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August 28, 2006
President Jean Floten
Bellevue Community College
3000 Landerholm Circle SE
Bellevue, Washington 98007
Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (425-564-2261)
Dear President Floten:
As you can see from our Directors and Board of Advisors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) unites leaders in the fields of civil rights and civil liberties, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of liberty, legal equality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, due process, and, in this case, academic freedom, on America's college campuses. Our web page, www.thefire.org, will give you a greater sense of our identity and activities.
FIRE is gravely concerned by Bellevue Community College's (BCC's) reaction to Professor Peter Ratener's 2004 math exam question—a question that was interpreted by some as "racially insensitive." BCC's decision to suspend Ratener for one week without pay is extreme and unfair, especially since BCC has both already publicly shamed Ratener and acknowledged that any offense caused by the question was unintentional.
This is our understanding of the facts. Please inform us if you believe we are in error. In spring 2004, Ratener wrote a question for an intermediate algebra exam that stated:
Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second. The height of the watermelon above the ground t seconds later is given by the formula h = 16t2 + 20t + 300. A) In how many seconds will it pass her (she's standing at a height of 300 feet) on the way down? B) When will the watermelon hit the ground? C) How high did the watermelon get above the ground?
Ratener reports that in his first draft he used the name "Gallagher," the comedian known for smashing watermelons on stage. Realizing that students might not recognize the name "Gallagher," Ratener changed the name to "Condoleezza." Other professors in the math department approved the exam, which was administered to approximately 450 students in 2004 and elicited no complaints. In March 2006, another professor distributed the same exam to students in the Math 099 class as a practice exam. After reading the exam, student Chelsey Richardson met with Math Department Chair David Stacy to express that she was offended by the fact that a prominent African American woman was mentioned in the same question with a watermelon. Stacy agreed to remove the exam from the departmental files.
On April 7, KOMO-4 local news ran a segment on the exam question. On April 10, Richardson met with BCC administrators and local activist Wayne Perryman to discuss the racial insensitivity of the question. After that meeting, media clamor intensified. Perryman sent a mass e-mail to his supporters asking them to "please e-mail the college and express your outrage… I am demanding that the college to do several things to correct the problem." On April 12, The Seattle Times ran a story, and on April 14 the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, chaired by BCC Trustee Paul Chiles, issued a press release calling the exam question "another example of hate and bigotry," and asking you and BCC's Board of Trustees to discipline the person responsible for the question. Media accounts of the exam question soon appeared in media outlets across the country.
On April 15, BCC's Board of Trustees held a special meeting to discuss a reaction to Ratener's test question. The Board of Trustees then issued a public statement that was available on BCC's website for more than three months and that read in part,
We … are deeply offended by the conduct of a math instructor at Bellevue Community College and strongly condemn this offensive behavior. This behavior is a gross violation of BCC's mission and core value of respect for diversity. … The Bellevue Community College math instructor deliberately chose to change the question resulting in a question which was racially insensitive and demeaning to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the students in his class who were expected to respond to the question, and the BCC community. … We, the Board, have asked the President of the College to review this conduct and take appropriate disciplinary action. This type of incident is wrong and unacceptable at our institution. We are also asking that the college examine the curriculum and practices of all its departments to eliminate the use of unacceptable negative stereotypes in the future.
On April 19, Ratener issued a public apology for having written a test question that unintentionally invoked a racial stereotype. That apology was posted on the BCC website, where it remained until July.
In early May, Ratener received a letter from Executive Dean of Instructional Services Ron Leatherbarrow notifying him that he would be suspended for one week. Leatherbarrow stated that the test question "offended a student who read it while practicing for the Math 099 exam in Winter, 2006." Leatherbarrow continued, "I indicated to you that your action, while unintentional, interfered with the educational process for this student and, possibly, for others as well." Leatherbarrow explained that this admittedly unintentional action did not meet BCC's standards "regarding choosing appropriate test materials and treating students with respect." Leatherbarrow determined that Ratener's conduct "warrants disciplinary action" in the form of a one week suspension with no pay. Ratener has appealed his suspension. His grievance is currently awaiting arbitration.
While a college has the right to suspend a professor for genuinely harassing or threatening expression, Ratener's exam question certainly does not fit into the category of such unprotected speech. The principles of academic freedom and free expression in the university setting mandate more leniency than BCC has afforded Ratener. As the Supreme Court stated in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 414 (1989), "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." [Emphasis added.] The Court handed down such a robust defense of potentially offensive speech precisely because deeming certain speech to be offensive is an entirely subjective exercise. In a milieu as diverse as the modern academy, speech is bound to be misinterpreted, and offense is virtually unavoidable. Free speech needs breathing room in order to thrive.
Ratener himself characterized his exam question as a mistake, explaining in his public apology that, "I try to use humor to relieve tension of test takers. … Students today no longer recognize the name Gallagher. Condoleezza had name recognition going for her; and it's a fascinating name to me. So I substituted that name in the question. Race had nothing to do with it, nor did politics." But BCC's administration has failed to accept Ratener's explanations or apology for having offended students. Instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt, BCC has raced to vilify Ratener and punish him for what he admits was a mistake.
It appears that BCC has been driven to suspend Ratener by the fear that negative reactions to the exam question reflect poorly upon the college as a whole. Leatherbarrow even stated in the letter to Ratener that,
I acknowledge that you have apologized for your actions, which is an important consideration. I also have considered the fact that the college has been judged by your test question: this incident has brought disfavor to Bellevue Community College, damaged the college's reputation, publicly undermined its meritorious work in pluralism, and created disruption to its academic and educational environments.
But if BCC is to legitimately claim to provide a liberal education, it cannot prioritize protecting its own reputation over protecting the freedom of speech and academic freedom of its professors. Guarantees of liberty, such as those found in the First Amendment or in the canons of academic freedom, are meaningless if they are to be jettisoned as soon as they become unpopular.
FIRE asks BCC to reverse Professor Peter Ratener's suspension. Professor Ratener has already endured intense media attention and public shame propagated by BCC—he must not also face official reprisal, in the form of suspension or in any other form. Please treat Ratener with the fundamental fairness to which he, as a tenured professor with a spotless record and 26 years of service to BCC, is due. FIRE is committed to using all of its resources to support Professor Peter Ratener in this matter, and to seeing this process to a just and moral conclusion. Because of the serious and continued violations of Professor Ratener's basic rights, FIRE requests a response by September 11, 2006.
Robert L. Shibley
Vice President
Lucy Macneil, Vice President for Human Resources, Bellevue Community College
Ron Leatherbarrow, Executive Dean of Instructional Services, Bellevue Community College
Lynne Sage, Science Division Chair, Bellevue Community College
David Stacy, Math Department Chair, Bellevue Community College
Vijay Vashee, Chair, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Community College
Ruthann Kurose, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Community College
Paul Chiles, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Community College
Lee Kraft, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Community College
Steve Miller, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Community College
Peter Ratener


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It's so tempting and easy: screening job applicants on Facebook or other social media. Everyone does it, right?
If not everyone, then certainly a growing number of hiring managers and HR professionals certainly do. CareerBuilder a couple of years ago found that 37 percent of respondents to one of its surveys reported they review applicants' social media sites, while 29 percent indicated that they had not hired applicants due to what they learned.
But is this a valid way to vet candidates, and, more to the point, does it really work? A Florida State University study raises serious doubts on the practice.
Employers cite all sorts of reasons for using social media in this way. It allows them to gauge a candidate's judgment, they say, and gives them insights into personality. Doing so, they say, gives them a clearer idea of whether the applicant is a good fit for their organization.
Also read:
Muslim job candidates may face greater discrimination
Online corporate reputation plays large role in employee attraction
6 ways your social media policy breaks the law
Researchers have supported these notions, suggesting that social media could be used to assess personality, that the number of "friends" in an applicant's social network is an indication of their agreeableness and extraversion.
The creativity with which applicants' arrange their Facebook profile, and the types of activities and quotes they post, may reflect their openness to experience, researchers have said, while yet others have suggested that applicants who post inappropriate information online may have related problems at work, such as low conscientiousness or lack of integrity.
The bottom line is that employers have been left to feel that if they don't check publicly available social media sites, they may be negligent in terms of failing to fully vet applicants.
The Florida State study focused on Facebook, the most visited website in the world and the most widely used social media platform. The researchers captured Facebook profiles of graduating college students who were applying for jobs. Recruiters viewed the same applicants' profiles and made judgments concerning applicants' suitability and their knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics. The researchers then correlated the recruiter ratings with applicants' subsequent job performance and turnover.
Their primary conclusion?
"(The) results suggest that recruiter ratings generally are unrelated to graduates' subsequent job performance, turnover intentions, and turnover," the researchers' paper said. At another point, they went so far as to say there was "zero" correlation between what hiring managers might see on a candidate's social media sites and how well they might work out as an employee.
In their work, researchers Chad H. Van Iddekinge, Stephen E. Lanivich, Philip L. Roth and Elliott Junco also discovered something somewhat unexpected: a streak of bias, as evidenced in Facebook ratings that tended to favor female and white job applicants.
They noted that other researchers have found that females are less likely than males to post problematic content, such as substance abuse and sexual exploits, and that females tend to have higher verbal ability and writing ability than males and, finally, that female Facebook profile pictures were more likely to show them with friends or smiling and appearing happy, lending an air of agreeableness that employers typically find attractive.
The Florida State team also noted that other researchers have found that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to post quotes related to their ethnic heritage and are more likely to participate in social and political causes via social media. That generates perceptions of "dissimilarity" among recruiters, they said.
As a result, "recruiters may tend to give higher ratings to applicants they perceive to be more similar to them and lower ratings to participants who may appear less similar," they wrote.
Their overall recommendation?
"(These) findings cast serious doubts concerning the appropriateness of considering applicants' SM information … during the selection process," the researchers wrote.
"We strongly encourage organizations to refrain from using SM (e.g., Facebook) and other Internet information (e.g., Google searches) until methods for collecting and evaluating such information are shown to be reliable and valid."
Will this lead to fewer Google searches by prospective employers? Probably not, though this study could prompt HR managers to rethink how they use social media and how much weight to give what they find on Facebook, Twitter and all of the rest.

subset: commoncrawl


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BONIFAY � Wanda Stafford, Director of Holmes County Emergency Management visited the Holmes County Board of County Commissioners to give them an update on what the severe weather means for Holmes County during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
BONIFAY � Wanda Stafford, Director of Holmes County Emergency Management visited the Holmes County Board of County Commissioners to give them an update on what the severe weather means for Holmes County during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
�The rain started Friday,� said Stafford. �We expect the river to crest at 17.01 feet on Thursday. All the residents are taking the necessary precautions but it�s nothing we�re not use to.�
Historically, Stafford said that they start experiencing flooding problems at 17.09 feet, like the area experienced in 2009; the worst being the flood in 1994 when the river crested at 23.85 feet.
�Our 10-day forecast doesn�t show any additional rains coming into the area to worry about additional swelling,� she said. �Schools start back tomorrow and we�re working on getting as many roads back open as possible.�
She said there had to be a declaration of a state of emergency so that the county could receive additional equipment, such as barricades and sandbags.
Though, for national aide there would have to be a certain amount of damage statewide. She said that on the county level they had enough in damages, however as a state they do not and the requirements is they meet it locally and statewide before those additional funds would be made available.
BOCC approved of the Consent Items, which includes the minutes for Special Session of Feb. 5, 2013, Regular Session of Feb. 12, 2013 and Special Session of Feb. 18, 2013; Limited Right of Entry Agreement; and World Spay Day Resolution.
BOCC approved of the final auction list of surplus county items and for the auction to be held at 9 a.m. on April 12.
BOCC also approved of EMS Director Greg Barton�s request to purchase a cardiac monitor with FEMA money, which was already previously budgeted for purchase.
Holmes County Extension Director Shep Eubanks was present with quotes for the recent assessment of the air conditioning unit at the Holmes County Agricultural Center.
Eubanks said that the quote was around $45,000 to replace the system and $5,000 to try to save the compressor, however the engineer said that it would be useless to replace the compressor.
Commissioner Bobby Sasnett suggested that they look into finding more quotes.
�We�ve spent a lot of money up-keeping these air conditioning units,� said Commissioner Bill Parish. �We need to insure that the lease agreement insures sufficient income to maintain good, running equipment.�
BOCC agreed to look into getting a couple more quotes before taking action.
Eubanks also said that he had a couple lots that needed maintenance, �nothing major,� but requested that it be placed on the special projects list.
Commissioner Kenneth Williams request that they look into putting a window in one of their metal buildings because workers had little or no cell phone or radio reception in the building and it made it difficult for communication on rainy days.
BOCC approved of the Holmes County Public Library request to use excess funds to repair the roof of the library�s annex in the amount of $3,200.
There was also a request that a local patron wanted to build a gazebo for the library using donated money and the Holmes County Public Library requested that an engineer come out to see if that is even feasible.
Parish said that he thought it would be best to set some guidelines for such requests.
�I can understand someone wanting to build something for the community and having their name placed on it, however if we have everyone wanting to build many things this could easily get out of hand,� said Parish. �We just need to set some guidelines. For example, the annex didn�t really match the library aesthetically, though you did you�re best to make it work with what you had; I�m just saying we don�t want a repeat of that if we can avoid it.�
Commissioner David Whitaker also suggested that they keep in mind costs of maintenance.
�Even though it is donated, it will be up to you to maintain it,� said Whitaker.
BOCC agreed to allow the engineer to look at into the details.
County Attorney Jeff Goodman updated the BOCC on their new dirt policy they requested he draft.
�I�ve drafted it so that the county can still use it for public purposes and on right-of-ways to maintain public usage but restricts it from being used on private land,� said Goodman.
Parish requested that the policy also include rocks.
Chair Monty Merchant suggested that the BOCC review the content of the policy and bring it up for further review at the next meeting.
Goodman also said that he drafted the PTO policy, adding that he did so without limiting the BOCC to further disciplinary action if they see fit and requested they review it for further review at the next scheduled meeting.
BOCC agreed to accept the resignation of Robert Dinkins from the Holmes County Development Commission and Parish agreed to have another candidate presented for the BOCC�s approval by the next meeting of HC BOCC.
Merchant also informed the BOCC that he had a road foreman who had recently lost his home in a fire and this included several sets of uniforms, which together cost $299.55. Goodman agreed to accept the costs to replace those uniforms.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the HC BOCC is set for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12 at the BOCC located next to the Holmes County Court House.


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The following seven questions, along with a requested word limit, were asked of each local candidate for the Vermont House.
The questions are not repeated in the context of each candidate's response, but are recalled by subject at the beginning of each answer.
Election Day is Nov. 4.
1) HEALTHCARE: The state's Catamount Health plan is up and running, are you satisfied that it is meeting its goals and, if not, what additional steps should the state take to expand health care coverage? (Maximum 150 words.)
2) ELECTRICITY: The expiration of Vermont's contracts with its two big electricity providers, Hydro-Quebec and Vermont Yankee, is looming. And there are concerns about re-licensing Yankee. What should Vermont do to meet its energy needs? (150 words.)
3) AGRICULTURE: What state-level supports and policies regarding family farms would you promote as a legislator? (150 words.)
4) PROPERTY TAXES: The idea of a property tax cap to limit the rise in school spending has been suggested, but such reductions in funds could diminish the quality of education in our schools over time. How do you solve that dilemma? (150 words.)
5) HEATING: Vermonters are worried about how they will pay to heat their homes and gas up their cars this winter. What can the Legislature and state government do to help? (150 words.)
6) ECONOMY: State government is cutting back as tax revenues fall short of expectations. What can state government do to improve the Vermont economy? (150 words.)
7) SINGLE ISSUE: Discuss an issue of importance to you that you would work to address if elected. (100 words.)
The four candidates running for the two seats in the Addison-3 House district — which includes Vergennes, Addison, Panton, Waltham and Ferrisburgh — are Greg Clark, Diane Lanpher, Kitty Oxholm and Jean Richardson.
HEALTHCARE: Access to health care for all Vermonters is the final goal. Catamount Health makes health care coverage available and affordable to uninsured and underinsured Vermonters. It is a beginning and we should be proud of the efforts.
Catamount Health is up and running, and provides access to health insurance to a select group of Vermonters previously not able to purchase coverage. However, many are still not able to participate and it does not address the changes needed within the illness system of care.
Preventing illness is cost effective and healthier. Sustainable health care throughout a lifetime provides a consistent better quality of life. I am concerned for Vermont's young graduates entering the workforce. They often carry heavy student loans; these loans are not options and simply prevent many from purchasing health coverage with Catamount, as seen reflected in the lower enrollment of youth recently released by Catamount. I look forward to working on ways to address this gap in providing coverage at an affordable cost for area youth.
To apply direct and learn more with the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund : www.catamounthealth.org or call 866-482-4723.
ELECTRICITY: It is true that in a few years Vermont's contracts with Hydro-Quebec and Vermont Yankee will expire and there will be change no matter what the decisions.
I believe Vermont has what is necessary to move toward independence. Energy independence. There is nothing impacting our way of life, our economy, our quality of life, and our environment more significantly then this topic. We must lead.
Renewable energy is here, waiting for Vermont to develop into an industry. Our money is flying out of Vermont. I believe those funds can be redirected back into our local community and economy. Government, industry and communities must partner in a positive manner to assure a bright future for Vermont. I support the development of wind, solar, hydro and bio fuels for a future that is self sustainable and self reliant.
Whether contracts are renewed or not the question is still the same. What should Vermont do to meet its energy need?
AGRICULTURE: In Vermont, farming means much more than just business, we see it as vitally important to our identity. Once again agriculture is going to become the key to our self reliant future. Food and Fuel are at the heart of agriculture and landscapes of beauty are the resulting picture.
I believe in a sustainable local agricultural economy that promotes and practices "Buying Local" while participating on a global scale. I support when and where available, financial incentives to assist with advancements that bring increased profitability to the agricultural industry.
Long-term policies are also needed. I would support legislation that promotes and makes available strong education opportunities for current and future farmers. Support of a Vermont seal branding our diary product, for the purpose of consumers identification of local products is worthy of discussion. Farming is a business and efforts to advance the workforce through education are the keys to its future.
PROPERTY TAXES: Property taxes and education funding continue to be very serious issues for many of the citizens I have spoken with. I believe Vermonters expect an equal educational opportunity for children and afford to live in their homes.
School boards in our district work hard to maintain a budget that balances the needs of our children with the economic surroundings of our community. It is because of this diligence that school budgets are passed with community support.
I believe property taxes can to be contained. I would be cautious of any strategy that presented a simple budget cut without giving significant consideration to the ultimate impact on our children. Any caps blind to impact does not serve our community.
I support efforts that utilize technologies that expand learning which maximize distance learning. Our future classrooms cannot be designed from outdated formulas. Expanding and enhancing learning opportunities need not put anyone out of their home.
HEATING: I was very concerned at the start of this race regarding the conditions this coming winter will have on all of us. Fuel prices soaring and our dependence on oil.
Hundreds of millions of our dollars are spent on fuel. The first step is always to conserve what you have and I believe this applies to both our heat and our dollars.
The All Fuels Efficiency Bill will assist Vermonters with conserving going forward much like the efforts achieved with the acclaimed work of Efficiency Vermont. I supported this legislation and look forward to its successes.
It is from your driveways, while visiting nearly 2,900 homes, that my concerns lessen to an extent. You showed me your resilience. We talked while stacking bags of pellets and loads of wood. We talked of the many other fuels found from local sources. You showed me your electric cars, wind towers and solar panels. You care about your neighbors and what their needs may be. I saw real positive reaction occurring to an energy crisis and I am inspired.
ECONOMY: Taxes are the means we use to gather our resources so they can be used in a manner that reflects the kind of community we wish to live. Vermont's funding decisions must reflect the kind of people we are and the kind of community we wish to shape.
Our elected legislative body gives shape to this community with their decisions. Much care needs to be taken on behalf of those who have little voice and the middle classes burden to shoulder so much of the weight.
State spending is in itself an economic entity and reductions impact the economy and create gaps in services. These gaps cause pressures, especially on Municipalities and their budgets, as I have seen from the Council seat in Vergennes.
I believe Vermont can best serve its economic growth by retaining as much as possible the funds it already spends. I support steps to conserve, followed by investments that create opportunities for continued economic insulation.
SINGLE ISSUE: I am committed to our district and the desires of the people living in Addison-3. Committed to a positive position that will pass legislation that will achieve a renewable energy future that includes wind, solar, bio-mass, and hydro while protecting our working landscapes from sprawl so we can continue to have abundant agricultural land and forests to log, hunt and hike, as well as ensuring that Vermonters have clean water to fish in and drink from for generations. I am pleased to have the endorsement of the Vermont League of Conservation voters. There is much to be done in Montpelier.
It matters who you vote for!


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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he is praying for rain and warns current drought conditions across the United States "are the worst they have been since 1988," a development he says will eventually raise food prices and threaten to force producers out of business.
Speaking at the White House following a briefing on the drought to President Barrack Obama on Thursday, Vilsack addressed reporters and said while crop insurance will aid farmers in staving off the economic losses brought on by the drought, cattle producers will be hit the hardest.
"Almost a third of U.S. counties have been declared secretarial disaster areas as a result of this historic drought, which is affecting about 61 percent of the landmass which is currently being categorized as impacted by this drought. Our hearts go out to the producers and farm families who are struggling with a problem they have no control over," Vilsack said during a press briefing following his meeting with the president.
Vilsack says 78 percent of the corn crop is being grown in an area impacted by the drought and 77 percent of soybeans also are impacted, noting that about 38 percent of the corn crop is reported as poor to very poor and 30 percent of soybeans are rated poor to very poor.
"This will obviously have an impact on our yields. Right now yields are down about 20 bushels to the acre for corn and about three bushels down for beans. That may be adjusted upward or downward as weather conditions dictate. This will result in significant increases in prices. In corn we have seen a 38 percent increase in prices for corn since June 1. Corn is currently (July 19) at $7.88 a bushel and bean prices have risen about 24 percent," Vilsack added.
He told reporters that his briefing with the president was at the request of the White House and says the Obama administration is taking quick action to offer help and assistance. The first measure includes streamlining the disaster declaration system and the time it takes to have a county designated as a disaster area, which is designed to make low interest loans available to producers in those counties declared disaster areas in the least amount of time.
"He (President Obama) also instructed us to open up new opportunities for haying and grazing as cattle producers are in deep trouble because of the drought. They don't have any place for their cattle and are looking at very high feed costs. We are opening up areas in the Conservation Reserve Program for emergency haying and grazing. Normally when that happens producers have to return a portion of the CRP payment they receive, but this amount is being reduced from 25 percent to 10 percent," Vilsack outlined.
But Vilsack says more relief for producers is needed and says USDA will need to work with Congress to provide assistance either through the passage of the Farmer Food and Jobs Bill, through additional disaster programs, or perhaps additional flexibility through the Commodity Credit Corporation to provide assistance to farmers.
Concerning higher food prices, Vilsack says because cattle producers will potentially have to begin reducing their herds due to higher feed prices, he expects food prices for beef, poultry and pork products may go down a bit initially, but warns overtime prices will rise.
"Over time we will probably see those higher prices — later this year and the first part of 2013," Vilsack told reporters.
For the complete audio version of Vilsack's briefing, connect here.


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Notice of Public Scoping Open House Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
Long-Term Airport DevelopmentNew Orleans, Louisiana
The City of New Orleans, through the New Orleans Aviation Board (NOAB) and in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), intends to undertake the following proposed actions at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (Airport):
· Develop a terminal building on the north side of the Airport (to include 30 gates, retail space, baggage claim area, ticketing, a security screening checkpoint, parking facilities, and other ancillary uses)
· Provide two access routes to the new terminal building
· Abandon TaxiwayD, extend Taxiway G to the east to Taxiway S, and develop a new apron associated with the new terminal building
· Relocate existing electrical vault and FAA airport surveillance radar (ASR) facility
Pursuant to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and FAA Order 1050.1E, Change 1, a Draft Environmental Assessment (Draft EA) will be prepared for these proposed actions. The Draft EA will describe the proposed action and the impacts associated with the implementation of the proposed action. The NOAB is holding a Public Scoping Open House for purposes of providing the public with an opportunity to discuss the proposed actions and to providing input into the issues to be discussed in the Draft EA. Together with other scheduled scoping meetings, these meetings will constitute the scoping process for the Draft EA. In the event that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is required by the FAA, these scoping meetings will serve as the scoping session for the EIS. The Public Scoping Open House will be held at the following time and place:
Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Nolan A. Marshall, Sr., New Orleans Aviation Board Room
(near Concourse C security checkpoint)
Comments on the Draft EA will be accepted until 5pm Central Daylight Time on July 5, 2013. Comments should be mailed to:
Walter Krygowski, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
P.O. Box 20007
New Orleans LA 70141
For additional information, please visit the NOAB website at http://flymsy.com/capitalimprovements/Projects-in-Design/Long-Term-Infrastructure-Developement-Plan
Home | About Us | News & Stats | Employee Information | Contact Us | Site Search | Flight Info | Airport Facilities | Transportation & Parking | Business Opportunities | Travel Tips | NOAB Employees | Site Map
© Copyright 2019, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. All rights reserved.


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Boyd Glass History:Bernard C. and Bernard F., father and son, opened Boyd's Crystal Art Glass October 10, 1978. The senior Boyd began his glassmaking career as a teenager and had spent more than 60 years in the glass business. Bernard C. passed away on August 5, 1988 after a brief illness. Fortunately, he had shared with his son and grandson, John B., the family formulas and secrets on how to make the glass colors which have made Boyd Glass famous. Four generations of Boyd's have been making glass. Zack Boyd began working at Cambridge Glass Co; in 1901 at the age of 13. While he worked at a total of 26 glass factories, he always came back to Cambridge. His son, Bernard C, became a full-time employee at Cambridge Glass at the age of 16, and made glass until he passed away at the age of 80. Bernard F., is the third generation and his son, John Bernard is now the fourth generation glass worker. Glassmaking, America's oldest industry, began more than 4000 years ago. Boyd Glass still manufactures collectibles the old-fashioned way, to the delight of visitors and collectors, with a man and a mould and not with an automated machine.
Item #
Signed Boyd Vaseline Milk Slag Art Glass Gypsy Pot Toothpick Jewelry Holder
Boyd Crystal Art Glass co. produced this pressed art glass piece. It is signed with the Boyd "B" in a diamond with lines. Size: 2½" wide by 2¼" tallPattern: Gypsy PotColor: Vaseline & Milk Glass (glows under black light)Name: Vaseline Milk SlagCondition: Excellent - Hand MadeOrigin: USA; Cambridge, Ohio
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Barely a week after declaring "the U.S. Auto industry is back," in the state-of-the-union message, President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden took that message on the road, the two men pressing for still more job growth – and for a political advantage in the upcoming election.
The President, who has had to defend his decision to bail out both General Motors and Chrysler, paid a visit to the annual Washington Auto Show to get a look at the latest models and to make it clear he will stand by his controversial decision. Meanwhile, VP Biden will be landing in Grand Rapids on Wednesday to visit an automotive supplier and promote the administration's call for manufacturing jobs to return to the U.S.
"It's good to remember the fact that there were some folks who were willing to let this industry die," Pres. Obama said during his tour of the auto show – a direct reference not only to the general position of the Republican party but specifically the stand taken by Mitt Romney, the apparent front-runner for the GOP's presidential nomination.


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Find the perfect hotel in Englewood using our hotel guide provided below. Explore our guide for inexpensive and discount hotel/motel rates in or near Englewood, NJ for your corporate or personal leisure travel. We show the best Englewood New Jersey hotel rooms. Review the Englewood hotel list below to find the perfect lodging. We also have a map of the Englewood hotels. Coordinating a group? Get Englewood Group Hotel Rates
The Englewood center is approximately 2 miles northeast of Palisades Park and 2 miles north of Fort Lee Borough Hall.
How should we direct your call?


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Bright & Beautiful Berry Wreaths
As winter descends upon us, is there anything more reassuring than the sight of bright winter berries? They provide color to the landscape, food to birds, and a warm welcome to your guests...
There are many lovely faux-berry wreath options, but I've limited my selections to real berries, whether dried or fresh. Enjoy!
- Just look at this stunner- I cannot get over the beauty of this ilex berry wreath. It was created by ILA of Italy, and as someone who works with flowers & berries & branches, I am humbled. So simple, so perfect. There's no straightforward "buy it right now" link for me to give you, but ILA's English website is here, their amazing Flickr account is here, and when I emailed them pleading for permission to use this image, they wrote back right away.
- Emily Thompson hand-makes gorgeously spare wreaths in her Brooklyn studio- they are stunning, and they are expensive. This wonderfully wild rosehip wreath is the most affordable, at $115, but I want all of them.
- Design*Sponge's Amy Merrick has an excellent tutorial for creating a rosehip & bittersweet wreath, with grasses, pomegranates, and persimmons thrown in for good measure. I love bittersweet but as Amy warns, "since bittersweet is a wicked, wicked invasive, be sure to take precautions to avoid spreading growth when the season is through".
- Terrain lets the bittersweet shine on its own with this witchy handmade wreath. Very tempting indeed...
- Tall Cotton 'n Peas packs the tallow berries in tight for this wreath/candle ring. Snowy!
- Creekside Farms creates reasonably priced wreaths like this tallow berry beauty, and points out that "dried tallow berries will last for years with minimal dusting as its only upkeep".
- They also made this sweet pink pepperberry wreath- I LOVE the smell of pepperberries.
- Silvery Moon Farms made this winterberry wreath that weighs five pounds. That is a lot of berries.
- Martha Stewart has a pepperberry wreath tutorial, but be warned: you'll need a huge amount of pepperberries. 20-25 bunches are recommended, and bunches don't come cheap. But they do come pretty!
(All images as credited above.)
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In early 2006, a dozen staff members from the California Department of Health Services received extensive training on how to administer antibiotics from the Strategic National Stockpile in the event of an anthrax attack.
Unlike previous exercises the state had run, however, this simulation didn't involve recruiting mock patients or setting up a staging area. The setting - and patients - were all virtual. Researchers from the University of California-Davis Health System re-created a 3-D model of the California Exposition and State Fair in Second Life, an Internet-based world in which people are represented by virtual body doubles called avatars.
"The aim of the exercise was to see if the state could constantly train people in setting up emergency clinics," explained principal investigator Dr. Peter Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry at UC-Davis, whose research interests include the use of virtual reality for health education on the Internet. "One big advantage is that they could do this training 24/7 from wherever they are, and you don't have to recruit patient volunteers."
Yellowlees isn't alone in seeing the potential of using virtual reality simulation to train first responders, medical personnel and emergency management officials. Across the country, researchers are exploring how simulations can augment training efforts. Much of the impetus is coming from the growing use of simulation in medical training. Most medical schools are incorporating simulation in their curricula and measuring its effectiveness.
Another driving force is the U.S. Department of Defense, which for years has been funding research about computer simulation for war fighting and medical purposes. Research to support military operations done by organizations such as the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center is being customized for homeland security exercises.
Robert Furberg, a research analyst for the Center for Simulator Technology at research institute RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., noted that virtual reality simulations are appealing for emergency response training.
"A full-scale exercise takes a lot of advanced preparation and requires daylong drills - it is expensive and time-consuming," he said. "With simulation, we can run through a mass casualty event and change the parameters. Each case is a little different, and it is available 24/7."
Virtual Patients
With an $80,000 grant from the California Department of Health Services, Yellowlees and his staff sought to determine if they could make the training in Second Life realistic and worthwhile for emergency medical personnel.
Two years ago, they went to a real-life simulation held at the Sacramento Exposition Center, with 250 state employees and 1,000 members of the public volunteering as trial patients. Yellowlees and his crew taped the exercise as patients were registered, signed consent forms, were examined and given simulated antibiotics.
They then worked to re-create the environment in Second Life. Virtual patients flowed through the clinic, while staff members role played. The program can be adjusted to simulate different numbers of patients. For instance, it could be ramped up from 100 to 150 patients per hour. Yellowlees said his team also built quiz tools to assess how well people have grasped what they've learned.
He said he believes the project was a success because they made the virtual environment look reasonably like the real thing. Also, feedback from state employees indicated the program worked quite well. Nevertheless, California has yet to expand its use. "That was 18 months ago and they haven't taken us up on it yet," he added. "They are trying to see how it fits into their long-term goals."
Virtual Reality Triage
With funding from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, RTI has been working for several years on a simulation platform for primary care doctors, nurses and paramedics. A virtual reality simulation that runs on a basic laptop computer allows medical workers to study and
practice their triage skills in a role-playing game.
The entire system is situated within a learning management system that includes didactic content, such as Flash animations and audio narratives that medical workers review before entering the simulation environment.
The program includes 30 examples of casualties that trainees can encounter, with a total of nine in any one scene. "The bulk of the cases are trauma victims, but we are adding in medical cases," said Furberg, who is a practicing paramedic. "Realistically people are going to be injured by more than kinetic forces. Someone will be so freaked out, they have a heart attack. Or a diabetic person will forget to eat. These have to be triaged as appropriately as everyone else in the mix of injuries."
The triage simulator has been used at pre-deployment training of Army medical staff on their way to Iraq. RTI also developed a program to train civilian Iraqi primary care physicians to use the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment method.
Furberg's efforts to localize the content of that simulation led him to a startling realization. "I was looking to make it appropriate for local learners and asked a few contacts in Baghdad to send a picture of a triage tag doctors use in Iraq that I could insert in the simulation," he recalled.
When he got no response within a week, he contacted them again. His Green Zone contacts said they had asked several Iraqis and no one knew what Furberg meant by color-coded triage tags. "They said in Baghdad they don't do triage. They just load all the wounded into a van and sort them out at the hospital," he said. "Apparently for these emergency physicians, this simulation was the first time they were getting any formal triage training."
The triage simulator also was tested at the Duke University School of Medicine in 2006. In a program designed to prepare medical students for disaster management, some students were trained using verbal presentations while others used virtual reality-based training. Furberg said that when asked to perform triage, the trainees who used the simulator performed as well, or better than, the group trained traditionally.
Furberg is convinced that virtual reality simulation is a valid educational method for triage training, and that it should be carried over to widespread civilian use.
"It is a high-yield way of upgrading skills with minimal investment upfront," he said, adding that triage in an emergency situation challenges the standards of normative care. It asks emergency physicians and other care providers to make decisions they don't normally need to make.
Also, he argued that these are perishable cognitive skills. To apply them effectively, you have to use them. "If there is one skill that could maximize or improve the outcome in a mass casualty incident, it's triage," he added. "It drives the remainder of the response."
Running Simulations for EOCs
While some simulations are designed to help first responders practice, others use modeling to train people in emergency operation centers (EOCs). The Emergency Management Training, Analysis and Simulation Center (EMTASC) in Suffolk, Va., works to create realistic simulations to help train managers to communicate in an emergency.
"You've got a guy driving in to the EOC who hasn't sat in that chair in more than six months," explained Randy Sickmier, EMTASC's exercise plans manager. "During the day, he's the public works officer for Staunton, Va., and all of a sudden he's in charge of some aspect of this emergency response. It's not something he does every day. This is where the simulation can be valuable."
With grant funding from Virginia, the nonprofit EMTASC was formed in 2005 as a partnership between Old Dominion University and 17 companies involved in modeling and simulation efforts. For agencies that want to
include simulations in their EOC exercises, EMTASC can model an incident such as a hurricane and feed emergency response managers data in the same format they would receive it during an emergency.
Officials in Virginia, who run an annual training effort called the Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise, have taken advantage of the modeling capability, said Sickmier, who is an employee of Northrop Grumman Corp., on loan to EMTASC.
In one training scenario, the agency modeled plans to reverse traffic on Interstate 64 so that all traffic would be outbound during a hurricane evacuation. "We modeled the capacity of the roadways with maps and data from the Virginia Department of Transportation and the state emergency management plan," Sickmier said. "It allowed the team to assess how long it would take to evacuate a certain region."
Although users' response has been enthusiastic, Sickmier admits that finding customers among state and local emergency response organizations has been difficult so far.
"Localities are always going to have difficult funding decisions to make," he said. "It's tough for them to make the choice between spending on hardware such as radios versus more information or training.
But as the models are developed through federal grant funding, Sickmier said, other regions will be able to adopt it at lower cost, and then modify them for their particular environment.
"Every time you do it," he said, "it gets cheaper."


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Bottoms Up! A Tabletop Bar Keeps You & Your Drinks Cool
Setting up a bar is one of the easiest home projects, and it'll be the center of party center of all your gatherings. All you need is an ice bucket, glasses, napkins, coasters and a large tray. Just add your favorite libation, and you're done!
Even if you don't have the space for a counter or a cart, any table can serve as a bar, including the coffee table! A handsome tray with all your bar accessories and trimmings, like olives and limes, will clue everyone in.
The accessories featured here are vintage or made of eco-friendly materials like sustainable linen or merino wool felt.
(Shown above the jump, from left to right)
1. Retro Turquoise Ice Bucket, $29.00 from Grace Mattie
2. Fox Napkin, $14.00 from Linea Carta
3. Vintage Ice Bucket Faux Bois Wood Grain 70s, $18.00 from Drowsy Swords
4. Thin and Tall Retro Glasses (set of 8), $45.00 from Grace Mattie
5. Flower Power Felt Coasters in Virgin Merino Wool Felt, $16.00 from Felt Planet
Related Posts:
• The Versatility of Cork: 10 Pieces Made of Cork
• 7 Ways to Repurpose an Ice Bucket
(Images as linked)


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John McWhinnie Jr., an art and rare book dealer known for his eclectic and inspired exhibits, both in East Hampton and New York City, died in a snorkeling accident on Friday in the British Virgin Islands. He was 43, just shy of his 44th birthday on Jan. 29.
According to his friends, Mr. McWhinnie was with his wife, Maria Beaulieu, when a rip current swept them out into open water. A swimmer was able to save his wife, but was unable to locate Mr. McWhinnie when he returned for him. His body was found later, not far from the reef where he had been swimming.
Jeremy Sanders, a colleague of Mr. McWhinnie's who succeeded him as the curator of Glenn Horowitz's East Hampton gallery and store, said on Tuesday that the friends he had spoken with were still struggling to grasp the news, because of its suddenness and the uncharacteristic nature of the activity. "Snorkeling in the Caribbean was a very un-John-like thing," he said on Tuesday. He was not known for taking vacations unless they were associated with book fairs or his wife's jewelry design business.
Mr. Sanders said he would remember Mr. McWhinnie for his generosity, both with his knowledge and with objects. "He was great at expressing himself through books, art, and ephemera. There was also this great oral tradition. It was interesting to hear what he had to say about any particular thing. I always picked things up from him. There was so much that was said that was never written down."
Heidi Sanders, who worked with Mr. McWhinnie for years until last May and is married to Mr. Sanders, agreed. "My first reaction after the shock was that this amazing vault of information in his mind was now gone forever. He was a master storyteller and when he would recount the background of a book or work of art, even if I may have heard it a million times before, I would find myself sidling up to the person he was speaking to just to hear it again." Into the narrative he would weave theory and art history "to make anything sound interesting, but the material was always deserving."
While he "could never resist talking about his books with any interested party," Ms. Sanders said that he often retreated upstairs "to be alone with his books."
He began his life in Lewiston, Me., where he attended high school and met his wife in 1983. He graduated from Boston College with both bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy and was working toward a doctorate at Fordham University when he joined Glenn Horowitz in East Hampton. He remained there for eight years and then opened a store in New York City with Mr. Horowitz in 2005, where his name was also on the door. He had been dividing his time between East Hampton and New York City ever since, most recently at John McWhinnie at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller and at a new site this past summer called Local 87, both on Newtown Lane. The two also created their own imprint to publish artists books called JMc & GHB Editions.
In a 2011 interview with Peter Sutherland, Mr. McWhinnie said it was while working in Columbia University's rare book and manuscript library that he realized he might be cut out for something other than academia, even though it took him a while to commit to changing careers. It was the chase that he enjoyed most about collecting and dealing in books: "the pursuit of the book that no one thinks exists, or if they think it exists they figure it is no longer attainable. And, once I find that book, because I usually do as I'm relentless in my pursuit, I love cataloguing it," finding the information necessary to "make it a living artifact, not just a museum-bound mummified object."
One noteworthy discovery was Neal Cassady's copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" on a bookshelf in a small English town. Cassady was the inspiration for that book's main character, Dean Moriarty. Because he had started his collection with beat literature: works by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, it was a personal triumph as well. The exhibit now on view at the New York City store is a collection of beat greeting cards.
He also enjoyed collecting books and ephemera from Andy Warhol's Factory, punk rock singles, and work from other rebellious artists up through today. "He was drawn to that which was subversive," Mr. Sanders said, including those who reacted with rebellion to the everyday. "He was not politically rebellious, but drawn to those who posed substantial questions to the ordinary way of doing things."
In an interview for the Opening Ceremony blog, he said he spent time with Hunter S. Thompson in Aspen "ingesting his own form of medicine while cataloguing his archive and nearly being driven off the road at 90 miles per hour just to get a snack at the Woody Creek Tavern at 11 p.m."
His exhibits featured artists such as Richard Prince, who was also a client, Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Hell and Christopher Wool, Brigid Berlin's needlepoint, Stephen Sprouse, and Steven Klein. His East Hampton exhibits featured South Fork artists such as Peter Dayton, Jameson Ellis, Mike Solomon, and Nick Weber.
Mr. McWhinnie is survived by his wife, his parents, John and Betty McWhinnie, who still live in Lewiston, and a sister, Lisa Paradis, who lives in New Jersey. As of Tuesday, Mr. Sanders said he believed Ms. Beaulieu was still out of the country waiting for her husband's body to be released.
He said memorial services would likely be planned in New York and East Hampton at a future date.


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The home of cheap fancy dress costumes.
Red 16ml pot of water based, hypo-allergenic, easy to remove and non-toxic face and body paint.
Professional quality, rich in pigment, water activated and easy to apply with both brush or sponge. Whether you require make-up for children's face painting, Halloween character transformations or professional use, our aqua face and body paint provides superior coverage.
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A small minority of items are excluded from our returns guarantee. For more information, please take a look at our full returns policy which can be found here. Returns Page


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Welcome to the website of the M3-research unit
This website provides background information on the activities of the M3-research unit, which operates within the Department of Human Biology of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) at Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC) and is formed by a number of PhD students, post-doc researchers, technicians and staff members of the Department of Human Biology.
The M3-research unit specializes in in vivo human metabolic research, and the main fields of interest include skeletal muscle metabolism, exercise metabolism, sports and/or clinical nutrition, type 2 diabetes and aging. Our research aims to increase knowledge that will enable us to define the most effective exercise and/or nutritional interventions to improve health and/or functional performance in chronic metabolic disease (obesity and type 2 diabetes) and aging. The latter are investigated on a whole-body, tissue and cellular level, with skeletal muscle as the main tissue of interest. The use of stable isotope methodology has a special interest in this group.
On this website we present the research, expertise and available infrastructure that is being used by our research unit. We will present each of the members of our group, their research interests, current projects and our publications. We hope this website will be informative to our visitors and for more questions feel free to contact us.
Prof. L.J.C. van Loon
On behalf of the M3-research unit.


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The BBC looks all set to introduce "low-key" advertising on its BBC Worldwide websites within a year, with a final decision on the matter due in the autumn after a further round of consumer research.
The announcement was made yesterday, when BBC Worldwide announced annual profits of almost £90m, up by around two-thirds on the previous year.
The idea, it seems, is for the BBC to monetise its global audience, rather than relying on licence fees to pay for the costs of bandwidth. It is currently evaluating geo-targeting tools to help identify overseas visitors.
The bbc.co.uk website attracts about one billion page impressions a month from countries outside the UK. About a third of visits originate in the US, where publishers are concerned at a possible dwindling of ad revenues as advertisers migrate budgets towards the BBC.
However, BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith anticipates "no material impact" on their activities, based on the size of the global online advertising market, which may surpass the £10bn mark this year.
Smith also said the BBC has no plans to allow banner advertising or pop-ups, instead opting for ads within the story content, most likely in-line rectangles.
The Guardian quotes him as saying: "It would be a limited number of ads. And it will not be totally commercial in that it will not be invasive. The basic notion is to have specific advertising to meet commercial return criteria but not so much that we are changing the nature of the site."
Of course if you're charging for advertising, then it is commercial. Exactly 'how commercial' it is doesn't really matter.
Now for the maths…
Let's assume the BBC can sell an average of one ad per page, on a low blind-network buying rate of 50p CPM. That works out at about £500,000 per month. And hey, there's almost zero chance of being able to buy ads on such a popular website for that sort of money.
Maybe £5 CPM is more likely (or maybe this is still too cheap!). At that rate, the BBC Worldwide would generate an additional £60m a year in revenue.
£50 CPM, anybody? Licence fee rebates all round…


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As a teen from a blue-collar family of construction workers, Matthew Bauer suffered from back problems and found relief through acupressure treatment that led to his interest in eastern philosophy. When the stress associated with his child's serious health problems caused his first wife to develop a thyroid condition, an acupuncturist brought relief.
That acupuncturist, a 74th generation Taoist Master (spiritual teacher), became a mentor to the young man and taught him about Taoist spirituality, philosophy and history. When his first wife's emotional problems caused her to leave him to care for their handicapped child, eastern philosophy helped overcome what he describes as a low point in his life and inspired him to seek a profession in the field.
He attended Yuin University, a California acupuncture school, received state licensing and hung a shingle. His 20-year-career as a licensed acupuncturist offering Chinese Medicine through acupuncture, Qi-Gong and Chinese herbs has included treatment of thousands of patients through his practice, LaVerne Acupuncture.
Along the way, he has become an instrumental force in promoting the profession and its benefits. He helped found an acupuncture association, served as a board member for another, and helped to create an acupuncture HMO that has since expanded to become a national program. Mr. Bauer has penned numerous articles published in industry journals including Acupuncture Today. In keeping with his professional goal to educate the public about the benefits of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, he wrote a definitive book on the subject. The Healing Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture; A Complete Guide to Timeless Traditions and Modern Practice was published by Avery/Penguin Press in 2005 and is widely available via Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Redwing Books and other outlets. In acknowledgement of his contributions to the field of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, his alma mater awarded Mr. Bauer an honorary PhD. in 1998.
The increasing acceptance of acupuncture and Chinese medicine as a treatment option for all types of patients is creating a "positive buzz" about acupuncture, he says. "If you sincerely want to help people with health and emotional and other types of problems, then you are in the best field possible… we truly have the potential to make this a profound art that helps people in significant ways. What more could you ask for?"
How did you become interested in the field of acupuncture/Oriental medicine?
I came from a blue-collar family of construction workers and in my teen years developed an interest in eastern philosophy. I suffered back problems and stumbled across acupressure as a means to help my back. My first child was born with a serious intestinal condition that required several surgeries that left him in need of intensive home care. After my first wife developed a serious thyroid condition, in part from the stress of caring for our child, we sought the help of a Chinese acupuncturist who cured her in 6 weeks. This man was also a 74th generation Taoist Master (spiritual teacher) and I began studying Taoist spirituality, philosophy and history from him when I was 22 years old. Soon after, my first wife's emotional problems overtook her and she suddenly left our family, leaving me to quit work to care for our handicapped son. During this low point of my life, I furthered my study of Taoist spirituality and decided to dedicate myself to helping others and become an acupuncturist/Chinese medicine healer.
Tell us about your career in acupuncture/Oriental medicine.
I had a family to support, so I opened my office just as soon as I got my license. It was a struggle in the beginning; I just put out a shingle with no patients. I was in a pretty conservative area on the east edge of Los Angeles County. I did everything I could think of to get people in the doors. The first year, we ran out of money and I sold my wife's '65 Mustang to get us through; before that, I had sold her '79 Camaro to get through school. I bought the Mustang and restored it for her to make up for the Camaro…but then we had to sell the Mustang. That gave us enough of a bump to make it through and into the second year, I started making enough money to cover the bills. Since then, I've been quite fortunate to be able to keep being able to pay the bills. We have an extremely low overhead compared to traditional healthcare providers, and that helps. My receptionist is my wife, Gayle.
Who (or what) are the biggest inspirations for your career?
I met a 74th generation Taoist master, Master Hua-Ching Ni when I was in my early 20s. He's been a huge influence on my life and career. He's the most remarkable individual I've ever met, he's written over 40 books on a range of different Taoist topics. He was a big inspiration to me, especially in the book I ended up writing, in which I attempted to trace the roots of Chinese medicine, including acupuncture. The only reason I had the gumption to try to address the great riddle of the unknown origins of Chinese medicine was because of what I learned from his long oral tradition.
What drove you to write The Healing Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture; A complete guide to timeless traditions and modern practice?
Once in practice, I found my ability to explain acupuncture/Chinese medicine to my patients was well received and I decided to write a book on the subject. I realized years ago that one of the problems we have as a profession is that we can't explain how this began, how acupuncture started, how chi and the meridians were developed. I consider it a mystery equal to the mystery of the Pyramids or Stonehenge. I thought this was a public education problem for us, and that it was legitimate to take a stab at shed some light on how it may have all began. I've been interested in public education to help people realize what a tremendous healing resource Chinese medicine represents. The book was written for the general public, although I hope the acupuncture profession would find it of interest as well.
It's a three part book. In the first part, I try to explain the basics of Chinese medical theory. The second part of the book explains the conditions it can be used to treat and how to find a qualified practitioner. The third part is focused on self- help techniques including acupressure and touch techniques for self-treatment.
It took 10 years to write, and was published by Avery/Penguin Press in 2005. Writing the book is one thing, the getting it published is another, and then marketing is a whole other. I really believe I've made a contribution to the field, because I attempted to explain how acupuncture likely began. I believe the greatest influence on Chinese medicine and Chinese culture was primarily inspired by ancient astronomy. It would be a good book for all students, because I try to put it into perspective in a way that goes deeply into the philosophy, but presented in a way that is not too time-consuming. I've gotten some feedback from practitioners that tell me it should be a textbook for students; maybe someday that will catch on.
You were instrumental in helping establish the first acupuncture HMO plan in the United States. What led to your involvement in this endeavor? Details?
I was approached in 1997 by a company that was then called the American Chiropractic Network. They had developed a network of chiropractic providers as a complimentary healthcare plan, kind of like vision or dental care. They plugged away for years, trying to get insurance companies to warm up to the idea that there was a market for it. They developed these plans, mostly as rider plans, meaning employers would have to pay extra to get the coverage. In 1997 they made the decision that acupuncture was the next alternative practice on the list that seemed to be ready to develop a network that fit the guidelines and the practices that insurance companies operate under.
They approached about 15 or so acupuncturists that they had been told were leaders in the field and asked us to create the same sort of program treatment guidelines for acupuncture services. One example is case management, where you get authorization for a certain number of treatments – we had to determine the number of treatments for various medical conditions. It was probably the greatest concentration of man hours in our profession put into crafting guidelines. We had a dozen or so practitioners getting together on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays for quite a few months; we spent hundreds of hours to develop the policies to make it work for acupuncture services. I enjoyed spending time with my colleagues, even though we were working on a very specific, proprietary, for-profit project. The first HMO plan was approved by the California department of insurance in 1997.
Third party reimbursement is the primary way medical services are paid for in this country. For the acupuncture profession, if we ever really want to be mainstream and have our services available to a great amount of people, we have to make our peace with the insurance industry, and managed care is an important part of that. Having those networks available makes our services affordable and available to a whole different group of people that couldn't afford the 'cash for service' terms that a lot of acupuncturists have survived on.
A third party reimbursement system is prominent in paying medical bills in this country; most people have money taken out of their paychecks to pay for the insurance to cover medical services. But if that insurance doesn't cover the kind of medical services you want, you have that much less cash in hand to pay for services you want, because a good portion went into insurance that isn't covering the services. Working with managed care was (and is) important for the future growth of the acupuncture profession.
As our ranks continue to explode, as valuable as our services are, I always felt there was potential for a lag time in the number of people entering the profession recognizing what a wonderful healing resources it is and the patients who go to access those services. Having the HMO kind of plans that can work for acupuncture services available was an important component and offered more of a chance to see the public demand keep pace with the number of practitioners coming out of school. For a lot of individual practitioners, I can appreciate why they don't want to participate in managed care plans, and that's great if they can make it. But if we are going to continue to grow as a profession, we're going to have to tap into the insurance programs that are out there.
The plan went nationwide in 2001. There are other similar plans out there as well, this is the biggest one. It hasn't grown as much as it could have, because the cost of healthcare has once again taken off. Employer groups are not inclined to add additional services for something like alternative medicine like acupuncture when they are fighting to keep regular healthcare coverage. The ridiculous cost of health care has made the growth of these sorts of plans less than it could have been. The hope is that someday the insurance industry will start to include acupuncture treatments in the core medical plan, and not only include it as a rider plan. The real movement of acupuncture services was influenced by insurance companies looking at this as not so much as "is this a good thing that's good for our customers?" but instead as a source of new income. The real hope is they may actually get serious about trying to save costs, and would look at acupuncture and say "This is often more cost-effective then conventional care, so if we include it core benefits, maybe that would encourage more people would use it, and it might bring our costs down." When it comes to the idea of result in preventative cost containment vs new revenue stream, insurance companies, like everyone else, are still focused on revenue streams.
A little less than half of my patients come in through HMO. I have a lot of older patients on Medicare with no coverage, I do reduced fees. The development of managed care has put us in a tough position. Our overhead is already so low, and insurance companies kind of cut their teeth on reducing existing fees. They're not in a mindset to raise fees, and that's been a catch-22 for our profession, because we were already cut to the bone in overhead. To be involved in insurance and managed care, we should eventually see our rates increase but that's just not the mindset the insurance industry is in. I'm not happy about that, but we need managed care out there as a profession.
What do you enjoy most your role in patient care?
That's really easy. It's being able to help a wide range of patients, including people who come to you who have seemingly exhausted all other avenues. To be able do treat people in a way that is so safe and cost effective is really an incredible thing. We need to do more to spread the enthusiasm. It's remarkable. We stick needles into people and help them find their healing resources. A well-qualified acupuncturist can treat a wider variety of patients than any other kind of practitioner. That's what I love about my work. People walk in the door with any kind of problem you can imagine, and I've got a shot at helping them.
You are member of several professional groups and helped found one of them. How do such groups support your career goals?
I've been active with different associations, I'm not in the leadership of any associations right now, and I made that decision more than 10 years ago. It's really because of the unfortunate politics among the different associations; they developed an 'us and them' mentality. The various associations fought over specific issues, mainly around education and titles and licensing, and I wasn't going to choose sides. I try to stay active and current and maintain ties with different organizations. We are seeing some real progress there, with new leadership leading to some of the old animosities going out with the old guard. There is movement to see what we have in common, rather than focusing on the differences. I worked in the leadership of a group in California, have tried to help where I can with both state and national groups.
Your alma mater Yuin University awarded you an honorary PhD. in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in recognition of your contributions to the field. What does this honor mean to you on a personal and professional level?
It was very nice to get the PhD; it was an honor. But honestly, it probably meant more to my wife. I don't use the honorary in deference to those who are working toward it. I really appreciate it; the school was good to me. The movement to develop the doctorate program, higher standards of education, whether we keep it at an entry level or a post-doctorate type education program, I think its great we are starting to set the standards higher.
What are some of your personal and/or professional goals for the future?
I'm honestly a bit conflicted. Part of me wants to slow down and back off a bit. When I first opened my office, I called it the Holistic Care Center. I envisioned as a multi-disciplinary practice incorporating lots of educational opportunities for people. As I got involved in different professional associations and began to work on educating the public, I got drawn into other related aspects of the field. I made the decision not to build a bigger practice, to instead divide my time between practice and working on other projects important to the overall growth of the profession. I sometimes still want to build that kind of center, I like to think we could do a good one, but that's another mountain to climb. I've been very fortunate that I keep my practice at an even keel, I see a little over 50 patients a week, and I've been at that pace for at least 12 years. I like to keep it there; it allows me to pay the bills and still gives me the time to do additional pursuits related to the field.
What contributions do you feel the acupuncture/Chinese medicine field has made to society?
We've made a bigger contribution than we probably know. Somewhere between 6 to 10 million Americans have been treated with acupuncture. Its interesting, if you get into a crowd of people at a social gathering and acupuncture pops up, someone always said I've had that or my uncle did or something like that. Almost universally what you hear is a positive thing. There is a positive buzz out there about acupuncture. Until the subject comes up, people don't know how many of their friends and relatives and neighbors have had acupuncture, and most of them have had positive experiences. We have silently been making a real difference. I advocate that we shouldn't be so silent about it as a profession.
We, as a profession, should help to facilitate the good buzz that's out there in the general public to really spread the word about acupuncture. I believe we have a responsibility to do so. That's really why I wrote the book…I was frustrated with the professional associations for not taking on the responsibility of public education as a real priority. I got frustrated enough that I thought I'd write a book to take my own personal stab at it. We're really on the cutting edge of what's a revolution in medicine, and that is that we help the body to heal itself. We're not the only field that does it, but we've been doing it longer and on more people than anybody else. That needs to be the future of medicine, the development and the spreading of methods that stimulate the body's self healing rather than from the outside, which is what 98 percent of what modern medicine is about. Acupuncture is the most advanced therapy in the world for stimulating self-healing. We've been doing it for a lot of years, but it hasn't really broken out yet.
Describe a typical day of work for you. On a basic level, what skills does your job demand?
I practice an unusual technique, I've worked quite a bit with Qi-Gong, and I have a Taoist spirituality background. I actually work a great deal by feel and intuition. I have some capability to feel chi blockages fairly directly; a lot of my work is done by feel more so than theory of technique. It actually comes fairly naturally to me now. That doesn't mean everybody is cured, or that I don't have patients that are difficult to help. The paper work is much more difficult. I feel so blessed, when I work on patients, I'm doing a Qi-Gong, its very relaxing to me most of the time. When I work on someone, I come out of the treatment room feeling refreshed and relaxed, and just very fortunate to have made a connection with my patient, and to be doing work that is helping people and myself at the same time. It's truly a phenomenal blessing. I believe that was the original inspiration, trial and error finding points, and then heightened sensitivity. You learn all the memorization and the theory, but when you get out there and start cultivating and balancing your own energy, we truly have the potential to make this a profound art that helps people in significant ways. What more could you ask for?
What unique challenges and rewards come from working with your patients in an independent, non-Western healthcare care setting?
Cost is always a challenge. In order to be able to help people as much as your training allows, time is money. So that's a great challenge, to be able to use all of the tools you've worked hard to develop, because so much of the time you might not be able to do everything you might have the potential to do because of the cost factors. I've tried to deal with that as much as I can, even when you offer people to work with them in any way they need to, to get them the treatment they need, a lot of times they feel uncomfortable about it and won't avail themselves. So even when the practitioner has no barriers to cost, patients often create them. I've told people over the years that my policy is that if they want my help and I believe I can help them, they get my help, and we work out the financial part along the way. A lot of people feel uncomfortable with that. People come in for treatment, and if they don't see great results right away, they get frustrated and don't show up for appointments. It is frustrating to treat someone a number of times, and thinking that if I could have had a few more whacks at them, we could have turned things around for them.
What are the tools of the trade that you use the most? Favorite gadget?
My favorite gadget is my own chi. I work a lot with my hands, I always do some amount of acupressure massage work together with acupuncture. Its all different forms of Qi-Gong, it's all about stimulating chi and addressing chi and balances. All of my techniques and tools I use are based on that, trying to diagnose chi and balances, and then trying to address them. It's one skill to find problem spots and therapeutic points in the body; it's another to know what to do with them. They are related skills, but they are not entirely one and the same. I believe less is more, that using subtle techniques and not over-treating, not trying to do too much all at once, to learn the skills is the best approach. Trust your instincts and let the treatment do its thing. We're talking about stimulating self healing, and a lot of healing of chronic problems is going to have a delayed effect and a cumulative affect. We have short, medium and long range healing. The long range is the type of service that people get the least of. We have the potential to work on that level of long-term healing, I try to encourage my patients to avail themselves to.
What are some common myths about the acupuncture/Chinese medicine profession?
One of the myths among the public is that people have to be Chinese to do it. I always ask people "Have you ever been to an Asian medical doctor?" They didn't have to be Caucasian to learn western medicine, and you don't have to be Oriental to learn Chinese medicine.
What are your pet peeves as an acupuncture/Chinese medicine physician?
My biggest is not really a complaint, it's just a disappointment. We haven't done enough to educate the public. We are the authorities in this field and we have the responsibility to let people know what it is. What you commonly heard 15 to 20 years ago was people didn't want to market their services. The common philosophy was if we just learn our art and craft, and help people, it will spread by itself. It comes from a good place, but there's nothing at all wrong with being more actively involved in getting that good news spread and helping people. My biggest disappointment is that the profession has not yet taken on that task squarely. Individuals can do their part, but as a profession we could see tremendous growth of interest and use of this field if our institutions and orgs were to start do public efforts. It takes both, individuals working with their patients plus the profession as a whole reaching out to the public.
Best patient care tip for a novice?
Treat people the way you would like to be treated.
Can you describe a patient care anecdote that typifies your role as an acupuncturist?
A patient came to me for low back pain. As I was taking the history, I asked if there were any other problems, and was told there was some pain in the shoulder, but "I'm really only here for my back." Anything else? "Well, once in a while there's some pain in my neck, but I'm here for my back, that's the thing that concerns me." I treated the patient four or five times and noticed he was moving up and down off the table. But when I asked how he was feeling, he said "I'm still in pain." So I said "the back still really hurting you?" The answer was "The back? The back is better but the shoulder is really bothering me, no better." A couple more treatments and I get the report that he is still in a lot of pain. "So the shoulder is not responding?" I ask. The answer was "Oh, the shoulder? It's a lot better, but the neck is bothering me."
One thing I would tell people, I don't think its people's poor attitudes, its part of the survival of the fittest instinct phenomena. Your focus automatically goes to the next problem, you don't think about what has been resolved. Don't just ask people how they are doing, break it down, and hold a mirror up to them, so they can see if they are getting better. This is natural healing, it often happens so subtly. They don't feel anything mystical happening to them, their problems just start to fade away. It's helpful to help patients understand how it works.
Do you feel that is important for someone to be passionate about acupuncture/Chinese medicine in order to be successful in the field?
It's important to be sincere: sincere with other people, but especially sincere with yourself about what your passions really are. If you sincerely want to help people with health and emotional and other types of problems, then you are in the best field possible.
Tell us about your acupuncture/Chinese medicine education. How did you choose to attend Yuin University?
I had been looking for a school, and I was taking care of my son, who had some handicaps. When he was well enough to start pre-school, that's when I decided to get into my more chosen field. Most of the acupuncture schools were a distance a way from me, and had evening classes. I had read an article about an acupuncture school that had opened in a town a few miles from me, I went to check it out and I was sitting in class the next day. They had daytime hours, so it worked out for me. Its one of those things, if the school hadn't have opened nearby, who knows what would have happened.
I personally had a good educational experience, especially going back more than 20 years ago; at that time, if you could get 15 students together, you had a school. Mine was one of those. I had a lot of good instructors, and I actually came away from it with a good learners permit, so to speak. I had a good experience in that we had some very good teachers that saw I had a family to support and that I was very serious about my new career. The teachers gave me some good experience as well as the theoretical training.
What did you like and dislike about your education?
What I liked about it was that we had really good teachers.
Dislike, it was a new school and they were feeling their way along trying to learn what the state required, and how to make it work. It was mainly administrative problems. I didn't really form any kind of lasting bonds with fellow students. But I think that was just an unusual circumstance. It was the strangest things, I was the only non-Iranian student in my class, they were all from Iran. It's a strange and long story, but the students in my class weren't the most serious students, a lot of them were there because their parents wanted them to have some kind of training for a profession, but they weren't really people that were all that serious about oriental medicine, though some of them were. I was the only one that passed the licensing exam on the first try
In retrospect, what do you know now, that you wish you knew before you pursued your education?
It probably would have served me better to look toward one of those schools that were a more stable school that had students with like minds that I could have formed some bonds with. It is useful to students to look at alumni situations, and at what schools do in supporting their students and what kind of networking opportunities are available for graduates.
How do you feel that the acupuncture/Chinese medicine educational system could be changed to better serve society?
I think we have way too many acupuncture schools; we have to whittle it down to a number of truly outstanding schools. It will allow the schools to have more resources to grow into something that is more approaching medical universities. Eventually we need to weed out the underperforming schools and develop ones that everybody can be proud of. There are schools developing the infrastructure that are the type we are looking for, that aren't just small proprietary schools. When I went to school 20 years ago, it wasn't even a bachelor's program, it was just a kind of vocational school that prepared students for the state licensing requirements.
Schools should be involved in public outreach, pubic education, and I would like to see the schools working with the profession as a whole to help educate the public. Unlike our professional associations, which are very limited in their resources, some of the schools have financial resources that are well beyond what the professional associations have. The schools should be working with the associations to do pubic outreach and education. That would benefit the public as well as their graduates and future graduates. That would benefit prospective students and the public as a whole.
I would also like to see more studies and data; we don't really know what is going on in the job markets for licensed acupuncturists. What do acupuncturists make? What's the story out there for people entering the field? There's no reliable statistics at all. That's something the schools could help to fund. It may be that some of them don't want to know, that information might not be that rosy a picture. In most fields, when you enter a school to go into difficult and time-consuming and costly training with the idea of coming out of a new profession that you are going to devote the rest of your working life to, usually you have some kind of reliable ballpark of what your job and wage earning prospects will be like. I don't think anyone can say we have that in our fields; it's another growing pain challenge.
I always tell prospective students if they're looking for a good salaried job they can make a good wage in the healthcare field and have real job security, if that's their main goal, then this might not be the field for them. But if the main goal is that you really want to help people in a safe way and to provide a needed service to people then I don't think you can do better.
What other advice can you give to prospective students thinking about an education and career in the acupuncture/Chinese medicine field?
This is about balancing and harmonizing chi and it's like physician, heal thyself. Practitioners of this system should really be working on themselves, through practicing something like Qi-Gong or tai chi, we should practice what we preach, and studying the philosophy is part of that. Don't just look at it as a technical skill, but as a lifestyle, and not just a lifestyle to recommend to patients, but to experience and grow with yourself and you'll be in a better position to help others.
How can the reality of acupuncture as a career differ from typical expectations?
As great of a service this healing field is, the greatest challenges are going to come when others start to try to get a piece of the action. I see some threats in the future from those who say they do acupuncture but who come at it from a difference perspective. It used to be 20-25 years ago, the problem was that conventional medicine thought this was worthless. I believed for a long time the real problem was going to be when they decided that it was worthwhile, and I think that's happening. There is getting to be more and more support for the practice of acupuncture, that it has real clinical significance. What we're starting to see is in the conventional Western medicine is acceptance of acupuncture but not necessarily of the traditional tenets behind the practice, the idea of chi flow and meridians. There is the beginning of a new kind of acupuncture biased on Western scientific ideas, neuro chemical transmitters and nerve points … if that really catches on and the physicians in the tens of thousands start to practice this new kind of acupuncture, it might be a threat to the traditional ideas that are taught in all of our schools. All of our exams are based off of a variation of traditional Chinese medicine.
If the other health care practitioners decide acupuncture itself, sticking needles in people is good and has value, but you don't have to learn all those superstitious ideas about chi and yin and yang, here's other ways to do it with a basis in western anatomy, then the public will really start to be confused. That is something we need to be concerned about. I would encourage students to get involved with student associations and work through professional associations.
What topics are emerging as hot issues in the overall healthcare field that will impact the acupuncture/Chinese medicine profession?
Eventually it might start to sink into people that there are two types of healthcare approaches, one where we take over for the body and intervene from the outside in, and the other where we help the body to heal itself. That's what acupuncture does, and that's where the future of medicine should be going. I think it will we'll see more of that; helping the body to heal itself isn't something we've been doing in modern medicine. The body produces its own medicine. We don't always have to bring in medicine from the outside. Let's stimulate the body to heal itself. Who's going to be doing it, who are they going to be describing it and how will they present themselves is the hot topic.
What are the best ways to land a job in the field of acupuncture/Chinese medicine?
Unlike something like if you become a physical therapist or respiratory therapist or something like that, you can open the classifieds of any major city newspaper and you can find help wanted ads for these types of jobs. In the acupuncture Chinese medical profession, there aren't lots of jobs available for you to get hired on somewhere. You kind of have to make it happen yourself, whether it's going into a team setting in an established practice with an MD, Chiropractor or other acupuncturists, or going out and leasing an office and putting out a shingle, trying to get patients in the door. Most of those opportunities are opportunities the practitioners themselves have to generate; they're not just applying for positions.
How available are internships or other hands-on learning experiences?
If you compare the education we get in this country to what may happen in the Far East, especially China, that's an area where we are lacking. That's an important thing students should look at in the schools. What do they do for the hands on experiences? Do they have enough patients for the students to work on? In a lot of ways, students in the U.S. may get even a better and broader theoretical training than they would get in China, but not as good hands on training.
How has the popularity of the Internet affected your profession?
It's giving us a lot more information at our fingertips, different marketing potential, databases to help the public locate an acupuncturist. As far as individual practices go, some offices are taking advantage of the Internet to market their services.
Is there anything else you can tell us about yourself, your career, or the profession that would be interesting or helpful to others aspiring to succeed in the field of acupuncture/Chinese medicine care?
I think that I would really encourage us to mend whatever fences we could professionally; there have been differences of opinion among the associations, organizations and institutions that have sprung up in our field. The acupuncture profession in this country has accomplished amazing thing to develop a profession from scratch in 30 years. It really remarkable, but I wish we could do more to get together on the things we do agree on, which is sharing what we are to more people as a valuable health resource.
There are really challenges. Its naiveté to believe that our futures are ensured by virtue of the valuable things we are bringing forward. It takes more than that, cooperation, vision to look to into the future to see where opportunities and challenges are to deal with those, I thing there s more potential threats to the viability of our healing art to those who would look to take over this system than to deny its viability. We have a lot of work to do as far as coming as much together was we can to help protect a 3,000-year plus healing art.
Editor's note: : To learn more about Mr. Bauer or his book please check out his website Matthew D. Bauer - L.Ac. and Author of "The Healing Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture; A Complete Guide to Timeless Traditions and Modern Practice". If you would like to follow up with Mr. Bauer personally about this interview or the field of acupuncture, click here.