plus 4, Fix it: Leaving your home for the winter - Deseret News |
- Fix it: Leaving your home for the winter - Deseret News
- Business a priority for Lodi's new mayor: He cites replacing revenue ... - TradingMarkets.com
- Souder says Obama overtures come with strings Sylvia A. Smith ... - FortWayne.com
- Pleasant View fire engulfs house; family left with nothing - ksl.com
- Business a priority for Lodi's new mayor - Record
| Fix it: Leaving your home for the winter - Deseret News Posted: 27 Dec 2009 11:01 AM PST Question: We plan to be gone six to eight weeks this winter. We'll shut the water off at the main, open the faucets and turn the furnace down. Is there anything else we should do? Answer: That's a good start. Before you leave for an extended time in winter, follow these steps: Be sure the furnace or boiler has been cleaned and inspected. Turn heat down, but not off! Most thermostats will go to 55 to 60 degrees. Before setting it lower, check with the manual or ask the manufacturer. Empty refrigerators and freezers of foods that won't last, and leave them running, or empty completely, unplug them and prop them open. Disconnect hot and cold supply hoses to the washing machine and leave the valves open. Turn off and drain the water heater. Disconnect the water softener. It's a good idea to do one final backwash before disconnecting, to make startup easier. Check appliance manuals for advice on shutting down or what to do when leaving for extended periods. If possible, make sure hoses connected to outdoor faucets are disconnected and fully drained. Pour nontoxic or RV antifreeze (not automotive antifreeze) into all traps and drains, including the dishwasher and showers. Use 2 cups in toilet bowls and tanks, and about 1 cup in other drains. Be sure windows, doors and fireplace dampers are closed and latched. Check insurance policies to make sure you're covered if the house is unoccupied for an extended period. Conduct a home inventory (photograph or videotape important items) and take it with you. It will support an insurance claim if items are damaged, destroyed or stolen. Contract for snow removal, stop mail and paper delivery, and set lights on a timer. Other useful safety monitors are available at home and hardware stores. Let local law enforcement officials know the dates you will be gone. They often increase drive-bys or otherwise keep an eye on your place. Tell neighbors you'll be gone and leave a contact number with them. When you return: Bring the heat back gradually to minimize creaking and groaning associated with heat expansion. Allow about eight hours to go from 50 to 70 degrees. Fill the water heater before turning it on. Reconnect the water softener and backwash immediately. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Business a priority for Lodi's new mayor: He cites replacing revenue ... - TradingMarkets.com Posted: 27 Dec 2009 06:00 AM PST  LODI, Dec 27, 2009 (The Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- COST | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Much like his understated presence on the Lodi City Council the past three years, Phil Katzakian does not make too big a deal about serving as the city's mayor for the next 12 months. If anything, Katzakian just sees an increased opportunity to make a pitch to businesses that might want to locate in Lodi. (In the meantime, Costco Wholesale Corp. has applied to locate a new bulk-merchandise warehouse store in south Lodi.) He also supports the city's renewed redevelopment talks, after a referendum that would have created a new redevelopment zone failed this year in a special election. Business is an expertise for Katzakian, 61, who ran a printing shop near downtown for years before recently stepping aside to delve into real estate. He's also a West Coast representative for a Texas-based synthetic oil maker. Here are excerpts from a recent conversation with The Record: Question: How did you prepare for this upcoming mayoral term? Answer: "I spent three years trying to figure out what the responsibility of a council member is. ... It's like anything else, until you're immersed in it, you don't really know how it works." Q: What have you learned the past three years? A: You just learn a little bit every year. ... If I get the opportunity to try to promote the city more than I have in the past, I think that's probably the biggest difference (to being mayor). Q: So you think the mayor can be the public figure that sells the city to prospective employers? A: I think so. ... If a company's looking at locating in Lodi, I'd be pretty impressed if the mayor, or anybody from the City Council, came and spoke to me. ... If there's anything I can do to help in that area, that's what I really want to do. It's what I know best, is business. Q: Why do you think economic development should be a top priority today? A: Because of the loss in revenue streams. We basically have tax, property tax, we have our transfer from (electric utility) and we have sales tax revenue. That's the one that's off the most. ... Small towns like Lodi may never support auto dealerships again. We've lost two so far, plus an RV center. That's big, those are big-ticket items and they generate a lot of sales tax. Retail can replace that. Then good paying jobs, manufacturing jobs. If you look at the number of manufacturing jobs and the number of retail jobs in the city of Lodi, the payroll's quite a bit larger for manufacturing. Q: If you were asking a manufacturer to come to Lodi, what would you say? A: Depends on where they're coming from. I think the city of Lodi has a lot to offer for families: the city itself, the schools. It's just a great place. When I got out of college, I moved to Stockton. ... When I got married and had a family, I wanted to bring them back to Lodi so they could grow up where I grew up. I'm not sure everyone feels that way about their hometown. Q: Do you support a limited, infrastructure-only redevelopment project? A: I'm open to anything, whatever the people of Lodi want. (Redevelopment) is just a good thing, in any way shape or form. Q: Anything is better than nothing at this point? A: I don't know what we were trying to sell to them before (in the special election) that was so bad. Contact reporter Daniel Thigpen at (209) 546-8254 or dthigpen@recordnet.com. To see more of The Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.recordnet.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Record, Stockton, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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| Souder says Obama overtures come with strings Sylvia A. Smith ... - FortWayne.com Posted: 27 Dec 2009 02:54 AM PST Even a casual visitor to the office of Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, would understand his passions in a flash. The shelves are crammed with books, thick with sports knick-knacks, and sprinkled with photos of his wife, children and grandchildren. The walls are filled with posters of national parks and Hoosier history. Tables and his desk are piled with mementos from northeast Indiana businesses and trips abroad. Many books, plaques and statues are about his heroes – mostly Republicans. There's a miniature set of the Ten Commandments in a prominent spot. Every year of the 15 he has been in Congress, Souder's workspace has gotten more crowded with the keepsakes that define him as a man and as a politician: committed conservative, evangelical Christian, history buff, Hoosier advocate, national parks booster, sports fan. Annually since he was sworn in to the House in 1995, Souder has sat down with The Journal Gazette in that memento-filled office to review the year. This is an edited and condensed version of 2009's three-hour conversation. Journal Gazette: This is the first year of a Democratic president after eight years of a Republican in the White House. President Obama has made some obvious overtures to Republicans, inviting them to the White House for discussions, appointing a few to his administration and so on. Obama has visited Indiana several times since taking office. Have you had a relationship with the president? Souder: They invited me to go with them to Elkhart (a few weeks after Obama was sworn in). The first big decision I had was: Was I going to go on Air Force One? Ride back with them on Air Force One? Just go on the plane and not tell the local media? How do I want to handle my relationship with the president? There was a discussion whether I would go over and talk to the president about his Notre Dame (commencement) speech and whether he could do a little pro-life thing with that. There was a debate whether I should work with the faith-based office. You look at that as a legislator and say: I'm in the minority. They've made overtures. I had a number of friends who were saying Souder is a reasonable Republican; you can talk to him even if you don't agree with him. But, as I watched what they were doing, I felt there was more risk of being used than I could influence policy. That I would be used as a buffer at Notre Dame. Or imply that I was applauding the stimulus package if I showed up at Elkhart for one of his visits there. I made the decision that being the loyal opposition was more important. Why did you want to keep your distance from President Obama? I honestly feel that what he's been implementing is the absolute antithesis to everything that I believe in every category. The only exception I see right now is his speech on the Nobel Peace Prize and some of the statements on Afghanistan have showed some understanding of the risks we face in the world. But every other category! It's just so much more left-wing than Clinton. I'm just stunned. It is not what I expected. That has changed how you work with the other party. They ask if I want to co-sponsor a bill. I don't think so. I don't want to be associated with this. You got your master's degree from Notre Dame, so your feelings about being asked by the White House to have some input on Obama's graduation speech must have been conflicted. I have to say, I was tempted. The reason is I'm a Notre Dame grad. Also, people forgot that Reagan and Bush spoke there and got honorary degrees. But because his position was so radical on abortion, him getting an honorary degree was problematic. I was wondering: Could I get the president to include the importance of having people aware of the choices (that exist as an alternative to abortion) and to not use (a Bush-era regulation against ultrasounds on pregnant women)? In return, I would be used by him – and, quite frankly, by Notre Dame – if I showed up onstage there or if it got out that I was helping to review a speech. The price I would have paid was acting like this was some kind of a middle-ground trade-off for the series of pro-abortion policies he's doing. I decided I couldn't do it. You considered it a major accomplishment when the Veterans Administration announced earlier this year that it will build a new outpatient facility in Fort Wayne to replace the aging VA hospital and contract with city hospitals for inpatient care. What was your role in that decision? (Souder described a meeting with Gen. Eric Shinseki, the VA secretary, and Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, whose constituents use the Fort Wayne facility.) VA officials proposed a deal, but it wasn't that much different from the CARES decision (which proposed closing the in-patient operations). I said no. The critical moment came because I said this was just unacceptable, and to tell the veterans secretary I was walking out was risky. Joe said, "I'm with Mark. This is unacceptable for Fort Wayne." It was a critical moment because we provided a united front and walked out. Gen. Shinseki wanted to hear why it wasn't acceptable. Why was it unacceptable? Was it because of the things the local veterans had told you? When you hear people who sacrificed for our country getting bounced around like a pingpong ball – their records being lost, them driving to Indianapolis, getting their daughter off work so she could drive them to Indianapolis, and getting down there and their appointment being canceled – you start to go, "This is wrong." The same thing was happening with Joe. He told about a case about a veteran who was having to go to Indianapolis who needed to use the restroom. The gas station wouldn't let him use the restroom. So he went by his car and got picked up by the police and got taken to jail. What happened when you told Shinseki that you were prepared to walk out of the meeting? Gen. Shinseki wanted to hear why it was unacceptable. We had a long discussion, told the different stories. He said, "This isn't right. I'll be back to you by the end of the day." About 7 p.m. he came into my office, and Joe came over. Shinseki said (the new deal is) it will be rare for anyone to have to go to the Indianapolis VA hospital; we're going to build a new hospital; we're going to look for ways to use the old hospital, possibly for mental health or other outpatient things or even housing; that they would work something out with one or both hospitals in Fort Wayne and South Bend. Gen. Shinseki asked for all staff to be dismissed. He said, "The deal is, you've got to help support the money." What does that mean? That you would have to vote "yes" on upcoming spending bills that fund the VA? Yes. It is not possible to say I'm going to represent my district and I'm going to fight for the veterans' hospital and then, on something this big, say I'm not going to help. I don't think a single veteran in our district thought we were going to get a new hospital plus the old one rehabbed. Besides, I've long felt we were underfunding the veterans. We were increasing the veterans budgets under Republicans, but we were not increasing them enough to cover health care costs. I do not understand why the Republicans didn't count veterans health care as part of the cost of a war. It just makes no sense to me. Sometimes the Democrats are overly concerned about the health care portion and not enough to make sure they have superior weapons. And the Republicans are more concerned about the weapons than they are about taking care of soldiers if they do get hurt. To recap the legislation and amendments you introduced this year: Bills to recognize the orthopedic industry for innovation; to include family therapists on the list of professionals recognized to provide public school mental health services; to make it easier for vets to get reimbursed for travel for medical care; to require lawmakers to provide information on the value of their home mortgages, interest rate, and remaining number of years; to require Guantanamo detainees be included on the no-fly list. The no-fly provision was included as an amendment to a bill the House passed. An amendment you offered on a bill being considered on the floor, to prohibit funding for any needle-exchange program was defeated. I wanted to recap that because one year ago you told me: "Ultimately, it's a legislative business. If you're not directly writing a bill, inputting into a bill or doing amendments, you shouldn't be a legislator." What's your scorecard for 2009 on these criteria? This is what happens when you're in the minority. Much of what I introduced was actually argumentative points to set up some of the debate (in major legislation). You voted for the bailout and for the Cash for Clunkers program, both of which came under Republican criticism. Northern Indiana is an industrial area. Particularly if you grew up in those areas and live in those areas, they're your friends, they're your neighbors, people you go to church with. It wasn't hardly a Sunday that somebody at church didn't talk to me about GM. You go to Walmart, you go to Meijer, you go to a gas station, you pick up doughnuts and somebody's going to come up with you and talk about the auto industry. It's a fine line between doing ideology and advocating for your district. If you don't argue for your area, nobody else is going to argue for your area. If you have 58 percent of the RV industry and three of the four biggest orthopedic companies in the world, who else is going to argue for them if the congressman doesn't? It changed the nature of my job. Almost every company was in trouble in some part during this calendar year. You have ventured deeper into electronic communications this year. For instance, you have conducted several town hall meetings via telephone conference calls, and you and your staff use YouTube and Facebook to communicate with constituents. How is Facebook different from, say, a letter from a constituent or a question at a town hall meeting? The value of Facebook, to me, has been real simple. It's a reminder of what the world looks like when you're not in government. It's not like I don't have some of this kind of life, but you don't have as much of it. People post "I'm going over to the Little League game." "I'm going to see this downtown tonight." "We're going out to the zoo this afternoon." You have a personal Facebook page as well as one as "Congressman Mark Souder." How do you interact with people you have friended on your personal page? I enjoy watching and listening to what regular people – not in a government bubble – do with their lives, with their kids, with their parties, what they worry about. Then when I get involved in a chat or messaging with somebody about personal issues or they raise personal issues, there's no kind of political protectiveness with it. It's a relatively unguarded conversation. It's enabled me to talk to people who wouldn't get through a normal screening process because it's non-political, it's not related officially to my job. The Internet is a great leveler. There are people there who are presidents of companies who chat with me, and there are average people there who chat with me. You're hearing a conversation that's like your family, but it's beyond your family. How often do go on Facebook? I'm on it every day. If you don't do it, you're missing a chunk of your district because it's so easy to get isolated. Fantasy sports is one of your favorite hobbies. How are your teams doing? Overall, I do pretty well. Two-thirds of my teams finish first or second. I have more trouble in football. I'm having the most trouble in hockey. But my best hockey team is Bob Chase Komets. What's appealing about teams made up of people who don't play together in real life? It's orderly. I'm in a profession that is totally unorderly. The best thing about it is you wake up in the morning and you just don't know what's coming. That's what's exciting. But it leads to a very disorderly day. So when I look at the sports pages, there are all the numbers. There's an order to it. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  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| Pleasant View fire engulfs house; family left with nothing - ksl.com Posted: 27 Dec 2009 03:09 AM PST To view this video, you need to download the latest version Flash Player. PLEASANT VIEW -- A Weber County family lost everything when their house caught fire early Saturday morning. The fire began at about 1:30 a.m. at the house off 1100 West in the 3800 block of Pleasant View. Fire investigators said they weren't sure of the exact cause but said it started in the attic, which allowed it to spread to other rooms fast. The house is now a total loss. "Losses are probably in the $300,000 range, maybe even more," said Deputy Fire Chief Leonard Call with the North View Fire Department. Nicole Taylor just moved to the neighborhood two weeks ago and witnessed the fire. "The whole place was in flames," she said. "What can you say? It's awful. They're my new neighbors and it's devastating what happened to them. They've lost everything." Firefighters said at one point flames were shooting 40 feet high. "Fortunately, the homeowner was awake and noticed the lights flickering and so he was able to get everybody out, which is fortunate because the smoke detectors were not functioning," said Call. Neighbors said the homeowner, Robert Barclay, had lived in the house for several years. He was staying in an RV next to his house because so many family members, even some from out of state, were staying at the home for Christmas. Neighbors said he wanted to give them more room. "They're a phenomenal family," said neighbor Mike Tams. "This is the worst time of year to have something like this happen." Call said the investigation is ongoing. "It's going to take us awhile to sift through the remains and figure out what happened," he said. The family is staying with nearby relatives, and neighbors are pitching in where they can. A fund is also being set up for the family at any America First Credit Union. E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Business a priority for Lodi's new mayor - Record Posted: 27 Dec 2009 12:02 AM PST LODI - Much like his understated presence on the Lodi City Council the past three years, Phil Katzakian does not make too big a deal about serving as the city's mayor for the next 12 months. If anything, Katzakian just sees an increased opportunity to make a pitch to businesses that might want to locate in Lodi. (In the meantime, Costco Wholesale Corp. has applied to locate a new bulk-merchandise warehouse store in south Lodi.) He also supports the city's renewed redevelopment talks, after a referendum that would have created a new redevelopment zone failed this year in a special election. Business is an expertise for Katzakian, 61, who ran a printing shop near downtown for years before recently stepping aside to delve into real estate. He's also a West Coast representative for a Texas-based synthetic oil maker. Here are excerpts from a recent conversation with The Record: Question: How did you prepare for this upcoming mayoral term? Answer: "I spent three years trying to figure out what the responsibility of a council member is. ... It's like anything else, until you're immersed in it, you don't really know how it works." Q: What have you learned the past three years? A: You just learn a little bit every year. ... If I get the opportunity to try to promote the city more than I have in the past, I think that's probably the biggest difference (to being mayor). Q: So you think the mayor can be the public figure that sells the city to prospective employers? A: I think so. ... If a company's looking at locating in Lodi, I'd be pretty impressed if the mayor, or anybody from the City Council, came and spoke to me. ... If there's anything I can do to help in that area, that's what I really want to do. It's what I know best, is business. Q: Why do you think economic development should be a top priority today? A: Because of the loss in revenue streams. We basically have tax, property tax, we have our transfer from (electric utility) and we have sales tax revenue. That's the one that's off the most. ... Small towns like Lodi may never support auto dealerships again. We've lost two so far, plus an RV center. That's big, those are big-ticket items and they generate a lot of sales tax. Retail can replace that. Then good paying jobs, manufacturing jobs. If you look at the number of manufacturing jobs and the number of retail jobs in the city of Lodi, the payroll's quite a bit larger for manufacturing. Q: If you were asking a manufacturer to come to Lodi, what would you say? A: Depends on where they're coming from. I think the city of Lodi has a lot to offer for families: the city itself, the schools. It's just a great place. When I got out of college, I moved to Stockton. ... When I got married and had a family, I wanted to bring them back to Lodi so they could grow up where I grew up. I'm not sure everyone feels that way about their hometown. Q: Do you support a limited, infrastructure-only redevelopment project? A: I'm open to anything, whatever the people of Lodi want. (Redevelopment) is just a good thing, in any way shape or form. Q: Anything is better than nothing at this point? A: I don't know what we were trying to sell to them before (in the special election) that was so bad. Contact reporter Daniel Thigpen at (209) 546-8254 or dthigpen@recordnet.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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