Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Your rights when shops hit trouble

It’s important to know at the outset why the business closed. If it was simply a case that they decided to stop trading, then you can write to them in the normal way to pursue your outstanding business. If necessary, put in a claim at the Small Claims Court.

This process can be complicated if the trader was acting as a limited company rather than a sole trader. In the former case, the individuals concerned may not be liable for any debt.

All of the companies listed above, however, have run into problems because they didn’t have the money to carry on as before.we are the biggest USB flash drives wholesale supplier in china. In this situation, getting your money back, your goods delivered or your item repaired is a good deal more complicated.

Your first port of call is to find out who the administators are. This shouldn’t be hard as a notice will appear on the trading premises and in the cases of large companies the details will be widely reported in the media.

It’s the administrator who will decide whether to honour gift cards, exchange goods and obtain refunds etc. For larger companies, it’s again worth checking the media on a regular basis as the policies are likely to be in the news.

Register your claim with the administrators. That makes you a creditor and gives you the best chance of getting some or all of your money back. You should be bear in mind,A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. however, that if there are lots of creditors your chances of receiving a refund are limited.

But there are other ways to protect yourself.

It’s always worth paying for items worth over £100 on plastic. That’s because if the goods aren’t delivered or were faulty and the company goes bust, you should be able to claim the money back from the credit card company. This also applies to credit agreements. You only need to have put the deposit on the card.

Debit cards don’t come with the same level of cover, but if you used a Visa or Mastercard debit card, you may have some level of protection via the Chargeback scheme, so it’s worth making enquiries with your bank.

Equally, any manufacturer’s or third-party warranty that came with the goods could be a useful alternative when a trader has gone bust.

If you have an item that’s due for delivery,Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. and you have paperwork and proof of payment, it might be worth driving to the warehouse and seeing if you can pick it up. But be quick, before the administrators get involved.

And be proactive. The media often trails news of companies that are about to go under, so this is not a good time to visit their website and do some shopping, or place an order for a new kitchen. You’re just setting yourself up for a fall.

Similarly, if you have gift vouchers and hear rumours of a company’s impending demise, spend them quickly! Once the doors are closed, you’re almost certain to be waving goodbye to your money.

Overall, be realistic. Once a company has gone into administration, there are any number of people who want their money back. You could be waiting a long time to see all, or indeed any, of it.

The McLean-based financial firm also did not disclose the sales price, but said that the value of the Best Buy accounts is $7 billion. Capital One said there would be no significant gain or loss on the transaction, which it anticipates will close in the third quarter. Capital One’s stock fell about 1.7 percent in regular trading Monday.

Just two years ago, Capitol One leap-frogged to the forefront of the store card business with the $2.6 billion purchase of HSBC’s U.Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet?S. credit card portfolio, which contained 23 retail partnerships including the Best Buy portfolio.

“It caught us by surprise because a big part of Capital One’s story was buying [the HSBC] portfolio, and they’ve sold a pretty big piece of it,” said Sanjay Sakjrani, an analyst with Keefe Bruyette & Woods. “From what we’ve heard from Capital One, strategically it seems the two parties had a difference of opinion and felt it was best to terminate the contractual obligation.”

Capitol One made its foray into the store-branded credit business in January 2011 by snagging the credit card portfolio of Canadian retail conglomerate Hudson’s Bay. That deal was followed up four months later with the acquisition of Kohl’s department stores’s card portfolio, which gave Capital One more than 20 million accounts and the right to issue cards to Kohl’s customers.I personally really like these mini ear cap for my iPhone.

Such private-label cards usually carry higher interest rates and lower credit lines than other types of plastic. Consumers with limited credit options rely heavily on these cards, and because they are unsecured there is always the looming risk of default.

But card issuers are drawn to the high fee income of store cards. In addition, banks that issue cards sometimes don’t have to pay marketing costs because the retailer has the incentive to push the product.

After a precipitous decline during the downturn, the store-brand credit card business is rebounding while deliquencies are slowing, said Robert Hammer, head of the credit card consulting firm R.K. Hammer. Stricter standards on traditional cards have made store cards more appealing to consumers.

Wayne LaPierre says Phoenix

National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre attracted wide media attention recently when he suggested in an op-ed that after Hurricane Sandy, New York City had become a violent, post-apocalyptic wasteland -- thanks to an absence of guns.

A reader asked us to check out a claim in LaPierre’s op-ed, which ran on Feb. 13, 2013, op-ed in the conservative Daily Caller. "Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States," LaPierre said. "Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, and though the states on the U.S.-Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last."

The claim that "Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world" was already familiar to us, since we had debunked it in 2010 (it was a finalist for our Lie of the Year). But that was three years ago, so we decided to take another look.

Our original fact-check, coming at a time when Arizona’s tough immigration law known as SB 1070 was a major topic nationally, looked at a comment by Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. He said that Phoenix "is now the No.Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? 2 kidnapping capital in the world, right behind Mexico City."

ABC first reported on Feb. 11, 2009, that: "Phoenix, Ariz., has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone." Several news organizations then repeated it, including the Associated Press, the Arizona Republic and United Press International.Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. The Los Angeles Times went so far as to note that Phoenix "police received 366 kidnapping-for-ransom reports" in 2008 and that they estimate "twice that number go unreported."

However, none of the stories cited an authoritative source for the ranking or for how the kidnapping ranking was calculated. We did extensive checking and couldn't find anything to back it up.

We found that neither the FBI nor the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice that serves as the United States' representative to the international police organization, compiles city-based kidnapping statistics.

We also contacted Daniel Johnson, an overseas kidnapping operations consultant at ASI Global, a Houston company that coaches clients through kidnappings. "From our internal experience in the last year," he said, "Mexico by far has been the biggest location for kidnappings" followed by Honduras, Venezuela, Nigeria and the Philippines. The company has handled domestic cases but said they don't compare in volume to overseas incidents.

This fit broadly with the perspective of Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, an Austin, Texas global intelligence company. "According to our analysts,we are the biggest USB flash drives wholesale supplier in china. there is no way that Phoenix is the No. 2 city in the world for kidnapping, and there are significantly more kidnappings in many other cities throughout Latin America," he told us in 2010.

A Stratfor spokesman reached for this article said Stewart’s comments remain accurate today, and we found evidence to back up high and often growing rates of kidnapping in Latin America. In all of Mexico, the official count for 2012 was four kidnappings a day, though a non-governmental organization pegged it at an astronomical 72 per day.I personally really like these mini ear cap for my iPhone. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the official statistics show kidnapping rates rising from 44 in 1999, to 1,105 in 2011, not counting "express" kidnappings, in which a perpetrator forcibly takes a victim from ATM to ATM until their checking account is depleted. Police sources told the newspaper El Universal that Caracas alone experiences perhaps two express kidnappings a day.

But there’s no good way to compare cities, and even countries, Johnson and Stewart agreed. It's "extremely difficult to measure given the fact that so many cases go unreported and that the recordkeeping in many of the most affected countries is inaccurate." Even among countries that track kidnappings, Johnson said, the definition of "kidnap" varies.

Prompted by media coverage of the Phoenix kidnapping claim, an investigative team led by reporter Dave Biscobing of ABC-15 TV news in Phoenix spent two months in 2011 reviewing the city police department's 2008 statistics. They concluded that "Phoenix police routinely inflated their kidnapping statistics throughout the year, including at least 100 cases that legal experts said should not have been counted, plus dozens of other questionable reports."

Among the problems cited by ABC-15 was that the count included "cases where officers concluded no kidnapping occurred, reports that were counted multiple times, and even reports for kidnappings that happened in other cities and other states."

In one case, a police report described a woman "claiming she was abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot and then driven around for hours. But when officers checked surveillance video, they watched her get into her car and drive away -- alone." She had made up the story.

There were other new developments -- a police department whistleblower who said the numbers were inflated, a city audit that insisted they had not -- but they either failed to support the kidnapping-capital claim or further knocked it down. The city's police chief lost his job at least partly because of the controversy.

Last year, an investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general looked into the numbers because the city had used them in a grant application. The investigation found that of the 358 incidents submitted as support for the grant applications, only 208 met Arizona’s requirements of a kidnapping, and only 195 met a uniform crime reporting standard. Phoenix then submitted an additional 175 cases -- two years after its initial grant application -- which enabled the inspector general’s certified count to reach exactly 358 under Arizona standards. The count stood at 254 under the more stringent uniform crime reporting standards.

The inspector general concluded that even if the data Phoenix submitted late was counted,A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. the city "likely overstates the number of kidnappings," and it argued that the Phoenix Police Department "has significant problems with its coding and classification of cases and, consequently, with the accuracy of reports from its case management system."

Nearly 60p of every retail pound goes into supermarket tills

It’s yet another nail in the coffin of the UK high street: not only are local shops struggling to survive the longest consumer downturn in living memory, but of the money that is being spent in retail, the lion’s share is going to the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

According to a new study by the Payments Council, the average spend in supermarkets in 2011 amounted to 58 in every pound, up from 46p a decade earlier. It’s the highest proportion of retail spend since records began. Hardly surprising as supermarkets maintain their aggressive expansion across the UK; just yesterday, Morrisons announced that it is to open 70 new convenience stores. And while supermarkets remain the most convenient and cost effective choice for consumers, that's unlikely to change.Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork.

But while local shops are feeling the pinch, the entertainment sector has flourished over the past decade. Spending in restaurants and cafes has almost doubled between 2001 and 2011 and Britons spent a total of £58bn on entertainment over the decade.

The report has also flagged up changes in the way that consumers are spending money. Cash is no longer king (not the paper and shrapnel kind, anyway) as shoppers choose to flex the plastic instead.I personally really like these mini ear cap for my iPhone. Just 30% of retail spending is now made with cash, down from 43% in 2003. And the majority of these cash purchases were (somewhat unsurprisingly) for payments under £5.

The Payments Council has also done a spot of future-gazing. Across the coming decade, debit and credit cards will be superseded by smartphone payments. ‘Recent innovations such as payment via a mobile phone, which ten years ago some felt to be science fiction, will soon be commonplace,’ says Adrian Kamellard, chief executive of the PC. ‘The 2000s were the decade of the debit card. The 2010s are likely to be the decade of the mobile phone.’

In 12 years, my husband and I have had two vacations without our daughter. Once, we drove 200 miles to drop her at her godparents; the other time, her grandfather flew 850 miles on an $800 plane ticket to spell us.

Oh, how we envy parents who casually plan romantic getaways sans kids.

"A lot of things have to go right for parents to be able to go away together, leave their kids home and feel comfortable while they're away," said Stephanie Newman, a New York-based psychologist and author.

Newman, 48,Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? herself the mother of two, encourages couples to take time for themselves. Nevertheless, she hears during therapy sessions from parents who have a hard time making that a reality.

"It's a social issue," she said. More women work outside the home; grandparents might not have traditional retirements; kids are heavily scheduled, making it more difficult for someone to step in, and our increasingly mobile society weakens our support network.

Still,we are the biggest USB flash drives wholesale supplier in china. we're parents, so by definition, we're resourceful. We might not do it often, but once in a while, we beg, bribe, plead, pay and juggle to find childcare for that important couple's vacation.

Nicole Reisfeld went through a Herculean effort so that she and her husband could travel from Colorado to Maine last year to celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary. With their daughter at college, she had their 16-year-old son, Ben, to plan for during their six-day trip.

After school, Ben took the bus home, where a family friend picked him up after work so he could spend the night at her house. On weekends, Ben stayed home and an adult neighbor slept over. One day, the school was holding exams at a different location, so a third friend served as chauffeur.

"Added complications were that the (school) schedule kept changing so I had to keep revising the plan, and that Ben's cell phone was no longer working so I had to get him a new phone and number the night before we left — after I had worked from 9 to 6 that day," said Reisfeld, 49, a speech pathologist. "Making all the arrangements were exhausting, but the trip was wonderful and worth all the trouble."

Even those with nannies and regular sitters face challenges when trying to leave town.

New York theatrical manager Nina Essman and her husband had only spent one night away since the eldest of their two children was born nine years earlier. They wanted to go alone to a friend's wedding in Florida.

Essman, 45, was concerned about imposing on their longtime nanny, who only works weekdays. To win some goodwill, Essman sent the nanny to her native Trinidad for Christmas.A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. The nanny agreed to the overnight when Essman later asked, though she also received overtime.

That was two years ago and Essman and her husband haven't had another night alone since.

Some parents in a bind will even hire a stranger through an agency, said Candi Wingate, president of the nationwide Nannies4Hire.

It's always best for the nanny to first meet the children and learn the schedule, though sometimes, "If the children are older, then some parents will just talk to the nanny over the phone," said Wingate, of Norfolk, Neb.

Josh Koscheck welcomes Robbie Lawler back to UFC

He has gone in that time span, became the EliteXC middleweight champion, and fought for the Strikeforce middleweight title against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in a losing effort. He has lost three of his last four and will look to right the ship against a perennial top 10 welterweight. Let’s see how this one breaks down.

Robbie Lawler comes into this bout off the unanimous decision loss to Lorenz Larkin in July 2012. As I mentioned, he has lost three of his last four and will look to rejuvenate his career with a move back to welterweight. It’s hard to believe he’s only 30 years old as it feels like he’s been around forever. He has 16 wins via TKO/KO and one submission win to his credit. He has been submitted in five of his nine career losses. Lawler is a brawler for the most part. If he can keep fights standing he can knock anybody out with power punches. However, history does not bode well for him in this matchup. Fighters like Koscheck with wrestling backgrounds have given Lawler fits during his career. He needs to influence Koscheck to fight with emotions and engage in striking exchanges and negate his wrestling in this fight.

Josh Koscheck comes into this bout off the split decision loss to Johny Hendricks in May 2012. Koscheck was expected to face Jake Ellenberger at UFC 151, but pulled out of the bout with a back injury. Of course, UFC 151 went on to be canceled, but Koscheck has remained out of action until now. He has five wins via TKO/KO and five wins via submission in his career. Koscheck is one of the best wrestlers to transition into MMA, but has abandoned his wrestling roots in the latter parts of his career in favor of going for knockouts. That strategy has probably cost him a couple of wins. He’ll need to fight smart against Lawler, because back-to-back losses at this stage of his career would not be a good look.

Those odds are about right provided Koscheck fights the smart fight. Both fighters are coming off pretty long layoffs which could be a factor. Historically, Koscheck has had better cardio and in recent losses Lawler has given up multiple takedowns while offering zero ability to submit opponents off his back. He typically avoids looking for submissions while trying to get back up to his feet.Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet?

The strategy for Lawler is simply sprawl and brawl. He does defend takedowns at a 62% clip, but I have a feeling if Koscheck wants to take him down there’s nothing he can do about it.

Koscheck needs to strike just enough to set Lawler up for a takedown. Koscheck’s striking consists mainly of a huge looping right hand and that’s about it. He needs to be weary of Lawler sending a knee up the middle while shooting for a takedown as Lawler has shown he’s willing to take that chance in the past. Once he gets the fight to the ground he should simply work to keep Lawler there and inflict damage.

LG has released a video teaser for its new handsets to be exhibited at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2013. The firm has creatively produced the clip of just 48 seconds with the new phone series from LG denoted as L, F, V and G line-ups. We have already seen one handset in the G series; the Optimus G Pro, a higher-end 5.5-inch 1080p handset. Little is really known about other series especially the F and V. Anyway, let us have a look into some interesting things about LG’s performance in the show.

Well, the LG teaser concentrates on the characters L, F, V and G that will possibly be the names of the new LG phones. The video shows that the ‘L’ stands for ’style,’ the ‘F’ stands for ‘freedom,’ ‘V’ stands for ‘view’ and the ‘G’ stands for ‘greatness.’ It means that LG is to introduce a range of incredible handsets in the event along with its top-of-the-line Optimus G Pro, which is also LG’s member to the new line of FullHD phablets.

The LG G Series: As noted in the teaser of the firm, the G series might include some great handsets. The G Pro is going to be the flagship model of the company this year. It is to replace the Optimus G2, which was the high-end phone of the Korean tech maker last year. The new LG phone is to come with a 5.5-inch FullHD display. It is to get power from highly rich specs that include a quad core CPU, 2GB RAM,I personally really like these mini ear cap for my iPhone. 32GB internal memory, 13MP rear camera and more.

The LG L Series: This series has been there for a while. LG looks to roll out a trio of new additions to the existing series,we are the biggest USB flash drives wholesale supplier in china. the L3, L5 and L7. The devices that will be respectively known as L3 II, L5 II and L7 II are to come with some interesting hardware and software upgrades. The devices “have received expected hardware upgrades over their predecessors, while keeping the same design language which lead to over 10 million units sold,” says Tech Radar.

The base model the L5 II is to tout an advanced 1GHz CPU and improved IPS screen. The display panel is a bit more finished even if it keeps the same size and resolution. The device will carry a 5MP rear camera and a 3.2MP front camera. The medium model the L5 II is to come with a 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor and a nice PowerVR SGX531 graphical card. The device mounts a 4-inch WVGA unit. It is to come with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, LG has said. The final model of the L series is the L7 II. The device is to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 CPU that is cocked 1GHz. It is to feature an Adreno 203 graphical processor, 768MB RAM and a cute 4.A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain.3-inch WVGA display, 8MP rear camera and more.

The V and F Series: There is no clue about these two possible LG phone series. “We are yet to see what the rumored F-series and V-series have to offer. The paint brush shown in the video might be a reference to a stylus enabled smartphone, but it might be just our imagination,” says GSM Arena. The site notes that the LG video teaser shows a woman with a brush toward her face when it mentions the V series. But,Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. that might be a good guess only, indeed.

Monday, February 18, 2013

DuClaw Brewing Moves To Rosedale

Long-time Harford County brewery DuClaw Brewing is in the process of moving their brewing and bottling plant from Abingdon to Rosedale, a process they hope will be complete by mid-March, according to owner Dave Benfield.

The move will double the brewery's capacity, moving from a 10,000 square foot facility to a 60,000 square foot facility and allowing them to produce 14,000 barrels of beer in a year, up from 7,000, according to Benfield.

And that's something his company sorely needs. Rapid growth has left them sometimes unable to keep up with the demand for their product.

Wednesday afternoon, Benfield said that four of DuClaw's beers—Hellrazer India Pale Ale, Sweet Baby Jesus Peanut Butter Porter, Serum Double India Pale Ale and Mysterium Beglian Spiced Ale, were completely out.

A brand new, custom-engineered brewing system is at the center of the move. Shipped in from Germany, the system will allow one brewer to create multiple 60-barrel batches of beer at a time.

For those not in the know, a standard keg—the kind you might have seen at a party—is a half-barrel of beer.

"The system is fully automated—it allows one brewer to run three batches of beer," Benfield said.

Benfield hopes the automation will improve both the brewery's efficiency—allowing them to produce twice the amount of beer from only 20 pecent more grain—and the consistency of the product by removing the opportunity for human error in processes like adding hops or yeast to the brews.

"It's safe to say it's one of the most state of the art systems in Maryland, possibly in the mid-Atlantic region," said DuClaw Sales Manager (and Beer in Baltimore blogger) Brad Klipner.

The new brewing system and a new bottling line are just the beginning for the growing company.

"A lot of stuff comes later—we put a lot of money into the brewhouse and the bottling line," Benfield said.

That stuff could include brewery tours, a tasting room, and possible the on-site sale of growlers—a type of carry-out container for draft beer—pending legislation currently in Annapolis, Benfield said.

It also might include a move for one of DuClaw's flagship events—the Real Ale Festival, which the company has held at the Bel Air brewpub for a few years running.

"It's really a great business to have in the area," he said. "We're manufacturing, but we're clean manufacturing—there are no bad byproducts, and we bring visitors to the area.Welcome to the premier industrial source for Custom IInjection Mold Plastics in New York.A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon."

Although things are looking bright, the decision to leave Harford County—where Benfield lives, grew up and started DuClaw in 1996—wasn't an easy one.

"I'm in Harford County,Our precision manufactured lasers and laser marker systems deliver the highest possible laser marking performance. I grew up in Harford–leaving was a tough thing," Benfield said.

And it wasn't for a lack of trying to stay. When the brewery outgrew their Abingdon location, they first looked to move to a facility in Havre de Grace but Benfield said the deal didn't work out and from that point things moved quickly.

"Baltimore County Economic Development and Governement were great to work with," Benfield said. The decision to move into the space at 8601 Yellow Brick Road was made in only about a month.

The move will make DuClaw Brewing the second manufacturing brewery in Baltimore County,Home Ventilation system gently and naturally ventilate your home with fresher. joining Heavy Seas on the westside in the Lansdowne/Arbutus area.

Dan Gundersen, the executive director of Baltimore County's Department of Economic Development said that a small to medium size manufacturer like DuClaw is exactly the sort of business the county is hoping to draw in.

"A company that has a unique product, is growing fast, has a dynamic team, can hire as they grow in a community on the east side where it can accommodate their growth, that’s exactly what we’re looking for," Gundersen said.

He explained that Baltimore County is home to more manufacturers than any other county in Maryland.

"The public has a difficult time understanding, we’re talking about a different kind of manufacturing ...Online shopping for bobbleheads Figures from a great selection. we're not talking about an old-style smokestack operation—we're talking about highly sophisticated, highly automated operations that pay high wages," he said.

"That's the kind of thing that we need to encourage and support, those are going to provide the biggest economic gain for the regional economy."

DuClaw owner Dave Benfield said that over the next year or so, his company will probably add between 25 and 30 new positions.

Moving an operation of DuClaw's size presents some challenges of its own: while Benfield said his brewers plan to start creating new batches of beer by the middle of March, it could be as late as April before beer is bottled at the plant.

It will take two to three weeks to transfer the company's bottling and packaging line from the old Abingdon brewery.

And there are people in this country that somehow think passing another law banning guns would protect us from someone like this. If you haven’t noticed, people like this are not concerned about breaking laws; they only care about fulfilling their own twisted agenda. The only people that a gun ban law would impact are the law-abiding citizens, which will only serve to cripple the ability to protect ourselves.

Write your senators, your congressmen, and your state representatives. We’re all in this together whether you’re a hunter, sport shooter or just a backyard plinker. If we don’t stick together and let them know how we feel we will loose.

My goal is to keep you informed about the outdoors, and I hope I do that well, not soap box about a bunch of hypocritical bureaucrats in Washington who sit in their ivory towers and are so far removed from the real world they don’t even know what a law-abiding firearms owner really is.

Obama’s Choice to Alienate Environmental Activists

Somewhere around thirty-five to forty thousand people came to the National Mall in Washington, DC, for one of the largest climate rallies in history. Those demonstrating demanded that President Barack Obama honor his inaugural pledge and take action on climate change. They also called on Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline being built by TransCanada.

The major rally came days after forty-eight were arrested in front of the White House in a planned civil disobedience action. Though the Sierra Club weakly floated a disclaimer that they were not here to be critical of Obama, their executive director, Michael Brune,A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon. and president, Allison Chin, broke a ban on civil disobedience the environmental organization had in place for 120 years. Bill McKibben, Julian Bond, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Connor Kennedy and Daryl Hannah were arrested as well.

It seems like post-Obama’s re-election the environmental movement is renewing its energy and it is worthwhile to consider the movement to stop the pipeline’s impact so far and the likelihood that it stops the pipeline from finally being approved.

In the months of August and September in 2011, over a thousand were arrested in sit-ins that occurred for two straight weeks in front of the White House. The actions organized by Tar Sands Action effectively called attention to construction of the pipeline and why it should not be constructed. And then, on September 17, 2011, Occupy Wall Street began and the Occupy movement erupted. Many involved in Occupy protests took up the cause of stopping the pipeline.

On January 18, 2012, the Obama administration decided to not issue a permit before February 21 after Congress imposed a 60-day deadline on a “process for the permit as part of a deal to extend a payroll-tax break and unemployment benefits for two months.” This was largely viewed as a victory by leaders like McKibben, who reacted, “What you’ve done these past eight months is quite amazing—and against all the odds. We’ve won no permanent victory (environmentalists never do) but we have shown that spirited people can bring science back to the fore.”

However, just over a month and a half later, Obama held a rally for his presidential re-election campaign in Cushing, Oklahoma, an oil town, where he boasted,Welcome to the premier industrial source for Custom IInjection Mold Plastics in New York. “Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.” He said he directed his administration over the last three years to open up millions of acres of land for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. “We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some. So, we are drilling all over the place.”

Obama addressed the “glut” of oil, how there wasn’t enough pipeline capacity to move it to the Gulf of Mexico for refining. He added, “Right now,Online shopping for bobbleheads Figures from a great selection. a company called TransCanada has applied to build a new pipeline to speed more oil from Cushing to state-of-the-art refineries down on the Gulf Coast. Today, I’m directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles and make this project a priority.” He issued an executive order to expedite construction and the permit process for the pipeline.

If the denial of a permit in January was a victory for the movement, this executive order, rally and speech by Obama was a loss. Yet, with his re-election looming, established environmental organizations opted to weakly point out how Big Oil has great influence over the political process instead of returning to the White House fence for another round of civil disobedience action.

The Tar Sands Blockade mobilized in August 2012. Dozens of people engaged in direct action chaining or locking themselves to TransCanada’s construction equipment at various points along the planned pipeline route. They formed a “tree blockade” and built wooden platforms in the trees to disrupt TransCanada’s ability to destroy forest to construct the pipeline. Activists sought to form relationships with landowners that had been bullied by TransCanada into giving up their land for construction. And, for the most part, it had the effect those taking action wanted because TransCanada decided to file a lawsuit to bully individuals and groups mobilizing into halting their activity.

The nearly 500-mile long pipeline crosses into the United States from Canada so the ultimate decision involves the State Department. The New York Times published a story over the weekend outlining “the choice” Obama has to make: “a choice between alienating environmental advocates who overwhelmingly supported his candidacy or causing a deep and perhaps lasting rift with Canada.”

The Times framed the story as a false choice, which establishment media often do. Setup this way, Obama’s final choice would also not involve domestic considerations. Obama has himself made this about energy security. The decision could be a choice between alienating the oil industry or environmental activists.

Regardless, Obama is likely to choose to alienate environmental activists. The cold-blooded cost-benefit analysis that this pragmatic politician is relying upon probably does not favor the Sierra Club,Home Ventilation system gently and naturally ventilate your home with fresher. 350.org,Our precision manufactured lasers and laser marker systems deliver the highest possible laser marking performance. the Tar Sands Blockade, the indigenous people of Canada and the US, landowners, farmers and/or other concerned citizens who have engaged in demonstrations.

The State Department has been found to have close ties to a lobbyist for TransCanada. A cable released by WikiLeaks from October 2009 showed diplomatic interest in helping to improve “oil sands messaging” to make dirty oil production less controversial. The Los Angeles Times reported in October 2011 that Obama’s re-election campaign had had “hired a former lobbyist for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline as a top adviser.”

That does not mean that environmental groups and concerned Americans cannot have an impact and, perhaps, even stop the pipeline that will significantly contribute to climate change from being built. What it means is everyone involved in protesting has to recognize that Obama has actively engaged in moving the proposed pipeline project closer to approval by trying to address some of the environmental concerns. He does not see the oil pipeline itself as the environmental risk. He thinks that TransCanada can build a pipeline that will not impact the health or safety of Americans and the environment.

He wanted to make women cry

When,Wide range of unique crystal mosaic and natural stone mosaic tiles. in 1964, Fran?oise Gilot published Life with Picasso, a forthright memoir of her 10-year relationship with the Spanish artist, Roy Lichtenstein turned to his then girlfriend, Letty Eisenhauer, and said: “I worry about the day that you do a Gilot to my Picasso.”

He needn’t have fretted. Eisenhauer – who lived with Lichtenstein for two years in the mid-Sixties when she was a graduate student and he was creating some of his most memorable and important works – has never written about their time together. Indeed, now 77 years old, she hasn’t even spoken in public about her relationship with Lichtenstein — until now.

On the eve of a major new retrospective of Lichtenstein’s work at Tate Modern, I called Eisenhauer in New York last week to find out more about her ex-boyfriend, whose work sells today for tens of millions of pounds. In May 2012, his Sleeping Girl – painted in 1964, the year Life magazine published an article about him beneath the headline: “Is He the Worst Artist in the US?” – sold at auction for a record $44.9?million (£27.8? million).

Lichtenstein was already 37 when he created his seminal Pop work Look Mickey (1961), an oil painting measuring 48 by 69 inches in which Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse are shown fishing on a jetty. By then, he had been painting for more than a decade, but his earlier Cubistic canvases of cowboys on bucking broncos and American Indians hadn’t generated much excitement. Nor had his abstract paintings of the late Fifties. To make ends meet, he taught art and rattled through a succession of short-term jobs: selling silver jewellery, designing window displays for department stores, creating mosaic tables.

The turning point in his career came in the spring of 1960 when he became assistant professor of art at Douglass College at Rutgers University in New Jersey. While there, he was greatly influenced by a colleague, the charismatic, pioneering American artist and theorist Allan Kaprow, who persuaded Lichtenstein that so-called vernacular or everyday things — such as Walt Disney cartoon characters — could be legitimate artistic subject matter. “Art doesn’t have to look like art,” Kaprow told him.

If Lichtenstein is considered the architect of Pop art, then Look Mickey is the movement’s foundation stone. According to the art historian James Rondeau, who co-curated the Tate exhibition, the painting “feels like Athena sprung [fully formed] from the head of Zeus”. Here, as if from nowhere,We have a wide selection of drycabinets to choose from for your storage needs. are the hallmarks of Lichtenstein’s mature Pop style: a limited palette of even,wind turbine primary colours; thick, dark outlines; small dots (blue for the “whites” of Donald’s eyes and pinkish-red for Mickey’s face) to simulate the representational techniques of cheap commercial printing; the fusion of “high” and “low”, as everyday imagery intrudes upon the ivory tower of fine art.

As soon as Eisenhauer saw the work, she recognised it as something special. “There was no question,” she says. “Everybody knew it was very important — you’d have to be an idiot not to know that. We’d been sucked into the Abstract-Expressionist world for so long, and this was such a breakthrough. I told Roy, the place to take this is to Leo Castelli, because Castelli was the best gallery in New York.”

Lichtenstein wasn’t the only American artist painting cartoons in 1961: a shy, listless commercial illustrator called Andy Warhol was already appropriating Superman, Dick Tracy, Batman and Popeye into his pictures. Both artists petitioned Castelli for representation, but the urbane dealer plumped for Lichtenstein. If he hadn’t, the history of Pop art would be very different: the following year he hosted the sell-out solo show that would make Lichtenstein’s name.

“Andy and Roy were in competition — both had paintings in the back room at the gallery,Willkommen im virtuellen Zuhause der Lercher Werkzeugbau GmbH.” says Eisenhauer. “I knew Roy, because I had been working with him at Rutgers, so I took Ileana Sonnabend, Leo’s former wife and the person who really understood art and originally advised Leo about artists, to visit him. Ileana bought paintings from Roy that day. After he found out about the purchases, Leo wisely followed his former wife’s lead, and made his decision to take on Roy, not Andy. Leo was upset that Roy had already sold several paintings of what was later called Pop art. This was when Roy was still an innocent. That day, I remember Roy turning to me and asking, ‘If I take these cheques to the bank, will I get money for them?’ It was a far cry from several years later when we were in Europe and setting up a Swiss bank account.”

At this point, Lichtenstein and Eisenhauer, who was born in 1935 and grew up in New Jersey, were friends rather than lovers. Indeed, Lichtenstein was still married to his first wife Isabel Wilson (an interior designer), who had given birth to their two sons, David and Mitchell, in 1954 and 1956.

“Things weren’t going well, but I didn’t know that,” says Eisenhauer, who left her job at Douglass College, and moved to a loft on Lispenard Street in Lower Manhattan, where she tried to make it as a sculptor. “Roy would show up in New York for art events, and he would try to put the moves on me. Once, when I rebuffed him, he said to me: ‘You’re really straight, aren’t you?’ And I said: ‘Yes, and you’re a married man!’ I’ll never forget it.”

In the autumn of 1961, Lichtenstein demanded a trial separation from Isabel, who was by then suffering from alcoholism, and moved into a studio in New York City. After a failed attempt at reconciliation the following summer, the couple sold the family home in Highland Park, New Jersey, in the autumn of 1963, and Isabel moved with the children to Princeton.

Shortly afterwards, Lichtenstein attended a dinner party at Eisenhauer’s loft. “I remember it as if it were today,” she says. “Everyone was dancing, but I was sitting at the table. Suddenly Roy was sitting next to me and his hand was on top of mine. He’d left Isabel, so he was a free man. He just held my hand. And then the evening was over. Right after that, he called and asked me out.”

Within weeks, Eisenhauer had moved into the second-floor studio on 26th Street where Lichtenstein lived and worked after his second separation from Isabel. They lived together until the summer of 1965,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! while Eisenhauer was a graduate student at Columbia University. Had she fallen in love? “Oh yes, I adored him,” Eisenhauer says. “He was not only funny, but also sexy, very sweet, and there was no apparent meanness.” They socialised with other artists. “We had a group that included [Claes] Oldenburg and [James] Rosenquist — all of these nutty people who were part of the Pop scene. And we would go ice-skating once a week. Then someone would say, I’ll cook dinner — so we got into gourmet dinners. Finally it ended up with Roy and somebody having a cannoli-eating contest — to see who could eat the most.”

Nashville memorial service planned for Mindy McCready

A statement released Monday by Mindy McCready's publicist says a Nashville tribute to the late singer is in the works.

"To complement formal family arrangements, preliminary plans are being made by Mindy's 'friends in music' to organize a memorial in Nashville in the coming days," said the statement from Music City News Media & Marketing. No date or location has been announced.

McCready, known for '90s country singles Ten Thousand Angels and Guys Do It All the Time, apparently shot herself Sunday afternoon on the front porch of her Arkansas home. Her boyfriend, record producer David Wilson, died in a similar fashion in the same place just a month before.

Nashville television reporter Stacy McCloud tweeted Monday afternoon that "close friends of Mindy McCready tell me that her body will be taken to her home state of Florida."

Meanwhile, friends, acquaintances and other entertainers continued to relate their sympathies and memories of the 37-year-old mother of two.wind turbine

Former labelmate John Rich recalled meeting McCready at the 1996 Academy of Country Music Awards. "She was a bright ball of energy back then. She was all about making great country music,Wide range of unique crystal mosaic and natural stone mosaic tiles." Rich said on The Big D and Bubba syndicated radio show Monday morning. "I do want positive things to be said about her, because I know everybody's talking about all the troubles she had. That's obviously all too real.We have a wide selection of drycabinets to choose from for your storage needs. But there was another side of her I knew, especially back when she was really coming on in country music. She waWillkommen im virtuellen Zuhause der Lercher Werkzeugbau GmbH.s a ball of fire."

Wynonna Judd tweeted: "This is so sad. It just breaks my heart what addiction continues to take from this life. Addiction is a disease & not a character flaw. When the pain becomes too much, it causes people to want that pain to stop."

Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott said, "My heart is breaking hearing of the loss of Mindy McCready. Pray for her 2 precious little boys ... may God's peace & protection be on them!"

In his initial interview with the Michigan Employment Development Corporation, Dusty Duistermars was asked why the organization, whose goal is to create jobs by attracting new businesses to the state, should bother hiring him at all.

He couldn’t help but smile at that question.

“Yeah, they asked me, ‘Why should we hire you?’ I told them I’ve been selling Michigan for most of my life,” said Duistermars, a Holland Christian High School and Grand Valley State University graduate who was honored as one of the top 40 up-and-coming economic development professionals in the nation recently.

“I grew up in Holland and my mom, Mary, was the former president of Tulip Time. I used to wear a Dutch costume as a kid at the festival booth,” he added. “And then I got into residential and commercial real estate before landing this job with the MEDC. So, I really have been selling the state of Michigan for a long time.”

Duistermars, 34, is among four business professionals in the state of Michigan younger than 40 named to Development Counselors International’s prestigious list announced last month at the DCI Leadership Summit in Orlando, Fla.

A five-member committee chose the winners from a pool of more than 150 nominees throughout the U.S. The honorees included 26 men and 14 women.

Duistermars,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! who resides in Holland, was nominated because of his outstanding efforts as MEDC’s site location services manager and helping connect companies to communities around the state during Michigan’s economic recovery.

“It’s very cool,” Duistermars said. “It’s a huge team effort at the MEDC. We get companies to notice our state. Attracting those companies is more of an art than a science sometimes, but I wake up every morning happy to work my butt off so friends of mine can have jobs. I’m busier than I have ever been right now.

“Business is good. We’re heading in the right direction.”

Randy Thelen, president of Lakeshore Advantage, had high praise for Duistermars.

"He's a real go-getter. He has proven himself to be a great asset to the MEDC and certainly a great partner to Lakeshore Advantage," Thelen said.

Since the beginning of fiscal 2012, the MEDC has successfully attracted more than 1,000 jobs and $100 million in capital investment from site selection-led projects, he said.

“I’m going to credit Gov. Snyder for changing that perception (of Michigan as a difficult place to do business) and getting things turned around,” said Duistermars, who taught English at Holland High School for two years before embarking on a real estate career that put him on the path to becoming an economic leader.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Winners and losers

The Interim champ passed a serious test against the young but dangerous Michael McDonald last night. A very reasonable respect for McDonald's sharp straight punches limited Barao's ability to employ his leg kicks. Without his bread and butter offensive weapon, Barao had to adjust his approach and he did it very well, hurting McDonald on the feet and submitting him on the ground. Now Barao has to await the recovery and return of injured champ Dominick Cruz. Dana White hopes to put that fight on this summer.

Swanson trained for Dennis Siver but Siver's injury forced Cub to face a very different, but very formidable Dustin Poirier. It was clear the change in opponents and Poirier's varied skill set gave Swanson a bit of trouble that required numerous mid-fight adjustments in his game plan. Swanson pulled it out with a very dominant third round. Swanson probably needs one more win to earn a rematch with Featherweight champion Jose Aldo who beat him back in the WEC days.

The British fighter won not one but two Fight Night bonuses, picking up a grand total of $100,000 for his Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night performance against Stanislav Nedkov. He upped the ante with a brilliant post-fight speech that saw him call out any Middleweight on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). In a division with known users such as Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen, this is smart self-promotion.

While four of the seven British fighters on the card notched wins,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. the trio highest on the fight card all lost and lost badly. Mills was utterly dominated by Matt Riddle's wrestling and even though one judge inexplicably awarded him the win, everyone else in the arena saw Mills lose and lose badly.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere. Etim and Sass were coming off big losses and once again came up short. Sass' vaunted submission attack failed utterly against the skilled wrestling of Danny Castillo and he took a beating on his back for his efforts. Etim appeared to have never recovered from being on the wrong end of Edson Barboza's 2012 KO of the Year and took another beating from Renee Forte.

Despite ending with back-to-back excellent fights, the bulk of the card featured snoozy decision after snoozy decision. Fighters laid on the mat. Fighters leaned into the cage. London fans showed a great deal of patience by not booing the lack of action, but they surely weren't pleased by the paucity of action.

The 24-year-old Grispi dropped his fourth straight UFC bout against Andy Ogle and the fight summed up his career - flashes of early promise followed by a failure to adapt and wilting in the face of adversity. After the fight Ogle said, "you're a bad man" and Grispi replied, "I was." That's just sad to hear from a young athlete who should be on the upswing, not on his way out of the UFC.

Just last week, NCAA tournament selection committee chair Mike Bobinski hosted the first of a handful of teleconferences heading toward Selection Sunday. It was just a day after Nerlens Noel tore his anterior cruciate ligament, so naturally Bobinski was asked how the loss of Kentucky's best player would affect the Wildcats' chance at an NCAA tourney berth.

Tied for the fourth-worst loss for UK in the past 80 years. John Calipari's worst loss since Feb.Service Report a problem with a street light. 18, 1989. That was a lifetime ago, in his first season at Massachusetts,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a smart card can authenticate your computer usage and data. when the Minutemen lost to Duquesne by 31. He didn't have quite as many McDonald's All Americans on that roster.Laser engravers and laser engraving machine systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business.

If this were an audition for the tourney bracket, the director would be yelling, "Next!"

Just barely on the bubble to begin with -- Kentucky has zero top-50 RPI wins now that free-falling Ole Miss has dropped to 51 -- the Wildcats were quickly dumped to the First Four Out by Joe Lunardi on Saturday afternoon (remember, even before Noel got hurt, UK was getting essentially run out of the gym by Florida).

There is no question that losing Noel is a huge blow, but it is not just in terms of X's and O's.

That Tennessee loss -- and give the Vols credit for playing a near-flawless game (especially point guard Trae Golden) -- exposed the real crux of the problem for Kentucky sans Noel.

For most of the season, he has been the only one playing with a combination of consistent ferocity and passion. The rest of the team tends to disappear frequently, lollygags on defense often and shows such dispassionate body language at times that you have to wonder whether the players are clock-watching.

In Noel's absence, his freshman classmates Willie Cauley-Stein, Alex Poythress and Archie Goodwin combined for 13 points, 13 fouls and nine turnovers.

A year after coaching one of the best collections of hard-working, unselfish players, Calipari has a group he cannot cajole, bullwhip or beg into cohesion.

It has gotten so bad that the coach spent the week before the Florida game talking about his team's need to find love. Not the Valentine kind, but the bromance of basketball.

Thanks to the cottony soft bubble, Kentucky isn't dead yet. But the Grim Reaper is standing by. The Wildcats have six regular-season games left -- four that can only hurt them (against Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas and Georgia) and two that will mean everything (visits from Missouri and Florida).

Datalogic lands major tracking installations

A global leader in Automatic Identification and total solutions provider of bar code readers, data collection mobile computers and vision systems, recently announced new partnerships for its automated baggage handling projects in newly built airport terminals all over the world.

These new projects account for over 60 state-of-the art reading stations with more reading stations to be implemented during the next months.

Today, with active systems in more than 100 airports around the world, Datalogic is expanding its leading position in this sector even further, with the recent handover of new baggage handling systems (BHS) for Calcutta Airport in India, Bogota Airport in Colombia, Lodz Airport in Poland and Dubai airport.

In addition to this, Datalogic has a significant order book for installations in new airport terminals in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), St Petersburg (Russia), in Oman, Bangalore (India) and also a recently awarded project for Bali Airport in Indonesia.

Datalogic is a pioneer and early adopter of scanning solutions for baggage handling, with the first automatic tag reader (ATR) installation worldwide in Milan's Linate airport in 1984.

Mauro Sacchetto, Datalogic Group's CEO, says: "We are very pleased that Datalogic's solutions are being successfully employed in airports all over the world, in particular in emerging markets where a consistent increase in passenger numbers is to be expected. Thanks to the advanced technology of Datalogic's solutions we are able to meet the most demanding needs of modern airports that are implementing our cutting edge sorting and conveying systems for fully automated baggage handling".

Datalogic's BHS solution is extremely easy to install, operate and maintain. It guarantees the highest reading rates in every operating condition. In addition, the system integrates state-of-the-art diagnostic and control tools for real time performance monitoring and surveillance.Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a smart card can authenticate your computer usage and data. In addition, all the components of the baggage handling solution are extremely resistant and are able to operate in any environment - from extreme temperatures of heat and cold to high humidity and dust levels. One of these components is the DS8100A industrial bar code reader, a high performance linear laser reader designed to fulfill the sorting needs in the Transportation & Logistics sector, which is also ideal for airport applications.

Each reading station consists of 8 omni-directional scanners which, combined with powerful software algorithms, can correctly scan luggage tags, whatever their orientation. By using the Packtrack patented technology, traceability of each individual piece of luggage is ensured as the correct code assignment is guaranteed, even when items are extremely close to one another.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere. This makes the BHS solution perfectly suitable for state of the art sorting technologies. As an example, in automatic identification and baggage sorting systems with industrial bar code readers approx. 4,000 luggage labels are read per hour.

Besides baggage handling solutions, Datalogic also produces other airport applications such as access and check-in control solutions. Access control solutions have been implemented at security gate check-in areas in Bologna Airport in Italy, which uses Datalogic's PowerScan PM8500 2D bar code reader to handle over 8,500 passengers every day during peak periods in summer.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Germany, which may we remind is crossed by over 3.5 million passengers, has implemented Datalogic Gryphon GD4400 2D readers, which are used to check-in passengers and to control their boarding passes allowing to save an estimated 25 minutes per flight in ground control operations.

Datalogic Group is a global leader in Automatic Identification with a specific focus on the Automatic Data Capture and Industrial Automation sectors. As a world-class total solutions provider and producer of bar code readers, data collection mobile computer and vision systems, Datalogic offers innovative solutions for a full range of applications in the manufacturing, retail, healthcare and transportation & logistics industries. Datalogic S.p.A., listed on the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001 as DAL.MI, is headquartered in Lippo di Calderara di Reno (Bologna). The Group's recent acquisition of Accu-Sort Systems Inc.I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics., a leading supplier of Automatic Identification products and solutions in the United States, has doubled its presence in the Industrial Automation market,Service Report a problem with a street light. escalating Datalogic to undisputed leadership in the Industrial Bar Code Scanners segment with a market share of 31%. Datalogic Group as of today employs more than 2,400 members of staff worldwide, distributed in 30 countries across Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific region.Laser engravers and laser engraving machine systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business. In 2011 Datalogic Group achieved revenues for 425,5 million Euro and invested over 26 million Euro in Research and Development with a portfolio of over 1,000 patents across the world.

John Topolsky: If you buy the Nexus 4, you have to decide whether you’re willing to compromise data speeds for the purest and best form of the Android OS. After comparing the options and seeing the gulf between Google’s flagship and other devices on the market, I’ve decided it’s a compromise I won’t be making again.

Walt Mossberg: Overall, the Nexus 4 is a good phone, with especially good prices for unlocked versions. But I’d advise Android buyers to consider other models with LTE, better speakers, and the ability to add more memory and work on all carriers.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Wired: Thoughtfully designed hardware displays a quality of finish that can compete with the best rival smartphones. Big 4.7-inch screen is crisp, detailed and beautiful. Quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM give it power to spare. NFC and wireless charging show Google pushing new platforms forward. Bargain pricing for and unlocked beast of a phone. Latest Android, directly from Google, with no delays from carriers or hardware makers. No LTE connectivity means the Nexus 4 is confined to slower, older mobile networks. No micro SD card slot or expandable storage of any sort. The rear speaker isn’t very loud and doesn’t sound very good.

Brad Molen: Sure, the Nexus 4 is not without its hiccups, but none of its predecessors have been perfect, either. And given the boost in real-world performance, the better camera and various other new features, it’s even more tempting than all those previous devices whose shoes it’s trying to fill. In a case like this… you have our permission not to resist.

450th plans flawed

St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary commemoration in 2015 will probably draw national and international attention along with significant local spending by thousands of visitors seeking food, gasoline, parking, lodging and souvenirs.

City Manager John Regan, under the watchful eyes of the City Commission, has assembled a team of department heads and employees to present this massive undertaking in two years.

“The 450th is much bigger than the city,” Regan said Saturday. “Our first goal is (promoting) awareness of St. Augustine.”

But some local residents say that is just the point. They say the 450th has morphed from a celebration of history to anything the city says it is. They believe the city is off-base with its planning and that community ideas have been ignored.I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics.

Former St. Augustine Mayor George Gardner, who served from 2002 to 2010, is one of those critics.

Last week Garner suggested that Town Hall meetings — forums where commissioners and staff discuss ideas with the public — might result in greater community participation. He’d like to see popular programs, such as the changing of the guard ceremony, returned.

“The commission is isolated,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere.” Gardner said.We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. “There are groups in town which would love to participate.”

He is seconded by Tom Rahner, who founded Flagler College’s theater department and retired as associate professor emeritus 15 years ago, and who served as former general manager of St. Augustine’s 400th celebration in 1965.

Rahner said the current 450th planning process seems to be “missing the spirit of collegiality and community involvement. There doesn’t seem to be any signature event we’re moving toward. The human condition requires that kind of focus. What is the centerpiece?”

He said legacy projects of the 400th included building St. Augustine Amphitheatre, creation of “Cross and Sword,” the official state play, which Rahner directed, the Cathedral Basilica renovation and erection of a 210-foot metal cross at Mission Nombre de Dios on north San Marco Avenue, he said. Also presented were fireworks, concerts, historic restorations, a commemorative stamp from the Post Office and a series of commemorative bronze, silver and gold coins.ST Electronics' parking guidance system provides drivers with a realtime indication of available parking spaces.

“We had a large committee,” Rahner said. “There was cooperation and a civic spirit. Everyone had input and all had projects. I don’t see that sort of broad-based cooperation in the 450th. I don’t sense any real excitement about what’s going to happen. I don’t sense anticipation, probably because the planning has been insular.”

“It’s a three-year commemoration that bundles significant anniversaries of St. Augustine and Florida, including the 500th this year, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in 2014 and the 450th in 2015,” he said. “Our focus right now is on the Quincentennial, the 500th anniversary of the founding of Florida by Juan Ponce.”

Gardner said the city has been billing the Picasso exhibition at the Visitor Information Center and the coming Mumford & Son concert in September as part of the 450th event, though neither has any historical connection to it.

At noon April 2, the exact day Ponce landed in Florida in 1513, Holiday and friends will dedicate a 6-foot 2-inch, 300-pound bronze statue of Don Juan Ponce de Leon on a 13-foot base paid for by St. Augustine resident Candace Carroll.

The cenotaph will be visible from State Road A1A North near Guana’s north parking lot and is within 500 meters of latitude 30 degrees, 8 minutes, the exact spot where Ponce’s records indicate he came ashore.

Only sand dunes covered with scrub vegetation are there now.

“It’s just the way Ponce found it,” Holiday said of the view, adding that other coastal Florida places have claimed to be where Ponce landed, but the Herrera account, specifying 30 degrees. 8 minutes, is the only site with supporting historical documents.

This dedication will be a day before the city’s costumed landing near the Mission.

The caravel project is one that Holiday and 75 plank owners have worked on for more than a year, and it will be anchored offshore during the statue’s dedication.

Named “El Espiritu,Service Report a problem with a street light.” the 73-foot former shrimp boat was formerly named Applejack, and was converted at St. Augustine Marine on Riberia Street. Cost: $25,000, all raised privately.

Chronicle/News police reports February

Nyshea Holloway, 20, of Norfolk Street, Philadelphia, was charged with retail theft and possession and receiving stolen property Jan. 22 after H&M security observed her select $169.85 worth of merchandise, conceal it in her bag and attempt to leave the store without paying at the H&M in the Willow Grove Park mall at 1:23 p.m., police said. Holloway was stopped and taken into custody, police said. Dymira Gary Davis, 18, of North 9th Street, Philadelphia, was cited for retail theft for her involvement in the theft, police said. She stole $110 worth of store merchandise, police said.

Simple assault … Raymond McCade, 56, of Westmont Avenue, Roslyn, was charged with simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct Jan. 22 after a victim reported that he threw her on the ground causing her to strike her head during a domestic dispute in the unit block of Westmont Avenue at 10:41 p.m., police said. McCade was gone prior to police arrival, police said. The victim was transported to Abington Memorial Hospital for treatment for the laceration on her head from the fall, police said.

Public drunkenness … Matthew I. Cross-Harris, 21, of Easton Road, Willow Grove, was charged with public drunkenness, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled or counterfeit substance, possession of a small amount of marijuana, carrying a firearm without a license and related charges Jan. 25 after police responded to the report of intoxicated individuals walking in the 2600 block of Moreland Road at 9:02 p.m., police said. Police conducted a pedestrian stop and searched the individuals, police said. Authorities found Cross-Harris to be in possession of a firearm he did not have a license to carry, a plastic bag that contained suspected marijuana and a cigarette coated with phencyclidine known as PCP, police said. Sara R. Dickinson, 18, of Woodlawn Dive; Lansdale,Service Report a problem with a street light. Richard L. Stroud, 20, of North 43rd Street, Philadelphia; and Airen K. Emfinger, of Weikel Road, Lansdale, were cited for public drunkenness, police said.

Daniel Fitzhenry, 27, of Fuller Street, Philadelphia, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance, public drunkenness and related charged Jan. 26 after police observed a gray Chevrolet Equinox parked and running in the 700 block of Huntingdon Pike at 2:14 a.m., police said. Police observed Fitzhenry sitting in the snow in the parking lot of the Leto Dry Cleaners, a few feet from his vehicle, police said. Police detected an odor of alcohol coming from his person, police said. He was unable to stand without assistance and unable to reform field sobriety tests, police said. He was transported to Holy Redeemer Hospital and refused to submit to blood tests, police said.

Simple assault … Lauro Cardosa, 22, of Edge Hill Road, Glenside, was charged with simple assault and harassment Jan. 27 after he pushed a victim down steps that caused the victim to strike his head on a glass door at the bottom of the stairway during a domestic dispute in the 500 block of Tyson Avenue at 3:28 a.m., police said. The glass door shattered and there was a large amount of blood at the bottom of the steps, on the steps and in the hallway, police said. The victim had a deep laceration on his forehead and was transported to Abington Memorial Hospital for treatment, police said.

Harassment … Edwin Zavala, 29, of Benson Street, Philadelphia, was charged with harassment and disorderly conduct Jan. 28 after he went to a victims job at Labor Ready located in the 1800 block of Easton Road twice between the hours of 9:01 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. causing a disturbance, police said. He also proceeded to call the victim numerous times at 4:12 p.m. at her job, police said.

Criminal mischief … Emerson Juarez-Ramirez, 23, of Central Avenue, North Hills, was cited with criminal mischief Jan. 22 after police responded to the 200 block of Central Avenue at 5:02 a.m. for the report that Juarez-Ramirez had destroyed items belonging to his ex-girlfriend, police said. He was found on site with a bloody hand and was transported to the Abington Police Department for processing, police said.

Disorderly conduct … Brendan Kelly, 26, of Charles Street, Glenside, was cited for disorderly conduct and criminal mischief Jan. 23 after police responded to the report that Kelly, who was intoxicated, was interfering with medics as they were assisting a patient in the 600 block of Pine Tree Road at 10:25 p.m., police said. While trying to usher Kelly away from the scene, an officer damaged his uniform, police said.

Matthew McAleer, 18, of Rising Sun Avenue, Philadelphia; and Roman Rosales, 19,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. of June Road, Huntingdon Valley, were cited with underage drinking Jan. 27 after police were called to the 300 block of Zane Avenue for the report of a group of individuals arguing in the street at 10:17 p.m., police said. The group was dispersed and McAleer and Rosales were found to be intoxicated, police said.

Retail theft … Tache Cobb, 18, of North 19th Street, Philadelphia, was cited with retail theft after an H&M employee observed Cobb select $89 worth of merchandise , conceal the items in a bag and attempt to leave the store without paying at the H&M in the Willow Grove Park mall at 6:16 p.m., police said.

Public drunkenness … Lamall Phillips, 36, of Old York Road, was cited with public drunkenness and harassment Jan. 29 after police responded to a report of a man and women arguing in the parking lot in 1100 block of Old York Road at 8:45 p.m., police said. A witness observed Phillips pushing and shoving the woman, police said.

Disorderly conduct … Rushell Anderson, 25, of Souder Street, Philadelphia,ST Electronics' parking guidance system provides drivers with a realtime indication of available parking spaces. was cited with disorderly conduct Jan. 31 after police stopped a vehicle on the 1100 block of Old York Road at 7:32 a.m., police said. Anderson admitted to smoking marijuana and possessing a small amount of marijuana, police said.

Public drunkenness … Daniel Lehr,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. 20, of Mayfield Circle, Jamison, was cited with public drunkenness Jan. 31 after Willow Grove Mall security found him to be under the influence of drugs at 7:49 p.m., police said. Lehr was transported to the Abington Police Department, police said.

Disorderly conduct … Shanelle Davis, 20, of North 19th Street,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere. Philadelphia, was cited with disorderly conduct and retail theft Jan. 31 after Davis and two other individuals were told by the BP gas station manger buy something or leave at the BP in the 1400 block of Old York Road at 8:59 p.m., police said. Davis yelled obscenities at the manager and took a bottle of juice and left the store without paying, police said.

Underage drinking … James Kinslow, 20, of Montgomery Avenue, Elkins Park, was cited with underage drinking Feb. 2 after police observed Kinslow seated in a parked vehicle in the 600 block of Seminole Avenue at 11:33 p.m. intoxicated, police said.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Horsemeat scandal linked to secret network of firms

Europe's unfolding horsemeat scandal took a new twist on Saturday when it emerged that key intermediaries involved in the trade appeared to be using a similar secretive network of companies to the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) identified an intermediary firm, Draap Trading, based in Limassol, Cyprus, as playing a pivotal role in shipping horsemeat across Europe.

Draap has confirmed that it bought horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs. The company sold the meat to French food processors including Spanghero, which supplied another French company, Comigel, that turned it into frozen meals for the likes of food firm Findus, some of which had a meat content that was almost 100% horse.

Draap, which is owned by a trust in the British Virgin Islands tax haven,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics. insists the meat it sold into France was labelled as horse. Spanghero says the meat arrived labelled "beef". Jan Fasen, who runs Draap and has denied any wrongdoing, was convicted last year of selling South American horsemeat as German and Dutch beef.

In a development that sheds light on the mysterious networks operating in the European food chain, it has emerged that Draap's sole director is an anonymous corporate services company called Guardstand, set up in 1996 and based in Limassol.

A 2011 joint report by the International Peace Information Service and TransArms, an organisation which researches arms shipments, produced evidence that Guardstand also owned a share in a business called Ilex Ventures, a connection that links the company to the global arms trade and Viktor Bout.

Documents filed in a New York court by US prosecutors allege that in 2007 Bout and an associate transferred almost $750,000 (483,000) to Ilex for the purchase of aircraft to fly arms and ammunition around Africa's trouble spots in breach of embargos.

The prosecutors said Ilex was owned and controlled by Bout, an international weapons dealer known as the "merchant of death", who last April was sentenced to 25 years in jail for arms smuggling.

But who owns Guardstand and why Draap employs it as a director is a mystery that is likely to be studied closely by fraud investigators. Guardstand's sole shareholder is Trident Trust,We offers custom Injection Mold parts in as fast as 1 day. a business based in Cyprus that specialises in establishing companies in tax havens chiefly for Russian and Ukrainian clients and which helped set up Ilex.

Petros Livanios, who runs Trident and was once a director of Ilex, declined the Observer's requests for an interview.

While there is no suggestion anyone at Trident was aware Guardstand may have been exploited by criminal networks, the opaque nature of its ownership will be a concern for investigators trying to unpick the web of interests that facilitate Europe's meat trade.

"This illustrates why hidden company ownership is such a problem," said Rosie Sharpe, of the campaign group Global Witness. "It could be all too easy for crooks passing horsemeat off as beef,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. arms dealers fuelling wars or corrupt dictators nicking their country's wealth to set up a company if they so wished. The ownership or control of European companies can be hidden perfectly legally by using nominees or companies incorporated in secrecy jurisdictions.wind turbine"

Cyprus has been a favourite place through which former Soviet bloc oligarchs and military chiefs have laundered cash plundered from the privatisation programme of state assets that followed the end of the cold war. The island is seeking an EU bailout, but Germany is known to be balking at the prospect unless it reforms its offshore services industry.

"Cypriot companies frequently turn up in criminal investigations," Sharpe said. "They have been used by the Iranian government to evade sanctions, by Slobodan Milosevic to provide arms for the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and by Russian officials who used them to steal hundreds of millions of pounds." Last week the French authorities claimed the scandal had spread to 13 countries and 28 companies. Sorin Minea, head of Romalimenta, the Romanian food industry federation, blamed the crisis on "an international mafia ring".

Christos Christou, Cyprus's public health services deputy director, said investigators had seized a "variety of documents" from Draap's Limassol office which it would share with the European commission.

The scandal, which started in January when authorities in the UK and Ireland found traces of equine DNA in supermarket burgers, has raised concerns that criminal networks may be playing a role in the food chain. What seemed a UK and Ireland problem is becoming a major concern for many EU member states as they conduct tests to establish the security of their food chains.

Several slaughtermen in the UK have been arrested in connection with the UK arm of the scandal. On Thursday the Food Standards Agency raided three more meat processing plants and removed samples for testing, computers and documents.

The FSA said it had passed on evidence to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, as well as authorities in dozens of countries, suggesting at least part of the fraud has an international dimension.

As the scandal spread to school dinners and some of the UK's largest catering firms and restaurants, Catherine Brown, chief executive of the FSA, said it was unlikely that the exact number of people in the UK who had unwittingly eaten horsemeat would ever be known.

Her comments came as the FSA released test results for possible horsemeat contamination.

The watchdog said 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horsemeat at or above 1%. The results related to seven different products, which have been withdrawn from sale. The products linked to the positive results were confirmed as Aldi's special frozen beef lasagne and special frozen spaghetti bolognese, the Co-op's frozen quarter-pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne, Rangeland's catering burger products, and Tesco value frozen burgers and value spaghetti bolognese.

Pub and hotel group Whitbread said its meat lasagnes and beefburgers had been affected. The firm, which owns Premier Inn, Beefeater Grill and Brewers Fayre,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. said the products had been removed from menus and would not be replaced until after further testing.

Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke yesterday emailed customers to tell them the supermarket was introducing "a new benchmark for the testing of products, to give you confidence that if it isn't on the label, it isn't in the product."Figures released today by market analysts, Nielsen, show retail sales of frozen burgers are down 40% year-on-year in the wake of the horsemeat revelations.

New Mixed Use Building Appears Likely

A developer is poised to formally announce plans to build a new, mixed-use four-to-six story building at the northeast corner of Broad and West streets, the Falls Church Times has learned.

The corner, which now houses a Sunoco gas station, 7-11 convenience store, and the popular Mike’s Deli at Lazy Sundae, among other businesses, had been slated a few years ago to become the new home for a Capital One bank branch. But that was nixed by City officials, who refused to allow an exception to permit a drive-through that the bank demanded.

The drive-through wasn’t the City’s real objection, though; what they really objected to was that an enormous commercial parcel in a prominent location at a major intersection was going to get only a small, single-story structure, instead of a larger building that would bring in more tax revenue, sources have said.

Now, City officials seem likely to get their wish, but it’s not clear just how quickly this project will move forward. City officials aren’t talking, and multiple people in a position to know declined to comment until the unnamed and unknown developer formally submits a proposal to City planners.

One commercial real estate agent, asked what she knew about the proposal, said, “I don’t know anything. I can’t talk about it.We offers custom Injection Mold parts in as fast as 1 day.” Asked which it was, she responded, “Both!”

Another agent with multiple commercial listings in the city, when asked what he knew, said: “Why would you think I would know anything about it?”

John Shreve, who owns the land where the project would be built, also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But other sources confirmed the basic outlines of the proposal. It would be a similar building to many others either under construction or proposed and working their way toward City approvals.

Examples of such buildings include Northgate, at 472 N. Washington Street, which is well under way, and a proposal known as The Reserve at Tinner Hill, which would rise where Saab dealer International Motors now stands on South Washington.Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. Another example is the proposed Harris Teeter project, at 301 West Broad.

Like those examples, the new building would have a first floor earmarked for retail stores, and apartments or condos on several floors above.

It would seem to be an attractive location for retailers and residents alike. Retailers would be situated at a very visible corner near one of the busiest intersections in town. Broad Street, of course, is heavy all day long, and West Street sees steady traffic, especially at rush hour.

Meanwhile, residents considering living there might appreciate the walkability of the location — less than a mile to the West Falls Church Metro Station and immediate access to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, which runs mere feet from the proposed project’s rear.

Despite those advantages, the project also would add density and traffic to the already-congested intersection, and potentially put more pressure on the already-burgeoning City schools, depending on the size and quantity of the residential units.

Smaller units are not as attractive to families with children, and that’s what many developers, who see demand for small, more affordable units, have been proposing. For example, 70 percent of the units at the Tinner Hill project are slated to be just one bedroom, which would draw almost no new students. It’s unclear how many units are being proposed in this case, or what their size would be, so it’s difficult to evaluate the impact on the schools at this point.

It’s also a bit early to assume any retail stores are already in the fold for this project, but one source told the Times that Bank of America already has expressed interest in the space. The huge bank’s only other City location is 1.5 miles away on North Washington, across from Northgate.The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics. However, the source who confirmed for the Times the basic outlines of the proposal said he hadn’t heard anything about the bank’s interest.

Multiple sources also said they understood that improvements to the congested Broad-West intersection would be part of the proposal and that some preliminary ideas already have been bounced around between the developer and City planners. However, it could not be learned what those proposals are.

The busy intersection is especially heavy in part because it’s what traffic engineers refer to as an “offset” intersection, in which northbound West Street is located further southeast than southbound West Street, which would create a potentially dangerous situation if both sides were allowed to proceed at the same time.

As a result, northbound traffic currently has a green light and a left arrow first, followed by the southbound traffic. That creates a longer light cycle for the intersection, backing up traffic more than it otherwise might.Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn.wind turbine A possible change, therefore, would be a realignment of West Street to eliminate the offset.

Like the Harris Teeter proposal down the street, this project also would mean the loss of a local favorite. At the Harris Teeter, it is Anthony’s Italian Restaurant. As of Friday, 873 people had signed an online petition urging the city to help save Anthony’s. Ultimately, the decision is out of the city’s hands, although officials certainly could encourage the developer to find a way to incorporate Anthony’s into the new project.

Adieu, gallery; hello, Greece

Today is the last time you will be able to walk into Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City. From noon to 7 p.m. art will be sold at discount prices — some up to 50 percent off. After that, the doors will close permanently.

For 28 years, Brad Cooper Gallery has been known for having exceptional exhibits of contemporary art by international and local artists.

Its closing will leave a void in Tampa's art community. It was at Brad Cooper Gallery that I met international American artists Yvonne Petkus and William Pachner, and Russian artist Peter Mitchev. And it's where I first heard of the tiny Greek island called Naxos.

That's where owner Brad Cooper and his wife, Elizabeth, will head after the closing.

"This will be our fifth season in Naxos," Brad Cooper said in a telephone interview. "We open there from Easter through the beginning of October. That's the season for the Europeans to go on vacation, and the weather is very nice there."

The couple own a shop there where Elizabeth sells her handcrafted jewelry and Brad sells "a little art" to their mostly European customers.We specializes in rapid plastic injection mould and molding of parts for prototypes and production.

For those who know Cooper,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. the decision to close is not a sudden one.

"We've been kind of planning this for a while, but you have to do it one step at a time,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems?" he said. "We feel we've reached a certain limit of what we can achieve here,Laser engravers and laser engraving machine systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business. and we want to pursue other creative paths."

"I think we did a lot of exciting exhibitions over the years," he said. "We did drawing exhibitions before anybody in the city showed drawings. We had international juried shows and brought artists from other parts of the country and included local artists in the exhibit to show that artists here are just as good as the international ones. It was good to create something that wasn't here before and offer it to the community. … And meeting so many great artists has been a good experience."

But he found that the art scene in Ybor City changed dramatically through the years.

"When we first opened here, we would pull in over 1,000 people at an opening. Now we get maybe 50 people," he said.

Cooper always has championed the idea of making Ybor City the arts district for Tampa, an idea that never really got off the ground.

"It was difficult to get the cooperation needed from the cultural institutions and from the city for a sustainable arts community in Ybor," Cooper said. "I don't know if it was the density of the population or what, but it never seemed to gel. I often felt that we were in competition rather than collaboration with the other institutions."

"When there's an adverse impact from a nightclub on the store next door, that store will leave," he said. Cooper was able to stay because he owned his building.

"And because we are located in the center of the national historic district. Everyone who comes here will pass by your door. So all you have to do is have something they will want to buy."

For better or worse, most of his clients were Europeans or Americans from other cities.

"The collector base in Tampa didn't really develop," he said. "That's because there wasn't a real interface between the galleries and the cultural institutions."

Though his location changed during his 28 years of business — Cooper first opened in 1984 on South Howard Avenue; he moved to the Ybor location in 1990 — his philosophy about art did not.

"It's the expression of the artist's experience," he said. "Through art, we develop consciousness. The work in the gallery was work that wasn't necessarily popular at the time, but it was always oriented toward the human condition."

Once in Naxos, the Coopers look forward to being surrounded by ancient architectural wonders in a great climate while developing their individual artistic talents.

Conservationists and shooting enthusiasts – often unfairly blamed for the poisonings – also lined up to condemn the crime as the maps revealed the number and location of confirmed poisonings of birds of prey between 2007 and 2011. Six incidents in the South West, from Land’s End in Cornwall to Somerset, were among those identified.

Across Britin there were 19 incidents in 2011 alone. A total of 30 birds of prey were poisoned, bringing the total number of confirmed cases over five years to 101.

But wildlife charity the RSPB warned the confirmed incidents were the tip of a much bigger iceberg, as many cases were discovered by chance.

It was also revealed that the majority of poisonings were carried out using the chemicals carbofuran or aldicarb,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. pesticides which have been banned in the UK and can be dangerous to humans.

The partnership said the maps showed that the problem of illegal poisoning continued to be a real threat to wildlife, particularly birds of prey.

It also said there was no reason of anyone to have chemicals such as carbofuran, which were not approved for use in England and Wales, and putting substances dangerous to both animals and humans into the environment was totally irresponsible.

It alleged birds of prey continue to be persecuted because they are predators of game birds, with some species such as hen harriers teetering on the brink of extinction.

Bob Elliot, RSPB head of investigations, said the maps illustrated the problems faced by birds of prey.

“We need to remember, however, that these dots represent the tip of a much bigger iceberg as these criminal offences are often discovered by pure chance.”

“These aren’t just points on a map. Each dot represents a crime where a bird of prey has been killed in a calculated way.

“Birds of prey have suffered centuries of persecution, and these maps prove those attitudes still prevail today,” he said, adding the RSPB would work in partnership to bear down on the acceptable crimes.

Glynn Evans, head of game and gamekeeping at the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), said: “The use of illegal poisons to kill birds of prey has no place in modern land and wildlife management.

“BASC welcomes the publication of these incident maps which will be valuable tools in combating those who persist with this unacceptable practice.”

Last October, the Environmental Audit Committee said hundreds of birds of prey had been killed because the Government had failed to fully implement laws designed to protect them.

Rules brought in in 2006 made it an offence to possess poisons used to kill birds of prey, but an order listing which poisons it was illegal to have was not introduced.

The Government should criminalise possession of carbofuran and other similar substances which have no legal use in the UK, the EAC urged.