Native beauty
A U.S. native plant is generally considered a plant that thrived in an area before Europeans settled it, said Carter, who also manages and conducts tours of the UGA Coastal Plain Research Arboretum in Tifton. But as Europeans settled, so came the exotic plant guests.”At that time, instead of buying a nice foreign car, the rich (people) would purchase and bring over exotic plants to show off in their landscapes,” she said.Because of this practice, she said, there are some plant species that have become so common and abundant here that many have mistaken them for natives. But they aren’t. For example, camellias, boxwoods, mimosas and some azaleas are foreigners.To learn more about how to establish a native Georgia landscape or to tour the Coastal Plain Arboretum, contact Carter at (229) 391-6868, or e-mail her at acarter@tifton.uga.edu. Or contact your county UGA Extension Service office. By Brad HaireUniversity of GeorgiaIf you’re tired of those same old landscape plants and designs, or you’re not sure what to do with that one spot in your yard, try going native, says a University of Georgia expert.”Georgia is blessed with many diverse, beautiful and interesting native plant species,” said Amy Carter, research coordinator at the UGA National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Lab in Tifton, Ga.Georgia has one of the most abundant plant populations in the United States, she said. Only three states have more. With more than 2,800 different tree, shrub, flower and ground-cover species native to Georgia, your Georgia native landscape potential is almost endless.Devilwood, possum haw, hairy ruellia, black gum, sourwood, flowering dogwood, wire grass, switch grass, muhly grass, magnolia, wax myrtle, saw palmetto and many others are all Georgia natives.Native plants offer many advantages over exotic species, she said. But there are a few misconceptions.A native plant usually requires less maintenance. You don’t have to fight to keep it alive because it’s where it wants to be. But this doesn’t mean it needs no maintenance. You can’t be lazy. “All landscapes need some maintenance,” she said.The native species have been here a long time. Generally, if placed properly in the landscape, they require less water and chemical insecticide and fungicide to grow. That’s much better for the immediate environment.”They’ve proven they can handle the weather, bugs and conditions in Georgia without much help,” she said.When many think of native landscapes, she said, they think of an unkempt area. This doesn’t have to be so. It can be as kempt as any flower bed.To get started, as with most landscape plans, you first want to assess the landscape area. Is it dry? Wet? Is the soil acidic? Shady? Sunny? How will it look from the house?You then want to choose the right trees, shrubs, flowers or ground covers for the area. Consider where you live in Georgia. It’s a big state, with many different ecosystems. What grows well in the north Georgia mountains may not do well in south Georgia or along the coast, she said.Don’t try to get too complicated with the planting, either. Keep it simple, she said, and your new native landscape will bring you much pleasure and pride.”Natives can give you a sense of place or let you know where you are,” she said.For a list of plants native to Georgia and where to get them, visit the Georgia Native Plant Society’s Web site (www.gnps.org.)
By Dialogo September 14, 2010 One of Mexico’s most-wanted drug traffickers, Sergio Villarreal alias ‘El Grande,’ was arrested in Puebla (in central Mexico), in another significant blow to the top ranks of the Beltrán Leyva cartel, which is now in a “weakened” state, according to a presidential spokesperson. Elements of the Marines detained “Sergio Villarreal ‘El Grande,’ one of the principal operatives of the Beltrán Leyva cartel,” Alejandro Poiré, presidential spokesperson for national-security affairs, confirmed in a statement to the press. Villarreal and Héctor Beltrán Leyva were engaged in a bloody dispute with Edgar Valdez ‘La Barbie,’ detained on 30 August, for the leadership of this drug-trafficking organization, one of the seven most significant in Mexico, which was left vacant following the death of leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva in a military operation in December. Following the detention of ‘La Barbie,’ the Mexican media cited official reports last week suggesting that it was really a voluntary surrender, something that was subsequently denied by President Felipe Calderón. The Beltrán Leyva organization “is one of the most extensive” in Mexico but “is in a severely weakened state,” Poiré argued after enumerating the blows it has suffered: the death of Arturo Beltrán and the arrests of Villarreal, ‘La Barbie,’ Gerardo Álvarez ‘El Indio’ (in April 2010), and two other Beltrán Leyva brothers, Alfredo (January 2008) and Carlos (December 2009). ‘El Grande’ [The Big One], so nicknamed for his hefty build, and two other men did not resist their arrest by thirty marines in a residential area of the city of Puebla, around 130 km southeast of the Mexican capital, according to the spokesperson. Villarreal’s arrest is the Mexican government’s fifth major success so far this year in its fight against the cartels, which it accuses of more than 28,000 murders since December 2006 and against which it has deployed around 50,000 military personnel. The others were the detentions of ‘La Barbie,’ José Antonio Medina ‘Don Pepe,’ reputed to be the first Mexican trafficker of heroin to the United States, and Teodoro García Simentel ‘El Teo,’ leader of a drug-trafficking organization on the northern border, in addition to the death in an operation of Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Coronel, considered the third-ranking member of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. In his appearance, Poiré described Villarreal as a “very dangerous and high-ranking” criminal within the cartel and announced that a warrant had been issued for his arrest on drug-trafficking charges and that the attorney-general’s office linked him with at least seven of its investigations. The detainee operated mainly in the Mexican capital and in the states of Puebla, Mexico (in the center of the country), Morelos (center), Guerrero (south), Nuevo Léon (north), Sinaloa (northwest), and Quintana Roo (southeast), he specified. Dozens of corpses, many of them decapitated or hanging from bridges, have appeared this year in cities like Acapulco (south) or Cuernavaca (center), presumed victims of ‘La Barbie’s’ battles against Villarreal and Héctor Beltrán Leyva, who is now expected to take absolute control of the cartel. Of the four cartel bosses for whom the attorney-general’s office offered a reward of 30 million pesos (2.2 million dollars), Héctor Beltrán Leyva is the only one to remain at liberty following the falls of Villarreal, ‘La Barbie,’ and Arturo Beltrán Leyva.
By Dialogo September 24, 2012 U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Kelly is scheduled to assume duties as commander of U.S. Southern Command from U.S. Air Force General Douglas Fraser during a formal change-of-command ceremony on November 19 at SOUTHCOM’s headquarters in Miami, Florida. Gen. Fraser, who began his tenure as commander of SOUTHCOM June 25, 2009, will retire after 37 years of distinguished military service as an Air Force officer, pilot and military leader. While commander of SOUTHCOM, Fraser led Operation Unified Response, the Defense Department’s support to U.S. and international relief efforts in Haiti following the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010, and the largest disaster response mission in modern U.S. military history. Lt. Gen. Kelly’s presidential nomination for appointment to the grade of general and assignment as SOUTHCOM commander was approved by the U.S. Senate July 26. He will receive his fourth star in a private military promotion ceremony November 19 before assuming duties as SOUTHCOM’s newest Commander. Since March 2011, Lt. Gen. Kelly served as Senior Military Advisor to the Secretary of Defense. His career includes tours as Commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North, Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) and commander of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California. He has also served combat tours in Iraq and tours as the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Liaison Officer to the U.S. House of Representatives and Legislative Assistant. Kelly enlisted in the Marines in 1970 and was commissioned as a Marine officer in 1976 after graduating from the University of Massachusetts. He has attended the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the School for Advanced Warfare at Quantico, Va., and is a 1995 graduate of the National War College in Washington D.C. U.S. Southern Command is one of the nation’s six geographically-focused unified commands with responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
continue reading » Successful relationships require proactivity. If I don’t proactively schedule time with my wife, our relationship suffers. Successful health requires proactivity. If I don’t proactively plan nourishing meals, my overall health suffers. Successful leadership requires proactivity. If I don’t proactively invest in my team, the company suffers.Strategic planning for credit unions and banks is no different.If you want to have your best strategic planning session ever, you must be proactive rather than reactive. A great planning session is not going to just magically happen. Proactivity is required.Strategic planning is a process, not a date on a calendar. It takes work long before participants begin the meeting.So how do you make your next strategic planning session more proactive than reactive? Here are a few tips: ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr
Jun 20, 2008 (CIDRAP News) Cases identified in a national Salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes jumped to 552 today as the hunt for the contamination source narrowed to “certain farms” in Florida and Mexico and their distribution chains, US officials announced. Health investigators have identified 552 people in 32 states and Washington, DC, who were ill with Salmonella enterica serotype Saintpaul, a rare strain, officials announced at a press briefing. That marks an increase of 169 cases and two states over the 383 cases reported 2 days ago. Acheson said it’s not likely that the contamination occurred in both Florida and Mexico. “It’s extremely unlikely that this rare contamination with Salmonella Saintpaul occurred in two places at the same time. . . . It’s an unusual serotype, and that would just not make any sense.” CDC update on the outbreakhttp://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/ “We have completed the trace-backs for some of the tomatoes that have taken us from the point of consumption all the way back to certain farms in Mexico and Florida,” he said. He added that contamination could have occurred anywhere along the distribution pathways that connect those farms to consumers, and investigators are “looking all along those pathways to determine where contamination occurred.” Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said an unspecified number of farms in Florida and Mexico are now the focus of the hunt for the contamination source. See also: Based on information from 281 patients, illness onset dates ranged from Apr 10 to June 10, Williams said. Fifty-three people were hospitalized, but no deaths have been blamed on the outbreak, Williams said. (As mentioned previously, however, salmonellosis may have contributed to the death of a Texas man who died of cancer.) “We don’t know for certain if the contamination occurred on a farm; it may have occurred . . . in a distribution center, a packing shed, or a warehouse,” Acheson said. He declined to name any farms or say how many are suspected. “We don’t have one where we know the problem occurred; we just know they’re part of the chain,” he said. And the FDA has not yet actually found any tomatoes contaminated with Salmonella, he reported. He said finding contamination in two places would suggest the possibility of a deliberate act, but he deemed that unlikely. “We’ve looked into that, and there’s no evidence whatsoever that it is deliberate,” he said. FDA’s Salmonella outbreak sitehttp://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html Echoing statements made Jun 18, Williams said the new cases mainly reflect increased surveillance by state health departments and completion of lab tests, rather than a surge in new cases. “The FDA is working with them [Texas officials] and the CDC to use that cluster as another trace-back in the hope that [it] will further narrow the source of the contaminated tomatoes,” Acheson said. The FDA’s message to consumers has not changed, said Faye Feldstein of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The agency advises consumers not to eat raw red plum, raw red Roma, or raw red round tomatoes unless they come from one of the growing areas that have not been associated with the outbreak, as listed on an FDA Web page (see link below). Cherry and grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine attached are considered safe. “The message to consumers is, if you’re not sure, don’t take a risk,” said Acheson. He also revealed that Texas health officials have identified a cluster of cases in the state. But he declined to say where or how large the cluster is or if it’s linked to any particular retailer or chain of retailers. The bulk of the newly identified cases came from Texas, which now has a total of 265, said Dr. Ian Williams, chief of the OutbreakNet team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He said the episode may now be the largest tomato-linked Salmonella outbreak in US history, possibly surpassing one that occurred in 2004. The FDA is sending experts to both Florida and Mexico this weekend with the aim of conducting inspections on the farms and throughout the distribution chains, Acheson reported.
Photo: HGK This year’s FOS will cover all current topics and trends for family accommodation, and the Family Tourism Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce expects to gather around 700 participants. Although the program of the event is still being completed, it is good to know the date and place in order to know how to organize. The National Forum of Family Accommodation (FOS) is the only national gathering of household catering service providers (renters) from all over Croatia, which discusses current topics and offers educational content and networking with providers of products and services for family accommodation. FOS – Family Accommodation Forum Also, within the FOS, the Family Tourism Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the evaluation of family accommodation will be carried out within the action Tourist Flower – Quality for Croatia. The sections of the Community established through the network of county chambers successfully gather, coordinate and educate landlords throughout Croatia, and especially the recognized regional forums that emerged from this national gathering of landlords. FOS brings together the owners of catering services in rooms, apartments, holiday homes and camps in the household, as well as in boarding houses and rural households, and is interesting for all micro and small entrepreneurs who follow current changes and trends in family accommodation. It was first held in 2014 in Opatija, and was organized by the Family Tourism Association at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, founded in 2010. National Family Accommodation Forum (FOS) will be held March 27 – 28. u Pazin organized by the Family Tourism Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. Cover photo: Central Istria Tourist Board, Illustration: HrTuriam.hr
Read also: Massive face mask, hand sanitizer shortage hit regions“We met with [staple needs] producers and suppliers a few days ago, and they are committed to producing their products at full speed for the market,” MAP spokesperson Ratih Gianda told The Jakarta Post.The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) has called on vendors to limit purchases especially for products in shortage but highly needed, especially masks. Panic buying has hit supermarkets across Indonesia which could hurt stockpiles and inflate prices, with most purchases of masks, hygiene products and food.“Since early February consumer complaints have been flooding in, especially on masks,” YLKI chairman Tulus Abadi said. The organization has reported the matter to the Trade Ministry and the National Police. The ministry has banned mask exports to ensure domestic supply and the police have been cracking down on hoarders and price-gouging shops to tackle the problem.Indonesia Retailers Association (Aprindo) secretary-general Solihin told the Post that all of its members had enough supplies of staple food for the next few months leading up to the festive Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri.In anticipation of increased demand for staple foods during the festive period, Aprindo members decided to delay shipment of seasonal products such as crackers and syrups, which normally see a spike in demand during Ramadhan, and opted for staple foods instead.“Shipments of festive products will be sent out gradually by our suppliers because we’re prioritizing our warehouses to store staple foods first,” said Solihin.Read also: Indonesia not ready to impose lockdown, says Sri MulyaniAgriculture Ministry data indicates that there is a large enough supply of basic commodities until Ramadhan, despite concerns over supply disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rice supply is expected to be 8.35 million tons by May, while the figure stands at 263,851 tons for garlic, 584,709 tons for sugar and 68,904 tons for bird’s eye chili. Agriculture observers, however, are skeptical about these figures. University of Lampung (Unila) agricultural economics professor Bustanul Arifin said people’s stockpiling behavior as a response to stricter social restriction combined with the real supply figure in the field would soon push up prices.“Don’t play around with the staple food supply. Don’t let it be empty,” he warned.Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) researcher Felippa Ann Amanta also calls the data “very optimistic”, considering how COVID-19 has disrupted the agriculture sector. She added that the current large-scale restrictions could potentially disrupt logistics for distribution, threatening food availability.“If we don’t control the coronavirus spread immediately, it is also possible to have labor shortages in the supply chain, which would then hamper food security,” she said.PT Hero Supermarket head of communications and government relations Diky Risbianto said the supermarket was running low on several staple food products due to unnecessarily large purchases from its customers. Hero operates around 445 stores across Indonesia, consisting of Giant markets, Hero, Guardian and Ikea.“Our team is working hard with our suppliers to fulfill our customers’ needs while also advising them to stay calm and not buy goods in huge amounts,” said Diky. Esther Samboh contributed to this storyTopics : Amanda, a 33-year-old creative consultant, has bought a month’s worth of groceries in advance so she can stay home, as advised by the government, without having to worry about her family’s basic needs.“I used to buy food supplies every one or two weeks. Now I buy one month’s stock,” said the mother of one. “I bought three bags of 5 kilogram rice, whereas I normally only buy one bag, so I don’t go back and forth shopping. Plus, now that we are staying home, we are using up more food.”Apart from rice, Amanda, who lives in South Jakarta, also stocks up on cooking oil, chicken, chili, vegetables, as well as hygiene products, more than ever. “Now I shop extra for hygiene products, such as anti-bacterial soap. Normally I would buy any soap. I stock up extra on hand soap as well so it is available at all washing stations at home. Tissue, detergents, cleaning liquid — I buy more than normal.”
Amanda’s story mirrors the shift in Indonesian consumers’ behavior as markets across Indonesia see an uptick in demand for hygiene products, although staple food availability remains safe as people purchase supplies to last a longer period to follow the universal health advise of staying home.Indonesia declared a public health emergency over COVID-19 on Tuesday, imposing large-scale social restrictions, as COVID-19 cases soared within a month from zero to 1,677, with 157 dead, the largest death toll in Southeast Asia and among the highest death rates in the world.Publicly listed retailer PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya — which operates 14,310 Alfamart stores across Indonesia — and PT Mitra Adiperkasa (MAP) — the operator of FoodHall — said the companies were having difficulty stocking up on certain items such as masks and hand sanitizer. However, both assured they had enough stock of primary items such as staple foods.“We think this will last for quite some time before getting back to normal as people are rushing to buy these items,” Sumber Alfaria director S. Peter Suryadi said in a company statement. Alfamart stores are prepared for a lockdown scenario that could limit its business operations, he added.
A day after his fiancée gave birth, Prime Minister Boris Johnson leads a meeting of his top ministers on Thursday to discuss how to ease Britain’s lockdown amid a backdrop of rising deaths and questions over the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.New figures on Wednesday showed that Britain now has the second highest official COVD-19 death toll with more than 26,000 deaths, a statistic which puts pressure on the government over its response to the outbreak and fuelled caution in raising restrictions on movement in case that led to a second spike.The government will also face questions if it fails to meet a target Heath Minister Matt Hancock set of carrying out 100,000 daily tests for the virus by the end of April, with testing seen as key to ending the lockdown. Johnson returned to work on Monday having recovered after being infected with the virus, which left him gravely ill in intensive care at the peak of the outbreak. On Wednesday, his attention was elsewhere after his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, gave birth to the couple’s son.He will delay any paternity leave to head the cabinet meeting on Thursday and later is expected to front a daily media conference for the first time since he fell ill.Johnson cautioned on Monday that it would be risky to relax the stringent economic and social restrictions imposed six weeks ago but with rising unemployment and many companies crippled, the government is coming under pressure to outline an exit strategy.”I don’t think you’re going to hear specific detail, I think that would be premature frankly,” justice minister Robert Buckland told BBC TV when asked if Johnson would provide some detail of plans to ease the lockdown. “The British people would expect us to be cautious.”The opposition Labor Party has accused the government of being slow to react to the crisis, by delaying the imposition of the lockdown and then failing to ramp up the provision of protective equipment to frontline staff and the number of tests.Some 52,429 tests were carried out on Wednesday, according to the latest figures and Buckland indicated that the government would miss its target.”Even if it isn’t met, we are well on our way to ramping this up,” he said.
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Wolf Administration Submits Waiver Application to Develop State Health Reinsurance Program to Lower Costs Healthcare, Press Release Governor Tom Wolf today announced that the Pennsylvania Insurance Department has taken a step in advancing the goal of lowering the cost of health insurance premiums by submitting the Commonwealth’s 1332 State Innovation Waiver application to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).The creation of a state reinsurance program through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Section 1332 waiver process will further strengthen Pennsylvania’s individual health insurance marketplace by lowering gross premiums and increasing access to affordable marketplace coverage.“My administration is thrilled to announce that Pennsylvania has submitted the waiver application for our reinsurance program, because it will directly scale down health care costs for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians and their families,” said Gov. Wolf. “Making health care more affordable in our state has been one of my priorities since I took office, and this waiver is an important step toward achieving that goal.”A reinsurance program pays a portion of high cost claims in the individual market, such as those incurred after major accidents or costs associated with serious health conditions. By reimbursing carriers for a portion of their higher-cost claims and spreading that risk across the broader marketplace, a reinsurance program will lower the premiums for individual health insurance plans from where they would otherwise be without reinsurance.“The 1332 waiver, if approved, will help provide Pennsylvanians with tempered premiums and will increase affordability of health insurance in Pennsylvania’s individual Affordable Care Act market,” said Insurance Commissioner Jessica K. Altman. “Pennsylvania’s individual market for health insurance is stable and has recently welcomed new insurers to the market and service area expansions of existing insurers. But a stable market does not necessarily mean an affordable market, and Pennsylvania has seen individual market rates rise in recent years. Pennsylvanians who are not eligible for financial assistance made available by the ACA are finding the full cost of premiums to be high and, for some, unaffordable. This waiver is designed to address that issue.”Pennsylvania’s waiver request under Section 1332 is for a period of up to five years beginning in the 2021 plan year. The waiver will not affect benefits afforded to Pennsylvanians under the ACA, including coverage of required essential health benefits in individual and small group plans, and the prohibition of pre-existing condition exclusions in major medical plans.The reinsurance program will be funded through a combination of federal “pass-through” funds and revenue provided by the commonwealth’s new Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority. The pass-through funds represent the reduction in federal expenditures, via premium tax credits, resulting from lower premiums due to the predictability and financial assistance provided by the reinsurance program.Gov. Wolf signed historic legislation creating the state-based health insurance exchange in July. Recent technological advances allow states to operate their own exchanges more affordably and Pennsylvania is on track to have its exchange up and running in 2021. February 12, 2020
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UK insurance group Legal & General has continued its international expansion, making its first foray into the $6trn (€4.4trn) US defined contribution (DC) industry with the acquisition of Global Index Advisors (GIA).The firm’s US asset management subsidiary, LGIMA, will complete the $50.4m deal later this year, subject to shareholder approval, making it the insurer’s fifth purchase in 12 months.GIA, based in the state of Georgia, currently runs index target date fund products for its US clients, and is an investment sub-adviser to the Wells Fargo Advantage Dow Jones Target Date Funds, a $15.6bn fund.L&G said its entrance into the target date arena would help cement its plan to grow assets in the DC space, in both the UK and the US. Target date funds offer an alternative default fund option for defined contribution schemes than basic life-styling.It operates in a similar fashion, however, adjusting investment strategies for members in a more scaled manner, and works towards a target retirement date, rather than the member’s age.Target date funds currently account for a significant proportion of the DC industry in the US, with assets under management expected to double by 2017.The proposition is also taking hold in the UK DC industry, which has already seen the government-backed National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) use target date for its auto-enrolment default fund solution.Legal & General said it would fund the purchase of GIA through its cash reserves, which will deliver a return above the group’s benchmark after the first year.Mark Zinkula, chief executive at Legal & General’s asset management arm, LGIM, said the DC market and international expansion were two key drivers of the insurer’s growth strategy.“The acquisition of Global Index Advisors will allow us to accelerate our expansion in the US DC market,” he said.