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filefolderx · 6 years ago

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This op-ed went out to a couple of Alberta papers. In the interests of timeliness, I'm sharing a revised version here.

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Pipeline Lessons

We all need to step back from the finger-pointing and political posturing in the wake of the Federal Court’s decision to quash approval of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline and reflect on the lessons government, and we who elect them, should now have learned.

The former Harper government wanted pipelines so badly that it eliminated or weakened environmental protections Canadians had previously relied on. The federal Conservatives used budget omnibus bills to strip down the Fisheries Act, Canadian Environmental Protection Act and other laws meant to ensure due environmental diligence for resource projects.

The predictable result was that public interest groups became more determined to stop pipeline projects because they lost faith that they’d be fairly evaluated in the face of such obvious bias. Lesson number one: if citizens don’t trust regulatory processes, expect more aggressive protest action.

The public distrust was exacerbated by the National Energy Board, which has long been stacked with pro-industry staffers. It chose to ignore potential impacts on oceans and endangered species and bulldozed through what should have been a full and respectful consultation process with First Nations. Lesson number two: if regulatory boards aren’t objective, diligent and clearly focused on protecting the public interest, expect the courts to rule against the resulting decisions.

We got here in large part because the Harper Conservatives opted to de-regulate and to stack the approval process in the interest of multinationals, instead of putting the public interest — in environmental protection, fair process and respectful engagement — first. Fortunately Canada has a system of law that protects the public interest when governments fail to do so.

The fault doesn’t all lie with the Conservatives though. The Liberals, have lessons to learn from this fiasco too. Trudeau tried to ingratiate himself with Albertans by merely tweaking the previous government’s flawed process in the race to approve the project. Ironically, he insisted that the decision was based on science and fair process. It was not. The NEB’s shortcuts had ensured that. See lessons one and two.

Then he doubled down and offered to put Canada another $4.5 billion dollars in debt by buying the pipeline! Shareholders are now laughing all the way to the bank. Lesson number three: governments should stick to governing, not gamble our money in the business marketplace.

The only government looking even remotely credible now is the province of BC whose opposition has been partly vindicated - but meantime they are building the Site C dam they approved by an almost identically flawed process.

Meantime, Alberta’s NDP are left wearing unearned blame for federal errors. Fortunately their pipeline cheerleading was accompanied by a Climate Action Strategy that at least offers some hope that Alberta won't be left flailing with nowhere to go. Lesson number four: it’s past time to stop putting all Alberta’s economic eggs into the bitumen basket.

The question now is this: will governments learn their lessons and take the necessary steps to ensure that regulatory boards are no longer captive to industry, that citizens can trust environmental laws and the agencies meant to enforce them, that Aboriginal rights are honoured, and that our economic plan will be based on something more than nostalgia for the 1970s?

We’re reaping the consequences of political cynicism and ineptitude at the federal level. We'd be wise to take a good hard look at the political philosophies of those who want our votes, either federally or provincially, and ask who is most likely to repeat Harper’s and Trudeau’s fatal errors — and who is most likely to ensure Canada profits from these lessons rather than having to learn them all over again.

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It is so frustrating to be in Alberta, and see how much blame is being heaped squarely on the Alberta NDP, like they aren't trying to work within a system they didn't make. This will cost them any slim chance they had to win the next election, and I'm terrified for the future of LGBTQ youth, reproductive health services, harm reduction strategies, because the conservative population here now has something more palatable to grasp on to than "let the junkies die" or "make it so difficult to get an abortion that they just can't" or "make teachers out queer kids to the parents they are afraid of". I feel so helpless.

#abpoli #canpoli #transmountian pipeline #canadian politics #cdnpoli

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ericfruits · 5 years ago

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Complainant May Not Appeal Dismissal Of Bar Grievance

The Vermont Supreme Court held that a dissatisfied complainant lacks standing to appeal a dismissed bar complaint

Petitioner filed a petition for extraordinary relief, asking this Court to order Bar Counsel to refer for investigation a complaint he made against an attorney. Bar Counsel moves to dismiss the petition. We grant his request. We agree with “every jurisdiction that has ever confronted” this issue and conclude that petitioner fails to “allege an injury sufficient to confer standing.” Boyce v. N.C. State Bar, 814 S.E.2d 127, 134 (N.C. Ct. App. 2018) (recognizing that many individuals have “taken issue with a state bar’s failure to act on a disciplinary grievance and then sought relief from the courts,” and “every jurisdiction that has ever confronted [this issue] has concluded that the complainant has not alleged an injury sufficient to confer standing” (citing cases))

Before turning to the merits, we address petitioner’s request, made almost two months after filing his petition, to add his client as a “co-petitioner” because she was “subjected to the conduct complained of.” We deny his request. The subject of this petition for extraordinary relief is the complaint that petitioner filed with the Professional Responsibility Program; his client filed no such complaint. Even if we were to grant petitioner’s request to add a co-petitioner, we would reach the same result. Neither petitioner nor his client has standing to pursue this case.

The complaint's disposition

Petitioner here filed a complaint with the Professional Responsibility Program in August 2018. Bar Counsel reviewed the complaint and dismissed it, explaining to petitioner the reasons for his decision. Upon petitioner’s request, the Chair of the Professional Responsibility Board reviewed the matter and upheld Bar Counsel’s decision. Petitioner then tried to appeal the Chair’s decision to this Court. We dismissed the case, finding that petitioner had no right to appeal.

And no right to "extraordinary relief."

The court surveyed other jurisdictions

Like the states above, our attorney-discipline system serves “to protect the public from persons unfit to serve as attorneys and to maintain public confidence in the bar, as well as to deter other attorneys from engaging in misconduct.” Robinson, 2019 VT 8, ¶ 73 (quotation omitted). To this end, the rules allow for the imposition of various sanctions against attorneys for misconduct. See A.O. 9, Rule 8 (identifying possible sanctions). The attorney-discipline process does not provide “a means of redress for one claiming to have been personally wronged by an attorney.” Cotton v. Steele, 587 N.W.2d 693, 699 (Neb. 1999). Petitioner cannot show any “threat of actual injury to a protected legal interest” from Bar Counsel’s dismissal of his ethics complaint, Turner, 2017 VT 2, ¶ 11, because the only individual “who stands to suffer direct injury in a disciplinary proceeding is the lawyer involved,” Lath, 154 A.3d at 1245. To conclude otherwise would “shift the focus of the disciplinary process from the public interest” to a grievant’s “private interests,” thereby contravening “the essential purpose of the attorney discipline system—to protect the public.” Lath, 154 A.3d at 1245.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/05/the-vermont-supreme-court-petitioner-filed-a-petition-for-extraordinary-relief-asking-this-court-to-order-bar-counsel-to-re.html

#IFTTT #Feedly

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didanawisgi · 6 years ago

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The Effects of Background Checks

Background checks for gun purchases are designed to prevent access to guns by convicted felons and other prohibited possessors—such as minors, fugitives from justice, those who live in the United States illegally, users of controlled substances, those with certain histories of mental illness, those who have been dishonorably discharged from the military, those who have renounced their U.S. citizenship, those subject to a restraining order, and those convicted of domestic violence offenses (18 U.S.C. 922).

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Act), which went into effect in 1994, imposed federal requirements for background checks on sales by licensed dealers (18 U.S.C. 922) but not for private sales or transfers of firearms (such as gifts). Several states have expanded this federal requirement to mandate that background checks be conducted for all firearm sales and transfers, including those between private parties. Such laws are referred to as universal background check laws.

MORE ABOUT THE POLICY

OUTCOMES THAT MAY BE INCREASED BY BACKGROUND CHECKS

We found no qualifying studies showing that background checks increased any of the eight outcomes we investigated.

OUTCOMES THAT MAY BE DECREASED BY BACKGROUND CHECKS

Suicide

Violent Crime

Evidence that background checks may reduce firearm suicides is moderate, and evidence that such laws may reduce total suicides is limited.

Evidence that background checks may reduce violent crime and total homicides is limited, and studies provide moderate evidence that dealer background checks reduce firearm homicides. Evidence of the effect of private-seller background checks on firearm homicides is inconclusive.

OUTCOMES WITH INCONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE FOR THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUND CHECKS

Mass Shootings

Evidence for the effect of background checks on mass shootings is inconclusive.

OUTCOMES WITH NO STUDIES THAT MET OUR INCLUSION CRITERIA

Defensive gun use

Gun industry

Hunting and recreation

Officer-involved shootings

Unintentional injuries and deaths

Review the inclusion criteria and methodology

Notes

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (2002, p. A-3) defined crime gun as “any firearm that is illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspected to have been used in a crime. An abandoned firearm may also be categorized as a crime gun if it is suspected it was used in a crime or illegally possessed.” Return to content⤴

California, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. See Calif. Penal Code §§28220; Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-12-112; 11 Del.C. § 1448A; Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 202.254; N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §§ 897, 898; O.R.S. § 166.435; R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-35; Wash. Rev. Code Ann. § 9.41.113; D.C. Code Ann. §§ 7-2502.01, 7-2502.03. Return to content⤴

Calif. Penal Code §§ 27545, 27875; Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-12-112; 24 Del.C. § 904A; Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 202.254; N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 898; Wash. Rev. Code Ann. § 9.41.113; D.C. Code Ann. § 7-2505.02. Return to content⤴

O.R.S. §§ 166.435, 166.436. Return to content⤴

18 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 6111; Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety § 5-124. In Pennsylvania, the checks must be processed through a licensed dealer. In Maryland, the seller may go through a dealer or contact the law enforcement agency personally. Return to content⤴

Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. See Conn. Gen. Stat. §�� 29-33, 28, 36f, 36g; Hawaii Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-2; 430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 65/2, 65/4; Mass. Gen. Laws Ch.140 §§ 129B, 129C; N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C: 58-3. Return to content⤴

Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and North Carolina. See Ia. Code § 724.15; Mich. Comp. Laws § 28.422; Neb. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 69-2404 69-2405; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-402, 14-404. Return to content⤴

Hawaii Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-2. But note that long-gun permits last for one year and can be used for multiple purchases. Return to content⤴

430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 65/7. Return to content⤴

For example, individuals purchasing a firearm in Massachusetts must obtain a firearm identification card, which lasts three years; however, there is an exception for holders of permits to carry, which last up to six years (Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 140 §§ 122, 129C). In Illinois, there is an exception for holders of concealed-carry permits, but those last only five years (compared with the ten years for the permit to purchase), so the exception does not typically extend the permit period for gun purchases (430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 65/2). Return to content⤴

References

Buchanan, Larry, Josh Keller, Richard A. Oppel, Jr., and Daniel Victor, “How They Got Their Guns,” New York Times, June 12, 2016. As of March 22, 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/03/us/how-mass-shooters-got-their-guns.html?_r=0

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Crime Gun Trace Reports (2000): Memphis, Tennessee, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Treasury, July 2002.

Campbell, J. C., D. Webster, J. Kozio-McLain, C. Block, D. Campbell, M. A. Curry, F. Gary, N. Glass, J. McFarlane, C. Sachs, P. Sharps, Y. Ulrich, S. A. Wilt, J. Manganello, X. Xu, J. Schollenberger, V. Frye, and K. Laughon, “Risk Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multisite Case Control Study,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 93, No. 7, 2003, pp. 1089–1097.

Cook, Philip J., J. Ludwig, and A. A. Braga, “Criminal Records of Homicide Offenders,” JAMA, Vol. 294, No. 5, 2005, pp. 598–601.

Cook, Philip J., Stephanie Molliconi, and Thomas B. Cole, “Regulating Gun Markets,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 86, No. 1, 1995, pp. 59–92.

Cook, Philip J., Susan T. Parker, and Harold A. Pollack, “Sources of Guns to Dangerous People: What We Learn by Asking Them,” Preventive Medicine, Vol. 79, 2015, pp. 28��36.

Cooper, Alexia, and Erica L. Smith, Homicide Trends in the United States 1980–2008, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, November 2011.

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Mass Shootings in the United States: 2009–2016,” April 11, 2017b. As of May 3, 2017: http://everytownresearch.org/reports/mass-shootings-analysis/

FBI—See Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Active Records in the NICS Index,” April 30, 2017. As of May 8, 2017: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active_records_in_the_nics-index.pdf/view

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, “Universal Background Checks,” web page, undated-g. As of October 18, 2017: http://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/background-checks/universal-background-checks/

Hahn, Robert A., Oleg Bilukha, Alex Crosby, Mindy T. Fullilove, Akiva Liberman, Eve Moscicki, Susan Snyder, Farris Tuma, and Peter A. Briss, “Firearms Laws and the Reduction of Violence: A Systematic Review,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2005, pp. 40–71.

Joshi, M., and S. B. Sorenson, “Intimate Partner Violence at the Scene: Incident Characteristics and Implications for Public Health Surveillance,” Evaluation Review, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2010, pp. 116–136.

Juodis, Marcus, Andrew Starzomski, Stephen Porter, and Michael Woodworth, “A Comparison of Domestic and Non-Domestic Homicides: Further Evidence for Distinct Dynamics and Heterogeneity of Domestic Homicide Perpetrators,” Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2014, pp. 299–313.

Kleck, G., and D. J. Bordua, “The Factual Foundation for Certain Key Assumptions of Gun Control,” Law and Policy, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1983, pp. 271–298.

Kopel, D. B., “Background Checks for Firearms Sales and Loans: Law, History, and Policy,” Harvard Journal on Legislation, Vol. 53, 2016, pp. 303–367.

McFarlane, J., J. C. Campbell, S. Wilt, C. Sachs, Y. Ulrich, and X. Xu, “Stalking and Intimate Partner Femicide,” Homicide Studies, Vol. 3, 1999, pp. 300–316.

Miller, M., L. Hepburn, and D. Azrael, “Firearm Acquisition Without Background Checks: Results of a National Survey,” Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 166, 2017, pp. 233–239.

National Research Council, Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review, Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004.

NRC—See National Research Council.

Swanson, Jeffrey W., Michele M. Easter, Allison G. Robertson, Marvin S. Swartz, Kelly Alanis-Hirsch, Daniel Moseley, Charles Dion, and John Petrila, “Gun Violence, Mental Illness, and Laws That Prohibit Gun Possession: Evidence from Two Florida Counties,” Health Affairs, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2016, pp. 1067–1075.

Swanson, J. W., A. G. Robertson, L. K. Frisman, M. A. Norko, H. Lin, M. S. Swartz, and P. J. Cook, “Preventing Gun Violence Involving People with Serious Mental Illness,” in D. W. Webster and J. S. Vernick, eds., Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013, pp. 33–51.

United States Code, Title 18, Section 922, Unlawful Acts.

Vittes, K. A., J. S. Vernick, and D. W. Webster, “Legal Status and Source of Offenders’ Firearms for States with the Least Stringent Criteria for Gun Ownership,” Injury Prevention, Vol. 19, No. 1, June 23, 2012, pp. 26–31.

Webster, Daniel W., Jon S. Vernick, and Maria T. Bulzacchelli, “Effects of State-Level Firearm Seller Accountability Policies on Firearm Trafficking,” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 86, No. 4, 2009, pp. 525–537.

Wright, M. A., and G. J. Wintemute, “Felonious of Violent Criminal Activity that Prohibits Gun Ownership Among Prior Purchasers of Handguns: Incidence and Risk Factors,” Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Vol. 69, No. 4, 2010, pp. 948–955.

View the full project bibliography

#gun control #universal background checks #Guns #sociology #violent crime #controversy #debate #Resources

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payprosalaska · 6 years ago

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E-Verify Is Down. What Do Employers Do Now?

What are employers supposed to do now that E-Verify—the federal government’s electronic employment verification system—has expired?

Funding and congressional authorization for the program ran out Dec. 22, 2018, as the government went into a partial shutdown after Congress and the White House could not agree on how to fund some agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the system, for fiscal year 2019.

E-Verify compares information from an employee’s Form I-9 to DHS and Social Security Administration (SSA) records to confirm employment eligibility. Employers enrolled in the program are required to use the system to run checks on new workers within three days of hiring them.

During the government shutdown, employers will not be able to enroll in E-Verify, initiate queries, access cases or resolve tentative nonconfirmations (TNCs) with affected workers.

All employers remain subject to Form I-9 obligations, however. “Remember that the government shutdown has nothing to do with an employer’s responsibilities to complete the Form I-9 [in a timely manner],” said Dawn Lurie, senior counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Seyfarth Shaw. “Specifically, employees are required to complete Section 1 of the I-9 on or before the first day of employment, and employers must complete Section 2 of the I-9 no later than the third business day after an employee begins work for pay.”

[SHRM members-only online discussion platform: SHRM Connect]

No Cause for Alarm

Lurie advised employers not to panic while E-Verify is down. “Employers will not be penalized as a result of the E-Verify operations shutdown,” she said. “Employers will not be penalized for any delays in creating E-Verify cases. However, employers are reminded that they must continue to complete I-9s in compliance with the law, and when E-Verify becomes available, create cases in the system.”

To minimize the burden on both employers and employees, DHS announced that:

The three-day rule for creating E-Verify cases is suspended for cases affected by the unavailability of the service. “Normally, the employer enters information from the I-9 into E-Verify within three days of hire, but that won’t be possible while the system is unavailable,” said Montserrat Miller, a partner in the Atlanta office of Arnall Golden Gregory. “DHS will provide a window of time to submit those held cases once service resumes.”

The time period during which employees may resolve TNCs will be extended. The number of days E-Verify is unavailable will not count toward the days the employee has to begin the process of resolving a TNC. “Employers can’t take any adverse action against a worker with a pending TNC regardless, shutdown or not,” Miller said. Currently, an employee who chooses to contest a TNC must visit an SSA field office or call DHS within eight federal government working days to begin resolving it. This period will have to be extended because of the shutdown, she added.

Additional guidance regarding the three-day rule and time period to resolve TNC deadlines will be provided once operations resume.

Amy Peck, an immigration attorney with Jackson Lewis in Omaha, Neb., advised employers to keep track of all new hires with completed I-9s for whom there are no E-Verify queries due to the shutdown. She also recommended attaching a memo in a master E-Verify file tracking the days that the program was unavailable. “I’ve seen the discrepancy come up years later during an audit,” she said.

“Once the system is back up, work with counsel on how much time employees have to resolve their TNCs,” Peck said. “Someone receiving a TNC the day before the shutdown is a different case than somebody who had 10 days to resolve their TNC when the shutdown occurred. Those circumstances should be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Federal contractors with a federal acquisition regulation E-Verify clause should contact their government contracting officers to extend deadlines. “Federal contractors have a particular concern because nobody is supposed to be working who has not been verified through the system,” Peck said. “People can be hired, but whether they are allowed to work on the contract before being run through E-Verify is a critical consideration that should be discussed with counsel.”

Prepare for the Resumption of Service

Miller said employers should monitor the shutdown. “When it is over, log in to the system and see what instructions there are for creating and submitting queries,” she advised. “There is an obligation to create those queries if you are enrolled in the program, even if enrolled voluntarily.”

The backlog created as a result of the shutdown might have a significant impact on employers that process many E-Verify cases and specifically on the HR staff and other team members in charge of the process.

“Not all employers will be able to push all their cases through at once when the shutdown ends,” Miller said. “If everyone did that, the system would crash. DHS will provide instructions on how to submit queries. Employers will be asked why the query is being submitted after the required three days. In the past, ‘Government Shutdown’ was one of the options in the dropdown menu.”

Peck reminded employers that the loss of E-Verify does not mean there is a prohibition against hiring. “Companies should continue to hire as they need,” she said.

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michaelwalshblog-blog · 8 years ago

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Scott Pruitt on climate change: ‘My personal opinion is immaterial’

Scott Pruitt, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, testifies at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Pressed by Democratic senators for his views on the causes of climate change, the Trump administration’s choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency insisted at his confirmation hearing Wednesday morning that his “personal opinion” was “immaterial” to how he would do his job.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee questioned Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt closely on his history of suing the agency he has been nominated to lead, his statements questioning mainstream climate science and his close ties to the oil and gas industries. Republicans were much friendlier, mostly lamenting the impact of regulations on fossil-fuel industry jobs, something Pruitt promised to take into account.

Coincidentally, the hearing came as two leading scientific agencies—NASA and NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration—announced that 2016 was the hottest year in history, the third consecutive year that global temperature set a new record. Stretches of the Arctic Ocean, they said, were an astonishing 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

Pruitt is part of a group of state attorney generals that is suing the EPA over the Clean Power Plan, which was first proposed in June 2014. It aims to fight anthropogenic climate change by limiting greenhouse gas emissions related to electricity generation from power plants. He has been involved in more than a dozen other lawsuits against the EPA.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., had a particularly heated exchange with Pruitt over the overwhelming scientific consensus that carbon emissions from human activities is the primary cause of the climate change that’s already had destructive consequences around the world.

“As I indicated in my opening statement, the climate is changing and human activity contributes to that in some manner,” Pruitt said.

“In some manner?” Sanders said. “97 percent of the scientists who wrote articles in peer-reviewed journals believe that human activity is the fundamental reason that we are seeing climate change. You disagree with that?”

In defiance of mainstream climate science, Pruitt insisted, “there should be more debate” over whether human activities are actually contributing to climate change. Sanders pushed back and asked Pruitt to then provide an explanation as to why the climate has been changing.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominee for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, smiles for photographs before the start of a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. (Photo: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg)

“Well senator, the job of the administrator is to carry out the statutes as passed by this body,” Pruitt said.

“Why is the climate changing?” Sanders asked again.

“Senator, in response to the CO2 issue, the administrator is constrained by statutes…” he said.

“I’m asking your personal opinion,” Sanders insisted.

“My personal opinion is immaterial,” he responded.

In disbelief, Sanders said, “Really? You are going to be the head of the agency to protect the environment and your personal opinions about whether climate change is caused by human activity and carbon emissions is immaterial?”

“Senator, I’ve acknowledged to you that the human activity impacts,” Pruitt said.

Sanders shot back: “Impacts? The scientific community doesn’t tell us it impacts. They say, ‘It is the cause of climate change. We have to transform our energy system.”

When asked if he believes the U.S. must change its energy system, Pruitt repeatedly dodged the question and answered along these lines: “I believe the administrator has a very important role in regulating CO2.”

In response to questions from Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, Pruitt did distance himself from President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge, as a candidate, to “get rid of EPA in almost every form.”

A protestor is detained as Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt testifies before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2017. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., hammered Pruitt for sending a letter principally drafted by Devon Energy in October 2011 to the EPA disputing findings that methane is about 30 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas (volume for volume) than carbon dioxide. The energy company, which had a vested interest in downplaying the devastating effect of methane, directly contributed 979 out of the letter’s 1,016 words — roughly 97 percent.

Merkley accused Pruitt of using his office as a direct extension of an oil company rather than the health and interests of the people of Oklahoma.

Democratic senators questioned Pruitt closely on his philosophy of regulation, which the nominee described as “cooperative federalism.” For Democrats, especially those from Eastern seaboard states downwind from the industries and utilities of the Midwest, letting states regulate their own emissions amounts to a prescription for doing nothing. Air and water pollution does not stop at state lines.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked Pruitt to address 14 lawsuits in which Pruitt specifically fought the EPA’s attempts to reduce air pollution. Among other issues, Pruitt challenged mercury and air toxics standards, national ambient air quality standards, carbon dioxide emissions standards from new power plants and the Clean Power Plan.

Booker, a former mayor of Newark, N.J., was particularly concerned with Pruitt’s unsuccessful lawsuit against the EPA challenging the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). Scientists estimate that every year in the U.S. the CSAPR saves up to 34,000 lives and prevents 400,000 asthma attacks.

“The fact pattern on representing polluters is clear. You’ve worked very hard on behalf of these industries that have their profits externalized, negative externalities are their pollution,” Booker said.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee member Sen. Cory A. Booker, D-N.J. questions Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Pruitt dismissed the notion that he’s a tool of the fossil fuel industry. He said he was representing the interests of his state. But Booker accused Pruitt of standing up for polluters at the expense of Oklahomans’ health.

According to data published by the non-partisan American Lung Association, more than 111,000 children in Oklahoma (more than 10 percent) suffer from asthma. That’s one of the highest asthma rates in the United States.

“You’ve been writing letters on behalf of polluting industries. I want to ask you how many letters did you write to the EPA about this health crisis? If this is representative government, did you represent those children?” Booker said.

Pruitt said the state of Oklahoma would need to “have an interest” before it could bring cases on issues like cross-state pollution: “You can’t just bring a lawsuit if you don’t have standing, if there’s not some injury to the state of Oklahoma.”

Booker interjected, “Injury? Clearly, asthma is triggered and caused by air pollutants. Clearly, there is an air pollution problem. And the fact that you have not brought suits at any of the level that you represented the industries that are causing the pollution is really problematic.”

Pruitt was introduced at the hearing by U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., who has a wide reputation as a friend of the fossil-fuel industry and a denier of climate science. He described the nominee as a “good friend” who has built a reputation for keeping the federal government in check by fighting overreach.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., points to a chart as he questions Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, during Pruitt’s confirmation hearing before the committee. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

“Pruitt will ensure that the agency fulfills the role delegated to it by Congress — nothing more and nothing less,” Inhofe said. “Oklahoma is an energy and agriculture state but it’s also a state that knows what it means to protect the environment while balancing competing interests.”

Inhofe made much of Pruitt’s role in helping to resolve a long-standing dispute over water rights involving Oklahoma City and two Indian tribes, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. Other Republicans also gave considerable weight to EPA’s relatively popular role in enforcing the Clean Water Act—and to jobs.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., sided with Pruitt in his battles against the EPA. She accused the EPA of failing to take into account the devastating impact its policies would have on coal-mining jobs in her region.

“For the past eight years, the EPA has given no indication that it cares about the economic impact of its policies,” she said.

Similarly, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said her state’s public power utilities are “grappling with how they could ever comply” with the EPA’s restrictions on carbon emissions. Nebraska farmers, she said, are waiting for new technology that’s stuck in a “broken regulatory process” and biofuel investors face uncertainty under the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, which aims to replace petroleum-based fuel with clean energy.

“As a result of the activist role the EPA played for the past eight years, families are concerned about the future of their livelihoods,” she said.

WeatherDB | Graphiq

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Education pick DeVos hints at sweeping changes

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arvindvk · 5 years ago

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Surrogacy Cost in Kanpur

Surrogacy Cost in Kanpur| Kulwanti IVF Center | Elawoman

Surrogacy Cost in Kanpur

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Kulwanti IVF Center

Kulwanti Hospitals is said to be perhaps the best hospital for IVF and Infertility Treatments situated in Kakadeo, Kanpur. It is a 100 had relations with super forte hospital which gives benefits in Gynecology, Neurology, Urology, Infertility Management, Pediatrics, Laparoscopy and Gastroenterology. The staff and specialists are devoted towards the patient and their solitary point is to give the best sort of consideration to every one of the patients with the administrations like Hysteroscopic Surgery, DNA Fragmentation Test, Donor Sperm/Egg Program, Semen Freezing, Oocyte (Egg) Donation Program, In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), Testicular Biopsy, Embryo Freezing, and medications for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome/Disease (PCOS), Endometriosis, Polyps Removal (Polypectomy), Follicular Cyst of Ovary, Blockage in the Fallopian Tube, Fibroids Removal, Ovarian Cysts, Ovarian Torsion, Premature Ovarian Failure, Pelvic Pain, Sperm Retrieval Process like Microsurgical Epididymal Sperm Aspiration (MESA), Testicular Sperm Aspiration (TESA) and Hyperandrogenism. Dr. Sangeeta Ahuja is the consulting Gynecologist at Kulwanti Hospitals.Kulwanti Hospitals serving restorative needs since 1990 has risen as a chief human services institution providing quality consideration to every single patient and to all segments all the general public. Multi celebrated midway cooled 100 slept with hospital, with each floor been alloted for various capacities to perform alongside an individual nursing station for quality administrations to the patients and comfort for the specialists.

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The hospital venture was initiated in 1987 by Lt. Shri. Neb Raj Bhatia as a super strength magnanimous hospital under the trust of Smt. Kulwanti Bhatia Charitable Trust Society with the mission of offering quality human services at reasonable rates to the majority.

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Dr. Sangeeta Ahuja

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Kanpur Metro Hospital Private Limited

In Kanpur, Metro Hospital is a perceived name in patient consideration. They are one of the notable Hospitals in Lakhanpur. Upheld with a dream to offer the best in patient consideration and furnished with mechanically propelled social insurance offices, they are one of the upcoming names in the human services industry. Situated in , this hospital is effectively open by different methods for vehicle. A group of well-trained restorative staff, non-medicinal staff and experienced clinical professionals work nonstop to offer different administrations that include Chemist , General Ward 250/, I.c.c.u. , Opd Services 10:00am To 12:30pm, Pathology Lab , Xray . Their expert administrations make them a looked for after Hospitals in Kanpur. A group of specialists ready, including authorities are furnished with the information and ability for handling different sorts of medicinal cases.At Metro Hospital in Lakhanpur, the different methods of installment are acknowledged. You can contact them at Opposite Gurudev Palace Talkies,10 A,G T Road,Lakhanpur-208024. The contact number of this hospital is +(91)- 512-2581313,2581414. You can see 1 photograph of this foundation too. This foundation has been evaluated a 4.3 from a sum of 0+ ratings. This listing is additionally recorded in Hospitals, General Physician Doctors, Gynecologist and Obstetrician Doctors.

Book Appointment Kanpur Metro Hospital Private Limited

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#Surrogacy Cost in Kanpur

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deniscollins · 5 years ago

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As Floods Keep Coming, Cities Pay Residents to Move

Flooding has increased around Nashville. If you were a Nashville city manager, would you offer to purchase the homes of owners in high flooding areas and use the land as an absorbent buffer rather than having to pay other expenses to continually bring city service standards back to normal: (1) yes, (2) no? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Jonna Laidlaw was terrorized by rain. Her house, with its lovely screened-in back porch, had flooded some 20 times since 2001, from a few inches to six feet. She and her husband would do their repairs with help from their flood insurance, but before long it would flood again.

“Every time it sprinkled I got terrified,” she said.

When city officials offered to buy the house last year, she and her husband gladly said yes. They have since moved to higher ground.

Nashville is trying to move people like the Laidlaws away from flood-prone areas. The voluntary program uses a combination of federal, state and local funds to offer market value for their homes. If the owners accept the offer, they move out, the city razes the house and prohibits future development. The acquired land becomes an absorbent creekside buffer, much of it serving as parks with playgrounds and walking paths.

Climate change is increasing the program’s urgency. While a number of cities around the country have similar relocation projects to address increased flooding, disaster mitigation experts consider Nashville’s a model that other communities would be wise to learn from: The United States spends far more on helping people rebuild after disasters than preventing problems.

David Maurstad, who heads the National Flood Insurance Program, said buyouts were the most permanent way to mitigate against future flood hazards. “Rebuilding out of harm’s way can help avoid future devastation in a way that flood insurance cannot,” he said.

Flooding is a complex phenomenon with many causes, including land development and ground conditions. Climate change, which is already causing heavier rainfall in many storms, is an important part of the mix. Warmer atmosphere holds, and releases, more water.

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“We’re starting to see evidence that the number of extreme events will increase,” said Barbara Mayes Boustead, a climate scientist and an author of the latest installment of the National Climate Assessment, a report written by 13 federal agencies that explores both the current and future impacts of climate change. An area’s average annual rainfall might increase by what seems to be a relatively small amount — from 40 inches a year to 42, for example — and “in your head, you might say ‘big whoop,’” she said. “But how it falls is the critical piece of the story,” with the extra amount concentrated in extreme events.

And while Nashville hasn’t seen the kind of repeated, extreme flooding that a city like Houston has, the effect is being felt, said G. Dodd Galbreath, the founding director of Lipscomb University’s Institute for Sustainable Practice and a member of the city’s storm water management committee. “It’s a new weather pattern,” he said. “You can no longer rely on statistical reliability and statistical measurement as your sole measurements of risk.”

The costs of flooding continue to climb, but only 20 percent of the money that the Federal Emergency Management Agency distributes in disaster grants is earmarked for pre-disaster work, even though research shows that a dollar spent on mitigation before a disaster strikes results in at least six dollars in savings.

There are many reasons more people end up rebuilding in place than moving away. Reimbursement is relatively quick, while FEMA’s buyout programs tend to be slow and difficult to navigate. “A lot of people give up midway through the process,” said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA head.

Around the nation, relocations are showing results. Despite this year’s floods that inundated many communities in Nebraska and the upper Midwest, in Beatrice, Neb., the waters filled a park that included 40 acres of cleared lots and no homes or businesses in town were damaged. FEMA has estimated the town’s program prevented $13 million in damage in 2015 alone. “People got tired of rebuilding all the time,” said Tobias J. Tempelmeyer, the city administrator.

Paul Osman, the chief of statewide floodplain programs for the Illinois office of water resources, said his state’s program, which has bought some 6,000 structures and properties, made all the difference in this year’s floods. Instead of working out of an emergency operations center, dealing with sandbagging, community shelters, debris cleanup, policing and more, he said, “It’s a nonevent.”

How did Nashville create its own successful program? The city had gained some experience even before the 2010 flood, which caused $2 billion in damage. Starting in 1998, it bought 93 homes in hazardous areas, which helped city officials navigate the complex jumble of programs involved.

They understood that the FEMA programs didn’t put money up front, and that the federal government will reimburse 75 percent of the money in most cases, with the rest split between state and local sources. That meant the city ultimately spends $12,500 of its money for every $100,000 it uses to buy a house. It has used this leverage to build funding, bit by bit, to buy more than 400 homes and vacant lots, spending more than $43 million in total so far.

If people don’t sell after a flood, they are likelier to sell after the next one, said Tom Palko, assistant director of the city’s storm water division. “You have to be patient,” he said, “not go in guns blazing and say, ‘we’re going to solve everybody’s problems! We’re going to save the world!’”

One topic officials do not bring up in the public meetings about buyouts: the possible role of global warming. “I don’t want to get to a public meeting and debate climate change,” Mr. Palko said. Instead, they cite the numbers: “We have had four of these events in 10 years, when in the past 25 years there may have been only one of those events of that magnitude.”

Ms. Laidlaw said she was pleased with the program, and with canceling flood insurance that had climbed from $300 a year to $700 each month. When they first bought the house, “they were talking like 500-year floodplain — what chance was there that we’d be there in 500 years? But it happened.” (““500-year floodplain” is shorthand for a 0.2 percent chance of flooding in any given year. )

“The idea of not having to clean, not having to show the house” was also attractive. Ms. Laidlaw said. And besides, “I didn’t really think with the flood history we’d be able to sell it.” She said she still gets anxious when it rains, but “I can calm down pretty well now.”

Faye Sesler is another happy seller. A realtor, it had been her idea to purchase a home in 2012 as a rental unit. She and her husband soon discovered that the lovely creek behind the house could end up in the house. And while her husband, a contractor, could handle repairs, neither of them was happy about it.

“My husband, every time it rained, he’d say, ‘You better hope it won’t flood.” The city’s program, she said, “was a marriage saver.”

They sold in 2016 after attending a community meeting, where “I was amazed that so many people didn’t want to sell. What I wanted to do was get them and shake them and say ‘listen to this — it’s going to flood again.” Carol Mayes has tried to stay. She moved back to Nashville from Washington, D.C., in 2008 to take care of her mother, who died four years later. She now lives in her home, which flooded in 2010. She refused the city’s offer, but many neighbors took it.

Mr. Osman, the Illinois floodplain manager, said it could also be hard to get older people to accept buyouts, as well as people in poorer neighborhoods. “Nobody wants to start a mortgage again when they’re retired,” Mr. Osman said. In poorer Illinois communities, fair market value for a home might turn out to be just $10,000, and “you can’t buy a mobile home for that,” he said. “It’s a struggle, and I don’t have a good answer.”

Nicholas Pinter, the associate director of the center for watershed sciences at the University of California, Davis, said the challenges to “overcoming social inertia” are so high because of “the intense sense of place that people have.”

Still, even though moving people can be expensive and contentious, he said, “it looks like we’re going to have to look at a lot more flood relocations in the future.”

#Floods

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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As Floods Keep Coming, Cities Pay Residents to Move

NASHVILLE — Jonna Laidlaw was terrorized by rain. Her house, with its lovely screened-in back porch, had flooded some 20 times since 2001, from a few inches to six feet. She and her husband would do their repairs with help from their flood insurance, but before long it would flood again.

“Every time it sprinkled I got terrified,” she said.

When city officials offered to buy the house last year, she and her husband gladly said yes. They have since moved to higher ground.

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.

“My husband, every time it rained, he’d say, ‘You better hope it won’t flood.” The city’s program, she said, “was a marriage saver.”

Still, even though moving people can be expensive and contentious, he said, “it looks like we’re going to have to look at a lot more flood relocations in the future.”

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sharemarketnpal · 1 year ago

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#NEB SEE Results Publication Process #NEB SEE Results 2079 #SEE Routine 2079 #SEE Exam #SEE #study routine #Exam Routine

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rolandfontana · 6 years ago

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‘Kindness of Strangers’ a Last Resort for the Rural Mentally Ill

Even though more services are becoming available to divert the seriously mentally ill from the justice system, rural communities are struggling to find the resources they need to bring those services to the people who need them.

Transportation, for instance, can make the difference between success or failure.

“We have no public transportation here,” said Pamela Hopkins, a Fremont, Neb., lawyer who is running for Dodge County Attorney. “Many of these people are unable to drive, for one reason or another, whether it’s because they use alcohol as a substitute for their treatment and they lost their licenses because of that, or they’re too poor to have a car.

“They’ve got to depend on the kindness of strangers.”

Without ready access to counseling or treatment often located far from their homes, defendants might otherwise find it hard to prove to judges that they are serious about addressing their problems.

Nebraska, like many states with large rural populations, is at the sharp end of the challenges of dealing with mentally troubled individuals. Most of the state is experiencing a shortage in mental health and psychiatric providers, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Rural Health.

Linda Witmuss, deputy director of the DHHS Division of Behavioral Health, acknowledged that the system needs to undertake a “richer review of data” to better determine how the state’s finite resources should be allotted to meet the need.

But she argues that mental health reforms launched by the state in 2004 have led to more services at the community level.

“There’s always room for more services—don’t get me wrong there,” she said. “ (But) all of our rehab options (and) services, including expansion of medication management, came about as a result of that reform.”

In 2004, the Nebraska legislature passed Bill LB1083, which was designed to reduce the use of inpatient psychiatric services at the state’s three Regional Centers in Lincoln, Norfolk and Hastings, and invest more in outpatient and community-based services that could help those struggling with mental health in their own communities.

The reduction of inpatient beds was consistent with nationwide efforts to move away from institutionalizing the mentally ill and instead treat them in their communities. But those interviewed by the Tribune say that the infrastructure for community care was slow to materialize, and it still isn’t adequate for those who may be in need of more intensive care.

“There’s a lot of people who aren’t even leaving their homes to get the services that they need because they’re just homebound because of their anxiety,” said Hylean McGreevy, a licensed mental health practitioner and alcohol and drug counselor at Methodist Fremont Health’s Behavioral Outpatient Services.

“They’re not functioning well and they fall through the cracks.”

According to numbers provided to the Tribune by the Nebraska Jail Standards Board, of 1,225 individuals discharged from the Regional Centers in a four-year period following mental health reform, nearly 500, or around 40 percent, ended up in the county jail system at least once.

About six percent ended up in the prison system.

Collaboration Between Police and Health Providers

The challenges often begin at the street level, where rural law enforcement encounters individuals in desperate straits.

“There is a lot of stress on the community,” said Fremont Police Lt. Kurt Bottorff. “Times are hard for certain people — the stress builds up and that’s where some mental health breakdowns can take place.

“Their behavior ends up being a law violation and they’re sometimes jailed because of it, instead of addressing the core problem.”

Under a pilot program that started in July, the Fremont Police Department became one of only two departments in the state to hire a crisis response co-responder—a licensed mental health practitioner who works directly in the police department two days per week, responding to 911 calls alongside officers when she believes mental health is an issue in the complaint.

The pilot program, funded by a two-year grant from the Behavioral Health Support Foundation and operating in collaboration with Lutheran Family Services, aims to help keep those struggling with mental health issues out of the criminal justice system or avoid involuntary hospital stays, and to connect them with community resources.

Until recently, even the nearest medical services were a 40-minute drive away, in Omaha.

‘When people are released (from jail) into the community, and they don’t have the supports in place, it becomes a revolving door.’

Now, mental health practitioner Rachel Wesely can respond at her own discretion instantaneously, from within the department, and can follow up with callers after law enforcement leaves.

‘When people are released (from jail) into the community, and they don’t have the supports in place, it becomes a revolving door.’

But as concern mounts about a growing number of mentally ill individuals entering the criminal justice system and winding up in county jails, local stakeholders are taking a more focused approach to line those individuals up with more appropriate services.

“There’s a need for access to treatment in jails and when individuals are incarcerated, it’s not getting filled,” Wesely said. “Sometimes when people are released back out into the community (and) they don’t have the supports in place, it kind of becomes a revolving door.”

Medication and services can be expensive. Many lack insurance to help cover costs, though some programs offer sliding fee scales, which can adjust payments based on income and family size. In recent years, co-pays and deductibles have become more expensive even for those who have insurance, providers say.

Additionally, treating mental illness is more complicated than treating physical ailments, and ensuring compliance to treatment plans poses challenges, providers say. Psychiatric treatment requires significant “trial-and-error” to find the right medications, doses and strategies. That means lots of time spent taking medications that may ultimately need to be adjusted or changed, and that may carry unpleasant side effects that deter compliance.

It’s a process that requires patience and follow-up. And ensuring that patients comply with their treatment plans, remain stable or avoid self-medicating with illicit drugs and alcohol is a challenge that’s only exacerbated by barriers like access and affordability.

“Let’s just use a hypothetical,” said Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass. “I can’t afford my medication, my medication makes me feel strange anyway, but I do know that when I self-medicate with street drugs or alcohol, that’s going to make me feel better at least.

“And that’s when, at least in my experience here, a lot of crimes are committed.”

Intensive Care Challenges

The Regional (Health) Center has some space available to the regions for more intensive care. It houses individuals who have been ordered by a court to receive a competency evaluation or restoration, as well as individuals committed by a local mental health board. The latter process only occurs if an individual in crisis refuses to be voluntarily committed and is put under an emergency protective custody.

But wait times to get into the often crowded Regional Center have gone up, officials say.

Witmuss of the DHSS said that the state is looking into the need to increase capacity, but cautioned that opening new beds alone wouldn’t solve the problem.

“We have a lot of complex cases,” she said. “When you can’t discharge folks, then you can’t admit folks, either.”

Mental health programs and services are funded through Medicaid as well as the state’s behavioral healthcare regional system. Providers contract with one of the six regions, which then funnels funding from DHHS’ Division of Behavioral Health, federal block grants and county-level matching funds.

But grants and pilot programs, like the Lutheran Family Services’ co-responder program, are only guaranteed for fixed periods of time. Agencies and organizations are always shifting their appropriations to keep up with where the demand is highest, which can lead to changes in program availability.

Meanwhile, at the local level, stakeholders are giving new focus to the issue. Providers are exploring more innovative solutions to staff shortages, such as Telehealth, which would allow for remote counseling or med management.

Last year, Behavioral Health Care Region 6, which encompasses Douglas, Dodge, Cass, Washington and Sarpy Counties, hired Vicki Maca as a full-time employee, dedicated to trying to keep mentally ill individuals out of the criminal justice system.

The national ‘Stepping Up Initiative’ works to help the mentally ill avoid jail.

That hiring decision was spurred by a nationwide initiative involving the National Association of County Officials, the American Psychiatric Association and the Council of State Governments known as the Stepping Up Initiative.

The initiative is a data-driven effort to reduce the number of people with serious mental illness booked into jail, shorten their average length of stay, increase the connection to care for those individuals in jail and reduce rates of recidivism.

While other behavioral health care regions are engaging with the Stepping Up Initiative, Region 6 is the only one that’s hired a full-time employee devoted to the topic.

But officials and providers remain optimistic. Rachel Wesely, the co-responder at the Fremont Police Department, law enforcement’s enthusiasm and willingness to cooperate with the co-responder model has led to success, she said.

Lt. Bottorff agrees.

“What I’m seeing now is reduced calls for service for the same problem,” he added. “There are times when we get so bombarded with the same situation—they didn’t have the tools to fix their problem.”

James Farrell, a staff writer for The Fremont Tribune, is a 2018 John Jay Rural Justice Reporting Fellow. This is an edited version of Part Two of a series exploring the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system in rural Nebraska. To see the full version, click here. Part One can be accessed here. Readers’ comments are welcome.

‘Kindness of Strangers’ a Last Resort for the Rural Mentally Ill syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

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ashleydpalmerusa · 7 years ago

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Controllers Talk Switching Gears From Public Accounting to Industry

If it wasn’t for Fred Butterweck, CPA, this article may not have come to be.

I was introduced to Butterweck, corporate controller of New York-based Clickspring Design, who worked for six years at PwC, via email as a potential source for the industry articles I’d be writing for Going Concern. During our email conversation, he wrote, “Not sure if you already covered the topic, but the transition from public accounting to industry has always interested me.” I read that and thought, “That’s a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

I then pitched Butterweck’s idea to Caleb, who said, “That’s a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

So, I spoke to Butterweck and 13 other corporate controllers about their transition from public accounting to industry, including the biggest adjustment they had to make or challenge they had to face. In addition, I asked them whether they used their time in public accounting as a steppingstone to a career in industry, why they left public accounting, and what they took away from public accounting that has helped them most as controller.

The 13 other controllers I spoke to, and the public accounting firms they worked for (in parenthesis), were:

Julie Brand, CPA, corporate controller, Pattern Energy Group, San Francisco (Deloitte)

Tony Combs, CPA, corporate controller, Urban Airship, Portland, Ore. (CBIZ MHM, PwC)

Lindsay Gorang, CPA, corporate controller, SightLife Surgical, Seattle (Deloitte)

J.C. Gum, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, Ag Processing Inc, Omaha, Neb. (KPMG)

Brian Harding, CPA, vice president, corporate controller, and principal accounting officer, FLIR Systems, Wilsonville, Ore. (KPMG)

Drew Hester, CPA, vice president, controllership and global business services, Beam Suntory, Chicago (PwC)

Lauren Johnson, CPA, senior controller, Portfolio Advisors LLC, Darien, Conn. (BDO USA)

Will Majic, CPA, CA, controller, corporate finance, Calian Group, Ottawa, Ontario (Deloitte)

Senad Mustafic, CPA, senior director – corporate controller, Smartsheet, Bellevue, Wash. (Deloitte)

Matt Nelson, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, Tableau Software, Seattle (PwC)

Mitra Rezvan, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, PagerDuty, San Francisco (KPMG)

Paul Starrantino, CPA, corporate controller, Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nev. (PwC)

Christopher Sullivan, CPA, corporate controller, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Rockville, Md. (EY)

What I learned is that, for the most part, controllers have fond memories of their time in public accounting, and some envisioned they’d spend their entire careers there. But for one reason or another—whether it was not wanting to be a partner, pursuing a new challenge, less travel, or just losing passion for it—the controllers decided to make the jump to industry.

Here’s a sampling of the answers they provided me. Some of their responses have been edited for length and clarity:

Going Concern: Did you envision using your time in public accounting as a steppingstone to a career in industry accounting? Or did you have other plans?

Fred Butterweck: At the time I received my offer [in November 1999, during his senior year of college], I figured I would be at PwC my entire career. About four or five years into my time at PwC, I started to assume the role of acting manager on some of my engagements. It was at that time I began to realize being an auditor wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my career.

But I wouldn’t exactly use the term “steppingstone” because, to me, that infers a one-way relationship where you take what you want and move on. If done correctly, the public experience should be more symbiotic. In other words, the firm is going to work you hard, but in exchange, you gain valuable experience and come out stronger and tougher for your efforts.

Tony Combs: When I started my career at CBIZ MHM, I seriously considered a long-term career in public accounting. At a mid-tier firm, you get to work on a wide variety of clients, and it was fun seeing and learning a lot of different things. I thought going into industry would be boring at the time.

A friend of mine helped recruit me over to PwC, and I was curious if the Big 4 was any different from a mid-tier firm. At PwC, I had the opportunity to work on a Fortune 500 company [client], which I felt gave me a real 360-degree public accounting career. I had a young family at the time and eventually decided that I wanted to move out of public and into industry. My experience at PwC gave me a nice background to exit into another Fortune 500 company to start my career in industry.

Will Majic: When I began my career, it was a requirement to obtain your professional designation [CPA, CA], which required three years of public accounting working experience. For the first few years, all I had exposure to was my colleagues receiving their professional designation and immediately looking at employment outside the firm. That’s what I thought I wanted during that time as well, because it’s what I was exposed to.

But the more I worked at Deloitte, the more I enjoyed my experience and the more the idea of staying in public accounting appealed to me. I was lucky to have interesting clients and good relationships with the partners I worked for. It wasn’t until I heard of the right opportunity that I seriously considered leaving.

Matt Nelson: My father has been a business owner for 40 years. Growing up, he turned me onto the idea of working for myself one day. So, I always knew I wanted to find a role where I could help contribute to running a company. That was motivation for me while I was working at PwC, and I took cues from the partners in our office. They helped shape me as a professional and prepared me for the role I have taken on at Tableau.

Mitra Rezvan: Earlier in my career at KPMG, I planned to eventually become a partner at the firm. But as I worked with different audit clients, I became more interested in being on the corporate side, running the business and implementing processes, systems, and controls. Above all, I wanted to learn how to set up and run a business, and how larger organizations worked. As an auditor, I felt that I could provide valuable feedback, but I never had the chance to implement that feedback and see the ultimate results.

GC: When did you know it was time to leave public accounting and take a new path for your accounting career?

Julie Brand: What prompted me to leave public accounting was a great career opportunity on a client that I had provided services to. I was also interested in a reduced travel schedule that public accounting could not otherwise ensure.

Brian Harding: While at KPMG, I’d always assumed I’d pursue a partner opportunity. When I returned to KPMG in Portland, Ore. in 2011 after spending over a year at the firm’s European headquarters in London, the recommended path to partner would involve a rotation through the national office. I was asked to consider that path and come back with a “yes” or “no” on our willingness to move to New York in the next year. After much deliberation and stressful discussions, my wife and I decided we’d be open to the New York rotation. But a little while after communicating that willingness, the landscape had shifted and I learned that the partner promotion opportunity was no longer dependent on the transfer through the national office. After wrestling with this decision and kind of putting life on hold for the next move, it was somewhat disappointing to have the rotation off the table. It also introduced another layer of uncertainty in the timing for the partner opportunity.

Shortly thereafter, I was offered the opportunity to join FLIR. The position checked many boxes for me as an opportunity for professional development with a market-leading, innovative, and growing technology company.

Drew Hester: I was missing out on the experience of building something really lasting. Teams assemble, disassemble, and reassemble very quickly in public accounting, and the audit product itself is so intangible. It can be difficult to sustain a sense of having accomplished something that is more than fleeting. It’s also been really enjoyable to have great spirits brands to talk about at parties when people ask me about my job rather than watching smiles slowly fade and eyes glaze over as I explain that I audit multinationals.

Paul Starrantino: I left public accounting in 2010 during the downturn in the economy after working at PwC for 14 years, the last four as a senior manager. I no longer had the same passion [for] the profession that I had earlier in my career and felt it was time to seek opportunities in industry that would further broaden my professional experience.

Christopher Sullivan: During my time at EY, I felt challenged with new career experiences; however, I felt the experiences began to plateau once I was promoted to senior manager. Therefore, I felt it was time to evaluate what my long-term professional goals were. It came down to whether I wanted to commit to attempting the partner path or jump over to the world of industry accounting. Ultimately, I made the decision to move to industry because becoming a CFO one day seemed more exciting to me than the thought of becoming partner.

GC: What was your transition like from public accounting to industry? What was the biggest adjustment you had to make or challenge you had to overcome?

Julie Brand: The most impactful part of the transition was not working under a level of materiality. Public accountants perform procedures in conjunction with evaluated risk profiles and a defined client materiality scope, which is not the case in industry accounting. Industry accountants must perform their procedures at lower levels of materiality, if defined at all.

My biggest challenge was to effectively integrate the strategy of the business within the constraints of accounting. In other words, the “big picture concept”—there is more to the business decisions of the company that reside outside of accounting, such as operations, legal support, and IT.

Lindsay Gorang: I had two main concerns with leaving Deloitte and was pleasantly surprised in both cases. First, I thought I would miss the variety of working with so many different team members. I moved on from Deloitte to a small company with only 40 employees and feared I was significantly slimming my work network. What I failed to consider was how many outside parties I would regularly collaborate with: joint venture partners, lenders, key suppliers, attorneys, consultants, and affiliate companies.

Second, I thought I would miss working with the caliber of talent I worked with at Deloitte, but I was delighted to discover that my new colleagues were equally bright and motivated, and from a far broader array of fields. I love teaming with cross-functional leaders; they help me learn about so many areas beyond accounting-specific matters.

J.C. Gum: In public accounting, if I came across an accounting issue with which I had no previous experience, I could walk down the hall and usually find a couple of others who had. They could provide quick references, helpful leads, and generally get me started on researching the issue. In industry accounting, I found myself being the resource of last resort. I really missed having that interaction with others, bantering concepts and pitfalls on the most complex accounting issues.

Brian Harding: One of the biggest challenges for me was stepping into a new position where I was expected to be a leader in the organization, but I initially had no direct staff members to supervise. Coming from KPMG, where we had droves of managers, seniors, staff, and interns to support each engagement, there was a challenging transition into a new reality that, while I’d regularly report and present to the board and executive leadership, I’d also be the one to roll up my sleeves and do much of the heavy lifting to complete a project.

Lauren Johnson: The most difficult challenge for me, in the beginning, was dealing with the pace of activity that exists in private industry. There is this sort of urban legend that those in public accounting talk about which is that private sector is slower-paced than public. I can say that it’s absolutely not true; private is not slower-paced than public, and that’s not a bad thing.

Senad Mustafic: I like diversity—not only in terms of race, ethnicity, or gender, but also in terms of educational backgrounds, ways of thinking, and approaching problem-solving. In industry, it’s been refreshing to work with people from different professional disciplines. When it comes to diversity, the public accounting environment is monotonous—people have the same educational background, a lot of them went to the exact same college, and their career goals are similar.

The real challenge on the industry side, in my opinion, is you fully own the numbers. You see exactly where they come from, how they’re generated, and you’re fully responsible for their accuracy and completeness. I don’t think I appreciated the full science behind that process while I was in public accounting.

Matt Nelson: The biggest adjustment has been a greater appreciation for the operational side of the business, but it’s also been the most rewarding. In public accounting, there are rules to follow for almost everything. If there’s a question, there’s probably a guide where you can look up the answer. In industry, you have to figure it out. You make hard decisions every day.

I’ve also learned how to be a better communicator. In public accounting, you generally work closely with other finance and accounting professionals who understand what you do. In industry, many of the people you interact with each day think all accountants are tax professionals, and April 15 is the busiest day of the year.

Mitra Rezvan: Perhaps the hardest part of the transition was learning the hands-on operational accounting. It’s one thing to audit and provide technical guidance, but it’s another thing to build a process, know what reports you need, and work with technical teams to build systems for running the business efficiently.

Paul Starrantino: It’s a different experience to sit on the other side of the desk and close the period, prepare financial statements, perform acquisition due diligence, forecast, or plan the year. Accounting or controllership touches all aspects of an organization. As a result, some of the challenges stem from other departments approaching matters from a different lens and the need to balance an approach within a GAAP environment without sounding like an accountant but rather a partner in a mutually beneficial situation. However, I believe the biggest challenge is change management—large organization change—and the ability to partner, persuade, and obtain buy-in with others.

Christopher Sullivan: The transition was a very positive experience. It was fun and challenging to figure out how the sausage gets made, beginning with booking transactions in the general ledger all the way through to the end result of financial reporting and improving that process. The technical accounting foundation that I gained while at EY has made me comfortable with SEC reporting and the technical accounting knowledge and research skills needed in my role as controller.

GC: What’s one thing you’ve taken from your experience working in public accounting that has helped you the most in your job as a controller?

Fred Butterweck: As an auditor, you have to be able to quickly sort through a lot of information and key in on what’s important in short order. I feel this has helped me become a quick learner and hone my ability to identify key business issues and risks and stay focused on what’s important.

Tony Combs: The work ethic you get in public accounting. I had a lot of confidence in my capabilities coming out of public; I felt I could take on any type of project.

Lindsay Gorang: Managing teams effectively, by setting a high bar and providing frequent feedback to help my team achieve lofty goals.

J.C. Gum: KPMG taught me to be an owner. From my first audit when I was assigned cutoff at my client, ownership was critical to my success in public accounting. I quickly learned no one else is assigned to my areas, and the more I owned it, the more responsibility I was given. Similarly, industry accounting requires you to fully own all aspects of your job.

Drew Hester: The sheer variety of companies, clients, partners, staff, technical accounting issues, tough deadlines, and challenges I encountered. While navigating all of that, there is an inherent breadth of experience, required adaptability, and development of a sense that you can find a successful outcome in any situation that quietly accumulates. It makes for a very solid foundation when dealing with the more focused challenges that working for a single enterprise presents.

Lauren Johnson: Public accounting teaches you the “why” behind the process and the numbers, while private industry teaches you the “how.” Understanding the why has helped me tremendously when answering technical questions, problem-solving, and implementing process improvement.

Will Majic: There are tight deadlines and numerous demands at accounting firms that cause you to make good use of your time and work a few extra hours here and there at night or on weekends. That has taught me to be effective with my time during the day and has also given me an appreciation for putting in extra hours when required.

Senad Mustafic: I learned a lot about people management at Deloitte. Working on different audit engagements, one gets exposed to different management styles. I remember one year, as an audit senior, I reported simultaneously to six audit managers. Seeing their different styles helped me understand the style I wanted to have for myself and the style I wanted to avoid.

Stay tuned for more from these controllers in a future article where they offer advice to CPAs about making the jump from public accounting to industry.

Image: iStock/oculo

The post Controllers Talk Switching Gears From Public Accounting to Industry appeared first on Going Concern.

from Accounting News http://goingconcern.com/controllers-transition-public-accounting-to-industry-inchan/

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mystlnewsonline · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/auctiontime-com-launches-online-equipment-auction-website-united-country-real-estate/75530/

AuctionTime.com Launches Online Equipment Auction Website for United Country Real Estate

LINCOLN, Neb./ Jan. 27, 2018 (STLRealEstate.News) — United Country Real Estate has launched an online equipment auction website—www.UCEquipmentAuctions.com—hosted by AuctionTime.com, the leader in online only auctions for agriculture and construction equipment, commercial trucks and trailers. The website pulls auction listings (primarily farm and ag equipment) from hundreds of UCRE branch locations across the U.S. into a centralized platform for buyers interested in placing bids in weekly online auctions.

The new website (designed and hosted by Sandhills Publishing, the Nebraska-based tech company behind AuctionTime.com, HiBid.com, Auction Flex, TractorHouse, and a number of other brands) is powered by a cloud-based inventory management system that enables individual branches to upload equipment, register it for upcoming weekly auctions, and generate online listings with a few simple clicks. Listings are displayed on

UCEquipmentAuctions.com, where users can browse upcoming auctions, search for specific equipment, and place bids on auction day. Listings are also cross-posted to AuctionTime.com and TractorHouse.com and appear in the weekly AuctionTime print magazine in the weeks ahead of the sale to maximize exposure across multiple channels. Bidding on equipment through AuctionTime.com is free and easy, with free registration, no buyer fees, and no hidden reserves. Online auctions are held every Wednesday, with bidding opening on Tuesdays. Interested bidders can access listings online from any device, add them to a customizable watch list, and place proxy bids in the days leading up to the sale.

For UCRE, the platform works alongside its hosted HiBid.com auctions—www.UCAuctionSale.com—which include everything from land parcels to real estate and from other vehicles to estate items like jewelry, furniture, and electronics. When it comes to farm and ag equipment, AuctionTime.com and TractorHouse work together to provide an easy access point for buyers all over the world who are specifically in the market for these types of assets. “Our network of over 4,000 brokers, agents, and auctioneers will gain a tremendous advantage for their clients through this new online equipment auction program with AuctionTime,” said Shawn Terrel, president of UCRE | Auction Services. “The platform will allow our hundreds of offices both nationally and internationally to efficiently list and market heavy equipment by leveraging one of the industry’s largest online equipment auction platforms.” For United Country Real Estate | Rocking X Land Company—a Colorado-based office primarily serving Colorado and Kansas—AuctionTime.com has already provided substantial opportunities for consignment revenue. “The exposure we get through AuctionTime just can’t be beat,” said UCRE | Rocking X Land Company’s Virgil George, who expects the centralized United Country auctions website will only lead to more opportunities. “I expect the site will give us better SEO and market exposure overall and am looking forward to seeing the results.”

For AuctionTime, the website is part of a larger initiative: to provide platforms that effectively connect and deliver value to both equipment buyers and sellers. “We’ve worked directly with manufacturers and dealerships large and small to establish auction platforms that provide a clean, easy, and consistent outlet for equipment,” explains AuctionTime’s Nathan Stack. “UCEquipmentAuctions.com ensures UCRE direct access to successful weekly auctions, and the built-in exposure and flexibility each independently operated location needs to leverage it for growth.”

Interested in browsing online auctions from UCRE? Visit www.UCAuctionSale.com and www.UCEquipmentAuctions.com to view listings for items available in upcoming auctions. Interested in leveraging these powerful online auction platforms to grow your business? Contact AuctionTime.com directly.

About AuctionTime.com

Powered by Machinery Trader, CraneTrader, Truck Paper, TractorHouse, and MarketBook, AuctionTime.com is a product of Sandhills Publishing—an information processing company headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. AuctionTime equipment listings appear both online and in print across Sandhills’ trade publications and corresponding websites to reach buyers around the world in the trucking, agriculture, construction, and heavy equipment industries.

About United Country Real Estate

United Country Real Estate—a division of the United Real Estate Group—is the leading, fully integrated network of conventional and auction real estate professionals. The company has been an innovator in lifestyle and country real estate marketing since 1925. United Country supports nearly 500 offices and 4,000 real estate professionals across four continents, with a unique, comprehensive marketing program that includes the highest ranked and largest portfolios of specialty property marketing websites, the largest real estate marketing services company, an extensive buyer database of more than 650,000 opt-in buyers and exclusive global advertising of properties.

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SOURCE: news provided by AuctionTime.com, distributed by PRNewswire.com, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (PS)

#auction real estate professionals #online equipment auction #online listings #STLRealEstate.News #United Country Real Estate

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tuthillscopes-blog · 8 years ago

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Trump administration takes down public-facing directory of Energy Department employees

check it out @ https://tuthillscopes.com/trump-administration-takes-down-public-facing-directory-of-energy-department-employees/

Trump administration takes down public-facing directory of Energy Department employees

Image: Shutterstock / Concept Photo

The United states doe has had lower its public-facing employee directory, which makes it much more hard for journalists and people from the public to discover emails and make contact with figures for agency personnel.

The move, that was announced to agency contractors on Wednesday and implemented Thursday morning, was confirmed within an internal email distributed to Mashable.

Making federal scientists and policy makers harder to make contact with isnt an insignificant matter. These types of moves toward opacity wall off employees in the outdoors world making it much more likely they wont experience public pressure associated with their citizen-funded work.

SEE ALSO: Rick Perry regrets calling for abolishment of Energy Department

Additionally, it causes it to be simpler for pr officials to visualize additional control over use of interview subjects, since journalists not really acquainted with agency sources will have to contact the central press office to create headway on the story.

The phonebook was functioning early Thursday morning but went lower around 10:15 a.m. ET.

This is the way the page reads now:

United states doe public-facing phonebook.

Image: energy.gov

Rather to find the power Department phonebook online on Thursday, people to the department website now are forwarded to a main telephone number (that is 202-586-5000) and therefore are told to make contact with a particular office using a web directory.

Your directory permitted any user to look for department employees by name and retrieve their fundamental contact details and office division, that was an aid for journalists, civil society watchdog groups and many more trying to penetrate the frequently opaque federal paperwork.

Until today, you can lookup United states doe (DOE) employees by name to locate their office telephone number and emails. Thinking about the truth that the department is really a maze in excess of 10,000 employees and contractors located all over the world, that phonebook is much more than convenient its essential.

Other federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, have intact public phonebooks, because they did through the Federal government.

The Power Department states it required lower the phonebook due to internal complaints from agency personnel who did not want their information shared any longer.

“Work of Public Matters had received complaints in the workforce concerning the discharge of their direct contact details and also the disruption for their operations because of outdoors personnel trying directly vice dealing with the right channels,” stated Shelley Laver, a company spokeswoman, within an email.

“The general public continues to be able to talk with the department through various channels,” she stated. The agency’s database didn’t give a achievable method to allow individual employees to opt from being listed whilst maintaining the general public directory, she stated.

The interior email delivered to a company contractor didn’t give a reason the general public phonebook was removed. Since phonebook continues to be online for a long time, it’s removal now strikes some as suspicious.

Energy Department employees, contractors and watchdog groups have been receiving alert for changes in the department that will limit transparency and would infringe upon the agency’s broad portfolio of climate science research. Maintaining the scientific integrity and independence from the agency’s scientific work is a particular concern considering the Trump administration’s denial of mainstream climate science findings.

“Taking lower the phonebook doesnt seem sensible,Inch stated Michael Halpern, the deputy director from the center for democracy in the Union of Concerned Scientists, an ecological advocacy group. “This centralizes communication and causes it to be harder to make contact with individual DOE employees without dealing with an agreement process first,” he stated, while using acronym for that agency.

Halpern stated removing the phonebook, if it’s permanent, “could limit immediate access to DOE scientists.” By routing callers through primary offices, he stated, “It can give a political filter to how DOE communicates science.”

Just before walking lower in the finish of former president Barack Obama’s second term, then-secretary Ernest Moniz signed a company-wide scientific integrity policy that will evidently safeguard the organization’s research from political interference.

“The DOE scientific integrity policy claims that employees do not need to inquire about permission before openly discussing scientific information with individuals who ask,” Halpern stated. “DOE ought to be doing all it may to create scientific experts readily available towards the public, which gets into the alternative direction.”

Environmental protection agency scientists happen to be forced to violate their integrity policy once they were advised not to speak with the press or share research results using the public throughout the presidential transition.

Wind generators us dot the landscape near Steele City, Neb.

Image: Nati Harnik/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Under Obama, the power Department grew to become a number one supply of investment capital for clean energy firms, additionally to funding leading edge climate science and research at its network of national labs.

The Trump administration made waves throughout the transition if this asked the department for that names of employees who’d labored on climate programs and took part in worldwide climate negotiations, suggesting a coming purge of staff involve in climate programs.

The Trump transition team then backed removed from that questionnaire, attributing it to some “rogue” employee. The transition team also hinted the department is destined to have an overall 10 % budget cut underneath the new administration.

President Jesse Trump’s nominee for Energy Secretary, former Texas governor Ron Perry, has stated he’d try to safeguard scientists in the department and it is still waiting for Senate confirmation. Previously, Perry has denied the presence of human-caused global warming and recommended for that removal of the company entirely, though he softened that stance in the opening of his confirmation hearing.

“I’ve learned a good deal concerning the important work being carried out every single day through the outstanding women and men from the United states doe,Inch Perry stated.

“My past statements remodeled 5 years ago about abolishing the United states doe don’t reflect my current thinking,” he stated.

The disabling from the public Energy Department phonebook is comparable to exactly what the Trump administration did towards the White-colored House public phone number, if this rather requested for comments via social networking or perhaps a web form.

In the two cases, the simplicity of public use of key areas of the us government continues to be limited. The White-colored Home is now basically walled removed from comment by anybody without a web connection.

If you’re a federal worker, researcher or citizen researcher who sees climate science and policy shifts at federal agencies and desires to alert the press, you want to know what you think. Please send an e-mail out of your personal email account to [email protected].

You may also contact science editor Andrew Freedman through the secure messaging application Signal, with more information in his Twitter bio.

BONUS: 2016 was Earth’s warmest year on record, continuing a three-year streak

Find out more: http://mashable.com/2017/02/16/trump-admin-removes-energy-department-phonebook/

#climate #department-of-energy #energy-department #global-warming #rick-perry #Science #scientific-integrity #scientific-transparency #trump #us-world

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