text:
Embedded Systems Design
Table of Contents
The aim of this module is to teach students how to design and write programs for low power embedded devices that communicate with other computers or devices to solve practical problems. The course will cover the relevant theoretical knowledge required for writing such applications, and provide practical experience writing C programs for the Atmel family of microcontrollers. The module will also give students an appreciation for some of the issues when designing low power enbedded systems.
For each of the first 4 weeks of this 8 week course, you will be provided with a workbook like this one. It contains step by step instructions for you to follow, and links to reference material. Each workbook contains a number of exercises. Completion of these exercises must be verified by a demonstrator who will award a 'tick' for each completed workbook. In some instances you may need to provide completed C code. When this is the case, you are required to provide neatly formatted and commented code, such that someone else could take your code and modify it without having to decipher cryptic comments or obscure syntax. For everyone's sanity, use the simplest and most readable way of carrying out the task - there are no bonus points for clever but unreadable code. There may be occasions (eg for optimised speed) where you need to use cunning optimisations and tricks. If so comment them really well, or the next programmer to see the code may well decide to make it more readable and break it. That next programmer may well be you in 3 years time, of course.
For the final 4 weeks, you will be conducting your own design and build project. There is a list of project suggestions available: project_suggestions.html or project_suggestions.pdf If you have any ideas which you think might be suitable for a project, please discuss them with us at the earliest opportunity, so that we can judge their feasibility, make recommendations and order any specialist components. You need to have a 1-page project proposal approved by a demonstrator prior to session 5.
Work your way through the exercises in each workbook. Once you have done this, contact a demonstrator for 'ticking'. You are expected to have completed each workbook before the start of the next session. During the sessions, demonstrators are available to assist you if you have any questions, or if anything is not clear.
An on-line version of this workbook is available at:
You should check this page regularly for announcements and errata. You might find it useful to refer to the on-line version of this workbook in order to follow any provided web links or to cut and paste example code.
You need to have obtained 4 'ticks' awarded for completion of each of the 4 workbooks. You will also need to submit a formal report concerning your project work. The report should be approximately 4,000 words in length, and should be submitted to the Teaching Office on the first teaching day of the Lent Term. Students are also encouraged to submit their lab books.
Within these worksheets, the following conventions will be used.
This style is used for program listings. Note that you can save yourself considerable amounts of typing by referring to the online version of this document and using cut and paste.
When referring to the names of registers in the microcontroller or bit positions within registers a
fixed spaced font will be used.
This workbook was created using Docbook, and transformed into .pdf and html versions.
All the following are available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/P31/ or subdirectories.
The online version of this workbook at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/P31/workbook1.html allows you to follow the links easily.
A template suggestion for C programs. You may already have your own style for C programs, in which case that would be a good choice. The important things is to develop a consistent structure.
When designing with microcontrollers you will find that you re-use existing code a great deal. Having a structure to your programs will help to make code re-use easier, and less prone to errors, for example forgetting to include initialisation code.
Data sheet for the Atmel ATMEGA168P microcontroller used in these exercises. You will need to refer to this frequently. Within these workbooks it will often be referred to as 'the datasheet' The section numbers referred to in these workbooks refer to revision 8161C of the datasheet dated 05/09.
Be aware that there is a newer version of the device, numbered ATMEGA168PA, but at the time of writing these devices were not available in the 28 pin Dual-in-line [DIL] package.
A Makefile template used in Exercise 1.
Documentation for libraries available on the PCs for the Atmel range of microcontrollers.
A circuit diagram for connecting a programming header to the microcontroller.
Photograph showing the connections for in-circuit programming of the microcontroller.
Tutorial for AVR-GCC.
Workbook 1 will cover Microcontroller Clock sources, and very basic I/O.
Workbook 2 will cover basic Serial communication, Serial communication using interrupts, and the use of the Analogue to Digital converter.
Workbook 3 will cover the use of timers in the microcontroller, and adding an LCD display for more readable output.
Workbook 4 will cover interrupts generated from transitions on inputs, and use these to create a precision interval display. It will also cover the sleep modes for the microcontroller.
A microcontroller Integrated Circuit (IC) - In these workbooks you will be using the ATMEGA168P microcontroller made by Atmel. There are a large number of members of this family of microcontrollers each with different capabilities. For the project part of the course, other devices in the family may be a better fit to the requirements.
A power supply (PSU). The early exercises need a PSU capable of delivering 5 V at 100mA. Note that some members of the microcontroller family will work at reduced clock speeds at supplies down to 1.8 V.
A programmer for the microcontroller - these worksheets are written assuming the use of a USB based device from tuxgraphics.org
A prototyping board so we can develop the hardware, sensors and interface circuits.
avr-gcc - a C cross compiler.
An alternative would be to use an AVR cross assembler, enabling us to write assembly code directly. While an assembler might produce slightly faster and more compact code, C should give reasonable results whilst being somewhat easier to program. We will use the gcc cross-compiler. The cross prefix refers to the fact that we run it on one type of computer (Intel x86 architecture) but create code to run on a different architecture (the Atmel device).
avr-libc - libraries for the Atmel AVR family of microcontrollers we are using. Documentation is available at http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/.
binutils-avr - compiler tools such as 'make'.
avrdude - software to control the programmer.
Decimal numbers have no prefix and are shown as e.g., 45
Hexadecimal values are shown in the form 0xDF
In these worksheets we will not use octal. It is perfectly valid, but is likely to cause errors.
In general, each of the following steps need to be performed to create and run software on the microcontroller.
The C code is created in a file ending with the extension .c
A program called
make is used together with a configuration
make uses the timestamp on files and the contents of the
Makefile to decide which commands need to be run.
make knows nothing about the compile process - it simply compares timestamps on input and output files, and runs a command if the input is newer than the output.
The resulting output file may be an input to another line in the
Makefile, and so the process may repeat multiple times.
If there are no errors, then eventually all output files will be up to date.
The input files are more generally described as
source files and the output files are described as
object files.
During the procesing by make, the .c files (there may be several) will be compiled, and
linked with library object files to form
object files, ending in .o
These .o files are converted in turn by
make to a suitable format for the programming hardware, usually with a .hex extension.
The command
make program invokes a program called avrdude which transfers the .hex file to the microcontroller.
If the code transfers correctly, the microcontroller restarts and executes the code immediately, exactly as it would from power on.
This week there are two exercises. They are intended to be straightforward, but they will provide a thorough test of the toolchain being used, and give you a first taste of programming these microcontrollers in C. These examples are also useful later on since they will enable you to verify the hardware and software toolchain when more complex programs that you have developed fail to work as expected.
Exercise 1
Set up the clock to the microcontroller, and verify its function using an oscilloscope.
Exercise 2
Flash a light emitting diode (LED) once per second.
Setting-up the clock for the microcontroller.
The ATMEGA168P device can use one of several clock sources, including one generated internally. The internal clock isn't very precise, but for many applications it is sufficient. An option exists to output the clock to a pin, where its function can be verified using an oscilloscope.
In this exercise you will determine suitable values for
hfuse and
lfuse such that the devices use the clock generated within the device,
and also output it to a pin where you will be able to verify that it is working as expected.
Note that the term 'fuse' is left over from earlier programmable devices which really did have fuses which, once blown, were fixed in that state.
In newer devices, the term refers to settings made in flash memory which can be reprogrammed multiple times by use of the programming hardware,
but importantly, cannot be changed by the program running on the microntroller itself.
The factory default for hfuse is correct for what we require here, but you will need to make one change to lfuse.
Many of the exercises in these worksheets will build on example code and on code created in previous exercises. Creating a clear directory structure will help both you and the demonstrators. For each exercise, make a COPY of relevant files from previous exercises.
In some instances, example code or partially completed code will be provided for you.
cd ~ mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook1/exercise1 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook1/exercise2 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook1/exercise3 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook2/exercise1 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook2/exercise2 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook2/exercise3 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook3/exercise1 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook3/exercise2 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook4/exercise1 mkdir -p embedded_systems/workbook4/exercise2 cd embedded_systems/workbook1/exercise1
CPPFLAGS=-I. -I../lib MCU=atmega168p VPATH=../lib all: exercise1.hex exercise1.elf: exercise1.o %.o: %.c avr-gcc ${CPPFLAGS} -Os -mmcu=${MCU} -o $@ -c $^ %.elf: %.o avr-gcc -Os -mmcu=${MCU} -o $@ $^ %.hex: %.elf avr-objcopy -j .text -j .data -O ihex $^ $@ %.lst: %.elf avr-objdump -h -S $^ > $@ clean: rm -f *.o *.elf *.hex *.lst program: exercise1.hex avrdude -p m168p -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c avrusb500 -e -U flash:w:$^ fuses: avrdude -p m168p -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c avrusb500 -e -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m avrdude -p m168p -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c avrusb500 -e -U lfuse:w:0x62:m
Here is a brief explanation of the line you have just edited (note: this is only for information).
The linux program used to program the device.
-p m168p
Tells avrdude the device type being programmed - the device signature is checked before programming.
-P /dev/ttyUSB0
Tells avrdude where the programmer is attached.
-c avrusb500
Tells avrdude the type of programmer being used.
Erase the device before programming.
-U hfuse:w:0xDF:m
Perform a memory operation.
In this case hfuse:write:value-to-write:immediate (that is the value to write is literally the value 0xDF).
The next stage is to fit the microcontroller into the prototyping board, and wire it up to a power supply and a programmer. These devices can use In Circuit Programming - i.e., the device does not need to be removed from the board in order to be programmed. Note that Pin 1 of the device is marked with a dot, and the pins are numbered counter-clockwise when looking from above.
Refer to the circuit diagram http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/P31/docs/breadboard_program.pdf. Connect the device up as shown in the diagram. There is a photo showing one possible layout here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/P31/docs/programming_header.jpg
If all went well, then you should be able to verify using an oscilloscope that there is a 1MHz square wave on PORT
PB0, i.e., pin 14 of the device.
If not, the following list gives some common problems
No power to the microcontroller. Note that the power consumption may be too small to low on the power supply current meter.
The microcontroller is in the board the wrong way round.
Not looking at the correct output pin.
The oscilloscope probe ground clip is not connected to the board ground (0V).
Wrong values for hfuse and lfuse - if you get the value wrong and then can't program the device, it may be that you have set it to use an external clock, or have disabled programming. Either way you'll need a new ATMEGA168.
So far you may not feel that much progress has been made, but now we know that:
The Atmel device is receiving power and using an internal clock.
The in-circuit programming is working.
The software toolchain and at least the last 2 lines of the Makefile are correct.
In this exercise, you will attach an LED to an output, and write some C code to flash the LED.
To simplify this task, a template is provided for you, but some terms need to be defined first.
For a detailed description, refer to section 13 of the datasheet for the device. The following is a brief summary:
Each 8 bit IO port is controlled by three 8 bit registers: DDR (Data Direction Register), PORT (data output register), PIN (data input register)
Different devices have different numbers of ports referred to as
PORTA, PORTB, PORTC etc, and controlled by
DDRA, DDRB, DDRC etc
The 8 bit Data Direction Register,
DDR, contains a 1 in each position where an output is required, for example to set the top bit of PORTB (PB7) as an
output and the rest as inputs:
DDRB = 0x80 ;
Assigning an 8 bit value to a PORT will write a value to the Data Output register. If the corresponding pin is set to be an output, then the value in the Data Output register will control the voltage on the output pin. If the corresponding pin is set to be an input, a 1 in the Data Output register will enable a pull up resistor on the pin.
To change fewer than 8 bits at once, use the bitwise AND and bitwise OR functions in C (see later in this section).
For example to set the top 5 bits to a low state, the lower 3 bits to a high state
PORTB = 0x07 ;
For this exercise, LEDs with suitable resistors built in for 5V operation are provided for you (the green and red ones).
In general it is a good idea to have structure in your programs. For microcontrollers,
it makes a lot of sense to have building blocks which you can cut and paste between your different programs.
Microcontrollers don't have a vast amount of code space so you can't simply include all possible
functions just in case you need them. A suitable template is provided:
We have just seen the method used to assign ports as inputs and as outputs, and how to read from and write to them.
When using microcontrollers it is often a requirement to set (or clear) one bit of a port at a time, rather than writing a new value to the whole port. The preferred way to set a bit is to use the |= operator. For example bit 5 of PORTB:
and to clear that bit
To explain this in more detail: In the library header <avr/io.h> PB5 is defined as the value 5. So (1<<PB5) is 00000001 shifted left 5 places, to give 00100000 binary or 0x20 when expressed in hexadecimal.
PORTB |= 0x20is equivalent to
PORTB = PORTB | 0x20
and will set bit 5, leaving all others untouched.
We actually only need the brackets round (1<<PB5) in the case ~(1<<PB5) in order to define the operator precedence, but it is good practice to put the brackets in anyway as it is easy to miss when editing code.
You now have access to the library functions
_delay_ms(J) and
_delay_us(K) where you subsitute double values
for J and K, which must be known at compile time. You can't use variables for J and K; if you try you will just get a very small or a very large delay.
See the documentation at
avr-libc for more details.
One last step.
In order to loop forever (rare in most C programs, but common when using microcontrollers)
while (1) { // code in here }
you now have all the parts you need to write code to flash the LED once per second.
You should be rewarded with a flashing LED. If it isn't flashing but you think your code is correct, you can look at pin 15 with an oscilloscope or multimeter to check.
Make sure you have shown your working code for each of the exercises to a demonstrator and received your 'tick'.
Before the class next week, modify exercise 2 to use 2 LEDs flashing alternately. Fit a red and a green LED to PORTB. The green LEDs aren't as bright, so turn the green LED on for 600mS, off for 400mS, but leave the red LED on/off times at 500mS. PB0 is being used for the clock output, so add the second LED to a different pin on PORTB.
It would be very worthwhile for you to briefly read the datasheet for the ATMEGA168P, as we will continue to use it throughout the workbooks, and you will almost certainly use the same device in your projects in the last 4 weeks of the course. Make sure you are familiar with the material in this workbook, and keep a copy, as later workbooks do not give the same detailed instructions as this one. To make best use of the time when demonstrators are available, you might want to read the next workbook and its supporting material before the start of the session.


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European Politicians Look To Ban WiFi In School... For The Children
from the not-this-again dept
pay particular attention to "electrosensitive" persons suffering from a syndrome of intolerance to electromagnetic fields and introduce special measures to protect them, including the creation of wave-free areas not covered by the wireless network;How many times does this claim of "electrosensitive" persons need to be debunked? There is a ton of evidence that no such thing as electrosensitivity exists. There are studies that suggest the symptoms are real -- but they are not caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields (they may be caused by the person's own brain, or they may be some third factor). But there has been no serious study that has shown, in a controlled setting, that anyone can successfully and repeatedly "sense" when there's an electromagnetic field around. And we're talking dozens of studies on this, with pretty much all turning up the same result. So why should anyone create "wave free areas" since the evidence shows it won't actually do anything.
The proposal also suggests limits on wireless technology use even in your own home, saying that "preventative thresholds" should be established.
The proposal fails to cite any significant evidence to support most of its claims, instead choosing to use circumstantial claims -- such as noting that since there's an "ongoing public debate" about this, we should block it until that's all been worked out.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Spokane - Religious Email
Spokane Valley fire captain fired over sending religious emails from department account
< Vatican Waiting for Five More Cardinals
Mar 05, 2013 07:22
Category: General News
Category: General News
Midwest Storms
CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois Department of Transportation has a fleet of 600 trucks to plow roadways today in Northern Illinois. The state is expecting as much as 10 inches of heavy, wet snow in Chicago and elsewhere in the region from a storm moving out of the Dakotas and Minnesota. The forecast also calls for 8 to 10 inches of snow in northwest Indiana as the storm moves east. The National Weather Service says it'll be the biggest widespread storm this winter in the region. In Wisconsin, as much as a foot of snow is in the forecast, and then the snow moves east.


text:
U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Message from the Inspector General
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The Office of Inspector General
Summary of Significant Management Challenges
The Audit and Evaluation Programs
Completed Projects
Ongoing Audit and Evaluation Projects
The Investigation Program
Investigative Inquiries
Completed Investigations
Ongoing Investigation Activities
Appendix I Final OIG Audit and Evaluation Reports
Appendix II Index of Reporting Requirements
Appendix III Single Audit Act Reports
I am pleased to present this Semiannual Report to Congress detailing activities of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the period from October 1, 2008, to March 31, 2009.
OIG's work reflects the legislative mandate of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, Public Law 95-451, Section 5(B), as well as the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, Public Law 110-409, which is to identify and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. The OIG performs its legislative mandate through the conducting of audits, evaluations, and investigations relating to EEOC programs and operations. OIG is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and quality in its audits, evaluations, and investigations. The reports highlighted in this semiannual report demonstrate OIG's commitment to ensuring economy and efficiency in EEOC programs and operations.
During this reporting period, the OIG, along with EEOC headquarters, relocated to 131 M. St. NE, Washington, DC. The OIG management and staff worked diligently during the months of October through late December to ensure that the OIG relocation occurred uneventfully. I would like to acknowledge and give my personal thanks to the OIG management team and staff for their superior work and commitment. Without their dedication and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, OIG would not be able to achieve and maintain its high level of performance.
Finally, the success of OIG would not be possible without the collaborative work of my staff and agency managers to address the findings and implement the recommendations made by OIG. I wish to thank agency management and staff for their dedication and support, and I look forward to their continued cooperation as we work together to ensure the integrity of Agency operations.
Aletha L. Brown
Inspector General
This semiannual report summarizes the Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) activities and accomplishments for the period from October 1, 2008, through March 31, 2009. During this period, the OIG issued one final audit report, one draft audit report, one management letter, one management advisory, one annual report, and one fraud, waste, and abuse alert; completed four investigations; and received 202 investigative inquiries, of which 145 were charge processing issues, 17 were Title VII complaints, and 40 were other investigative allegations.
The OIG's completed and ongoing projects include the following:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the Federal agency responsible for enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (in the Federal sector only); Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008; the Civil Rights Act of 1991; and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. These statutes prohibit employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, or disability. EEOC is also responsible for carrying out Executive Order 12067, which promotes coordination and minimizes conflict and duplication among Federal agencies that administer statutes or regulations involving employment discrimination.
EEOC is a bipartisan commission comprising five presidentially appointed members, including a Chairman, a Vice Chair, and three Commissioners. The Chairman is responsible for the administration and implementation of policy and for the financial management and organizational development of the commission. The Vice Chair and the commissioners equally participate in the development and approval of the policies of EEOC, issue charges of discrimination where appropriate, and authorize the filing of lawsuits. Additionally, the president appoints a general counsel, who provides legal advice and leadership, including coordination and supervision, to EEOC's litigation program.
During the reporting period President Obama appointed Commissioner Stuart Ishimaru as Acting Chairman and Commissioner Christine Griffin as the Agency's Acting Vice Chair. EEOC also currently has one vacant commissioner position.
The U.S. Congress established an Office of Inspector General (OIG) at EEOC through the 1988 amendments of the Inspector General Act of 1978, which expanded authority to designated Federal entities to create independent and objective OIGs. Under the direction of the Inspector General (IG), the OIG meets this statutory responsibility by conducting and supervising audits, evaluations, and investigations relating to the programs and operations of the Agency; providing leadership and coordination; and recommending policies for activities designed to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of programs and operations.
In October 2008, Congress passed the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, which generally buttressed IGs' independence, increased their resources, and held them more accountable for their performance. Inspector General Reform Act provisions include the following:
Allow designated federal entity IGs to apply for statutory law enforcement authority and to participate in the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act.
The OIG is under the supervision of the IG, an independent EEOC official subject to the general supervision of the Chairman. The IG must not be prevented or prohibited by the Chairman or any other EEOC official from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit, investigation, evaluation, or other inquiry or from issuing any report.
The IG provides overall direction, coordination, and leadership to the OIG; is the principal advisor to the Chairman in connection with all audit and investigative matters relating to the prevention, identification, and elimination of waste in any EEOC program or operation; and recommends the proper boundaries of audit and investigation jurisdiction between the OIG and other EEOC organizations. The IG also develops a separate and independent annual budget for the OIG; responds directly to inquiries from the public, Congress, or the news media; and prepares press releases, statements, and other information about the OIG's activities.
The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) serves as the alternate to the IG and participates fully in policy development and management of the diverse audit, investigation, evaluation, and support operations of the OIG. The DIG also ensures that the Audit, Evaluation, and Investigation Programs (AEIP) address their mission, goals, and objectives in accordance with the Inspector General Act, other laws, Agency policy, and congressional requests. The DIG provides overall direction, program guidance, and supervision to the AEIP. AEIP staff conduct audits, evaluations, and investigations of EEOC operations and activities and prepare reports for issuance to the Chairman, EEOC management, and Congress.
The Counsel to Inspector General (CIG) is the sole legal advisor in the OIG, providing advice in connection with matters of importance to the OIG. The CIG provides day-to-day guidance to the OIG's investigation team and is the primary liaison with Agency legal components and the Department of Justice. The CIG assists the IG and DIG in the development and implementation of the OIG's policies and procedures. The CIG conducts legal reviews of all audit, evaluation, and investigation reports; reviews proposed and revised legislation and regulations; and recommends appropriate responses and actions.
The following is a summary of the five issues the IG considers the most serious management challenges the Agency is confronting:
In March 2009, Congress approved EEOC's fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget for $343,925,000 ($15 million above FY 2008 funding levels, which constitutes a 5 percent increase). According to Acting Chairman Ishimaru, much of the increase will go toward hiring new frontline employees; this hiring is a start to rebuilding the Agency's capacity to increase systemic work and address a growing charge inventory.
In the FY 2009 appropriations legislation, Congress noted the importance of all these challenge areas except information technology culture. Only a profound change in EEOC's management culture can enable the Agency to effectively meet all five of these challenges. The Acting Chairman and other EEOC leaders need to embrace and implement genuine strategic planning and innovative work processes that are more efficient and productive. In addition, overcoming these challenges also requires commitment of significant Agency resources, sound decision making by the Agency's leadership, and continued oversight by the OIG and Government Accountability Office.
Agency progress on the strategic management of human capital initiative remains slow. The Agency has yet to finalize the draft human capital plan from September 2008. As reported in our last semiannual report, a draft leadership succession plan was submitted to the Agency's Senior Executive Service Advisory Council for input and recommendations. In October 2008, the Senior Executive Service Advisory Council recommended revision of the draft plan, including a change in emphasis from the General Schedule (GS)-15 Executive Leadership Programs to a focus on developing promising leaders at the GS-13/14 levels. No significant action to move this program forward has taken place since that time.
The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 requires EEOC to implement the recommendations relating to workforce planning contained in the June 2008 Government Accountability Office Report No. 08-589, "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Promising Practices and Fully Implementing Strategic Human Capital Planning Can Improve Management of Growing Workload." Specifically, the Agency needs to do the following:
The Agency has yet to fill the vacancy for a chief human capital officer, vacant since June 30, 2008. However, the Agency began advertising for the vacancy in early March 2009. It is vital to fill this important position in a timely manner to ensure that the Agency's strategic management of human capital initiatives is advanced.
In addition, EEOC needs to comply with overtime compensation rules. A Federal arbitrator ruled (as cited in the March 23, 2009, opinion, "In The Matter of the Arbitration Between National Council of EEOC: Locals No. 216, AFGE, AFL-CIO: Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Case No. 071012-00226-A"),
Beginning on April 1, 2003 and continuing to the present, EEOC is in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the law, and regulations.
The Agency intentionally failed to pay overtime compensation to bargaining unit employees in the positions of Enforcement Investigators GS-1810-9, 11, and 12; positions of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediators GS-301-12 and 13; and in the positions of two Paralegal Specialists GS-950-9 and 11, in EEOC's District, Field, Area and Local Offices. In addition, in violation of the CBA, law, and regulations, the aforementioned bargaining unit employees were required to accept compensatory time.
EEOC's reputation, effectiveness, and employee morale may have been significantly damaged because an Agency charged with fighting employment discrimination appears less credible when that Agency has, since 2003, knowingly violated important employment law and regulations regarding overtime. To repair this damage and ensure compliance, EEOC should plan and publicize a course of action that could include the following:
EEOC continues to face a major challenge in adequately addressing the growing backlog of private-sector discrimination cases. This backlog, known as "charge inventory," by the end of FY 2010 is projected to reach 114,632 cases, 55 percent higher than the inventory at the end of FY 2008 (73,951 cases). The primary negative effect of increased inventory is the delay in case resolution for thousands of EEOC's primary customers, the people who believe they have been discriminated against.
FY 2008 information shows that EEOC received over 95,000 new private-sector charges—almost 13,000 more than in 2007. Continued increases in charges are anticipated, according to the director of the office of field programs, who also stated that additional staff may lead to a stable or decreasing inventory. According to the Acting Chairman, the Agency will be hiring 250 new employees.
Regardless of the impact on inventory from the anticipated additional staff, EEOC needs to develop major improvements in case processing to come closer to its mission of eliminating employment discrimination. Without a focus on major improvements in case processing, there will not be a fundamental change in how well EEOC succeeds in its most important and resource-intensive activity. We agree with one of the key findings of a FY 2008 Government Accountability Office report, stating EEOC needs to develop criteria for identifying offices that ensure quality outcomes in a timely manner and share promising practices across the Agency.
In its FY 2009 budget justification, EEOC did not propose major improvements in charge processing, and no such proposals are anticipated in FY 2010. EEOC has not embarked on major program initiatives to reduce the inventory or to reduce the growth of the inventory in over 10 years. The last major initiative was the Priority Charge Handling Process, instituted in 1995.
EEOC remains highly challenged in integrating budget and performance. Without better performance data, Agency managers cannot know how well EEOC performs given the resources it expends. By adopting commonsense changes, the Agency can stop making many resource and management requests and decisions without vital information. In the short term, the Agency's current cost accounting system can be improved by adding more detailed performance data to the biweekly worksheet (the cost accounting sheet) that is filled out by each employee.
In addition, as we reported in the previous semiannual report, EEOC staff were unable to provide adequate support to the former Chair for systemic litigation resource requests, making budget requests less robust. During this reporting period, we learned that an Office of Chief Financial Officer's proposal to add a systemic litigation category was rejected, resulting in a missed opportunity for capturing key performance data.
The Agency also lacks necessary performance information in key program areas. While the Agency made significant progress in identifying specific performance targets and goals in 2007 and 2008, progress has slowed.
For example, in 2007 and 2008, EEOC worked with its state and local Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPA) partners to develop a measure to assess their contributions, but EEOC has not adopted a performance measure in this area. EEOC has gathered and analyzed information; therefore, it should adopt a FEPA performance measure in FY 2009. Not adopting such a measure would be an indication that EEOC lacks the desire to obtain and act on basic performance information necessary for effective management of the FEPA program.
Regarding case inventory target levels, EEOC lacks solid performance data to support lowering target performance levels. Therefore, OMB has not yet accepted EEOC's altering of performance targets, meaning that EEOC may face renewed and major challenges in determining and justifying short-term and long-term performance targets. Until EEOC senior managers, particularly those responsible for private-sector case processing, accept the importance of gathering and using performance data, this challenge is likely to remain.
Progress is being made in changing EEOC's information technology culture; however, important work remains. As mentioned in the previous OIG semiannual report, one of the most serious issues facing EEOC is how to foster fundamental change in the information technology culture throughout the Agency. We agree with the Agency's Chief Information Officer (CIO) that this is one of the highest long-term priority issues that the Agency faces. The change requires moving from a focus on the Agency's technological infrastructure to a more strategic approach regarding how technology can be used to aid the Agency in accomplishing its mission. Without such change, the Agency is restricted in improving effectiveness and efficiency—in directly serving internal customers (e.g., investigators) and in supporting Agency employees.
Through various initiatives over the past year, the Agency's CIO has made significant headway in developing solid business relationships with internal stakeholders to aid in the identification of critical information technology needs of program offices. For example:
However, the Agency faces an ongoing and serious short-term problem—the implementation of a strategy for the timely replacement of its aging field office network backbone. Irregular replacement can be harmful to productivity and can cause financial difficulties by concentrating spending rather than using a sound acquisition strategy.
The average age of the servers located in Agency field offices ranges from five to seven years. The industry standard life cycle for information technology equipment, including servers, is three to five years. While these servers are currently functional, the effectiveness and efficiency of the field offices in providing timely service (e-mail and electronic file management, for example) to the public and internally could be seriously jeopardized if one of these servers ceases to function and repairs or replacements cannot be accomplished or obtained in a timely manner. A replacement plan and a funding request have been developed and submitted, and an additional funding request for these purchases has been submitted to senior management.
EEOC has not adequately addressed the need to assess the performance of its state and local partners. EEOC provides substantial annual funding ($26,000,000 for FY 2009) to these partners, Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs), to conduct investigations and resolutions of employment discrimination charges. Work performed by FEPAs, both EEOC funded and non–EEOC funded, is critical to fighting employment discrimination. EEOC's FY 2009 appropriation requires EEOC to submit findings from its ongoing review of FEPA per-case costs to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. That Congress felt it necessary in an appropriations bill to require EEOC to produce such basic and essential information is a symptom of years of EEOC senior management inaction.
The Audit and Evaluation Program supports the OIG's strategic goal to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of EEOC programs, operations, and activities.
FY 2008 Audit of the Consolidated EEOC Financial Statements
The OIG contracted with Cotton & Company, LLP, to perform the consolidated financial statement audit of EEOC. This audit is required by the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002. On November 7, 2008, Cotton & Company, LLP, issued an unqualified opinion on EEOC's FY 2008 consolidated financial statements. In the Independent Auditor's Report on Internal Controls, no material weaknesses were identified. However, the auditors identified significant deficiencies in controls relating to time and attendance and in controls over revenue and receivables. Management concurred with the findings and recommendations and is taking steps to correct the noted deficiencies. The Independent Auditor's Report on Compliance with Laws and Regulations disclosed no instances of noncompliance with required laws and regulations specified under government auditing standards or OMB Bulletin 07-04.
FY 2008 EEOC Financial Statement Audit Management Letter
Cotton & Company, LLP, issued its FY 2008 management letter report on February 12, 2009. The report identified eight matters in FY 2008 that warranted management's attention. Among the internal control issues discussed in the report were the following:
Except for findings and recommendations relating to the budgetary posting logic, management concurred with the remaining findings and recommendations and provided corrective action plans addressing each issue.
Management Advisory—Management Directives
The OIG issued a Management Advisory on March 17, 2009, informing the Acting Chairman of the need to update EEOC Order No. 110.001, "EEOC Organization and Position Management Handbook," and EEOC Order No. 110.002, "Organization, Mission and Functions," to reflect the current organization of the Agency. Specifically, we noted that the Office of Human Resources' section of the order dated May 2002 did not reflect the current organization of the office. Since that time, the Office of Human Resources has added a new division and created the new position of deputy director. We informed Agency senior management that all EEOC offices should be required to review their specific sections of EEOC Order No. 110 to ensure that it is accurate and reflects their current organizational structure.
Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Alert—Disposal of Personally Identifiable Information
The OIG issued a fraud, waste, and abuse alert on October 22, 2009, to headquarters employees regarding the proper disposal of personally identifiable information. During the recent headquarters relocation, the OIG observed a number of instances wherein employees inappropriately discarded personally identifiable information in open trash receptacles.
In the fraud, waste, and abuse alert, the OIG reminded employees that loss of, misuse of, or unauthorized access to personally identifiable information entrusted to the Agency could adversely affect the privacy to which individuals are entitled under 5 U.S.C. section 552(a) (the Privacy Act) and could cause immeasurable damage to the image and reputation of the Agency. The OIG also recommended several appropriate methods for properly discarding both electronic and paper-generated personally identifiable information.
Agency Compliance with the Federal Manager's Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA)
The OIG issued its annual report on November 13, 2008, validating the Agency's compliance with FMFIA. EEOC Order No. 195.001, "Management Accountability and Controls," requires the OIG to provide annually a written advisory to the head of the Agency regarding whether the management control evaluation process complied with OMB guidelines. To make this determination the OIG reviewed:
The OIG concluded that the Agency's management control evaluation was conducted in accordance with OMB's standards and concurred with ORIP's assertion that the Agency had no material weaknesses during the reporting period. The OIG also concurred with ORIP's reporting of 20 instances of financial nonconformance. Two of those financial nonconformances were identified in FY 2007. The Agency has implemented, or is in the process of implementing, corrective action plans to resolve the remaining nonconformances in FY 2009.
Draft Report on the Strategic Management of Human Capital: Succession Planning
The OIG issued a draft report, "Strategic Management of Human Capital: Succession Planning," on March 30, 2009. The report identifies the need for succession planning efforts to be finalized and implemented and the need for senior management to take an active role in succession-planning efforts. Additionally, succession planning should be linked to the Agency's strategic plan and integrated into the budget process. Management comments were due by April 24, 2009, and a final report is planned for issuance in the third quarter of FY 2009.
Review of Atlanta District Office FMFIA Internal Control Testing
The OIG is drafting its report on internal control testing for the Atlanta district office. The review included the verification and validation of Freedom of Information Act reporting, controls over the use of purchase card and convenience checks, time and attendance reporting, and property management. A draft report is planned for issuance in the third quarter of FY 2009.
Adherence to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
The OIG is conducting an independent evaluation of the Agency's adherence to FISMA. FISMA provides a comprehensive framework for ensuring the effectiveness of information security controls over information resources that support Federal operations and assets. FISMA requires agencies to provide information security protections for:
Review of EEOC Relocations Planning
The primary purpose of this review is to determine how EEOC can improve the planning and execution of future EEOC office relocations to ensure that relocations are carried out in the most effective and efficient manner. During the next reporting period, the OIG plans to issue an evaluation report addressing its findings.
Section 5(a)(1) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, requires that semiannual reports include a summary description of significant problems, abuses, and deficiencies relating to the Agency's administration of programs and operations disclosed by the OIG during the reporting period. The following table shows reports issued during this reporting period (October 1, 2008–March 31, 2009) that contained findings.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2008 Financial Statement Audit Management Letter Report
|FY 2008 Financial Statement Audit Internal Control Report
As required by Section 5(a)(3) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, semiannual reports shall identify each significant recommendation described in previous semiannual reports for which corrective action has not been completed. The following table shows those activities noted in previous semiannual reports for which corrective actions have not been completed.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|Performance Audit of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Education, Training, and Technical Assistance Program Revolving Fund (RF)
|Open Recommendations:
|RF is to operate as an independent program within the Agency.
|Approve the establishment of EEOC Training Institute Steering Committee.
|Update RF business plan to reflect strategic direction, vision, and goals over the next three to five years.
|Initiate cross-training between job functions where reasonable and practical.
|Reconcile spending plans to amounts recorded in the accounting system.
|RF division is to obtain professional assistance to develop a more effective budget method to project financial information to plan training events and monitor goals.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2008 Independent Audit of EEOC Privacy Program
|Open Recommendations:
|Develop and implement policies and procedures to provide periodic reminders to all employees and contractors of their responsibilities to protect sensitive personally identifiable information in both electronic and hard-copy formats.
|Develop, document, and implement procedures to monitor compliance with EEOC policies and procedures related to the protection, processing, storage, and destruction of sensitive hard-copy personally identifiable information.
|Centralize administration of Web site privacy policies.
|Ensure that all privacy policies posted to EEOC Web sites comply with OMB requirements.
|Ensure that all privacy policies are posted on (1) EEOC's principal Web site, (2) any known major entry points to EEOC sites, and (3) any Web page that collects substantial information in identifiable form.
|Review all privacy laws and regulations and identify and document those applicable to EEOC.
|Develop, document, and implement a formal process for ensuring all new privacy-related laws and regulations are evaluated to determine whether EEOC is required to follow them.
|Recommend that Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP) continue with the planned action to implement two-factor authentication with the implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 badges.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|Independent Evaluation of Agency Compliance with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
|Open Recommendations:
|Develop and implement an Agency awareness training plan and program that meets the standards described in National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication No. 800-50, "Building and Information Technology Security Awareness and Training Program."
|Implement plans and procedures with the Agency field offices to identify and excess all old and nonworking information systems by April 30, 2009. Also ensure that information is appropriately destroyed prior to the system's excess.
|Develop and implement policies and procedures to provide periodic reminders to all employees and contractors of their responsibilities to take reasonable measures to safeguard authenticators (passwords) from being exposed to unauthorized personnel.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|Oversight of Federal Agency Reporting Management Directive 715 and Related Topics
|Open Recommendations:
|Develop a written plan, including a schedule, to ensure timely training for staff with major oversight assignments.
|Assess the Federal sector programs' organizational structure based on the currently authorized positions to create more stability.
|Develop a plan with milestones for making management directive 715 (MD-715) a Web-based submission process.
|Ensure that all agencies receive Office of Federal Operations feedback on MD-715 in time to fully prepare for FY 2008 submissions.
|Obtain customer feedback on MD-715 and other oversight issues using a real-time blog or similar mechanism.
|Require Federal agencies to submit part G, their equal employment opportunity assessment, with their annual MD-715 submissions.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2007 Financial Statement Audit of EEOC Training and Technical Assistance Internal Control
|Open Recommendations:
|Implement a policy to periodically review undelivered orders to ensure that they are adequately supported.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|Evaluation of EEOC Field Office Continuity of Operations (COOP)
|Open Recommendations:
|Direct field office directors to prepare COOP plans and activities to ensure that field offices are adequately prepared for a COOP event.
|Ensure that all field office staff take the COOP Awareness Course.
|Develop and implement policy and procedures instructing field office staff to store all mission-critical electronic files on Agency-managed network drives.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2007 Financial Statement Audit
|Open Recommendations:
|Office of Human Resources should review and refine time and attendance controls.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2007 Management Letter Report
|Open Recommendations:
|Office of Chief Financial Officer: Coordinate with the director of Revolving Fund to establish procedures to recognize revenue on a full accrual basis consistent with generally accepted accounting principles.
|EEOC: Complete background investigations for all employees and contractors in accordance with Federal and EEOC guidelines.
|EEOC: Develop, document, and implement policies and procedures for reviewing user accounts on all systems and review user listings against terminated and separated employee listings.
|Office of Chief Financial Officer: Implement training procedures for financial personnel ensuring familiarity with treasury guidelines.
|Fiscal Year
|Report Number
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|FY 2006 Management Letter Report
|Open Recommendations:
|EEOC's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) should report headquarters offices to the Office of the Chairman and field offices to the director of the Office of Field Programs for their noncompliance with the property certification policy.
|All EEOC offices should ensure that all forms 629 (Reports of Loss, Theft, or Incident) are provided to the security specialist in a timely manner.
|EEOC's CFO should refine the accounts payable and undelivered orders review process to ensure that all recorded balances at year's end are valid and should require personnel to contact vendors to obtain invoices for accounts payable over three months old.
|CFO should improve quality control for reviewing final versions of the financial statements and related footnotes to ensure that financial information is complete, accurate, consistent, and timely.
As required by Section 5(a)(10) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, semiannual reports shall include a summary of each audit report issued before the commencement of the reporting period for which no management decision has been made by the end of the reporting period. The OIG has no audit or evaluation reports that were issued before commencement of the reporting period for which no management decision has been made.
The Investigation Program supports the OIG's strategic goal to focus limited investigative resources on issues that represent the greatest risk and offer the maximum opportunity to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in EEOC programs and operations.
|Investigative Inquiries Received
October 1, 2008–March 31, 2009
|Charge Processing
|Other Statutes
|Title VII
|Other Criminal Violations
Inappropriate Conduct
The OIG received a complaint from a charging party that an EEOC investigator had sexually harassed her on several occasions during the investigation of her charge. The charging party obtained legal counsel and informed the investigator that the attorney should be the point of contact. The investigator, however, continued to contact the charging party. During a preliminary investigation of the matter, the OIG learned from the district director that EEOC management had made a determination that the investigator had engaged in inappropriate behavior regarding his interactions with the charging party and had determined that the investigator should be suspended. Inasmuch as the allegations were noncriminal and all issues were resolved by the actions of management, the OIG closed the matter.
Perjury and Submission of Altered Documents
The OIG received a complaint from a charging party that the respondent, against whom the charging party claimed discrimination, had committed perjury and submitted altered documents during the course of an EEOC investigation. The charging party claimed that the respondent provided documents to the EEOC investigator that were altered and contained false information. After conducting a thorough investigation into this matter and reviewing voluminous documents and files related to the case, the OIG concluded that there was no evidence to substantiate the charging party's claims of perjury and submission of altered documents.
Falsification of Time and Attendance
The OIG conducted a preliminary inquiry into allegations of time and attendance falsification in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. section 1001 at the request of the district director. After a review of all pertinent material, the OIG determined that there was insufficient evidence to establish that any criminal conduct had occurred. While the evidence did tend to establish time and attendance irregularities of an administrative nature, the district director advised the OIG that management was aware of the matter and had taken action to address, the matter.
The OIG received a complaint alleging that an individual had taken a copy of an EEOC settlement letter and altered the letter to state that he or she was to receive a $10,000,000 settlement from the respondent. After altering the letter, the subject then submitted the letter as collateral to a local car dealership in an attempt to obtain a vehicle.
The subject made a second attempt to pass the altered document to a local bank to obtain a loan. The signature of the case investigator appeared to be forged on the fraudulent document. After completion of the preliminary inquiry by the OIG, in consultation with Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agents, this matter was referred to the local FBI field office.
The OIG has ongoing investigations in several field offices involving sexual harassment, prohibited personnel practices, ethics violations, conflicts of interest, time and attendance fraud, retaliation, falsification of government records, misuse of government-issued credentials, contract fraud, false statements, perjury and misuse of government property, destruction of government records, theft of government property, and the misuse of a government credit card.
Corrective Action Plan—Audit Peer Review
On September 4, 2008, the Farm Credit Administration OIG issued its final report concerning its peer review of the OIG's audit function. The Farm Credit Administration found that while the OIG complied with applicable standards, improvements should be made in several areas, such as quality control and quality assurance. To ensure these improvements were implemented, the OIG developed a corrective action plan and began to implement the corrective actions.
Actions taken during the reporting period included:
During the next reporting period, the OIG plans to implement the other actions detailed in the corrective action plan, including:
IG and Administrative Specialist Co-Chaired 11th Annual President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency/ Executive Council on Integrity And Efficiency (PCIE/ECIE) Awards Ceremony
The IG and the Administrative Specialist Co- Chaired, with the Department of Health and Human Services, the 11th Annual PCIE/ECIE Awards Ceremony. The ceremony was held on October 21, 2008, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, located in Washington, D.C., and it recognized significant accomplishments of individuals and groups within the Federal inspectors general community.
The OIG Offsite Retreat
On November 12, 2008, the OIG held its annual officewide offsite retreat. The retreat was a one-day event held at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's L. William Seidman Conference Center located in Arlington, Virginia. The theme of the retreat was the development of "Healthy & Effective Communication for Team Building." The training was facilitated by Dr. R. Nicole Cutts of Cutts Consulting, LLC.
Review of Single Audit Act Reports
During the reporting period, the OIG reviewed 12 audit reports issued by public accounting firms concerning fair employment practices agencies that have work-sharing agreements with EEOC. There were no audit findings that involved EEOC funds (see Appendix III). The Single Audit Act of 1984 requires recipients of Federal funds to arrange for audits of their activities. Federal agencies that award these funds must receive annual audit reports to determine whether prompt and appropriate corrective action has been taken in response to audit findings.
Below are the professional activities for the OIG.
Staff Certifications
The OIG has a highly qualified and very well-credentialed staff dedicated to the mission of the office. The OIG staff possess the following certifications or certificates:
Association Affiliations
The OIG staff maintain the following affiliations with associations that are associated with the work of the OIG:
Professional Training
During the reporting period, the OIG staff participated in the following training courses:
|Report Title
|Date Issued
|Questioned Costs
|Funds Put to Better Use
|Unsupported Costs
|FY 2008 Financial Statement Audit Management Letter Report
|FY 2008 Financial Statement Audit Internal Control Report
|Inspector General Act Citation
|Reporting Requirements
|Section 4(a)(2)
|Review of Legislation and Regulations
|Section 5(a)(1)
|Significant Problems, Abuses, and Deficiencies
|Section 5(a)(2)
|Recommendations with Respect to Significant Problems, Abuses, and Deficiencies
|Section 5(a)(3)
|Significant Recommendations Included in Previous Reports on Which Corrective Action Has Not Been Completed
|Section 5(a)(4)
|Matters Referred to Prosecutive Authorities
|Section 5(a)(5)
|Summary of Instances Where Information Was Refused
|Section 5(a)(6)
|List of Audit Reports
|Section 5(a)(7)
|Summary of Significant Reports
|Section 5(a)(8)
|Questioned and Unsupported Costs
|Section 5(a)(9)
|Recommendations That Funds Be Put to Better Use
|Section 5(a)(10)
|Summary of Audit Reports Issued Before the Commencement of the Reporting Period for Which No Management Decision Has Been Made
|Section 5(a)(11)
|Significant Management Decisions That Were Revised During the Reporting Period
|Section 5(a)(12)
|Significant Management Decisions with Which the Office of Inspector General Disagreed
|The State of Georgia, FY 2007
|The State of North Carolina, FY 2007
|The State of Nevada, FY 2007
|The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, FY 2007
|The State of New York, FY 2007
|The City of New York, FY 2007
|The State of Kansas, FY 2006
|The State of Kansas, FY 2007
|The State of Oklahoma, FY 2007
|The State of West Virginia, FY 2007
|Miami Dade County, FY 2007
|The State of South Dakota, FY 2007
Agents Igniting Change and Fostering Accountability, Effectiveness and Efficiency in Government
OIG's mission is to (1) conduct and manage independent audit, evaluations, and investigations concerning Agency programs; (2) prevent and detect against Agency fraud, waste, and abuse; and (3) promote economy and efficiency, and effectiveness in Agency programs and operations.
OIG Hotline
The OIG Hotline Program was established for Agency employees, other Government employees, contractors, and the general public to report fraud, waste, abuse, or wrongdoing by phone, e-mail
What Should you Report
You should report any concern you may have over a situation in which EEOC is the potential victim of fraudulent acts by employees, contractors, or others. It includes any violations of laws, rules, regulations, gross mismanagement, gross waste or misappropriation of funds, and abuses of authority.
OIG Hotline Contact Information
EEOC-OIG Hotline
Toll-free 1-800-849-4230
E-Mail address
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Office of Inspector General
PO Box 77067
Washington, DC 20013-7067
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Jerald "Jerry" L. Posner, 63, of Wauseon, Ohio, died March 12, 2006 at Hospice of Perrysburg.
He was born March 29, 1942 in Wauseon, Ohio, to Leo and Vera (Johnston) Posner. He married Nora Muck on Feb. 19, 1966 and she survives.
Prior to his retirement, Jerry was a grocer for the former Miller Super Valu in Wauseon and the Super Valu in Morenci. He was a member of St. Caspar Catholic Church in Wauseon and was a U.S. Army veteran.
Besides his wife, Jerry is survived by two daughters, Kathleen (and Kevin Kauth) Gerschutz of Napoleon and Kellie (and Brian Boger) Mitchell of Toledo; a granddaughter, Brianne Gerschutz; two grandsons, Austin and Dylan Mitchell; three step-grandchildren, Colleen, Carolyn and Katelyn Kauth; two brothers, Ed Posner of Metamora and Ron Posner of Sylvania, and a sister, Mary Jane (and Herb) Hinkle of Milbury, Ohio.
Funeral services are scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday at Edgar-Grisier Funeral Home in Wauseon with Deacon Jim Dominique officiating. Visitation is planned from 9 a.m. until the time of the service. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Perrysburg.


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Thursday, April 05, 2012
What Hard Work Looks Like
19 comments:
- Anonymous1:05 AM
Oh my! How awesome. I can't imagine how hard it has to be for Lamp. I think that the hardest thing would be the depth aspect of it all. To judge how far you need to be from the object if you can not bend your arm. And definitely the strength to hold the arm out and the object.ReplyDelete
Also, I just hoped over to see Andrew. What a blessing for Andrew's parents to have you advise. Have somebody you have been there and have done that. All the blessings to them!
I just happened upon your site looking for potato stamp stuff and am so touched to find your section on Lamp! My daughter was born with amniotic bad syndrome, leaving her with a little foot and it can be such a hectic scene just doing normal things like shoe shopping. While we've always felt blessed that she's almost completely unincumbered by her limb difference, as she gets older and her peers are doing more and more, the difference is starting to feel more and more highlighted. Didn't see that coming. So I love this post about the little, seemingly simple things that become triumphant acts when someone super special like our girls do them. Thanks!ReplyDelete


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Jennings & Ayers Funeral Home and Cremation
Jennings and Ayers has served Rutherford and adjoining counties for over a century. Our experience includes 4th and 5th generation funeral directors from the Ayers family. We strive to help families in a time of mourning with compassion, and respect from all of our staff. Our mission is to serve families with respect, honesty, and compassion which has become our legacy over the past century. We are available 24 hrs. a day and we have licensed funeral directors in our office 7 days a week all day to serve your family. Our phone number is 615-893-2422 (24 Hrs.) If no answer please call 1-877-702-5201 Located at - 820 South Church Street Murfreesboro, TN 37130 Office hours are 8 AM - 5 PM Everyday.
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It's important to take the time to acknowledge the uniqueness of the deceased: the individuality of their personality, and the uniqueness of their life's path.Learn more
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With our online grief support we will help you through this difficult time. No matter how you feel at this moment, you have our commitment - you're never alone.Learn more
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We give every family in our community unique opportunities to learn, share, and remember. It is our intention to enrich lives, educate minds, and ease sorrows.Learn more
Funeral Etiquette
Accepted customs of dress and behavior in a funeral have changed over time, but courtesy never goes out of style. Here's what we'd like you to know about funeral etiquette.Learn more


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Meetings are scheduled for the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm. with the exception of holidays, unless noted otherwise, in the Town Hall Meeting Room. Special Meetings, separate from those listed, are called as needed.
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East Hampton's legislative body is the elected Town Council. The Council consists of seven (7) resident electors of the community who serve without compensation for a two (2) year term.
At their Organizational Meeting following their election, members of the Town Council select one of themselves as Chairman and another as Vice Chairman of the Council, to serve for the duration of their two (2) year term.
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Kristen Bell: Pregnant with First Child!
Kristen Bell and her longtime love Dax Shepard are expecting their first child!
"They are expecting their first child in late Spring," her rep confirmed to JustJared.com.
"They're so excited – they're both ecstatic. They can't wait to become parents," a source told People. "Kristen had a little bit of morning sickness early on but she just started shooting the second season of House of Lies and is feeling great now."
Kristen and Dax have been together since 2007 and have been engaged for three years. They recently starred in the comedy Hit & Run together.
Congratulations to the happy couple!


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tehengineer needed a new t-shirt design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 84 designs submitted by 31 freelance designers.
We are computer engineers that worked together to finish a particular project. This project took 2+ years and dozens of engineers.
The folks wearing this shirt will be the engineers that worked on the project. This shirt graphic will basically celebrate the death of a version of our website, which caused a lot of problems and headaches.
We want to celebrate the decommission of the old version of our website. This older version was called 'version 2' and I would really like the shirt to say 'v2' somewhere, visibly.
Since this is the "death" of 'v2', we would like to see the following:
- something denoting the death of 'v2' - ex: maybe a person digging a grave (be creative)
- something denoting the fact that many people worked on it (please avoid using pictures of real people)
- we would like the design restricted to the front of the tshirt
- if possible, the design should be 'chest area' only to make screen printing easy :)
Most importantly, we want this design to work well on a t-shirt and be able to screen-print it. We want the ability for other engineers to walk by and recognize what the t-shirt means and laugh :)


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Should We Move a Failed Story Back?
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Eric Willeke was pondering what to do with a story on the Kanban task board when that story fails testing. Should he move it back to "Development" or leave it in the "Testing" state? He came up with a few different possibilities:
- One is to integrate dev/qa responsibility into the "done" state so that there is no movement, only conversation and agreement on when it can be moved. That can be facilitated by having a series of expanded tasks that individual devs/testers take on, but knowing the story's not done until everybody agrees all the tasks are done.
- Another is to move the story to test, move it back, move it forward, etc. If that's what's happening in real life, that's how you should model it.
- Another is to have a "defect" flag (or bug cards) on the item, but it stays in test, with developers coming in to help solve them until they're all done. If this better fits the actual model of what's happening, you should probably model it that way.
Thierry Henrio offers a different approach, using a concept borrowed from Lean manufacturing—"red bins":
I experimented one like option :
- have a dedicated red bin for each stage, located at top bottom of board
- when cause is listed in one stage check list, move it there
- we have 30 mins to get out of red bin
This worked well for cause in control of team. When cause is upstream, then 30 mins policy was dumb, and it reduced its effect.
Dedicated red place (bin) is a stronger visual effect than a red flag.
Ron Jeffries gives an example of when cards should flow upstream on the task board:
[...] if the work went back to some person who already worked on it and was supposed to be done, then flowing upstream is one good way to model what happened.
No matter which method you use, though, Adam Sroka advises that your board should represent reality, not some ideal state:
The idea that we want to model what we do and not what we would like to do is subtle but extremely powerful. To me this was the biggest revelation about Kanban I got from David's coaching workshop this Summer. Visualize what you do now. Then introduce explicit WIP limits, look for improvements, etc.
This has worked very well for me. I also come from an XP background, and I see visualizing flow as a kinder gentler way to introduce change. I used to want to change everything on day one. Now I realize that I can make progress simply by helping people be honest (with themselves) about what they currently do.
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Tell us what you think
Alter the definition of done
Eirik Maus
Testing should be parallel to development
Piyush Kumar
When the developers are working on a story, they should keep checking in the code at each logical point (multiple times in a day). As soon as some functional part of story is complete, the testing should start. The developer continues working on other acceptance criteria in story and the tester continues testing and finding defects. As the developer is already working on the story, he immediately fixes the defect. This reduces the cycle time. The story is not done unless it is testing complete. This should be the responsibility of both the developer and the tester. There should just be one stage saying "In Progress" and then move to Done.
Only move forward
Jeff Morgan
Re:Should We Move a Failed Story Back?
cao Alex
Visualize the workflow, then act on the information
Dave Nicolette
I'd like to re-emphasize what Jeff Morgan wrote in his comment. Once you've got an accurate visualization of the workflow, that's not the end of the story. Now you have information that tells you where to look for potential process improvements. If you've got work moving "backward," then you can use the baord to find out where that's happening in the process, and change it. Don't just define it as "okay" and live with it.


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Timberwolves ink Amundson
Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota Timberwolves signed free- agent forward/center Lou Amundson on Tuesday.
Amundson tallied 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game for the Indiana Pacers last season.
"Lou is an active defender and rebounder who will give us plenty of hustle and energy when he is on the floor," Minnesota president of basketball operations David Kahn said. "We feel Lou is a good complement to our existing roster."
Over the course of his six-year career with the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and Pacers, the 29-year-old UNLV product has career averages of 4.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest.


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outside knittingTuesday, April 27, 2010
As usual, my parents visit went way too fast. It is so nice to have my favorite knitter with me doing what we love to do. It was a gorgeous week filled with sunny days, perfect for sitting outside keeping an eye on our new baby.
I pulled out a project that hasn't seen the light of day in months. (Okay, maybe a year.) It was fun for a few rows. That seed stitch is killing me. I am going to try my hardest to do a little on this every week.
Mom read my directions out loud while I cast on for the gathered cuff cardi out of Classic Elite's gallery booklet. Don't you just love the cover of that booklet?!
I chose the same color, 5231, as the pattern called for. Not a usual color for me, but should be nice for the summer.
52 comments
Seed stitch... oh I know what you mean. It just seems to suck the life out of me, don't know why!ReplyDelete
i'm expecting my favorite knitter/mom to come in from germany today... what a wonderful time you must have had and i am sure we will, too!! yarns are ready, i'm sure that suitcase will have some new german knitting mags... - cheers!ReplyDelete
and do keep going on the blankie - it looks gorgeous so far!! - make it just one/or two/or three/or more rows a day and you'll be getting there..!
wowsers! your mom must be some knitter, too!ReplyDelete
The Gathered Cuff Cardi is adorable. Your striped throw is nice too. I like the colors you've selected.ReplyDelete
Question for you...
You must be sewing in a lot of ends with all of those stripes. Do you sew in your ends in any special way? Any tricks? I often feel my ends could look more tidy.
Beautiful pictures, makes me want to go knit. Trying not to start a new project before I get some others done. Same old problem! :)ReplyDelete
That is the one pattern that I want to knit too. The gathered cuff cardi. Ahhhh, sounds like summer. I'm in love with CEY patterns lately...ReplyDelete
Selkie on Ravelry
I love your new sweater. It looks great for you.ReplyDelete
seed stitch is a pain but that throw looks so prettyReplyDelete
you are going to love that blanket when you finish it. (kind of like me and kate's quilts....)ReplyDelete
Hand crafts are not something my female older relatives did. I hope that by passing these skills down to my daughters, we will keep some commonality when [we] grow older.ReplyDelete
How great to share the passion with your mom. She must be some knitter too… the Floral Cardigan, whoa!ReplyDelete
Your baby is precious! Congrats : )
oooh that gathered cuff cardi is so sweet! And I love your mum's nail polish and cardi colour - it gives off happy vibes :) Actually all the colours in your photos today make me feel happy just looking at them. Yay for sunny days!ReplyDelete
Oh how wonderful you will feel when that blanket is DONE!!! The blue is just yummy!!!!!!!ReplyDelete
That blanket is going to fell so wonderful when it's finally finished!ReplyDelete
I just LOVE the look of seed stitch!! And that blue yarn is to die for. Yummy!ReplyDelete
Oh, color! Gorgeous days and perfect springtime knitting. Wish my mom and I had that kind of connection. I'm sure you are so very grateful for your special relationship.ReplyDelete
This is such a fun knit. I've had mine knit for a month now, and I'm ashamed to say that I haven't finished putting it together. Will suggest that you don't do the staggered cast off on the shoulders though and do short rows instead - makes it much easier to join the shoulders and looks so much nicer.ReplyDelete
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PHILADELPHIA (Thursday, January 16, 2014) – The LA Galaxy today selected University of New Mexico defender Kyle Venter in the second round of the 2014 MLS SuperDraft. The 23rd overall pick of the SuperDraft, Venter was a four-year starter for the Lobos and a three-time NSCAA and College Soccer News All-American while helping lead his team to the NCAA College Cup as a senior in 2013. He becomes the ninth defender selected by Bruce Arena and the Galaxy in the last six years with six of the previous eight still remaining with the club.
A native of Aurora, Colo., Venter appeared in 86 matches during his four years at New Mexico, starting 85 of them. A 6-foot-3 center back, he tallied eight goals, including a career-best five in 2011, and four assists on his way to becoming the Lobos' all-time leader in minutes played. The Conference USA Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, Venter was also named to the 2013 Soccer America MVP Team and was a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, which is awarded annually to nation's top college soccer player. The Lobos qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of Venter's four years in Albuquerque, reaching at least the Sweet 16 in each of the past three years, culminating in the school's second trip to the College Cup in 2013.
The final two rounds of the 2014 MLS SuperDraft will be held via conference call on Tuesday, January 21. The Galaxy hold one pick, the 15th pick of the fourth round (72nd overall), in the final two rounds of the SuperDraft.
Season tickets for the 2014 MLS season are on sale now, starting at just $250. Becoming a Galaxy Season Ticket Member gives fans the opportunity to see every Galaxy home game as well as number of additional benefits such as access to Town Hall meetings with Galaxy leaders, discounts on additional single game tickets, entrance into the club's new Season Ticket Member loyalty program and much more as well as discounts at all TEAM LA locations and on select camps at the Galaxy Soccer Center in Torrance. For more information about becoming a Galaxy Season Ticket Member, please call 877-3GALAXY (342-5299) or visit www.lagalaxy.com/tickets.


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Raikkonen to miss last two races of F1 season
PARIS (AP) — Having threatened not to race in the last two Formula One races of the season because of a pay dispute, former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will now miss them anyway to undergo back surgery.
Lotus said in a brief statement Sunday that the surgery will rule Raikkonen out of next week's United States Grand Prix and the season-ending Brazilian GP at the end of this month.
"The team will make an announcement about the replacement driver in due course," Lotus said in the statement Sunday.
The 34-year-old Raikkonen has suffered with back pains in recent months and almost missed the Singapore GP in September when the problem flared up again.
Raikkonen's Lotus career is effectively over because he will drive for Ferrari next year.
One possibility for Lotus is to promote third driver Davide Valsecchi, although the 26-year-old Italian has no F1 experience, or to hand reserve driver Jerome d'Ambrosio the seat. The 27-year-old Belgian has 20 Grand Prix starts and was drafted into Romain Grosjean's car for last year's Italian GP after the Frenchman was handed a one-race ban.
At last weekend's Abu Dhabi GP, Raikkonen criticized the team for not paying his salary this season and threatened to pull out of the final two races of the season in protest.
He even had to be persuaded to race in Abu Dhabi, skipping media duties on the Thursday and then pulling out on lap one because of suspension damage after a minor collision with a Caterham car. He then got in a van and drove away, not answering any post-race questions.
The weekend before, tensions surfaced within the team. Raikkonen was upset when he was bluntly ordered by the team's trackside operations director Alan Permane not to hold up Grosjean during the Indian GP.


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Just curious, is "tree /f" at a command prompt not sufficient?-x16wda (May 21, 2012, 03:12 PM)
Tree.com should be in the windows\system32 folder of your system drive. Can you try doing the command this way? Navigate to a folder, then type in: %windir%\system32\tree.com /f-x16wda (May 21, 2012, 03:44 PM)
@echo Directory and sub-directory file listing dump by RenegadeMinds.com.@echo Visit http://Renegademinds.com for more Windows tips and tricks @echo and free software applications.@echo ==================================================================@echo ==================================================================@echo Save this file as getDirList.bat in your SendTo directory.@echo SendTo is under Documents and Settings in each user's directory.@echo Right-click on any directory in Windows Explorer and choose@echo Send To - getDirList.bat@echo ==================================================================@echo ==================================================================@echo Dumping directory listing to c:\dirListing.txt@echo (This may take some time for large directory trees.)@REM the /A switch lists all hidden and system files as well.@REM the /S switch lists all subdirectories and their contents.@dir %1 /A /S > c:\dirListing.txt@echo Opening c:\dirListing.txt in Notepad (Close notepad to delete file)@notepad c:\dirListing.txt@echo Deleting c:\dirListing.txt@del c:\dirListing.txt@pause
WhereIsIt is an application written for Windows operating systems, and designed to help you maintain and organize a catalog of your computer media collection, including CD-ROMs and DVDs, audio CDs, diskettes, removable drives, hard drives, network drives, remote file servers, or any other present or future storage media device Windows can access as a drive.The primary goal for WhereIsIt is to provide access to the contents of cataloged disks, even when they are not available on the system, or even they are not your own. You can browse their contents, search for files or folders you need, use imported descriptions and thumbnails, organize data using categories and flags etcWhereIsIt can be used to handle any kind of data, including downloaded programs, magazine CD-ROMs, music collections like MP3s or audio CDs, graphics collections, document backups, etc
Page created in 0.029 seconds with 52 queries.


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Stories of love, marriage and commitment
2012 was a year of firsts. From President Obama's historic endorsement of marriage equality to our unprecedented victories in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota, Americans across the country raised their voices louder than ever to affirm that love is love.
This Valentine's Day, we invite you to share some of your firsts: a first date, a first kiss, the first moment you realized you were in love. It's all part of our ongoing Share Your Love project, celebrating the relationships of pro-equality LGBT and ally couples.
You can view even more stories and photos on Flickr.


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Croatia To Pursue Civil Unions After Voters Ban Marriage Equality
The Vatican-backed ban on marriage equality approved by 60 percent of voters in Croatia has prompted the left-centrist government to pursue recognizing same-sex couples in the country anyway.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's center-left government said on Monday that it would move ahead with a proposed bill to afford same-sex couples many of the legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples, including hospital visitation and inheritance rights, though the bill does not include the right to adopt children.
Mr. Milanovic said he regretted that the referendum had even been held. "I think it did not make us any better, smarter or prettier," he said.
The state electoral commission said that 66 percent of those who voted answered yes to the question, "Do you agree that marriage is matrimony between a man and a woman?" Turnout was relatively low, with about 38 percent of registered voters casting ballots. Analysts said the turnout suggested that the sluggish economy and 18 percent unemployment rate were more on Croats' minds than gay marriage.


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Sunday is the first official day of fall. What is your favorite fall activity?
April Scaife: "Watching my boys play football."
Jennifer White: "I love football and cheering on all of my kids during the season."
Angela Burton: "I enjoy the leaves turning beautiful colors this time of year."
Jevon Baggett: "I am looking forward to the hunting."