News for today's 2018

Once Suicidal and Shipped Off, Now Battling Nevada Over Care - NYTimes.com

6:42 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">SAN FRANCISCO — David Theisen keeps his legal papers in a frayed yellow envelope in his tiny transients' hotel room, a toilet down the hall, the covers of his beloved comic books, with titles like "Dark Mysteries" and "Vault of Horror," lining the drab walls.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A lot has changed in the year and a half since Mr. Theisen, 52 and homeless, threatened to kill himself with a butcher knife and ended up in a Las Vegas psychiatric center. After one night, Mr. Theisen found himself on a bus to San Francisco, several sack lunches and a day's worth of medication clutched in his lap.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Technically, they shouldn't have been allowed to send me anywhere," Mr. Theisen said. "They should have put me in a little room until I got better."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Now, Mr. Theisen is at the center of a class-action lawsuit brought this month by San Francisco's city attorney, Dennis Herrera, against the State of Nevada on behalf of 24 mentally ill and homeless people. They were all, like Mr. Theisen, bused out of Nevada and left on the streets of San Francisco with little or no medication.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But that is just a small sampling, Mr. Herrera says, of the estimated 1,500 people who were bused all over the country in recent years from the state-operated Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Center in Las Vegas and other Nevada institutions, 500 of them to California.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"It's horrifying," Mr. Herrera said. "I think we can all agree that our most vulnerable and at-risk people don't deserve this sort of treatment: no meds, no medical care, a destination where they have no contacts and know no one."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But what makes it "even more tragic," Mr. Herrera said, "is that on top of the inhumane treatment, the State of Nevada was trying to have another jurisdiction shoulder the financial responsibility for caring for these people."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who has several weeks to respond to Mr. Herrera's lawsuit, has declined to comment in the meantime.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mary Woods, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, laid out the state's position in an e-mail. Outside a handful of instances, the state believes that its Client Transportation Back to Home Communities program was operated properly and that it is not dissimilar from programs in other jurisdictions, including San Francisco.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Hospitals in several cities have programs intended to reunite discharged psychiatric patients with their families and hometowns. Where abuses occur, Mr. Herrera and others say, is when patients are shipped off with little or no oversight about where they are going and what will happen once they get there.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Nevada officials say that besides a single, well-documented case, they believe that the Rawson-Neal staff followed proper release procedures in almost all of the remaining cases they have investigated.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That single case, involving a man named James F. Brown who was sent by bus to Sacramento, a city where he knew no one, from the Vegas hospital in February, was the subject of an <a title="The article." href="http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/07/5322199/cast-out-by-nevada-he-finds-kindness.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">article in The Sacramento Bee</a>.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That newspaper article not only prompted the San Francisco city attorney's office to look into the Nevada policy, but it also led to a federal investigation.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"This has certainly elevated attention of a practice that, frankly, has probably gone on for many years in a number of states," said Ronald S. Honberg, legal director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Washington. "We've never done a study, and I've never seen one anybody else did, but we have certainly heard over the years a number of stories that this sort of practice goes on. It's something we refer to, euphemistically, as Greyhound therapy."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mr. Theisen's experience began when he and another homeless man tried to hitchhike across the Mojave Desert from Las Vegas to San Diego. They made it about 45 miles to the small town of Primm, little more than a cluster of casinos.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The two men, desperate and hungry, ordered a meal and then ran before the bill arrived. They did not make it. His friend was arrested, but Mr. Theisen went to a pay phone and called the authorities. "I told them I had a knife and was going to kill myself," he said. "After the dine-and-dash, I just gave up."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">He begged not to be sent back onto the streets of Las Vegas, he said, and did not care where they shipped him. "They asked me what kind of work I had done, and I said I was a cook," he said. "So some young woman said, 'Well, there are a lot of restaurants in San Francisco.' "</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mr. Theisen said he eventually wound up at the Rawson-Neal facility, where he spent the night. The next morning, he said, his doctors sent him to a Greyhound station with seven sack lunches and a day's medication for the 14-hour ride. He arrived with three lunches left and $30 on a food stamps card, and bounced from shelter to shelter until he managed to get a room in a downtown transients' hotel.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Rumors of such journeys had become part of California homeless lore.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"In San Francisco, it's been urban myth for decades that this sort of practice was going on," Mr. Herrera said. "But this is the first instance that I am aware of where we have been able to document a state-supported and state-sanctioned effort."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Ms. Woods, the spokeswoman for Nevada's health agency, said that from July 1, 2008, to March 31, the state bought out-of-state bus tickets for 4.7 percent of the patients it discharged, an estimated 1,473 people. "The findings show there were 10 instances in the course of five years where there was not enough documentation to know for certain if staff confirmed there was housing/shelter and supportive services at the destination," she said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, however, said last month that its inquiry showed a more widespread problem. About 40 percent of the mental patients discharged by the hospital went into local homeless shelters or were shipped elsewhere, the federal investigators said, and most of those were sent directly to a Greyhound bus station with a ticket but without proper documentation or instructions on what they should do when they arrive.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Some medical staff members at Rawson-Neal were fired after the furor following the Bee report, Ms. Woods said, and the hospital strengthened its discharge protocols. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada pushed the Legislature to approve, which it did, $30.4 million in additional mental health spending, including $2.1 million for Rawson-Neal.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mr. Herrera is not satisfied. He wants proof that the new protocols are in place, as well as compensation for all the city has spent to care for the patients from Nevada. He is also talking to other California cities about joining him in the lawsuit.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"I am hopeful that shining a light on this will also shine a light on other jurisdictions around the country to make the point that this is not going to be tolerated," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">It has been a tough year for Rawson-Neal. In July, it lost its accreditation, a decision that it did not fight. Of greater concern is a move by federal officials to possibly end Rawson-Neal's eligibility for Medicare financing.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Mr. Theisen now subsists on $100 in assistance from the city every month, which with his free room, is just enough if he is careful. He gets the medication he needs for his depression and spends his days at the public library or roaming the city looking for work as a cook. The important thing is that now, for the first time, he can see a way forward.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">"I guess they shouldn't have done what they did in Nevada, but I cannot say enough about what this city has done for me," he said. "It's awesome, really. I have to struggle, yes, but otherwise life is good. I don't wake up sad anymore."</p></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/us/once-suicidal-and-shipped-off-now-battling-nevada-over-care.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/us/once-suicidal-and-shipped-off-now-battling-nevada-over-care.html</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Once Suicidal and Shipped Off, Now Battling Nevada Over Care - NYTimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — David Theisen keeps his legal papers in a frayed yellow envelope in his tiny transients' hotel room, a toilet down the h...

Up on the roof

5:46 AM Tukiyooo 0

<span style="font-size: large;">To clean the glass roof of the studio we have to climb out our attic on to the roof. It's such a great view from up there (but a little scary!).</span><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7vJ3fMkOrEn9F9FRiExlXiu-qG-9Ai2izBl2rjM7G08MBrpWWKUkNJfQNCiTKS1KsxbzjK8NyKT3yVWvnh-7CgLlP7DcO2ytNJlSX47TuPoEVQh5jHkLWAjdWqkj0Wj9IBl903pVLfNl/s640/blogger-image--563701420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7vJ3fMkOrEn9F9FRiExlXiu-qG-9Ai2izBl2rjM7G08MBrpWWKUkNJfQNCiTKS1KsxbzjK8NyKT3yVWvnh-7CgLlP7DcO2ytNJlSX47TuPoEVQh5jHkLWAjdWqkj0Wj9IBl903pVLfNl/s640/blogger-image--563701420.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: large;">Hard work for Ciaran - my job was to pass him things as he needed them.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOM5uCWVyEt-lHrKirxCSvVd1aRnUbb39uBv7x-MpOeO-UmLqUkkuWiUHeE_5QzJTN9tevICLo96KrE_AIgFAG0wtCSF333TF1TSxD8UhJBojGy_pRV_B6xUq9FjqRGRiL1pFh6M_vzy3/s640/blogger-image-903506946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOM5uCWVyEt-lHrKirxCSvVd1aRnUbb39uBv7x-MpOeO-UmLqUkkuWiUHeE_5QzJTN9tevICLo96KrE_AIgFAG0wtCSF333TF1TSxD8UhJBojGy_pRV_B6xUq9FjqRGRiL1pFh6M_vzy3/s640/blogger-image-903506946.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;">It's a lovely sunny day in Ireland (Indian Summer!) and the tiles were very hot to touch.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOBi4zzRHffxNY7Gr-74QhEhm74G9vwfi8ZTB3-QaTLp5yA_29e9h2i2oDNkFzKpalDyiwa-e6LJScx_vBP6MBvOB5P_Tq5o1zIQIBwtlYiq2qf1zY8ieQfvSBZVGQxwQrEwol-4LFsEW/s640/blogger-image--1858535602.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOBi4zzRHffxNY7Gr-74QhEhm74G9vwfi8ZTB3-QaTLp5yA_29e9h2i2oDNkFzKpalDyiwa-e6LJScx_vBP6MBvOB5P_Tq5o1zIQIBwtlYiq2qf1zY8ieQfvSBZVGQxwQrEwol-4LFsEW/s640/blogger-image--1858535602.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;">It's so quiet up on the roof - I like the calmness...</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVEPL3ZQZ2zSLh8ylfAcGsADy8YJC5tXLINL4J-xohs3yRp5b__UkaVd8z5drJW9IAZd39c7si09ogt-dMYnCLHdRpfyBsNhTSVRQ1q6wQZrtzlVsFBWzEkN51JxXYS9J4qKf4sBlmS0R/s640/blogger-image-263016534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVEPL3ZQZ2zSLh8ylfAcGsADy8YJC5tXLINL4J-xohs3yRp5b__UkaVd8z5drJW9IAZd39c7si09ogt-dMYnCLHdRpfyBsNhTSVRQ1q6wQZrtzlVsFBWzEkN51JxXYS9J4qKf4sBlmS0R/s640/blogger-image-263016534.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">A well deserved drink!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgQP7lrLpdIIIBFKq5-453xTLu17VBRrNPq0j7jOnbHPnmzRbZ3jslVRIitWe5FEQtwdBprKPWA0M1CRlBBvUOEhMyAaV-dF9wl5cfq0qXUnkioTiATpezrxQCtOiPO63tsk1sKZi9Z1i/s640/blogger-image--443619258.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgQP7lrLpdIIIBFKq5-453xTLu17VBRrNPq0j7jOnbHPnmzRbZ3jslVRIitWe5FEQtwdBprKPWA0M1CRlBBvUOEhMyAaV-dF9wl5cfq0qXUnkioTiATpezrxQCtOiPO63tsk1sKZi9Z1i/s640/blogger-image--443619258.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever been up on your roof?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think we may need to invest in a power hose that we can just spray the windows to get them clean, in the future.</span></div><br /><br /></div></div></div></div>

Up on the roof

To clean the glass roof of the studio we have to climb out our attic on to the roof. It's such a great view from up there (but a little ...

Sunday: Teen victim of fatal BRP fall to be remembered at Lewis Ginter Gardens

5:00 AM Tukiyooo 0

Last week a 13-year-old girl from Richmond died in a fall over a cliff onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. The official report from the <a href="http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=6800">National Park Service</a> follows:<br /><blockquote><b>Blue Ridge Parkway </b> - <b>Teenager Dies In Fall From Cliff</b><br /><br />Blue  Ridge Parkway dispatch center and Humpback Rocks visitor center  received multiple reports of a young woman who had fallen approximately  50 feet down a cliff onto the parkway <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_628677754" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">on Sunday</span></span> evening, September 15th.  There was a rapid response from park rangers and interpretive staff,  Waynesboro and Wintergreen rescue squads, and medically trained  visitors who witnessed the accident. <br /><br />The patient, a 13-year-old girl,  was flown by helicopter to University Medical Center in Charlottesville,  but succumbed to her injuries. She had been picnicking with family and  friends at Humpback Rocks picnic area and had hiked out to an overlook  to view the sunset. She and another youngster had scrambled down from  the overlook and were climbing along the top of the cliff when she fall. [Submitted by Kurt Speers, Ridge District Ranger] </blockquote>The victim was identified as Alexandra Babeva. In a tribute, her sister Alissa wrote the obituary that appeared in the <i><a href="http://www.timesdispatch.com/obituaries/babaeva-alexandra/article_5ff20352-24df-5470-9c34-4cba1992f771.html">Richmond Times-Dispatch</a>:</i><br /><blockquote>Oh, darling. Although we  weep for the time you lost, we cannot mourn the time you lived. In 13  years, you learned enough to fill lifetimes. With those endless words of  yours, you told the world into existence. Your love always lived beyond  you, such a little being could not possibly hold the return. Now, we  love for you. I live for you. Tbl CBET. Everywhere, the people you knew  keep you as sweet, soft whispers. Reminding us to smile truly and look  deeply; you will tell us how to see the smallest of the small and the  biggest of the big. You flew, my baby, you never fell. <br /><br />For anyone  wishing to reflect Sasha's beauty through nature's divinity, our family  invites you to enter the <b>Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens at 11 a.m.  Sunday, September 22, 2013. </b>Written by Alexandra's sister, Alissa.  Arrangements by Bliley's-Staples Mill.</blockquote><i>H/T to Merlot</i>

Sunday: Teen victim of fatal BRP fall to be remembered at Lewis Ginter Gardens

Last week a 13-year-old girl from Richmond died in a fall over a cliff onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. The official report from the National Pa...

Today's Teamster News 09.22.13

4:46 AM Tukiyooo 0

<a href="http://mtstandard.com/news/local/local-teamsters-no-st-james-healthcare-settle-strike-averted/article_5e50027c-2271-11e3-9af2-0019bb2963f4.html" rel="nofollow">Local Teamsters No. 2, St. James Healthcare settle; Strike averted</a>  Montana Standard   ...Local Teamsters No. 2 and St. James Healthcare have settled their long-ranging collective bargaining issues — thus averting a Sept. 23 strike...<br /><a href="http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/09/20/5229676/teamsters-continue-to-lawfully.html" rel="nofollow">Teamsters Continue To Lawfully Picket Funeral Home Giant SCI</a>  Teamsters Local 727   ...Since pickets began on July 2, SCI has continued its history of bargaining in bad faith with its employees, even after meeting for ongoing negotiations on Sept. 17...<br /><a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/community-teamsters" rel="nofollow">Teamsters Women’s Conference Closes with Focus on Activism</a>  teamster.org   ...The 2013 Teamsters Women’s Conference in New Orleans closed on Saturday with a call to action from the 1,000 Teamster women in attendance, as well as from their fellow Teamsters throughout North America...<br /><a href="http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/obamas-corporate-export-council-ignores-dismal-export-data-backs-more-of-the-same-trade-deals.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eyesontrade+%28Eyes+on+Trade%29" rel="nofollow">Obama’s Corporate Export Council Ignores Dismal Export Data, Backs More-of-the-Same “Trade” Deals </a> Public Citizen   ...Somehow the room full of corporate representatives and government officials, “<a href="http://trade.gov/pec/">the principal national advisory committee on international trade</a>,” which exists to “promote export expansion” and “discuss and resolve trade-related problems,” made it through two hours of prepared speeches without once acknowledging that we’re <a href="http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/02/obamas-export-promise-falls-18-years-behind-schedule-as-exports-decline-under-ftas.html">18 years behind schedule to meet Obama’s goal to double exports</a>...<br /><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-09-20/5-years-after-financial-crisis-big-banks-are-still-committing-massive-crimes" rel="nofollow">5 Years After the Financial Crisis, The Big Banks Are Still Committing Massive Crimes</a>  zero hedge   ...The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees. But studies show that <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/09/fraud-bosses-206m">most of the fraud is committed by management</a>...<br /><a href="http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/09/jpmorgan-found-to-have-violated-both-banking-and-securities-laws-in-920-million-settlement/" rel="nofollow">JPMorgan Found to Have Violated Both Banking and Securities Laws in $920 Million Settlement</a>  Wall Street on Parade   ... This is where the high risk trading was done, in the insured bank, using insured deposits. It is this aspect that has stunned Congress and brought in the FBI and Justice Department...<br /><a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/few-jobs-means-bad-jobs?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beat_the_press+%28Beat+the+Press%29" rel="nofollow">Few Jobs Means Bad Jobs</a>  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ...There are always employers offering bad jobs, but workers don't take them in a good economy. In a bad economy they have no choice...<br /><a href="http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/09/founder-of-.html" rel="nofollow">Founder of Beanie Babies to Plead Guilty to Tax Evasion</a>  TaxProfBlog   ...<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Warner">Ty Warner</a>, CEO of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Inc.">Ty Inc</a>., which makes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Babies">Beanie Babies</a>, has agreed to plead guilty to tax evasion and pay $53.6 million in penalties in one of the largest offshore tax evasion cases in history...<br /><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-19/how-germany-s-alw-got-busted-for-the-largest-food-fraud-in-u-dot-s-dot-history" rel="nofollow">The Honey Launderers: Uncovering the Largest Food Fraud in U.S. History</a>  Bloomberg   ...Andrew Boutros, assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, had put together the case: Eight other ALW executives, including Alexander Wolff, the chief executive officer, and a Chinese honey broker, were indicted on charges alleging a global conspiracy to illegally import Chinese honey going back to 2002...<br /><a href="http://madeinamericathebook.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">Loss of Economic Exceptionalism</a>  Made in America   ...the U.S. does not provide more upward mobility than other nations do; if anything, young Americans’ economic fortunes are more tied to those of their parents than is true in other western nations...

bank criminality corporate tax avoidance funeral directors Jobs JPMorgan negotiations TPP Today's Teamster News 09.22.13

Local Teamsters No. 2, St. James Healthcare settle; Strike averted Montana Standard ...Local Teamsters No. 2 and St. James Healthcare ha...

Punjabi by Nature

3:42 AM Tukiyooo 0

<span style="font-size: large;">We visited Bunjabi by Nature (formerly Bunjabi Balti) last night for dinner.  Ciaran had Indian BBQ while I had a traditional Indian dish of a variety of curries - along with dessert of pancake and yoghurt on the plate!  Both of us really enjoyed our meals and tastes parts from both plates. I think I liked the mango prawn curry the best.</span><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZDfLUY8n5Vc56AsNLfx83bYKNPUnXzpmy3SfDkgktoZfTvPIi3jW5v3z559DMjbVwPEuAETuublLBrWqfKtJW07yspq99xR1U82HXb84CyuUaH3h5OvSSKVgWV-HxBStv8aPaBxBN8tD/s640/blogger-image-40985818.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZDfLUY8n5Vc56AsNLfx83bYKNPUnXzpmy3SfDkgktoZfTvPIi3jW5v3z559DMjbVwPEuAETuublLBrWqfKtJW07yspq99xR1U82HXb84CyuUaH3h5OvSSKVgWV-HxBStv8aPaBxBN8tD/s640/blogger-image-40985818.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHw3aN89YUusj0uR76XlJ4G76BnRmNYVO6J4qYhR-uwuzgDonlYvwVoFcO5MPcP-snCnzClxFSsoozIPVyrxAlkq4hHdSstKUZYoYX1tChrusYRTk1JIb-rSDwNyE02yyR687tZHeWyw7/s640/blogger-image-184567527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHw3aN89YUusj0uR76XlJ4G76BnRmNYVO6J4qYhR-uwuzgDonlYvwVoFcO5MPcP-snCnzClxFSsoozIPVyrxAlkq4hHdSstKUZYoYX1tChrusYRTk1JIb-rSDwNyE02yyR687tZHeWyw7/s640/blogger-image-184567527.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CXbmeF1entY1D2_V1pF2309wSyRaam4iUoG18ijhdZteq5jWYT_bUESFRg9datz9XZvPXvL8BKIXGTuSSFOpHzbE47UyLUTeHpZ7-2w9jRb0WEO0E8W4Fs0OPGH_jGCNTSQXeHESIGlY/s640/blogger-image-518356473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CXbmeF1entY1D2_V1pF2309wSyRaam4iUoG18ijhdZteq5jWYT_bUESFRg9datz9XZvPXvL8BKIXGTuSSFOpHzbE47UyLUTeHpZ7-2w9jRb0WEO0E8W4Fs0OPGH_jGCNTSQXeHESIGlY/s640/blogger-image-518356473.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoO3xo-c2GM3Km0rsiJZ_nTatbbRJmiBFiOU8xCvWco1MQN1-p1gGPFRxyB2aOET-M55WtXAw2ChOpQYcGq576jVpSl6towRnKoelvqENAhjB2gJnkuuDhEfh2GnIRmuSasn9nFinVKhDZ/s640/blogger-image-1594895253.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoO3xo-c2GM3Km0rsiJZ_nTatbbRJmiBFiOU8xCvWco1MQN1-p1gGPFRxyB2aOET-M55WtXAw2ChOpQYcGq576jVpSl6towRnKoelvqENAhjB2gJnkuuDhEfh2GnIRmuSasn9nFinVKhDZ/s640/blogger-image-1594895253.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DK18MPE7IoZ4iDstSxUli1sSzWTbsRn05UBXFVCGP7QVmWhElF-bCNqZXJe55BfKdMCJ76sEIkiFLVCSCskwMiew0eBCHp_lzpFt1k4Qji_qzmj70g8djUuzqIdiPqsInbc9o6bNVR_m/s640/blogger-image-142518222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DK18MPE7IoZ4iDstSxUli1sSzWTbsRn05UBXFVCGP7QVmWhElF-bCNqZXJe55BfKdMCJ76sEIkiFLVCSCskwMiew0eBCHp_lzpFt1k4Qji_qzmj70g8djUuzqIdiPqsInbc9o6bNVR_m/s640/blogger-image-142518222.jpg" /></a></div><br /></div>

Punjabi by Nature

We visited Bunjabi by Nature (formerly Bunjabi Balti) last night for dinner. Ciaran had Indian BBQ while I had a traditional Indian dish of...

Wanna See What A Government That Just Had The Shit Scared Out Of Them Does?

2:57 AM Tukiyooo 0

Wanna See What A Government That Just Had The Shit Scared Out Of Them Does?

Go Here.

A Tight Ass Is A Frugal Person

1:40 AM Tukiyooo 0

A Tight Ass Is A Frugal Person

Why pay for a whole pair of pants when you don't need to?

ARGENTINA’S STUNNING POLICY TURNAROUND

1:11 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGqNF7hoMRjyo9ur227BzPVjeNDC6gf21kpsfO85mlexumtwyaFH5bzsPmRb9JvgZHbmkbGOjLDg_GCsDnVUqVuh3tDylb0Aj8FKZfZA1nMPpilDy5tRu31MpAXYNdHJCRvJk73JFvDnn/s1600/hf_121475_shale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGqNF7hoMRjyo9ur227BzPVjeNDC6gf21kpsfO85mlexumtwyaFH5bzsPmRb9JvgZHbmkbGOjLDg_GCsDnVUqVuh3tDylb0Aj8FKZfZA1nMPpilDy5tRu31MpAXYNdHJCRvJk73JFvDnn/s400/hf_121475_shale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">US COMPANY CHEVRON REGAINS FOOTHOLD IN ARGENTINA’S OIL SECTOR</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What a difference a year makes. Fiercely nationalistic Argentina is again allowing foreign oil firms back into the country.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chevron and state energy firm Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) signed an <a href="http://www.lanueva.com/economia/nota/e82a3972b1/10/148685.html"><span style="color: blue;">agreement to develop</span></a> the Patagonian Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas deposit formations in Neuquén’s Loma La Lata and Loma Campana. Before the deal is finalized Neuquén’s provincial government must first analyze the joint venture. Neuquén’s Energy Minister William Coco told journalists that the agreement was signed in the YPF offices in Puerto Madero by YPF’s Miguel Galuccio, and Chevron President John Watson.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information: </span></b></span><br /><br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div>   <br /><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ARGENTINE SHALE GAS PRODUCTION COULD ALTER THE SOUTHERN CONES GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE</span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/03/argentine-shale-gas-production-could.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/03/argentine-shale-gas-production-could.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ARGENTINA: CORPORATE INTEREST VERSUS IMPARTIALITY</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/malvinas-30-years-on_30.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/malvinas-30-years-on_30.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiP1zoxPdT5ZuutBSx_HLjhp37d4cel7iw7tVjkUYl53Q2YaEw1-UmucSZ2oSR-PX1IFlNE6tqxqVva5trtuD5yn7F7aYWL6VpecOlqcuW_pfQUbMPNnvlhNs7FFBYzscS9naJxcqwcaoN/s1600/shale-gas-south-america.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiP1zoxPdT5ZuutBSx_HLjhp37d4cel7iw7tVjkUYl53Q2YaEw1-UmucSZ2oSR-PX1IFlNE6tqxqVva5trtuD5yn7F7aYWL6VpecOlqcuW_pfQUbMPNnvlhNs7FFBYzscS9naJxcqwcaoN/s320/shale-gas-south-america.jpg" width="246" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The agreement represents a stunning policy turnaround by Buenos Aires. The Vaca Muerta discovery was announced in December 2010 by SPANISH firm Repsol’s Argentinean subsidiary Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales YPF ARGENTINA. Two years later President Cristina Kirchner’s government nationalized it, leading to Repsol, which had majority ownership of YPF since 1999, about six years after YPF was privatized, filing a number of massive lawsuits. Foreign investment in the country’s oil and natural gas sector promptly dried up, and Cristina Kirchner’s government, unable to fund Vaca Muerta’s development, is now seeking substantial foreign investments.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">  SHIFT TOWARDS USA</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chevron’s stake in the deal is $1.24 billion. Following the announcement of the contract Argentina YPF’s shares rose 3.53 percent on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange (BCBA) and 2.33 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. One unanswered question – how will Repsol view the deal?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On 16 April 2012, Kirchner introduced legislation for the partial renationalization of YPF, under which the state would purchase a 51 percent share, with the national government controlling 51 percent of this package and ten provincial governments receiving the remaining 49 percent. Ten days later the ARGENTINEAN Senate approved the takeover with 63 votes in favor of the measure, three opposing it and four abstentions. Buenos Aires alleged that Repsol was underinvesting in ARGENTINA’S hydrocarbon sector, which the government believed contributed to the decline in the country's total oil production. Prior to the expropriation, some provinces had rescinded exploration and production licenses from YPF claiming underinvestment as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The agreement is a pragmatic marriage of convenience for both parties. According to a <a href="http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=AR"><span style="color: blue;">June 2013 report</span></a> by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ARGENTINA has 2.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and technically recoverable shale oil reserves of 27 billion barrels. While ARGENTINA produces more natural gas than any other country in SOUTH AMERICA, its output has declined over 10 percent from peak levels in 2006 and it is now the continent's largest natural gas consumer. While earlier ARGENTINA was a net exporter of natural gas to neighboring countries, it became a net importer in 2008. Buenos Aire’s conundrum is how to revive its energy exports, and the past 16 months have proven that the country and YPF lack the resources to develop their energy reserves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PROTESTS OVER THE AGREEMENT STARTED IMMEDIATELY</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3RH4frWXg7sr4oSWp9XC21j10DF1hkxLM4aGMEA85c-LPB9WbWo4rcbxK1GGmVvsi5L8pqGbC3-yOHCj_WzU_F_AyxYtxPC-ktosBM1XvJAQ-neicwH33_d9jzvFZ8N9DhV3Csfe_NrDL/s1600/2013-07-23T201801Z_1_CBRE96M1KE500_RTROPTP_2_ARGENTINA-CHEVRON.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3RH4frWXg7sr4oSWp9XC21j10DF1hkxLM4aGMEA85c-LPB9WbWo4rcbxK1GGmVvsi5L8pqGbC3-yOHCj_WzU_F_AyxYtxPC-ktosBM1XvJAQ-neicwH33_d9jzvFZ8N9DhV3Csfe_NrDL/s320/2013-07-23T201801Z_1_CBRE96M1KE500_RTROPTP_2_ARGENTINA-CHEVRON.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Neuquén drilling rig</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Guillermo Pereyra, secretary general of the private oil and gas workers union of Río Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa, which has been pressuring the government for a 30 percent profit sharing scheme increase in their members’ salaries <a href="http://www.lanueva.com/elpais/nota/4466a22034/22/148978/nota.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">immediately denounced</span></a> the agreement, describing it as "unconstitutional" and emphasized that the arrangement needed to be ratified by the Neuquén legislature, asking that the "secret clauses" of the agreement be made public before ending by noting that the hydrocarbon resources belong to the provinces rather than the state.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clearly put on the defensive, Neuquén governor Jorge Sapag<a href="http://www.lanueva.com/elpais/nota/8149d98e61/22/150803.html"><span style="color: blue;"> defended the agreement</span></a> by noting that the nationalized YPF "can do no more and needs partners to provide capital."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">GOVERNMENT OVERHAULS FISCAL INVESTMENT TERMS TO STIMULATE FOREIGN CAPITAL ENTERING THE COUNTRY </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Argentina is undoubtedly taking a leaf out of neighboring Colombia’s playbook of the past decade, when the government overhauled its fiscal investment terms, which stimulated foreign capital to enter the country’s energy sector, helping nearly double production to its current level of approximately one million barrels of oil per day.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The consequences of the government's abrupt policy change may surface in October's mid-term elections, a vote that will determine whether Kirchner maintains control of Congress. Political blood is in the water, as her opponents are already accusing her of “flip-flopping” by ceding too much to Chevron. One constituency that she will undoubtedly lose is the members of the country’s fiercely nationalistic unions. Should be interesting - and don't forget those lawsuits.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: x-small;">By. John C.K. Daly via Oilprice</span></div>

ARGENTINA’S STUNNING POLICY TURNAROUND

US COMPANY CHEVRON REGAINS FOOTHOLD IN ARGENTINA’S OIL SECTOR What a difference a year makes. Fiercely nationalistic Argentina is again all...

Revolving Credit vs. Disposable Personal Income (Musical Tribute)

9:20 PM Tukiyooo 0

The following chart shows the 10-year moving average of the natural logarithm of the ratio of revolving credit to disposable personal income.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hYJLAVqZM16w_pD4jovqVrzrW56Ypky-Zzg8gkMH5HpJDXf9QeGg0grCGrE-VCHd_ohxE5TWGWzFIm3orazncNSJcLqkPdPCrvNd4FOlTkBcHA8w2fqcvQoi0a7FYFE2g_1Y6jvK18U/s1600/Revolving+Credit+vs.+Disposable+Personal+Income.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hYJLAVqZM16w_pD4jovqVrzrW56Ypky-Zzg8gkMH5HpJDXf9QeGg0grCGrE-VCHd_ohxE5TWGWzFIm3orazncNSJcLqkPdPCrvNd4FOlTkBcHA8w2fqcvQoi0a7FYFE2g_1Y6jvK18U/s320/Revolving+Credit+vs.+Disposable+Personal+Income.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />When using natural logarithms, constant growth is seen as a straight line. We aren't seeing a straight line though. Instead, we're seeing a nearly perfect upside down parabola.<br /><br />Over the long-term, this particular growth engine is done. Stick a fork in it.<br /><br />The future's so bright I gotta roll over in symphony. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathy">Pun intended.</a>)<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-cDozNJ2Oyw" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mDf">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

Revolving Credit vs. Disposable Personal Income (Musical Tribute)

The following chart shows the 10-year moving average of the natural logarithm of the ratio of revolving credit to disposable personal income...