Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 18th, 2012
When unemployment is high, job-seekers may need to go where the jobs are, “to make ends meet, to get on with their lives,” says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
But don’t move with the herd.Before workers decide to relocate, career counselors advise making sure they understand the local economy they’re going to, and what they’d do if the new job doesn’t work out as planned.
Also, make sure you understand what kind of help, if any, your new employer is prepared to give you for moving costs.
Companies typically have standard relocation packages. Often, companies will provide lump-sum assistance to employees or help in selling a home.
“Make sure you completely understand the policy,” says Rich McClure, president of UniGroup, parent company of United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit. “It’s important for [employees] to understand exactly what they’re getting.”
“Our very recent experience has been that companies are less likely to enhance offerings related to selling real estate, overcoming deficit equity or loss on sale situations, or offsetting the cost of temporary living/duplicate housing expenses as a means of capitalizing on this trend,” he says.
Before accepting a position in another location, make sure you do some homework on your new home, and know what you want out of the new job. “People react and grab anything … I don’t think it’s bad to relocate for a good opportunity, but understand what you’re trying to do first,” says Deb Bailey, a transition coach in New Jersey Understand how this move will advance your career, and also think about what you would do in the worst-case scenario: You accept a job in another place, move, and for whatever reason, the job doesn’t work out, she says.. Ms. Bailey’s advice: Ask yourself, are there other opportunities in the area? Or would it be worth it to stay in your current town, perhaps selling your home for a loss or living with a roommate and accepting a lower-paying job until the local job market improves?
On the other hand, “You really have to be in a career-management mode. If you’re unemployed and the opportunity is in Oshkosh, if it’s a good opportunity go to Oshkosh,” says Dale Winston, CEO of Battalia Winston, an executive search firm in New York. “Otherwise, you want to base yourself in a center of opportunity.”
And if it’s only a home holding you back from a job that could move your career forward, it might be time to cut your losses. “If you made an error in judgment in terms of overleveraging yourself, get out of it and move on. It’s like credit-card debt… pay it down and don’t do it again,” she says.
When conducting a national job search, your willingness to move should be made clear upfront, says Tim Johnson, managing editor for Relocation.com. Today, that also may mean indicating that you’d make the move with or without a relocation package.
To keep costs down, get at least three quotes before hiring a moving company, and have each actually see the items you need moved, Mr. Johnson says. “It’s the only way to get a precise quote.”
For the average cross-country move with full moving services, including packing, loading, driving and unloading, the cost is roughly $6,000 to $8,000, Mr. Johnson says.
“If you choose to do packing on your own, it’d cut the cost to roughly $3,500 to $5,500,” he says. In that example, the movers would load and unload the truck, as well as drive it to the destination.
A self-service move would be roughly a third of the cost of full moving services, or about $2,000 to $3,000, Mr. Johnson says. That would require the individual to pack, load and unload items, leaving only the driving to the movers.
Write to Amy Hoak at amy.hoak@dowjones.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A21
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 17th, 2012
Release Date: 04/25/2012Contact Information: Derrick Terada, EPA FIFRA Program, 206-553-4768, terada.derrick@epa.gov
Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, 206-553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov
(Seattle – April 25, 2012) Columbia Sportswear Company, headquartered in Portland, Oregon sold and distributed mislabeled pesticide-treated clothing in violation of federal pesticide rules, according to a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA found that the clothing labels lacked the required EPA pesticide registration number, a proper ingredient statement, a proper storage and disposal statement, and were missing the statement "It is a violation of Federal Law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling."
EPA immediately issued a Stop Sale Order on the products until they could be properly labeled by the company, which fully cooperated with EPA. The company will pay a fine of $22,880.
According to Scott Downey, manager of EPA’s pesticide unit in the Seattle office, pesticides must be properly labeled to ensure protection of human health and the environment.
“We are very concerned that pesticide products are labeled correctly and that the language is identical to what the Agency originally reviewed and approved,” said EPA’s Downey. “Labels are carefully worded to inform consumers about the safe use of a product and any risks.”
EPA first learned about the misbranded products by monitoring pesticide imports and finding that one of the company’s shipments coming into the U.S. had been denied entry at a foreign port. Further investigation revealed that several other shipments of clothing treated with “Insect Blocker” were returning to the U.S. with foreign product labels and then erroneously being redirected for domestic sale. Domestic sale of items that include pesticides must meet United States labeling requirements, which differ from those of other countries.
For additional information about pesticides, visit: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/
To automatically receive Region 10 News Releases, subscribe via email at: http://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USEPA_C19
Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
Get email when we issue news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.
Published by: United States Environmental Protection Agence (EPA) (
yosemite.epa.gov)
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 16th, 2012
Q: I am male, one of 15 vice presidents—half are women—at a large medical supplier, where we are preparing a video for training the new members of our sales team. We want to dress in a way that will project authority and professionalism, but we don’t want to come across as “the suits.” Our usual office attire is business casual.
—D.M., New York City
A: I vote for the dressiest version of business casual for your training tapes. That means a sport coat and woven open-collar shirt without a tie for the guys and a nice blouse and skirt or casual dress for the women. This will telegraph professionalism without looking too stiff.
![[ASKTERI]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-AT919_ASKTER_D_20100303204542.jpg)
Tim Goldman
As Webcam meetings and video training have become popular, more businesspeople are taking cues from newscasters, who have mastered on-camera dressing. Study the relaxed look of the hosts and guests on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” The men tend to wear shirts in French blue, pink or lilac, instead of white, and the women don solid-colored dresses or blouses that cover their arms, as well as light makeup and earrings.
Also, consider stagecraft—such as a potted plant to make the room more inviting. Your colleagues should rehearse at home in front of their Webcams to sharpen their speech and improve eye contact with the camera. Everyone should smile from time to time and minimize hand gestures. That way, the executive team will look confident and in control.
—Email questions to askteri@wsj.com
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 16th, 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – According to Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Raul Hernandez, the Philippine diplomats “are endeavoring to undertake a new diplomatic initiative, which we hope will help defuse the situation.”
The diplomatic damage were centered on the Scarborough Shoal, which is located roughly 130 miles from the Philippine island, Luzon. China’s armed forces would not allow anyone to challenge the country’s rule over the tiny island outcrop in the South China Sea. Philippine navy sailors tried to arrest the crew but were blocked by the Chinese surveillance ships that had been sent out to the area. Both countries claim the Shoal, which is believed to have plenty of mineral resources, natural gas, and oil.
“We want to say that anyone’s attempt to take away China’s sovereignty over Huangyan Island will not be allowed by the Chinese government, people and armed forces,” said the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army of China. “Don’t attempt to take away half an inch of China’s territory,” it warned.
An editorial in China’s Global Times stated that the people of the world should not be “completely surprised” if the standoff escalates into a military battle. “Peace will be a luxury if tensions continue to rise,” it added.
“Fu Ying, China’s Vice Foreign Minister, said that China was not optimistic about the situation, and that the country was ready to respond to any sort of escalation. Chinese chips would remain on alert around Huangyan due to continued provocation by the Philippine side. Because of this, travel agencies in China are suspending tours to the Philippines
“The Philippines has been repeatedly making strong-worded remarks over the Huangyan Island,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei. “China hopes the Philippines will not take any actions to magnify the dispute in a way that may affect the relationship between the two countries. China remains unchanged in insisting on diplomatic dialogue to solve the Huangyan Island dispute. We urge the Philippine side to make a positive response, and move back on the right track.”
Beijing and Manila have been adamant that their territorial arguments were justified.
“They both have claims,” said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, the North East Asia project director and China adviser for the International Crisis Group. “China goes back centuries, but the Philippines also says it has maps from the 18th century showing it belongs them.”
The Philippine government wants to resolve the dispute via international negotiation, however China is rejecting this as they have a long-standing distrust of the Western-dominated mediators.
“There are a dozen ships in a standoff there right now,” Kleine-Ahlbrandt said. “Both sides are really using this for all it is worth, whipping up nationalistic sentiment — what is needed is something to de-escalate the situation.”
© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 15th, 2012
If you’re awaiting the arrival of a new family member, preparing for maternity or paternity leave is probably a top priority. Advance planning is critical for safeguarding your reputation among your peers. “This is also a big transition for the people who work with you,” says Cali Williams Yost, president and founder of Work+Life Fit Inc., a corporate-flexibility consultancy in Madison, N.J. Here’s how to prepare for your leave.
![[Maternity leave]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-DE677_CJ_90D_D_20090223180928.jpg)
Getty Images
Mark your calendar. Give yourself a deadline — ideally one month prior to your leave date — to finish making preparations and wrap up current assignments, says Barbara Ashby, manager of the WorkLife group at the University of California-Davis. If you need to take on any new projects that might infringe upon your deadline, make sure a colleague is able to pick up where you leave off, she adds.
Know your rights. The Family and Medical Leave Act allows many workers 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the care of a newborn child or the adoption or foster care of a child. The law doesn’t apply to workers at firms with fewer than 50 employees. Employees must have worked for their employer for 12 months, though not consecutively, to be eligible. In addition, employees must have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months. But your job isn’t recession-proof while you’re on leave. If it’s among those eliminated in a mass layoff, you aren’t entitled to reinstatement, says Robert P. Riordan, a labor lawyer and partner at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta.
Meet with your boss. Don’t wait for your supervisor to come to you, says Ms. Williams Yost. Areas to discuss include who will take over your job, what files, passwords or other information you need to reveal and how clients should be notified. If your company’s annual review normally occurs during the time you’ll be out, ask for it to be moved up to before you leave. Or consider offering to come in one day during your leave to do it, suggests Ms. Ashby.
Look for ways to save. Most employers allow workers to apply accrued paid time off toward maternity leave. But if you’ve used this time up, you may be able to receive short-term disability insurance for the time you are medically unable to work, says Ms. Ashby. Check with your firm or insurance provider, as this benefit isn’t available to workers in all states.
Research your health options. Most company-sponsored insurance plans allow parents to register a newborn baby or adopted child for health-care benefits outside of the normal enrollment period, advises Ms. Ashby. But some allow it for only a week or two after the birth. “You want to make sure you don’t miss the window while you’re out on leave,” she says. Separately, if you plan to breastfeed, check with your human-resources department about where in your workplace you can pump milk, says Jennifer E. Swanberg, executive director at the Institute for Workplace Innovation.
Enlist a messenger. Ask a trusted colleague to keep up communications between you and your officemates, advises Maggie Craddock, president and founder of Workplace Relationships Inc., an executive coaching firm in New York. This person should update you on what’s happening in the office and relay information back to your peers, such as your interest in a project that’s slated to start after you return. He or she also would agree to occasionally mention your name in meetings to remind your colleagues that you’re part of the team.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Employees eligible for the Family and Medical Leave Act must have worked for their employer for 12 months, though not consecutively. In addition, employees must have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months. A previous version of this column said employees must have worked for their employer for at least 12 months or 1,250 hours over the past 12 months to be eligible.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D5
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 15th, 2012
Q: I’m hunting for a rental apartment, and it seems that real estate agents get ticked off if they find out you’re talking to more than one. One agent has been fairly helpful so far. But when I show her ads that others have listed, she often takes a few days to respond. While I’m waiting, should I call the other agents in the ads? And should I call ads listed by owners, to avoid paying a Realtor fee?
—Jersey City, N.J.
A: I understand your dilemma. Despite all the technological advances of the past decades, the way most agents and buyers get together still reminds me of a 1950s teen romance. You’re the ingénue, who meets a few agents, goes out a few times, then waits by the phone for a call. The agents are members of the football team, who are ready to dazzle you for a few dates, but just as ready to drop you if you don’t commit to a more serious relationship.
Who can you blame them? In the beginning, agents must audition for your business by wooing you with their knowledge of the market, listening to your design and decorating preferences, and running up gas bills showing you listings. Whether they admit it to you or not, they all know that you’re also “dating” other agents, at least when you first start home shopping. But at some point, just like a suitor, they want to know whether they’re wasting their time.
Of course, you have the prerogative to choose the agent with whom you have the best chemistry. And you shouldn’t allow yourself to be guilt-tripped into working with someone who doesn’t respond quickly to you (though you should ask her why she is slow getting back to you—she may simply be trying to arrange an appointment to show the unit). Whether you continue your commitment with this agent or break up with her, you should tell her what you are doing and why. Even if you decide that she’s not the right agent for you, if you are honest with her, she’ll respect you—and your reputation with other agents will remain intact.
Meanwhile, it’s up to you whether to respond to for-rent-by-owner ads. People rent places without using agents all the time. If you are an experienced renter with solid knowledge of the neighborhood, it may be a good idea to avoid brokers and their fees. However, if you haven’t had much experience as a renter before, this may not be advisable. A good agent with a granular knowledge of the neighborhood can steer you away from problem buildings that have a history of maintenance issues, like mold or mice. She may be able to help you negotiate more favorable terms on your rent, security deposit or lease length. And perhaps most importantly in these troubled times, she can also help you avoid signing up with a landlord who is in some stage of foreclosure or otherwise in financial distress, so you don’t wake up someday to find a notice to vacate because the property is being sold at auction.
Write to June Fletcher at Fletcher.June@gmail.com
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 15th, 2012
The case — lately reopened by police — riveted millions. It also changed the country.
“It awakened America,” said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “It was the beginning of a missing children’s movement.”
The Patz case was the first of several high-profile cases that catapulted concern about missing children to the forefront of national consciousness.
Just weeks after Etan disappeared in May 1979, an attacker abducted the first of more than 20 children to be kidnapped and killed in Atlanta, stirring fear until police arrested a suspect two years later.
In another case that made headlines, in 1981 someone abducted 6-year-old Adam Walsh from a Florida shopping mall and killed him.
The cases received increasing news coverage in a fast-changing landscape that saw a proliferation of media outlets with growing interest in compelling visual images — such as a heart-rending photo of a smiling child or video of parents pleading for their child’s safe return.
The actual number of children who were kidnapped and killed did not change — it’s always been a relatively small number — but awareness of the cases skyrocketed, experts said.
“Interest in the situation exploded,” said Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and strangled to death in a 1993 case that also received intense news coverage.
“It really pulled the lid off of America’s dirty little secret, the fact that children are being victimized in large numbers,” he said Friday.
The cases also stoked fear, sparked awareness and prompted change from politicians and police.
In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children’s Assistance Act. That led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
President Ronald Reagan opened the center in a White House ceremony in 1984. It soon began operating a 24-hour toll-free hotline on which callers could report information about missing boys and girls.
Police officers also started to respond more quickly to reports of missing children, experts said.
After Etan disappeared, investigators tried what was then a novel technique to try to find him: They put his face on thousands of milk cartons, a technique that would become more common in the next few years.
Relatives and authorities also put the images of missing children on billboards and fliers distributed by mail.
Those more assertive efforts eventually led to the AMBER alert system, which broadcasts news about missing children on TV, radio, the Internet, mobile phones, lottery tickets and highway signs.
That system has helped save 554 children, the federal government says. Most of them were recovered after the first-ever White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children in 2002.
Before the dramatic increase in awareness of crimes against children in the 1980s, only a few high-profile cases grabbed the public’s attention.
Klaas points out that in 1873, after a 4-year-old Philadelphia boy named Charley Ross disappeared, authorities produced the first missing child flier.
The 1932 disappearance and killing of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of the world-famous aviator, attracted worldwide attention. It resulted in the Lindbergh Law, which permitted federal authorities to chase kidnappers across state lines.
Even before the Etan Patz case, groups were working in the 1970s — largely out of the spotlight — on the issue of missing children. They advocated tougher rules in cases of children who were abducted by relatives, said Joel Best, professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware.
Children abducted by relatives, runaways, and abductions by strangers are the three classifications of what came to be repackaged and rebranded by activists as “missing children” in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Best said.
“The missing children’s movement was the outgrowth of an earlier child-snatching movement,” Best said.
Runaways comprise the largest number of the missing children, Best said, and while there are few abductions by strangers, those “emotional, wrenching stories” make an impact.
Lisa Cohen, author of “After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive, said the Etan Patz case galvanized media-saturated New York. So did his photo, which Cohen called a “beautiful” shot made by his photographer father, Stan.
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” she said.
Cohen said people empathized with the angst of Stan and his wife Julie — seen by TV viewers and newspapers readers as normal, intelligent and wise people.
The case never ended, the story was never over, and the news outlets never stopped covering it.
“It started a ball rolling,” she said. “There was a real momentum.”
Barbara Friedman, associate professor of University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said such “heinous crimes are always newsworthy” and “have been reported in the press for as long as there has been a press.”
“As media became more plentiful and visual in the 1980s, child abductions and child murders allowed for the kinds of images that are at once intimate and universal — like school photos and grieving families,” Friedman said.
“The use of milk cartons as another form of media to locate missing children was a way to bring the issue into the family space — the breakfast table — heightening awareness as well as anxieties.”
Etan’s family and Adam Walsh’s parents have been particularly media savvy, she said, as they kept their cases front and center before the public and law enforcement.
“They were strategically and actively engaged in cultivating their attention. And in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, there were more reporters looking for substantive news stories and more space to fill,” she said.
The case raised consciousness but also stirred fear.
“I think it ended an era of innocence in this country,” Allen said. “Parents around the nation saw how it happened and thought, ‘But for the grace of God, my child.’”
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 14th, 2012
![[PEBBLE]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BQ692_PEBBLE_G_20120510190425.jpg)
Getty Images
Phil Mickelson with caddie Jim Mackay during a tournament at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in February.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.—California regulators approved an expansion of the famed Pebble Beach resort after decades of fighting between a company with star-studded ownership and environmental groups over a particularly scenic stretch of Pacific coastline.
The California Coastal Commission Wednesday unanimously approved a land-use amendment for the project after the Pebble Beach Co. scaled back its plan to expand in one of the world’s largest forests of native Monterey pine.
“It’s an historic day for us, because it shows that the public sector and private sector can work together in a cooperative manner,” said Bill Perocchi, chief executive and part-owner of Pebble Beach Co., whose resort includes the Pebble Beach Golf Links and 17-Mile Drive.
The company’s owners include actor-director Clint Eastwood, golfing legend Arnold Palmer and Peter Ueberroth, the businessman and former Major League Baseball commissioner.
The commission approved plans for a new 100-room hotel, 90 new home lots and an expansion of existing hotels. This came after the company agreed to drop plans for features such as a new golf course.
Other developers nationally are expected to look to the agreement as a case study as the company moves now to gain final Monterey County permits for construction of the $200 million project. These permits are expected to be granted, since the county previously signed off on the latest plan.
“While we are pleased at the progress towards a better project, there is room for improvements,” said Amy White, executive director of LandWatch Monterey County, a local environmental group. She said the plan fails to adequately address the need for more affordable housing.
Commission members said the approval puts an end to concerns hanging over Pebble Beach for decades that developers would remove tens of thousands of trees. Under the earlier expansion plan, some 18,000 trees would be removed; about 4,000 trees would be cut down with the smaller plan approved this week.
“If you walk in those forest areas, there is an amazing collection of coastal resources that will be protected by this plan,” Charles Lester, executive director of the commission, said in a hearing where the plan was approved.
The accord shows the value of both sides of an environmental dispute over proposed development sitting down with one another, said Elizabeth Watson, a real-estate and land-use attorney in Los Angeles, who isn’t representing any of the parties in the matter. “The more detailed the conversation can be in terms of what each side values, the more likely it is that you can get to a resolution,” Ms. Watson said.
Although Pebble Beach Co. didn’t get everything it wanted, cooperating with regulators means the company now gets to move ahead on expansions to the resort that otherwise could have been tied up in the courts, said Mark Stilwell, a Pebble Beach executive vice president. “We made the decision not to end up in litigation for years with an uncertain outcome,” Mr. Stilwell said Thursday on a driving tour of Pebble Beach.
Pebble Beach Co. and the California Coastal Commission—which often sides with environmental groups—had been at odds over its plans to build out undeveloped land in its Del Monte Forest for years.
The most recent tussle took place in 2007, when the commission rejected a company proposal to build a new golf course and other amenities. Monterey County residents had passed an initiative called Measure A supporting the development, but the commission invalidated it.
Afterward, Mr. Ueberroth initiated personal meetings with the coastal commission to discuss what kind of plan would pass muster with the agency, Mr. Perocchi said. Those meetings resulted in the company’s taking out the most contentious parts of its earlier proposal, the 18-hole golf course, he said.
Messrs. Ueberroth and Eastwood didn’t respond to messages left at their offices. Mr. Palmer, through his assistant, said he was happy with the approval and that “it will certainly benefit the environment and serve the best interests of the public as well.”
Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared May 11, 2012, on page A5 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Curbed Pebble Beach Plan Approved.
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 14th, 2012
Release Date: 05/04/2012Contact Information: Kate Renahan, (617) 918-1491
(Boston, Mass. – May 4, 2012) – EPA has approved additional field investigations requested by the General Electric Co. (GE) at the Fletcher’s Paint Works and Storage Facility Superfund Site in Milford, New Hampshire. GE’s contractor, Arcadis US Inc. began these investigations in April 2012. These activities will continue for approximately three months.
Implementation of these field investigations will result in additional data that will reduce uncertainties associated with three elements of the soil cleanup plan: (1) the dewatering rate for the deeper excavation cells at the Mill Street Area; (2) side-wall verification sampling along the proposed vertical excavation supports at the Elm Street Area; and (3) soil characterization to determine the appropriate off-site treatment and/or disposal of the excavated materials. Reducing these uncertainties now could have a significant impact on the sequencing, implementation, schedule and cost of the soil cleanup plan. These investigations will utilize various types of drilling equipment to collect soil samples and to install 5 additional groundwater monitoring wells and two pumping wells.
The soil sampling activities will take place on both the Elm and Mill Street Areas of the Site. The new groundwater monitoring wells will be installed at the end of the Keyes Drive, at the American Legion property and just north of the railroad track at Mill Street, while the pumping wells will be installed at the Mill Street Area.
Information collected from soils will include PCB concentrations and waste characterization data for disposal analysis. The data will be used to support the final location for the support walls needed to excavate the contaminated soils near the River at the Elm Street Area. The pump test activities will allow for a determination of the rate at which groundwater needs to be extracted to enable the installation of support walls at the Mill Street Area, so that the soils being excavated can be dewatered to the extent possible, and loaded into trucks for off-site disposal.
GE will submit the Final Remedial Design incorporating the results of these tests to EPA following these investigations and prior to contracting for the eventual soil cleanup work needed at the Site. GE will also start certain Remedial Action activities in the fall of 2012 which are part of the site preparation efforts needed before soil cleanup can begin. One of these critical activities includes construction of the alternative access road to Keyes Field while Keyes Drive is closed for soil excavation work. EPA plans to present further details regarding these accelerated activities to the public this summer.
On June 15, 2009 EPA amended the 1998 cleanup plan to allow for the excavation and off-site treatment and/or disposal of the highly contaminated soils at the site. EPA added the Site to the National Priority List of Superfund sites in March, 1989. The Draft Remedial Design for the cleanup of the contaminated soils was approved by EPA on September 30, 2011. The Final Design will incorporate modifications from the results of this field work and a change in the final cover of the Elm Street Area to a mixed use cap (engineered soil cover and a parking area).
This 2-acre site consists of two neighboring lots owned by Fletcher’s Paint Works; a former manufacturing plant/retail outlet on Elm Street and a storage area 700 feet south on Mill Street. Fletcher’s Paint Works manufactured and sold paints and stains for residential use at its Milford plant from 1949 until 1991. Bulk paint pigments, drums and miscellaneous materials were stored at both the Elm Street facility and the Mill Street storage shed area. The primary contaminant of concern at the Site is polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Hundreds of drums of scrap pyranol (containing PCBs and Trichloroethylene (TCE)) were brought to, stored at and released onto these properties during the 1950’s through the 1970’s. The EPA investigation program identified soil, sediment and groundwater contamination at levels that present risks to human health from long term exposure.
More information:
The Administrative Record, which includes the Record of Decisions and other documents that formed the basis for EPA’s selection of the cleanup remedy, is available for review at the Wadleigh Memorial Library, Nashua Street, Milford, N.H., and the U.S. EPA Records Center, 5 Post Office Square in Boston.
The Record of Decisions and other keys documents are available on EPA’s website (http://www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/fletcher )
# # #
Learn More about the Latest EPA News & Events in New England (http://www.epa.gov/region1/newsevents/index.html)
Follow EPA New England on Twitter (http://twitter.com/epanewengland)
More info on EPA’s Environmental Results in New England (http://www.epa.gov/region1/results/index.html)
Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
Get email when we issue news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.
Published by: United States Environmental Protection Agence (EPA) (
yosemite.epa.gov)
Posted by TerranceV | Uncategorized | Posted on May 14th, 2012
Story By: by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Experts say that in order to win this year’s election, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will not just have to satisfy evangelicals â he will have to thrill them.
On Saturday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will deliver the commencement address at Liberty University, the nation’s largest evangelical university. The speech will be attended by nearly 35,000 people, and it will give him a chance to win over a huge constituency that, up until recently, has been lukewarm about his campaign.
Case in point: Last fall, the Rev. Robert Jeffress created a huge stir when he said that Romney, a Mormon, is a member of a religious cult and “a conservative out of convenience.” But now, Jeffress, who pastors First Baptist Church of Dallas, says he’s fully behind the candidate.
“I think there’s a realization among Christians that Jesus isn’t on the ballot this year,” says Jeffress, “and so, I mean, many times, voting is voting for the lesser of two evils.”
President Obama shifted that balance dramatically when, earlier this week, he announced that he supports same-sex marriage.
“This has brought a new dynamic into the election, and it really is a gift to Gov. Romney from President Obama,” Jeffress says.
Becoming Evangelicals’ First Choice
Even before Obama’s statement, evangelicals favored Romney over the president by 3 to 1, chiefly because they so dislike the president, according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute. But can Romney turn that antipathy into enthusiasm for his own candidacy? Experts say that in order to win the election, Romney will not just have to satisfy evangelicals â he will have to thrill them.
“Social conservative voters in this election are not going to stay home,” says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “But the question is: When they drive to the polls, will they be driving a Suburban that’s packed with friends and neighbors that they influenced, or will they be driving themselves in a so-called Smart Car?”
In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, Richard Land talks about evangelical support for Mitt Romney.
Anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann studies the close personal relationship evangelicals have with God.
One company is combing through personal data to identify and register conservative Christian voters.
Evangelical leaders’ 11th-hour endorsement may only show their weakness as a force in the GOP.
That’s the question facing the faithful at First Baptist Church of Dallas, Jeffress’ 10,000-member megachurch. Several people said Romney was their second, third or fourth choice. They’re wary of him because, they say, he belongs to a religious cult; he was once pro-abortion rights and he was governor of Massachusetts when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal (though Romney vehemently opposed it).
“I was open to Michele Bachmann, I was open to Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, those guys that I thought came out of that more conservative base,” says Roy Sparkman, a former district judge. “But now that we’re here, I’m going to be a Romney supporter.”
Vera Strickland, a homemaker, says she’s voting for Romney because she doesn’t want a repeat of 2008, when millions of Christians stayed home rather than vote for John McCain.
“This is a call to arms,” Strickland says. “It’s a wake-up call to Christians that whether or not we like the choices, we must make a choice. And people need to wake up and realize if you want freedom, go vote.”
But Mark Lavvorn has some residual distrust about Romney’s commitment to conservative causes like traditional marriage and opposition to abortion.
“Mitt Romney is very smooth, very calculated â some would even describe him that way to a fault,” Lavvorn says. “And I think he has some distance to go to convince the evangelical that he is genuine, that he is sincere in these issues.”
Romney may have the chance to do just that when he gives the commencement address at Liberty University this weekend.
‘A Golden Opportunity’
“Gov. Romney has a golden opportunity to make peace with evangelical Christians,” Jeffress says of the speech. He says Romney will have an opportunity to hammer home the culture war themes that are so dear to religious conservatives â and he should be careful not to blow it.
“I think if Gov. Romney simply punts on this and says, ‘Well, I’m going to focus on the economy and jobs, and leave all this other stuff alone,’ I think he is going to absolutely squander this tremendous opportunity,” Jeffress warns.
University of Akron political scientist John Green says Romney has an advantage over John McCain in 2008. Back then, evangelicals didn’t know how much they disliked Barack Obama â now they do. But Green notes that if evangelicals want to have influence in a Romney administration, they need Romney as much as Romney needs them. And so far, they’ve snubbed him.
“Evangelical voters essentially backed other candidates in the primaries, so they need to mend some fences and strengthen their ties with [Romney],” Green says. “But of course the [presumptive] nominee will need them in the fall, and he’s got to find ways to strengthen his relationship with them as well.”
The next six months will show how rocky, or solid, this unlikely courtship really is.