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Getting U.S. military personnel onto foreign soil during wartime maneuvers without having them blown to bits by sea mines is an ongoing concern for the Navy.
The Navy hopes to replace the divers with fast and efficient unmanned underwater vehicles. In this case, sending a robot to do a man's job is a very good thing.
"There certainly have been diving accidents mainly due to the inherent risks of diving," said John Petrik, corporate communications officer at the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Many countries produce and sell mines, and why not? They can be made cheaply, produced in massive quantities, planted in near secrecy, destroy with lethal accuracy, and can be left completely unattended. These factors make sea mines an attractive part of a defense program.
They also tend to have a long life. On April 14, 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) encountered a World War I Iranian contact mine in the Persian Gulf, causing $96 million worth of damage to the ship.
Sea mines located in shallow waters prove to be the trickiest to locate.
"They are harder to detect and more sophisticated," Petrik said. "They are more disguised – they can be made to look like a ripple in the water."
Contact mines, which haven't changed much over the years, look pretty much as you'd imagine – as you've seen in the cartoons, Petrik said. They are big metal balls with spikes.
Despite the basic technology sea mines are very good at their job.
Currently there are two methods for detecting them. The first involves a ship equipped with sonar, the second a helicopter dragging sonar in the ocean.
Both methods are slow. In order fro the ship to avoid locating a mine by detonating it, it has to maneuver very carefully and slowly. Using a diver to identify suspicious objects is not only very dangerous but also slows the process.
"Divers have to come up every so often. They can only dive for so long and can only swim so fast and cover so much," Captain Tim Schnoor, deputy program manager at ONR, said.
An added drawback with both methods is that in wartime operations it's pretty tricky to be stealthy when doing either. The need for a better solution led to the Navy's research with underwater robots.
One of the Navy's potential recruits is the Acoustic Radio Interactive Exploratory Sensor (ARIES), an underwater vehicle in development at the Naval Postgraduate School.
"It is a free-swimming, pre-programmed vehicle," said Professor Anthony Healey, director of the Center For AUV Research at the Naval Postgraduate School. "We have what you could call an autopilot for speed, heading control, depth control and altitude. The vehicle follows a designed course."
The vehicle can be equipped with a video camera used to identify mine-like objects. It's a fixed-focus wide-angle camera located in ARIES' nose.
But visibility can be a problem.
"We are experiencing storm runoffs at the moment, so the visibility can be less than two feet, meaning it is very hard to get quality images. It's like groping in the dark," Healey said.
There are other problems with the ARIES. The vehicle has to be brought to the surface in order to retrieve its data, which is time-consuming. The team is currently working on this.
Another possible new addition to the Navy's countermeasure team is CETUS: An unmanned hover-capable vehicle designed for survey relocation and inspection.
"The vehicle uses pre-programmed code and artificial intelligence to respond to certain objects in certain ways. It has procedural reasoning. It can interact like a diver or a dolphin," said Gary Trimble, principal investigator at Perry Technologies where CETUS is being developed.
And that's not even its best feature. "What is really sexy about our vehicle is its acoustic camera. It's an imaging sonar that can take pictures with sound. The quality is as good as a photograph," Trimble said.
The CETUS sonar can detect objects in zero visibility, from 12 meters away, collecting photo-quality images. Data transfer is slow, though. "You can sit around for an hour waiting for one picture to get back," Trimble said.
Another candidate for the Navy is the Battlespace Preparation Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV), developed and built by Bluefin Robotics. It has side-scan sonar that gives acoustic images of what's on the seabed.
"It can show up all sorts of things – mines, shipwrecks, individual fish, even a strand of kelp," said Scott Wilcox, technical manager at Bluefin.
BPAUV can cover a wide range when detecting mine-like objects. Once it has spotted a suspicious object, it will refer the identification to a vehicle with a video camera.
Once the vehicle returns to dry land, its data is downloaded. One gigabyte takes about one hour. Bluefin hopes to improve on the model.
Reaction from the divers has been very positive.
"They are awesome ... they make my job more productive and safer," said Karl Erikson, staff explosive ordnance disposal officer at Mine Warfare Command.
Schnoor believes that, once the kinks with the Navy's newest recruits have been ironed out, they will be in operation in the next two to five years.
Wired mag: The New Mobile Infantry
Shh! Moby Dick's Trying to Sleep
Shh! Moby Dick's Trying to Sleep
Navy Intranet a Security Threat?
Navy Intranet a Security Threat?


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Digital Garage Valentine's Day
For Digital Garage employees, we are offering the unique promo code DIGITALGARAGELOVE to have your gift of $75+ delivered free of charge anywhere between Morgan Hill/Santa Cruz and San Francisco/Berkeley!
In the "Special Instructions", please include:
1. What you would like to write on the note to go along with the order
2. Any specific directions in terms of parking and where to deliver
3. Preferred 3 hour time frame for delivery
Please order by Monday, February 11th to ensure delivery on Valentine's Day.
Click below to get started.

subset: commoncrawl


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Urologists near Phoenix, AZ
Incorporated in 1881, Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. And with plenty of arts and entertainment amenities, sports and recreation activities, dining and lodging opportunities, and beautiful weather year-round, it's no wonder thousands flock to visit Phoenix each year. Attractions of the city include perfectly manicured golf courses, a unique desert preserve system offering easy access to the Sonoran Desert, and certain city-run facilities, like the Pueblo Grande Museum and Heritage and Science Park. Home to approximately 1.4 million people, Phoenix is a great place to visit and an even better place to live.
If you're one of the million that call Phoenix home and are interested in finding a urologist nearby, you've come to the right place. Urologists.com is an online collection of the nation's best urologists; some of them are even located in your hometown! The urologists listed on this website are the best of the best, so if you choose one from the list, you won't have to worry about getting sub-par medical attention. So what are you waiting for? Start browsing right away, and we'll put you in contact with the best urologist near you.
Not only can urologists treat and diagnose a variety of diseases, infections, and conditions affecting the urinary tracts of both men and women, but they can perform surgical procedures like vasectomies and certain surgical cancer procedures. So if you've been referred to a urologist by your primary care provider or have a pre-existing condition which may require in-depth urological care, start browsing today, and let us help you find your new urologist.


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AWAI Member Forums
Powered by Groupsite
American Writers & Artists Institute gives members the opportunity to connect with other working and aspiring writers, as well as the industry experts who can help them become successful, through forums powered by Groupsite. Below is a list of the forums, including quick access links, as well as descriptions of who has access to each one.
Main Member Forum
This Groupsite is open for members of all AWAI programs and is the place to connect with other members, and get your copywriting and freelance business questions answered. It's also the place where you can have your assignments reviewed from the Accelerated Six-Figure Copywriting Program. Get Started Now »


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Last December, we were on a holiday cruise on the Royal Caribbean. One of our stops was Antigua. What did I Iike about Antigua? It is so green with nature all around. But as a food blogger you know I have to mention about the food. Yes, I mentioned that we were on a cruise, but there was no way I will miss out on local food. After all, we had four days at sea, where we will be eating nothing but what is offered on board.
Before our island tour (picture below of one of their
Sorry for not taking a picture, it was so good. When I finished eating the fish, I remembered, oops food blogger here, and I did not take a picture to remember the moment, but take my word for it! This girl knows


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Unspeakable Inequalities: A Blog Symposium
November 25, 2013 Leave a comment
by Nithila Kanagasabai, 2013 Campaign Coordinator
This year, as part of our 16 Day Campaign initiatives, we at Prajnya have curated a 'blog symposium' on structural violence. (By 'blog symposium,' we mean a collection of perspectives on a given issue, published on our blog.*)
Gender violence and gender inequality result from a complex array of interwoven factors. This violence is often embedded in social customs that allow it to be perpetrated with impunity – in many cases, even without being considered as violence. The potency of embedded violence, ever so often, lies in its unspeakability. It is this cycle of silence that this symposium hopes to break by initiating a conversation on structural violence of various kinds.
The title of the blog symposium is borrowed from postfeminist scholar Rosalind Gill who employs the term 'unspeakable inequalities' to refer to inherent inequities in seemingly neutral situations. Using the term while discussing sexism in the media, Gill argues that the potency of the sexism lies in its unspeakability. Similarly, whitewashing deep-rooted differences and biases with a veneer of women's development and success only silences the many kinds of gender violence that persist and the newer forms of violence that continue to emerge.
Gill also suggests that the best way to study these ever-changing forms of violence is to adopt intersectionality. Intersectionality recognises the multiple identities of a person and the inherent power equations of each of these identities. Gender is not an impermeable identity, unaffected by other subcultures of class, caste, region and religion. On the contrary, all these identities are constantly woven together to produce a complex fabric of selfhood.
We think it important to discuss this because in some ways, the prevalent violence we see (street sexual harassment, domestic violence, etc) are, in reality, manifestations rooted in structural violence. Also, one can never over-emphasise the fact that feminism is for all. Feminism that helps only some of us is no feminism at all.
We invited experts to reflect on four broad areas of structural violence: Space, Disability, Caste, Sexualities and Everyday Sexism. Everyone does so much more than one might reasonably expect of them, that we are entering the campaign period with a fraction of the invited contributions in hand across some of the areas—Space, Disability, Caste and Everyday Sexism. But we know the discussion only begins here and will continue well beyond the campaign period.
We hope that this collection of articles will serve as an online resource for people interested in exploring the various layers of gender-based violence. Therefore, we request you to engage – respond, question, think aloud, discuss and debate – with each of these pieces. Looking forward to a meaningful discussion over the next three weeks!
Reference: Gill, Rosalind. "Sexism Reloaded, or, It's Time to get Angry Again!" Feminist Media Studies, 2011: 61-71.
*This is Prajnya's second blog symposium, the first one being Violence on the Page.


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TYSONS CORNER, VA, Nov. 4, 2016 — Kevin Phillips, Mantech International's (Nasdaq: MANT) chief financial officer for the past 11 years, has been promoted to the role of president and chief operating officer, GovConWire reported Thursday. Phillips will oversee the … Continue reading
ManTech International (NASDAQ: MANT) has acquired former Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) subsidiary Welkin Associates under a $34 million cash transaction. Welkin was founded in 1988 and delivers mission-centric services in high-end systems engineering to the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense (DoD). The acquisition … Continue reading
Weekly Roundup April 27 – May 1 2015 Click here to see Real-Time GovCon Sector Quotes A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson Two leaders from the General Services Administration offered glimpses to industry this week on current progress … Continue reading
From Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic President & Founder The House this week passed a fiscal year 2015 budget that would allocate an estimated $600 billion to the Pentagon in a move that could potentially change the contracting environment for GovCon firms competing for … Continue reading
From Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic President & Founder The GovCon sector saw a potential re-shaping of its landscape this week with two of the most notable contractors in the defense and space sectors announcing that they would combine forces. Orbital Sciences and ATK said Tuesdaythat … Continue reading
From Executive Mosaic President and Publisher Jim Garrettson Executive Mosaic's Weekly News Round-Up Linda Hudson on Dave Herr's Elevation to BAE Service Sectors EVP Dave Herr has elevated to EVP of the service sectors at BAE Systems Inc., effective immediately. The more than three-decade … Continue reading
From Executive Mosaic President and Publisher Jim Garrettson For more timely updates, follow me on Twitter. Executive Mosaic's Weekly News Round-Up Ball Aerospace Names Jim Oschmann, Cary Ludtke Leads for New Space Units Effective Jan. 2, Ball Aerospace and Technologiesappointed Jim Oschmann VP … Continue reading


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Suggested Pieces to Complete the Look for Your Space
For the brave decorator, start your pink bedroom with deep pink walls. Adding a white chair rail or white wainscoting on the bottom third of the wall will help to soften the starkness. However, if you keep the furnishings and accessories on the lighter side, such as white, grey, or only soft pink items spread sporadically throughout, you easily get away with deep pink on all the walls.
Pink bedroom ideas for adults are easier to design than most think. The number of funky pieces you can add to a pink room is practically endless.
Accessorizes with Light Pinks, Hot Pink, and Greys
A Grey Platform Bed with Tufted Backing
Novogratz Her Majesty Upholstered Linen Bed, Tufted Wingback Design and Wooden Legs, Queen Size – Grey Linen
The tufted backing helps to soften the starkness of the bright pink walls. This particular bed is constructed from sandblasted teak wood. Adding pieces that have a coastal appearance will counter-balance the colorful aspects of the space.
The tufted interior of this platform bed is Linen. In the photo, it looks like grey, however, the color is listed as beige on the product page. More than likely, it's a combination of both, where the grey wood is tricking the eye, and the beige appears more grey than it is. Either way, both shades work fine in a pink bedroom.
Anchor the Room with a Slate and Ivory Patterned Rug
Safavieh Adirondack Collection ADR109S Ivory and Slate Oriental Vintage Distressed Area Rug (8′ x 10′)By choosing an area rug that has a bit of pattern and color shades, you're able to distract the focus from the bright pink walls. With a distressed look, you're also not committing to an established pattern like checks, geometric, or stripes. The distressed look with three color shades lets you use any of these colors for other pieces in the room.
Place the rug, so it's partially under the bed, or fully exposed. The way to decide whether to place it around the foundation is whether the color and style match the bed and bedding.
The other option is to place the rug to create or enhance a planned sitting area. A sitting area usually consists of a chair (or two), and presuming space allows a coffee table.Safavieh Mercer Collection Buckler Club Chair, Peach Pink
Light Pink Patterned Chairs for the Sitting Area
Continue to soften the space by using muted colors for the larger pieces. Two chairs take up quite a bit of space in the room, and like the bed, contribute to the overall feeling of the room. By choosing muted colors, you soften the bright pink walls and bring the room down multiple notches.
The chair featured here is just an example, of course, and you'll notice different chairs featured in the Pinterest Photo below. However, both would work in your adult pink space. Lean towards chairs that are muted and that have a pattern. Since so much in the room is solid colored (assuming you're not choosing busy patterned bedding), chairs with a design add interest and break up all the solids.
Additional Furniture and Accessories to Add to Your Adult Pink Room:
Best Home Fashion Mix & Match Tulle Sheer Lace and Blackout Curtain Set – Stainless Steel Nickel Grommet Top – Dusty Pink – 52Evolur Aurora 7 Drawer Double Dresser, Ivory LaceEvolur Aurora Nightstand, Blush Pink PearlFurniture of America Depoy Round Glass Top Coffee Table in Rose GoldZuo Modern Gem Coffee Table, Rose GoldPink Flamingo Round Pouf Ottoman (Personalized)IFASHION 10pcs of Small Tea Rose Bouquet Simulated Camellia Bride Holding Flowers Wedding Artificial Flowers (Pink and white)
About Barbara & FunkthishouseBarbara is a home decor rebel who blames her decades in the real estate industry for her love of color! Since leaving neutral behind, she's built Funkthishouse.com, a place where souls once trapped in neutral-decor-world roam free and funk'n love it!
My nutty passion is finding funky, colorful, and interesting products for the home or office. The products featured are suggested from companies I've established an affiliated relationship with, and in return, earn a small commission when items are sold. Visit FAQs for more about Funkthishouse and the whole funky story :)"
Barbara Cipak is an Independent Associate participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca Endless.com, MYHABIT.com, SmallParts.com, Wireless.com- Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Funkthishouse Terms of Use/Privacy Policy/Cookies


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Adam Dickens
May 2012 MBA with a broad and unique business background with a passion for marketing. I work for Red Caffeine Marketing + Technology as an engagement manager. We focus on strategy, branding, marketing and technology for mid-sized companies. We take the time to truly understand your business and corporate culture, to make sure all our efforts stay true to your vision.
I'm a proud member of Inc Small Giants. I'm committed to values driven leadership, dedication to delivering excellence for clients, and creating a healthy and vibrant workplace culture .
Here are a few ways to learn more about me:
Read a copy of My Resume
Go to www.redcaffeine.com to see my company
Watch a video of my testimonial about the Elmhurst College MBA


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Wine district map. Wine Art Estate Winery, Microchori, Drama, Macedonia, Greece
Filename: df11-1226.jpg |
Size: 5315x3529
Copyright: Per Karlsson, BKWine Photography
art, bkwine, board, df11-1226.tif, drama, estate, greece, greek, horizontal, macedonia, macedonian, makedonia, makedonian, map, north, northern, notice, notice board, noticeboard, sign, signboard, signpost, wine, wine art estate


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Genesis offers a full Project Execution, Management and Support service to our clients, based in the clients' offices.
From the deployment of specialist technical resources, through to the provision of complete discipline engineering and design teams we have the capability to support clients' projects over the entire project life cycle.
We provide a full and flexible range of engineering, project management and new technology application skills and services to frame, plan and execute clients' global project portfolios.
Additional services include:
19 April 2017
'The Window of Opportunity' Conference - April 2017
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Come and visit Genesis at Subsea Tieback 2017 - Booth No. 631


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Are you a corporate professional who often meets with people from different levels of your organization to discuss projects and other organizational concerns? Are you perhaps an entrepreneur who often meets with clients? You can make the most of these meetings by making sure that you take down the meeting minutes. This ensures not only that there is a common understanding of the decisions made during the meeting and how you and your colleagues plan to move forward; it also provides you with a reference for what you need to do after the meeting is finished
Keep an organized record of all your meeting minutes by downloading Klevernote's Meeting Minutes template! This is an iphone app that allows you to take note of the things discussed in the meeting in a systematic manner, making it is easy to refer to them later on. It also makes it easy to share the information with the other meeting participants as the information is already organized. With this app installed right on your iphone, you no longer have to bring a pen and paper to your meeting, making you look more professional and efficient. In addition, this prevents the risk of having the meeting minutes misplaced if they were written on paper. With the Meeting Manures template by Klevernote, you can focus on getting things done quickly and efficiently!
The Klevernote Meeting Minutes template has the following fields:
- Title – The name of or purpose for the meeting
- Date – The date when the meeting was held
- Attendees – The list of people who attended the meeting
- Points Covered – The things that were discussed or the decisions made in the meeting
- Points to Work On – The issues that still need to be addressed
- Follow Up Date – The date for the next meeting or for the submission of the deliverables expected from the meeting participants
- Notes – Other information or remarks about the meeting that were not covered in the previous fields


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Hope For The Warriors
We believe those touched by military service can succeed at home by restoring their sense of self, family, and hope. Nationally, Hope For The Warriors provides comprehensive support programs for service members, veterans, and military families that are focused on transition, health and wellness, peer engagement, and connections to community resources.
Core Values
Hope For The Warriors understands the challenges, pride, and joy of being a military family. For today, tomorrow, and years to come, we will strive to meet the changing needs of service members and their families.
Hope For The Warriors is a family, united by our shared conviction of honor and sacrifice.
Hope For The Warriors was founded by military families aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC in 2006 as they witnessed, firsthand, the effects war imparts on service members and their families. Hope For The Warriors has remained grounded in family values as the organization expands both the span of programs offered and the number of wounded, family members, and families of the fallen assisted.
The leadership of the organization remains in the dedicated hands of combat veterans and military family members. Together, our board of directors, staff, and volunteers work tirelessly to serve those who have sacrificed so much. The integrity of our organization is paramount and therefore our representatives are as honorable and noble as our mission and the people we serve.
Follow This Link to learn more about Hope For The Warriors
Please show your support to the brave men and women of America's Armed Forces.The best way to help spread the word is to re-post these articles with your Contacts/Friends.
Your support of this mission is appreciated
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What is the cost to advertise in IPA Bulletin? IPA Bulletin is a every other month magazine. The magazine has a circulation of approximately 1,000. Published in South Holland, Illinois, this magazine is a well-known trade publication. It is owned by IPA, The Association of Graphic Solutions Providers.
Magazine Advertising Rate for IPA Bulletin
The estimated ad rate for the magazine is $830.00. Note: This estimate is for a full-page, black and white ad. This is only an estimate. It may be completely incorrect. Actual prices may be higher or lower. Many factors influence current magazine ad rates. Contact the magazine's advertising department for an exact quote.
To place an ad, or receive more information on advertising rates, please contact IPA Bulletin at (708) 596-5110.
IPA Bulletin Contact Information
IPA Bulletin552 W 167th StSouth Holland, IL Phone: (708) 596-5110Fax: (708) 596-5112
To update or correct magazine advertising information on this page, please use the link below:
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Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs
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Knocking Out Dangerous Pathogens in Athletic Settings
By leveraging Halosil's proprietary formula with the HaloFogger®, a proven, dry mist fogging solution, gyms can change the game when it comes to whole room disinfection by achieving a uniform, 6-log kill rate against disease-causing pathogens—even those that are most resistant. We call this the Halo•Sealed standard.
Athletes are tough and strong. Unfortunately, so is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium that is harder to treat than most strains of Staph due to its increasing antibiotic resistance. While recreational, high school, collegiate, and professional gyms are fighting MRSA outbreaks with a variety of disinfection protocols, traditional gym disinfectants are not enough to act as an effective MRSA disinfectant. Instead, gyms and athletic establishments are increasingly turning to the power of whole room disinfection.
The Value of Halo Disinfection System®
Eliminates Infection Risks
The Halo Disinfection System raises the standards for whole room disinfection. Delivering the highest possible effectiveness on the market today, the system is a heralded gym disinfectant that is registered as a bactericide, virucide, and fungicide.
Ensures Uniform Delivery of HaloMist™
The HaloFogger ensures the uniform delivery of our proprietary spore and bacteria killing HaloMist disinfectant throughout every part of the gym, even in crevices and other areas beyond the reach of sprays, wipes and UV lights.
Reduces Costs through Increased Efficiency
Pairing its industry-leading effectiveness with low operating costs and intuitive operator controls, the HaloFogger provides a value that is unmatched by other chemical or UV-based whole room disinfection offerings.
Maintains a Strong Return on Investment
The HaloFogger's sturdy construction and maintenance free design provide years of repair-free service. The solution's reliability, paired with its affordable startup costs, deliver a substantial financial return on investment.
Non-Corrosive & Bleach Free
The HaloMist formula decomposes into water and oxygen and is residue free, requiring no rinsing or wiping.
Protects Athletic Equipment with Dry Fogging Delivery
HaloFogger ensures an exceptionally dry delivery, making it a safe gym disinfectant for use around expensive electronic athletic equipment.
Adapts to Diverse Spaces & Places
With three adaptive HaloFogger models, the Halo Disinfection System is designed to disinfect athletic environments of all kinds—from gyms, to equipment rooms, and locker rooms.
Key Advantages of the Halo Disinfection System
- Registered bactericide, virucide, and fungicide
- Proprietary disinfecting formulas
- Unscented, bleach and PAA free
- Healthcare-grade, ready-to-use
- Proven to reduce infection rates
- Outperforms, more stable than bleach
- Easy-to-use, reduces associated labor costs
- Broad-spectrum efficacy
- Easy-to-dose using standard equipment
- Significantly less corrosive than alternatives
- Effective across a wide range of pH levels
- Maintains superior microbiological control
- 3 flexible fogging models for unique disinfection demands
- Low costs of acquisition and operation
Disinfecting the Spaces & Places in Your Athletic Facility
Equipment & Training Room Disinfectants
With shared equipment, damp environments, and limited time to disinfectant between uses, equipment rooms can be breeding grounds for dangerous infections like Staph and MRSA. The HaloFogger allows operators to achieve a uniform, 6-log kill rate throughout complex spaces while protecting costly athletic equipment against corrosion.
Locker Rooms & Locker Disinfectants
Locker rooms and lockers are home to personal items in close proximity, making them ideal environments for the outbreak of resistant infections. The HaloFogger FLX is specifically designed to deliver the same pathogen-destroying efficacy to confined areas like lockers, showers, and closets as a registered bactericide, virucide, and fungicide.
A Closer Look at the Halo Disinfection System
Hands Free, Dry-Mist Fogging
The HaloFogger generates a turbulent aerosol that uses evaporation to quickly disperse H2O2 vapor and increasingly concentrated micro-droplets everywhere in complex rooms to kill germs where they hide. No other whole room disinfection technology is more effective. With three models, HaloFogger is built to disinfect the many spaces in your athletic facility.
Learn More
Ready-to-Use Fogging Solution
HaloMist is our proprietary, ready-to-use fogging formula, registered in all 50 States. Our unique stabilization process blends the long-leveraged power of hydrogen peroxide with antimicrobial silver ions to provide multiple killing mechanisms for attacking pathogens. As a no wipe, no rinse product, HaloMist delivers touch-free disinfection at a 6-log kill rate.
Learn More


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BRAND: Aria
FUNCTION: Distortion Guitar Effect Pedal
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: This listing is for an Aria DT-5 Distortion Guitar Effect Pedal.
ACCESSORIES INCLUDED: This item comes as seen in photos, and does not include any accessories. No power supply is included.
- 2 Patch Cables
PHYSICAL CONDITION: Very Good - There is glue residue on the bottom of the pedal as the velcro was glued down. There are light scratches on the footswitch and along the sides. The LED turns on fine. All I/O connectors, knobs, and pots are in great shape. Overall, this pedal is in very good condition.
WORKING CONDITION: Excellent - All three control knobs are working perfectly. LED and stomp switch are also working perfectly. Overall working condition is excellent.
UNPACKAGED WEIGHT: 1.25 lbs.
UNPACKAGED DIMENSIONS: 5" x 3" x 3"
The Techno Empire Guarantee
We at Techno Empire love gear as much as you do and want you to be very happy with your purchase. We offer a 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE as part of our commitment to making sure you keep coming back for more incredible and inspiring gear. Buy with confidence with our stellar customer service, innovative trade-in programs and purchase incentives, along with an enterprise-grade secure website and ultra-safe checkout process.


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I have the honour of working with CTV for the London 2012 Olympic Games as the swimming commentator and I will be sharing our Canadian athletes' stories as they summit their athletic goals of winning an Olympic medal.
There will be heartbreak and disappointment, but I have a feeling that after the positive ripple effect of Vancouver 2010 Olympics and the huge success of our athletes there is a new sense of self confidence and self belief that our present Canadian athletes possess.
Our summer Olympic athletes are gearing up to achieve more than ever before. The countdown to the official Opening Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympics is eight days away, on Friday July 27. The whole world will watch the spectacle and athletic extravaganza to go on for the following 16 days.
Competitive swimming starts on Saturdy, July 28 and is eight days in duration. The heavyweights will be the showdown between American swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte who will battle it out on the first evening in the 400m Individual medley (IM). This IM event is where the swimmers swim all four strokes in one race- butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
If Phelps is successful in striking gold, he will be the first male to win the same event in three consecutive Olympic Games.
Two females have already accomplished this feat, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser and Hungarian Kristina Egerzegi.
Phelps had an incredible and flawless program winning eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He holds the title for the most Olympic gold medals of any athlete, and will try to break the last remaining title- Most Overall Olympic Medals.
He sits with 16 medals secured from his three Olympics, and will try to top Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina's 18 medals.
With all the hype of Phelps and Lochte, let's not overlook our Canadian team who are on a mission to rise to the medal podium.
The Canadian swim team will be led by two British Columbians, Ryan Cochrane of Victoria and Brent Hayden of Mission. Hayden is a sprint specialist, a reigning silver medallist in the 2011 World Championships in the 100m freestyle.
While Cochrane is the bronze medalist from the 2008 Olympics in the 1500m and has his sights set on podium performances in both the 1500m and 400m freestyle events. Our Canadian women's team could have some podium performances with Julia Wilkinson of Stratford Ontario who trains in Victoria and Sinead Russell of Burlington Ontario in the 100m backstroke.
The 200m breastroke will be a showdown with the Canadians right up there chasing the world record. Martha McCabe who trains in Vancouver alongside team mate Tera Van Beilen both train under breastroke guru Jozsef Nagy and recently posted times within reach of Olympic medal standards.
I finished fourth and fifth at the Olympic Games, tenths away from an Olympic medal, but I can see the new identity of the Canadian team — a solid belief that they deserve to be best in the world — gives them more strength than previous teams.
I know our Canadian athletes today believe they can climb that Olympic performance because they see themselves as worthy champions.
I recently heard an evolved saying that applies to our Canadian Olympic athletes.
"You have to see it before you can achieve it!"
The power of the mind and mental strength will play a huge role in the results of our Canadian athletes in London.
Our Canadian swimmers see themselves winning gold and it will be an amazing honour and thrill to give the play by play of their journey.
Have fun cheering on our Canadian athletes and remember, they all started out like our local athletes — learning to love sport and all of its healthy benefits.
Naturally for some, it progresses into something much more, simply because they are determined to make their dreams come true.
Joanne Malar is a three-time Olympic Swimmer, 2012 CTV London Olympic Analyst, Summerland Parks and Recreation Programmer and Head Coach for ORCA Swim Team.


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Award winning design and contemporary functionality creates a luxury collection which is not only aesthetically beautiful but practical for day to day use. Only the finest materials and mechanisms are used by craftsman to put together a stunning range of fine furniture.
In addition to our collection pieces we also offer a very unique service of bespoke furniture design and creation. This enables us to tailor make existing collection pieces according to your style or dimensions. We are also able to co create a specific piece or collection which is completely bespoke. Please do not hesitate to contact us, we love talking about design and furniture.


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Before: Patient needs a Single Tooth Replacent of one Upper Central Incisor.
After: Smile and function restored with a Single Implant and an All Porcelain Crown (Cap) that fits securely over the implant.
Note: Patients depicted in photos have provided their consent to display their pictures online. Results may vary.
Before: Patient needs Upper and Lower Arch Rehabilitation.
After: Great smile, chewing function, and facial tissue support possible with an Upper Denture that is supported with Implants and Lower Implants and Crowns
staff is very friendly and competent
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Staff were friendly, timely and competent. I am nervous at the dentist and staff were wonderful re: ensuring I was comfortable and relaxed.
Automated Appointment Reminder Software powered by PracticeMojo


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At the nominal cost of Rs.1/- per liter, Clean Drinking Water is provided through 38 Water Filtration Plants operational in different parts of Karachi, wherein people of these localities are being provided safe drinking water.
Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids and gases from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for drinking purpose. Water purification plants are the source of providing pure, safe, and healthy drinking water to people. Water filtration plants make use of "Reverse 'Osmosis processes for water purification.


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By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Texas rock greats ZZ Top will roll back into Amarillo this spring.
Tickets for the Houston-based blues-rockers' latest show in Amarillo, part of its Tonnage Tour, will go on sale at noon March 3.
The band will perform at 8 p.m. May 12 in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex Auditorium, 401 S. Buchanan St.
Tickets are $48, $68, $78 and $102, plus fees. VIP packages are $200 or $325, plus fees.
Fan presales begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday with a code, and other presale tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. March 2 with a code.
Call 806-378-3096 or visit PanhandleTickets.com.
The band, which last played in Amarillo in 2008 and 2012, most recently released Live! Greatest Hits from Around the World, which includes 15 tracks recorded live in 13 cities across three continents. Included on the album is the band's version of "Sixteen Tons" with guitar legend Jeff Beck.
The Tonnage Tour began this week in South Carolina and will stretch through June with dates around the United States and into July with a European leg.
The band formed in 1969 and has kept the same core — bassist and lead vocalist Dusty Hill, guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard — for more than 45 years.
Its hits include "Cheap Sunglasses," "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp-Dressed Man," "Tush," "Legs" and "La Grange."
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at email@example.com, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.


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Our short feature film, The Gift, tells our story. While much has changed since 1956, the values that underpin this hospital have remained constant, and our mission, to honour the intent of the Deed of Gift of Mr Otto von Rieben by successfully providing safe, contemporary care for every patient, every time in current well equipped facilities, is reflected in the way we manage our hospital today.
The Gift from Burnside Hospital on Vimeo.


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A Without-Law Righteousness Has Been Revealed. Reformation 2019. Romans 3:19-28
The Sunday of the Reformation
Emmaus Lutheran Church
Romans 3:19-28
October 27, 2019
A Without-Law Righteousness Has Been Revealed
Iesu iuva!
Beloved in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two years ago was the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation of the Church that God began through Martin Luther. You might have sensed that the celebration of this anniversary was muted, considering how consequential it was in the history of the church, even the history of the world.
The Reformation was caused by something that was as strange in 1517 as it was in 2017 and as it was in the year of our Lord 17. What came out of Luther's pen and mouth and started the Reformation was a message the world could not understand in any age.
It was a message about a righteousness that stands before God, a righteousness that comes without the law. St. Paul writes: But now a without-law righteousness of God has been made manifest. (Rom. 3:21) And it is as that without-law righteousness is made manifest and unleashed that the Church continues to be reformed, to be healthy, to bring righteousness and peace to troubled sinners.
- What is so significant about a "without-law righteousness"? To answer that we should clarify what a "with-Law righteousness" is.
To a pious Jew at the time Paul was writing, the idea that there is a righteousness that stands before God apart from the Law of God would be blasphemous. After all, God said in Leviticus 18 verse 5: You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD. A person is righteous when he does according to God's will laid out in His holy law—and that's it.
Although people today don't circumcise on the 8th day or do no work on Saturday, they basically agree with the pious Jews at the time Paul wrote that being righteous is a matter of doing righteousness. Being righteous is a matter of following the laws of justice.
But Paul makes it clear that the real Law of righteousness—God's commandments—pronounces no one righteous. Even though God's Law is good and right, and the God who gave it is good and just, God's Law does not make anyone good or righteous. Instead it pronounces every single person in the world guilty. It brings the terrifying knowledge that we are sinners against God, that we have made enemies of God by disobeying His commandments—indeed that we are transgessors of His commandments by our very nature. And yet it leaves us no way of escape. We know of no other way to be righteous and pleasing to God than to do works that please Him, and yet we are not able to accomplish what He requires in the Law.
- [A without law righteousness—free, by faith]
When Paul says, But now a without Law righteousness of God has been made manifest, what wonderful news this is to anyone who is condemned by God's Law—who is condemned to eternal death, cut off from his presence, who lives with the shame of having turned away from God! You can see this in the Gospels—how sinners reacted to Jesus. There was the woman who wept on His feet and dried his feet with her hair—remember that? There was the tax collector Zacchaeus, who climbed up a tree to see Jesus, knowing everyone would laugh at him—but he didn't care, because he was hungry and thirsty for forgiveness of his sins.
People reacted like this to Jesus because they had no way out of their sins and their guilt. They had no way to come to God as a gracious Father. But Jesus opened a way for them.
That's why Paul calls this a without-law righteousness of God. It is a righteousness that stands before God, but has nothing to do with our keeping His commandments. Instead, it is a free gift of God. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace. As a gift means—for free, for nothing. While we have nothing to bring to Him except that which would anger Him. Just as Jesus freely forgave Zacchaeus his debt, just as He ate with the tax collectors, just as He freely forgave the sinful woman who washed his feet after with tears of gratitude.
But still, how can you have a righteousness before God when you haven't done what He demands? The answer of the Gospel is—by faith in Jesus Christ. You don't accomplish this righteousness. You believe in the righteousness accomplished by Jesus. You believe that God gives this righteousness without Law to you as a gift.
- [The Redemption in Christ Jesus.]
The without law righteousness God gives us is the righteousness Jesus accomplished. God the Son did not need to keep the Law to be worthy of the glory of God. He shared the glory of the Father from eternity. But to redeem us from the curse the Law pronounces on those who break it, God the Son became flesh and blood and made Himself subject to the Law. We are those under the Law. We are obligated to keep it, and when we fall short of it, the Law curses and condemns us. So though it is good, it makes us conscious of sin and God's wrath. It increases our guilt, because when the Law pronounces judgment on us as adulterers or thieves or despisers of God's Word, we then want to run from God. We don't love Him. We flee from Him. We are trapped in condemnation.
So God the Son became man to redeem us from this curse and render the Law fulfilled for us.
In the temple, there was a box called the ark of the covenant, in which were the stone tablets on which God wrote the ten commandments. Then God commanded a cover to be made for the ark out of pure gold. On each end of the cover were two figures of cherubim—angels, who spread out their wings over the cover and looked toward the center of it. This cover is called "the mercy seat" in English; and it was here, at the covering of His Law, that God promised to be present on earth among His people, and to speak to Moses.
Paul says in verse 25 that God put forward Jesus as a mercy seat through faith in His blood. He is referring to the day once a year when the priest would throw a bunch of incense on the fire and a big cloud of smoke would go up so that he could not see God between the cherubim. Then he would go in, behind the curtain, and sprinkle blood from a sin offering on the mercy seat to atone for his sins and those of his family, and then for those of the people. The blood of the sacrificial animal covered the transgressions of God's Law that was underneath the gold mercy seat. Instead of the people receiving the wages of their sin, the debt was paid with the life of another. But not forever—the atonement had to be repeated every year.
But Paul is saying that Jesus is the true mercy seat, the covering of the commandments of God that we have broken, now and into eternity.
When Peter and John came into Jesus' tomb on Easter Morning, they saw two angels sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying wrapped up—one at the head, one at the foot, like the cherubim on the mercy seat. John had seen when the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb. He was covered with blood—from His hands, His feet, His side, from the stripes on His back, from the thorns in His brow. John did not know then what He was looking at, but it says that when he came to the empty tomb he saw and believed (John 20: 8). When he saw Jesus, he was looking at the mercy-seat sprinkled with the blood that redeems us from the broken Law's curse. When he saw Jesus' body covered with blood, He was seeing the end of the Law, that there may be righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom. 10).
We do not see Jesus' body in the same way John did. We see it under the bread, we see his blood under the wine as we come to the altar and eat and drink. There we see the without law righteousness of God, the mercy-seat. We approach His table and the one who covers our transgressions makes us whole and sound before God with His body crucified for us and the blood that He poured out for us in great love.
- [Put forward by God]
But how do we come to see this? How do we come to believe in this without law righteousness, that it is for us? God presents it to us. He puts forward His Son to us in the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. He shows us Christ crucified.
In the Old Testament, no one, not even the priest, could see the atonement for their sins. It was hidden from the people in the temple. When the priest entered the temple with the blood of the sacrifice, that was all the people saw. Even the priest could not see God as he sprinkled the atoning blood on the mercy seat. If he saw God he would die.
But now God presents the covering for our sins to our eyes. He puts Jesus His Son before our eyes. He shows us His suffering on the cross, His streaming blood. And He says, behold your redemption. Behold the covering of your sins. Behold your righteousness. Receive it as a gift from my rich grace. You who cannot approach me by your works, receive righteousness apart from the Law, solely as a gift. Receive my Son who covers your sins with His blood.
- [We conclude that a man is justified by faith]
Paul concludes this reading by saying: For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without works of Law.
This teaching did not make sense to the world in Luther's day, and it doesn't make sense to the world in our day. And our cold and foggy hearts often miss the wonder in it.
But what wonderful, joyful, lovely, freeing words these are for us! God freely counts you righteous, a saint. He frees you from trying to be righteous on your own, from ongoing condemnation. He covers your sins with His Son's blood—not once a year, but now and forever. And He puts forward this work of His Son before our eyes so that we believe this without law righteousness is ours.
Even if the world is ungrateful for this gift of God, may we never grow cynical about it or tired of it. May we never become more focused on our own efforts and techniques in trying to make this righteousness known to the world than we are on the gift itself and the God who is making it known through preaching the crucified Christ.
Instead may we, like the cherubim, gaze adoringly at the covering of our sins, Jesus Christ, who gives us the righteousness apart from Law.
The peace of God that passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Absolution Hymn–Missing Stanzas
People at my congregation know this hymn, although in a different translation, but there are some stanzas that sadly aren't in our hymnal.
On this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, one of my chief prayers is that God would cause people to recognize the gift He preserved in the Lutheran Church of the practice of private confession and absolution. This is a gift that exists in no other church as it does in the Lutheran Church (except where they have learned it from us), and is one of the key examples of how the church of the Reformation differs in spirit from those of other protestant churches as well as from the church of Rome. You get a glimpse of these different spirits in action when you read the sentiment expressed in the Jack Chick tract above and then compare it with the stanzas of the hymn below. This is clearly not a minor issue. The tract shows how fundamentalists (and American evangelicals typically) think: to trust in absolution leads to damnation. Contrast this with the scriptural faith of the reformation that breathes in the stanzas below:
1.Yea, as I live, Jehovah saith,
I would not have the sinner's death,
But that he turn from error's ways,
Repent, and live through endless days.
2. To us therefore Christ gave command:
"Go forth and preach in every land;
Bestow on all My pard'ning grace
Who will repent and mend their ways.
3. "All those whose sins ye thus remit
I truly pardon and acquit,
And those whose sins ye do retain
Condemned and guilty shall remain.
4. What ye shall bind, that bound shall be;
What ye shall loose, that shall be free;
Unto My Church the keys are giv'n
To ope and close the gates of heav'n."
5. They who believe when ye proclaim
The joyful tidings in My name
That I for them My blood have shed,
Are free from guilt and Judgment dread.
7. However great our sin may be,
The Absolution sets us free,
Appointed by God's own dear Son
To bring the pardon He has won.
9. This is the pow'r of Holy Keys,
It binds and doth again release;
The Church retains them at her side,
Our mother and Christ's holy Bride.
–Nicholas Herman, 1560. Trans. M. Loy, 1880.
Still There Is Room. Trinity 2/ Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. June 25, 2017.
The Second Sunday after Trinity/Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
St. Peter Lutheran Church
St. Luke 14:25-34
June 25, 2017
"Still There Is Room"
Iesu Iuva
On June 25th, 1530, the chancellor of Saxony (a state in eastern Germany), presented, or read out loud, what we now call "The Augsburg Confession" before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the fifth, and the gathered princes of the Empire.
The Emperor had called this meeting at Augsburg because he wanted to get the princes to give him support in his defensive war against the invading Muslim Turks. And to accomplish this goal, he said he wanted to settle the religious controversy that had been raging in the Empire for 13 years, ever since the monk Luther had published his 95 Theses on Oct. 31, 1517. Up until this time there had been little discussion with the Lutherans. When Luther was brought before the Emperor at Worms in 1519 at a similar gathering, they simply asked if he was ready to renounce the teaching found in his books. When he said no, the Emperor published the Edict of Worms, which pronounced Luther an outlaw, meaning that anyone who found him could kill him. Anyone who protected Luther, printed his books, or aided and abetted his teaching was guilty of high treason. There was never any discussion in the Empire, or the leadership of the Church, as to whether what had been taught by Luther and the churches of the Reformation was faithful to Scripture.
So when the Lutheran princes heard that the Emperor wanted to try to settle the controversy in a God-pleasing way, they welcomed the opportunity, even though at least some of them doubted his intentions. They came to Augsburg and prepared a statement explaining the changes they had made to the traditional practices in the Church. Then, because a theologian had published a book that falsely accused the Lutherans of teaching things they did not, they wrote up a confession of what they taught on the chief articles of Christian doctrine, believing that they would be recognized as Christian, biblical, and catholic—that is, consistent with what Christians had always believed.
But it quickly became apparent that no real discussion was going to happen at Augsburg. It was a political move. The Emperor wanted support for his war efforts, and at the same time to make it look as if the Lutheran or "evangelical" teaching had been considered and rejected as false.
Yet the Lutheran princes came anyway and had the confession read publicly, despite the efforts of its opponents to keep it from being read, or to have it read in a language most people couldn't understand, or to keep very many people from hearing it.
They confessed—even though doing so made it look like they were prolonging the controversy, and risking the well-being of the Church and the Empire in the face of the Muslim invaders.
And because they confessed the faith, the Church was given a pattern of right, faithful, biblical teaching that would outlive those men. It was a c0nfession that Luther did not write; he couldn't be present for the Diet of Augsburg because he was an outlaw. And so the Augsburg Confession was not a writing of Luther or based on Luther. It was a statement of the biblical, Christian faith that Luther taught but did not invent—the faith taught in Scripture, confessed by Jesus.
At the center of the Augsburg Confession is the teaching that defines the Lutheran Church, but also defines Christianity. Before the Augsburg Confession it had never been clearly summarized in a creed or a church confession except in the pages of Scripture. Yet it is the center of the Bible, the beating heart of its life. Jesus taught it to the Pharisees in today's Gospel reading. Paul discusses it in the 2nd chapter of the epistle to the Christians in Ephesus. I am talking about the article of Christian doctrine on justification. The 4th Article of the Augsburg Confession says it like this:
It is taught that we cannot attain the forgiveness of sins and righteousness before God through our merit, work, and satisfactions [for our own sins]; rather, that we receive the forgiveness of sins and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ has suffered for us, and that our sins are forgiven us for His sake, and righteousness and eternal life are given us as a gift. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness before Him, as St. Paul says [in the epistle] to the Romans in the 3rd and 4th chapters.
Righteousness before God and the forgiveness of our sins, and the eternal life that follows righteousness, are given to us as a gift through Christ, who suffered for us. We don't become righteous before God, we are not forgiven our sins through earning it. We don't work to achieve righteousness by being a monk, or praying, or giving money, or doing better at keeping the ten commandments. We don't win forgiveness from God by being sorry, punishing ourselves, or doing good works to atone for the sins we've committed.
Forgiveness of sins, righteousness in God's sight, and the eternal life that comes as a result of being forgiven and righteous is given by God as a gift in His Son's suffering and death for our sins. And those who believe that God forgives them only because of Jesus' suffering and death in their place—who, as Paul says in Romans 4 do not work but trust God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is counted as righteousness.
Just like Jesus tells the Pharisees. God's banquet is not earned. People are called, invited to the banquet. The qualifications we might think we have are irrelevant. The poor, blind, crippled, and lame are just as qualified to be at the banquet as the people who buy fields and oxen. What qualifies them is that they are called, invited—and do not refuse the invitation. Refusing the invitation is unbelief. Those who do not refuse—those who are brought in to the banquet of eternal life—are those who believe that God lets them in for Christ's sake.
Of course, there are other churches that believe we become righteous before God through faith in Christ alone besides those who hold the Augsburg Confession. Baptists, Presbyterians, non-denominational churches, Pentecostals and Charismatics, and so on. But if you get people from many of these churches to talk honestly to you about what they think of the Lutheran church, they will often say what my dad used to say: "Luther was good, but he didn't go far enough." Or, more rudely, some may say something like, "Lutherans are basically catholic-lite. You are still too Catholic."
Even though we seem to agree on the article of justification, we do not understand the word "faith" the same way. Many Lutherans are confused about this also. What is faith? How do you come to faith in Christ? The confessors at Augsburg wrote:
To obtain this faith, God has instituted the office of preaching, that is, given the Gospel and Sacraments, through which, as through instruments, He gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where He wills, in those who hear the Gospel…the Anabaptists and others are condemned, who teach that we obtain the Holy Spirit without the bodily Word of the Gospel, through their own preparations and works.
The forefathers of the non-denominational churches, of the reformed churches, of the Baptist and Pentecostal churches, did not believe that the Holy Spirit was given through the "bodily Word of the Gospel". They didn't think it was enough to hear the preaching of God's Word, or hear the Bible read or taught, or read it yourself. They definitely didn't believe it was enough to be baptized, receive the Lord's Supper, or be absolved. Faith comes not just through those things, but through the addition of your decision to accept Jesus, or through a powerful experience of being converted. They taught that in the days when the Augsburg Confession was written, and they still teach it. And so they think our reliance on preaching Christ's Work and on baptizing, receiving the body and blood of the Lord, is "Catholic"—by which they mean mechanical, ritualistic.
The Roman Catholic princes assembled at Augsburg did not get converted en masse to the evangelical faith taught in the Augsburg Confession. And the "Anabaptists and others" didn't either. In fact, they grew in power, and replaced the faith taught by Luther and the Augsburg Confession in many places—in England, France, Holland, Hungary, the Czech lands, and even in many of the German states.
And so we come to our time and place. We all know that, in terms of numbers and influence, Christianity isn't doing so well in America or in the lands they used to call "Christendom"—in Europe. Christianity in general is declining, in some places even dying, it appears. Just like the whole of Christendom was threatened by the invading Turkish armies, today all of Christendom around us is retreating—even if it appears to be growing in Africa and Asia. And when all Christian Churches are in decline, it seems obscene to many people—even to many Lutherans—to be harping on the distinctiveness of the Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Confession. It seems like we are rooting for our team instead of for Jesus.
But this is always how it has been. It seemed rude and unnecessary for Jesus to insist to the Pharisees that He was the Messiah, the promised one of God, who would give us rest; to tell them that their strenuous efforts to obey God were good for nothing, and that they could only come to God's feast on the basis of His call, His invitation, not on the basis of their works. They could come to God's feast only through faith in Him.
The Pharisees didn't accept this message from Jesus for the same reason that the Roman Catholic bishops, princes, and emperor didn't accept it, for the same reason people today don't want to hear it.
In Jesus' parable, the people who refused the invitation to the banquet were more interested in the land they just bought, the oxen they needed to test, the wife they just married, than in the banquet of the Lord. And that is the way people are today. They were that way in Jesus' day, in the days of the Augsburg Confession, and today. The emperor cared about fighting the Turk and keeping the empire secure more than he cared about the truth of God's Word and the eternal life that it brings. And we see all around us that people are interested in getting a new car, following sports, getting their kids into fun activities, and so on. But eternal life? Righteousness? Forgiveness of sins? The pure teaching of God's Word? The vast majority of people, if you tell them that that is what your church is offering, will think, if not say out loud, "If that's all you've got, your church is going to close."
But if we take seriously what the Bible teaches about human nature, like the Augsburg Confession does, we would not be surprised at this. In the second Article, it confesses:
Further it is taught among us that since the fall of Adam, all men who are born in the natural way are conceived and born in sin. That is, they all from their mother's womb are full of evil lusts and inclinations, and by nature are not able to have any true fear of God or true faith in God. They also teach that this same inborn disease and inherited sin is truly sin, and damns all those who are not born again through Baptism and the Holy Spirit to the eternal wrath of God.
People by nature are unable to fear God or trust Him. That is the sin in which we are born. But by nature nobody feels the force of this. It's not hard to recognize that people are broken. Many people understand without being taught from the Bible that people are not born good. You only have to look around and see that people do evil far more easily than they do good.
But we do not recognize that even when we are good, humanly speaking, we are still not able to fear God or trust Him in reality—and that this inability deserves and will receive God's eternal wrath and punishment. People do not believe this. Even Christians don't comprehend their guilt and God's serious anger against it. We don't fully recognize our helplessness in it.
It is a counter-cultural message. It doesn't matter whether you are liberal or an arch-conservative. No one, by nature, is able or willing to fully grasp this. We want to believe it is in our power to draw near to God—or that we are already near Him.
It is a work of God when a person recognizes and believes what the Bible says about his helplessness in sin. It is a work of God to become spiritually poor, blind, crippled, and lame—to be terrified at your sin and cry out for God's grace.
For that person, the invitation of the Gospel is a banquet of joy in itself. It says, "Believe what God promises. His Son suffered for you, His Son received the wrath of God against Your sin. His Son merited and earned the forgiveness of your sins. His Son fulfilled all of God's laws in your place. Through Him God is reconciled to you, forgives you, counts you righteous, clothes you with Jesus' honor and righteousness. Through Him God invites you to sit down at His table for eternity and eat with Him, feast with Him, drink wine and celebrate with Him, as His son and heir."
And the Gospel comes into our ears in the words of Jesus to those who are condemned to the eternal wrath of God and says, "There is still room." If you persecuted the Church, like Paul; if you have been a self-righteous Pharisee; if you have lived an ungodly life while bearing the name of Christ, and have committed the sins we all recognize as sins, there is still room. God has gathered in wretched sinners from the broad streets, the alleys, the highways and hedges, through his servants who proclaimed the Gospel—but there is still room. You are invited, and your place is set. The meat is steaming. The wine is sparkling in the glass. He invites you to come and eat and drink today at the altar a taste of what you will enjoy forever in heaven. Your garments of righteousness, dyed red with the blood of Jesus, gleaming white with His innocence and glory, are waiting in your Baptism.
We should not fear when we see that many are simply not interested. Jesus said that is how it would be. That is how it was for Him. That is also how it went after the Augsburg Confession was read. And yet Jesus' Church continues. It advances under the appearance of weakness and defeat until the final victory appears, when He appears in glory. In the midst of her weakness, He works in power. As the Confession says:
It is also taught that there must always be and remain in existence one holy Christian Church, which is the assembly of all believers, among which the Gospel is purely preached and the holy Sacraments are given out in accordance with the Gospel.
However, because in this life many false Christians and hypocrites, and even manifest sinners remain among the believers, nevertheless the sacraments are powerful and effective, even if the priests who give them out are not godly.
Even when the Church seems to be overrun by its own sinful members, Christ is present with us, spreading His feast, giving the gift of faith, inviting and gathering His Church. In that confidence we confess with the confessors of long ago, trusting that our Lord will continue to gather and preserve His Church around His pure Word in the face of all opponents, all sin, and all the works of the devil.
The peace of God that passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Repentance and Reformation. Ash Wednesday 2017.
Ash Wednesday (7 p.m.)
St. Peter Lutheran Church
Joel 2:12-19, 2 Peter 1:2-9, St. Matthew 6:16-21
March 1, 2017
Repentance and Reformation
Iesu Iuva
"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Matt. 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."
That is the first of the 95 Theses that sparked the Reformation. The first word of the Reformation of God's Church was about repentance. If your life needs to be reformed, if a family needs to be reformed, if a congregation or the whole Church needs reformation, this is where it begins—with repentance.
But a Christian life not only begins with repentance. The entire life of a Christian is one of repentance—an ongoing, daily "changing of your mind." A change in how we think, look at the world, what we love and hold dear, what we believe, with the result that we return to God.
This the reason ashes are imposed today. Ashes are a physical way of saying that our way of thinking and living must change. Ashes are what remains to people who have been destroyed.
Look at pictures of a place that has been through a war, like Germany after World War 2, its cities pulverized to dust, rubble, and ashes by the rain of bombs falling from the sky. You see people with wide eyes hiding in blackened, charcoal shells of houses, their faces dirty from the ash that is everywhere. They haven't just been going through a hard time. Their country has been laid into the dust and destroyed. The ashes of what they once had smeared their faces black.
Do you recognize that that is how you are? A shell of what you were created to be, sitting in the ashes of the glory you once had, not knowing when fire will rain down from the sky to consume what is left of your life?
In ancient times, in the Bible, when people grieved and mourned, they sat in ashes, they sprinkled ashes on their heads. They did this to show that they had been destroyed. Frequently, along with the ashes, they stopped eating food—they fasted. People do that when they are too full of pain to fill their stomachs; they also do it when war or destruction has so ruined their worlds that there is no food to eat. When God had punished people in the Bible, or when it seemed like He was about to punish them, they would sit in ashes, they would fast, and they would cry out to God from their destruction: "You have destroyed us; please bring us back to life."
They understood correctly who the God of the Scriptures is. He is the God who, out of a handful of dust, made man in His image, and breathed in His nostrils the breath of life. We were created with glory to bear the image of the one God. But when Adam and Eve rejected the Word of God, they lost their form, just like the palm leaves in the fire. The image of God was destroyed. They lived out the remainder of their lives under a curse until their ruined bodies returned to dust. God gives life. God also destroys life that turns away from Him.
But God is able to bring back the life He destroys. He is able to gather the ashes of the palm leaves and make them once again the green branches they once were. He is able to bring back human beings that have been destroyed by sin; to raise to life flesh and bone that have returned to dust, and to restore the lost image of the Creator to human bodies and souls.
But when He does that in a person, or a household, or a church, it always begins with repentance, with a change of mind.
If a person is a burnt wasteland, a bombed-out ruin, he hasn't started to come back to life yet until he recognizes he has been destroyed. Until our ruins are rebuilt and no sin remains in us, a Christian cannot be comfortable and satisfied. Could a person who has lived through a war be comfortable and content while his country is burning, his home is ashes, and he is sleeping on a cot in a refugee shelter? No! He will not be content until his home is rebuilt, the fields of his nation are sprouting grain, the roads are paved, there are schools for his children. So Christians can't be content while sin remains in them.
As we seek to renew our life of repentance this Lent, it is important to remember that repentance has two parts. The first is contrition, which is heartfelt sorrow and terror over our sins, the recognition of God's wrath against sin revealed in the Law, together with the desire to be free from sin and its destruction. Contrition is necessary, but it is not something we can do or make ourselves feel. It is God's work within us, and there is only one way that God has promised to work it. That is through His Word—in particular, through the preaching of His Law.
If you listen seriously to the sermons that are preached to you instead of sitting in judgment on them, as so many do; if you allow yourself to be taught God's Word by the pastor God sent you; if you faithfully read the Scripture; and if you take up the Small Catechism, learn the ten commandments with their explanations, and look at the way you live in light of them, God will work contrition within you—not because you have done a good work by listening and reading, but because He desires that all be saved and come to repentance. His Word is the instrument He uses to create repentance within you.
He will give you a contrite and broken heart, which is the sacrifice of God, which He does not despise (Ps. 51). He will not only terrify you with the threat of His wrath, but if you believe in Christ, He will also create in you the sorrow that comes from having offended the God you love.
Ashes a biblical symbol of the destruction sin has brought upon us. But there is another kind of ashes in the Bible—ashes used not to grieve, but to purify.
In Numbers 19, God commanded that a red heifer should be sacrificed and burned and its ashes mixed with water. This water was used to purify those who were made unclean through contact with a dead body. An animal, completely consumed in the fire, reduced to ashes on God's altar—those ashes, that residue of a destroyed life, when mixed with water, made a person clean from the impurity that came from contact with death.
God has provided another, much greater life to be consumed in the fire of His wrath for your sins—the life of His Son. In Baptism, the ashes of His sacrifice on the cross, the fullness of His death for the sins of the world, are joined to water and poured upon you to cleanse not only your body but your soul from death. Not only His death under the wrath of God, but His resurrection into life free from the condemnation of the Law. In Baptism you become a participant in both. You are joined with Him. On the cross, the burning wrath of God fell on His soul as He carried your sins as His own. You also were brought to an end with Jesus.
But God is able to raise up again and put back together what He has utterly destroyed in His wrath. And He did. He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. And in raising Jesus, He raised you and all people up, put us all back together again as a new creation, as children of God. He raised up our ruins, brought our ashes together and re-formed them, remade us in the image of the glory of God, so that we will never taste the second death.
This is the second and most important part of repentance—not only sorrow for our sins, but faith that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus. By faith I mean certain confidence and trust that although we cannot free ourselves from spiritual destruction, God has done so. He destroyed our sins in the wrath that He poured out on His Son who bore them. Then He raised up the one who bore our sins, freeing Him from the curse. Instead of ashes He gave us a beautiful headdress, a crown of victory (Is. 61), like the Old Testament priests who wore a crown that said, "Holy to the Lord." This crown is placed on our heads by God, because Jesus, our head, is alive again. His battle with sin is over and He has emerged in righteousness and victory. He is our crown of righteousness and sanctification. He was poured on our heads in Baptism. By faith we wear His holiness as our crown.
"The entire life of a believer should be one of repentance," Luther wrote in the first word of the reformation. That means not only a life of sorrow over our sin, but a life of confidence and trust that God has dealt with our sin. A life in which we daily return to God, not only with sorrow over our destruction, but with firm trust that our destruction has been swallowed up by life. Then instead of transforming us to ash from outside, God, who is an unquenchable fire of love, transforms us from within into the image of His Son. He burns away our old self until Christ appears in us.
Repentance begins with the recognition of sin and ends with the certain trust that our sins are forgiven—not because we feel that they are, but because the Gospel of God declares them to be. Where the pure Gospel of God is preached, it will work this change of mind—contrition and faith. And this repentance—true repentance– always brings reformation with it. Wherever an individual, family, or congregation is given this change of mind, and clings steadfastly to the promise that their sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake, that individual or family or church will begin to reorder its life according to God's Word. It will begin to produce fruit that pleases God. May God graciously create and strengthen this repentance in us this Lent.
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
Saints in our Weakness. All Saints' Day 2015.
All Saints' Day
St. Peter Lutheran Church
St. Matthew 5:1-12
November 1, 2015
"Saints in our Weakness"
Iesu Iuva
Today is All Saints' Day. What is a saint? A saint is a holy person. "Holy" means "set apart for God."
On the altar, veiled by a cloth, is bread and wine. Later it will be consecrated, hallowed and made holy by God's Word to be the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The consecrated bread and wine are holy things. We treat them with reverence, not like common bread and wine. In the same way saints are holy people. They are not normal, common, unclean people. They are God's people, set apart for Him, filled with a treasure that is not of this world—the Holy Spirit of God.
And where do you find these holy people, these saints? You find them where the thing God uses to consecrate and make holy is. You find the saints where God's Word is, because it is God's Word that sanctifies, cleanses, and makes the saints holy.
That means you find the saints of God not in a monastery somewhere, or out in a cave fasting. You find them in this congregation and others like it, where God's pure Word is proclaimed and taught.
Yes, you yourself are a saint, you who are baptized and believe that Jesus died for the forgiveness of your sins. That is the way the Bible addresses and describes Christians, people who only believe in Jesus. The first reading from Revelation says the saints are those who have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14) In the epistle John does not tell us to doubt and question whether we belong to God. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are." (1 John 3:1) And whenever Paul starts his letters he addresses the churches he writes to as congregations of saints. "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints," Romans 1:7. "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Corinthians 1:2. "To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus," Ephesians 1:1.
Why are we saints? Not because of our works, but because of the works of Jesus. All our sin was given to Him, and He wore it as His covering on the cross and bore God's wrath against us. Scripture doesn't say merely that Jesus bore our sin, but that He became sin for us. "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21) Just as surely as God made Jesus to be sin, so surely are we righteous for Jesus' sake. And if we are righteous, then we are also saints.
This is why so much of our effort at witnessing is misguided. We look at our unbelieving neighbors as if they had something to give us, by making our numbers larger or by adding to our offerings. No! We are God's saints through Christ. We long for the salvation of our neighbors for their sake, not for ours. We don't need the help of the world; we already have everything, because we are God's saints.
This is where worldly wisdom barges in with scornful laughter. "You are God's saints? You don't need anything the world has to give? Are you crazy? Look how few of you there are! See how you are barely paying your bills, and you are only doing that with the gifts people left you when they died! And look at your sins—your own private sins that no one knows about as well as the obvious sins that afflict the congregation—disunity, disregard for God's Word, pride, factions and jealousy. You are supposed to be saints, and you have everything? Then why does God let you be weak and suffer and be dragged through the mud?"
Surely you know that voice as well as I do. Sometimes it comes out and speaks openly. Other times it is present as nagging doubt. Whether we are speaking of the congregation or ourselves as individuals, we don't often feel like saints who have everything. The reason is because we are weak, we suffer, we see our ongoing sinfulness. This shouldn't happen to saints, says our reason. They should be like the saints we see pictured in Revelation, who are dressed in white robes, carry the palm branches of victory, and sing hosannas. God should lead the saints from victory to victory, from glory to glory. If we are really saints, there must be something wrong with our sainthood.
But if we paid attention to our Lord's words in the Gospel reading today, we would see that the reasoning of our flesh is incorrect. In the beatitudes, the "blesse are's" that Jesus speaks at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the saints on earth in terms that contradict our reason. He calls blessed not the spiritually rich but the spiritually poor, not the happy but the mourning, not the church that is loved by the world but the one that is persecuted by the world and cast out as evil.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," says Jesus. The saints are not rich in
spirit. They don't come to God with their own righteousness, with something to boast about. We come
before God with the awareness of our ongoing sinfulness and spiritual poverty. But in our ongoing
struggle against our sinful flesh we have the kingdom of heaven. That's because our righteousness, our
spiritual riches, are outside of us. Jesus is our "wisdom form God, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption." (1 Corinthians 1:30) We have no righteousness in ourselves that could save us. We
possess the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus. We believe that all Jesus is and has done is for
But we believe that in the midst of sin's raging and storming within us. That is why Jesus says, "Blessed
are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." We mourn because we are constantly afflicted by our own sinfulness and unbelief. In addition we live in a world of death and suffering. We long for the day when we will be in Paradise and the Lord Himself will "wipe every tear from our eyes." (Rev. 7)
And so throughout the beatitudes Jesus describes the saints not as living what might be called a "victorious life", but as living with weakness and suffering. We are blessed in the midst of that weakness. In fact Jesus says we should rejoice in our weakness. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:11-12) It's one thing to bear with weakness and suffering, and something else to rejoice in it. But Jesus says to rejoice in weakness and suffering. It is not a sign that you are not a saint; it is the normal experience of saints.
There should be no surprise in this if we thought according to faith in Christ and not according to the flesh. Because what happened to the Holy and Righteous One, Jesus? He exemplified these beatitudes. He was poor in spirit because He bore the sins of the world. Look at Him going down to the Jordan to be baptized with sinners. Look at Him in agony in Gethsemane and crying out, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" from the cross. He was meek and lowly in heart, so meek that He would not cast away the most unworthy sinner but invites them to come to Him so that He may stoop down and wash their feet. He was pure in heart, as no sinners are except through faith in Him. He, the Son of God, was the peacemaker, because He made peace with God for us by His suffering and the shedding of His blood. And He was persecuted for righteousness. Because as He fulfilled the Law for us and gave righteousness to the sinful and lost, the leaders of the Jews reviled Him and spoke all manner of evil against Him until finally they had Him put to death as a criminal, as a blasphemer.
So you are a saint, baptized into Christ. And it is not a shock when you are weak, you suffer, and you continue to struggle against sin. You are born again into Christ in your baptism. You were remade into His image where you used to have the image of Adam. Adam was proud and tried to snatch the glory of God for Himself. But you have put on the image of Christ, who was "a man of sorrows and familiar with grief" (Is. 53). Your proud Adam died with Him and dies daily, so that you might be raised up with Christ in the glorious image of His resurrection.
No! says your sinful flesh. No, I do not want to live by faith. I want to see the glory that is supposed to be mine as a Son of God. I want to experience it. I want to see signs that Christ is really among us, not just receive His promise that He is when He gives me His body and blood.
Repent. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is yours now in your poverty of spirit. He calls you a saint. He gives you everything. "The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now." (1 John 3:1-2) Do you want something greater than what your Lord experienced on earth? "A servant is not greater than his master" (John 15:20). But even under the cross and weakness you are a saint through faith in Him. You have the kingdom of heaven.
That is what we Christians rejoice in. In the midst of our suffering, sin, and weakness, we already have God's kingdom. God is pleased with us. Jesus gives us His very body and blood which was crucified and poured out for us on the cross to assure us that the kingdom of heaven is now ours, that our sins are forgiven. "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:2) We rejoice not only that we have God's favor now. We rejoice in the sure promises of our Lord of what is to come for us. We will be comforted when the Lord wipes away every tear from our eyes. We will be satisfied with righteousness. We will receive mercy on the day of judgment. We will see God. We will be called His Sons before all creation when He judges the living and the dead.
Soli Deo Gloria


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text: If Fido starts to get a bit hungry when you two are out and about in Wahiawa, stop into Maui Mike's Fire-Roasted Chicken. This pawsome eatery serves mouth watering chicken in a laid-back atmosphere. If you are more in the need for a cup of coffee, check out Green World Farms. This awesome coffee shop offers five different types of beans with nine blends of coffee. If coffee isn't your thing, this shop also offers a nice selection of tea. Both of these puptastic places have a dog friendly patio and welcome your pooch to join you for a meal or drink.


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Attorney Joseph M. DiOrio, principal of the Law Office of Joseph M. DiOrio Inc., recently received a lawyer of the year award from Best Lawyers for the category of banking and finance law. DiOrio talked with Providence Business News about why he received the award, how he got into banking and finance law and what trends he's seeing in Rhode Island.
PBN: Congratulations on your award. Why did you receive it?
DIORIO: I am very honored to receive this recognition. I am fortunate to handle a wide variety of commercial legal transactions in the banking and finance arena. Based on a peer-review process, Best Lawyers bestows this recognition annually to a single lawyer in each practice and major metropolitan area.
PBN: What is your professional background and how did you get involved in commercial banking and finance law?
DIORIO: I started as a law clerk and then was hired as an associate at a firm called Tobin & Silverstein where I had the opportunity to work with financial institutions right at the start of my career. I was extremely lucky to work with and learn from distinguished lawyers like Bentley Tobin (deceased), Judge Michael A. Silverstein, Merrill Sherman and others. As my career progressed, I represented lenders in many areas including financings, workouts, foreclosures and insolvency proceedings.
PBN: What trends are you seeing in the world of banking and finance law?
DIORIO: My sense is that lending, in general, is picking up although Rhode Island may be a bit behind Massachusetts and Connecticut. Lending to non-profit entities appears strong. The marketplace for commercial lending seems pretty competitive with larger and smaller banks competing for deals. Workouts, foreclosures and commercial bankruptcies are generally down.
PBN: How does Rhode Island differ from neighboring states and other regions of the country?
DIORIO: Our recovery in Rhode Island appears to have started a bit later than, say, Massachusetts, but there seems to be increasing activity here. Commercial real estate development lending here is slower than Massachusetts. In Rhode Island we have a number of strong, active banks, both large and national in scope as well as small and community-based. For borrowers, there is an excellent choice of savvy bankers to ensure the right fit.
PBN: From a bankruptcy and foreclosure point of view, how would you compare the Rhode Island market today with the height of the Great Recession?
DIORIO: From a bankruptcy/foreclosure perspective, we are seeing a lot fewer commercial real estate foreclosures, receiverships and bankruptcies. Lenders were likely very cautious when making loans in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Those foreclosures, or trustees or receivers sales that do take place have sometimes resulted in successful sales and opportunities for the buyers. In the right situation, having an active commercial lending environment can lead to a successful result, whether it be a sale or refinance.
See full article here in PBN.


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From the Nestlé website: Nestlé's mission is to enhance consumers' lives by offering tastier and healthier food and beverage choices for all stages of life and at any time of the day. True to our values and principles we also Create Shared Value through sustainable growth and a commitment to environmental sustainability and compliance along every step of the value chain. Nestlé's promise is Good Food, Good Life.
For this report, the FLA worked with one of Nestlé's tier-1 suppliers to identify an appropriate tier-2 supplier for an assessment of working conditions at farms outside of the "Nestlé Cocoa Plan." Assessors visited farms in four communities, interviewing farmers, farmworkers, and supply chain intermediaries. This report describes the structure of the supply chain they found, and working conditions at the farms.
In July 2014, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) published the report "Assessing Women's Roles in Nestlé's Ivory Coast Supply Chain." This report articulated 17 specific recommendations to Nestlé and the Ivorian government to raise the status of women in the Nestlé supply chain, and to improve conditions for women in cocoa-producing areas of the Ivory Coast.
In August 2015, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) conducted independent assessments in the Turkish hazelnut supply chain shared by three FLA affiliates – Nestlé, and its two strategic first-tier suppliers, Balsu and Olam Progida which together account for 100 percent of Nestlé's hazelnut volume in Turkey.
The FLA annually conducts independent assessments of a sample of each affiliated company's supply chains. For Nestlé in Ivory Coast, the FLA has been monitoring since 2013 a growing portion of its cocoa supply served by the Nestlé Cocoa Plan (NCP). As of mid-2015, the NCP represented around 25 percent of Nestlé's total cocoa supply chain.
On June 16, 2015, a group of workers at the Karacabey factory in Turkey, owned and operated by Participating Company Nestlé, submitted a Third Party Complaint with the FLA alleging that they had been dismissed because of their union affiliation.


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Membership in the Apartment Association of Kansas City shall be open to a corporation, partnership, firm or person that (1) agrees to abide by the provisions of the By-Laws and policies of the Association and (2) fulfill the requirements of at least one of the classifications of membership of Association and, (3) completes a membership application for annual dues and, (4) meets the approval of the Board of Directors of this Association.
Owner/Developer/Manager Members shall be any corporation, partnership, firm or person, who owns, develops or manages multi-family housing within the jurisdiction of the Apartment Association of Kansas City.
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The Danish government is looking to hold bank executives accountable for illegal use of offshore accounts, according to a recent report by Bloomberg. The push is the result of Danish lenders becoming a hub for money launders.
The increased use of Danish banks for money laundering purposes has led Danish banks to become the center of criminal investigations. Although the banks state they are cooperating fully with these investigations, Danish authorities are pushing for more — they want legislatures to pass laws to allow for additional accountability.
How serious is the problem? A report by Denmark's Financial Action Task Force found "extensive shortcomings" regarding compliance with global money laundering regulations. These shortcomings included a failure to coordinate enforcement efforts and "weak implementation of anti-laundering measures by banks."
This report has provided additional support for the push for increased accountability measures. Danish Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov states the country has "considerable latitude" when it comes to determine fines and aims to make Denmark's laws some of the "toughest in Europe."
What does this mean for United States taxpayers that hold offshore accounts? It is important to ensure all foreign assets are in line with applicable tax obligations. A failure to properly report these assets to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can result in serious penalties including harsh monetary fees and potential imprisonment.
Additional accountability efforts abroad like those called for in the piece noted above could increase the chances foreign institutions will report the presence of assets to the IRS. This could lead to an investigation if the government is not already aware you hold this asset. You can reduce the risk of an investigation by proactively reporting these assets. Contact an attorney to discuss your options.