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It turns out that Mitt Romney and Tom Reed (R, NY-23) have more in common than mere party affiliation. Both Romney and Reed are more interested in outsourcing American jobs than creating the kind of good jobs once helped to build and sustain the middle-class. Instead, Romney and Reed both support policies that result in more stories like what's happening at the Sensata factory in Freeport, IL. That makes Romney wrong for America, and make Tom Reed a big zero for the middle class.
By now, it's a well-known story from Romney's vulture capitalist days: Under Mitt Romney's leadership, Bain Capital invested invested in companies that moved jobs overseas. In fact, Bain invested in firms that pioneered high-tech outsourcing.
Yesterday, Leo Gerard explained that outsourcing and stories like Sensata are the reason Romney's wrong for America.
Every day President Obama reads and responds to letters from citizens. This illustrates his basic philosophy: people first.
By contrast, for Mitt Romney, profit is the priority. He hasn't responded to any of the letters sent to him by workers at Sensata Technologies, a car sensor manufacturer in Freeport, Ill. owned by Bain Capital. Romney doesn't run Bain anymore, but he still reaps millions from the strip-and-flip firm each year. The Sensata workers want Romney to intervene with Bain and stop it from shipping their jobs to China. He won't. Because the bottom line is that profit is more important to Romney than people.
Ziad Jilani at The Daily Change also explained yesterday that Tom Reed (R,NY-23) was recently honored by a major pro-outsourcing group.
Outsourcing is a huge problem in the United States, and that's due to government policies like so-called free trade agreements. New York congressman Tom Reed (R-NY) has been a proponent of these job-killing deals, and voted for new agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. Those agreements are expected to cost America at least 214,000 jobs.
One of the corporate lobbying groups that pushes for these agreements is the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Yesterday, NAM honored Reed with an award for voting at least 70 percent of the time with the group. Watch a local news report about the award:
Reed told the press that NAM is a great organization that stands up for manufacturing jobs. But NAM doesn't represent manufacturing workers, it represents manufacturing corporations, who have been sending jobs overseas to poorly-paid foreign workers.
The National Association of Manufacturers is an example of classic "Drop Dead Conservatism" at its Orwellian best. The name sounds great, but NAM is little more than a GOP front group, as David Sirota pointed, that "purports to represent America's domestic industrial manufacturers," for years has been less interested in representing its members than in representing the interests of industrial corporations.
NAM has a track record of opposing job initiatives designed to keep American jobs at home — like the"Bring Jobs Home Act" and the "Call Center Bill" — and supporting trade agreements that maintain incentives for corporations to outsource American jobs — like the South Korea Trade Agreement that Tom Reed supported, as I noted last week.
The kind of policies that NAM honored Tom Reed for supporting — and that Mitt Romney invested in, pioneered, and profited from — can only lead to more stories like Sensata. And we go back to Leo Gerard:
Its highly profitable, not some failing enterprise limping overseas for cheap labor, tax breaks and lax environmental laws. Bain cant claim that excessively high American payroll costs are forcing it to move to China because Sensata is making money hand over fist while paying decent middle class wages.
Bain transported its new Chinese workers to Illinois and ordered its American employees, some of whom have devoted more than 40 years to the company, to suffer the humiliation of training their replacements. One hundred and seventy middle class Sensata workers will lose their jobs by years end. The community will lose a major employer as well as the tax revenue it received from the company and the workers. The state will suffer the same losses.
Mary Kerr, who worked at Sensata for six years and whose husband also worked there, told the Sun Chronicle newspaper:
We only want to make a living and pay our bills, just like everyone else does. They're not moving our jobs because they're losing money. They want to make an extra dollar.
That's exactly right. Obviously Bain believes it will make even more money by transferring American manufacturing and American jobs to China. It has no allegiance to the United States or to American workers; just to money. It got that philosophy from its founding father Mitt Romney. The Republican presidential nominee also stands to gain because under his retirement agreement with Bain, when it makes more money, he makes more money.
To Romney, and the creature he created Bain Capital its all about profit. Workers be damned.
During the second presidential debate, Mitt Romney — the Man From Bain — cited his vulture capitalist resume during the second presidentian debate, as his primary qualification for the presidency:
I know what it takes to create good jobs again. I know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity you deserve. And kids across this country are going to recognize, we're bringing back an economy.
Tom Reed, after at least one "trade mission" on South Korea's dime, touted as "job creators" free trade deals that encourage outsourcing, and joined 89 House freshmen shrugged off "tea party populism" to support those deals.
Reed and Romney both say they know how to create "good jobs," but they are united behind an agenda that will ultimately result in more stories like Sensata.
Campaign for America's Future is running an ad campaign which tells voters about vulnerable Representatives who have low ratings in the Middle Class Voter Guide. You can contribute to the campaign by clicking here.
Reed is running for re-election in a newly redrawn district. Democratic challenger Nate Shingawa is running on an agenda of economic fairness. Recent polls show the race has tightened, and Shingawa is now "within striking distance" of Reed.


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by Wesley Ratko
BigBelly solar compactors are coming to Chestnut Hill.
The Chestnut Hill Community Association's board of directors voted Thursday night to accept 15 solar compactors and seven recycle bins from the city for placement along Germantown Avenue.
The vote was met by cheers and applause from members of the public in attendance to support the measure. Specific locations for the BigBellies will be determined by a special committee within 45 days.
The approved motion accepts the Streets Department's offer to place the BigBellies along Germantown Avenue, from south of Southampton Avenue down to the bottom of the hill, with the exception of one receptacle placed in front of the J.S. Jenks Elementary School.
Exact locations of the BigBellies will be determined by a committee whose membership will consist of two members of the board of directors appointed by the CHCA president (appointees Richard Snowden and Jennifer Hawk) and two members of the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee. The committee is directed to report its recommendations to the Streets Department within 45 days.
The motion also prohibits either advertising or decorative wraps on any of the BigBellies.
Support for the receptacles was not unanimous. Vocal opposition came from representatives of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and Bowman Properties president Richard Snowden.
"My concern was less about their being ugly – they are – and more concern about the scale of them relative to our buildings," Snowden said.
He said he had observed BigBelly units in Center City that appeared smaller than the unit placed in front of the Night Kitchen Bakery last winter and wondered why Chestnut Hill couldn't have smaller ones.
"I would be completely opposed to them if they appeared above the John Jenks School," he added.
Frank Niepold, a representative from the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, read from a prepared statement that expressed concern that the impact of the BigBellies on the streetscape – the size and scale of them – would be detrimental to the historic character of the Avenue. He stressed that "the small-scale streets, unique architecture, and natural environment make it different than other parts of the city."
His statement acknowledged that the goals of the BigBelly receptacles are laudable and that they supported any strategy that lowers costs to the city.
"We're excited by it – we all pay taxes," he said.
"The idea of it being the basis of billboards sends a chill right up my back," he told the board. "The flat surfaces will attract graffiti and posters. Our position is the size and scale of the receptacles are not appropriate for the Avenue."
Historical Society president Jennifer Hawk has presented similar arguments before.
The validity of those arguments came into question when Amy Edelman, president and co-founder of Green in Chestnut Hill, introduced a memo from Walter Gallas, Northeast Field Office Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
While the Gallas memo stated that the National Trust for Historic Preservation "has no official position specific to BigBelly solar trash compactors," it noted that the receptacles were not affixed to buildings and were not permanently anchored, allowing for their removal at any time in the future. The memo also indicated that clean streets and sidewalks is in the interest of the entire community and that "this solution seems to be a reasonable one that ties nicely with the city's efforts to encourage and model sustainable practices."
Edelman also indicated that she had collected more than 400 signatures over the course of five weeks from business owners up and down the hill in favor of the BigBellies.
Scott McGrath, representing the Philadelphia Streets Department, took questions from board members about the useful life of the cans, who would be responsible for replacing them should they break down and the extent to which people were using them in other areas of the city in which they are deployed. McGrath told the committee that the service life of the cans is approximately six years, that the city will replace them should they break and that they are being used all over the city.
Ken Weinstein, owner of the Trolley Car Diner, at 7916 Germantown Ave., praised the cans. He explained that two employees who used to collect trash along the Avenue in front of the diner could now be redeployed for other work, such as maintenance of the planters outside the diner. He added that he's had no issues with graffiti or other defacement.
"People are very happy with these cans," he told the board.
CHCA board president Jane Piotrowski asked the public whether anyone present was against the cans, she received no response.
Physical Division
Bob Rossman, a representative of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, was confirmed as the new vice president of the Physical Division, correcting a previous oversight that elected the former vice president Lou Aiello to more terms than permitted by the by-laws. Rossman said he was looking forward to serving.
"The Physical Division is vital to what we do as an organization," he said.
He added his recommendation that board members make an effort to attend one of the CHCA subcommittees from time to time to remain informed about major projects coming before the board. He lauded the process of the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee, praising the professional efforts of its membership and the work they do.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bowfishers, take notice: the redesigned 2015 GRIZZLY 1860 MVX Sportsman is equipped to make your next hunt on the water the best ever!
The elevated forecastle sports a larger, raised deck surface for easier shots, a sturdy railing so you can shoot closer to the edge, 2 removable low-back pro pedestal seats, and a rail-mounted bow and drink holder. 7 intense LED lights attract and illuminate your prey, and an easy-access trolling motor hatch lets you move the boat easily. The elevated position gives you a more advantageous angle on longer shots, improving accuracy and visibility. And the shooting deck is removable, making the 1860 MVX Sportsman a great waterfowling or fishing boat, too.
In the substructure you'll find incredible strength and rigidity built in—a bow-to-stern, welded-in longitudinal stringer system unitizes the hull and the box-beam, all-aluminum, corner-braced transom. The new .190 gauge floor covers an underfloor raceway for electric runs, and the new welded-in, foam-filled interior side walls provide a quieter ride and added structural strength.
Standard benefits include our VERSATRACK® accessory mounting channel in gunnel, an ultra-durable Forest Green powder-coat finish (or optional Woodland or Grassland camo at an extra charge), fore and aft pedestal base locations, utility cleats, a built-in fuel tank, and a 5-year hull warranty. A 40-horsepower Mercury® ELPT FourStroke EFI comes standard, and it rides on a custom-matched trailer with GALVASHIELD® protection and Super Lube hubs.
So if you're in the market for the ultimate bowfishing machine, check out the 1860 MVX Sportsman. It's loaded with everything you and your buddies need to stick the biggest trophy yet.
This ad has been viewed 244 times.


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Flood-related resources:
How to help victims of the flood
Complete coverage:
The flood waters that made much of Boulder County and the Front Range impassable Thursday night have left behind scoured embankments, undercut bridges and buckled pavement that will take days to assess and longer to repair.
City, county and state transportation officials asked people to drive only when absolutely necessary and to respect road closures even in areas that appear dry and passable.
"Even though a road may look safe and dry, there are a variety of things that can be going on underneath the road, whether it's the structure of the road, utilities, water, wastewater, gas," said city spokesman Mike Banuelos. "There are a lot of things we are still assessing, and the event is still ongoing."
The capacity to get crews out to assess and repair road damage has been limited by the extent of damage and the ongoing rescue effort, which made it difficult to get around the county.
There was also the knowledge that yet more rain was expected to fall during the weekend on already sodden ground.
"We are just as vulnerable today as we were yesterday," Banuelos said Friday afternoon.
Boulder County spokeswoman Barb Halpin said one of the helicopters that went up Friday was dedicated to assessing the damage and taking detailed notes for crews to use in targeting resources at the hardest hit areas.
The county will do everything it can to keep Sunshine Canyon open, as it sustained the least damage and is currently the only east-west route connecting Peak-to-Peak Highway with Foothills Parkway, Halpin said.
"I can say there are a lot of infrastructure problems," Halpin said. "It will take some time to assess it all. But most of these roads are closed because somewhere along the line, the road is washed away. It's not a matter of 'we could clear this rubble and make it okay.'"
Colin Haggerty, immediate past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Denver-based water resources engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff, said the damage from a rain event of this massive scale could have been even worse without the last half-century of flood control and drainage improvements throughout the Denver area Urban Drainage and Flood Control District.
Boulder lies within that district and has benefited from its infrastructure investments, while hard-hit mountain towns like Lyons lie outside it.
Roads turned into rivers
Flood waters can damage a road in a variety of ways, Haggerty said.
Running water over a road surface can soak into the porous asphalt. Then it can carry away the sand and fine material that lie under the road. That leaves the larger material with nothing to hold it in place and it gets carried away too.
That process creates the conditions for sinkholes and buckling, and that's what happened in three areas that Boulder officials are most concerned about: 7th Street near University Avenue, Table Mesa near Broadway and the 200 block of Arapahoe. All those roads turned into rivers during the flooding.
As can be seen in many pictures of flood damaged roads, running flood waters can also scour the sides of embankments, destabilizing bridges and roads that run alongside creeks, Haggerty said.
Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Amy Ford said assessing hundreds of bridges on flood-damaged or adjacent roadways is a top priority for the state. Hundreds of workers are spreading across the affected area to assess the safety of bridges over the next several days.
Ford warned that the process will "not be quick" and asked for patience and caution from drivers.
"The roadway may look okay but there could be scour under bridges or other structural issues," Ford said. "We are going to be out for several days assessing the quality and stability of those roads. Some of these road closures will remain in place until we are absolutely sure
"The road might appear passable," she added, "but if it has been near a water source or runoff, please be very careful."
Banuelos said that as of Friday afternoon, the city does not believe any bridges are compromised.
At least two bridges in Louisville — one on County Road near Louisville Community Park and one in the county on Empire Road are completely washed away.
The Dillon Road bridge over Coal Creek in Louisville suffered damage, but a structural engineer said it was safe to use.
Louisville suffered other infrastructure damage, including extensive damage to the Coal Creek Trail, to the golf course and to several water lines, though they have been isolated and city water is safe to drink.
Most roads are designed for 10– or 20-year rain events because it's simply too expensive to design every road for a 50– or 100-year rain event, Haggerty said.
He said the extent of the damage from this week's storms dwarfs anything in Colorado history.
Some roads needing to be completely rebuilt
"I don't know that we've seen an event like this in this region before," he said. "The Big Thompson Flood (of 1976) is considered the flood of record, but that was concentrated in a single area. That this has hit the entire region, it's going to be a huge undertaking not just for CDOT but for all the jurisdictions. Where do you even start?"
Many roads will have to be completely rebuilt, and that will take time, he said.
"There is not a quick fix for a roadway," he said. "It is a full system that needs to be reconstructed. You can't just put down pavement."
Along with the road reconstruction, Haggerty said weaknesses and potential improvements to regional flood control systems need to be identified.
In addition, much of the infrastructure dates from the 1950s through the 1970s and needs to be repaired or even replaced.
"If we want to live in a society that is safe, we need to invest in our infrastructure and our services," he said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Two courses, two wines for $22 at Niche
Niche Kitchen & Bar, 5954 Carolina Beach Road in Wilmington, has a midweek menu, dubbed 4 Deuces, that offers two courses paired with two wines, all for $22. It's available 4-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Items are different every week. Previous offerings include marinated mozzarella salad and Chicken Milanese, Thai Shrimp with coconut risotto cake and farfalle alla funghi with roast chicken and rosemary, and Osso Buco pork ribs with risotto alla Milanese.


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Although software resetter for Canon iP1980 or canon iP1900 series not available now. Doesn't mean there is no way to reset the printer. To reset Waste Ink Tank canon iP1980 or iP1900 series follow this steps:
- Press Resume button hold for 1 – 2 minutes
- Open the cover
- Release the catridge and then put catridge again
- Close The Cover
- Turn Off
- Then Turn On again
Or try these methode :
- USE GENERAL TOOL http://www.ziddu.com/download/3063183/GeneralToolsforCanonPixmaip1880-xp.rar.html
- CHANGE USB PORT change into CANON PORT
- Click lock release
- Click ip1800
- Click device id
- Clear waste ink counter by clicking MAIN & PLATEN
- Check EEPROM Box
- Click EEPROM Dump
- Test pattern 1
- Your Done…
Read More...


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Linux in 2011: What a Great Year
After 20 years, Linux continues to move forward.
2011 was another strong year for Linux as new kernels and distributions continued to advance the state of Linux. It was also a year of challenges as the kernel development community grappled with a security breach at kernel.org, and desktop users cringed as the GNOME Shell and Unity interfaces challenged normal usage paradigms.
The Linux Kernel
2011 was a most impressive year of kernel development for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the end of the 2.x series and the debut of Linux 3.x.
Linux 3.1
The Linux 3.1 kernel was released in October. Among the noteworthy additions in that kernel was a fix that lets applications see it as a 2.6.x kernel. This means the 3.1 kernel actually also can be seen as Linux 2.6.41.
"This patch adds a UNAME26 personality that makes the kernel report a 2.6.40+x version number instead," kernel developer Andi Kleen wrote in a git commit. "The x is the x in 3.x."
The 3.1 kernel was also a triumph in that its release was a proof point for the resilience of Linux kernel development. In late August, kernel.org was hacked. In response, the main Linux repositories were offline for more than a month. Linus Torvalds moved his tree over to Github and development on the 3.1 kernel continues without any significant delay.
Linux 3.0
There had been some limited talk in recent years about advancing the number for the Linux kernel. After all, the Linux 2.6 kernel came out all the way back in December 2003. The Linux 3.0 release came in July to coincide with 20th anniversary of Linux.
"There are no special landmark features or incompatibilities related to the version number change, it's simply a way to drop an inconvenient numbering system in honor of twenty years of Linux," Torvalds wrote in a mailing list posting.
The Linux 3.0 kernel also marked the entry of the Xen hypervisor into the mainline kernel, after years of being on the outside.
Linux 2.6.39
The 2.6.39 kernel came out in May. The 2.6.39 was the release that finally eliminated the last elements of the big kernel lock, freeing up performance. Linux 2.6.39 also benefited from a new block device plugging model, which provides a per-thread approach that improved performance.
Linux 2.6.38
The Linux 2.6.38 kernel came out in March. Among the big new innovations is something known as Transparent Hugepages.
With Transparent Huge Pages (THP), memory allocations for processor use grew from 4 KB in size to 2 MB.
Linux 2.6.37
The year began with the 2.6.37 kernel back in January. The 2.6.37 kernel was also a performance win for Linux thanks in part to the retry page fault when blocking on disk transfer patch, which was authored by Google developer Michel Lespinasse. According to Lespinasse, with the patch, a read access that used to perform at 55 iterations per second will now perform at 15,000 iterations per second, with the patch installed.
Ubuntu had two release in 2011, though the 11.04 release which introduced the Unity desktop was perhaps the most disruptive. Ubuntu 11.04, the Natty Narwhal debuted in April. The 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release, which came out in October was noteworthy for its cloud technologies, including Juju for orchestration and OpenStack as the foundation.
The Red Hat sponsored Fedora Linux project came out with Fedora 16 and 15 during the year. Again, the big shift came in the desktop, this time with debut of GNOME 3 in Fedora 15 in May, providing the new GNOME Shell interface to users.
The challenges and criticisms that users leveled against both the new interfaces gave rise to the popularity of Linux Mint during 2011.
From a corporate perspective, 2011 also ushered in the return of SUSE Linux as its own business unit, separate from Novell. Attachmate acquired Novell for $2.2 billion and spun out SUSE as its own unit.
Linux at 20
2011 was a year of change and growth for Linux. That's a good thing. During 2011, the Linux Planet celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of Linux. Linus Torvalds' "hobby" has turned into one of greatest success stories in the history of technology.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals.


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You are here
Position Statement 15: Parity in Health Insurance
All people in America should have a right to health-care benefits, including needed behavioral health services. Mental Health America (MHA) calls on the federal and state governments to ensure, as a matter of law, that public and private health plans afford people access to needed behavioral health care and treatment on the same terms as surgical and other medical care. Such services should be subject to the same terms and conditions as care and treatment for any other condition, without regard to diagnosis, severity, or cause.
Mental health is essential to leading a healthy life and to the development and realization of every person's full potential. Yet mental illnesses and substance-use disorders are leading causes of disability and premature mortality in the United States. As the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health observed in its final report,[1] mental disorders are "shockingly common." Most people are affected in some way by mental illness, and almost half (47.4%) will be diagnosed with a mental health condition at some point in their lives.[2]
With striking scientific advances over the last half century, behavioral health problems are now reliably diagnosed, and there is a range of treatments for virtually every disorder. Those treatments have efficacy rates comparable to or exceeding those for many medical and surgical conditions. Yet all too often people with diagnosable mental disorders do not seek treatment. "Concerns about the cost of care – concerns made worse by the disparity in insurance coverage for mental disorders in contrast to other illnesses – are among the foremost reasons why people do not seek needed mental health care," the Surgeon General observed in his landmark 1999 report on mental health.[3]
The longstanding practice of providing unequal coverage for behavioral health and other medical care not only limits access to needed care, but subjects many Americans to the risk of major financial losses from out-of-pocket costs. At the most profound level, these practices reinforce the poisonous stigma underlying disparate treatment of "others." That disparate coverage of behavioral health should be routine, and that discrimination against people with or at risk of behavioral health disorders should be lawful, is not only morally offensive in itself, but fosters a climate that tolerates and even encourages other forms of discrimination and weakens the fabric of equal-opportunity laws.
No rational basis supports these discriminatory health-insurance practices, which have drawn criticism from voices ranging from former President George W. Bush to Fortune 500 chief executive officers.[4] A landmark report by the National Business Group on Health recommended that employers equalize their medical and behavioral benefit structures given evidence that parity yields significant clinical benefit without increasing overall healthcare costs.[5]
The Parity Act
Congress took the decisive step toward ending discriminatory insurance practices when it enacted the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 ("MHPAEA" or "Parity Act"), a federal law that generally prevents group health plans and health insurance issuers that provide mental health or substance use disorder benefits from imposing less favorable limitations on those benefits than on medical/surgical benefits.
The Parity Act originally applied to group health plans and group health insurance coverage and was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively referred to as the "Affordable Care Act") to also apply to individual health insurance coverage, and the new health insurance policies issued through the insurance marketplaces and Medicaid expansion plans all require mental health and substance use benefits to be offered at parity with general health benefits. HHS has jurisdiction over public sector group health plans while the Departments of Labor and the Treasury have jurisdiction over private group health plans.
The Parity Act established the principle that there should be no disparity in health insurance between mental-health and general medical benefits. However, as the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported in reviewing the Parity Act's implementation, the vast majority of employers it surveyed substituted new restrictions and limitations on mental health benefits, thereby evading the spirit of the law.[6] As GAO documented, employers routinely limited mental health benefits more severely than medical and surgical coverage, most often by restricting the number of covered outpatient visits and hospital days, and by imposing far higher cost-sharing requirements.[7]
State Parity Laws
Most states have adopted laws requiring parity between mental health and general health benefits in group health insurance. But those state laws vary widely in scope, and, under federal law, do not govern the health plans of the many employers who elect to self-insure.[8] Facing opposition to parity proposals, state legislators have generally limited the scope of such measures and provided parity protection to only certain populations. Sound public policy aimed at achieving fairness is certainly not realized, however, when the law affords fair and equal treatment to some and not others. Mental Health America, therefore, does not support enactment of legislation that limits parity protection only to individuals who have specified diagnoses.[9] However, state parity laws can be of enormous assistance in getting state insurance commissioners to take on parity as an issue, and all but five insurance commissioners are now enforcing the Parity Act.
Those opposing parity asserted that it would add to the cost of health care. But as the National Business Group on Health observed in its employer's guide to behavioral health services, a number of parity studies have found that equalizing specialty behavioral health and general medical benefits either will not increase total healthcare expenses at all or will increase them by only a very modest amount of total healthcare premium.[10] The real cost lies in not treating behavioral health disorders. As the National Business Group noted, the indirect costs associated with mental illness and substance-use disorders – excess turnover, lost productivity, absenteeism and disability – commonly meet or exceed the direct treatment costs, and have been estimated to be as high as $105 billion annually.
Against this background, the current debate concerns the regulations and litigation that will define the implementation and enforcement of parity, including changes to the mental health and substance use treatment landscape that may result from coverage at parity with medical/surgical benefits.
Interim Regulations and Litigation Issues
The interim regulations (IR) for the Parity Act were approved effective in July, 2010 and passed an initial court test. Despite the judge's assurance of prompt action by the administration, the final rule (FR) was not released for more than 3 years, meaning that the first tests of the law's ability to ensure equal coverage for behavioral health and general health conditions relied upon the interim regulations. Generally, mental health advocacy organizations have been supportive of the interim regulations, but insurers have objected. These concerns continue to be voiced as objections to the FR.
In addition to the classification of the six benefits to which parity will be applied, the major issues with the interim and final regulations are non-quantitative treatment limitations (defined below) and the potential that parity may result in expansion of care in more restrictive settings. And coverage issues are being litigated that will spur further controversy.
- Six Classifications: The IR clarified that the parity requirements will be applied against "substantially all" medical/surgical benefits in six classification areas, which continue to be the core of parity regulation under the FR. Those six classifications are: inpatient/in-network, inpatient/out-of-network, outpatient/in-network, outpatient/out-of-network, emergency department, and prescription drugs. Plans offering mental health and substance use coverage must provide parity in all classification areas where medical/surgical benefits are offered.
- Quantitative v. Non-quantitative Treatment Limitations: The IR distinguished between quantitative and non-quantitative treatment limitations. Quantitative treatment limitations include frequency of treatment, number of visits, and days of coverage, and must be at parity with substantially all medical/surgical benefits. The Departments give separate guidance with examples of parity with medical/surgical benefits for non-quantitative treatment limitations like medical management and utilization management.
- The opposition (Chamber of Commerce) response is: "One of the most unexpected requirements of the [IR] is the requirement for parity for non-quantitative treatment limits. MHPAEA explicitly imposes parity requirements with respect to treatment limitations and financial requirements, as well as out-of-network coverage. The Act does not, however, expressly extend parity requirements to medical management techniques. In fact, the Act includes a rule of construction that states that nothing shall be construed as affecting the terms and conditions of the plan or coverage to the extent that the plan terms and conditions do not conflict with the Act's parity requirements. ERISA § 712(b). Since there is no explicit parity requirement for medical management in the Act, none should be implied in regulatory guidance by the Agencies."[11]
- Deductibles: Under the IR and the FR, mental health and substance use benefits and medical/surgical benefits have combined deductibles and combined financial restrictions and quantitative treatment limitations.
- Mental Health as a Non-specialty: Under the IR and the FR, mental health and substance use benefits are not a specialty, and are administered in parity with the medical/surgical non-specialty benefits offered by an insurance plan.
- Residential Care for Eating Disorders: Studies thus far support the affordability of parity, and business support was and is premised on them.[12] But to the extent that parity drives residential rather than outpatient, community-based care, parity may have an unanticipated cost. The first court tests of parity laws have come in cases challenging denial of coverage for residential care, and the first major appellate case concerned eating disorders.
- California decision: That case, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Harlick v. Blue Shield of California, 686 F.3d 699 (9th Cir. 2012),[13] required reimbursement for residential care for anorexia under California's state parity statute, and inspired a new round of controversy about expansion of benefits. The court ruled that:
"Some medically necessary treatments for severe mental illness have no analog in treatments for physical illnesses. For example, it makes no sense in a case such as Harlick's to pay for 100 days in a skilled nursing facility — which cannot effectively treat her anorexia nervosa — but not to pay for time in a residential treatment facility that specializes in treating eating disorders."
Reporting on the decision, the New York Times concluded that:
The insurers consider residential treatments not only costly — sometimes reaching more than $1,000 a day — but unproven and more akin to education than to medicine. Even some doctors who treat eating disorders concede there are few studies proving that residential care is effective, although they believe it has value.[14]
The Times continued:
Ira Burnim, legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which litigates for better mental health treatments, said that while he was not familiar with eating disorders, "study after study" had shown that residential centers for other mental or emotional disorders were not as effective as treatment at home.
Dr Anne E. Becker, president of the Academy of Eating Disorders and director of the eating disorders program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that despite a paucity of studies, "There's no question that residential treatment is life-saving for some patients."
Some insurers say that there is no treatment for physical illnesses that is equivalent to residential treatment for mental illnesses, and therefore residential treatment does not have to be paid for under parity laws.
Ms. Harlick's lawyer, Lisa S. Kantor, argued that residential treatment centers were equivalent to skilled nursing facilities, which Blue Shield did cover.
- New York Settlement: Similarly, on July 9, 2014, New York Attorney General Schneiderman announced a settlement with EmblemHealth and its behavioral health subsidiary, Value Options, for failure to provide residential treatment for eating and substance use disorders.[15] Community-based treatment of those conditions is favored as a matter of overall behavioral health policy. But it seems right that with a proper medical workup, residential care may be required for these conditions, and the medical necessity process should be the same as with skilled nursing care, at parity with general medical standards. Removing the requirement that members "fail" outpatient substance abuse treatment before receiving inpatient rehabilitation treatment, as provided by the Value Options settlement, thus seems appropriate.
This argument has just begun, and there are many more issues to come as the details of this important policy shift are worked through in individual cases. For example:
Rea et al. vs. Blue Shield Of California, 226 Cal App 4th 1209 (June 10, 2014) affirmed the Harlick result, mandating residential care for eating disorders despite a policy exclusion. The Court of Appeal held that the California Parity Act requires plans to provide coverage for all
medically necessary modalities of care for the mental conditions in the statute, although it stated that plans could apply "policy limits" to that coverage. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the Petition for Review, which is the last step in the appeal process.
MHA Comment Submitted: MHA's comments were submitted on April 29th, 2010, and are available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/1210-AB30-5102.pdf.
Final Rule Released
After considerable delays, the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services released the final rule (FR) on November 8, 2013. The FR went into effect on July 1, 2014. All insurance plans administered after July 1, 2014 must comply with the FR, and since most plans are renewed at the beginning of each year, most plans will need to comply with the final rule when renewed on January 1, 2015. MHA applauds the final rule. Achieving parity between mental health and substance use treatment and general health care is a goal for which MHA and its affiliates have been advocating for several decades.
The FR clarified several issues that had not been resolved with the release of the IR, which are covered below. Additionally, MHA has a few concerns regarding implementation that do not appear to have been addressed sufficiently in the FR and may require litigation and/or further guidance.
- Scope of Service. The IR outlined six classifications of benefits (identified above) that are required to be covered in any plan offering mental health and substance use treatment. The FR clarified that enumeration of these six types of benefits does not exclude coverage of intermediate levels of care (i.e., intensive outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment). The FR stated that the six classifications are broad categories, and within those categories, sub-categories and the intermediate services required to treat them must be covered in a comprehensive manner at parity with medical/surgical benefits. It is not sufficient for plans to offer one service in each of the six categories to be considered at parity. Examples given in the rule indicate that intermediate levels of care offered for medical/surgical treatment must have comparable coverage for mental health and substance use services.
- Non-Quantitative Treatment Limitations. The FR reiterates the important principle established by the IR that non-quantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) that are more stringent for mental health and substance use than for medical/surgical benefits are in violation of the law. The FR also reaffirms the requirement that medical necessity criteria (i.e., "the processes, strategies, evidentiary standards and other factors used by the plan or issuer to determine whether and to what extent a benefit is subject to an NQTL") are subject to parity. The FR did clarify or alter several assertions made in the IR regarding NQTLs.
- The FR did away with the IR's exemption that plans could apply more stringent limits to mental health and substance use treatment if a "recognized clinically appropriate standard of care" justified the difference.
- The FR clarified that restricting geographic location, facility type, or provider specialty are limitations in scope of service and constitute an NQTL, subject to parity.
- The FR confirmed that provider reimbursement rates are NQTLs, subject to parity. Plans can take into account various factors - service type, geographic market, supply of providers, licensure, etc. - when determining reimbursement, but that the determining factors must be equivalent for medical/surgical and mental health and substance use services.
- Under the FR, multiple provider network tiers are permitted, but tiered networks may not impose greater restrictions for mental health and substance use than for medical/surgical treatment.
- Similarly, under the FR, multi-tiered prescription drug programs are allowable but must be equivalent for mental health and substance use medications and medical/surgical medications.
- MHA Concern: Medical Necessity Criteria. The Parity Act, the IR, and FR require plans to release medical necessity criteria for mental health and substance use treatment and mandate that if coverage of a service has been denied, the plan must release the reason for the denial. However, medical necessity criteria for medical/surgical benefits remain proprietary information. Thus, it is difficult to determine if medical necessity criteria are being applied more stringently for mental health or substance use treatment. The FR partially addresses this issue by requiring plans to provide documentation regarding processes, strategies, evidentiary standards, and any other factors used to determine medical necessity for both medical/surgical and mental health and substance use benefits. But MHA continues to be concerned about the ability of consumers to obtain the medical necessity criteria for both medical/surgical and mental health and substance use benefits to be able to understand their application and to determine if an NQTL was imposed more stringently for mental health and substance use than for comparable medical/surgical treatments. MHA National, MHA affiliates, and other stakeholders should watch this issue carefully, educate consumers and providers about their rights to disclosure of medical necessity criteria, and monitor and report plan practices.
- MHA Concern: Applicability to Medicaid. Neither the IR nor the FR apply to Medicaid Managed Care, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or the Alternative Benefits Plans (ACA's Medicaid expansion), although MHPAEA applies to those insurance programs. A CMS State Health Official Letter issued in January 2013 provides guidance to these insurance programs regarding parity, and the FR states that further guidance will be issued. MHA will continue to monitor the release of guidance regarding Medicaid/CHIP plans and state Medicaid compliance with the January 2013 letter and the parts of the IR and FR that were specified as applying to those programs, including ensuring NQTLs are not more restrictive for mental health and substance use than medical/surgical treatments.
- MHA Concern: Expansion of Care in More Restrictive Settings. Advocates are concerned that the FR may result in expansion of care in more restrictive settings. Vigilance is required to assure availability of residential treatment when needed without losing the emphasis on community-based care that is basic to recovery. MHA will monitor implementation of the FR and the Affordable Care Act to advocate that the expansion of mental health and substance use coverage is used to promote access to innovative community supports and services, promising practices, and evidence-based practices that promote community inclusion and are delivered in the least restrictive settings. Litigation should be monitored as well and amicus participation should be considered to avoid the unintended consequence of expanding hospital, residential, and traditional in-office services at the expense of less well-documented, more recovery-oriented services in the community.
- For further analysis, MHA recommends the Parity Implementation Coalition summary of the FR: http://parityispersonal.org/sites/default/files/PIC%20summary%20final%20rule.pdf
Call to Action
- MHA continues to support the principles of the Parity Act and the implementation of the final rule. Although MHA is concerned about potential expansion of residential services using parity as a lever, and continues to support community-based care and cost containment, individual cases must be decided based on detailed individual findings of medical necessity and monitored by HHS to determine if a systemic problem needs to be addressed with further guidance or plan enforcement.
- MHA and its affiliates should also monitor the compliance of plans and educate consumers and providers with regard to scope of service, NQTLs, and medical necessity criteria to ensure proper implementation of the final rule.
- Since the final federal rules assign to states the initial/primary obligation to enforce the federal parity laws and because some states have stronger parity laws than the federal law, affiliates should focus their efforts on advocating that state insurance departments and other state actors vigorously enforce parity.
- There are many places where health plans list providers as being available who no longer accept new patients with their insurance, and there are often long delays in getting access to mental health care.
- Health plans also often limit the amount of residential treatment, intensive outpatient recovery-oriented programs and inpatient treatment to levels below what has been medically recommended and force consumers to pay for care first and then appeal to get recognition of the finding of medical necessity.
- To avoid this unfair pressure, states should be aggressive in imposing penalties. All states have general authority over new policy forms, and all but five are enforcing the Affordable Care Act and by extension, parity, in reviewing health insurance plans. State authority over complaints is more difficult to establish, absent a state statute establishing authority to enforce federal law. Market conduct examinations and unfair trade practice regulatory authority are the principle means being explored.[16]
- Affiliates must be vigilant in their legislative efforts to ensure that their state insurance commissioner has the authority and resources to take strong action. Developing a consultative relationship with insurance regulators, MHA affiliates and other advocates can pursue legislation to provide additional enforcement tools when required.
- Federal enforcement is divided:
- HHS responsible for insurer compliance
- Public Health Service Act (PHSA) incorporates ACA market reforms; applying them to insurers
- PHSA gives states primary enforcement role with HHS as backup
- HHS can impose fines up to $100/day/affected individual
- DOL and Treasury primarily regulate employer compliance
- ERISA and Internal Revenue Code apply ACA market reforms to employer group health plans
- DOL can fine employer plans for certain violations –
- Employee right to sue employer plan - key ERISA enforcement mechanism
- Treasury can impose $100/day of noncompliance tax/affected individual
- MHA will continue to advocate for HHS to monitor and enforce the final rule when states are unable or unwilling to do so, and will advocate for the release of further guidance regarding Medicaid managed care, CHIP, and the Alternative Benefits Plans.
IR Link: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-02167_PI.pdf.
Final Rule Link: www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/mhpaeafinalrule.pdf
Fact Sheet: http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Other-Insurance-Protections/mhpaea_factsheet.html
Effective Period
The Mental Health America Board of Directors approved this policy on September 13, 2014. It is reviewed as required by the Mental Health America Public Policy Committee.
Expiration: December 31, 2019
[1] Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003), at 1.
[2] Kessler, R. C., Angermeyer, M., Anthony, J. C., de Graaf, R., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., ... Üstün, T. B. (2007). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders in the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initative. World Psychiatry, 6(3), 6168-6176.
[3] Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (1999) at 23.
[4] Remarks by the President on Mental Health, April 29, 2002; Hackett, J.T., CEO of Ocean Energy Inc., testimony before the Subcommittee on Health of the Energy and Commerce Committee, House of Representatives, July 23, 2002.
[5] "An Employer's Guide to Behavioral Health Services," National Business Group on Health, 2005, at 68.
[6] "Mental Health Parity Act: Despite New Federal Standards, Mental Health Benefits Remain Limited," United States General Accounting Office, May 2000, at 21.
[7] Id. at 13-14.
[8] The Employer Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) allows employers to offer uniform national health benefits by preempting states from regulating employer-sponsored benefit plans. Thus, while states can regulate health insurers, they are unable to regulate employee benefit plans established by employers.
[9] A law that requires health plans to provide parity only for those with a severe mental illness or those with a "biologically-based mental illness," for example, implicitly conveys the message that it is acceptable to discriminate against those with other mental disorders, and suggests that such disorders do not merit the law's protection. Such limited parity protection discourages early intervention and leaves children at particular risk, since the few illnesses covered under such laws seldom occur until late adolescence or early adulthood. Mental Health America does, nevertheless, recognize that enactment and implementation of such laws have enabled advocates in some states to build on an incremental gain and later win passage of comprehensive legislation.
[10] An Employer's Guide to Behavioral Health Services," National Business Group on Health, op. cit.
[12] http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/10/14/should-insurers-pay-for-eating-disorders/parity-wont-break-the-bank?scp=3&sq=mental%20health%20parity&st=cse.
[13] http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2645124484707061795&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
[14] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/business/ruling-offers-hope-to-eating-disorder-sufferers.html.
[15] http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-settlement-emblem-health-wrongly-denyin...
[16] The information on state enforcement is derived from comments supplied by Josh Goldberg of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, based in Washington, D.C. The states currently identified by HHS as not "substantially enforcing" the ACA are TX, OK, MO, WY and GA. See presentation by Joel Ario, Manatt Health Solutions and Sally McCarty, Georgetown Health Policy Institute, " Operationalizing Oversight of ACA Insurance Market Reforms," (January 28, 2013) (available from MHA).


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Single Visits
We offer two types of single-visit tours to suit your school's needs. Led by a teaching artist experienced in inquiry-based arts education, and accessible for students in grades K through 12, our tours support critical thinking skills. The First Glimpse Tour is a 45-minute guided tour of both galleries, or the public art located throughout the Lehman campus. The 90-minuted Focused Gaze Tour includes the same guided tour options, plus an opportunity for students to create an art project inspired by this experience in the gallery's studio.
If you are interested in learning more
about our
Lehman College Art Gallery
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West Bronx, N.Y. 10468-1589 • 718-960-8731 fax 718-960-6991


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text: Municipal governments are responsible for overseeing a diverse array of buildings and facilities, including large and small administrative buildings, libraries, indoor and outdoor recreation centers, schools, and wastewater treatment plants. In addition, they are typically responsible for streetlights, parking structure lights, and traffic signals. This article examines energy consumption and savings opportunities for office buildings and outdoor lighting, which represent a significant portion of controllable energy use and offer opportunities for cost-effective energy savings. In a typical office building, lighting, heating, and cooling represent almost 70% of total energy use (Figure 1), making those systems the best targets for energy savings. Energy represents about 19% of total expenditures for the typical office building, which is a significant operational cost that deserves attention from facility management. Average energy use data Figure 1: Energy consumption by end use In municipal facilities, ventilation and computers dominate national electricity end uses, and heating accounts for more than 80% of natural gas consumption. Top technology uses Heating Ventilation & Air Handling Office Equipment Streetlighting plays an important role in enhancing public safety and aesthetics. However, it can account for as much as 40% of a municipality's electric bill. Converting older lighting technologies to LEDs or other advanced technologies is one way that municipalities can reduce costs while enhancing the nighttime landscape. Quick fixes this section "Quick fixes" (for the purposes of this section) are energy-efficiency measures that are relatively low-cost, easy to implement, proven technologies. Turning things off Turning things off seems simple, but remember that for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) that you save by turning things off, you save $100 on your utility bill (assuming average electricity costs of 10 cents per kWh). Computers and monitors. Computers and other electronic equipment are ubiquitous in office buildings and can contribute up to 20% of overall energy consumption. You can gain significant energy savings by verifying that computer power-management settings are enabled on individual computers and monitors, forcing them to enter sleep mode after a specified period of inactivity. Effective power-management settings can cut a computer's electricity use roughly in half, saving up to $75 annually per computer. Although most computers are now shipped with some sort of power-management settings enabled, they may be disabled or made less effective by users or internal IT staff, and can often be made more rigorous to maximize energy savings. For more information, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers detailed instructions on Energy Star's Business Case for Power Management page. Some users may be concerned that automatic software updates will be inhibited if power-management settings are enabled. In fact, updates can automatically begin to download when the computer awakens from sleep mode. Other office equipment and plug loads. Like computers, devices such as printers, fax machines, and coffeemakers often have energy-reduction settings that can yield substantial energy savings. Additionally, consider supplying employees with smart power strips with occupancy sensors, which are an easy way to shut off your staff's often-forgotten energy hogs, such as personal printers, monitors, desk lamps, radios, and clocks. Lights. Lights should be turned off when not in use, but many people forget to take this step. When properly installed, occupancy sensors and timers can perform this task for you. A no-cost option is simply to train staff to turn off lights as part of their closing procedures (you can also help by posting notices that identify the locations of light switches). Space heaters. Space heaters are energy hogs, drawing 1 kilowatt (kW) or more of power. As a first step, plug heaters into power strips controlled by occupancy sensors (other loads such as task lights and monitors can also be plugged into the power strips). Additionally, recognize that the perceived need for individual space heating usually indicates poor HVAC system control. Chilled-water drinking fountains and water coolers. Water fountains generally don't need to provide ice-cold water 24 hours a day unless it's required for health reasons. In most cases, you can turn off the cooling systems in drinking fountains. Likewise, water coolers generally don't need to be turned on 24 hours a day. The average office water cooler consumes about 800 kWh per year. Because much of this energy stems from standby losses, a simple method of cutting energy waste is to attach a timer. Programming an office water cooler to operate for only 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, can significantly reduce its energy waste. In addition, when it's time to replace old coolers, choosing an Energy Star–qualified model can yield large savings over standard models because they have thicker insulation, more-efficient cooling systems, and other efficiency-boosting features. Vending machines. Refrigerated vending machines typically operate 24/7, using 2,500 to 4,400 kWh per year and adding to cooling loads in the spaces they occupy. Timers or occupancy sensors can yield substantial savings because they allow the machines to turn on only when a customer is present or when the compressor must run to maintain the product at the desired temperature. Turning things down Some equipment cannot be turned off entirely but can be turned down to save energy. HVAC temperature setbacks. During closed hours, turn temperature settings down in heating seasons and up in cooling seasons. Programmable thermostats make temperature setbacks a reliable option. Peripheral and back rooms. Make sure that HVAC settings in stockrooms, rarely used offices, and other peripheral rooms are at minimum settings. Window shades and blinds. During warm weather, blinds can block direct sunlight and reduce cooling needs; in the winter, opening the blinds on south-facing windows will let in sunlight to help heat the space. Building automation systems tuning. For office buildings that already have a building automation system (BAS) make sure that temperature setbacks are coordinated on a quarterly basis with building occupancy. Facility engineers can align the HVAC schedules in the BAS with expected occupancy to optimize energy usage. Identify buildings that are not used at night, on weekends, or for long periods of time (such as during holiday breaks), and adjust temperature settings in those locations. Also, check that HVAC systems are not set to overcool or overheat the building. For facilities with regular occupancy schedules but without a BAS, programmable thermostats can make temperature setbacks a reliable option. The benefits of installing a BAS in a facility without one are further discussed in Longer-Term Solutions. HVAC cleaning and maintenance Regularly scheduled maintenance and periodic tune-ups save energy and extend the useful life of your HVAC equipment. It's best to create a preventive maintenance plan that includes regularly scheduled tasks such as cleaning, calibration, component replacement, and general inspections. It's also a good idea to ensure that information on setpoints and operating schedules is readily available for reference when equipment is checked or recalibrated. Check the economizer. Many air-conditioning systems (other than those in hot and humid climates) use a dampered vent called an economizer to reduce the need for mechanically cooled air by drawing cool outside air into the building when it's available. If the economizer is not regularly checked, the linkage on the damper can seize up or break. An economizer stuck in the fully open position can add as much as 50% to a building's annual energy bill by allowing hot air in during cooling season and cold air in during the heating season. Have a licensed technician check, clean, and lubricate your economizer about once a year, and repair it if necessary. Check air-conditioning temperatures. With a thermometer, check the temperature of the return air going to your air conditioner and then check the temperature of the air coming out of the register that's nearest the air-conditioning unit. If the temperature difference is less than 14° Fahrenheit (F) or more than 22°F, the refrigerant may be under- or overcharged—using more energy than is necessary. Have a licensed technician regularly inspect your air-conditioning unit. Change the filters. Filters should be changed periodically—every one to six months, depending on the level of pollutants and dust in the indoor and outdoor air. More-frequent changes may be required when economizers are in use because outdoor air is usually dirtier than indoor air. Check the cabinet panels. On a quarterly basis (or after filters are changed), make sure the panels to your packaged rooftop air-conditioning unit are fully attached, with all screws in place and all gaskets intact so that no air leaks out of the cabinet. Chilled-air leaks can cost $100 per rooftop unit per year in wasted energy. Clean the condenser coils. Check the condenser coils quarterly for either man-made or natural debris that can collect in them. At the beginning and end of the cooling season, thoroughly wash the coils. Check the airflow. Hold your hand up to the registers to ensure that there is adequate airflow. If there is little airflow, or if dirt and dust are found in the register, ask a technician inspect your unit and ductwork. Follow a steam-trap inspection and maintenance plan. In buildings with radiant steam heat, steam traps remove water from the steam distribution system once it has cooled and condensed in radiators or other heat exchangers. Mechanical steam traps can become stuck open, which wastes heat. A single failed trap can waste more than $50 per month—and offices with steam systems can have multiple steam traps within the building. Encourage energy-saving behavior in the workplace. There's growing interest in workplace sustainability and engagement. Green teams, interactive energy-use kiosks, training classes, and energy competitions are emerging strategies to encourage behavioral change in the workplace. Preliminary studies show that these efforts can garner a range of savings from about 2% to 10%. Longer-term solutions this section Longer-term solutions are energy-saving measures that require more investment of capital or longer payback periods, but often result in larger energy and cost savings. Some general ideas include: Set a reduction goal. Setting a goal can raise the topic of energy efficiency in the minds of your staff. In one example, the local initiative Sustainable Chicago 2015 called for a 10% reduction in energy use in municipal buildings. Hire a shared energy manager. Having dedicated staff with specialized knowledge and responsibilities focused on improving facility energy use can take the load off busy facility managers. Sharing an energy manager's services can be a convenient way for municipalities with resource constraints to improve services and reduce costs. Commissioning Commissioning is the process of ensuring that systems are designed, installed, functionally tested, and capable of being operated and maintained according to the owner's operational needs. Doing so can cut energy bills by 10% to 15% or more, and often provides a simple payback period of less than one year. When this process is applied to an existing building that hasn't been commissioned before, it's called retrocommissioning. When it's applied to a building that has been commissioned before, it is called recommissioning. Recommissioning is recommended every three to five years to maintain top levels of building performance. In another type of commissioning—ongoing commissioning—monitoring equipment is left in place to allow for continuous diagnostics. Building automation systems Sometimes called energy management systems, BASs save between 5% and 15% of overall building energy consumption and can also improve occupant comfort. However, due to their complexity and high cost, BASs typically only become cost-effective in buildings larger than 50,000 square feet (ft2). Older or poorly maintained buildings can also benefit greatly from a BAS retrofit, sometimes yielding savings of over 30%. For existing barebones BAS systems, submeters and wireless controls can be added to provide more-robust information for setting baselines, benchmarking, troubleshooting, identifying areas for improvement, and evaluating performance. Recently, prices of submeters and wireless controls have dropped markedly, making them even more attractive data-acquisition tools to improve building performance. Cloud thermostats "Cloud" (Internet-enabled) thermostats can offer much of the functionality, analytic abilities, and energy-saving opportunities of a BAS at a much lower cost, making them a great choice for buildings that are less than 50,000 ft2. Even better, cloud thermostats are rapidly increasing in sophistication and may also soon provide a central control point for supplementary loads such as lighting, water heating, and plug loads. Energy analytics software A growing number of companies offer both single-building and multiple-unit portfolio analysis, allowing customers to pinpoint poorly performing systems or buildings. Identifiable problems may include malfunctioning or poorly tuned HVAC systems or whole buildings that are performing at subpar levels compared to their neighbors or other buildings in a portfolio. Indoor lighting measures LED lighting. LEDs offer several advantages over conventional light sources, including high efficiency, long life, and superior control. These characteristics and falling prices have made LEDs a viable solution for a growing number of office building applications, including exit signs, task lighting, recessed downlighting, and ambient lighting. LED troffers offer promising benefits in the right applications. Fluorescent troffers are the most common type of lighting fixture found in US commercial facilities, accounting for 50% of existing luminaires. The best LED troffer products outperform their fluorescent cousins, but at a first-cost premium. You can replace fluorescent troffers with new LED troffers, via LED retrofit kits, or by replacing the fluorescent tubes with tubular LED products. When buying LED-based products, ask for performance data based on standard tests performed by accredited laboratories. When comparing LEDs to other options, be sure to include cost savings from reduced maintenance due to LEDs' long lifetimes in the total calculation. Make sure that the LED solution will provide the quantity and quality of light you need by starting with a small test case. Fluorescent lamps. If your facility uses T12 fluorescent lamps or commodity-grade T8 lamps, relamping with high-performance T8 lamps and electronic ballasts can reduce your lighting energy consumption by 35% or more. Adding specular reflectors, new lenses, and occupancy sensors or timers can double the savings. Payback periods of one to three years are common. Lighting controls. Using energy-efficiency light sources is only one part of the process of reducing the energy used by a lighting system. A well-designed control system will provide the right amount of light where and when it's needed, and it will cut lighting energy use by 5% to 60%, depending on the baseline conditions and the control strategies used. In addition, using lighting controls may qualify you for participation in utility demand-response programs. Advanced control systems can also help lighting maintenance by signaling lamp outages and monitoring usage and output levels to indicate when they fall below required levels. Daylighting. Daylight can improve the ambience of an office and reduce the need for electric lighting. Dimming ballasts, or dimmable LED drivers, and daylighting controls can be used to reduce the amount of electric light used when daylight is present. Outdoor lighting optimization Lighting roadways and other public spaces (recreational areas, parking lots, and public transportation depots) can consume a significant portion of a municipality's energy footprint. While it's essential to focus on security requirements, pedestrian and traffic safety, economic development and aesthetics, many energy-efficiency opportunities are available. The options presented are generally designed to reduce energy use, costs, light pollution, and waste light while maintaining or improving light quality; however, it's important to get detailed specifications for your facility to ensure that the technologies you're evaluating will meet your building's unique needs. Reducing light levels. Parking lots are often overlit—an average of 1 foot-candle of light or less is usually sufficient. Dimming and occupancy-sensing controls can add to energy savings in parking lots. Installing more-efficient light sources. The most common lamps used for outdoor lighting are high-intensity discharge (HID) sources—metal halide and high-pressure sodium (HPS). Fluorescent and induction lamps are also used in parking lots, but LEDs have become the most efficient alternative as their performance has improved and prices continue to decline. LEDs can be a good choice for parking and streetlighting applications because LED fixtures perform well in the cooler conditions that are typically found outside at night, and because LEDs work better with controls than the incumbent HID products (HPS and metal halide). In field testing of bi-level LED lighting combined with occupancy sensing at a parking garage on the California State University, Sacramento campus, energy savings of 78% were reported between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. due to the majority of fixtures operating in low-capacity mode. The project report, Bi-Level LED Parking Garage Luminaires (PDF), prepared by the California Lighting Technology Center, also noted 24-hour energy savings of 68% compared to the incumbent HPS lighting system. The ability of LEDs to work well with controls has encouraged several companies to develop streetlight networking capabilities. For more information, check out the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's Technology and Market Assessment of Networked Outdoor Lighting Controls (PDF) report. Taking the concept a step further, some companies are partnering with municipalities or other government entities to develop systems that use networks of LED streetlights as a backbone on which to later support functions such as traffic control and public safety. Read Greentech Media's article Will Street Lights Become the Nodes of the Networked City? to learn more. LEDs also offer long life, which reduces the maintenance costs associated with lamp replacement, especially for streetlights that require bucket trucks or lifts to change the lamps. Plus, LEDs provide a more even light distribution and produce less light pollution and light trespass—properties that improve aesthetics and contribute to energy savings. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium provides specifications, financing guidance and tools, and demonstration results. The DOE Better Buildings Alliance, on its Adopt High-Efficiency Lighting for Your Parking Lot page, provides more information, including a sample specification, some case studies, and information on the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking Campaign. The Alliance estimates that using LEDs can cut energy use by 40% or more, depending on the application. HVAC measures High-efficiency HVAC units. A highly efficient packaged air-conditioning/heating unit can reduce cooling energy consumption by 10% or more compared to a standard-efficiency, commercial packaged unit. Single-zone variable speed rooftop units (RTUs) can also reduce cooling energy. Select equipment that has multiple levels of capacity—that is, compressor stages—with good part-load efficiency. Advanced RTU controllers. Retrofitting existing RTUs with advanced packaged controllers improves functionality and offers potential for significant energy savings. Estimates and preliminary field-test results indicate energy savings of 20% to over 50% with a typical payback period of one to four years. Energy-saving features can include variable- or multispeed supply fan control, demand-controlled ventilation, and improved economizer control. Additional features can include demand response, remote monitoring, and fault detection and diagnostics. Demand-controlled ventilation. For office spaces that have large swings in occupancy levels, energy can be saved by decreasing the amount of ventilation supplied by the HVAC system during low-occupancy hours. A demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) system senses the level of carbon dioxide in the return airstream, uses it as an indicator of occupancy, and decreases supply air when carbon dioxide levels are low. DCV systems are particularly applicable to variable-occupancy spaces like auditoriums, meeting rooms, and cafeterias. Boiler retrofits. Savings from boiler retrofit projects can be significant. Newer boilers feature a variety of efficiency improvements that can justify replacing older boilers before they fail. Improvements include condensing heat exchangers, sealed combustion, electric ignition, and fan-assisted combustion. Smaller boilers are more efficient than larger ones, and grouping multiple smaller boilers not only allows staged operation of each unit at its highest efficiency point, but also provides redundancy. If a larger boiler isn't ready to be retired, a smaller boiler can be added to serve the base heating load, reserving the larger boiler for additional heating as needed. Reflective building roof coating. If the roof needs recoating or painting, consider white or some other highly reflective color to minimize the amount of heat the building absorbs. Cool roofs can often reduce peak cooling demand by 10% to 15%. For a list of suitable reflective roof coating products, visit the Energy Star Roof Products website. Content last reviewed: 04/18/2017


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Rachael Yamagata has been busy lately, she's just about to release her new Heavyweight EP and has just embarked on a Fall Tour which will bring her back to Los Angeles next Tuesday, November 20th at the El Rey Theatre. I was lucky enough to talk with her briefly as she made her way to Vancouver for the first show of the tour.
"Sorry it's so noisy, I'm sitting in the back of a van on the road." Laughing, I said that I'm in an art gallery with construction going on… we make quite a pair (more laughter). She then asked me if we had met because my name sounded so familiar (oh how I wish I had the guts and split second timing to joke around and say that we had once dated). I told her that we had met at one of her past Hotel Cafe shows, but was also one of her Pledge Music supporters for Chesapeake (her last release). "That's it! I even remember writing you a note – once I write a name down, it's hard to forget." Yup, she pretty much made my day. Moving on, she was excited that the first thing I brought up was the cover art for her new record. All her previous releases have photos of her, so I asked how she found the painting.
"I was just searching online and came across this artist named Jan Zoya. Her work had this feeling of sadness, nostalgia, and passion that I could relate to." Her artist statement also made an impression. She told me it wasn't easy though, apparently the artist didn't believe who she was so it took a bit of going back and forth, "I finally just had to tweet at her saying, look this really is me and I'm trying to contact you." That finally worked and now one of her paintings graces the cover with even more collaborations possible in the future. As for returning to Los Angeles, I had to mention that I always felt that she belonged to us. "I feel the same way." She said she still has so many friends here and that it was really hard for her to move to Woodstock. As for the show, "I'm really excited to play the El Rey, I'm touring with strings this time around and really wanted to have seats to keep it intimate." If you're familiar with the El Rey, you know it's usually standing room only.
If you've never seen her before, do yourself a favor and go to one of her upcoming shows. Her onstage banter and incredible voice makes her one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Tickets are still available for the El Rey show via Ticketmaster and you can also download a free mixtape from NoiseTrade. Also, don't forget to buy her new EP, Heavyweight from her website. Thanks again to Rachael for taking the time to speak with me, it was a real pleasure.
Watch the video to her single Even If I Don't after the jump.


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Many veterans of our industry remember the health club scene from the 1980s and 1990s—the excitement, the energy, the dynamic flow of the well-planned aerobic classes of those decades. Some of those veterans may feel nostalgic when speaking of the music, the group instructors and the sense of accomplishment after completing choreographed routines to popular tunes. That nostalgia has led some programming experts to add those choreographed masterpieces into the fee-based lineup at their clubs. However, if you are going to do this, you must follow a few simple tips:
Program the classes around themes. Your themes could include disco, 1980s, 1990s to the max, Broadway, swing, hip hop or country with a twist. These themes are dance-based and will keep students wanting more. Once the word is out that the club offers cardio dance lessons and that members are getting results from these classes, most club owners will see an increase in referrals, renewals and revenue.
Market your lineup as a new level in fitness. Bill the programming as a personalized progression. "Sell" it as a way to enhance their health and fitness status. Market it for those with skill sets beyond the skills needed in the general classes, which include beginners. Educate members and nonmembers that the choreographed class lineups of the 1980s and 1990s include movement patterns that address advanced aspects of fitness: speed, power, balance and coordination.
Hire masterful instructors. Think outside the box when hiring. Recruit the popular cardio jazz teacher, the studio ballroom champ or even a local dance contest winner. Pay on performance and create a bonus system for recruiting participants from outside the membership to class. Increase the percentage when members re-sign or bill on an EFT system, as you would for small group training programs.
Hold a recital or make a video. Empower the fee-based class members by creating a video or planning a recital. Invite friends and family members. Broadcast the video throughout the club and on your website. Showing the video in your club is one of the best ways to market ongoing programming to existing members.
Promote the flashback classes within other master classes. Plan try-before-you-buy master classes on a regular schedule for four to six weeks. Offer "buy now" specials. Always show the number of remaining spots before and after each master class. This lets members know how popular classes are and promotes the urgency of signing up for them. Ask several teachers to instruct the master classes together. The team teaching method increases energy and makes sure one can generate leads, collect contact information and invite students to bring a friend to the next master class or promotion.
Include options for personal training. Successful cardio flashback programs spin students off into one-on-one instruction or personal training. Many clubs have seen an increase in revenue from the small group options. The recruitment of the staff to the personal training lineup will increase as this pattern grows.
Assess your community. Assess the membership, age of the members, community and the competition in your area. Poll members to find out who remembers the grapevine, the hustle, the pivot, the stomp and the jive. Those polls will help you decide whom to target and how to fill the popular cardio flashback lineup.
Ann Gilbert, director of fitness for Shapes Fitness for Women, leads a team of more than 350 fitness professionals. She is a well-known presenter and has received the IHRSA/ACE Trainer of the Year award. For the past 10 years, Gilbert has served as a faculty board member for the Shapes Academy, an internal educational resource for continuing education. She can be reached at email@example.com.


text: On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Michael Will wrote: > On Monday 04 October 2004 01:40 pm, Mike wrote: > > I know this is off topic, but I've not found an answer anywhere. > > On one IBM doc it says the effective throughput for 10Mb/s is > > 5.7GB/hour, 100Mb/s is 17.6GB/hour, but only lists TBD for 1000MB/s. > > I would assume 900Mb/s as an optimistic best case throughput for the GigE, > which would be about 395GB/hour. > > 17.6GB/hour seems like a really low estimate, that would be only > about 40Mb/s effective transfer rate over an 100Mb/s link? Maybe > that number is really measuring the tape writing speed instead? I agree with Michael (and Sean) here -- it is pretty straightforward to compute a theoretical peak bandwidth -- just convert the Mbps into MBps by dividing by 8. 10 Mbps ethernet can thus manage 1.25 MBps, 100 Mbps -> 12.5 MBps, 1000 Mbps -> 125 MBps. Most people don't consider the packet headers to be part of the "throughput" -- with a standard ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes + 18 bytes ethernet header, take away 64 bytes for TCP/IP header, one has at most 1436/1518 or 94.6% of peak This leaves a STILL theoretical peak of 1.18 x 10^{n-1} MBps (where n is the log_10 of the raw BW in Mbps). One reason people like to use switches and NICs that support oversize packets is that doing so reduces both this 5.4% chunk of header-based overhead and the ordinarily "invisible" mandatory pause between packets, per packet, letting you get a bit closer to peak. On top of this, switches and so forth will typically add a small bit of latency per packet on top of the minimum interpacket interval, and the TCP stack on both ends of the connection will add another slice of latency per packet. These are typically of order 50-200 microseconds (which end of this wide range you see depending on lots of things like switch quality and load, NIC quality and type, CPU speed and load, OS revision, and probably whether or not it is a Tuesday). By the time all is said and done, one usually ends up with somewhere between 80% and 94% of theoretical peak, or 1.0 x 10^{n-1| and 1.174 x 10&{n-1} MBps, although for particularly poor NICs I've done worse than 80% in years past. Higher numbers (closer to theoretical peak, as noted) for giant packets. This is likely to be the relevant estimate for moving large data files. For moving SMALL data files or messages, one moves from bandwidth-dominated communications to latency-dominated communications bottlenecks. For small messages (say, less than 1K for the sake of argument) the "bandwidth" increasingly is simply the size of the data portion of the packet times the number of packets per second your interface can manage. To convert into GBph is trivial: there are 3600 seconds/hour, and 1000 MB in on GB, so multiplying the numbers above by 3.6 seems in order. This gives a theoretical peak in the ballpark of 4.25 x 10^{n - 1} GBph for a standard MTU (higher with large packets), a probable real world peak more like 4.05 x 10^{n - 1} GBph at 90% of wirespeed. FWIW, I think that GbE tends to perform closer to its theoretical peak than do the older 10 or 100 BT. This is both because it is much more likely that the interfaces and switches will handle large frames and because the hardware tends to be more expensive and better built, with more attention paid to details like how things are cached and DMA that can make a big difference in overall performance efficiency. Hope this helps, although as has already been noted (and will likely be noted again:-) the network isn't necessarily going to be the rate limiting bottleneck for backup. rgb > > Michael Will > > Does anyone know what this effective number is? This is for > > calculating how long backups should take through my backup network. > > > > (I'm not interested in how long it takes to read/write the disk, > > just the network throughput.) > > > > Mike > > _______________________________________________ > > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > > > > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Poll Hosting Script allows you to let people sign up for a poll and host it on their own website. It features a full user interface where poll owners can modify their polls as well as view the results in a pie chart.
An admin area provides the ability to create polls (in addition to the standard user registration page) and edit/delete existing polls. You can also create custom CSS styles for the polls and allow your poll users to choose one that fits their site best.
When polls are created, an email is sent out to the user confirming the creation as well as providing them with login details to the user control panel.
KEY FEATURES —Complete User control panel with statistics breakdown and easy editing to poll
—Complete Admin Interface
—Custom poll styles based on CSS
—Editable 'powered by' links at the bottom of the poll and its results, allowing you to take advantage of the space on your users websites
—Regular free updates planned and custom addon/feature requests will be strongly considered.