Author: Serkadis

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with arson for lighting a small paper fire inside a bathroom stall at Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields

The boy, a student at the school, 3600 203rd St., started the fire Wednesday morning in a second-story hallway bathroom, police said.

Although the blaze caused only minor damage, smoke inside the building led officials to cancel classes for the day.

The boy was arrested after the incident and charged later that day, police said. After his arrest, he was released to his parents. A court hearing has yet to be scheduled.

“It was something he shouldn’t have done, and it got out of control,” Olympia Fields police Detective Mark Akiyama said.

Rich Central Principal Maceo Rainey said the boy has been suspended and is scheduled to have a hearing before district administrators.

After the hearing, the administrators will recommend a punishment to the Rich Township High School District 227 board. The board later will rule on the recommendation.

“We’re holding him accountable for acts that could have endangered the lives and safety of students and staff members,” Rainey said, adding he did not know why the student set the fire. “It’s an expectation that all our students are courteous, respectful and safe at all times.”

The Matteson Fire Department responded to the blaze about 7 a.m., fire officials said. Using two fire extinguishers – one from the school and one from a fire engine – firefighters put out the flames within 10 minutes. The Flossmoor Fire Department also showed up at the scene.

Fire officials estimate fewer than 50 people were inside the building when the fire was started, and all were escorted outside as soon as the fire alarm went off.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

MARION, Ill. — A coroner says a worker for a southern Illinois tree service died in an apparent accident involving a woodchipper.

Coroner Michael Burke says 46-year-old Mark Davis of West Frankfort died Thursday at a Marion hospital.

Burke says in a news release that Burke was working for D.S. Tree Service at a Marion home when the accident happened.

The statement offered no additional details, and messages left Friday with Burke seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Upstart research firm Waverley Advisors continues to put out some very interesting research and analysis.

In a note today they apply Dow Theory to the surging dollar and conclude this move is real.

Meanwhile, let us take a look at another market for a good picture of a classic trend change.  The US Dollar index has been in a long-term downtrend, broke a trendline late last year and made a higher high in the last few trading days of December.  This year, it held a higher low and now is trading into new high territory. 

Remember this sequence well because we will see it many times again:  1) Break of a trendline, 2)
higher high, 3) higher low and the trend change is confirmed when 4) the market takes out the
previous high.  It is certainly possible to have this sequence and then to have the market turn back
down and make a new low.  In this case, the trend change would have failed.  Nothing is ever
certain—the best we can do is to point out the high probability play, put on the position, manage the
risk, and look for signs that we might be wrong.  Regardless, this sequence gives us the best possible
chance of catching a change of trend in any market or any timeframe.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• If The Euro Keeps Dropping, The G7 Will Have To Step In With Its Big Stick
• SocGen’s Albert Edwards: Even If They Get Their Deficits Under Control, The Euro Will Break Apart
• The Euro Is Just Getting Spanked Today

The Wirral Reablement service developed from the Wirral’s in-house homecare service in 2004.  It is now an established service in the community taking referrals from intermediate care, hospital, and social work teams and helping people to live independent lives.

The Wirral Reablement service is a community based service that operates from hospital occupational therapy and social work team referrals to help people lead independent lives in their own homes.

The service developed from the Wirral’s in-house homecare service in response to observations from local occupational therapists.  The therapists found that the care agencies were inadvertently undoing some of the rehabilitation work they were doing with people in their homes.

Service Development Manager, Anne Bailey, says, “The therapists were trying to help people become independent following discharge home from hospital, for example by helping them to regain their confidence with cooking skills, but care agencies had been already organised to go in and cook the meals for them.”

The Home Assessment and Reablement Team (HART) judge people’s needs on a case-by-case basis.  As a short-term care service, people generally need to be able to achieve agreed personal outcomes in approximately six weeks to be eligible for the service.

A new type of caring

The team was given extra training, although Anne explains that delivering the new service was less about them learning new skills and more about them changing the way they worked.

“The main thing was a change in philosophy.  Rather than people going in and doing things for people, it was about actually standing back and supporting.”

To reinforce this change of culture, homecare staff in the Wirral are now called ‘enablers’ rather than ‘carers’.

“You actually need to spend more time with people for reablement because you are showing people how to do things,” Anne says.  “It is very easy to put in a lunch call for half an hour, the carer flies around each person, but if you’re standing there saying you make the lunch yourself, it takes more time.”

Improving people’s home environment

Once someone is referred, an occupational therapist will visit their home and look at what improvements they can make to their home and lifestyle to enable the person to lead a more independent life.  The therapist works with an enabler to write an intervention plan with areas for improvement. They both work with the person to achieve these.

“It might involve just organising things differently because what worked when they were fitter may not work for them now.  Very simple things can make a huge difference.  It might just be moving the microwave from its usual position to one where it can be accessed more easily.  And then people say yes, they can do that now, they don’t need to become dependent on other people,” says Anne.

In some cases, a person may need more specialist equipment, such as an alarm pendent or a fall detection system.

“Assistive technology stops a lot of ‘check calls’, where staff go in and check the person is alright,” Anne says.  “They can check at 2pm but the person can fall at 2:15.  If the technology is in place, then it can detect the fall at any time.”

Building people’s self confidence

People’s confidence can be affected after a serious illness or a stay in hospital and they may be daunted by the thought of having to do things on their own.  The HART team work with people to improve their confidence and help them achieve the things they want to do.

“Lots of our service users can feel so vulnerable when they come out of hospital and it knocks their confidence a bit.  The reablement team can go in and encourage them and get them back into a routine and build their strength up,” says Anne.

Even people with ongoing care packages may benefit from the service and become more independent.

“There was a gentleman who was an amputee who needed help with personal care,” Anne says. “At first it didn’t look as though he would be able to do anything for himself, but through reablement he could look after the personal care of the top half of his body.  That’s a huge achievement.”

Over time, the team withdraw care.  They start by coming in every second day and review how things are going, until the person feels confident to do things themselves and does not need visits.

“Even the smallest improvement can make a change in someone’s quality of life,” says Anne.  “It might be putting a pair of socks on or making a cup of tea.  It can improve their self esteem by being able to do something for themselves.”

Well, well. We’ve written about the band Ok Go a few times here, as a band that definitely does seem to “get” what’s going on in terms of how to connect with fans and promote their music well. Many years ago, the band had spoken out against DRM, and, of course, they produced one of the most popular music videos of all time — the famous “treadmills” video. I would have embedded that video here, but Ok Go’s label, Capitol Records/EMI decided somewhere along the line that no one should want to share one of the most viral videos ever, and disabled all embedding. Brilliant.

So, when Ok Go put out a new album with a new “viral video” EMI once again banned embedding, apparently not realizing how this viral stuff works. Ok Go wrote about it, and basically made it clear that they’d tried over and over again to explain this stuff to Capitol/EMI, and the folks at the label simply didn’t get the value of making the video viral.

Well, now, instead of allowing a real “word of mouth” viral campaign with the video, it looks like EMI/Capitol has decided to bootstrap a fake viral word of mouth campaign, by sending around emails (and even submitting directly to us) a request to “get a free Ok Go” song if you just Tweet about it. Seriously. So rather than letting people organically share what they wanted to share, EMI is trying to bribe people into promoting something else.

EMI, you’re doing it wrong.

In the meantime, the platform that EMI is using for this is easily defeated. You have to log in to Twitter Connect via a special promo page, and it asks you to send a specific twitter message about how you just got a free Ok Go song… but you can edit the message to say whatever you want. And, here’s a little trick: if you edit the message to be more than 140 characters, it doesn’t actually send to Twitter, and you still get the free song.

And wait, didn’t EMI insist in court that it never authorized free MP3s to be available online?

Anyway, the problem here is that EMI is trying to force people into doing things a specific way (not embedding, must tweet), rather than simply being open, sharing and (perhaps) suggesting they share things if they like with a friend. That’s much more authentic and real. This feels very fake and corporate. You build trust by actually putting stuff out there and seeing how people respond, rather than bribing them and limiting how they can share.

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from 325, 12 February 2010: “The two anarchist comrades, Alfredo Maria Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos, accused of being involved in a bank robbery in Trikala, Greece have had their bail refused. Alfredo must come out of the prison now. Alfredo has serious health problems and needs medical treatment…” more

Metropolis Magazine’s latest issue offers a set of “What’s next?” articles outlining possible future directions for a range of design disciplines, including landscape architecture, urban planning, green building, and other areas. Each section includes ideas of what’s coming next in one, five, and then ten years.

Metropolis asked Wendi Goldsmith, President of the Bioengineering Group, Denise Hoffman Brandt, Professor of landscape architecture at the City College of New York, and Jan H. DeJager, founder of Nautilus Eco-Civiel for their insights on the future of landscape architecture, which they see as intimately tied to climate change. “As climate change threatens to reshape our world, landscape architecture seems poised to play a leading role in creating an environmentally sound and effective response.”

One year in the future: New Levees. Wendi Goldsmith writes: “In New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is redesigning its approach to hard infrastructure, because we have treated that entire Mississippi River system and its delta wetland complex very poorly. It’s falling apart and not doing all of the work it did in centuries past to buffer wave impact, store sediment, and serve as a natural line of defense. I predict New Orleans will be the classic canary in the coal mine. The lessons learned (or not learned) there as we rebuild the storm surge barrier can and should be translated elsewhere.”

Five years in the future: City Sink. Denise Hoffman Brandt argues: “What I see happening in landscape architecture is a growing understanding of how projects for specific sites work at a macro scale as part of larger environmental systems. I’m working on a project called City Sink that tries to create a new embedded infrastructure for carbon storage within the existing physical and social land uses of the city. It uses fourteen different approaches. One, highway biosound barriers, would retrofit existing concrete barrier walls with a planted ‘drape’ that’s irrigated with highway runoff using solar power.”

Ten years in the future: Soft Coastal Engineering. Jan H. DeJager contends: “We’ll need to develop a range of approaches to combat rising sea levels, including something we call ‘soft coastal engineering.’ In Holland, we take sand from the deepest parts of the North Sea and put it in front of our coastline. So when you lower the water depths in front of the coast, even if the sea level rises and waves come in, the sandbar breaks the large waves into smaller ones. We also make cuts in the dunes to let seawater enter in safe ways. And perhaps most important, we’ve been giving back certain low-lying areas to the Rhine River, which means the river gets more room to store its overflow during high-water periods. I was in New Orleans in January 2006 and saw some of the devastation. I think certain areas there you should give back to the sea, and other areas, if you want them to stay there, you must protect.”

Read the article and see design concepts

Metropolis also sees a revolution in urban planning over the next ten years, which will include retrofitting surburbia so communities are less car-dependent, new (massive) investments in public transportation, as well as the rise of traffic congestion pricing across major cities. Ken Greenberg, an urban planner writes: ”We’ve reached the end of the lifespan of much of the highway infrastructure that was built after World War Two. We’ll see a major retooling of the infrastructure of the city. We are going to see an incredible investment in public transit. We’ll see congestion pricing—which is now in a handful of cities—applied pretty much across the board. This will enable, both from a capital and an operating standpoint, a huge rein-vestment in public transit.”

Additionally, cities may need to dramatically rethink waste infrastructure to take advantage of waste resources. In a possible model for “five years in the future,” Greenberg adds: “In Scandinavia, there is an Envac system for waste management, where instead of having garbage trucks and people using bins and garbage rooms in buildings, and all that paraphernalia that we have, they have tubes under the streets that collect as many different streams of garbage as the city wants. In Stockholm, it’s four different streams. They pop garbage in little shoots—sometimes they’re in parks or in buildings or on streets or in courtyards—and it travels under the streets at forty-five miles per hour, with no noise, no odor. They have these depots where it’s collected, picked up, and then used for cogeneration of energy.” Read more

In terms of the future of green building, Metropolis argues that more energy-efficient buildings can only go mainstream through public policy: government incentives, zoning changes, and stricter building codes. “Despite all the talk about net-zero and net-positive architecture, green buildings remain elusive for the mainstream. There are, however, some promising developments: state and municipal tax incentives, stricter building codes, and commercial real estate honchos who have finally figured out that sustainable design stuffs cash into their pockets. Progress hangs on the tricky interplay of public policy and technology.” Read more. 
 
Image credit: Metropolis magazine / Bioengineering Group

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell in February to 73.7.

That’s a decline from 74.4 in late January. The consensus estimate was looking for a climb to 75.

You want some good news? It’s still way above the 56.3 level the U of Mers measured a year ago.

Reuters: U.S. consumer sentiment slipped in early February, with high unemployment expected to continue and with most looking for no gain in income or home values in the year ahead, a survey released on Friday showed.

The reading fell short of analysts’ median expectation of a reading of 75.0, according to a recent Reuters poll.

The survey’s ga uge of current economic conditions was 84.1 in early February, the highest since March 2008. It was up from 81.1 in late January and above the 81.4 predicted by analysts polled by Reuters.

But the survey’s barometer of consumer expectations dipped to 66.9, down from 70.1 in late January and short of the 70.9 forecast by analysts.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Doug Kass: The US Consumer Is Sick And You Should Go Short Retail With Impunity
• WHOOSH: Consumer Credit Drops For 11th Straight Month
• Redbook Consumer Sales Down 1.5% In January, Misses Estimates

CHICAGO — An Illinois association is offering a $10,000 reward for information in the killing of a 55-year-old currency exchange owner whose body was found in the trunk of his car.

The Community Currency Exchange Association of Illinois says the information must lead to an arrest and conviction.

Brian Choi’s body was found in late December near his Chicago currency exchange.

A family member called police after the Wilmette man didn’t come home from work.

Authorities say Choi was fatally shot and have said the motive appeared to be robbery.

The association president says Choi was a devoted husband and respected member of the Community Currency Exchange Association.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chicago Police Department.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

WHEATON, Ill. — A DuPage County judge has ruled that a jury should consider whether a golfer was negligent when his ball hit a woman who was working in her yard next to the golf course.

Judge John Elsner said Thursday laws in some states say people who purchase homes next to a golf course assume the risk of being hit by a ball, but Illinois doesn’t.

In August 2005, a drive by Naperville businessman Raymond Kinney hit Lillian Demo of West Chicago on the head.

Kinney was participating in St. Andrews Golf & County Club’s annnual DuPage County Republican Day.

Demo sued in 2007, contending Kinney was negligent. She contends she suffers migraine headaches as a result.

St. Andrew is also part of the lawsuit, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

A 24-year-old woman was charged with allegedly causing a skull fracture to a 9-month-old girl she was babysitting last month in Chicago’s Morgan Park community, police said.

Abigail Cihak, of 11059 S. Hoyne Ave., was charged at 8 p.m. Thursday with aggravated battery to a child, police said.

Police said Cihak was responsible for causing a 9-month-old girl she was babysitting to suffer a skull fracture Jan. 26 at a residence in the 10800 block of South Talman Avenue. It was not immediately known how the injury occurred.

The child, who also suffered bleeding on the brain, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. A condition update was not available.

Calumet-area detectives are investigating.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency on Feb. 11 successfully demonstrated the speed, precision and breakthrough potential of directed-energy weapons when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) engaged and destroyed a boosting ballistic missile.

This experiment marks the first time a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and the first time that any system has accomplished it in the missile’s boost phase of flight. ALTB has the highest-energy laser ever fired from an aircraft, and is the most powerful mobile laser device in the world.

“The Airborne Laser Testbed team has made history with this experiment,” said Greg Hyslop, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.

“Through its hard work and technical ingenuity, the government-industry team has produced a breakthrough with incredible potential. We look forward to conducting additional research and development to explore what this unique directed-energy system can do.”

During the experiment, the aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F, took off from Edwards Air Force Base and focused its high-energy laser at the missile target during its boost phase as the aircraft flew over the Western Sea Range off the coast of California.

“We’ve been saying for some time that the Airborne Laser Testbed would be a pathfinder for directed energy and would expand options for policymakers and warfighters,” said Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ALTB program director.

“With this successful experiment, the Airborne Laser Testbed has blazed a path for a new generation of high-energy, ultra-precision weaponry. ALTB technology and future directed-energy platforms will transform how the United States defends itself and its friends and allies. Having the capability to precisely project force, in a measured way, at the speed of light, will save lives.”

MDA officially recognized directed energy’s warfare-changing potential last March, when it awarded its Technology Pioneer Award to three Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed engineers and three of their government and industry teammates for advancing key ALTB technologies.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the Airborne Laser Testbed, which is designed to provide unprecedented speed-of-light capability to intercept all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight.

Northrop Grumman designed and built ALTB’s high-energy laser, and Lockheed Martin developed the beam control/fire control system. Boeing provided the aircraft, the battle management system and overall systems integration and testing.

About Boeing Defense, Space & Security

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Marc Selinger, 703-872-4240
Boeing Missile Defense Systems
[email protected]

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, Toyota

Toyota’s got its sticky-pedal fix in high gear, with dealers exorcising an impressive 50,000 unintended acceleration demons per day. Thus far, 225,000 of the several million recalled vehicles have already been repaired. Going all-in on the fix was the only choice for Toyota, anything less would telegraph an attitude of apathy toward safety, and brand perception has tumbled precipitously lately.

There’s a long way to go to finish all the fixes for the various massive recalls of Toyota vehicles, but there have been positives lately, too. MotorWeek named the Prius its 2010 Car of the Year, overall customer complaints have been low for the past decade, and a refreshed Avalon rolled out in Chicago. On the other hand, some members of Congress would like Akio Toyoda, president of the company, to pay a visit to Capitol Hill for what’s likely to be a less pleasant experience.

As a result of the runaway acceleration issues, Toyota is also considering forward-looking revisions to its Smart Key pushbutton start system. The changes wouldn’t be part of any recalls, and would be for yet-to-be-birthed cars. Adding a three-press shutdown feature, instead of the current mode of holding the start button for three-plus seconds is a change that would bring Toyota in line with other automakers that use pushbutton start. The hope is that in an emergency, shutting down the vehicle will be quicker and more intuitive.

[Source: Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post]

Reports: Toyota fixing 50k pedals per day, considering redesigning pushbutton start originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(CHICAGO) — The IRS and police in northwest Indiana are looking into allegations of identity theft of people who claimed someone had filed tax returns for them before they filed their own returns.

There are nine people who have filed identity theft complaints with the East Chicago, Ind. police department.

The Northwest Indiana Times reports at least seven of them had had their tax returns done and electronically filed for refunds at the same place, the H&R Block office on Main Street in East Chicago.

Four of the alleged victims say their tax returns had been prepared by the same person.

One of them says that person had done her returns for the past four years.

The paper reports the victims found out their identities had been stolen when the IRS kicked back their returns saying returns had already been filed under their Social Security numbers.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Commodities are struggling as the dollar continues to rise in the futures and FOREX markets.

And across the board, everything is falling. Metals are down, grains are down, and energy is down.

The few commodities posting gains this morning happen to be live cattle, pork bellies (up 2.4% currently), OJ, cotton, and lumber.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Asian Markets Tumble, Dollar Rallies On Global Jitters And Flights To Safety
• How Japanese Hyperinflation Could Turn The Dollar Into Toilet Paper
• China Continues To Say No To The Dollar

The online video landscape looks pretty solid right now, though it’s still in a transitory state. YouTube dominates pretty clearly while everyone else has given up on trying to catch up and making due with what they have, with the notable exception of Hulu. But five years ago, online video was an emerging market and nobody could have predic… (read more)

Amid the braking recalls for the Prius, owners of the Toyota vehicle say that they still love their iconic hybrid. Many are saying that the recalls have raised some concerns, but not enough to make them fall out of love with their fuel-sipping cheese wedge.

MSNBC.com says that hundreds of Toyota Prius owners wrote to the website this week saying that they were staying loyal to the Prius despite recent recalls for a braking issue.

Nonetheless, some said their loyalty had been tested by the growing number of safety issues that Toyota is having. According to David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, Prius owners tend to be devoted to the brand, but safety concerns trump all others.

“Prius has had very good loyalty, yeah, but this is the kind of thing that can literally destroy that loyalty,” Cole said.

Toyota yesterday declined to accept a Japanese government energy efficiency award given to the Toyota Prius, saying it was not appropriate.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: MSNBC