Update on Cheaper Solar Energy

More information on cheaper solar energy , is this the way to go? I have thought about moving toward solar power for years but just was held back by the cost and what a chore set-up would be like in an older home like we have.  But now it is looking more interesting everyday. And I am seriously looking into this alternative energy source.  I will keep you updated on other cheaper solar resources as I find them.

 

 

SendTec has generated unprecedented consumer response for Power-Save’s new line of affordable, consumer-ready solar energy systems via a direct response television (DRTV) campaign. Power-Save Solar systems are designed to simplify solar energy implementation in the home, creating the most cost-effective solar solutions on the market.

St. Petersburg, Fla (PRWEB) August 8, 2008 — SendTec, Inc. (OTCBB: SNDN), a leading multi-channel integrated direct marketing agency, has generated unprecedented consumer response for Power-Save’s (OTC: PWSV) new line of affordable, consumer-ready solar energy systems via a direct response television (DRTV) campaign. Power-Save Solar systems are designed to simplify solar energy implementation in the home, creating the most cost-effective solar solutions on the market. Launched in June 2008, the DRTV campaign produced by SendTec has exceeded even the most aggressive expectations, surpassing performance goals by 80 percent.

“Green is hot! We developed a breakthrough DRTV campaign that, instantly tapped into the insatiable demand for green products that save money on the consumer’s sky-rocketing energy costs,” says Paul Soltoff, CEO of SendTec. “The market is hungry for information about products that not only save money but also promote sustainability. Rather than simply selling a product, the campaign SendTec designed aims to first educate the consumer on how it is now financially feasible to enjoy the benefits of solar energy in the home. SendTec is gearing up to market other Green products this year and expects similar successes”.

A premier retailer of renewable energy and energy savings products, Power-Save produces solar energy systems that utilize your home’s existing power grid. With simple installation and no need for a battery, Power-Save solutions are an accessible alternative for the average consumer. In the past, cost has acted as the major deterrent to these types of applications. However, Power-Save Solar systems qualify for a range of government incentives which cover up to 100 percent of the system’s installed price in many states.

According to the 2007 Statistical Review of World Energy, the U.S. consumes 23 percent of the world’s energy and significantly trails other major countries in the adoption of solar power. “Combining advanced technology with the easiest to implement package on the market, Power-Save has made solar energy a viable and affordable solution for the masses,” says Michael Forster, CEO of Power-Save. “By leveraging an in-depth knowledge of DRTV, SendTec has been an invaluable partner in spreading our message.”

The SendTec-produced DRTV spots are currently airing on multiple national cable stations, promoting the Power-Save 1000 through 6000 Solar Systems. All six complete, ready-to-install systems are Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and California Energy Commission (CEC) listed. To learn more about SendTec or Power-Save Solar systems, visit www.sendtec.com or www.power-save.com.

About SendTec
SendTec Inc. is a leading customer acquisition ad agency with expertise in multi-channel integrated direct marketing, online and offline. The company builds and leverages technology as an integral part of growing its clients’ businesses. Search engine marketing, direct response television and lead generation are the company’s unique specialties. SendTec is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, with an office in New York City and account representatives serving its clients across the U.S. For more information, go to www.sendtec.com.

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PR Firm – Alpaytac
Huma Gruaz
312-245-9805
E-mail Information
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In Iowa Child Labor Laws Violations

Sometimes you just have to read something twice before it really sinks in how pathetic we are getting for the almighty  dollar.

 

Iowa, come on are we getting desperate here or what.  This is supposed to be stories you hear about in third world countries, not in Iowa.

 

By HENRY C. JACKSON and AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writers Tue Aug 5, 5:43 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa labor officials said Tuesday that they had uncovered dozens of child labor violations at the nation’s biggest supplier of kosher meat.

Officials from the state’s Labor Commissioner’s Office said their investigation, which spanned several months, uncovered 57 cases of child labor law violations at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, where nearly 400 workers were arrested this spring in the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history.

The types of violations included minors working in prohibited occupations, exceeding allowable hours for youth to work, failure to obtain work permits, exposure to hazardous chemicals and working with prohibited tools.

“The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Dave Neil, Iowa Labor Commissioner, said in a statement. “It is my recommendation that the attorney general’s office prosecute these violations to the fullest extent of the law.”

Juda Engelmayer, an Agriprocessors spokesman, declined to comment.

Federal immigration agents arrested 389 illegal-immigrant workers, mostly Guatemalans, in a May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors plant. Most of the arrested workers pleaded guilty within a week and are serving sentences in federal prisons outside Iowa before being deported.

Allegations of child labor violations were included in an initial affidavit and a search warrant that led to the raid at Agriprocessors, which also operates a plant near Gordon, Neb.

Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, the agency that oversees the labor commission, said Iowa’s child labor investigation into Agriprocessors began before the federal immigration raid and was independent of the raid.

Under Iowa law, it is illegal for children under the age of 18 to work in meatpacking plants.

Koonce said the number of violations is much larger than what is typically found in the state of Iowa.

“Typically, when we have child labor issues it’s an issue of one or two individuals,” she said. “From our point of view, with this investigation, it’s a large-scale violation of the law.”

Koonce said the full report was not being made public because it is a part of a criminal investigation but she confirmed that 57 children were involved.

Labor officials say the child labor violations would normally be turned over to the county attorney’s office, but in this case will most likely be handed over the Iowa attorney general at the county’s request.

The attorney general’s office said it could not comment on what penalties are possible, but Koonce said any charges would be filed against the company and would generally include fines.

Several underage workers who said they were employed at the plant have spoken out since the raid about their experiences.

At a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last month in Postville, 17-year-old Noel Castillo Ordonez said he had worked long hours at the plant to support his family in Guatemala.

“I needed money for my family, because I could not help them,” he said in Spanish.

At the same meeting, 17-year-old Gilda Yolanda Ordonez Lopez openly wept as she described being forced to work shifts as long as 12 hours with no overtime pay.

“They asked me how old I was, and I told them the truth,” Lopez said.

Sister Mary McCauley of St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville has been working closely with the workers’ families. She said she was “heartsick” over the stories of child labor violations that she heard after the raid.

“My first response is it doesn’t surprise me because of all that I have heard,” she said Tuesday. “Therefore, I am grateful that this was brought to the attention of the proper authority and my hope would be that some sanctions would be taken because I do think that these young children were not treated with respect and they should not have been there in the first place.”

State labor officials say they are still investigating some wage violations at the plant.

Gotti Junior Arrested on Murder Conspiracy Charges

Who saw that coming!

 

John A. “Junior” Gotti has been arrested on charges linking him to three New York murders, a law enforcement official said Tuesday. 

Wherever there are people who are desperate, there will be people to take advantage of them.

Are Social Workers Overworked or Just Overpayed

 

You have got to read this story, does Jeremiah Creekwater ring a bell to anyone. This was not something that just happened in the last week or so. This had been going on for quite sometime. What has become of us, do we so rely on anothers approval that we are willing to look the other way , what were these people thinking. And what of the Social Workers are they too busy to do their jobs or just paid so much that they can ignore their legal and moral obligations. How did not one, not two but Four Social Workers have failed this young girl. What this young child must have thought of those around her.

Starved Philadelphia girl was failed at every turn

A 258-page grand jury report released this week charges 9 people in connection with malnourishment death of Danieal Kelly, 14.

 

 

KATHY MATHESON Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA — For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room — made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave — the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

 

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother’s home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city’s human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people — her parents, four social workers and three family friends — in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn’t want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising them.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being “uncaring and incompetent.”

“It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly,” District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. “How is it possible for this to have happened?”

The report should “outrage the entire Philadelphia community” and bring about “earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes” at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers — suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case — face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl’s condition before her death.

Cheaper Solar Energy

The initial cost of setting up solar power for your home and added to the fact that most people do not completely understand how it is intergrated with their power sources now ,stops people from looking seriously at solar energy.  I think it is a great idea to make it affordable to a wider consumer base. This with the rising cost of other energy sources will make people consider solar energy as a serious contender in energy resources. check out the link below for more information on who and how they are trying to make solar energy cheaper.

http://latest-news-portal.blogspot.com/2008/06/cheaper-solar-power-from-ibm.html

 

 

 

A Paper Stronger than Cast Iron?

 

scientists have come up with a way to make paper stronger, very interesting article check it out at the link listed below.

http://latest-news-portal.blogspot.com/2008/06/invention-paper-stronger-than-cast-iron.html

Happy Birthday AVE

Today is one of our grandchildren’s birthday, it has been such a joy to see her grow into such a wonderful young lady. It has been a blessing that we have had the opportunity to see our grandchildren grow and learn, and we are so very thankful for that. 

Happy Birthday peanut! Have a wonderful day!

Will The Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008 Help Me?

The program will begin October 1, 2008 and will run through September 2011.

Eligible borrowers must have spent over 31% of their monthly income on their mortgage, starting March 2008. You must verify your income and the home must be your primary residence. In the end it is up to the lenders to choose which loans to refinance. 

This is just the basic for more information check out the website http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/hr3221_bill_text.pdf

Battering is the Single Greatest cause of Injury to Women

According to The Gabe Kapler Foundation

Women are injured by batterers more frequently than in car accidents, muggings and rapes combined. Ten times more women than men suffer from relationship abuse. They are wives, children, sisters, mothers, girlfriends and neighbors. Every nine seconds a woman is beaten. Three to four million women require medical or police attention each year. For 4,000 women each year, the abuse ends. That’s because they die!

Copied from the AP

Family: Missing Fort Bliss soldier found alive

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer

Tammy Skelton said she talked to Army Pfc. Jeneesa Lewis early Monday by phone, and her sister said she had been beaten and stabbed twice. Skelton said her sister “sounded tired, scared and weak.”

Her husband, Clinton W. Lewis, has been jailed on an aggravated kidnapping charge. He was being held on $75,000 bond, according to jail records, which did not show if he had an attorney.

“Clinton had seen it on the news and decided to turn himself in,” Skelton said in a phone interview from her home in Rogersville, Tenn.

Delores Pigeon, Jeneesa Lewis’ grandmother, said Jeneesa Lewis called late Sunday to say her husband abducted her from her El Paso apartment last week, drove her to Nevada and then came back to El Paso to turn himself in.

“He took her into Nevada,” Pigeon said. “She said she’s in shock. She’s got two big holes in her legs and she lost of a lot of blood.”

Pigeon said the family was elated to receive the call from officials in El Paso late Sunday telling them what happened.

“I was just so excited last night to her voice,” Pigeon said. “She has bumps and bruises all over. You don’t always hear good stories, but thank God this is good.”

El Paso police told the El Paso Times late Sunday that Jenessa Lewis, a 29-year-old mother of three, had been located and was speaking with detectives but offered few other details.

Jeneesa Lewis was reported missing Friday after she didn’t show up for work at Fort Bliss, just outside El Paso. When soldiers from her unit found her apartment locked and no one apparently inside, they called police.

Skelton said police reported to the family that the apartment was a wreck and blood was found inside.

In the days leading up to her disappearance, Jeneesa Lewis was planning to leave her husband of two years, Skelton said. The soldier sent her sister a series of text messages saying that Clinton Lewis had left and had even sent a picture of that looked like it was taken from inside of a Greyhound bus.

“She left him an envelope with money and a note telling him to leave and not to come back,” Skelton said. “She was so happy, saying he’s 400 miles away.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Skelton said, Jeneesa Lewis believed her husband was gone for good and started making plans to go back to her apartment and start over without him.

“Hey sis he’s gone so when my check comes I’m going to buy a futon,” Jeneesa Lewis wrote in the text message Wednesday, Skelton said. “Yeah, he’s gone. Had police go with me yesterday, it’s all clear.”

But police believe Clinton Lewis, who is wanted in Tennessee on a warrant for not paying back child support and has a decade-long criminal history that includes an assault charge, came back to the apartment and then took off with Jeneesa Lewis.

She was last heard from in a text message at 4:56 p.m. Thursday when she chatted with Skelton about arranging the phone company to come out and set up a new line at her apartment.

Skelton said the pair met about a half-dozen years ago at a Tennessee night club. At first, Clinton Lewis seemed charming and fun, but the relationship soon became tumultuous and, Skelton says, abusive.

“He was all charm and fun then I guess,” Skelton said. “He’s a very likable person. He could walk up to you and you’d think he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

The pair married about two years ago after a series of break ups and make ups. Skelton said her sister was often terrified of her husband but never reported the abuses to police and only recently confided in relatives about what Skelton says was really happening.

“She would never tell us the whole story,” Skelton said.

Skelton said she constantly urged her sister, a mother of three young children, to leave Clinton Lewis.

“He told her that if she ever left him, he’d kill her. If he couldn’t have her, no one could,” Skelton said. “I’ve heard him say that myself, several times.”

Skelton said her sister joined the Army last year to get away from her husband and start a new life with her children — 4-year-old Clinton Jr., 7-year-old Gabrielle Buttry, and 9-year-old Toni Marie Buttry.

The children have been living in Tennessee with Jeneesa Lewis’ mother. The soldier planned to moved the children to Texas once she got a place to live on Fort Bliss.

Are You Sure You have Life Insurance?

 

Seriously are we kidding here!  They are going to let a family suffer because Spherion Corp is greedy. This is absolutley ridiculous and if there is someone out there who thinks this is fair, then you better make sure that you have followed all the rules for your policy and that while you are sick no one switches insurance companies. “Watch out” if Spherion is doing it so are others. What an example of what we as a society have become.

Shame on Spherion and any other company who try decide a family’s future for their own gain.  Spherion had a responsiblity to let that family know they had not completed all of the requirements.  Again I say shame on you spherion corp.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Jul 5, 11:04 AM ET

WASHINGTON – Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

“He was obsessed with dotting every `i’ and crossing every `t’,” Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.

The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand’s insurance premiums.

Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.

“The facts … scream out for a remedy beyond the simple return of premiums,” Judge Fortunato Benavides of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the Amschwand case. “Regrettably, under existing law it is not available.”

The Bush administration has argued that the appeals courts are misreading the precedents and has asked the high court at least twice to clarify the earlier rulings. So far it has refused.

Congress, which could amend ERISA to make clear such suits are allowed, also has taken no action.

The result, in the view of ERISA experts, the administration and some lawmakers, is perverse.

“The beneficiary under the policy didn’t get the promised benefit,” said Colleen Medill, an expert on ERISA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “To say we’re just going to return your premiums, that’s a total farce. That’s not what they paid the premiums for. They paid them for the benefits.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a recent hearing that before ERISA became law, employees clearly could sue for benefits in state courts.

The court rulings, said Leahy, D-Vt., have left people “more vulnerable than they were before the law was passed.”

Spherion’s decision to deny benefits to Amschwand-Bellinger turned on an odd set of facts. Spherion, which employs about 300,000 people, switched insurers after Thomas Amschwand was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. The new policy did not take effect until an employee worked one full day. Spherion never informed Amschwand of the requirement.

Amschwand asked repeatedly whether there was anything else he needed to do and was told no. He asked that the new policy be sent to him. Spherion never did so.

He died without returning to work. His widow said he easily could have worked a day if that was what it took to activate the new policy. Spherion could have waived the one-day-of-work provision, as it did for other employees but not for Amschwand.

Spherion spokesman Kip Havel issued a brief statement when contacted by The Associated Press after the high court declined to review the case. “We are pleased the court has made its decision and the matter has finally been resolved,” Havel said.

The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard “Gerry” Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.

For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. “Unfortunately, legal relief is not available,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.

“You know the Schwab commercial, `Talk to Chuck?’” Goeres said. “I thought if Chuck knew this, he’d say, ‘Oh my God, this is so wrong.’ I live on naive dreams.”

Schwab said in court papers that Goeres could have taken legal action soon after Ward’s death, when he first was told he was not the beneficiary.

Amschwand-Bellinger said the cases show the need for either the court or Congress to provide “some sort of meaningful remedy for employees when employers have a breach of fiduciary duty.”

A Texas native who lives in an unincorporated Houston suburb, she has since remarried and has an 18-month-old daughter. She is president and executive director of the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation, which she founded with her first husband.

She recognizes that she is more fortunate than many others who have fought similarly futile battles for benefits under ERISA. “What if we had had children and I was a stay at home mom?” said Amschwand-Bellinger, who previously worked for a public hospital system. “What if I was 60 years old, with no skill sets, and I had to go back to work?”