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On a hot spring evening in early May--the kind that elicits nervous global-warming jokes--a crowd of powerful and wealthy people are gathered at a cocktail party in the banquet hall in the Hart Senate Office building on Capitol Hill, sipping wine and talking carbon. The advocacy group Environmental Defense is throwing the party, but mixed among its staff and the requisite Democratic lawmakers are attendees who normally wouldn't be caught dead in the company of career tree-huggers: bankers, energy company executives, suits from General Motors, Chevron, nascar--yes, nascar--and a bunch of right-leaning multimillionaires. Virginia Senator John Warner is here, with his lupine frown. Warner, of course, is a Republican, as is Indiana's Richard Lugar, who spoke earlier in the day at E.D.'s board meeting. Both men rated a whopping 20 percent from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
Colorado Senator Ken Salazar, the official host of the party (and a rancher from a mining state, no less) gets up before the crowd.
"We have one person to thank fo--" Salazar begins, then stops. Everybody looks around. "Where's Fred?"
At last, Fred Krupp peeks his still-boyish 53-year-old face out from behind a group that didn't notice him standing next to them and flashes a sheepish grin.
"Theeere's Fred," Salazar says, before turning back to the crowd to attest to his concern for the fate of the earth.
Discrete by nature, Krupp can afford to be, especially so lately. Such is the clout he's accumulated in Washington and on Wall Street. Krupp, of all environmentalists, has been the most successful in persuading the corporate world--and those who support its interests--to embrace the green cause. Among his accomplishments, Krupp has helped convince McDonald's to abandon Styrofoam for paper, Wal-Mart to stock energyefficient light bulbs, Duke Energy to invest in wind power, and Federal Express to use hybrid trucks. He was one of the main architects of the Kyoto Protocol and is a linchpin in Mayor Mike Bloomberg's GreeNYC plan. In January, he assembled the United States Climate Action Partnership, a watershed consortium of Fortune 500 companies pledged to cut global warming. And, in February, he convinced billionaire Henry Kravis and his partners to amend the biggest private equity buyout in history, the $45 billion TXU Energy deal, by scrapping plans for a raft of new dirty coal- burning electricity plants.
Krupp has been able to accomplish these feats because people who don't like environmentalists like him. He was reportedly once called "my kind of environmentalist" by George H.W. Bush. After the TXU deal, The Wall Street Journal published a fawning article titled how fred krupp's singular style serves business, environment well.
Krupp inspires such trust because he has imported the culture of the deal to the green movement. He'll work with the GOP, oil men, obdurate polluters, and any other stock environmental bete noir open to sitting down and negotiating. And, unlike most environmentalists, he shares their reverence for the marketplace. "What Environmental Defense is trying to do is create markets that give companies the incentive to do the right thing--to harness greed, harness innovation," he recently explained to me. "Capitalism is a powerful thing." This philosophy has enabled him to transform E.D. from a small, litigious 1960s gadfly into arguably the most influential environmental group around, a
$70 million-per-year outfit with corps of scientists and lawyers, a board that includes machers ranging from Teresa Heinz Kerry to a scion of Wal-Mart's conservative Walton family, and offices from New York to Sacramento to Beijing. Krupp's supporters say he represents the future of American environmentalism.
But Krupp's critics, who include more traditional and radical environmental activists, think differently. "[E.D.'s] major activity is really serving as lobbyists for commercial corporations in their dealings with environmental issues," says Barry Commoner, a biologist and seminal movement figure. Others paint him as an opportunist. Robert Brulle, a Drexel University sociologist who studies the environmental movement, says, "Krupp looked around the room of environmentalists in the 1980s. He saw that the left side of the room was full. But the right side of the room was pretty open. So he went right." Krupp's nickname among certain movement radicals is Fred Corrupt. Whether supporter or critic, no one denies that, in his 23 years at E.D.'s helm, Krupp has changed American environmentalism enormously. The question is whether his pragmatic, market-friendly approach will help save the planet--or just help companies save their skins.
No deal better embodies Krupp's beautifully choreographed platinum activism than TXU. In April 2006, the Texas-based electric company announced plans to invest
$11 billion building eleven new coal-fired plants. Public anxiety about fossil fuels and their role in global warming tends to focus on oil, but coal-- especially in states like Texas with lax regulations--can put a lot more pollutants into the air. The utility had already inflamed environmental groups because it had some of the dirtiest plants in the country, and, in response to this latest outrage, local groups had launched protests. A coalition of Texas mayors formed to combat the new plants.
Krupp took a different approach--at first, in typically polite Krupp style, he contacted TXU chairman John Wilder and requested a meeting. When Wilder refused, however, Krupp launched a "Stop TXU" campaign that involved a federal lawsuit and TV ads. But his most effective maneuver was going to Wall Street to explain to banks and investors why they shouldn't finance TXU's expansion. The company's stock began to sink. Wilder started to panic. He knew that Krupp could make a stink not only on Wall Street but in Washington, threatening TXU's ability to get operating licenses.
However, a c-span-style fight over licenses was not what Krupp wanted either. He wanted TXU to atone and preach the environmental gospel. Most of all, he wanted a deal. Several months later, in February 2007, he got his chance. Henry Kravis's Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and its partners, private equity firm Texas Pacific Group and investment bank Goldman Sachs, announced plans to buy the Texas utility. William Reilly, EPA chief in the first Bush administration and a long-time friend of Krupp's, was leading negotiations for Texas Pacific. He called Krupp and another environmental nonprofit, the Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc), and asked them to sit down with the buyers. Reilly then convinced them that Krupp could be trusted. "I said, look, this is a guy who can keep secrets," Reilly says, "and he'll do deals."
During a 17-hour negotiation in a San Francisco hotel room in late February, KKR and Texas Pacific agreed to scrap eight of the eleven new plants. Krupp's lieutenant in the negotiations, Jim Marston, whom Krupp advised by phone, also got the buyers to sign on to Krupp's Climate Action Partnership and to make future executive pay at TXU contingent on cleaning up. Finally, Krupp gave the deal his blessing, and the buyers, for their part, got to flaunt it. "Goldman Sachs decided they didn't want to get in this war, they didn't want people picketing them," Marston says. "They wanted to use us, so our job was to figure out how to use them."
The TXU deal was generally touted as a triumph for the environment as well as evidence of the green movement's newfound sway in the boardroom. It was also a highly public victory for Krupp and his style of negotiation. Most executives and politicians I spoke to cited his patience and discretion, making it clear that other environmentalists they have encountered don't share these traits. "He's thoughtful and careful, and he's nuanced," Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers says. "That gives him the credibility to be effective."
But not everyone was pleased with the deal, including a number of environmentalists and their allies, who felt it didn't go far enough, as well as smaller advocacy organizations, who felt big-footed by Krupp. "We couldn't have stood up and said that building three coal-fired plants is the way to move forward on global warming," Chris Williams, director of Greenpeace's global- warming operations in the United States, says. Tim Hermach, Executive Director of the Native Forest Council, is blunter. E.D. and nrdc "should be hung for what they've done," he told The Wall Street Journal.
Then-Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, who led the coalition of Texas mayors, calls Krupp's agreement feckless and unenforceable and claims that Krupp allowed the buyers to leave the three worst-polluting plants in place. "The shocking thing to me was this supposedly great deal was not a big deal at all," Miller says. "KKR and Texas Pacific are not stupid--they're going to bring the guys in the room most likely to do a deal."
But, in Krupp's book, that is precisely the point. Doing a deal is how things get done in business and politics. Kravis and his partners were under no obligation to play ball and, faced with any other environmentalist, probably wouldn't have. Krupp convinced them to. "We're all about winning," he says. "If we can't win everything, we work to win as much as we can."
E.D.'s main offices, on the upper floors of an office building on Park Avenue South in Manhattan, are not very nonprofit in feel. They're spacious and airy, with large, glossy photographs of wildlife framed on pristine white walls. Nor does Krupp much look the part of a vocational bleeding heart. From certain angles, he strikingly resembles Richard Gere. More gentleman than officer, Krupp favors under-pressed gray and blue suits, subdued ties, and black wingtips in need of resoling. Not inappropriately, the overall effect is of an unbothered wasp banker, not the Jewish lawyer Krupp in fact is.
In Krupp's corner office are photos of him with assorted big wigs, including George W. Bush.
"Surprised to see that one?" Krupp asks. "I was kind of surprised to be there." With Bush, perhaps, but not in the White House: The neighboring shots show Krupp with George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore.
Krupp is an operator, and, like all operators, he has no shortage of ego, albeit ego of the self-effacing, even bashful, kind. First clauses like the following are common when he talks: "So I was visiting with [former AIG chairman] Hank Greenberg, and he said ..." "Then I had lunch with [Dupont CEO] Chad Holliday, who ..." "I called [General Electric CEO] Jeff Immelt to say ..."
"Sometimes they joke that I know more of them than they do of each other," Krupp says of the CEOs. But he bristles when I ask if he's particularly close with any of them. "There's no one I vacation with." Still, Krupp's life more closely resembles that of a successful New York businessman than an environmental advocate. This year, he will make about
$415,000 in salary and benefits. His shoulders are slightly slouched from rowing; he competes in races on the weekend, near his colonial-revival home in New Canaan, Connecticut. There are no solar panels on the roof, no wind-farm in the yard. But he rarely uses air conditioning and drives a Prius, as does his wife, Laurie Devitt, a nutritionist he met in New Haven where he spent his undergraduate years at Yale.
Krupp's ambition to save the earth began in childhood. One set of windows in his office looks to the west, towards New Jersey, where Krupp grew up in the town of Verona, where his father was a small-time businessman and his mother a teacher. The local lake was contaminated by chemical run-off. A field where Krupp played as a boy was overrun by suburban sprawl. "I can literally remember seeing wildlife scurrying away from the bulldozers," he says.
Krupp recalls the engineering professor at Yale who convinced him that he was meant to be an environmentalist. The professor did not share the disdain for industry that Krupp found in the campus radicals. "He talked about people lowering their voices and understanding each others' goals," Krupp says. "I just found his philosophy so positive and optimistic. That you could solve problems if people could really talk to each other."
After law school at the University of Michigan, he returned to New Haven to start his own law firm and help found a nonprofit, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, which is still there. Five years later, at the age of 30, he took over E.D. It was the mid-'80s, and American environmentalism was foundering. After two decades of growth triggered by Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, the movement faced a ferociously hostile White House. Love Canal, Three Mile Island, and the opec crisis were still fresh in the collective memory, and yet the Reagan administration was busy gutting the EPA. The public was worn out, and Wall Street, in the midst of a bull market, could not be bothered.
E.D., too, was rudderless. Founded in 1967 around a kitchen table by a cadre of Long Island lawyers, its mandate was plain: litigate. The group scored a victory in the '70s when it helped ban the pesticide DDT. "Sue the bastards" was its informal motto. But, by the mid-'80's, conservative judges less inclined to rule in its favor were in the ascendancy, and brash, publicity- savvy organizations like Greenpeace were absorbing more and more donor dollars.
Krupp set out to turn E.D. around as Henry Kravis might an ailing company. He stepped up membership and marketing, implemented performance reviews, cultivated the press, and encouraged staff scientists to research big issues, such as a then-little-understood phenomenon--global warming. He recruited wealthy, dialed-in board members such as Wren Wirth, wife of former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth, and Heinz Kerry (she's still involved). Sensing which way the wind was blowing, Krupp downplayed litigation in favor of promoting market incentives. Instead of taking companies to court, he urged, why not minister to them--offer them expertise, show them how to profit from recycling and conservation, introduce them to legislators.
Krupp trumpeted his vision in a 1986 op-ed column that he published, tellingly, not in The New York Times or The Washington Post, but in The Wall Street Journal. It heralded a "third stage" of environmentalism. "The American public does not want conflict between improving our economic well-being and preserving our health and natural resources," he wrote. "The early experience suggests it can have both."
The column did not win Krupp a lot of friends among the Greenpeace crowd, but it had an immediate impact in Washington. C. Boyden Gray, George H.W. Bush's personal attorney, read it, and, when Bush took office, he called Krupp in. Most environmentalists reviled Bush (and still do) for his role in the rampant deregulation of the Reagan years. Not Krupp. He knew Bush was a patrician at heart, far more environmentally sympathetic than he let on to his conservative base. After all, Bush was proposing the first amendments to the Clean Air Act since 1977, and he had poached Krupp's old friend William Reilly from the World Wildlife Fund to head the EPA. In fact, Bush even proposed elevating that post to the cabinet.
Krupp was ready for his debut. He was ready to make deals. And, if his pulley into Washington's power circles happened to be hooked to a Republican president, so be it.
Gray, who has gone on to become a stalwart of the right, brought Krupp in for a reason: Bush needed a fresh green face to get behind his revamped Clean Air Act. Back in 1988, Bush had narrowly beat out Bob Dole and Pat Robertson in the New Hampshire primary, in part by promising to reduce acid rain. Since then, Bush's ratings had been slipping. If he delivered on the acid-rain pledge, Bush hoped, he could gain some badly needed traction with a recession-weary public.
Krupp agreed to back the amendments. But, in return, he wanted from Bush a number of concessions, among them a controversial new idea--a cap-and-trade program for sulfur emissions from power plants, the cause of acid rain. Krupp's plan was this: The government would put a mandatory ceiling on sulfur, and companies would then buy or sell pollution credits on a trading market. Lower polluters would save money, while big polluters would have to shell out. It was the ultimate market incentive. Krupp didn't invent the idea--emissions trading had been discussed for years but never implemented on this scale. Other environmentalists were skeptical, as was Reilly, but Krupp was adamant about the idea.
And, in the fall of 1990, Krupp, all of 36, stood behind Bush in the East Room as the president signed his plan into law. Bush thanked Krupp for "bringing creativity to the table to end what could have been a hopeless stalemate," a line that caused liberal environmentalists to cringe. Not Krupp. "It was kind of neat when he said that," he tells me.
Bush lost the next election, but the trading program eventually worked, winning praise on both sides of the aisle. "His program was one that many of us were skeptical about," California Representative Henry Waxman recalls. "But we went ahead and adopted it, and it's been very, very successful."
Shortly before Krupp made his name in Washington with the Clean Air Act amendments, he had burst onto the corporate radar when he convinced McDonald's to stop using Styrofoam. It all began with a polite letter, in which Krupp offered to design a waste program for the fast-food chain--a proposition McDonald's accepted. Krupp's deal put an end to years of protests and boycotts against McDonald's, to the consternation of certain of his compatriots, who had fomented a good deal of public outrage against the company. According to McDonald's, Krupp's plan has cut their garbage by hundreds of millions of tons.
More recently, Krupp has taken on a similarly reviled partner in Wal-Mart. Reacting to the public backlash against his company, CEO Lee Scott has undertaken a massive--and, by most accounts, sincere--green campaign. He's courted Krupp, and vice versa. In April, E.D. opened an office across from Wal- Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and, last year, Krupp took Scott on a global-warming field trip, visiting farms in Kansas and climatologists in New Hampshire.
Krupp's relationship with Wal-Mart does not stop there. E.D. receives the lion's share of its funding from foundations and charitable trusts, and Krupp pointed out repeatedly that he is very careful not to take donations from its corporate partners or their foundations. But records show that E.D. does take money, quite a lot of it, from foundations closely affiliated with and deeply invested in those companies. According to its IRS filings, for instance, the Walton Family Foundation, a large holder of Wal-Mart stock (the foundation is known primarily for funding conservative causes), has given E.D. at least
$1.7 million since 2003. "The family's money and the company's money is almost indistinguishable," Nu Wexler, a spokesman for the group Wal-Mart Watch, says. Sam R. Walton, grandson of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, is also an E.D. board member.
Unsurprisingly, Krupp doesn't view this as a conflict of interest. "We see a distinction between taking money from companies and their corporate foundations and from families that are supporting our work," he says of E.D.'s connection to the Walton family.
But it may be too simple to discredit Krupp on the basis of his organization's symbiotic relationship with corporations. Despite his reputation for being discrete, Krupp has not shied away from publicly attacking powerful allies when they abandon pro-environmental positions.
Though Duke Energy's Jim Rogers was eager to extol Krupp, he didn't mention the fact that E.D. recently sued Duke over its pollution controls--and won. Then there's George H.W. Bush. In 1992, Krupp was present at another White House ceremony, but, at this one, Bush--in the midst of a flagging reelection campaign--announced a freeze on environmental regulations for economic reasons. Afterward, Krupp let loose to reporters. He called the freeze a "wholesale handout to the American business community." The next day's Washington Post reported that Gray and Bush aide Michael Boskin stood by fuming while Krupp unleashed. "Outrageous, outrageous, who let him in?" Boskin sputtered.
Krupp, for his part, defends his relationships with his corporate allies, even those who don't share his lofty goals. "It's true a CEO might have a combination of motives, including improving their reputation, including making money, including doing the right thing," he says. "And it may be that doing the right thing is the least important motivation. We don't really care about that. What we care about is, are we putting them on track to do big and important things?"
Indeed, those goals may even depend on Krupp keeping the movement's traditional enemies closer than its friends. Krupp is going to need Walton and every other conservative moneybags in his Rolodex, as well as every politician he's ever met, to pull off his next big idea: the United States Climate Action Partnership (uscap). Krupp was a bellwether on global warming 20 years ago, and now, with uscap, he means to take the issue head-on, with a national emissions- trading system along the lines of what's currently being implemented in Europe. Uscap calls for the government to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and then to oversee a mammoth market in which companies will buy and sell emission credits. Its dull acronym aside, the plan is actually revolutionary.
With it, Krupp is doing something no other environmentalist would propose, much less attempt to implement: He's essentially trying to set up his own federal-size shadow regulatory agency. Krupp is convinced, as he was in 1990, that a trading program is the only way to get industry to clean up fast. He hopes uscap will form the basis for an international market, one that will lure China, the sine qua non of any such scheme. E.D. estimates it could exceed
$1 trillion. And, if the Bush administration is too retrograde and Congress too dithering to create such a program, he will do it himself. So far, GM, GE, Dupont, British Petroleum, PepsiCo, TXU and dozens of other behemoths have signed on. No other environmentalist could corral that kind of boardroom power. Krupp is betting that, when he shows up in D.C. with a phalanx of CEOs, the politicians will have to act. "With every additional company that joins uscap, opposition in Congress melts away," he likes to say.
Describing the plan as ambitious is inadequate. Hubristic is more apt. Some experts and lawmakers also warn that the plan, if implemented, could easily turn into a profit-mongering debacle. They cite Europe's
$30 billion emissions-trading market, already rife with corruption. Even some of Krupp's die-hard supporters are skeptical. "My problem is, how in China do you monitor if they're controlling their emissions?" says Robert Wilson, E.D. 's largest individual donor. "There's so much of the world that is corrupt."
But the same big-think philosophy that enables Krupp to make deals with corporations and Republicans allows him to hold out hope for China, which, by certain estimates, is on track to surpass the United States as the world's largest polluter within the year. It may not be an idealist's vision of environmentalism, but, as Krupp's track record shows, it can work. And it can change minds. "It's a tempting idea that there are deeply moral issues on which the world is just black and white," he tells me. "But the reality is that there are many shades of gray and in order to move people it makes sense to work with them." Like all of Krupp's deals, uscap is expertly stage-managed. It is also, for him, a deadly serious affair.
On that unseasonably hot May evening in Washington, as the senators and executives and millionaires file to their tables for dinner in the Hart banquet hall, they find on each place setting a red baseball cap. Just cap it is sewn in large white block letters onto every hat-face.
Krupp finally gets up to speak, that sheepish grin on his face, and, as he does, an E.D. board member leans in and whispers to me. "This organization started around a kitchen table," he says. "And now look at this--you have senators coming to our house. Because they know that this is where the action is."
James Verini is a Los Angeles-based writer.


text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - Motorbiking through Cambodia without a license? Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Motorbiking through Cambodia without a license? Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Cambodia View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message SudzJoined: 09 Aug 2004Posts: 438 Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:48 am Post subject: Motorbiking through Cambodia without a license? Hey guys I'm thinking of coming to Cambodia in February. Planning on renting a motorbike in PP (preferably a 250cc) and then driving through the country from there. Before getting too far ahead of myself though, I'd like to know if I'd even be able to travel this way through Cambodia without a license? The only license I HAD was my Canadian drivers license, which expired. Back to top SudzJoined: 09 Aug 2004Posts: 438 Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:25 pm Post subject: Okay I've just read that a Cambodian drivers license is now required :/ I guess that leaves me with two questions.... 1) How long would it take me to get a Cambodian Drivers license? I couldn't imagine this being worthwhile, as I'd only be there for 2 weeks (unless the process is remarkably quick and easy). 2) Are the rules usually enforced AND - if caught - are there sneaky ways around it TECHNICALLY, you also need a local license here in Vietnam, but after a fairly strong one month (or so) crackdown, there seems to been little enforcing done (from my experience and others). I was pulled over once, and a 10US 'fee' was all that was required, despite the officer being full aware that I lacked a local license. Just wondering if it's perhaps the same situation there. Back to top PattyFlipperJoined: 14 Nov 2007Posts: 572 Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:50 am Post subject: Sudz wrote: Okay I've just read that a Cambodian drivers license is now required :/ I guess that leaves me with two questions.... 1) How long would it take me to get a Cambodian Drivers license? I couldn't imagine this being worthwhile, as I'd only be there for 2 weeks (unless the process is remarkably quick and easy). 2) Are the rules usually enforced AND - if caught - are there sneaky ways around it I believe a Cambodian licence is required for all bikes over 125cc (but don't quote me on it). The licence is easy enough to obtain if you have a 3, 6, or 12 month business visa, but I doubt you will get one if you only hold a one month tourist visa. Most expats use Lucky Lucky Motorcycle shop who will do all the legwork for you. You pay $45 (plus Lucky's fee?) for a licence which is valid for one year. Previously, they did not always require a copy of a licence from your own country, but this may have changed recently as the police have started to enforce the traffic regulations. I am fairly sure that a copy of your expired Canadian licence would probably suffice. The licence takes approximately one month to obtain, but you are issued a receipt immediately and may legally drive using this as a substitute for the licence. Many locals and some expats do not have driving licences and simply pay an 'on-the-spot-fine' (ahem) if stopped by the police. This ranges from Riels 2000 (about .50 US cents) to 5000 depending on your bargaining skills. As a foreigner you will be something of a magnet for the traffic police, and they will demand considerably more money initially. Bear in mind that without a licence, any insurance, including medical insurance, will likely be invalid if you have an accident. Medical facilities here are pretty dire and outside Phnom Penh and a couple of other urban areas are virtually non-existent. 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SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake forward Alvaro Saborio is up for MLS Goal of the Week!
Saborio is nominated for his impressive second goal in RSL's 3-0 win over Toronto FC on Saturday. Midfielder Kyle Beckerman started the play, finding Javier Morales in the middle of TFC's third with a pass off of his chest. Morales chipped a ball over the top to Saborio, who ran onto it just inside the area and flicked a right-footer off the post and in to make it 3-0.
Saborio now has three goals on the year, with all three of his strikes coming in RSL's last two games. His brace on Saturday was the 16th multi-goal game of his RSL career. Saborio was nominated for Goal of the Week last week, but finished third in the final voting. The Claret-and-Cobalt has one Goal of the Week win this year, with Beckerman winning the honor in Week 2 for an incredible left-footed strike against San Jose.
The Costa Rican international is up against Montreal's Marco Di Vaio, Kansas City's Dom Dwyer, Columbus' Justin Meram and New York's Peguy Luyindula for the honor.
Voting for Goal of the Week runs until 12:59 a.m. MT on Friday. Click here to vote for Sabo!


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Technical Paper
Transient Characteristics of Cold Start Emissions from a Two-Stage Direct Injection Gasoline Engines Employing the Total Stoichiometric Ratio and Local Rich Mixture Start-up Strategy
To improve the cold start performance and to reduce the misfire occurrence at cold start, the start-up strategy of total stoichiometric ratio combined with local rich mixture was applied in the study. The effect of injection strategy (the 1st injection timing, 2nd injection timing, 1st and 2nd fuel injection proportion and ignition timing) on the cold start HC emissions in the initial 10 cycles were investigated in a Two stage direct injection (TSDI) gasoline engine. The transient HC and NO emissions in the initial 10 cycles were analyzed, when the fuels are injected in the only 1st cycle and in the followed all cycles. The transient misfiring HC emissions were compared between the single and two-stage injection modes. In addition, the unburned HC (UBHC) emissions in the 1st cycle are compared among the TSDI engine, Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine, Port fuel injection (PFI) engine and Liquefied petroleum gaseous (LPG) engine at the stoichiometric ratio.


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19, 2010
of The Attorney General
Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
of Consumer Affairs
- Thomas R. Calcagni, Acting Director
Jeff Lamm
Citizen Inquiries-
Will Pay $775,000 and Revise its Business
Practices to Settle State's Lawsuit
– Wal-Mart, following a finding that
it sold or offered to sell expired infant
formula and non-prescription drugs to consumers,
has entered into settlement with the state
to pay $775,000 and revise its business
practices to comply with state laws and
regulations, under terms of a Final Consent
Judgment that resolves a 2008 lawsuit.
settlement comes following a ruling by Judge
Thomas P. Olivieri in August that the Office
of the Attorney General and State Division
of Consumer Affairs had proven four of the
eight counts in their lawsuit – including
that Wal-Mart had sold or offered to sell
infant formula and non-prescription drugs
beyond their marked expiration dates and
that items on sale scanned at incorrect
prices. The remaining counts, which charged
various instances of unconscionable business
practices among other violations, were to
be the subject of trial scheduled to begin
yesterday in State Superior Court in Hudson
the terms of the settlement, the company
will pay $500,000 in civil penalties, plus
reimburse the state $160,000 for its legal
expenses and $40,000 for its investigative
costs. Additionally, Wal-Mart will pay $75,000
to fund a consumer education initiative.
settlement also requires that Walmart maintain
uniform policies for the periodic inspection
of non-prescription drugs and/or infant
formula and for monitoring the price accuracy
of merchandise at Walmart Stores in New
Jersey, to ensure that merchandise is not
sold at a price in excess of the posted
settlement puts the onus on Wal-Mart to
check expiration dates when stocking its
shelves, to periodically recheck stocked
items, and then remove from sale any infant
formula or non-prescription drugs that are
past expiration," Attorney General
Paula T. Dow said. "A responsible
retailer should do no less and we expect
full compliance at Wal-Mart's 54 New
Jersey stores."
admitted no liability or wrongdoing in reaching
settlement with the state. This settlement
supersedes a Consent Order between Wal-Mart
and New Jersey entered in April, 2004 to
resolve similar allegations that the company
sold or offered to sell expired infant formula
and non-prescription drugs.
the company is the world's largest
retailer or a mom-and-pop operation, we
will act whenever laws are violated and
the well-being of our consumers are at risk,"
said Thomas R. Calcagni, Acting Director
of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
"Our consumer protection laws will
be followed -- no excuses, no exceptions."
Office of the Attorney General and Division
of Consumer Affairs sued Wal-Mart, Target
and Drug Fair in September, 2008, alleging
each retailer had violated the state's
Consumer Fraud Act and Weights and Measures
Act. Target settled with the state in November,
2009, paying $375,000 and agreeing to revise
its business practices. Drug Fair went out
of business before the state's lawsuit
could be resolved.
Attorneys General Lorraine K. Rak, Chief
of the Consumer Fraud Prosecution Section,
and Nicholas Kant, represented the state
in this matter. Investigators from the Office
of Consumer Protection and State Weights
and Measures officers conducted the inspections
of the stores.
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Here at Gadling, our inboxes are full of pitches on the fabulous skiing conditions in Colorado and Utah, but news about the latest lifts and bases rarely sparks our interest. You know what does? Setting up an obstacle course in an abandoned building. That does.
To create the video above, Logan Imlach and Matt Wild spent six days constructing and skiing a line through the infamous Buckner Building in Whittier, Alaska. Once Alaska's largest building, during its heyday in the 1950s the Buckner Building was called a "city under one roof." It housed 1,000 apartments, plus a movie theater, bowling alley, pool, gym and shops. The building was seriously damaged in the 1964 Alaska earthquake, which rang a 9.2 on the Richter magnitude scale. Today, it's just a large, abandoned government building, ripe for some creative folks like Imlach and Wild to make their snowy playground.
Although there is a potentially dangerous amount of asbestos in the five-story building – not to mention its questionable structural integrity – the Buckner Building has become somewhat of a landmark for local kids and tourists in Whittier. We're not saying we recommend building an obstacle course of your own inside the building, but we sure are glad someone did.


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major macro economic indicators
|2018 (e)
|2019 (f)
|GDP growth (%)
|Inflation (yearly average, %)
|Budget balance (% GDP)
|Current account balance (% GDP)
|Public debt (% GDP)
(e): Estimate. (f): Forecast.
- Abundant and diversified energy and mineral resources
- Fifth largest oil and gas producer in the world
- Strong, well-capitalised, and well supervised banking sector
- Serious budgeting
- Close proximity to large US market
- Developing trade relations with multiple partners (CETA with the EU)
- Dependent on US economy (1/2 of FDI stock, integration of the two countries' automotive industries) and energy prices
- Loss of competitiveness of manufacturing companies due to low labour productivity
- Insufficient R&D expenditure
- Decrease in the labour force, just slowed down by largescale selective immigration
- High household debt (170% of disposable income); house prices very high, although stabilising
- Energy exports weakened by inadequate supply pipelines to the coasts and the US, and by the US's own resources
Growth still solid
Growth is expected to remain solid in 2019, despite the slowdown in domestic demand. Household consumption will show resilience thanks to the fall in the unemployment rate (5.8% in October 2018, the lowest in four decades) and the substantial wage increases boosted by growing recruitment difficulties. However, the wealth effect associated with the recent surge of house prices will be mitigated by their subsequent stabilisation. In addition, credit will continue to become dearer, reflecting the increase in the central bank's key interest rate (1.75% in October 2018, compared with 1% at the end of 2017), which is set to converge towards its neutral long-term level of between 2.5% and 3.5% amid almost full employment. As a result, residential construction, also affected by recent prudential rules aimed at limiting the risks associated with real estate loans, is expected to remain sluggish. Despite growing supply constraints, business investment will slow after a particularly dynamic 2018. It may even stagnate in the energy sector, particularly after the courts froze the USD 5.8 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project on the west coast. As fiscal policy is less accommodative, the contribution of public consumption will be significantly reduced. Conversely, the contribution of foreign trade to growth should become positive. On the one hand, imports will follow investment in slowing. On the other, exports are expected to accelerate with the signing of the USMCA deal (renegotiated NAFTA) in September 2018, which ended uncertainty about future trade relations with the United States – a crucial partner, since it accounts for 76% of total exports. Conditions will remain unchanged for most sectors, with the exception of dairy products, where Canada has opened up 3.6% of its market to the United States. Despite this agreement, the United States' decision to maintain customs duties on imports of steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) will continue to affect metallurgy in 2019, even though the sector will benefit from the safeguard measure (import control) that came into force in October 2018. Timber exports will also remain constrained by the 20% customs duties applied by the United States in January 2018. Other export sectors, such as energy, agriculture and automotive, are expected to rebound, despite the slowdown in the United States.
Prudent fiscal policy and significant current account deficit
The government will continue its prudent fiscal policy in 2019, despite it being an election year. The additional measures to promote business competitiveness are of limited scope (CAD 5.2 billion, or 0.2% of GDP). Meanwhile, revenues will remain supported by brisk activity. As a result, public debt will continue to decline slightly. Although higher than 90% of GDP, public debt (two thirds of which is provincial or local) is sustainable, particularly thanks to its low cost linked to the country's AAA rating. Excluding the assets held by the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans, net public debt is only 28% of GDP. The most indebted provinces are Ontario and Quebec (49% and 30% of total net provincial debt respectively). However, when compared against their economic weight, this debt remains limited (38% and 47% of GDP respectively).
The current account will remain in deficit in 2019, although less so than in 2018, thanks to the smaller trade deficit. For several years, the balances of goods, services and income have been consistently in deficit. Excluding periods of soaring oil prices, as in 2014, energy exports only partially cover the substantial trade deficit in other commodities (4% of GDP), due to the sharp appreciation of the real exchange rate in the 2000s, which has been only partially corrected since. The current account deficit is financed by large foreign portfolio investments. The substantial external debt (105% of GDP in June 2018) is mainly contracted by banks (43% of the total) and companies (38%).
Prime Minister Trudeau expected to be re-elected
Justin Trudeau, who has been Prime Minister since the 2015 parliamentary elections, in which his centre-left Liberal Party won an absolute majority (184 seats out of 338), will stand for re-election in October 2019. With less than a year to go before the elections, polls indicate a pattern relatively similar to 2015: just under 40% of the votes for the Liberal Party, which should have a good chance of maintaining an absolute majority. His main opponent will be Andrew Scheer, elected in May 2017 as leader of the right-wing Conservative Party, which governed between 2006 and 2015 and whose support in the polls remains at around 30%. The left-wing New Democratic Party, led since October 2017 by Jagmeet Singh, is expected to remain the third largest political force on 15% of the votes after losing a little ground to the Green Party. Prime Minister Trudeau is therefore the favourite to win, even though his popularity rating has fallen during his time in office and stood at 48% in October 2018 compared with 64% two years earlier. At the regional level, growing differences with the United States have led to stronger ties with other countries, including the EU nations, with the CETA trade agreement signed in late 2016.
Last update: Février 2019
A single law governs bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques throughout Canada; however this law is frequently interpreted according to common law precedents in the nine provinces or according to the Civil Code in Quebec. As such, sellers are well advised to accept such payment methods unless where long-term commercial relations, based on mutual trust, have been established with buyers.
Centralised accounts, which greatly simplify the settlement process by centralising settlement procedures between locally based buyers and sellers, are also used within Canada.
SWIFT bank transfers are the most commonly used payment method for international transactions. The majority of Canadian banks are connected to the SWIFT network, offering a rapid, reliable and cost-effective means of payment, notwithstanding the fact that payment is dependent upon the client's good faith insofar as only the issuer takes the decision to order payment.
The Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) –introduced by the Canadian Payments Association in February 1999 – is a real time electronic fund transfer system that facilitates electronic transfers of Canadian dollars countrywide and can also handle the Canadian portion of international operations.
The letter of credit (L/C) is also frequently used.
Debt Collection
Canada's Constitution Act of 1867, amended in April 1982, divides judicial authority between the federal and provincial Governments. Therefore, each province is responsible for administering justice, organizing provincial courts and enacting the civil procedure rules applicable in its territory. Though the names of courts vary between provinces, the same legal system applies throughout the country, bar Quebec.
Within each province, provincial courts hear most disputes of all kinds concerning small claims, and superior courts hear large claims – for example, the Quebec superior court hears civil and commercial disputes exceeding CAD 70,000 and jury trials of criminal cases. Canadian superior courts comprise two distinct divisions: a court of first instance and a court of appeal.
At federal level, the Supreme Court of Canada, in Ottawa, and only with "leave" of the Court itself (leave is granted if the case raises an important question of law), hears appeals against decisions handed down by the provincial appeal courts, or by the Canadian Federal Court (stating in appeal division), which has special jurisdiction in matters concerning maritime law, immigration, customs and excise, intellectual property, disputes between provinces, and so on.
The collection process begins with the issuance of a final notice, or "seven day letter", reminding the debtor of his obligation to pay together with any contractually agreed interest penalties.
Ordinary proceedings
Ordinary legal action – even if the vocabulary used to describe it may vary within the country – proceeds in three phases.
Firstly, the "writ of summons" whereby the plaintiff files his claim against the defendant with the court, then the "examination for discovery", which outlines the claim against the defendant and takes into account the evidence to be submitted by each party to the court and, finally, the "trial proper" during which the judge hears the adverse parties and their respective witnesses, who are subject to examination and cross-examination by their respective legal counsels, to clarify the facts of the case before making a ruling.
Enforcement of a Legal Decision
In most cases, except when the judge decides otherwise, each party is required to bear the full cost of the fees of his own attorney whatever the outcome of the proceedings. As for court costs, the rule stipulates that the winning party may demand payment by the losing party based on a statement of expenses duly approved by the court clerk.
The change precisely concerns institution of a standard "originating petition" (requête introductive d'instance), with the payment of judicial costs joined, introducing a 180-day time limit by which the proceedings must be scheduled for "investigation and hearings" (pour enquête et audition), delivery of a judgement on the content within a timeframe of six months after the case was heard and encouragement of the parties to submit to a conciliation stage during legal proceedings, with the judge presiding over an "amicable settlement conference" (conférence de règlement à l'amiable).
Insolvency Proceedings
The two primary pieces of insolvency related legislation in Canada are the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (the CCAA) and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the BIA). The BIA is the principal federal legislation in Canada applicable to bankruptcies and insolvencies. It governs both voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy liquidations as well as debtor reorganisations. The CCAA is specialized companion legislation designed to assist larger corporations to reorganise their affairs through a debtor-in-possession process.


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BRONC / LADY BRONC HOOPS - The Bronc and Lady Bronc basketball teams swept games from Evanston Friday in Riverton the Lady Broncs won a low scoring game 39-23 the Broncs beat the Red Devils 65-46.
Both teams close out the event this afternoon taking on Riverton the Lady Broncs play at 1:00 and the Broncs at 2:30 you can hear both game live on 14-10 KWYO and 87.7 FM ESPN radio.
RAMS / LADY RAMS HOOPS - The Big Horn Rams and Lady Rams swept games from Wright Friday the Lady Rams beat the Lady Panthers 46-34 and Rams won 71-53.
EAGLES / LADY EAGLES HOOPS - The Tongue River teams swept Moorcroft Friday night the Lady Eagles won a runaway 63-12 and the Eagles beat the Wolves 63-58 they play at Lovell today, games times are 2:30 and 4:00.
SC HOOPS - The Sheridan college basketball teams play at the Hoffman dome today the Lady Generals play a scrimmage at noon. The Generals play Laramie county at 4:00.
SWIMMING - The Bronc swimmers dropped duals to Laramie and Buffalo at the Sheridan pool Friday, next up the Broncs compete at meets Friday and Saturday in Cheyenne.
INDOOR TRACK - The Sheridan high school indoor track season opens next week in Spearfish, South Dakota at Black Hills state university.
UW HOOPS - The Cowboys are 13-0 and open conference play at home Wednesday against Boise state, you can hear the game live on KWYO and 87.7 FM pregame is at 7:30 with the tip at 8:00.
The Cowgirls stand at 11-2 they open conference play on the road at Boise state Wednesday.


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"I Love You Phillip Morris" is a tricky film to decipher. Garnering unnecessary attention for its homosexual content, the picture is actually more of a fleet-footed con artist valentine, paying reverence to a master of deception, Steven Jay Russell. A comedic excursion into the limits of personal freedom and the miracle of love, the picture is a skilled effort of constant surprise, led wonderfully by Jim Carrey, who gives a blessedly respectful performance that mingles pleasingly with laughs and shock.
Steven (Jim Carrey) is a seemingly happy family man living a life of service as a local cop. When a car accident clears his head of domestic obligation, Steven goes on to embrace his suppressed homosexuality, finding the new lifestyle murder on his bank account. Embarking on a series of profitable con games, Steven is soon caught and sent to prison, where he quickly masters the system of favors and revenge. Into his life comes Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a younger inmate who takes an immediate shine to Steven's odd sense of confidence. The two become lovers, developing an unbreakable bond that's tested when the state endeavors to separate the two. Slipping back into his skills of deception, Steven makes a grand effort to return to Phillip's arms, hoping their love can be rekindled, despite his addiction to role-playing in massive acts of fraud.
I suppose there's to be some expectation of bite when the screenwriters of "Bad Santa" (Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) decide to make their directorial debut. However, "I Love You Phillip Morris," despite many opportunities to treat the characters from an acidic perspective, keeps the shenanigans amazingly light and sporadically emotional. The premise is familiar (think of it as the gay cousin of "Catch Me if You Can"), but the tone stands at attention, weaving between broad acts of deception and intimate declarations of love between these men, who've finally found a sense of peace from their hectic lives in each other's arms.
"I Love You" isn't a farce, despite Carrey's occasional (and welcome) rascally business, but more on the metered side, permitting the actor time to find a passion within Steven, instead of playing his games of fraud as calculated opportunities for the rubber-faced one to pratfall his way around the frame. It's a fantastic performance from Carrey, who expresses a knotted desperation here that keeps the film moving along through extended confidence games and tense moments of awareness, as Steven happily engages in troublemaking to boost his financial appeal, only to find himself eventually stymied and on the run from the law. Carrey tones down his primary colors and expresses a compulsion within Steven that urges him to sustain his commitment to Phillip at any cost, even taking him down a dark path of medical complication. McGregor is unexpectedly gentle here as the prized lover, but Carrey elevates the episodic structure of the screenplay, communicating Steven's heartfelt pull toward illegal activities and his sense of loyalty, providing needed laughs along the way.
Requa and Ficarra keep the feature frothy, carried forward by a bouncy score from Nick Urata, while slowly revealing a disarming sincerity. There's a confidence with the material that's heartening, sustaining the film's entertainment value while taking a few darkly comic detours, one that leads to a wicked, bravely tasteless third-act twist. "I Love You Phillip Morris" is a difficult film to encapsulate quickly, with the picture's challenging narrative and peculiar funny bone better experienced in motion rather than recounted.


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Published: Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 10:00 p.m.
North Carolina parents of children who suffer severe seizures are lining up for access to and pushing for legalization of medical marijuana where it's not already allowed.
They want people to know they're not radicals. And they're not going rogue. They are searching for options.
They freely admit they are desperate parents staring down nightmares with their children, having watched them develop early skills only to lose them at the hands of numerous seizures, only to have tried cocktails of medications with debilitating side effects and watch them not work.
They want the option legal in this state to try medical marijuana. They want it so they aren't forced to uproot and move to another state where it's legal, where there's been early success in treating seizure disorders.
For children, the cannabis is taken orally and not smoked.
In North Carolina, these parents are at the forefront of what could become a divisive, emotional debate in the General Assembly – if it ever gets that far.
They are teachers and government workers and stay-at-home moms. They come from all walks of life and all parts of the state. Most important, they are parents first. As Annetta Saggese, of Wilmington, put it, "For us, this is our child, so of course you'll do anything within your means for your child."
They are a relatively small group, connected by a Facebook page. Some parents opted not to be interviewed for this story because of the controversy that exists around medical marijuana. But three families chose to speak out. These are their stories.
She's from New Jersey; he's from New York. But as fate would have it, Annetta and Matt Saggese met in San Diego, where both had applied to teach at a charter school.
"In the middle of my interview, she interrupted it," he said. "She was the next interview. We both got hired. Happily ever after."
After some time out west, the two decided they wanted to come back east, but not to their former homes. So they settled on Wilmington. "This is the San Diego of the East Coast if you ask us," he said.
They are both teachers here now, Annetta at a small private school and Matt at a public alternative school.
Just over four years ago, they welcomed home a beautiful baby girl named Annetta, like her mom, but affectionately called Netta.
"When she was first born she was incredibly healthy, no issues at all," Mom said. "At about 6 weeks Matt came in and noticed her doing a rapid blinking thing. We thought it was maybe a bug bite. We tried to cool it down with a wet towel and ice packs."
The problem went away for a brief while but then returned.
"About a week later I started recognizing when she was breast-feeding she was having episodes. It was clear it was not normal," Annetta said.
They took their baby to the pediatrician, and seizures were confirmed. Netta was placed in an ambulance, and the family followed to Chapel Hill for a rigorous bout of testing, including lumbar punctures, MRIs and a full body skeletal X-ray.
"It was the biggest shock to our world to get in the car and chase the ambulance," Matt said.
That was October 2009, they recalled, on Halloween – Netta's first Halloween in the hospital. "But not her last Halloween in the hospital," her mom said.
Netta turned 4 in late August but functions at the level of an 8- to 10-month-old. She doesn't speak, though she can sign a few words, including "more" and "finished."
She's been on a cocktail of medications, some that have worked, some that haven't. All have had drastic side effects. One prevented her from sweating. She was placed on a soy-based diet only to find she had a severe allergic reaction to soy. A drug she's on now warns of peripheral vision loss.
"If we've considered giving her medicine that could make her blind," Matt said, "or removing part of her brain," Annetta added, then why not try medicinal marijuana, they've concluded.
A big part of the "why not" is it's not legal in North Carolina, even though it's been used with limited success treating other children with conditions similar to Netta's in other states.
While some parents proclaim they'll up and move if they have to, the Saggeses say it's not that simple. They have day care here through Easter Seals where therapists are trained to teach Netta. They have friends and a support system and jobs. It's not so easy to uproot, especially with a disabled child. They don't think they should have to anyway.
"If somebody had some sort of illness and the only treatment
was grape juice, and the government said, 'No, you can't give that child grape juice because you can use it to make wine,' they are two totally different things. So with the high CBD, low to virtually no THC, it's like grape juice," Matt said.
Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the component of marijuana that's psychoactive, while cannabidiol, or CBD, has been shown to have medical qualities.
"Anybody that would take it to get high, it would be a waste of time," he said.
Annetta and Matt make a decisively strong couple. They're well-educated, well-spoken teachers who aren't afraid to ask questions and demand the best for Netta. But tears came as Annetta described the plight of her daughter. "It's OK," she said. "We're used to crying."
This year, Netta has made some big gains, she said, and for that they are thankful.
"We've seen great change," Annetta said. "When she lost everything, it was easily the hardest thing we've ever gone through as individuals or as a couple."
Because they don't know the prognosis of their child's illness, they take each day as it comes.
"Typical developing kids have milestones," Matt said. "Netta has what we've coined 'inch-stones.' Any little progress we celebrate. What she's doing right now is pretty impressive."
Matt held his daughter on the floor as Netta sucked from a juice box. A little later, she giggled as he tickled her.
"She wouldn't laugh for like two- and-a-half years," Annetta said. "At five months she lost all of her skills to the point she was weaker than the day she was born."
Liz Gorman, of North Raleigh, is a stay-at-home mom, the owner of a large, well-decorated home in an affluent neighborhood, and from a family with political ties. Gorman freely admits she's an unlikely candidate to be at the forefront of the medical marijuana debate.
"I'm a Republican. … I'm a conservative person politically," she said.
But she's a parent above all else, and as she put it: "We're desperate."
The family is on a waiting list for a marijuana grower in Colorado that produces a specific strain that has shown success in other states in treating children with uncontrollable seizures who haven't responded to more mainstream medications
She'll move to Colorado – where it's legal – if she has to, and leave her husband here.
But she's hopeful that lawmakers will hear this story – and will hear the pleas of parents like her – and make medical marijuana use legal in North Carolina, at least for children.
"This isn't about trying to legalize for recreational use. It isn't about trying to change our culture in North Carolina," Gorman said. "It's about trying to make a medical treatment that has shown promise in other children (legal)."
Their daughter, Madeline, is 6 years old, but because of catastrophic epilepsy she functions at about 1½ years old.
She has trouble walking and talking.
She recently had brain surgery, which helped slow her seizures. Before that, she would have about 300 to 400 a day, Gorman said, or seven to eight seizure "clusters" lasting up to 40 minutes each.
The so-called large tonic seizures were the worst.
Madeline would stop breathing, make a horrible shrieking noise, lose control of her bowels, and then become atonic, or "out of it," for three to four minutes with her eyes fixed upward and her little body limp.
That was happening three to five times a day before a recent risky brain surgery.
The surgery wasn't expected to cure Madeline of her seizures, just make them less violent – she was slamming into the floor – but it has granted something of a reprieve. Still, Gorman expects them to return. And if they do, she's prepared to uproot her life.
"I would run to Colorado right now if the surgery we just did hadn't been as successful as it has," she said.
Her daughter, whom she calls Maddie, has tried a string of seizure drugs and regimens: Keppra, Prednisolone, Vigabatrin, Topomax, Zonegran, Lamictal, Vimpat, ACTH, Clonazepam, the Ketogenic Diet, and IVIG.
Madeline was diagnosed with leukemia at 11 months old. Chemotherapy rid her daughter of cancer, Gorman said, but may have been the root cause of a lifetime of seizures.
The advocate in Gorman is poised – and pointed with her words.
She ticks off studies showing that public opinion has warmed to the legalization of medical marijuana in North Carolina.
But the mother in her wiped tears from her eyes as she explained that even the horror of watching her baby battle cancer pales in comparison to the epilepsy.
"Cancer was really awful," she said.
"But the epilepsy is a much more difficult battle to watch. My daughter was bright and was speaking normally and this amazing, curious being. And she lost all of that," she said.
When it's said that medical marijuana for children is risky, with unknown side effects, Beth Elliott points out all the side effects of traditional treatments that have taken a lifetime's toll on her little boy's body.
Her 5-year-old son, Gage, as a result of his numerous anti-seizure medications, has suffered kidney stones six times, urinary retention, insomnia, severe lethargy, rashes, heart palpitations, enlarged heart, loss of appetite leading to a feeding tube, nonstop crying, liver issues, urinary tract infections, inability to sweat, high blood pressure and many other problems.
Gage, who lives with his family in Roper, a small town in the northeastern part of the state, had his first seizure at 6 months old and has been having them every day since then.
The family has tried countless medications and a special diet to try to help control his seizures.
"Nothing has helped," his mom said.
She hopes marijuana is the answer – and wants it legal in North Carolina.
"Something that has shown and proven medical benefits with use and something that has changed the lives of so many for the better is not available to my son because of the state we live in," she said via email.
Elliott said her son has maxed out on the medications that he is now on and options for medicine he hasn't tried are limited. She has researched "day in and day out," scouring the Internet and Facebook groups for a new treatment that could not only control the seizures but also keep him from his oft-comatose state and give him his appetite back.
"I found the answer to what I had been looking for when I came across an article about CBD," she said.
But she discovered that though some in the country have access to the relatively new treatment, her son cannot because of state law.
"That infuriates me!!!" she wrote.
Elliott said the family is contemplating moving to another state, but "right now it's not financially or physically possible."
"We will do anything to give Gage the opportunity to try CBD, and I am more than happy to share our story to help educate others on this subject," she said.
On Twitter: @StarNewsMolly | Copyright © 2014 StarNewsOnline.com — All rights reserved.


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A few months ago I had a bit of a fad for Lavender. Truth is, I've always disliked Lavender, then people kept telling me how it would be good for my sensitive skin, and how relaxing it was…so I bought a number of products scented by the purple flower.
Jill Stuart's Fruit & Aroma Mist Moisture is one of the items I indulged in. I have a ton of face mists and really, do I ever use them? Not in public anyway.
This lotion comes in 2 scents, and is supposed to hydrate the skin. This also contains peppermint extract that is supposed to reduce excess oil and shine and leaves the skin feeling smooth and soft.
Being Jill Stuart this is quite expensive (about £18) but boy is it pretty!
Look at it – quite a good size to carry round too, it's not too big:
It does smell of lavender but in a very subtle way – there's also a floral edge to it, (no fruitiness I can detect!). The strangest thing for me about this product is how 'misty' the pump is! This pump produces the finest ever layer of mist – I mean THIN. I mean, if you spray this in public, it's going to hit the three people sat closest to you too.
I like this – I mean it is not going to create any nasty splodges on your face, it is not going to disturb your make up, it is not going to leave big droplets on your face. It's very light.
This means you want to pump it a bit more though = more product used = quickly used up.
The top of this bottle reminds me of the crystals from The Crystal Maze.
This product is quite expensive and you can definitely get better face mists for less. If you fancy something in Lavender that looks super pretty and can double for a crystal from the crystal maze, then this is not a bad purchase.
*I bought this from eBay


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Interview by Mike Woitalla
No other coach of a U.S. national team on the men's side had as illustrious career in the U.S. jersey as new U-20 boss Tab Ramos, who played in three World Cups, two Copa Americas, the Olympics and the U-20 World Cup. One of the most skillful players in U.S. history, his dribbling skills have arguably yet to be matched by an American player. Upon retiring in 2002, Ramos founded the New Jersey youth club NJSA 04. In 2008, he coached the NJSA 04 Gunners to the U-14 U.S. Youth Soccer national title. He served as assistant coach to previous U.S. U-20 boss Thomas Rongen.
SOCCER AMERICA: How valuable to your new position is your experience as a coach in grass-roots youth soccer?
TAB RAMOS: I think it's incredibly valuable to learn the game from the beginning. From being on your knees and throwing the ball to 8-year-olds so they can hit a volley to helping Thomas [Rongen] coach the U-20 team. I think I was able to see everything in between. In the end, I think all the experiences will come in handy at different times.
SA: What's your overall impression of the player pool for the U-20s?
TAB RAMOS: Overall we have a good core of players who will be important at the start. Obviously this going to be a process of over a year to select what the main group is going to be that we're going into [U-20 World Cup] qualifying with.
SA: What are some of the general characteristics of this age group? They're adults but also just coming out of youth soccer …
TAB RAMOS: You have a wide range of experience among the different players. We have guys who have been overseas and have been playing, not necessarily in first division ball, but they have been playing pro for a couple of years.
You have guys who have never done it, who are now freshmen in college.
You can have seniors in high school. So you have wide range of talent to choose from. Obviously in the end you want to choose the most talented players who can play the way you'd like to play. But at the same time experience becomes a very important part of the selection process.
SA: U.S. Soccer Youth Technical Director Claudio Reyna has talked about the national teams at all levels, from Jurgen Klinsmann's senior team on down, playing similar styles and in a similar system. How does that affect your task?
TAB RAMOS: We discussed that a lot. I feel fortunate that I've been able to go with Jurgen [as assistant coach] on the last few trips and I sort of know what he's looking for and the type of player he's looking for.
One of the most important things with this particular team is to win games, to get us to the [U-20] World Cup and to do the best we can.
But at the same time, one of my jobs is to try to develop players so when they get to the senior team they can play the same way we want to play on the senior team.
SA: How would you describe what Klinsmann is looking for?
TAB RAMOS: I'm sure Jurgen would be able to explain that better. But I think it's pretty clear that he likes the teams to play out of the back. He wants people who are confident on the ball and confident to be able to make a difference in the game.
He wants guys up front who are direct, who want to go for goal, who want to make an impact on the game.
Not that other people aren't looking for these things, but I think sometimes we find a lot of coaches who may say that's how they want to play, but when it comes time to play the game -- you find them playing with one forward on top all by himself.
I think this is something Jurgen has been trying to do different. He's been trying get more people forward. He's been trying to give confidence to players to make a difference.
And the youth national teams will try not to be any different.
SA: About half the players who were part of the last three U.S. World Cup squads had played in a U-20 World Cup. How valuable is that U-20 experience?
TAB RAMOS: Very. Basically it's the same thing. Preparation is the same thing. You have the scouting component. You have the fitness component.
The players are a little younger, but particularly the U-20 national team should be able to prepare a player for going into the senior team and not miss a beat.
SA: What memories do you have from playing in the U-20 World Cup in 1983 in Mexico at age 16?
TAB RAMOS: I took an elbow to face and got a broken nose against Ivory Coast [a 1-0 U.S. win].
But I have great memories. We opened against a very good Uruguay and lost 3-2. We lost the last game against Poland [2-0].
It was my first experience of what to me was real soccer. Making it to the youth national team is very special. I hope all the players coming into camp feel the same way I did when I played.
(Tab Ramos, the new U.S. U-20 men's national team coach is also President of New Jersey club NJSA 04, which he founded. He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005 after a playing career for the USA that included three World Cups, two Copa Americas and the Olympics. He played club ball in Spain (Figueres & Real Betis) and Mexico (Tigres), in addition to his seven years with the MLS's MetroStars.)
(Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, coaches youth soccer for East Bay United in Oakland, Calif. His youth soccer articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com.)
Tab Ramos dribbling skills unmatched? Where have you been?
Easy to recruit top players and parents (and get their money) to his youth club team, when you are a national team player. Instead of development, most successful youth clubs are good recruiters of talent.
I have a son who is good with the ball. We do not have money to play academy or travel long distance for practice but we will be able to send you some videos or tell you more about it if you reply to email@example.com
I have to agree with Amos on the Academy club comment. He is dead on.
Look for players who know intrinsically how to score goals. As Fernando Torres said when he was growing up. "We all wanted to be forwards but those that could not score slowly gravitated to other positions."
We need to be able to construct a system where everyone can be involved regardless of money. Our youth system is still too money oriented. This is the point Carlos Lopez is making and the situation needs to change. We will never as a nation reach our potential in the sport of soccer unless we change this aspect of the youth soccer system.


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The owner of a small-town shop gave the writer a cutting from a large Hoya that vined throughout the store.
If you have a plant you would like to share with someone or just make more of, now is a good time to take cuttings. In spring, the longer days and increased sunlight awaken our houseplants from their winter slumber. They push new growth, making it the optimal time to take cuttings.
I was in a small town store a couple of years ago and was impressed with the enormous hoya (H. pubicalyx) trailing everywhere through the store. I asked for a cutting (always ask before taking a cutting) and was gifted with one. After I got home, I cut it into smaller pieces, and planted each one.
This process isn't complicated or expensive. I use empty deli containers to start cuttings and the appropriate soil for the specific type of plant. If the plant being propagated is not a succulent, humidity is a large factor. Close the lid on the deli container or cover with a plastic bag. The humidity helps keep the cutting well hydrated while waiting for new roots to grow.
For succulents, such as the hoya pictured, I used a quick-draining soil formulated for succulents. Dampen the soil before placing the cuttings. I used bent wire to pin the cuttings to the soil. Paper clips work well for this, too. The cuttings must have contact with the soil to be able to grow new roots. Keep the soil moist, but not wet. Wet soil will rot the plants.
This process isn't something that happens overnight. It may take weeks or months to see growth from the cutting. The plants have roots when you see new growth. At this time, you can transplant the cuttings to their own containers.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to take cuttings. Although the example is a hoya, the method works for several other houseplants.
A version of this article appeared in a March/April 2016 print edition of State-by-State Gardening.
Photography courtesy of Lisa Eldred Steinkopf.