In Indiana, all vehicles must pass an emission test. It does not matter if the vehicle is electric, natural gas or hybrid--just like the cute 2006 Prius I wanted to buy.
Something told me to research the emission testing record before taking the plunge. I found numerous boards where owners are complaining the hybrid cars are untestable or outright putting out too many emissions. These are the type of cars you must take to the dealer. In Indiana one must pass emission testing to get tags for the vehicle.
I called someone at the Indiana emissions testing office and he said get the dealer to test the vehicle before buying it and resolve all issues.
He said all types of vehicles have failed the testing including the Prius. I was heartbroken.
If you have an issue with your hybrid, please let me know. I want to find out what I am getting into before it is too late.
This is so not fair.
Prius message board
Monday, June 22, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Grief, Shock After 'Outstanding' Guard Loses His Life in the Line of Duty - washingtonpost.com
Grief, Shock After 'Outstanding' Guard Loses His Life in the Line of Duty - washingtonpost.com: "Colleagues called Stephen T. Johns 'Big John,' for he was well over 6 feet tall. But mostly friends recalled the security guard's constant courtesy and friendliness."
Monday, June 8, 2009
Job Seekers: What Not to Do
Well, here are some additional dos and don'ts for job seekers. Apparently one cannot use links to additional information when corresponding with recruiters because it is a pet-peeve.
Short-Cut Introductions
With more people looking for work in today's economy, I've been seeing an increase in what I call "lazy introductions" come across my desk. It goes something like this: "I'm writing you to introduce myself. I live in New York and I'm looking for a job," and in the signature is a link to a LinkedIn profile or possibly a resume. A brief introduction should come with a background, highlights, and reason for connecting. A job search is a job in itself and requires some personalization and effort for each and every introduction.
-- Lindsay Olson, partner, Paradigm Staffing
read more
Short-Cut Introductions
With more people looking for work in today's economy, I've been seeing an increase in what I call "lazy introductions" come across my desk. It goes something like this: "I'm writing you to introduce myself. I live in New York and I'm looking for a job," and in the signature is a link to a LinkedIn profile or possibly a resume. A brief introduction should come with a background, highlights, and reason for connecting. A job search is a job in itself and requires some personalization and effort for each and every introduction.
-- Lindsay Olson, partner, Paradigm Staffing
read more
Monday, June 1, 2009
Autism/Special Education software wins honors
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio--ComputEd Gazette and the Association for Educational Publishers (AEP), two organizations respected for their highly competitive awards programs, recently honored VizZle(TM), a web-based software for educators from Monarch Teaching Technologies, Inc. (MTT) with awards for MTT's autism/special education software.
"The special education field desperately needs viable, cost-controlled solutions to optimize a school's ability to serve children with special needs like autism," said Terry Murphy, CEO of MTT. "Now more than ever as public schools try to qualify their spending under federal stimulus funding guidelines."
VizZle both earned the Teacher Tools/Special Education Website accolade and received the distinction of a standout review for its autism and special education software by the ComputEd staff writers (http://www.computedgazette.com/page8.html).
AEP sponsors one of the educational publishing industry's largest and longest-running competitions, the prestigious Golden Lamp Awards. The AEP describes Golden Lamp Finalists as "...defined by their superior use of content, design, and fulfillment of the product's educational mission. Four finalists are chosen in each entry category, representing 16 of the year's most elite educational products." VizZle was named as a finalist in the Technology Innovations category, which is considered an award in and of itself. The final winners will be announced in June (http://www.aepweb.org/awards/index.htm )
VizZle is a proprietary, web-based software as service providing educators and parents with convenient, easy-to-use tools to create or modify customized interactive visuals-based educational materials for autism and special education. For more information, visit http://www.monarchtt.com/.
"The special education field desperately needs viable, cost-controlled solutions to optimize a school's ability to serve children with special needs like autism," said Terry Murphy, CEO of MTT. "Now more than ever as public schools try to qualify their spending under federal stimulus funding guidelines."
VizZle both earned the Teacher Tools/Special Education Website accolade and received the distinction of a standout review for its autism and special education software by the ComputEd staff writers (http://www.computedgazette.com/page8.html).
AEP sponsors one of the educational publishing industry's largest and longest-running competitions, the prestigious Golden Lamp Awards. The AEP describes Golden Lamp Finalists as "...defined by their superior use of content, design, and fulfillment of the product's educational mission. Four finalists are chosen in each entry category, representing 16 of the year's most elite educational products." VizZle was named as a finalist in the Technology Innovations category, which is considered an award in and of itself. The final winners will be announced in June (http://www.aepweb.org/awards/index.htm )
VizZle is a proprietary, web-based software as service providing educators and parents with convenient, easy-to-use tools to create or modify customized interactive visuals-based educational materials for autism and special education. For more information, visit http://www.monarchtt.com/.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
When is it Safe To Hire Someone With a Criminal Record?
New Carnegie Mellon Study Provides Empirical Basis For Employers To Use in Assessment of Prior Criminal Records
PITTSBURGH-Carnegie Mellon University researchers have created a model for providing empirical evidence on when an ex-convict has been "clean" long enough to be considered "redeemed" for employment purposes.
The new study, which appears in the current issue of Criminology, estimates that after five years of staying clean an individual with a criminal record is of no greater risk of committing another crime than other individuals of the same age. The research comes at a time when President Barack Obama's crime agenda includes breaking down employment barriers for people who have a prior criminal record, but who have stayed clean since their earlier offense.
"In the past, employers had no way of knowing when it might be safe to look past a criminal record," said Alfred Blumstein, co-author of the study and the J. Erik Jonsson University Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon's H. John Heinz III College. "Hiring an ex-offender was a totally arbitrary decision. We believe our model can change that and help provide employers with data in making such decisions. Or it can be used by state criminal-record repositories in deciding when a prior arrest is too 'stale' to warrant distributing." Blumstein's co-author is Kiminori Nakamura, a Ph.D. student at the Heinz College.
The issue of employing ex-offenders has become more of a problem, as a vast majority of larger U.S. employers now perform criminal background checks, Blumstein said. He noted that advances in information technology allow criminal records to be kept longer and to be distributed easily, and employers are concerned about liability risk if the former offender commits a new crime. Blumstein said this makes it difficult for a large number of people who have committed crimes when they were much younger, but have stayed clean since then.
The study, funded by The National Institute of Justice, used criminal-history records of more than 88,000 first-time offenders in New York in 1980. Most committed new crimes within the first few years after their initial arrest, but only a small minority had a new arrest after staying clean for at least five years. After determining whether the offenders had remained clean during the ensuing 25 years, the data on the 1980 offenders was compared against two comparison groups. The study determined that after about five years those in the offender group were at or below the risk of arrest as people in the general population who were the same age. A more demanding comparison is with people of the same age who had never been arrested. Those with a prior record had to stay clean longer, but their risk could be close enough even to that low-risk group.
Future studies will address other states and sampling years to assess the consistency of results. This effort is intended to develop standards for employers and record repositories to help reduce the handicaps imposed on those who had committed a crime when they were younger.
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (http://www.cmu.edu/) is a top private research university with world-class programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the fine arts.
PITTSBURGH-Carnegie Mellon University researchers have created a model for providing empirical evidence on when an ex-convict has been "clean" long enough to be considered "redeemed" for employment purposes.
The new study, which appears in the current issue of Criminology, estimates that after five years of staying clean an individual with a criminal record is of no greater risk of committing another crime than other individuals of the same age. The research comes at a time when President Barack Obama's crime agenda includes breaking down employment barriers for people who have a prior criminal record, but who have stayed clean since their earlier offense.
"In the past, employers had no way of knowing when it might be safe to look past a criminal record," said Alfred Blumstein, co-author of the study and the J. Erik Jonsson University Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon's H. John Heinz III College. "Hiring an ex-offender was a totally arbitrary decision. We believe our model can change that and help provide employers with data in making such decisions. Or it can be used by state criminal-record repositories in deciding when a prior arrest is too 'stale' to warrant distributing." Blumstein's co-author is Kiminori Nakamura, a Ph.D. student at the Heinz College.
The issue of employing ex-offenders has become more of a problem, as a vast majority of larger U.S. employers now perform criminal background checks, Blumstein said. He noted that advances in information technology allow criminal records to be kept longer and to be distributed easily, and employers are concerned about liability risk if the former offender commits a new crime. Blumstein said this makes it difficult for a large number of people who have committed crimes when they were much younger, but have stayed clean since then.
The study, funded by The National Institute of Justice, used criminal-history records of more than 88,000 first-time offenders in New York in 1980. Most committed new crimes within the first few years after their initial arrest, but only a small minority had a new arrest after staying clean for at least five years. After determining whether the offenders had remained clean during the ensuing 25 years, the data on the 1980 offenders was compared against two comparison groups. The study determined that after about five years those in the offender group were at or below the risk of arrest as people in the general population who were the same age. A more demanding comparison is with people of the same age who had never been arrested. Those with a prior record had to stay clean longer, but their risk could be close enough even to that low-risk group.
Future studies will address other states and sampling years to assess the consistency of results. This effort is intended to develop standards for employers and record repositories to help reduce the handicaps imposed on those who had committed a crime when they were younger.
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (http://www.cmu.edu/) is a top private research university with world-class programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the fine arts.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
GARY ATTORNEY DRAFTS ORDINANCE BANNING LOW-SLUNG PANTS
GARY-Attorney Tony Walker implored the Gary Common Council to ban
the wearing of low-slung pants modeled after prison inmates.In an open
letter to the Council, Attorney Walker argues that the prion dress style does
economic harm to the City of Gary by lowering property values and
deterring commerce and business investment. Attorney Walker defines this
dress style as "blight" and compares to the aesthetic of Gary's dilapidated
physical structures. The proposed ordinance would make it an infraction to
wear pants below the waist line punishable by up to a $100 fine and/or
community service. Violators would be issued a summons appear in
Gary City Court but would not be eligible for arrest based upon the violation.
the wearing of low-slung pants modeled after prison inmates.In an open
letter to the Council, Attorney Walker argues that the prion dress style does
economic harm to the City of Gary by lowering property values and
deterring commerce and business investment. Attorney Walker defines this
dress style as "blight" and compares to the aesthetic of Gary's dilapidated
physical structures. The proposed ordinance would make it an infraction to
wear pants below the waist line punishable by up to a $100 fine and/or
community service. Violators would be issued a summons appear in
Gary City Court but would not be eligible for arrest based upon the violation.
Monday, April 20, 2009
KANYE WEST FLOWS ON FAM GUY SPIN-OFF
Academy Award Nominee Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) Also Guest-Voices
International hip-hop superstar and 12-time Grammy Award winner Kanye West and Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson get animated when they lend their voices to THE CLEVELAND SHOW, the highly anticipated FAMILY GUY spin-off set to debut this fall on FOX. West will appear as KENNY WEST, an all-around cool kid and the archenemy of CLEVELAND JR. (Kevin Michael Richardson), and the two will engage in a “rap battle” for the affection of high school hottie CHANEL (Henson).
THE CLEVELAND SHOW is a new animated series that follows everyone’s favorite soft-spoken neighbor CLEVELAND BROWN (Mike Henry) to his hometown in Virginia, as he settles down with his high school sweetheart, DONNA (Sanaa Lathan); her unruly kids; and his own 14-year-old son, Cleveland Jr. (Richardson). Once in Virginia, Cleveland has a few surprises in store for him, including ROBERTA (Reagan Gomez-Preston), a rebellious new stepdaughter; RALLO (Henry), a 5-year-old stepson who loves the ladies; and a collection of neighbors that includes a loudmouth redneck, LESTER (Richardson); a hipster wanna-be, HOLT (guest voice Jason Sudeikis); and a pious pair of talking bears, TIM (Seth MacFarlane) and his wife ARIANNA (guest voice Arianna Huffington).
Kanye West’s fourth consecutive chart-topping album, “808s & Heartbreak,” was released in November 2008 and has sold over 1.5 million copies to date. He has received numerous accolades for his latest album, and his hit single “Heartless” has been at the top of the charts for 16 weeks and counting.
Taraji P. Henson earned an Academy Award nomination in 2009 for her supporting role opposite Brad Pitt in the critically acclaimed film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Henson has appeared in “Hustle & Flow” with Terrence Howard and “Talk to Me” opposite Don Cheadle. Her upcoming films include “Hurricane Season” opposite Forest Whitaker, “Once Fallen” with Ed Harris and Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.” Her television credits include “Boston Legal” and “Eli Stone.”
THE CLEVELAND SHOW is a 20th Century Fox Television production. Seth MacFarlane, Rich Appel and Mike Henry are executive producers and co-creators of the series.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
