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OAK HARBOR COUNCIL — June 18
Mayor Conley called the regular meeting of Council to order at 7:00 P.M. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call was requested with the following members present: Don Douglas, Bill Eberle, Jon Fickert, Angela Petersen, Jim Seaman and Donna Wendt-Elliott.
Minutes of the June 4, 2012 meeting stand approved as written.
Privileges of the Floor: Tom Stalter of Poggemeyer Design Group reviewed the recent notice of award from Water Supply Revolving Loan Account for the three applications that were submitted. They are the tank mixing systems east and west and the elevated tank replacement. The tank mixing systems will turn water in the clearwell and at Lakewinds elevated tank to meet EPA mandates. PDG has provided information on solar powered mixers that could save energy costs. The EPA is offering loan money for twenty years at 2 percent interest. Stalter recommends looking into alternate funding options for the elevated storage tank replacement as it is such a costly project. Council will need to determine if they want to proceed with any of these projects. If nothing is done this year Stalter recommends nominating the projects again next year.
Pauley informed council that the village will need to borrow supplemental funding for repairs at the CSO basin. We originally borrowed $600,000 from OWDA on behalf of PDG and they are making structured payments on that but now that we have the updated costs for Kelly & Sons for construction costs and EDP for technical services. We need to borrow $209,785 for repairs and $95,000 to pay ourselves back for geotech design and inspections for a total of $304,785. When the project was discussed last year council understood that we may need to do supplemental borrowing. The application needs to be in by July 15th for an award the first part of August. PDG will do the borrowing application for us. Seaman asked if there was potential to borrow again in a few months to finish the project and Pauley said no as the project must be completed and ready to go by October 1st. EPA is willing to give us this extension. The contractor is now running five days a week and has added an additional man to the crew. Mayor Conley stated he was disappointed as the original estimate was about $600,000 and 10 percent is the usual overrun. Pauley responded that the original estimate was $664,000 and this was an emergency repair project based on the data we had at the time. We did not see how bad it was until we started to make the cuts. We will need legislation for the July 2 council meeting. Fickert asked what percentage of the additional costs Poggemeyer was assuming. Pauley said that Poggemeyer stepped up to the plate and we borrowed the $600,000 on their behalf and they are repaying that. When we went into mediation they kicked in another $10,000. Fickert again asked what portion of the $304,785 Poggemeyer would be picking up. Stalter answered nothing. They found that they are the least culpable of anybody involved. There was a clearly poor soil put in place. In addition to the $610,000 they have over $200,000 of time they have lost and they are still doing things for the village, applications and inspectors. Fickert is not happy with the additional cost the village will have to absorb and the length of time it is taking to complete the repairs. Solicitor Barney will have legislation for the borrowing for the next meeting.
Mayor's Report: Mayor Conley read a proclamation proclaiming June 20 as Breast Cancer Survivor Day. A letter was read from Time Warner Cable with new contact information. Notes from the downtown revitalization meeting that was held on June 12 were distributed and the next meeting is June 26. Seventy-one resumes were received for the Fiscal Officer position. Those applicants chosen for an interview will be notified as to when they should appear on July 16. The Farmer's Markets will be held the fourth Saturday of the month from June through October at Flat Iron Park. The one this weekend includes a 5K run.
Police Report – Chief Weirich reported that he was meeting on Tuesday about the 5K run. They want to shut down Main Street from the 105-Benton Street traffic light to Toussaint Street for about an hour. This could cause problems with the Farmer's Market. If for some reason they can't work out an alternative route he asked if Council had an objection to the closing and they did not.
Fiscal Officer's Report – At the last meeting there was discussion on increasing Council pay to whatever the minimum is to get a full month's credit at OPERS. At that time Ms. Busche said she thought the proposed amount was in excess of $500. She verified the amount and it is $1000 earnings per month to get credit for the full month. It has been passed by the Senate and it is anticipated that the House will pass it before the end of the year.
Douglas asked if this was the appropriate time for discussion on Ordinance No. 06-2012 and was advised by Mayor Conley there would be time for discussion after the first reading of the ordinance.
Income Tax Report – The monthly report for May had been distributed.
Village Administrator's Report – Pauley reported there was a surprise inspection by OEPA last week and the Village is addressing the comments. Resolution 08-2012 on tonight's agenda will allow Chief Weirich to apply for an 80 percent grant with the Solid Waste District for a drug take back program. The police budget does have the funds for the 20% match. The tax sale of the properties at 733 and 521 N. Locust Streets will be on Aug. 3, 2012, at 10:30 am. Property maintenance complaints continue for high grass at walk-away properties. The Water Operator position in the Department of Public Works was filled internally by promoting Nick Priesman. Pauley will be on vacation from July 12-20. Wendt-Elliott commented that the crew that worked on the Park Street water break did a good job.
Solicitor's Report: Solicitor Barney will be out of town July 1-7. Kocher will attend the July 2 meeting.
Business of the Meeting
First Reading of Ordinances and Resolutions:
Ordinance No. 06-2012, an ordinance to set salaries and compensation for officers and employees of the Village of Oak Harbor, Ohio and declaring an emergency was read for the first time. Douglas stated that Council needs to act on the cost-of-living allowance before acting on this ordinance because there were certain assumptions made in the ordinance in regard to this. He passed out information to Council on a flat increase amount versus the percentage. The increase this year would be for half a year but we need to look at the impact each year forward. He was surprised that a flat $.50 is not much different than the proposed 3 percent. Eberle likes the flat dollar amount. The percentage exacerbates the problem with the low end and high end. He would like to go with $.35 per hour. Petersen, Seaman and Wendt-Elliott are in favor of 3 percent and Fickert was in favor of a flat amount. Douglas added it is hoped the step increases will alleviate that problem. The question is what we do for this year. Fickert stated the employees deserve a raise and he is in favor of a $ .50 raise which helps those people who earn $10 an hour. They need it more. Petersen moved, seconded by Seaman, to grant a 3 percent raise across the board effective with the first pay period of June 2012. Fickert pointed out that in the group's finding they said a percent raise exacerbates the problem and a person involved in the recommending is now giving other information. The committee was formed to alleviate the problem but this will not do that. It needs to be a dollar amount and he recommends $0.50. Petersen pointed out that the committee recommended 3%. Douglas added that it was a tradeoff because half of it was given away by putting it effective at midpoint instead of the beginning of the year. Ms. Busche added that was one of the things taken into consideration when the 3 percent was discussed. The other is that the step program is supposed to alleviate that problem over a period of time and not the cost of living raises. The problem did not occur overnight and it is not expected to be corrected overnight. Fickert asked if this was for all employees and the answer was the motion is for across the board. Fickert stated in the Administrators case Council goes into executive session and he negotiates a contract. When he negotiates the next time will the other employees be able to be on those negotiations too. He then gets the benefit of both negotiations. Ms. Busche responded that his contract reads that he gets any raises based on what everybody else gets. He has no raises built into his contract nor does the Fiscal Officer's contract. Roll call was requested on Petersen's motion to grant a 3% raise across the board effective with the first pay period of June 2012. On roll call vote Douglas voted yes, Eberle voted no, Fickert voted no, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes. The 3 percent raise was granted by a vote of 4 yes and 2 no. Douglas moved, seconded by Petersen, to waive the three required readings for Ordinance No. 06-2012. On roll call vote Douglas voted yes, Eberle voted yes, Fickert voted yes, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes. Petersen moved, seconded by Seaman, to adopt Ordinance No. 06-2012 as an emergency. At this time Fickert provided Council with salary information from the surrounding area for the positions of Mayor and Council. He wanted to include an increase to $5,000 for future Mayors and $3,000 future Council members in this ordinance. Solicitor Barney said it would be cleaner to do separate legislation. Douglas added the range in the ordinance is sufficient to accommodate this we just need the legislation to set the compensation. On the motion to adopt Ordinance No. 06-2012 the roll call vote was requested. Douglas voted yes, Eberle voted yes, Fickert voted yes, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes. Ordinance No. 06-2012 was adopted as an emergency and will be published in summary two times in the Ottawa County Exponent. Solicitor Barney will do the necessary ordinance to raise Mayor and Council salaries. Petersen asked for a copy of the information Fickert provided.
Ordinance No. 07-2012, an ordinance authorizing declarations of official intent under U.S. Treasure Regulations with respect to reimbursements from note and bond proceeds of temporary advances made for payments prior to issuance, and related matters was read for the first time.
Resolution No. 07-2012, a resolution authorizing the Village Administrator to prepare and submit an application to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission to obtain funding for the Second Mile of the State Route 163 Water Line Replacement Project and to execute contracts as required was read for the first time.
Resolution No. 08-2012, a resolution in support of applying for grant funding from the Ottawa Sandusky Seneca Joint Solid Waste District for Round 3 fiscal year 2012 and declaring an emergency was read for the first time. Eberle moved, seconded by Douglas, to waive the three required readings. On roll call vote Douglas voted yes, Eberle voted yes, Fickert voted yes, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes. Eberle moved, seconded by Douglas, to adopt Resolution No. 08-2012 as an emergency. On roll call vote Douglas voted yes, Eberle vote yes, Fickert voted yes, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes. Resolution No. 08-2012 was adopted as an emergency and will be published in summary two times in the Ottawa County Exponent.
Mayor Conley started the work session at 8:10.
Council Committee Reports:
Safety Committee: Petersen had no report. Eberle asked if a note could be put on the utility bills about trash pick-up and when it is to be put out and Pauley said they would.
Street Committee – Eberle had no report.
Utilities Committee – Fickert reviewed the proposed water adjustment ordinance. This will give the Village flexibility to do something when a problem is discovered which causes significant increase in water usage and the problem was not caused by negligence. The Village would not lose any money on this. This will be placed on the July 2nd agenda. Pauley asked about changing the Adjustment Committee from members of the Property Maintenance Committee to members of the Utility Committee. Solicitor Barney said the reason he did that is because this being a small town it is difficult finding someone who is not related to the issue and we have already addressed that through the Property Maintenance Committee.
Fickert stated that Solicitor Barney previously suggested having a review done of the utility ordinances. Fickert moved, seconded by Douglas, to authorize the Village Administrator to contract for a review of the utility ordinances. There was discussion on the estimated cost and Fickert rescinded his motion and Douglas rescinded his second. Fickert moved, seconded by Douglas, to authorize the Village Administrator to contract for a review of the utility ordinances not to exceed $5,000. On roll call vote Douglas voted yes, Eberle voted yes, Fickert voted yes, Petersen voted yes, Seaman voted yes and Wendt-Elliott voted yes.
Other Business – None
Petersen moved, seconded by Eberle, to adjourn. With all members of Council present answering in the affirmative, meeting adjourned 8:20 p.m.


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Cheese Ravioli
1 (24-ounce) bag frozen cheese-filled ravioli
1 tablespoon garlic butter
1/2 cup pre-diced onions
1 (4-ounce) can mushroom pieces (drained)
1/2 cup frozen petite green peas
1/2 cup Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup tomato/basil pasta sauce
2 teaspoons basil pesto
1. Fill large saucepan half full of water. Cover and bring to boil on high for pasta.
CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 450kcal; FAT 19g; CHOL 45mg; SODIUM 1370mg; CARB 48g; FIBER 1g; PROTEIN 18g; VIT A 2%; VIT C 0%; CALC 8%; IRON 15%
Pepperoni Bread Roll
1 tablespoon garlic butter
1 (13.8-ounce) container refrigerated pizza crust dough
24 pepperoni slices
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place garlic butter in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until butter melts.
CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 440kcal; FAT 15g; CHOL 60mg; SODIUM 880mg; CARB 61g; FIBER 4g; PROTEIN 17g; VIT A 20%; VIT C 10%; CALC 20%; IRON 15%
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The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is searching for an armed man who robbed a local motel on Jan. 8.
Investigators said the suspect walked into the business located off Goldsboro Road near Interstate 95 and demanding money. He was wearing a dark colored jacket and blue jeans with a toboggan, sunglasses and gloves at the time of the of the robber
The suspect fled the scene in an older, light colored four-door sedan, with an undetermined amount of money.
Anyone with information about this suspect is urged to call the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office at (910) 323-1500.


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A collection of news and information related to Hydrogenics Corporation published by this site and its partners.
Top Hydrogenics Corporation Articles see all
Displaying items 1-1
It's a bumpy ride on the Hydrogen HighwayStory | Jan 11, 2008Cadillac unveiled a concept car this week that runs partially on hydrogen, adding to the ranks of futuristic vehicles powered by the universe's most common element. Yet even if you could drive it -- there's only one now -- you couldn't get from L.A. to San Francisco, because there aren't enough fueling stations.


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Every young girl needs her very own baby doll. Sadie is an adorable, squeezable baby doll looking for someone to hold her and love her. She has beautiful chestnut hair and comes with a fancy winter outfit that girls are sure to love. Her pink coat is furry, soft and comes with a tiny little set of mittens to keep her hands warm. The outfit also includes striped leggings, booties and adorable earmuffs. Kids can take Sadie along on family adventures and then go to bed right next to her at the end of the day. It's so much fun to hold her in your lap during long car drives and dress her up in cute outfits! Fun
Copyright © 2013 TSCToys.com All Rights Reserved.


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Glamorous Long Sleeve Swing Dress
Bringing sixties chic back into your wardrobe, this gorgeous swing dress by Glamorous will perk up your looks on blustery days.
In a super soft fabric this dress is luxe-to-the-touch, surrounding you in ultimate comfort. The swing style, synonymous with the laid back era of Mod and Twiggy, was a popular look on the catwalks last season and you'll see them across the High Street.
Get ahead of the fashion pack this season by wearing this swing dress with a pair of tights, fedora, shoe boots and an oversized barrel bag for a look worthy of Carnaby Street.
Please note: This dress must be hand washed only.
Useful info:
- Swing dress by Glamorous
- Full-length sleeves
- Soft fabric; slight stretch
- Length: 33 inches
Glamorous Grey Jersey Dropped Waist Dress
- Low stock, selling fast
13 reviews
- Delivery
Glamorous Grey Jersey Dropped Waist Dress
Exposed zip at back. Length approx 34 inch.Colour: Grey. 50% cotton, 50% polyester. Hand wash.
Glamorous Sleeveless Shirt
- Low stock, selling fast
6 reviews
- Delivery
Glamorous Animal Print Shirt
Ticking off the animal print trend this sleeveless shirt by Glamorous puts a fierce spin on a workwear staple meaning you won't want to confine this piece to the office.
A sheer, floaty fabric with all-over animal print gives this shirt a flirty feel. The super sharp collar smartens things up meaning with a simple cami underneath this shirt will work while you do. Soft sleeves skim the shoulders revealing beautifully bronzed sun-kissed skin, while an asymmetrical hem dips to the back providing plenty of coverage
Wear this shirt with a cropped black trouser and a block-heeled court shoe to do 9-5 in sheer style. Work it after dark with a black moto jean and skyscraper heels to elevate your look.
Useful info:
- Shirt by Glamorous
- Dipped hem to back
- Button placket
- Sleeveless cut
Glamorous Leather Look Mini Skirt
Add an edgy vibe to your day to evening looks with shades of grey in this PU wrap skirt by Glamorous.
Putting a deconstructed spin on a perennial classic, the leather look mini is given broken down edge with a wrap cut for a fashion forward look that will work from dawn 'til dusk. An elasticated waistband makes this piece easy to pull on – giving you more time to perfect your pout before going out!
Pair this PU wrap skirt with a stripy Breton jumper, black tights and boots for a seriously swish street style. After dark swap your sweater for a tucked in cami and an oversized jacket and heels for a look that'll take you from dinner to the dance floor.
Useful info:
- Mini skirt by Glamorous
- Leather look fabric
- Wrap around cut
- Elasticated waist


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9 fancy parakeets with big cage and food
Please contact me if you are interested or if you have any questions
Sep 20 -
Sun Conure Parrots a Special Friend for Someone Special!
Need a Special Suprise for a Special Someone? If that Special Someone loves birds then a hand raised, sweet an friendly Sun Conure may be what you're looking for! Sun Conures are miniature Macaws and possess a multifaceted personality that will delight the experienced bird ...
Sep 20 -
Baby Scarlet Macaw
3 months old very sweet starting to eat solid food pics on request
Sep 19 -
Yellow ring neck parrot
Sunshine is a very beautiful ringneck she is so pretty bright bright yellow she loves my five Sons!!! she loves men and boys because she is a female she is partial to males !!
Sep 18 -
Dachshund Longhair male
Dachshund long haired male adorable ready for new home. He is 8 weeks old. He is a black and tan color. He is 175 with no papers. He can be picked in Conroe Texas. phone 9362151996 pictures soon
Sep 17 -
Proven pair of Congo African Greys
Cage and nest box included.
Sep 17 -
Sun conures
calls or text only plz 281-995-2149
Sep 17 -
Pinnapple green cheek conures
Quaker Parrots 281-995-2149
calls or text only plz 281-995-2149 $150.-$600 all colors avail
Baby cockatiels
I have the sweetest handfed baby cockatiels for sale. I have some ready to go and in two weeks and one week old babies
If you would like to help hand feed your baby
I can show you how
If your are interested
Ann. 713-857-4081
I also have a beautiful handfed sun ...
Sep 17 -
we will do your wedding white dove release.we are in brenham,tx. located between houston,tx and austin,tx..these are real nice birds and are solid white.we will bring them to your wedding for release they can be hand release or a heart shaped basket release.hope we can help ...
Sep 16 -
young curio,towa towa,fire red,blueback and picoplat
young curio,towa towa,firered,blueback,picoplat.
Sep 14 -
Sugar Land
High Filing Pigeons
high filing pigeons male & female with cages
if you are interest call me 713-291-8882
Sep 14 -
Young, Healthy, Canaries
Two redfactor canaries 140$.
Or 75$ each.
Sep 14 -
Zebra finches 5 for 60.00
I have 5 zebra finches asking 60.00 for all or 75 with a small new (unused) red cage. They all appear healthy and in good feather Would rather sell all together but will sell individually for 15.00 each.77076
N. Hou
Normals, white and pied. (won't sell just white)
Sep 13 -
Gouldian Finches
Beautiful Parent raised Lady Gouldian Finches. Many colors to choose from. See my website for details and up-to-date photos. www.finchesbykristy.com
Sep 12 -
League City
Bourke Pair
Beautiful pair of Bourkes. Male is a Cream and the female is a White Face Pink. Young proven pair for $250.00. Will ship at buyers expense via airlines. I accept Paypal.
Sep 10 -
blue and gold macaws some tame
blue and gold macaws 650 to 1000 if interested giv us a call or text at 281 995 2149
Sep 10 -
baby blue and green and lutino quakers handfed and sweet
handfeeding green and blue baby quakers 150 for greens 300 for blues and 700 for young lutinos call us or text 281 995 2149
baby cockatiels handfeeding
handfeeding baby cockatiels 50 to 60 each call or text 281 995 2149
camelot macaw very nice
beautiful 6 yr old camelot male rehoming fee 1500 call or text 281 995 2149
Looking for Male Parrotlet ( color not important) my male passed away today, female is blue color 6-8 years old she is not tame so male does not have to be tame would like him close to her age if possible. Thank You
Sep 9 -
We operate a closed aviary since 1996, Specializing only in
Pure-Bred Solomon Island Eclectus. Call 409-866-5888
We have both males and female Solomon Island Eclectus.
They range from 6 wks to 9 mos. Available now in Beaumont,
Houston area. They range from $800.00 to ...
Sep 8 -
lady gouldians and cages
$150 2 small flying cages with 14 society
$800 big flyand Cages with 5 yellow black lady goudians we everything
Sep 8 -
League City


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Residential Building Audits and Retrofits (Text Version)
September 1, 2010
ICF International: Casey Murphy
Hello everyone, welcome to the DOE Technical Assistance webinar on Residential Building Audits and Retrofits. I am Casey Murphy with ICF International.
So what is the technical assistance program? DOE's Technical Assistance Program (TAP) supports state, local and tribal officials implementing the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) and the State Energy Program (SEP). TAP offers tools and resource needed to implement successful and sustainable clean energy programs.
The goal of these resources is to provide SEP and EECBG recipients with resources needed to swiftly implement successful and sustainable clean energy programs. And the specific objectives are to provide proactive assistance, technical expertise, best practices, network expansion, and policy and program development in order to accelerate grantee's implementation, improve program and project performance, increase the return on Recovery Act investments, increase the sustainability of Recovery Act investments, and build protracted capacity at the state, local, and tribal level.
TAP offers EECBG and SEP recipients' one-on-one assistance, an extensive online resource library with best practices, templates, webinar recordings such as this one, a project map, events calendar, and a blog. It is to facilitate as well a peer exchange of best practices and lessons learned. And the topics include energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, program design and implementation, financing, performance contracting, and state and local financing.
And so there are a lot of resources available to you. You can explore online resources at the Resource Center. You can also submit a request via the Technical Assistance Center. And you can call the 1-800 number listed on this slides. For this particular webinar I will give you my contact information and you can call me if you have any question on this subject matter which is buildings and retrofits.
Today's objectives are really to have a greater understanding of the local, regional, and national efforts to promote energy efficiency in residential buildings. I wanted to take a step back and look at the overall programmatic framework that exists in multiple areas in the United States. And hopefully help the people that are on the call to understand the different resources that are available to them if they want to leverage their programs. And also make it in alignment with how the industry is evolving to the extent that we know how and how quickly the industry is evolving over time. And also to have a greater understanding of the specific programmatic elements of residential building audit and retrofit programs, and how those may align with your other programs. Finally, it's to learn about some additional resources in addition to the DOE resources we just went over, that you can access to address residential retrofit issues and concerns.
What's outside of the scope of the today's webinar is really to address or answer specific programmatic issues about anyone of your individual energy programs. If you do have specific questions, you can contact your local regional coordinators or you can certainly contact me at my phone number or email address which I will give you at the end of the presentation.
Also, just as a reminder, this is a webinar on addressing existing residential homes. So although some of the concepts do overlap, we are not going to specifically address new homes or commercial building audits or retrofits. Nor are we going to delve into renewable energy strategies or programs, or not really answering any specific guidance on designing your programs.
And so the agenda is basically as follows… I am going to tell you a little bit about my background, and also tell you about the assumptions that I am making about who is listening to the webinar. Then I want to try and create the context for an existing home program by taking a look from a national perspective the importance of residential sector energy use, the history of addressing energy efficiency in that sector, and how the environment has changed since 2008 with the passing of the stimulus act. Then we will look into some of the programmatic needs, frameworks and strategies that have developed over time to address energy efficiency in the residential sector. Finally, we will go over some examples and some specific resources that you can have access to find more information on the topic that we cover today.
So a little bit about myself, I actually owned a framing and remodeling company for about 15 years. A lot of that was as a traditional trade contractor who understood my own scope of work but not necessarily the other trades in the industry, with whom I worked, but did not really understand how what they did affected what I did and vice versa. After about five years I started to become a little bit more educated about building science. I became a participating contractor in Maryland's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. So that included expanding my knowledge to other areas of the building that I had not previously understood. And I went on that learning curve to understand how to do diagnostic tests in a home, a blower door combustion safety testing. And as a participant in the program I became BPI certified, a building analyst, and an envelope professional. And I also become a HERS rater at that time. Eventually, I moved away from working at my own company. I started working at ICF International where I have worked with utility programs to help design and implement their energy efficiency programs. And I am currently supporting two EPA programs, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, and Indoor airPLUS.
So I have some assumptions about who the audience members are and also what stage you are in designing your programs. And based upon those assumptions I am going to focus on some areas more than others in the webinar. I am assuming that most audience members are grantees, and that they have the residential design mostly finalized, and that you have been working with consultants as needed to create that design of your particular program. But, I am assuming also that there are a wide variety of programs that are represented by people listening to the webinar. Some of you may have audit only programs, so that might include providing a HERS score to a homeowner. Some of you may have something less comprehensive than that. Maybe survey or clipboard audits, where someone spends maybe an hour or two in the home, and does not necessarily do diagnostic tests. Or you might have some other types of audit only programs out there. I am also assuming that some of you have a financing program only. That could be a PACE financing option or some other unsecured loan product that can help homeowners to purchase a comprehensive package of improvements to increase the energy efficiency of their home. Some of you may also have some incentives for single measures, or a mix of different incentive levels. Those may or may not be identified by a professional entering into the home, perhaps that's something that homeowners can select of their own choosing without getting an audit upfront. So again, I am assuming that there are a variety of proposed and different initiatives for those individuals who are listening.
One of the things that I also don't want to assume is that we all have the same end goal for implementing this program. We see that even within the context of the EECBG grant, it is fundamentally job spill to promote economic growth, but of course it is also trying to promote energy efficiency and sometimes the two of those can work at odds together, and sometimes not. But it is certainly two distinct metrics that we are looking at to design a program to meet our needs. But there are a variety of other needs out there as well, and society at large is looking to promote energy efficiency for a multitude of reasons. There are of course localized sources of pollution that we can reduce through energy efficiency, we can alleviate congestion in our transmission line, there's geopolitical ramifications, trying to reduce our dependency on foreign sources for oil. Of course, climate change is a significant factor for many people when they talk about promoting energy efficiency programs. Then you just have general economic instability, where even the high cost of energy can end up being good when it's stable and people can make proper changes to adjust for that; but when we have wild fluctuations in the price that really does destabilize our economy. As we are looking to design a program, and as we are looking to interact with other people who are trying to promote energy efficiency, looking to leverage those funds and create a harmonized product for homeowners to act upon, we really have to take in these other valued propositions that programs may be looking for, and understand that maybe our program goals of energy efficiency and job creation, may not be the same as an ally of ours, in order to promote our programs, but nevertheless, hopefully we can find areas of cooperation so that we can meet our distinct goals.
Just on the programmatic level we have a variety of these different metrics for success. Contractors and homeowners have even more value propositions. So oftentimes we'll design an energy efficiency program, we'll really be focused on trying to decrease the number of kilowatt hours and therms that a homeowner would have to purchase, lower their energy bill. But oftentimes, homeowners may have many other non-energy benefits that they are looking for. Especially if they are going to invest 5, 6, 7, thousand dollars on a comprehensive package of several different measures, and so we also have to understand that we can't just look at this through the lens of energy efficiency. Oftentimes homeowners and contractors do have different reasons why they want to participate. And certainly when we message the program to homeowners it should be much more about comfort or health and indoor air quality or the buildings durability, and we will get into some of those issues below.
Taking a step back and just taking a look at how important the residential sector is. We can basically do an energy audit of the nation, to try and figure out if as a nation we want reduce our energy use, where exactly can we do it? So we begin with an energy audit to see where we are using that. You can see from the pie chart that the residential sector counts for about 1/5 of all energy use. And there was a recent study that came out by the Mackenzie Group. They indicated that actually, many of the big opportunities are in that residential sector. That we have increased energy efficiency in the commercial, industrial, and transportation areas, there's lots of room for improvement in those sectors. But really the residential end user is the largest untapped source of energy efficiency opportunities. So it's certainly a good area in which to promote energy efficiency to try to meet our goals.
We can take a look into where we are using the residential energy use. This is basically a disaggregation of a typical home. About half of the home goes to heating and cooling, of course those vary by climate zone. And the other half is in base load, so things like refrigerator, lighting, and other appliances. Phantom loads come in to play as well when you leave devices plugged in. If you are trying to address the energy efficiency of a building study, you can take a look at this and begin to target strategies to address each one of these individual sectors.
One of the ways you can do that is through standards. You basically just mandate, make sure refrigerators are this and this, and make that code. Unfortunately if you go through that strategy, it does raise the bar for everyone, but it does not create that incentive to go above and beyond that. So that is where a program like ENERGY STAR can come into play. With a voluntary program that rewards those project manufacturers that want to create more energy efficiency products. And what it does is really address a market imperfection, where without some sort of brand like this, you might have manufacturers that want to build more energy efficient products, but they are afraid to invest in improving their products because if they try to sell them in the market place, customers may not necessarily believe that their claims are true. And on the flip side, customers don't necessarily believe the claims of many manufacturers, because manufacturers will oftentimes claim a variety of benefits and consumers may be skeptical of that. So if they see a brand that is reliable and they can trust, that allows the customers to make informed purchasing decisions, and it allows manufacturers to invest, knowing that customers will be able to know the better product does meet a certain standard of performance. That is kind of a voluntary program approach that works hand and hand with the codes that can bring up the baseline.
So when we take a look at that pie chart, this is one approach, to target each one of those individual wedges to try to make each one of those more energy efficient. But, we have learned that these different components don't work necessarily in a vacuum. They work together. So we can't simply say that a house is energy efficient because it is just the sum of these individual parts. What we have learned in building science, is that of course, all these different parts interact. Therefore, in order to really address a home, you have to address and understand where energy and moisture flows are occurring and come up with a strategy to tackle that. So oftentimes that is putting a home in energy modeling software, putting down all of the houses characteristics, and being able to calculate how that energy use can be reduced over time. So that is certainly where a program like ENERGY STAR new homes or builders challenge how they can tackle that in the new built environment.
We know that the existing housing stock is quite significant and it's a housing stock that is more difficult to address, but it's still critical that we as a society do address it. According to DOE in the year 2030, about 70% of the housing stock in 2030 will have already been built today. So even if we build every new home from net zero from this point moving forward, we are still going to have a tremendous amount of energy use in the housing sector, unless we come up with a strategy to address that sector.
One of the things before delving into some of the more specifics is just to define some terminology and existing practices. The term weatherization and I may use this term in using both of these definitions. Some people when they refer to weatherization, they refer specifically to the DOE Program, the Weatherization Assistance Program. So that's a reference to that programmatic approach. Other people refer to it as a scope of work that can be performed in a house, as distinct from mechanical systems improvements or replacement. For example, we will have programs out there that say, "We weatherize homes," and what they mean is that they seal and insulate that home. But it's for market rate people, while other people when they say weatherization, they have low income people on their mind who just qualify for DOE's program. So I just wanted to mention that. Whenever you are talking with stakeholders, you might want to recognize that you may be using two different definitions. Another source of confusion is audits versus retrofits, which is used in a variety of different ways by different people. The audits are the delivery of information, the baseline assessment. Retrofits are of course the installation of those improvements, but, other people use the term audit, or survey, assessment, or clipboard audit. It's really all over the board so anytime you engage with a different program you really have to delve into the specifics of using the same terms of the program. Even when it comes to the term auditor or the status of the auditor, so programs might have that person be a completely separate third party, other times contractors can be the auditor as well. Again, it's kind of a confusing environment because these terms aren't well defined and they are used in many different ways by different individuals.
One of the things that we can look at when we look at how we can address the existing house marketplace is the existing practices and whether or not they are sufficient or not to meet the goals of our programs. I have included a couple of slides of the type of issues we have to address, and as we are trying to design a program we have to keep these in mind, because they really will influence how we engage the contractors and auditors, and what sort of things a program has to do to support the successful delivery of properly installed energy retrofits. These are two slides that show a common practice for installing insulation. Both of these look like fairly newer homes, yet on the left hand side you see that there's exposed sheet rock. So obviously this is a building contractor that thinks they are doing a great job but they are skipping a very important scope of work. So that can lead to comfort issues, and of course energy loss, on the right hand side, the same sort of thing. There is no air barrier over that insulation. They probably don't know; it's probably not specked out in that particular house to even put an air barrier. And there are gaps in that insulation; it looks a little compressed, so these are examples of some of the things that are installed in a new home by existing trades, if they are not educated in how the proper installation of these products affects the performance of the products.
So the next successions of slides are slides that I took when I was a home performance contractor. So one of the things that programs might do is, they'll go, well we are going to deliver audits and that's going to be a third party, and then we can go ahead and hand off that information to the homeowner and they can contact an existing trade to install those measures. Again, these are some examples of what the installation trade may be installing. So maybe they see on the report that they want to install R-49 installation. Again, if they are not familiar with what they are looking for in that audit, they can end up installing measures incompletely or incorrectly. On the right hand side you can see there is some missing insulation and that's the black spot on that angled ceiling on the right hand.
Another design consideration is, are you having a clipboard audit, where people just walk through the house? Do you have diagnostic testing? If you do go up in the attic are you simply measuring the insulation, or are you going in there and really poking your head around? So this is an example of something that is very easy to skip. This is a chaise. You can see kind of look down into there, where there's sheet rock. So that is on the second floor, and that opening was covered by the insulation. So if you go up into the attic and you look around, you see all the insulation is nice and even, and fluffy, and it looks good. But this is an area you could end up missing if you don't do some diagnostic tests and see that the house is very leaky, and then you start to delve into these types of areas and try to identify that. Or literally going up in the attic poking your head around, lifting up the insulation… You certainly identify these on the second floor as well, you say, "well this is a chaise; let me look up in the attic at this particular area." If you do not address this, you end up investing a decent amount of money on a retrofit of the home, and yet you don't have a big impact on increasing the energy efficiency of it.
This is another picture and this is the type of thing of design consideration, what type of diagnostic are you going to require? Is it going to be just a blower door? Do you want to do an infrared camera? This particular home on the left-hand side of this devisable picture, you can't really tell the insulation is installed in that cathedral ceiling. Then on the right-hand side you can see that there are areas where the insulation wasn't installed correctly. So that certainly informs your auditor, what recommendations he or she may want to recommend to the homeowner.
This is another example, so programs may incentivize insulation, but many not necessarily incentive air sealing. This is a job where the homeowner mentioned she had installed this insulation a couple of years ago. Her comfort did increase, but she did not have as comfortable a home as she wanted. So I went to the house and poked my head in the attic and saw that the insulation looked pretty good. But, I also looked underneath the rafters, and I saw mold growing underneath the rafters. So this is an example of a home that was insulated but not air sealed. So what happens in the wintertime, moist warm air from inside the house is able to escape through holes in the ceiling and passes right through the insulation. It ends up going to the underside of the deck and forming condensation. Before the insulation was installed, this problem did not occur. Basically, she was losing enough energy and enough heat so that the underside of that roof was warm enough that condensation would not occur. So she had two problems there, well one problem, the problem was the energy loss. Now, she has addressed the energy loss to some extent but now she has created a new problem. And this can create durability issues, not necessarily an indoor air quality issue, as this air is probably unlikely to go into the house, but you do not know.
Even if you do recommend or require air sealing, you have an issue of specifically, how do you address those air sealing issues? How do you quantify that? Do you require a blower door test valve? These are three pictures of the small detailed areas that contractors have to be educated about. They have to have training to identify these opportunities. You certainly have recess cans; I think many people are familiar with the fact that those release some of the small holes where there are wire concentrations. One of the less well known areas is the top plate, where the sheet rock meets the top plate. So on the left hand side, you can see you are basically looking down at the top plate of a second floor wall and you have the sheet rock on both sides. Over time, that wood is going to shrink a little bit and it's going to create a little bit of opening in between the sheet rock and the top two by four. Which doesn't seem significant, but if you add up all the linear feet of all the walls in the second floor, it actually ends up being a pretty big hole. So installation contractors should understand that they need to go in, figure out where these walls are, and properly seal that in order to impact the blower door reading, and impact the energy usage on the home.
Even if you have good air sealing and insulation built into your programs design, there is one other thing that I think that all programs should consider. So, this is an example of a home I went out to. It had a lot of good opportunities. You can see where a lot of the insulation is blackened. That's an indication that airflow is going through the insulation and the insulation is basically acting as a filter in catching the contaminant that are in the air. So clearly this house is a good candidate for air sealing.
But there is one programmatic design issue, where I was required to do combustion safety testing on the home as part of the audit process. So what that entails is something called a combustion appliance zone test, you do a draft test, I also had a combustion analyzer. So on the side, I had to form these tests on the combustion equipment and check for spills and things of that sort. And during that part, I discovered there were 1200 parts per million of carbon monoxide being produced by this furnace. Some sort of problem there, and incomplete flame burn, whatever it happened to be. But then, during my inspection of the home, I also saw on the right hand side that the flute pipe was disconnected. So what we have basically is 1200 part per million of carbon monoxide going into the attic of this persons home. And the house is leaky; the way that the building is basically operating right now it did not necessarily seem like it was a health risk. But if I had gone into the house and air sealed it, we don't know how that could have impacted this, and whether that carbon monoxide could have been entered into the home and affected the health and safety of the homeowner. So again, requiring combustion safety testing on the front end is a design consideration and one that I would recommend that every program requires before affecting the building shell.
So those are some of the design considerations when it comes to the actual scope of work inside the home. The other is how you market the program and how you deliver the program to homeowners. And certainly one approach that I've heard about is doing a neighborhood sweep free, where you go ahead and really get a contractor or contractors into a multiple of homes in a neighborhood. Get a contract for economies of scale. Taking a look at this slide you can see that it certainly seems like there is that opportunity, but it is not necessarily as straight forward as you might think. You have 100 homes here, or however many there happens to be, they are close together, and all about the same age. Just because they are close together, you can end up lowering transaction costs on the contractor's part. You take a look closer, and these aren't really 50 - 100 homes. There are really 5 homes replicated a 20 times. So there are 4 or 5 different building models, and that really seems to make things easier. There you have about 4 or 5 different scopes of work that you can offer to all of these homeowners. Again, it makes the process a lot easier where you don't necessarily need a complete audit of every single home. You do about 5 audits and replicate that throughout all the homes. Unfortunately, what we have learned, at least with Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, is that each one of these is very much a custom home. And that's for a couple of different reasons, first the actual house itself has changed over time, people use it differently, maybe some put additions in, people take care of it better than others, and so there are going to be different building science related issues. But, much more important than that is really that each homeowner, to the extent that they are being asked to invest their money in this improvement, they are going to have much different value propositions for why they would want to pay for that improvement. For some people it might be reducing energy bills, more often than not we found that it's not energy related but it's more comfort related or durability related, or some particular problem that's occurring in the home, that the homeowner wants to address. The energy savings is actually an insularly value, its how they pay for that improvement. So you can actually sell that improvement as it's already paid for itself in a year or two. But it's not really the primarily decision factor that they make when they are investing in this improvement, in general, but each customer is going to be a little bit different.
So we can ask these three questions again, as you are designing your program or to the extent that you can still redesign certain aspects of your program. Do you just want to offer surveys? Or do you want to require specific diagnostics? Or do you want to require the infrared camera in order to detect the areas in the building shell that you cannot see otherwise? Do you want to require combustion safety testing? What kind of contractors do you want to come in after the audit? Do they need additional training, and how much training? And then, how do we verify and report quality jobs - for the homeowner's sake and for the programs sake?
Another way to approach this is to really take a look at all of our programs through the prism of three different buckets. They will oftentimes call it a three-legged stool, where if you have two of these legs you can have a program that can kind of wobble, but you really need three legs in order to have a stable program. So that is building up the supply of auditors and contractors, who can deliver this, building up demand for these services for the homeowners, and then having the programmatic framework to be able to properly manage these two components and provide quality assurance and quality control.
Looking a little bit deeper into each one of these legs, for the supply, a lot of that is identifying, recruiting, training, certifying, and mentoring participants. One of the considerations is what are the training standards and defining qualifications for program participation? Are there certifications that we want to require, a HERS rater, a BPI envelope professional…whatever it happens to be? And then, part of building up the supply is selling the value to them. So it's enabling companies to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and giving them to the tools and resources to be profitable. So you have to help them sell their message against, window companies that are just selling 50% energy savings for switching out windows. And if they can't differentiate themselves in the marketplace, then they are not going to be able to successfully deliver these energy retrofits.
So the other component is building up the demand in homeowners. I think of building up demand in three different categories. One is educating homeowners about their energy use, about the program, the process…setting up a website, trying to advertise a program through a variety of different marketing channels, radios, billboard, or community events. That is certainly a critical component. Some programs offer an online energy assessment for use that homeowners can begin to take a look at where they are using their energy. And then there are two other types that address the financial burdens. One is trying to decrease the initial cost of entry for the homeowner to participate. That is either buying down the audit, or lowering the total cost of the home improvements via rebates. And the other is enabling homeowners to finance cost-effective solutions. Even if you can reduce the cost of a $10,000 audit to an $8,000 audit through incentives, you still have to have the $8,000 to invest to these improvements. So that is where the PACE program comes into play, but it is important to recognize that is just one leg of demand. And demand in itself is only one component of building up the supply and also of having a quality program delivered to homeowners.
The last component is building up the quality delivery system. Providing the tools and trainings for contractors to do good work, program designers have to decide on software, if they are even going to use it, and if they are what are the requirements of that software? And also, all of the various forms and processes that work for the participants in that program, and also important to have a strong trust but verify the work that is actually being done in the home. That certainly leads to a number of design considerations, one is how the contractors or the auditor test out, and secondly how the program verifies those test out results.
One programmatic approach that is implemented throughout the country is Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. They define it as "contractors participating in a locally sponsored program can help you cost-effectively improve your home's energy efficiency. These specially-trained contractors evaluate your home using state-of-the-art equipment and recommend comprehensive improvements that will yield the best results." In these programs, there are a certain set of requirements. Among them are, a building scientist has to be the one that is doing the assessment. Generally, that's a BPI certified building specialist, it can be a HERS Rater. The HERS rater is also trained in combustion safety testing, because combustion safety testing is one of the required elements as well. Then it's really facilitating the delivery of these improvements and testing out. Then its having the program provide quality assurance on top of that work. Currently the program is being run by forty different sponsors or partners in these different areas - and certainly all of you on the phone, if you haven't already and I assume most of you already have, spoken with these sponsors. But it's important to recognize, they have their own population of specially trained contractors, they have their own software and process to evaluate a home, and they have their own test out protocols as well. So to the point that you don't want to duplicate efforts, you should certainly have a conversation with them, if you haven't already, to minimize overlap or just contradictory standards or protocols.
One of the reasons while we are here is through the efforts of the federal government, since 2008. In October of 2009, Vice President Biden's middle class task force came out with the Recovery through Retrofit document, and they identified three different market barriers in order to address the existing home residential marketplace. Consumers need reliable home retrofitting information, the costs of the retrofits need to be addressed, and we need to increase the number of skilled workers that can install these improvements.
So if you take a look at those three market barriers and you cross block it with some of the programmatic elements that we were just discussing, you can see that there is somewhat alignment between both of those. If you have a strong program, with strong QA/QC, that has good software, another mechanism to evaluate a home, you are providing homeowners with access to straightforward and reliable information. And certainly part of that demand creation is trying to help homeowners lower initial cost and also to finance the remaining portion of that cost. And access to skilled workforce is building up that supply of contractors that can really do two different things, one is to evaluate the home, and the second is to actually install the improvements successfully in the home. And of course that first person can also test out as well.
After the report came out, that's when the EECBG funding announcement came out. To fundamentally and permanently transform energy markets, and really come up with a variety of energy programs to test what concepts work, what concepts don't work, so that it can be replicated. So really, the EECBG grantees and the competitive block grantees are trying to resolve some of these issues, which is why we are on the phone today.
But then there are also additional federal efforts that might be coming down the pipe, one a piece of legislation, Recovery for Energy and Environmental Performance, that came out over a year ago and is really taking a look at changing how we can incentivize energy efficiency measures or retrofits on a federal level. This is a performance based tax incentive. Instead of just having, like we do now the $15,000,000 federal tax credit for technology, and not really having any assurance that the technology is appropriate for that individual homeowner, or that energy use will be reduced, this will be a performance based approach.
That legislation and the language in that legislation were integrated into Home Star. Home Star passed the House and the Senate, on the slide it says here, may consider in September. That may or may not come to pass. But it did have a tiered performance level, or two different levels I should say. One is more prescriptive, the other is performance based, and it could have a financing component. And the QA/QC is similar to Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. So what that generally means is after a job is completed and tested out by the auditor, the contractor, the qualified individual.those test results, the blower door or the combustion safety test… 100% of it is reported to the program and there is a series of field checks as well, so that after the home is reported, the program will go in with their own third party verifier and put up the blower door and do combustion safety testing, and verify that the results that the contractor has reported, are in fact accurate.
So we can take a look at some of the different Home Performance with Energy Star programs and the different programmatic elements. I don't really want to get into the specific details of each of the programs, what I do want to emphasize is that these Home Performance with ENERGY STAR sponsors have all addressed these three buckets, creating demand, creating supply with contractors, and providing quality assurance and quality control over the program. So what we have are forty different programs that address many of the design considerations that everyone on the phone may have, and they are a very good resource in order to reach out to. And if they are serving your particular market, you can certainly cooperate or maybe relay on their quality assurance and quality control, or rely on their contractor qualifications so you don't have to try to reinvent the wheel in your market place.
Utah Home Performance is one example of a program that was recently launched. The previous slide listed NYCERDA, which has been around for over 10 years and actually predates the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Utah Home Performance is actually a new program and they just are getting started right now. One thing I do want to note is at least for single family homes where homeowners are paying for these improvements, we don't recommend free audits. That creates a lot of audits, and not necessarily any work gets done. So Utah Home Performance does buy down the cost of the audit, and there is a $100 entry point. But homeowners are still putting that money down; they have some engagement in staying in the game, and hopefully some end goal of investing a lot more to make the energy efficiency improvements in their home.
In California we have a variety of stakeholders. To the extent that the EECBG funds are supposed to be leveraged and sustainable over a period of time, we have to figure out how can we design a program that is going to outlast the EECBG funds and that works in harmony with all these different programs.
California has a huge amount of money going into the Utility sector, so they are creating a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR framework that addresses their individual territories.
So what we have seen is that there are a lot of different HERA funds also going into that market place and some of you on the call might be stakeholders in this environment. So it can be complicated to figure out, where are there gaps in the utility program that we can plug into and provide value? And where are there established programmatic elements in the utility program that we don't have to replicate. Trying to resolve that issue is the challenge of the industry. It's certainly not something we can go into in a webinar; it's really something you have to delve into the specifics of the program and talk to those individuals to figure out where there are opportunities to leverage both of those programs.
What we have seen on the national level, is two different emerging models. One is a utility centric model, where you can have a bunch of different utilities operating in a state and there is a lot of overlap in the service territory. They are the ones that control the programmatic elements. But they are also trying to create harmony in the contractor certifications and how the program is messaged to homeowners. There are some advantages to that model, to the extent that the utilities have a close relationship with their customers. They actually have that data of energy use. They have sophisticated marketing channels that are already established and have been used for decades. On the other hand we also have some statewide centric approaches. Where there is one program that covers the entire state. The utilities can still participate in that they can offer incentives for their customers, but they are really relying upon the state run program to train the contractors, to offer financing, and to otherwise provide some quality assurance to the program.
So I hope that gives you a little bit of background to some of the different approaches, some of the different design considerations. I do want to refer you again to some of the additional resources. We talked about the resources from DOE and the Solution Center at the beginning of the webinar. There are also resources on the national Home Performance with Energy Star program.
So if you go to this website, and specifically go to the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR section, there is an area to develop your program. On the right hand side, you can see that there is an introduction to Home Performance fact sheet. For those on the call, I think the sponsor guide is a little more helpful. It's a 51-page document that really goes into all of these different areas of building up demand and creating enough supply. It has a number of different sample forms that you can end up duplicating or replicating for you program. You can also find contact information for each sponsor on this website at the partner locator if you want to reach out to local sponsors in your area, and that's what's listed here on the partner locator. And you can certainly contact us at email@example.com, and we can try to assist you as well.
And certainly, depending upon your program, may consider becoming a sponsor of Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. There are other resources as well, the building performance institute and RESNET; they both list their respected certified individuals, BPIs, Building Analysts, or their accredited companies, and RESNET, their HERS Raters. They also have a bunch of good information on standards, on protocols, a variety of issues that can better help you implement your program.
Some other resources include, the Home Performance Resource Center. They have a series of best practice committees at Efficiency First, case studies analyzing successful programs, and workforce development recommendations. I certainly recommend you go there and get some of that information.
Looking back at today's objectives I hope I was able to give you a better understanding of the local, regional, and national efforts to promote energy efficiency. And give you a greater understanding of some of the programmatic elements you may want to consider or have considered when designing your program. And give you a couple additional resources that you can access after today.
I want to thank you very much and this is my contact information, Casey Murphy, at ICF International. Feel free to give me a phone call, or send me an email, and I can address any additional questions you may have. Lastly, these are some additional resources. This PowerPoint will be on the DOE website, so you can access these resources when you take a look at that PowerPoint.
And certainly give us your feedback, you can go to surveymonkey.com. We would love to learn what other information I could have provided, and how we can make these more informative and productive for all of you. Again, thank you very much and have a nice day.


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Chill out, guys. Contrary to rumors, Jay-Z is not dissing Taylor Swift on "100$ Bill," his new song off the soundtrack for the upcoming movie, The Great Gatsby . In fact, when Jay mentions Taylor's name on the track, he's not talking about the superstar singer at all: he's using her name as a metaphor for cocaine.
Young Jeezy took a similar route when he titled one of his songs after the slang term for cocaine -- "White Girl." On the track, he raps, "You know we keep dat white gurl: Christina Aguilera /My jewelry too loud, babygurl I can't hear ya." For the record, Christina's dad is Ecuadorian.
On "100$ Bill," Jay recalls his early days of hustling, rhyming about the times when he'd "move coke through Maryland." Then boasting about all the cash he raked in before he went the straight and narrow, Jay spits, "That cheese made us constipated couldn't tell us s**t/Took that, Taylor Swift to a hundred f**king million, bitch. I'mma let y'all continue but..."
That "I'mma let y'all continue" line is a reference to the time when Jay's pal Kanye West interrupted Taylor's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. We'll give Hova the benefit of the doubt and assume he was poking fun at the situation, not at the singer.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio


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WALLACE: These guys, everything is personal. I got to tell you though.
O'REILLY: Everything.
WALLACE: They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.
O'REILLY: And I can't.
WALLACE: They constantly are on the phone, or emailing me complaining, well, you had this guest.


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Koans of the Way of Reality: Case 104
From the beginning, the truth is clear and free of dust. In the valley of the endless spring one sits in silence, observing the forms of integration and disintegration--the impermanent deceptive images of the world can no longer deceive; deluded within enlightenment, enlightened within delusion. All things are perfect and complete in their suchness.
The blue river flows into the great ocean, the green mountain fills the sky.
--from the prologue by Abbot John Daido Loori
This place of peace is the place where we all begin. It is the place where the questions arise and answers dissolve--the original source. It is the heart of our being. How do we find our way there? How do we reclaim the territory that is as familar as ourself, yet completely mysterious, its mystery touching every
corner of this universe? Listen!
Volume 5 of the Mountain Light Video Library. DVD
Price: $20.00Product Code: DVD-ML-05
Read more about Dharma Discourses


text:
Steve Holland, is the founder of The Holland Group Retirement Wealth Advisors, a financial firm specializing in protecting and growing wealth for serious investors. The newest weekly contributor to Daytime, Steve has been in the financial services industry in Tampa Bay for over 24 years.
Steve joins us every week on Daytime and don't forget to catch Steve's radio program "The Financial Safari" on 970 WFLA. Saturday morning at 9am and Sunday at 1pm on WFLA program The Family Financial Hour.
If you would like to schedule a complimentary consultation you can call:
200 South Parker Street, Tampa, FL 33606
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G-Rock Music Presents: Rock Stories I
Presented by G-Rock Music at Cavern Club at Hard Rock Cafe Boston, Boston
October 2, 2014
G-Rock Music creates unique experiences for audiences to enjoy emerging, renowned, and legendary women in rock. The first of the series, Rock Stories I promises to be an unforgettable night of music with powerhouse artists Christina Alexander, Kudisan Kai, and opening act Ananda Mitchell. During each set, the artists will share their story/experience in the industry, their inspiration and their journey as women ...more
Great Caesar / Night Lights / Oh, Malô
Presented by The Red Room @ Cafe 939 at The Red Room at Cafe 939, Boston
October 3, 2014
With members from Mexico, Texas, Japan, California, and Norway, Night Lights brings together an eclectic assortment of indie, rock, and ...more
People's Champs
Presented by MASS MoCA
October 4, 2014
With twenty hands, People's Champs synthesize rhythms from all over the world — from Rio to Lagos to Detroit to Budapest — yet ...more
Animal Flag / Jesse Denaro / I/Ø / The Sulk Scouts
Presented by The Red Room @ Cafe 939 at The Red Room at Cafe 939, Boston
October 17, 2014
Animal Flag is the solo-project of 20-year-old singer-songwriter and producer Matthew Politoski. Matthew is from Westtown, N.Y. and is studying ...more
David Bazan & Passenger String Quartet
Presented by Regent Theatre at Regent Theatre, Arlington
October 30, 2014
The seed for this album was planted during a one-off show back in 2012. Bazan was invited to play a show in Tacoma WA with the Passenger String ...more


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- Osaze Udeagbala
- New York, NY
- United States
Student , Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
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Are Nobel Prizes overrated?
Since the issuing of the first award in 1901, the Nobel Prize has become the pinnacle of general recognition. Many would agree that those who have received the Nobel Prize have done great work in their field, but even so there are themes of rejection, redemption, and controversy surrounding the awards. In my Bioelectricity class, for example, we have discussed a number of Nobel Laureates such as Arrhenius, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903, for work that once received less than stellar reviews from his very own professors, and Nernst, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1920 for work based on the work of Arrhenius. We have also seen in history (e.g. Rosalind Franklin) circumstances in which scientists have participated closely with Nobel Prize-winning research, but nonetheless were left unrecognized. Finally, as there are very few categories for this award (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace), notably left out are awards for engineering, technology and other advancements for humankind. So I ask the TED community: Do you think Nobel Prize are awarded effectively? And with respect to science: Who is better at evaluating the value of a scientist's research? Peers? Awards committees? Especially given the fact that it often takes many years to see if research can stand the test of time? Are Nobel Prizes overrated?
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Hadar CohenFeb 7 2013: Osaze,
I think you bring up a very meaningful thought on how we perceive awards that is definitely worth discussing. From personal observation of a much smaller scale, I find that recognition of ones work is sometimes an significant motivator for further research. I can only imagine what it might be like on a larger scale, i.e. the Nobel Prizes. I do think that seeking acclamation is a questionable motive at best, but at the same time do these motivations really matter if that person is producing valuable analysis that can further enhance our understanding?
As some people pointed out here, the Nobel prizes for peace and economics sometimes might not be the most deserved, and maybe a better system of commendation should be implemented, though that would be quite difficult as these categories tend to be very subjective. In terms of the more scientific awards, such as physics chemistry and medicine, I think the Nobel prizes have actually been largely successful in recognizing those who deserve acclamation. This might be in part because these are more objective areas and disputing some achievements might not make sense in this case.
It is interesting that you bring up possibly including other fields in the Nobel awards, such as engineering and technology. I definitely do support this idea though I think we should be wary of adding too many categories.
Feb 7 2013: Hi Hadar,
You bring up some good points! To address your question, I think that many (arguably, the majority) of Nobel Laureates receive this special recognition well after it is a significant motivation factor for their work. To this end, I would say that Nobel Prizes don't do too much in terms of motivating the recipient. This goes for the prizes in Physics/Medicine/Chemistry more than those of Economics/Peace/Literature, where the awards seem to currently trend towards being used as a political motivation factor (e.g. Barack Obama, the European Union).
However, recognition of that significant work sends an important message to everyone else - not only the scientific/political community, but the global community. Inevitably, those who are honored by such a prestigious award become role models for those who are interested in those given fields. So, even though Nobel Prizes aren't the greatest or best timed motivators for those who were recognized, I think Nobel Prizes have an amazing amount of cultural impact, which is why I find this topic so important. After all, wouldn't you want to merit a Nobel Prize with your future work?
Feb 8 2013: Hadar,
I absolutely agree with what you were saying about recognition being an excellent motivator. I feel our society often idolizes people like actors, singers, and athletes, presenting them with various awards and recognition. It is nice to have a prestigious award in other sometimes less publicized fields such as literature or economics. I personally would love to see a Nobel Prize award for Engineering, but you mentioned that we should be wary of adding too many categories. I wonder what could be the drawbacks of creating an award in more fields? Would it lose some of its charm and take away from the honor?
I would disagree with you on one point, I do feel that the Nobel Prize can be a significant motivation factor for the recipient's work. Science and research is done by people who are curious about the way things work and are looking for answers. Gaining a respectable reputation and being recognized for one's work is just as satisfying even if it comes years after the work is done. Every scientist hopes to leave behind a legacy, to make some kinds of difference in the world, to be remembered.
I was very interested in your distinction between prizes in Physics//Medicine/Chemistry and those of Economics/Peace/Literature. Do you think awards in the different fields have different connotations and implications?
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iPhone 5S is rumored to ship in August
As the iWatch speculation dissipates, the focus once again turns to the next-gen Apple smartphone.
It seems like only yesterday the whole world was focused on the possibility that Apple (AAPL) might be developing a watch.
Now that the enthusiasm has withered away, the rumor mill has shifted its focus to a more common target: the release of the next iPhone.
Very few bloggers and analysts are convinced that the iPhone 6 will arrive this year, prompting mountains of speculation that an upgraded iPhone 5 (presumably titled the iPhone 5S) will ship before the year's end.
In 2012, many rumors pointed to a winter 2013 release. Last month there were reports of a spring or early summer release. Now that winter is almost over, the release date has once again shifted. According to AppleInsider, the new date could be August 2013.
The Apple-centered publication also reported that Foxconn -- the manufacturer behind most of Apple's products -- will exclusively produce the iPhone 5S.
Little is known about the iPhone 5S, but many expect it to be a world phone that will allow Apple to produce one unit for a multitude of carriers.
This could feasibly eliminate some of the carrier-specific unit shortages that occurred in the United States, since AT&T (T), Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ) users would able to purchase the same model. It would also allow Apple to manufacture one model for multiple carriers around the world.
AppleInsider speculated that one of them could be China Mobile (CHL), the largest cellular service provider in China. Many analysts believe that Apple's growth will be severely limited until it is able to sign a deal with China Mobile, which services nearly 700 million customers.
Despite this assessment, Apple has successfully increased sales of the iPhone during every fall quarter (reported as Apple's fiscal first quarter) for the past four years. In the fall of 2009, Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones. The company sold 16.24 million units during the same period in 2010.
One year later, Apple increased its sales by 128%, moving 37 million units. In the fall of 2012, iPhone sales achieved another milestone, reaching 47.8 million units.
While those numbers have been enough to impress consumers, they do not seem to be having a positive effect on the investor community. Year-to-date, Apple is down more than 19%. The company has experienced steady declines for six months, dropping 33% since Aug. 31.
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Tha't Apple and Microsoft for you. The annual high priced extortion. Every year it's the release of the next new product which is not so new or even all that great at all. Just so they can stick their hands into the cutomer's pocketbook. What? The first billion just not enough?
What a marketing plan.
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this is gonna be classic.
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Emma Stone came over and we watched TV. I made some eggs. Then Fogel showed up. F'n Fogel.
We may be reaching a point of too many space games, assuming that point is even possible.
The long-awaited sequel is really close, and this provides a good sense of how it'll play.
Fresh from PAX Prime, I'm ready for whatever you've got, Tumblr.
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Giant Bomb descends upon Seattle to break hot video game news, international sanctions, and noses.
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Dan and Jeff put on their skin-tight space suits and check out this hybrid shooter.
Finally. A League game that Jeff and Dan can get behind.
I dunno, this kid looks like a real Wild Card to me.
DOA5 Last Round brings you back to Awkward Body Physics City for more punching, kicking, and explosions.
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Remember when Dan said that Drew wouldn't have trouble with any other bosses?
Witness the mailbag you simply must see to believe.
Kids these days. With their riding on top of cars, neon graffiti, and their battle arenas.
Randal from Clerks set to play a totally different Randal in this point-and-click adventure game.
During his international super-spy training, Dan spent an entire month studying closets. Not that it helped.
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New Cats coach enters first 'Battle for the Governor's Cup' week in Lexington.
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Organizing Lists with the sort Command
sort helps you organize file lists and program
output. And if you like, you can even use this small
but powerful tool to merge and sort multiple files.
The sort command allows you to
sort a file line by line. The command
can either process a specified
file or read from standard input. You
decide the sort criteria – sort has parameters
that give you granular control.
Simple Sorting Exercises
/etc/passwd is an excellent place to start
experimenting with sort. If you look
inside the file, you will see that the lines
comprise a number of fields, for example:
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Camp Kids
Camp Kids
Camping with kids can be very rewarding. Find ideas about teaching children to love and respect the outdoors and camping. Find ways to keep the kids busy on the way to cam, plus games and other fun ideas to keep kids stimulated and engaged while at camp. Keep kids safe outdoors and teach them wilderness skills.
Find more great ideas for camping with kids of all ages. Visit KidsCamping.com
Christmas in July Decorations
Christmas in July Decorations
On July 25th, break out the Christmas music, bake a batch of Christmas cookies and get ready to make some Christmas-in-July decorations. To break up the holiday-free months of summer, create your own Christmas in July celebration. Here are a couple simple decorations and ornaments. Another great thing about these decorations is that you can save them and use them for Christmas in December.
Paper Chain Garland
You will need:
- scissors
- glue or double stick tape or stapler
- red, white and green construction paper
Start by cutting one piece of construction paper in half. Then cut each half into twelve strips of paper. You will want to cut the strips along the short side. From each piece of paper you will have 24 strips. Repeat this cutting process until you have as many strips as desired.
Next, put a dot of glue, or a piece of double stick tape on one end of the piece of paper. Gently fold the other end and put together the ends with a little overlap. Secure the edges with glue or tape and if you need a little extra securing you can put a staple through the overlapped edges. Repeat this process with each strip of paper, but before securing the ends together, loop each strip of paper through the previously made loop. Continue until your garland is as long as you want it.
With the three colors you can make and pattern of colors that you want. You can loop all the red together, followed by all of the green and white. Or you can make an interesting pattern with the colors.
Christmas Tree Ornament
You will need:
- scissors
- green construction paper
- glue
- popsicle sticks
- glitter and other decorations
- string
Start by laying the popsicle sticks in a triangle on top of the green paper. Put a loop of string at the top of the triangle. Put a dot of glue on top of the two ends of the string. Then glue the popsicle sticks down over the string, in a triangle. Next cut out a tree shape from the green paper, start by cutting around the edges of the popsicle triangle, and cut out a rectangle at the bottom of the triangle. This gives you a tree shaped ornament.
The next step is to color the rectangle at the bottom brown to represent the trees trunk. Now you can decorate your tree however you want. Be as creative as possible, using glitter markers and any other fun craft supplies you might have.
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Sunday Highlights from Newport Jazz 2012
August 14, 2012 by Josh Jackson
Filed under Shows
The Checkout presents Saturday highlights from the 58th Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. Hear selections from the Lewis Nash Quintet, Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Centennial Project, Kurt Elling, Miguel Zenon's Rayuela Quartet and Rudresh Mahanthappa and Samdhi. WBGO's Josh Jackson hosts.


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Detroit Red Wings prospect Teemu Pulkkinen is scheduled for an in-person hearing with the NHL for his hit on Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Mike Kostka on Tuesday.
An in-person hearing means there is a possibility any suspension could be five games or more.
Early in the first period, Kostka was gaining possession of the puck and coming out from behind his own net when he was hit into the end boards. A scrum ensued with Kostka laying hurt on the ice.
Kostka left the game and did not return.
Pulkkinen was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct on the play.


text: Zippity doo dah! Four pockets and neat zipper details make this stretch Y-neck scrub top from Modern Collection by Jockey a real stand-out. Unzip the neckline to reveal a contrast modesty placket. There is also contrast fabric inside the two zipper pockets. In addition, there are two deep inset pockets.


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Eve Bunting was born in Ireland and came to California with her husband and three children. She is one of the most acclaimed and versatile children's book authors, with more than two hundred novels and picture books to her credit. Among her honors are many state awards, the Kerlan Award, the Golden Kite Award, the Regina Medal, the Mystery Writers of America and the Western Writers of America awards, and a PEN International Special Achievement award for her contribution to children's literature. In 2002, Ms. Bunting was chosen to be Irish-American Woman of the Year by the Irish-American Heritage Committee of New York.
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Knights Knock Around Nauset In Boys' Hockey
By: Dan Crowley, January 17, 2014
It was all even after the first period Wednesday night, as the Knights battled Nauset (2-6, 1-4 ACL) to a scoreless stalemate after the first 15 minutes of play.
"I thought we had a great first period, our forecheck was working the best it has been all year," coach Jordan Mohre said. "Nauset battled us. There were a lot of one-on-one battles."
After that scoreless opening period, everything went wrong for the Nauset Warriors as the Blue Knights pumped in seven goals in the span of nine and a half minutes, defeating the Warriors 9-0.
They were dirty area goals," Coach Mohre pointed out. "We scored from spots on the ice where you pay a price to be there. Once Alex (Cabana) scored that first one I think it gave us a spark."
Cabana scored the first of his two second period goals to open the scoring, assisted by Jon Cassista. A minute and a half later Matt Brooks drilled the back of the Nauset net off a face-off to the right of the goalie. It only took another minute before Cassista had Zack Gorrasi set up in the high slot from where he blew a shot past the Nauset netminder. Ben Maciel also assisted on the play as Sandwich quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
While the Warriors were stunned by the flurry of Sandwich goals, what was to come blew them away. With 6:22 to play in the period Cabana skated across the slot and directed a backhander into the net off a pass from Gorrasi. That proved to be enough for Nauset goalie Justin Smith, who left the game, turning the Warrior goaltending duties over to Patrick Baker.
Two minutes later Max Kent snapped off a wrist shot from the goalie's left that found the net, welcoming Baker to the game. Nick Buttafuoco picked up the assist.
The Knights were still cooking, and with 2:49 to play in the period, Brooks scored his second goal of the period as he fought off defenders on the left side to get off a shot that eluded the goalie. Cole Tobin was given the assist. The Knights then topped off the period as they continued to score against the stunned Warriors as Gorrasi picked up his second of the period off a wrist shot from out in front of the net off a nice set-up pass from Cassista.
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The third period opened a little differently from the way the second had ended as Max Kent fired a blast from the left side face-off circle that zipped past Baker. Two minutes later Maciel, one of the Sandwich defensemen, moved up and, collecting a pass from Cabana, launched a shot from the top of the left side face-off circle that hit just inside the far post.
Sandwich goalie Craig Hatfield made four very solid saves down the stretch, with two of them coming off a shot and a quick follow-up on a rebound in front of the SHS net by Nauset's Kenny Keyes.
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