chocolate-coloured faux-fur throw on the bed, I can see the potential for a comfortable, beige-free domain. Looking at my home afresh like this, I have to concede that a taste of my own medicine might be just the tonic it needs.

British home-grown onions

By Xanthe Clay

Home-grown onions are here, so make sure you get plenty in over the next few months. 

An onion is the start of something good. While you muse over what to make for supper with the contents of the fridge and shopping bag, chop up an onion and set it cooking in a shimmering puddle of olive oil.

Countless meals involve a sautéed onion somewhere, but it’s not a step that can be rushed, so it makes sense to get one gently browning while you settle on the rest of the menu. (And in the unlikely event you don’t end up using your perfectly cooked onion, it’ll keep for a week in the fridge.)

You need at least 10 minutes to turn an onion from sulphurous to the properly sweet, translucent mass that provides the backbone and base notes for everything from carrot soup to venison casserole. Caramelised onions, that make onion gravy, French onion soup, and Alsace onion tart so delectable, take anything from 20 minutes to an hour.

Onions are a staple, an item it’s impossible to imagine cooking without, much like flour and butter. They are intrinsically British, like cheese and onion crisps, beef and onion pie, pickled onions.

Yet for much of May to September, supermarkets are stocked with onions shipped from the other side of the world. It turns out that onions are as seasonal as apples and pears. This year’s British harvest is right now, and it’s a bumper one.

According to AJ Paul, the slender, humorous man who gave up driving bus tours across the Sahara for farming onions on the Shotley peninsula in Suffolk, they had high sunlight levels and almost no rain from March to May this year. “We usually produce about 2,000 ton, but this year it’ll be 2,500 ton,” he said.
Crazy as it seems, this actually means less money for the farmer, as oversupply drives prices down and makes retailers fussier than ever. “We’ll be paid 50 per cent less per ton,” admitted AJ. “If you produce 10 per cent too much the price plummets.”
We were admiring the field of AJ’s onions, grown in the light soil which makes the Suffolk coastal sands so suitable for root crops. It is bolstered with added nitrogen and also sulphur, which according to AJ has been depleting ever since Margaret Thatcher’s government cut emissions from power stations. Onions love sulphur, absorbing it from the soil, and it gives them their characteristic bite. It also combines with the moisture in our eyes to form sulphuric acid, which makes us cry.
The onions, it has to be said, were looking somewhat dishevelled, long green leaves bent down like lopsided comb-overs. This, AJ explained, was the sign that it was time to “windrow” the onions. Two small red tractors were on the job, the first lopping off the leaves to about a handspan above the bulb, the second lifting them out of the ground, shaking off the soil and depositing them back on top.
Here they needed to stay to dry for a day or two on the soil. Weather permitting, that is, but with a light breeze and warm autumnal sunshine, it was a perfect onion day.
To see the next stage, we drove across the farm, past its protected heathland grazed by Hebridean sheep and Exmoor ponies. We swung into the farmyard, slowing for a flock of red legged partridge, and pulled up in front of the barns. It is here that the onions are sorted and finish their drying process, with vast fans blowing warm air through vents in the floor up through a depth of 12ft of onions, piled up in an area the size of a tennis court.
This drying, or curing, is crucial, closing up the neck of the onion so that the moisture stays in the bulb and no bacteria can get in. “The onions stay naturally dormant for 12 weeks, but after that they want to sprout,” AJ told me as we climbed the ladder to the eaves of the barn.
At last I understand why after the New Year any onions taken out of the fridge or cold garage sprout green plumes within a day. A short spike does no great harm, but as they grow longer they pull nutrients from the onion, leaving it soft and shrunken, and little use for cooking.
Chilling the onions in storage will take the onions through to April, and there have been experiments using minute amounts of ethylene gas, which prevents the cells elongating and sprouting, and seems to keep the crop until May.
Some producers spray their crop with maleic hydrazide, which suppresses the shoots. AJ doesn’t.
When we reached the platform at the top, AJ hopped over the barrier and began striding over the sea burnished of onions. “Are you coming? This is how we tell if the onions are dried enough. Listen.”
I slipped and lurched through the Allium ball pool, and sure enough as I reached the drier onions at the back the squeak underneath changed to a rustle and I slid ankle deep in the firmer bulbs.
Walking on onions is harder than walking on sunshine. But it still feels good.

OFT uncovers 'unfair' mobility aid sales practices

By Mark king

More than 4,000 complaints about unfair sales practices have been made in each of the past three years

 The OFT said consumers can experience misleading sales practices when buying mobility equipment at home. Photograph: David Azia/AP

Evidence of unfair sales practices targeted at elderly and vulnerable consumers buying mobility aids has been uncovered by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), leading to an investigation into two nationwide traders.
The investigation raised particular concerns about doorstep sales of wheelchairs, scooters, stairlifts, bath aids, hoists and adjustable beds used by the elderly, disabled and those with medical conditions.
The OFT said consumers can experience high pressure and misleading sales practices when buying this equipment at home, with victims likely to experience distress and inconvenience which could impact on their health and wellbeing.
Publishing the results of its study into the mobility aids industry, the OFT said more than 4,000 complaints about unfair sales practices had been made to Consumer Direct in each of the past three years, with complaints highest for doorstep sales. The problem is exacerbated because most purchasers of mobility aids are first-time buyers.
The OFT found evidence that about half of consumers are not shopping around for products; there can be a wide disparity in the price of identical products (it discovered the price of one brand and model of scooter varied by £3,000); and about half of websites and advertising material in the sector did not list prices.
As a result, consumer protection investigations have been launched into two national mobility aids traders, which the OFT refused to name – one in relation to suspected unfair doorstep sales practices, and the other over its terms and conditions and service delivery.

Doorstep awareness campaign

The OFT is also launching a doorstep selling consumer awareness campaign, warning traders to make sure their practices are compliant with the law or face possible legal action by the OFT or Trading Standards. It is also calling for businesses to display actual prices, or price ranges, so consumers can shop around more easily and find competitive quotes.
The trade association for mobility aid retailers, the British Healthcare Trades, has also promised to amend its own code of practice so that all members display price information on their marketing materials and websites.
Ann Pope, a director in the OFT's goods and consumer group, said: "Mobility aids are often an expensive purchase and we know that for many elderly or disabled people they can be an absolute necessity. While many purchasers are happy with their experience, we are concerned that some traders may take advantage of consumers when they visit them at home.
"We are already prioritising consumer enforcement activity in this sector and we are today issuing a warning to the industry that we will take further action where necessary."
She added: "Many consumers may be surprised at the money they could save by shopping around. We want to encourage people to take the time to think about what they are buying so that they know they are getting the right product at a fair price."
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Redecorate Your Home For Fall Without Spending A Fortune

By Tammy Bester

Get your Cumming home ready for the new season with these inexpensive ways to make it cozy and festive. 

The fall colors are here and so are the countless magazines and catalogs that come in the mail telling us that it is time to redecorate for fall. Bringing the colors and feel of the fall season into your home will make it feel cozy and warm.
While it would be nice to redo the entire house to match the new colors of the season every few months, for most of us, this is simply not possible. We are not going to go buy new furniture, new bedding and even paint our walls to match the changing weather outside every few months. But, we can change the look of our home and get that same fall feel inside without spending much money at all.
Fall is all about colors and smells. The warm colors of browns, oranges, deep reds, yellows, rusts and splashes of teal are very popular this year. These colors are easily mixed in to most people's current neutral home decor.
Adding a few simple touches can change the entire look of a room. Throw pillows and a soft small blanket thrown across the arm of a chair or sofa are easy and quick but make a drastic change. Candles in these colors that also have fall scents can change the color and the smell of a home. Changing out window and shower curtains, rugs and hand towels are also quick and inexpensive changes. When the season is over and the holiday decorations come out, pack the fall colors away for next year.
Each year, home owners can add to the fall decor by doing another room or section of the house, or save the money and use what they already have.
Pier 1 Imports is a great shop for fall decor. The shop has an excellent selection of pillows and curtains in fall colors right now. Many of these are on sale at 20 percent off of their regular prices as well. Pillows with a lot of details like embroidery and ruffles can be bought for $20 to $30 a piece and curtains can also be bought for under $30 a panel. Candles in jars or loose pillars with stands can be bought for under $20. An entire room can have a whole new look for well under $100 for the season at Pier 1.
Bed Bath And Beyond is the go to place when you have a decorating project at home. The store seems to carry everything. Whether you need candles, towels, throw pillows or new kitchen decor, Bed, Bath and Beyond has it all. Be sure to sign up at their Web site to get coupons mailed to you. They come almost every week, it seems, and are good for 20 percent off any one item. They have expiration dates but the stores take expired coupons and shoppers can use multiple coupons when they shop. They do not usually have sales, except for their clearance section ones, but with these coupons, shoppers can make their own sales anytime they wish.
Bath And Body Works is always a great place to go for new scents in hand soaps at your sinks. After anyone washes their hands, the scent remains in the small spaces for a few minutes as well. The store also carries a variety of room air fresheners and candles. These room scents that get plugged in to electrical sockets can be decorations in themselves since they come in a variety of looks and colors for the season. These are on sale at 4 for $20. The 3 wick jar candles are on sale right now at 2 for $20. These candles burn evenly and will cast a warm glow from the flames as well as a yummy scent like warm vanilla sugar or sweet pumpkin throughout the room. Adding fall smells throughout the house is an inexpensive way to make your home feel like fall is here.
Yankee Candle has all of their fall candles in. These come in every size and style that shoppers could wish for.
While some people may skip over the candle store thinking that the candles are not priced well enough to make them a bargain, keep in mind their high quality. You may be able to find a similar scent in a candle in the aisle at Walmart, but if you compare the look and the burn of the candle, it may not be such a bargain anymore to buy the cheaper one. Inexpensive candles often do not burn evenly and much of the wax is wasted. It can also bubble up and not look as nice while burning. The scent may not fill the room like a higher quality one will. When it comes to candles, you do often get what you pay for,
They also have a buy one, get one 50 percent off right now at Yankee Candle on many of their fragrances as well as buy 2, get one free on select sizes.
Pottery Barn always carries a beautiful selection of home decor. If this is your taste but not necessarily in your budget, be patient. The store always has excellent post season sales.  Shop other stores now and fill in with more items when the fall items are on clearance. There is also a Pottery Barn Outlet store about 14 miles from Cumming at the North Georgia Premium Outlets.
Crate and Barrel is great for their bright colors that last from year to year. Shoppers will not have to worry that the colors that they purchased this year will be out of date or faded  for a season in a future year. This saves money in itself.
TJ Maxx and Stein Mart are also great places to go for new fall accessories. They are definitely hit or miss type of stores, but when shoppers find something they like, the prices are often a fraction of what they would be at department stores. These are the ones that people forget to look at when it comes to home decor. Skipping these could cost you more money as you may just find the exact same item at a lower priced here.
Making your home feel warm and inviting will make you want to spend more time there. When you spend more time at home, you may just find that you spend less money eating out and buying non-essentials, since you are not out running around so much.

Rethinking money 101: Tough times add a twist to old financial tips

Written by Ken Serrano | Staff Writer 

 

This file photo taken in November 2010, shows a foreclosed home on Pine Island in Lee County, Fla. It’s not just that the housing market caved in, proving that houses can depreciate as well as gain in value. For many potential buyers, the costs associated with a home are higher than they realize. / ASSOCIATED PRESS

As hard times grind on, many Americans are taking a fresh look at the money lessons learned from their families. While some of the personal finance advice from prior generations and old adages hold up, some no longer apply — and sometimes they weren’t on target to begin with.

The struggling economy has dismantled some tried-and-true concepts.
With the stock market taking wild swings and low returns on savings, “I keep my money in my pocket,” said Steve Morris, 64, a title searcher from Freehold.
Financially speaking, he’s taking things a step at a time and not bounding into new investments.
That may appear to defy the biblical advice against burying your talents, although the parable means much more.
But more people seem to be just hanging on to their assets, happy they’re still there, and waiting for a little stability. But one person interviewed bemoaned the interest rate on savings.
“It used to be you got 6 percent,” said Margery Condie, 64, a retired teacher from Stirling, Scotland, visiting her son who lives in Freehold. “Now, they give you peanuts.”
Even an adage as seemingly sound as “Watch your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves” can be called into question these days.
A modern twist on this advice has made buying a daily latte a questionable financial decision. That’s the view of Mark Boyer, CEO of Foundation Financial Group in Jacksonville, Fla.
“It’s all about the four bucks here, and the 10 bucks there,” he said, adding that not only does he make his own coffee at home, he also packs his lunch.
Boyer looks at it as simple math: If buying lunch each day costs $7, that adds up to about $1,800 of post-tax earnings a year. Someone earning $30,000 a year can give themselves an 8 percent raise by packing their lunch, he said.
Morris himself has shifted to this reasoning.
“I eat most of my meals at home,” he said. “I never thought I’d do that. I used to eat out three times a day.”
But author Ramit Sethi — who blogs about personal finances at www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com — thinks telling people they can’t have their daily half-caf-extra-foam fix can derail the good intentions that inspire the advice.
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Home aid program won't hit its target

By Julie Schmit

A $1 billion federal program to help financially strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure will help 10,000 to 15,000 people — not the 30,000 initially expected, a government official said Wednesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is running the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program, has until Friday to commit the $1 billion to homeowners in 32 states and Puerto Rico. If not committed, leftover money goes back to the U.S. Treasury.

HUD's main problem has to do with qualifying people, says HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley. About 75% of the rejections have occurred because people didn't meet criteria defined by the law, including that they be unemployed or underemployed due to economic or medical hardship, be facing foreclosure and be at least 90 days delinquent on their mortgage payment.

The most a homeowner could get is $50,000. If HUD approves 15,000 homeowners for the full amount, which is unlikely, $750 million would be spent. In Pennsylvania, one of the states to get the most money, average payouts are running $33,000, says Brian Hudson of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

HUD says it's working with several senators to see if the deadline could be extended. HUD said last week that it wouldn't meet the 30,000 goal but was not more specific.

HUD is administering the program in 27 states. Five states, including Pennsylvania, already had such programs, so they ran their own.

Critics say that HUD was too slow to launch the program, failed to adequately advertise it, didn't give people enough time to apply and didn't make enough changes to get more people through in time. "HUD dragged its feet," says Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who worked to get the funding.

The program was created in July last year with passage of Wall Street reform legislation. HUD start taking applications in June, six months after it initially planned, and extended the deadline twice to get more eligible applicants. The loans are to be forgiven if homeowners keep their homes for five years.

The program complements the Obama administration's Hardest Hit Fund, a $7.6 billion mortgage assistance program for 18 other states hurt most by unemployment or steep home price declines.

As of Wednesday, Pennsylvania had allocated $89 million for about 2,800 approved applicants. It expects to get its entire allocation, of $97 million for loans, committed by the deadline, Hudson says.

Only Texas and New York got more funding than Pennsylvania, a HUD press release shows. HUD administered the programs in Texas and New York.

Connecticut, which is running its program, has also committed all its funds, says Lisa Kidder of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. Pennsylvania and Connecticut started applications in April.

"With more time, we reached more people," Hudson says.

State Rules Make Teachers Take Home Less Pay And Gain More Expenses

The changes will impact affect all state employees

By Venton Blandin

Teachers may decide to leave the classroom because they just can't afford to stay. Educators will soon take home less pay and shell out more for their employee benefits.
The Alabama Education Association and Huntsville City School Board thinks the changes are a big blow to teachers and others workers in school systems statewide.
All state employees will soon have to contribute more of their salary to the state and pay even more for health insurance if they are under 65 years old.  We talked with some state employees in the education community.
Those who work for Huntsville City Schools will have to give up 2.5 percent more of their salary later this year. The money will go into the state's retirement fund.
"It's a pay cut because that is not going to be in their check," said Alabama Education Association Spokesman Rex Cheatham.
Those under age 65 will also shell out more to stay healthy.  An increase in their health care coverage takes effect on January 1, 2012. The increases mean less money to take home, and the AEA worries some teachers will quit.
"Students are going to lose outstanding educators from all over the state of Alabama who have training, knowledge, and all these years of experience," added Cheatham.
"We have been warned that a lot of teachers may decide this is too much of a decrease in their pay," said Huntsville City School Board President Topper Birney.
No one associated with the school system wants to see a good amount of experience go away, but they understand plenty of teachers may decide to leave the classroom.
Birney is looking ahead.
"I'd like to be positive. We may open the door for some of the young teachers fresh out of school who will come in with new ideas and lots of energy," said Birney.
There's a group effort to get the effective date for some of this changed to July 1, 2012. Education supporters say classrooms won't be disrupted as much if things go into effect at that time.
The state has a calculator to help you figure out how your paycheck will be impacted by the changes. You can find it by clicking here.

Its a time to make money

BY VISION REPORTERS

Kenyans set to bring hundreds of millions to Uganda
The level of enthusiasm in Kenya for next weekend�s Nations Cup qualifier is fast-rising to fever pitch. The excitement is building everywhere; from school children to taxi drivers.
Apart from the 70 buses set aside by Kampala Coach Bus Company to ferry fans to Kampala, Kenya Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka on Monday fulfilled his pledge by also hiring an extra 20 buses to transport the rest.
Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Ludeki Chweya, Sofapaka president Elly Kalekwa, Councillor Hashin and Joseph Mtambo have also donated a bus each, bringing the number to 94 buses and a figure of over 5000 fans.
The number excludes those flying in on Friday and the large Kenyan community in Uganda itching to spend heavily on match-day.
What all this suggests is that Cranes� fixture against the Harambee Stars could provide the stimulus needed to help the country avoid its worst of the current economic crisis and could contribute to the country�s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by an additional 0.05%.
Apart from hotel and lodge entrepreneurs, bar and restaurant moguls are relishing the occasion with hundreds of millions being projected as inflow to the countrys economy. We are coming to Uganda to support and empty your bars,Kenyan Hilda Osanya stated.
Kansanga based club, Tickles and Giggles have already made advanced steps by submitting invitations for after party celebrations for both the Harambee and Cranes stars and fans.
According to Antonio Brekizeniv, the bars events and marketing manager, over 600 revelers have been budgeted for.
Lodges around Namboole Stadium in the areas of Kireka, Bweyogerere and Ntinda are being renovated to match expectations from the influx of Kenyan fans.
How about the transport industry? Due to traffic inconveniences, boda boda riders will as usual make a kill with prices already fixed at sh10, 000.
Both Uganda and Kenya merchandise has been printed and Cranes shirts are fast-selling out at a fee of
sh60, 000. 

Make money online by selling pirated content? These sites do.

By Stephen Chapman

Summary: What would you do if someone said you could make money online by selling pirated content, with no risk or penalty? So far, that’s exactly what these sites are doing…

 Piracy. It’s an all-too-familiar topic that has been beaten into the ground such that it doesn’t really faze anyone anymore. In fact, it’s something we’re so familiar with, that it has become a regular part of many of our lives — despite examples having been made along the way of your everyday Joe/Jill. The days of file-sharing services like Napster and Kazaa are long-gone while torrents reign supreme, but there’s a completely different method of piracy that has been running steadily for years and turning a sizable profit all the while: file-hosting and link-sharing Web sites.
The combination of these two types of sites is like a one-two punch resulting in a knockout. They are both essential for one another to function in such a profitable manner, and man, oh, man, do they ever make a lot of money doing what they do. The specific monetization methods for each service/site differ, but they all consist of some combination of the following:
File-hosting Web sites: These are sites like RapidShare, FileServe, FileSonic, Hotfile, Megaupload, etc. If you’ve never heard of them, they’re basically Web sites that allow you to upload files to them so that you can share them with others. In a world without piracy, the types of files one might upload would be documents to share with coworkers, videos to share with others, etc. But this isn’t a world without piracy, so what people tend to upload is — you guessed it — pirated content.
Now, all of these sites allow you to download files from them for free, but there’s typically a wait or some sort of inconvenience. And how do you make that go away? By becoming a paid member of the site: “FASTER DOWNLOADS! UNLIMITED PARALLEL DOWNLOADS! DOWNLOAD FILES LARGER THAN 1GB!”
The list goes on.
Now, it’s important to clarify that, for many these days, piracy is about far more than just getting something for free; it’s about getting something for free as quickly and conveniently as possible. It’s not enough to get something for free. They need it ASAP, too.
So, here you have file-hosting sites making money off of people who pay them per-month (or whatever payment tier they choose) to have something like unlimited, unthrottled access to files. And for those who don’t pay, they get to look at ads while waiting to download. Now all that’s needed is a way to find the files you’re interested in on these sites, right? I mean, is it just a coincidence that NONE of these file-hosting sites (well, none of the ones I’ve seen, anyway) have built-in search functionality? I think not.
Link-sharing Web sites: Provisioning for the lack of built-in search functionality on file-hosting Web sites is the multitude of link-sharing Web sites: communities and forums that exist for people to share links to uploaded content with others. Sites like ReleaseLog and AvaxHome, to be exact. (To note, I don’t recommend searching for them and visiting them unless you have some sort of ad-blocking functionality enabled in your browser.) While they provide daily doses of fresh, new links to the latest software, movies, music, adult content, and more, they actually make money from the whole process via ads.
And before you automatically assume the amount of money made must be a trivial amount, think again. I personally know an individual who earns an easy $3,000 a month running one of these types of sites. While that’s not breaking the bank, it’s also more than a lot of people make per month with their full-time job, so consider that.
Come to think of it, how ludicrous of an idea is it to suggest to companies like Microsoft and Adobe to secretly form and grow a similar community, then distribute monies earned evenly to at least get in on some sort of earnings on pirated content of theirs?
That’s actually pretty ridiculous, but I thought I was onto something clever for a second there. Nope.
Back to file-hosting Web sites, new ones are coming out almost daily and link-sharing Web sites tend to individually pick two or three to always use. But what happens when you want to download files from, say, six different file-hosting sites? You leverage services like FilePunch. Basically, you sign up with them and, through them, you can download from multiple file-hosting sites as though you’re a member of each of them individually.
But wait, it gets better!
Since it’s far too easy to find yourself downloading hundreds of gigs worth of work-related files (*cough, cough*) from multiple file-hosting sites, wouldn’t it be nice to have a download manager to use? JDownloader, to the rescue! Programs like JDownloader allow you to fill in your credentials for just about every file-hosting Web site under the sun and manage downloads at the same time. JDownloader even recognizes the CAPTCHAs required by certain file-hosting sites when downloading files for free. Awesome Ridiculous, isn’t it?
And last but not least, let’s not forget about the search engines out there that exist solely to index links from file-hosting Web sites. Such search engines are FilesTube, FileCrop, and RapidLibrary, to name a few. They, too, typically leverage ad-based models of monetization. And if you had any doubt about what people are using them to search for, just take a look at some of the “recent searches” most of these search engines show at the bottom of their home page. I see no sign of “yearly TPS report archive” or “freelance artist’s free uploaded works.” Do you?
So, there you have it. As you can see, there’s an entire ecosystem thriving with just this one particular method of piracy (or “content distribution,” as I’m sure they would prefer it to be called). It’s fast, it’s efficient, and it’s incredibly profitable for those involved. These are the modern day profiteers of piracy who make a quick and easy buck off of the losses of content owners whose otherwise for-cost products are being made easily available to the masses for free (kind of).

Can You Make Money with a Home Business in Dropshipping?

Posted by Amanda Brooke
Have you heard success stories about people who have started a home business in dropshipping and are making six figure incomes….wondering if it’s really true and if you could make money in this ecommerce enterprise, too?
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First of all, it is certainly true that there are entrepreneurs making six figure incomes with a home dropshipping business. Online businesses are the wave of the future as more and more people kick the traces and turn their backs on full time jobs working for somebody else. Who could blame them? Wouldn’t you rather reap the rewards of all your hard work for yourself, instead of spending your life lining someone else’s pockets?
Sure you would! So, to resolve any doubts about whether you truly can make a six figure income in dropshipping---yes, you can!
There are numerous benefits to working from home. Here are just a few of the advantages that come with having your own online home business in dropshipping:
Personal Freedom and Independence: When you are your own boss, you have the personal freedom of being able to choose what days and hours you will work. You take breaks when you feel like it and ditto for vacations. You march to the beat of your own drum instead of dancing to somebody else’s tune! Another really fantastic perk of having your own ecommerce business is that you can work from anywhere! Do you dream of spending the summer at the seashore? No problem! Just pack up your laptop and hit the road! All you need to keep your dropshipping online business running is an internet connection.

Financial Freedom and Independence: Running a home business allows you to basically write your own paycheck. You aren’t limited to a set amount per hour or per week as you are when you work for others. If you need to make more money for a vacation you’re planning or because you want to buy a new living room suite or vehicle; you simply figure out how many extra sales you will need to make to reach a particular goal and then map out your course to get there.
Improved Quality of Life: Can we put a price tag on the quality of our lives? So many people are stressed to the max, grimly hanging on by their fingernails in jobs they hate, harried and miserable under unpleasant working conditions with an obnoxious boss and/or coworkers. These people feel trapped because they are letting timidity and fear rule their decisions and ruin their lives. Yes, it can be scary to chuck a job, regardless of how much you dislike it, to venture into unknown territory and start a home business. But as the old saying goes: nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you have a burning desire to improve the quality of your life by removing yourself from stressful working conditions---you can be successful in a home dropshipping business!
Drop Ship Access, a reputable member of the Better Business Bureau, has over 1.7 million high quality wholesale dropshipping products available for you to start selling today! You don’t have to pay for the products you want to sell until you sell each one and are paid by the buyer. You don’t even have to package and ship those products after they are sold because Drop Ship Access takes care of that, too.
Dropshipping is a fast, easy home business to start and there is a potential for extremely handsome profits! So don’t wait another day! Seize control of your life and start enjoying the many benefits of having a home business!

Google to finance home solar systems

BY Associated Press
New York: Google wants to buy solar panels for your house. The search giant announced Tuesday that it will provide $75 million to build 3,000 residential solar electricity systems across the country. Google will own the panels, and get paid over time by customers who purchase the electricity the panels produce.
Google is creating a fund with a San Francisco company called Clean Power Finance that local solar installers will be able to tap so they can offer financing plans to prospective buyers. The plans allow homeowners to install a $30,000 solar electricity system on their house for little or no money up front. Instead, customers pay a monthly fee that is the same or less than what they would otherwise be paying their local utility for power. Google will earn what it calls an attractive return on its investment in two ways. It gets the monthly fee from homeowners, and, as the owner of the systems, Google will get the benefit of federal and state renewable energy subsidies.
The systems will not carry the Google brand, however. Instead, local installers will offer the financing deal under their own brands. Solar power has gotten dramatically cheaper, but the up-front cost for a homeowner remains formidable. A typical home system costs $25,000 to $30,000. Federal and state governments offer subsidies to help defray the cost somewhat, but it is still far too much money for many homeowners to shell out.
Solar financing plans are offered by a handful of large solar companies such as SunRun, SolarCity and Sungevity, and they are growing in popularity. Google established a $280 million fund with SolarCity in June to help SolarCity expand its offerings. But Google's new fund will flow instead to small, local installers who would otherwise not be able to offer these financing plans. Google says there are 1,400 solar installers in all 50 states. "Cash sales (of solar panels) have been good, but once you add financing, sales can go through the roof," said Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations at Google, in an interview. "It's an opportunity to significantly expand the market."
This is the second such fund established by Clean Power Finance. The company declines to name the investor in the original fund, but says the amount of the fund is larger than Google's. Google hopes its investment will show a way for other investors to team up with installers to finance many more home solar systems and make a profit in the process. This is the latest a string of investments Google has made in renewable energy, now totaling $850 million. Google has invested in wind farms in North Dakota, California and Oregon, solar projects in California and Germany, and a project off the East coast meant to help make offshore wind farms possible.
Google has said it is disappointed that it can't buy renewable electricity for its power-hungry data centers so it is investing to help renewable power expand in scale. One of Google's ten philosophical pillars is: "You can make money without doing evil," and reducing the environmental impact of its business has long been a focus of co-founder and CEO Larry Page. The company says that since 2007, it has completely offset its emissions of greenhouse gases by paying for projects that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
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