Russ McCutcheon

The US Environmental Protection Agency and the American agricultural community share a common interest in the environment. The EPA has a mission to safeguard the quality our nations air, water and soil and health of our people. Farmers rely on clean air, abundant water resources and healthy soil as critical raw materials for their industry, which supports the health of people across the US and around the world.

Ive seen this interaction from both perspectives, as an orchard manager, and today in my job as senior agricultural adviser to EPAs administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, and I know the challenges on both sides.

This administration has taken significant steps to make sure our policies work under the unique characteristics of the farming community, like widely dispersed farms and numerous individual operators. We have also taken into account the challenging circumstances American farmers face, from the small margins and international competition, to the adverse, unpredictable conditions and difficulties of operating small business, that complicate the tasks of making a living on the land.

There arent many one-size-fits-all approaches in this field and having real world information matters whether it is in making decisions about biofuels or understanding how a federal law against oil spills inadvertently called for treating spilled milk like spilled diesel.

Administrator Jackson and EPA experts went to work with the farming community, applied common sense, and made decisions based on the facts providing a path for Americas energy future and exempting milk containers from oil spill regulations.

A more recent example of how EPA works with agriculture can be seen in our deliberations and interactions with farmers over the issue of the National Ambient Air quality Standards for particulate, also know as PM-10 or farm dust. The EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to review our PM-10 standards every five years. Following that schedule in the law, EPA initiated a review of the science by an independent panel and conducted a policy assessment of that review to determine if any changes were called for. The results of the study were/are available to the public.

At the same time, we recognized the unique issues for farmers and rural communities that needed to be taken into consideration. Anyone who has lived on or near gravel roads knows that some dust is a fact of life.

Administrator Jackson went to rural communities to talk with farmers, and directed her staff to conduct meetings across the country to learn more about the specific issues those communities were facing.

After reviewing the science and the policy options and seeing the work farmers have done in places like the San Joaquin Valley to reduce air quality impacts Administrator Jackson this week reaffirmed her commitment to protecting air quality and human health. In doing so she further indicated that she was prepared to propose that we keep the current PM 10 standard. Again, the facts have mattered, with science and real world data serving as the basis for EPAs decision and interaction with the farm community.

The EPA also recognizes that circumstances may pose unique challenges for farmers as they adopt environmental protections and confront forces of nature outside their control. This year farmers throughout the Midwest and south have dealt with devastating and extended flooding that overwhelmed their operations and communities. After speaking to farmers, university scientists, and agricultural agencies, EPA recognized that farmers ability to implement practices for storage tanks in their operations had been severely hampered. As a result, EPA has provided an extended period of time for farmers to put in place additional protections, and made sure that information and technical assistance will be available during times of the year most suited to farmers during the seasons they are not raising or harvesting crops.

On issue after issue, we have seen the value of early and substantive engagement with the agricultural community. Our recent actions have shown the strength of EPAs commitment to farmers particular needs, and our ability to find solutions that fulfill both sides of our relationship. The critical work that our farmers are doing to protect and preserve healthy soil, air, and water resources, as well as the invaluable contributions they make producing food and fiber for our country and the world, can and should continue to work hand in hand.

Elworth is Agricultural Advisor to the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Kings County supervisors are considering a ban on medical pot
shops and large-scale medical marijuana growing.

The proposed rule would allow medically qualified individuals to
grow only a few plants on their property for their own personal
use.

The crop would have to be inside a locked building. Distributing
any of the substance to anybody else would be prohibited, as would
any collectives, cooperatives or other types of large-scale
operation.

Kings County has two medical marijuana shops on East Lacey
Boulevard.

The shops would be shut down under the proposed ordinance. The ban
would take effect in 30 days.

Such bans are controversial. Defenders of California’s medical
marijuana law say the type of regulation being considered by Kings
County is illegal. Such bans have been challenged in court, with
mixed results.

Fresno County supervisors enacted a similarly tough ordinance on
Aug. 9.

If the Kings County ban is enacted and then declared illegal by a
court, supervisors could adopt an alternative rule that allows
medical pot shops and grows under certain restrictions, including
not being within 600 feet of a “school, park, playground, library,
church, childcare facility, drug treatment facility or recreational
facility.”

On Sept. 13, supervisors adopted a temporary ban on new medical pot
shops to give staff time to craft a draft ordinance.

The Kings County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 am in board
chambers at the Kings County Government Center.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432 or
snidever@HanfordSentinel.com.

Shelton High School honored 125 CAPT Scholars at a breakfast on Thursday, October 20. These students achieved goal on the Math, Reading Across the Disciplines, Writing Across the Disciplines and Science sections of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. Mrs. Cindy Brouillette, Guidance Department Chairperson, planned the breakfast.

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Parents were invited to share in the festivities. Mrs. Brouillette commented, “Over the last few years less than thirty percent of sophomores tested in the state of Connecticut achieved certification in all four subject areas.We are very proud to be able to celebrate with you your success on the CAPT test as well as your continued commitment to high academic achievement here at Shelton High School.”

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Dr. Beth Smith, Headmaster, addressed and congratulated the students. She commented, “At Shelton High School we believe it is important to celebrate student achievement and to gather as a learning community, with students, staff, administration, parents, board of education members, and Central Office personnel, to recognize those students who have met the standards as stated in our mission statement.”

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Smith challenged students to continue to be diligent with their studies and set high, achievable goals for themselves. Dr. Smith presented each student with a certificate from the Connecticut State Department of Education.

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The event concluded with a raffle in which CAPT Scholars received gift certificates to local establishments or cash prizes from donations received from school clubs, staff members and parent organizations.

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Students who were recognized for meeting goal on all four CAPT subtests are:

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Phillip Ashcroft, Denis DaSilva, Samantha Dimas, James Farrell, John Fenton, Alyson Ferrante, Megan Finelli, Emily Gaetano, Kristen Grabarz, Connor Hamme, Colette Harley, Micaela Joyce, David Karwowski, John Kocur, Jordan Kovacs, Jacob Mabee, Emily McNeil, Timothy Maloney, Olivia Marciano, Alexa Merriam, Carolyn Rennie, John Somers, Joseph Stein, Mackenzie Thompson, Joseph Wardell.

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Other CAPT Scholars receiving certificates are:

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Justin Ahern, Emily Apicerno, Vincent Backert, Katherine Benedito, Justin Bernardino, Ryan Berry, Priyal Bhargava, Jeremy Blass, Alessandra Boisvert, Shady Bourham, Zachary Bowles, Anthony Branca, Mackenzie Brighindi, Megan Burke, Bree Callahan, Thomas Caruso, James Castelot, Rachel Cataudella, Richard Cerulli, Tyler Chamberland, Cole Chavez, Michael Chernesky, Monica Ciocca, Olivia Cleri, Shantal Collins, Gianna DeCaro, Emily DeRosa, Alexandra Ferrarese, Ryan Fitzgerald, Adam Florczak, Vincent Flynn, Maretta Geevarghese, Ashley Gilbey, Taillore Ginorio, Richard Hayes, Ermal Hima, Maeve Holler, Hailey Hongo, Myles Hoponick, Scott Hultgren, Vincent Infante, Alyssa Johnson, Erin Johnson, Samantha Johnson, Selina Jose, Steven Kandro, William Karcher, Pauline Kleczkowski, Nicholas Kopchik, Stavros Koumbaros, Samantha Krajcsik, Julianna Kriston, Katie Lampart, Shannon Langdon, Ewa Leszczynski, Marcelina Lombardi, Kaitlyn Macisco, Sara MacNeill, Jason Maldonado, Christian Mariano, Nicholas Matto, Julianna Mauriello, Kelly McCormack, Kelly Messemer, Charles Mojcik, Lauren Montagna, Craig Packnick, Brett Pascarelli, Taylor Peers, Edward Peluso, Ramon Peralta, Gabriella Perez, William Pjura, Sarah Plucienik, Lauren Pontbriant, Geoffrey Profeta, Kacy Rello, Kelly Robinson, Brittany Russo, Conner Schutz, Lauren Shearer, Kevin Sisounthone, Justin Sobbell, Alexandra Soltis, Lili Sou, Sydney Spadinger, Nicholas Stevko, Emily Tarini, Ryan Testani, Tyler Tice, Michael Torres, Nicholas Trabka, Tyler Vasilescu, Adam Villegas, Chelsea Wade, Brian Welch, Thomas Wilczynski, Alyssa Wood, Adam Zhitomi, Amy Zygart.

WLAN vendor Meru Networks has announced a new optional software module that lets its Wi-Fi networks recognize privately owned clients and automatically configure them to meet corporate security and management policies.

The module, dubbed Smart Connect, is part of a new release of the companys network operating system, new 802.11n access points with radios that achieve 450Mbps data rates, and a new family of WLAN controllers that support more users and more backhaul capacity.

IN DEPTH:
Wi-Fi devices crowd 2.4GHz band; IT looks to 5GHz

Companies face a rising tide of mobile Wi-Fi devices, and often users with three or four devices, including some they buy themselves.

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PITTSBURGH, Oct. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Dicks Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS), the largest US based full-line sporting goods retailer, invites the community of Gainesville to their three-day grand opening weekend. The store will open its doors on Wednesday, October 26 and begin the celebration with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, October 28 at 8 AM at the retailers new location at The Shops at Stonewall, 8009 Stonewall Shops Square, Gainesville, VA 20155 (571-248-6261). Special extended store hours will also be in effect for Friday (8 AM10 PM), Saturday (8 AM10 PM) and Sunday (9 AM8 PM).

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110912/PH65977LOGO )

Dicks Sporting Goods has a variety of special athlete appearances and give-a-ways scheduled to celebrate the grand opening festivities. On Friday, the first customers through the door will receive a free adidas t-shirt while supplies last.

Saturday, for the first 100 customers through the door, Crocs will be giving away a free pair of adult Crocs (limit one per person and must be 18 years or older). Plus, a special appearance by former Washington Redskins Charles Mann from noon2PM* and Professional Golfer Rocco Mediate from 2PM4PM*. A Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl Champion, Mann is in the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame. A member of the PGA Tour, Mediate has claimed 10 professional wins on the golf circuit.

Sundays schedule will feature a Mystery Gift Card Giveaway for the first 100 customers, where unmarked gift cards will be handed out with varying denominations from $5 to one lucky $500 gift card (limit one per person, per household and must be 18 years or older). Also on Sunday, receive a free Reebok t-shirt while supplies last. Georgetown alumni Roy Hibbert will be onsite from noon2PM*. Hibbert earned Second Team AP All-American accolades with the Hoyas and was drafted in the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft.

Dicks Sporting Goods is excited to become a member of the Gainesville community with the opening of our newest location, said Lauren Hobart, Dicks Sporting Goods Chief Marketing Officer. Unsurpassed customer service and the best products in the industry are the hallmarks of our stores and were excited to bring these traditions to Gainesville. We look forward to becoming an integrated member of the Gainesville community.

The Gainesville location will be the retailers 23rd store in the state of Virginia and their 472nd nationwide.

Throughout the weekend, customers can sign up for the $1,000 ScoreCard Shopping Spree, earn triple points all weekend by signing up for the ScoreCard Rewards Program, and register to win prizes from The North Face, SofSole, Crosman, or Michael Mauro. Additionally, there will be activities throughout the store including product demonstrations by experts from Crocs, Superfeet, SofSole, adidas, Eagle Claw and Bear Archery among others.

Visit www.dickssportinggoodsonline.com/Grand_Open/Gainesville/ for more grand opening details and directions.

Dicks Sporting Goods is proud to be an active member of the communities they serve through the efforts of Community Marketing and Youth Sports programs. Dick Stack, founder of Dicks Sporting Goods, believed that sports play a vital role in teaching our children fundamental values like a strong work ethic, teamwork, and good sportsmanship. Stack understood that supporting the organizations that make youth sports possible is the best way to promote those values. Today, that legacy continues. Dicks Sporting Goods shares the same enthusiasm and commitment to youth sports in our communities. This year, through its Community Youth Sports Program, Dicks Sporting Goods will donate thousands of coachs equipment kits to youth sports organizations across select markets reaching over a million athletes. For more information about Dicks Sporting Goods Community Marketing and the programs they offer, please contact Kyle Graves at Kyle.Graves@dcsg.com or visit http://dickssportinggoods.sponsorport.com/.

* Limit one autograph per person. Autographs are provided on a first-come, first-served basis and are only guaranteed to the first 250 people in the appearance line on the day of the event only. Times and appearances are subject to change without notice. Some restrictions may apply. See store for details.

About Dicks Sporting Goods, Inc.

Dicks Sporting Goods, Inc. is an authentic full-line sporting goods retailer offering a broad assortment of brand name sporting goods equipment, apparel and footwear in a specialty store environment. The Company also owns and operates Golf Galaxy, LLC, a golf specialty retailer. As of October 24, 2011, the Company operated 469 Dicks Sporting Goods stores in 42 states, 81 Golf Galaxy stores in 30 states and e-commerce web sites and catalog operations for both Dicks Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy. Dicks Sporting Goods, Inc. news releases are available at http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/investors. The Companys web site is not part of this release.

SOURCE Dicks Sporting Goods

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Bass Pro Shops and conservation. The sale of hunting licenses, tags and stamps is the primary source of funding for most state wildlife conservation efforts. Hunters and anglers are the largest contributors to government wildlife conservation programs. Through excise taxes and license revenues, these sportsmen have contributed more than $10 billion dollars to conservation and provide more than 80% of the funding for most state fish and wildlife agencies. But Bass Pro Shops is very active as well as we hear from Larry L. Whiteley

Bass Pros Manager of Communications: We have one more conservation awards than any retailer in America. Johnny Morris is very well known as a conservationist. And Bass Pro gives awards. He is the one who basically decides who gets the award. There is no criteria as such. It is just his work with the people. He does so much with conservation that he picks someone each year that he feels needs to be honored for what they do for conservation. The awards are basically for how our founder believes how important folks have been to conservation in our state and throughout the country for the efforts they have made to conserve and protect our natural resources and wildlife for future generations. Thats what he believes in.

By Alliott Cole

At a time when Google defies the global economic slowdown by posting a 26% rise in net profits for the last quarter, it may seem curious to challenge the behemoth’s future. As Larry Page, Googles co-founder and chief executive, declared we had a great quarter, before going onto highlight the progress made with Google+: People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started.

Amongst analysts there is palpable excitement that Google may challenge Facebook’s dominance and this is before one considers the incredible success of the Android platform and various other projects, applications and revenue lines.

But. And there is a but. What about “Search”?  Larry Page once described the “perfect search engine” as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.” Equally, one of Googles core principles is, “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” That in mind, all the superlatives gushing from the world’s financial press suddenly appear misplaced.

Thats because despite being used by hundreds of millions of people every day, Google has not mastered Search. The sector as a whole remains in its infancy. Well over a decade since inception, it is clear that Google (and every other popular search engine for that matter) has not mastered even in the basics of semantic search: it remains completely unable to understand users queries or web pages (Google’s main information source).

If it did, it would respond with an answer to user’s questions. Instead, users are forced to spend time browsing several blue links that may or may not provide the answer to their questions. This mismatch of supply with demand presents itself clearly as the first words of every search: “About x,xxx,xxx results (0.yz seconds)”. So what?

This fundamental flaw in Google’s core business looks set to become more challenging with the exponential growth in Search via mobile handsets. Users do not want results determined by the Google parameters (relevance, freshness, comprehensive and speed). They just want answers.

Almost all mobile handset users seek local information, and a lot of it: questions around restaurants; shopping; sport; food; travel and weather dominate. Mobile information seeking is action-oriented and users want what they are looking for directly. Browsing hundreds of web pages from a mobile screen is not practicable or desirable. Information is for the here (contextual) and now (immediate). Statistics-based, index- powered search fails this mission.

The challenge in Search has moved on from “indexing the world’s information” to enabling greater access to information. No longer is the consumer concerned by the availability of information but rather the fast simple retrieval of it. This trend is acknowledged by Google. When asked what the perfect search engine is, Google’s Marissa Meyer replied:

It would be a machine that could answer that question, really. It would be one that could understand speech, questions, phrases, what entities you’re talking about, concepts. It would be able to search all of the world’s information, [find] different ideas and concepts, and bring them back to you in a presentation that was really informative and coherent.

Sound familiar?

Last week also saw the technology world aflame with news of the latest iPhone arrival. Much to the dismay of many, it looks identical to the last Cupertino release. But as commentators, reviewers and the fortunate few who found themselves at the front of Apple Shops around the world discovered, the iPhone 4S includes a remarkable new software application called Siri: in Apple’s own words, “your wish, is its command.”

The user can ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back.” What Siri does is analyze unstructured “natural language” queries and deliver results in ways that are “actionable.” This is “Search” as it should be: ask a question, receive an answer.

Q: “Is traditional web search dying?”

A: “Yes. And fast.”

One of our current amusements is how so many media pundits on TV and in print are befuddled by the Occupy Wall Street movement. They say they dont understand it. What do these people want? At first the pundits were ordered to kill the movement by ignoring it. Now the pundits have evidently been ordered to kill the movement by labeling it as aimless — a ragtag bunch of out-of-work neo-hippies with nothing better to do than criticize the establishment. (Even the PBS News Hour staff focuses again and again on how aimless the movement is.)

We see photos and videos of neo-hippie costumes, hand-made signs, long haircuts, wild clothes, and snickers about boys and girls sleeping in tents together.

Were flooded with establishment baloney about a protest movement that should be taken seriously as a symptom of socio-politico-economic disease.

The problem, apart from pundits as minions of a class, is that too many pundits dont read enough history to understand anything beyond what they learned in school — which usually wasnt much. If they would stop looking at their manicured fingernails and do some reading, they might learn a few things.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is an outburst (really a scream of pain) provoked by a politico-economic condition thats almost a replica of the past.

Here is a quotation from our past:

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

Who said it? Franklin Delano Roosevelt, April 29, 1938 (deep in the Great Depression) in a message to Congress.

And what was Roosevelt worried about? In the same message to Congress he provided the answer: Figures for 1935 published by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the IRS) revealed that of all corporations reporting from every part of the Nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them.

There are some people still alive (including myself) who lived through the Great Depression and who are dismayed at the prospect of seeing a revival of that old movie. The awful misery of it. People on the edge of madness caused by economic chaos produced by greed and ignorance of the people who had the real power — the financiers and corporations and their lobbyists and lackeys — what we call WALL STREET.

We had Franklin Delano Roosevelt working for the American people during the Great Depression (a rich man who turned against his class). Unfortunately, during the present movie revival we have no one comparable.

The way it looks now, one of the great tragedies of the history of the early 21st century will be the way Barack Obama disappointed the people who voted for him by aligning himself with corporate power on the road to corporate fascism — an alignment of corporations and government designed to foster the accumulation of personal capital.

This century now threatens to be as dramatic as the last century — when we surely had too much drama in our lives.

Occupy Wall Street is about popular disappointment. That it seems aimless and lacks a consensus policy is irrelevant, The sadness of it is that nearly all the power these days is not with the people but with the old enemies of the people — the financiers and corporations who put personal gain above public interest.

DENVER — Law enforcement agencies call the credit card scam in northern Colorado, the largest thats ever hit that part of the state. Its estimated that about 600 people have been victimized in the scam.