CRN and ACI Partner for Dietary Supplements Conference – WholeFoods Magazine

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Washington D.C. The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry, is announcing its continued partnership with the American Conference Institute (ACI) on the Fifth Annual Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements, which WholeFoods Magazine is a sponsor of, taking place in New York City at the Intercontinental New York Times Square on June 26 and 27, with additional workshops on June 28.

This must-attend event for dietary supplements and functional food industry legal and regulatory executives is teaming with a high level of quality speakers. The conference is reputable for its respected cohort of attendees ready to engage in discussions that will help shape the dietary supplement industrys agenda. Steve Mister, president and CEO, CRN, and Scott Bass, partner, Sidley Austin LLP, will co-chair the conference.

CRN is pleased to partner with ACI again to present the Dietary Supplements forum in New York, Mister said. The focused sessions promise to be especially valuable during this transformative time for our industry.

CRN and ACI are developing programs with authoritative speakers on topics relevant to long-term business strategies and industry growth as they relate to regulation and compliance. This includes the impact of the new administration on the dietary supplement industry, the latest industry self-regulation efforts, enforcement action from state and federal authorities, new class action threats, novel questions on claims substantiation, and the federal GMO law and Prop 65 reforms.

For more information, please visit http://www.crnusa.org/ACI. The agenda is currently under development and will be updated as the event approaches. Registration is now open and CRN members may use the discount code provided on the website for 10 percent off registration fees. Early booking is encouraged as the event has sold out in recent years.

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CRN and ACI Partner for Dietary Supplements Conference - WholeFoods Magazine

Supplement Pitfalls Revealed by Experts – Anti Aging News

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Medical researchers in the United Kingdom have discovered that some common, over-the-counter herbal supplements contain significant amounts of pharmaceutical ingredients.

The group is led by Duncan Burns, Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Global Food Security, located at the Queens University in Belfast. Declan Naughton, a professor from Kingston University and Dr. Michael Walker of the Government Chemist Programme, LGC are also part of the team. The team of experts conducted research on the detection of contaminated ingredients in herbal food supplements. The team is currently collaborating on a paper to be submitted for peer review. Analyzed Supplements Reveal Illegal Ingredients

During their research, Dr. Burns team examined the ingredients of supplements used to treat obesity and erectile dysfunction. The labels of these products list natural, herbal ingredients. However, when analyzed, chemists discovered that many of the products contained significant amounts of pharmaceutical drugs. Sibutramine

One of the drugs was identified as Sibutramine. It was sold as a weight loss supplement, and marketed under the name brand Reductil. Sibutramine was pulled from markets in 2010, when its usage was linked to an increase in strokes and heart attacks. This drug is known to interact with MAOIs, a common class of prescription drugs. Taking Sibutramine with these, opioids, or certain drugs used to treat migraines increase the risk of serotonin syndrome, a rare but severe condition. Tadalfil and Sulfoaildenafil

The supplements meant to treat erectile dysfunction contained large amounts of the drugs Tadalfil and Sulfoaildenafil. These popular drugs are commonly prescribed under the name brands Cialis and Viagra. These drugs are known to lower blood pressure, which can be a life-threatening side effect for those with certain medical conditions. Angina patients are cautioned against taking organic nitrates to relieve pain within 48 hours of consuming these drugs. Taking these drugs together can cause a severe drop in blood pressure, which can lead to heart attack. Consumer Danger of Drug Interactions

Dr. Burns argues that these supplements are dangerous for people who suffer from conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. These conditions are commonly treated with medications containing nitrates. Patients often do not report the use of over-the-counter herbal remedies and supplements to their doctors. Without full disclosure of ingredients, doctors cannot warn patients against potentially harmful drug interactions.

Professor Naughton concluded that more research, and the use of techniques like datamining, is needed. The information will help food and drug regulators protect the public safety, and responsible supplement manufacturers, by helping them track contamination issues.

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What your family needs to know about IV vitamins – Deseret News

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Grammy Award winner Adele says she gets some of her sparkle from an infusion of vitamins delivered through an IV. Intravenous vitamins are a relatively new twist in America's love affair with nutritional supplements, but are they any different from those that come in a bottle?

Probably not, some health experts are saying, and others say we don't need supplements at all. But that's not stopping Adele and other celebrities from submitting to the needle, turning IV vitamins into the latest wellness trend by their glittering example.

The appeal of IV vitamins is that of other supplements: the promise of beauty, health and zest, delivered faster than food, absorbed more fully than a pill.

In recent years, however, the Food and Drug Administration has warned that a vitamin C solution administered by IV is not a high-tech vitamin, but an unapproved drug that can be dangerous. And it's definitely not for children. Here's what you and your family should know about the craze.

A drip of wellness?

Adele accepts the award for album of the year at the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, 2017, in Los Angeles. Adele says she gets some of her sparkle from an infusion of vitamins delivered through an IV. | Matt Sayles, Invision

The Hollywood Reporter says that Adele, the British singer who swept the Grammy Awards in February, goes to a wellness spa in Los Angeles that charges $220 for an IV energy infusion called "Limitless." The spa Drip Doctors and others that offer vitamin infusions say that 95 percent of liquid vitamins injected into a vein are absorbed into the body, compared to 20 percent of vitamins taken orally.

There's something to this reasoning, but for increased absorption, you don't have to use an IV. Taking vitamins or medicine in liquid form makes them available to the body faster than taking a pill, which has to be broken down by the body.

A person who gets vitamins by IV, however, risks complications ranging from dizziness, nausea or death if the dosing is wrong, Kathryn Romeyn wrote for The Hollywood Reporter, which is why it's important that the drip be administered by a doctor. Even in hospitals, one in five patients hooked to an IV suffered complications or died because of "inappropriate administration," a 2013 British study concluded.

Dr. Svetlana Kogan, a New York physician, told Romeyn that she recommends intravenous vitamins only for people who have an ongoing medical problem such as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, or if they are frequently sick or need to boost their immune system before traveling.

"People should not be using IV therapy frivolously," Kogan said.

Two board-certified anesthesiologists are part of the staff at The Vitamin Bar, an intravenous vitamin spa with offices in Salt Lake City and Park City. Its website promises 100 percent absorption and says vitamin therapy will leave you with an "overall feeling of health and wellness."

The business recommends that clients have two to four "drips" each month, and offers special formulas for hangovers, jet lag and altitude sickness, as well as pregnancy, skin hydration, memory and hair and nail health. Clients must be 18 or older.

Other than being more expensive, are intravenous vitamins any different from those that come in a bottle? | Adobe Stock

"At the end of a drip, most of our clients say they feel invigorated, full of life, and ready to tackle the rest of their day," The Vitamin Bar website says.

Treatments that cost $139 include "The Hippocrates," for people recovering from "a paper cut or major surgery," and "The Centennial," for people who want to live past 100.

Getting life-boosting fluids from IV lines, despite the current craze, is nothing new. As early as the 1600s, doctors knew that medicine could be injected into the vein, and an Oxford scientist of that time period created an intravenous device using a pig bladder and a quill, and he practiced on a dog that was given opium, according to an article in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Today, the IV is the most common procedure done in emergency rooms, with one-quarter of patients receiving IV fluids, according to the CDC. And commercial IV clinics for hydration have been around for several years; one opened in Chicago in 2012, and it was soon followed by at-home IV hydration and mobile IV hydration offered to runners at road races. Runner's World magazine examined the service, and while the article quoted runners who said they felt "amazing" after getting fluid intravenously, the writer cited studies that said the difference between getting an IV and drinking fluid was "negligible."

The company mentioned in the Runner's World article, Onus IV Hydration, is based in Denver, and it credits the late Dr. John Myers, a Baltimore physician, with inventing a nutritious IV cocktail of magnesium, calcium and B and C vitamins 30 years ago. Its treatments range from $65 for simple saline hydration to $145 for Myers' original concoction, said to "supercharge the system and enhance overall wellness."

The treatment can be delivered to your home or office by a nurse with a duffel bag, or, at larger events, in a Mercedes Sprinter van, and the procedure takes 30-45 minutes, with effects felt within an hour. A doctor is not usually present, but is available by phone for questions, the company's website says.

In search of evidence

Critics of nutritional IVs are not just people who raise questions about the risks of the procedures, but those who doubt vitamins and other supplements are useful at all. In an article in STAT, Megan Thielking skeptically examined the Manhattan IV clinic run by Dr. Erika Schwartz and said there isnt any "robust evidence" that shows infusions have any effect beyond that of a placebo.

Thielking quoted Dr. Pete Miller, a clinician and nutrition researcher at Johns Hopkins, who said, "Supplements dont fix anything and they dont prevent anything. Its simple."

The American Academy of Pediatrics says healthy children who eat a "normal, well-balanced diet" do not need vitamin supplementation and that megadoses can be toxic.

Vitamin D tablets are displayed on Nov. 9, 2016, in New York. | Mark Lennihan, Associated Press

There are exceptions: For example, most newborns receive a vitamin K injection, and doctors often recommend that breastfed babies be given vitamin D.

If children are finicky eaters, doctors often recommend a multivitamin, and certain health conditions might require supplements for example, a new study from the University of Massachusetts Medical School recommends vitamin D supplementation for children with irritable bowel syndrome.

For adults, the advice is similar. In its dietary guidelines, the U.S. Department of Agriculture urges people to get their vitamins through food and beverages, but the Food and Drug Administration says that people may need them if they have health problems, eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, or are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Most spas, however, market IV vitamins not to sick people, but to people seeking extreme health.

Schwartz, the author of "Don't Let Your Doctor Kill You," treats celebrities and jet-setters who pay from $325 to $875 for a treatment at her clinic, Evolved Science. Results, the website says, include increased energy, improved mood, diminished jet lag and improved athletic performance.

We put together the ideal combination for them to obtain the results they want: clearer skin, clearer mind, better hair, better nails, Schwartz told Thielking.

Another clinic, this one in Los Angeles, offered a special infusion for Valentine's Day, touting its aphrodisiac effects.

For people who don't like shots and needles, or sitting around for a half-hour or more to take their vitamins, there are always gummies, capsules or pills. And an Arizona company has developed vitamins you spray in your mouth.

Or, you could just eat things. As the celebrated food writer Michael Pollan says, for optimal health, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Water helps, too.

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What your family needs to know about IV vitamins - Deseret News

Bruce Power Life Extension Project On Top – Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre

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Wednesday, March 1, 2017 Tiverton | by Craig Power

Project named number one of the Top 100 Infrastructure Projects in Canada for 2017.

The world's largest nuclear power generating facility is just over a year into their highly technical life extension program and they're already turning a few heads.

Bruce Power's Life Extension Project has been named number one of the Top 100 Infrastructure Projects in Canada for 2017.

Part of that is the major component replacement project slated to begin in 2020, something spokesperson John Peevers calls a massive undertaking and also an historic effort for Bruce Power.

The project is a $13 billion dollar private investment that remains both on time and on budget.

Peevers says Bruce Power's Major Component Replacement is extremely vital to not only the region and surrounding communities but to the province as well.

Bruce Power's Life Extension Program will sustain an estimated 22,000 jobs directly and indirectly across Canada, it will inject an estimated $4 billion dollars into the province's economy and it'll also ensure that low-cost, reliable and carbon free nuclear electricity is there for families and businesses across Ontario when they need it.

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Mount Tam With Anti-Aging Drug Is Secretly Preparing For Trump’s New FDA – ValueWalk

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Mount Tam With Anti-Aging Drug Is Secretly Preparing For Trump's New FDA
ValueWalk
The term geroprotection is replacing life extension among scientists. One reason is that many people associate life extension with pseudosciences and health fads. Many also assume it means prolonging the frailty and suffering that comes at the ...

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Mount Tam With Anti-Aging Drug Is Secretly Preparing For Trump's New FDA - ValueWalk

Derek Carr passionate about Silver and Black: ‘I’m a Raider for life’ – The Mercury News

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Derek Carr was emphatic abouthis loyalty to the Raiders in an interview Tuesday on SiriusXM.

Im a Raider. Im a Raider for life. I dont want to play anywhere else, Carr told Sirius XM Mad Dog Radios Adam Schein. When I got drafted, this is where I wanted to be anyway. And so, I dont want to go anywhere, ever. They told me they dont want me to go anywhere, ever. Now its about two people who want to be together, and how do we make that happen? So well see.

Carr is entering the final year of his rookie contract and Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie has expressed strong interest in signing the quarterback to an extension.

I think theyve been talking even since through the season, keeping a line of communication together and always keeping in touch with one another, Carr said of his agent, Tim Younger, and McKenzie. Now that its getting on down the line and getting serious, I think that theyre trying to figure out a way to (get) it done. If we can do that, great. If not, I can assure you Im just going to be out there playing football.

The biggest thing for me is that I dont want it to distract my teammates. They know me, that I really dont care. I just like to play ball, but I dont want people asking them questions. I would want it done so they dont have to deal with it, but Im always going to do whats best for my family and whats best for the team all in one.

I just want to play ball and I want to do it wearing a silver-and-black jersey.

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Derek Carr passionate about Silver and Black: 'I'm a Raider for life' - The Mercury News

A guaranteed income isn’t the solution to widespread unemployment – Acton Institute (blog)

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In a recent article for Public Discourse, Dylan Pahman, a research fellow at Acton, examines the ineffectiveness of trade protectionism and universal income guarantees. Pahman argues that regulating wages and restraining free trade will do more harm then good to the success of business. Pahman begins his critique by responding to Trumps stance on protectionism. During his inaugural address, Trump said:

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. . . .

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

While there are certainly grains of truth in these words, Pahman points out that the loss in manufacturing jobs has largely do with automation rather than outsourcing. He says:

But as many others have pointed out, manufacturing jobs have declined in the United States largely due to automation, not international trade. This trend will not be halted through protectionism. For Trump to claim that he will bring those jobs back would be as ludicrous as if President Calvin Coolidge had promised blacksmiths that he would protect their jobs from foreign trade.

Additionally, Pahman sees basic income guarantees as problematic. He discusses both the economic and spiritual issues at play:

When income is procured through the threat system of taxation and redistribution, no wealth is created The unproductive consumers are merely a conduit for funneling what was taken back to those who produced it in the first place. It is like trying to increase your bank account by writing yourself a check. And unless the receivers are required to spend 100 percent of the BIG [Basic Income Guarantee], the result will not even be zero-sum. It will be negative-sum.

According to Christian tradition, lack of workespecially manual laborengenders acedia: a spiritual listlessness that pushes us to seek unhealthy distractions. Absent the virtues of labor, the vices of idleness multiply and erode our moral culture.

Thus, even if a BIG could successfully overcome the cannibalistic circularity outlined above and counteract income losses, we would still stand to lose in other ways by subsidizing such large-scale unemployment. People need work in order to find meaning in their lives. Work helps to socialize us and promotes more virtuous living. A BIG might be an improvement over our current safety net, but we should be cautious about expanding it beyond that function, both economically and spiritually.

Pahman concludes by stating his support for free trade:

If exchange between economically productive actors is what creates wealth, international trade should be given high priority. If a nation lacks a sufficient supply of productive market actors to sustain itself, the easiest solution would be to expand ones neighborhood to seek out such actors all over the world. Indeed, given the inherent economic problem outlined above, a BIG of such a massive scale would probably require international trade. Unfortunately, this means that in the short run our president, as well as trade opponents on the left such asVermont Senator Bernie Sanders, will only end up making us less prepared for the change to come.

To read the original article from Public Discourse, click here.

Featured Image: Free Trade and Protection from Wikimedia Commons

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A guaranteed income isn't the solution to widespread unemployment - Acton Institute (blog)

Emerging regulations on automated vehicles focus on safety, potential risks – Texas A&M The Battalion

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As the technology for automated vehicles, or AVs, becomes increasingly developed, legal policies are being made to accommodate this new technology.

In recent years, car manufacturers have begun to include more automatic features in their vehicles to enhance both safety and style, and, according to researchers, it seems this is only the beginning of automation technologies. Because of this, government regulations are developing in response to potential risks or threats to human safety.

Jason Wagner, associate transportation researcher with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), said automated cars range in capabilities depending on their specific degree of automation.

Automated vehicles right now have relatively low levels of automation, Wagner said. Theres classifications for talking about automated technologies. Theres six levels of automation, from 0 to level 5.

Wagner said the most highly automated vehicles that are currently commercially available are still relatively minor compared to what could be introduced in the future.

The most advanced ones that are on the market right now are at about level 2, Wagner said. Level 5 is a fully automated vehicle that can drive in all situations at or above the level of a human driver. Right now, automation is relatively simplistic and it can just do things like keeping pace with traffic or monitoring blind spots.

Ginger Goodin, director of the Transportation Policy Researcher at TTI, said there are several questions regarding the safe and practical applications of vehicle automation which have prompted government regulation of the technology.

What the federal government has done is put out some guidelines, saying, If youre going to develop these kinds of vehicles, there are certain criteria we want you to be considering. Like, what environment can it operate in? How are you going to protect data privacy? And what happens in a situation where the car cant negotiate whats in the driving environment? Goodin said.

Because automation is still relatively new, Goodin said policy makers are not yet able to anticipate every issue or hazard that could arise.

Were starting to do some explorations ourselves and were looking at the existing laws in the transportation code, Goodin said. Were thinking about this technology as we understand it, and as we read the code, we say, Okay, does the code still make sense if the operator is a self-driving car? When these laws were written, we didnt even know that these technologies were on the horizon. It wasnt considered.

According to William Kohler, senior counselor in the Corporate Finance Practice Group of Dykema, one of the major components of safe vehicle automation the communication between cars.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requiring that new vehicles, as they are manufactured, be equipped with radio frequency connectivity so that you can have whats called V to V vehicle to vehicle connectivity, Kohler said.

In concordance with Goodins uncertainty about the legal prospects of AVs, Kohler said right now it is too early to tell. Specifically addressing accidents involving automated cars, he is not sure how the situation would play out.

It would be a very complicated situation and the traditional legal framework wouldnt apply, Kohler said.

Kohler said they are looking to states which are already implementing policies regarding AVs to prepare for the future.

At the state level, were watching state laws very closely, Kohler said. Michigan just passed a very generous autonomous vehicle law that was signed by the governor, where the system is the operator of the vehicle. That would seem to relieve the owner of the vehicle from responsibility. You cant really call them the driver, theyre more of a passenger.

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Emerging regulations on automated vehicles focus on safety, potential risks - Texas A&M The Battalion

Wendy’s adds automation to the fast-food menu – Los Angeles Times

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Wendy's Co., home of the old-fashioned burger, is serving up something cutting-edge: self-service ordering kiosks.

The Dublin, Ohio-based fast-food company is adding machines to at least 1,000 restaurants, or about 15% of its stores, by the end of the year. Wendy's began installing these kiosks last year, enabling diners to order without help from behind-the-counter workers.

Wendys is joining other eateries that are marching toward automation for at least someof the dining experience.

Panera Bread has said it plans to add touch-screen kiosks to all its restaurants within a few years. McDonald's also aims to roll out kiosks where diners can customize their burgers at all its U.S. locations. One cafe in San Francisco serves coffee brewed up by a robotic barista.

These kinds of self-serve machines and related technology could drastically change the way the $230-billion fast-food industry operates, analysts said. With minimum wages rising to $15 in some parts of the country, including California many chains are looking at ways to slash labor costs.

Lots of restaurants, not just fast-food chains, are really trying to mitigate the costs of higher wages, said Lauren Hallow, concepts analyst at Technomic, a restaurant market research firm.

Some eateries, for instance, are offering incentives to encourage mobile ordering so that lines are shorter with apps with special discounts and the chance to jump the line when picking up orders.

At Wendy's, Chief Information Officer David Trimm said that customers and franchisees have taken a liking to the kiosks.

You will see customers deliberately going to those kiosks directly, bypassing lines," Trimm said during the companys investor day Feb. 16. Some customers clearly prefer to use the kiosks.

Theres a huge amount of demand among franchisees, who will shell out about $15,000 for three kiosks, Trimm said. Wendys has estimated that the cost will be recouped in less than two years, he said.

These kinds of kiosks are not new but are gaining traction in restaurants becausediners have finally been groomed by the rise of online and mobile ordering to embrace the technology.

Young diners, especially, find interacting with a machine often easier than dealing with human workers. More than40% of millennials said they would use kiosks in a restaurant, compared with nearly 30% of all customers, a recent Technomic survey found.

Young customers like to control the whole ordering process," Hallow said. They have the chance to go quickly if they want to, or they can linger and see what the choices are without a cashier waiting.

In the long term, many chains are looking toward kiosks as a way to reduce their employee headcount, especially as wages rise.

Worker advocates have long been skeptical of automation in the fast-food industry.

If fast-food companies could replace us with machines, they would have done it already, Anggie Godoy, a leader in the Fight for $15 movement in Los Angeles, said in a statement last November. The fact is, we are in the service business and fast-food restaurants are always going to need good workers.

But not every restaurantis looking to replace theworkforce with machines at least not immediately.

Panera Bread, for example, has increased hours for employees at some locations to service the higher number of orders that come in through self-serve kiosks, said Nick Setyan, senior vice president of restaurants equity research at Wedbush Securities.

They just had too many people in line and they felt they were losing transactions because they just didn't have enough room to process orders in a reasonable amount of time, Setyan said. With the uptick in orders after the kiosks were installed, Panera Bread upped man hours in the kitchen to deal with the backlog.

For Wendys, kiosks are part of an overall move into automation that could cut labor costs, said Robert Wright, chief operations officer. He called 2016 a tough" year, with wages rising 5% compared with 2015.

Supervisors could use automation to take food temperatures and do other duties, Wright said.

There are repetitive production tasks that are in Wendy's restaurants that aren't core to the things that customer loves the most, he said.

That would give a boost to Wendy's, which has proved more adept than many fast-food rivals at navigating changing consumer tastes.

In mid-February, the chain reported its 16th straight quarter of increasing sales for restaurants open at least 15 months. It reported falling sales and profit overall, but that was mostly due to a strategic decision to sell off the vast majority of its company-owned stores a plan Wendy's completed in the fourth quarter.

The companys stock is up nearly 46% in the last year, and it recently announced the shareholder-pleasing moves of boosting its quarterly dividend to 7 cents a share, up half a penny, and authorizing a $150-million stock buyback.

shan.li@latimes.com

Follow Shan on Twitter @ByShanLi

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Wendy's adds automation to the fast-food menu - Los Angeles Times

Where is the Liberal plan for tackling job-killing automation? – The Globe and Mail

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The budget is coming and the news is out that the focus will not be on job-threatening automation, but yet another innovation agenda. The downwardly mobile are unlikely to be thrilled. How many times have the feds laid out supposedly trailblazing innovation schemes the past four governments have tried them only to have them fade away?

They havent worked. The country has never been turned into a leading business or technological innovator. But Liberal strategists are undeterred. They will double down on innovation in this budget. Its to be innovation of a different kind, insiders say. Past measures, such as pouring funding into university science research, havent brought forward the anticipated trickle-down benefits.

Now the Grits are intent on getting into the business of cherry-picking. Theyll identify specific sectors and potential champions and target them for special support. One way will be by spending a large chunk of their procurement budget on them. The plan might be likened, so to speak, to an Own the Podium program for innovators instead of athletes. Economic growth will allegedly follow.

But what about the elephant in the room? The job-ravaging behemoth called automation. Dominic Barton, the head of Justin Trudeaus Advisory Council on Economic Growth, said recently that automation will eliminate no less than 40 per cent of existing Canadian jobs in the coming decade. Hes referring to such technologies as self-checkout counters, driverless cars, burger-flipping robots.

These are what Joe Populist cares about. More than any trade agreements, they are the job killers. But strangely the torrid pace of automation is hardly even being debated in Parliament or elsewhere. Theres a collective throwing up of the hands. Nothing can be done. Technological determinism is here to stay, earthlings. Deal with it.

Theres got to be more focus on automation and robotization, argues Frank Graves, co-author with Graham Lowe of Redesigning Work. There will be huge carnage and it is going to happen quickly. There are solutions but they will require bold action, not some bromides about innovation.

Bold action will not be forthcoming. Automation will be given short shrift in the budget. The word from insiders is that while the projected scary numbers of job losses have to be taken seriously, There isnt an appetite to hold back the tide of technology. There is no pickup, for example, on Microsoft founder Bill Gatess idea of taxing robots that do the work of humans and using the revenues for social needs. There is no enthusiasm for measures such as rewarding retailers who dont switch to self-checkout counters.

Such proposals are readily batted down by the argument that interfering with the advance of technology hinders progress by slowing down productivity. Countries that engage in such practices will become less competitive.

The counter-argument is that were moving into a new hyper-accelerated phase of automation. Just because it hasnt had a negative impact on jobs in the past doesnt mean it holds true for the future. Its a reason more governments are looking at economic nationalism to protect their workers. Its a reason why globalization appears to be winding down.

The Liberals point out that countries with the highest degree of automation still have the lowest unemployment rates. Mr. Barton and his group see no reason for proactive measures to slow it down. Their automation strategy is reactive. They will address it as a social problem that has a purchasable social solution. They are planning, for example, enhanced programs for people over 50 whose skills are ill-suited for the digital age.

Their plan to move away from trickle-down innovation agendas to a more targeted supporting of winners may well be worth a shot, especially if the winners dont win by reducing jobs.

But it wont, given the failures of past innovation schemes, be an easy sell. Joe Populist is more worried about having his job displaced by innovative technologies than seeing the country becoming more adept at creating new ones.

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Where is the Liberal plan for tackling job-killing automation? - The Globe and Mail

What Automation Can Mean for the Restaurant Industry — The … – Motley Fool

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This video was recorded on Jan. 26, 2017.

Vincent Shen: For our finaltopic of the day,getting more high-tech, is the idea --and this is something that I think we had somepretty fun discussions about in the past -- of fast food workers going away. I thinkwe can't deny that calls for higherminimum wages or something that you seequite often in headlines. Even here in the D.C. region, the cityrecently approved a $15 minimum wage that willgradually reach that level by 2020 in the city. From what I could find for theindustry at a McDonald's,labor costs are a very significant piece of their cost structure,usually around 20% to 25% for these chains. What do you think? Howdo you think this is going to mold things?

Dan Kline:There'sgoing to be two phases of this. Thecurrent phase we're in now is Starbucks,Panera, Dunkin' Donutsthat are using technologynot to take employees out of stores,but to make stores more efficient.Chipotleis starting to do that. TheChipotle order app,where you can mobile order and pay, they're runningseparate lines. The line you see atthe front of the Chipotle where the person makes your food,in the back, there's another one of those. So, they'renot necessarily firing employees,or using less people in stores. They're putting more people into production.

That'swhat Starbucks is doing. So,instead of somebody having to take your orderin the line, they're making your drink,so people go through faster,the store serves more people. That's phase one. Phase two,you're going to start seeing the McDonald's of the world that have bigkitchens and don't need extra production help, they'regoing to start putting ordering in kiosks, and that is going to take their head count down. They'redoing that all across Europe and Canada. So,whereas there might be four or six cashiers, there might be 12 kiosks with one or two employees who are helping you through that,and maybe there's an extra customer service personfacilitating the process. And then,eventually, you're going to start to see, at the wealthier fast food chains, maybe fries atMcDonald's won't be made by human being. Maybe your Big Mac still will bebecause it's customizable and there's a lot to go into it. But, you'regoing to see less labor.I don't see any way around that.

Shen:Sure. Youbring up a really good point.It'll be very much a gradualtransition. Some of the examples you brought up in aMcDonald's with some of the self ordering kiosks, very popular, thePanera Bread we have across the street from Fool HQ here,also a similar situation, I think there's five or six tablets ready to go. Ithelps them turn down the staff.

Kline:Andthis has been happening for 20 years.I'm a slight bit older than you,and when I was a kid and you went to McDonald's and you ordered aCoke,someone poured a Coke. Now, most McDonald's haveCoca-ColaFreestyle machines,where not only do I have an enormous amount of choice --I can get diet vanilla root beer andmix it with Fanta orange if I want --all the person at the counter has to do ishand me a cup. So,this labor has been coming out of the fast food process inlittle ways for a long time. Andyou will start to see service being a premium,meaning Starbucks'willingness to have a person make your drink exactly the way you want it,where is Panera Bread just hands you acoffee cup, that's going to be a differentiatorfor some of these brands. So you may see fast casual concepts double down on people and actually charge more for the experience of getting your pizza not made by a robot pizza machine.

Shen:Lookinga little bit further ahead,we have some pretty big names in Silicon Valleyworking to develop better AI,better automation. Obviously,it seems like a very natural next step for that technology to beintegrated more and more into this industry, as we'vediscussed here.I guess I want to talk a little bit about some examples of some of the more high-tech stuff,still very much in the testing stages. One, I found that, for acompany we talked about just a few minutes ago with Domino's, this made me chuckle, they have their DRU, the Domino's Robotic Unit,which is essentially anautomated vehicle --but not a full size car. It has the capacityto hold as many as 10 pizzas in a heated compartment. It can handledeliveries within a 20 mile radius on a single charge. They'realready testing stuff like this.I think it's limited to New Zealand and Australia right now. They'vealso handled some issues with theft, withsecurity cameras, with the locked compartment. But it is, to me, aglimpse of the possibilities.

Kline:I thought you were going five years after thatin the future, where pizza robots are overlords.[laughs] Domino's has been very goodabout what I'll call the concept-car concept. When you go to an auto show andFordis showing anamphibious car that can fly and make you a latte,some of this Domino's technology,even as goofy as when they were delivering you pizzas viareindeer,it's just to get attention, butaspects of it are going to come out. I don't see a world in the near future whereautonomous pizza delivery cars are going to make a lot of sense in most markets. But,automating more of that process. There's no reason a man needs to take the glob of dough andput it into the pizza thing. That could absolutely be a machine that does that. So, you'regoing to see more and more of that. Andthat will make the process more efficient. And yeah,maybe in Manhattan, there'sgoing to be drones and robots. In very densely populated places, you'll see that. But I think a lot of that now is attention-gettinggimmicks. Domino's does not really intent --it's not cost effective to have a drone deliver me a small Cokeand a medium pizza.

Shen:So, last point here, you mentioned on the service side,having that human element be a differentiator, and how the next steps,it seems like right now, the ordering process is becoming automated. But with the food prep, it's still a challenge.I do want to bring up one example that shows that we are there,and it's just a matter ofreaching that mass scale. There's a company I found calledMomentum Machines, based in the West Coast, they garnered some buzzlast year in advance ofopening a restaurant with a robot that could flip 400 burgers an hour,cut your vegetables, and do quite a bit of that process,in terms of the burger prep. So,it really seems likeso many things right now are in the concept stage,and you'll get all these elements of itkind of like how you described, but for these trendswe talked about today, in terms of the competition, some of thediscountingissues thatthe industry faces,but also on the flip side, howthey're trying to tackle increasing costs andthings like that. It's really funny,how all this comes together.

Kline:It'sa question of cost. If you look at how McDonald's makes aMcCafebeverage versus how Starbucks does itversus how a local place does it,Starbucks is a little automated,McDonald's is basically push button, there's no barista,it's the same guy who makes your fries, makes your latte orespresso or whatever it is. But there's very few restaurant chains that canget to this quickly. So, if you are a McDonald's franchisee,and McDonald's comes to you and says, "Good news,you can eliminate 50% of your staff. Bad news, there's a $4 million investment toput in the automated burger machineand all of the other technology." So,this is going to be gradual. You're going to see,like I said before,maybe McDonald's, one of the more successful franchise models,might say to its franchisees "In 2018, you aregoing to automate making french fries and chicken McNuggets,and that's a $200,000 machine," orwhatever the number is. That's not going to fly atWendy'sorArby'sor any ofthe less successful, or aSubway, wherethe average franchise owner is making a nice salary, or if they'repaying a manager, they're making $40,000 to $50,000 inprofit. I'm sure some make more. They'renot going to be able to invest. So,this is going to happen,and I'm sure you're going to see some start-up money where it's a pizza place where there's no human,you put your money in and boop boopa robot makes you a pizza. Butit's not like, three years from now, you're going to go to the mallfood court and there won't be people there.

Shen:Yep,definitely lookingfarther out, for sure. Anything else that you would like to end on, in terms of, maybe, other trends that you're watching,things that aren't as prominent now but might be coming up down the line?

Kline:Yeah.I think there's going to be a lot of shake out. Wetalked about fast casual pizza,and I've written about fast casual burgers. There aregoing to be winners and losers in these spaces. There is absolutely room for aChipotle of pizzaand a Chipotle of burgers,and probably a number two and maybe even a number three company,but there's not room for 17. Andjust like we've seensome of the wannabe Chipotle knock-offs suffer,some of these companies are going to go away,or they're going to consolidate. You'realso seeing, in the step above that, in yourChili'sandRuby Tuesday, they'restruggling to find a business model. So,I think you're going to see a lot of restaurant closures. You saw a lot last year,whole chains going out of business. I think that'sgoing to continue, and maybe get worse.

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What Automation Can Mean for the Restaurant Industry -- The ... - Motley Fool

How to offset the social costs of automation – Livemint

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Ken makes a decent living operating a large harvester on behalf of farmer Luke. Kens salary generates income tax and social security payments that help finance government programmes for less fortunate members of his community. Alas, Luke is about to replace Ken with Nexus, a robot that can operate the harvester longer, more safely, in any weather, and without lunch breaks, holidays, or sick pay.

Bill Gates thinks that to ease the inequality and offset the social costs implied by automations displacement effects, either Nexus should pay income tax, or Luke should pay a hefty tax for replacing Ken with a robot. And this robot tax should be used to finance something like a universal basic income (UBI). Gates proposal, one of many on the UBI theme, allows us to glimpse fascinating aspects of capitalism and human nature that rich societies have neglected for too long.

The whole point of automation is that, unlike Ken, Nexus will never negotiate a labour contract with Luke. Indeed, it will receive no income. The only way to simulate an income tax on behalf of Nexus is to use Kens last income as a reference salary and extract from Lukes revenue income tax and social security charges equivalent to what Ken paid.

There are three problems with this approach. For starters, whereas Kens income would have changed over time had he not been fired, the reference salary cannot change, except arbitrarily and in a manner setting the tax authorities against business. The tax office and Luke would end up clashing over impossible estimates of the extent to which Kens salary would have risen, or fallen, had he still been employed.

Second, the advent of robot-operated machines that have never been operated by humans means there will be no prior human income to act as a reference salary for calculating the taxes these robots must pay.

Finally, it is hard philosophically to justify forcing Luke to pay income tax for Nexus but not for the harvester that Nexus operates. After all, they are both machines, and the harvester has displaced far more human labour than Nexus has. The only defensible justification for treating them differently is that Nexus has greater autonomy.

But to what extent is Nexus genuinely autonomous in a manner that the harvester is not? However advanced Nexus might be, it can be thought of as autonomous if and only if it develops consciousness, whether spontaneously or with the help of its makers.

Only if Nexus (like the Nexus-6 replicants in the 1982 film Blade Runner) achieves that leap will he have earned the right to be thought of as distinct from the harvester he operates. But then humanity will have spawned a new species and a new civil rights movement (which I would gladly join) demanding freedom for Nexus and equal rights with Kenincluding a living wage, minimum benefits, and enfranchisement.

Assuming that robots cannot be made to pay income tax without creating new potential for conflict between the tax authorities and business (accompanied by tax arbitrage and corruption), what about taxing Nexus at the point of sale to Luke? That would of course be possible: The state would collect a lump-sum tax from Luke the moment he replaces Ken with Nexus.

Gates supports this second-best alternative to making robots pay income tax. He thinks that slowing down automation and creating tax disincentives to counter technologys displacement effect is, overall, a sensible policy.

But a lump-sum tax on robots would lead robot producers to bundle artificial intelligence within other machinery. Nexus will increasingly be incorporated within the harvester, making it impossible to tax the robotic element separately from the dumb parts that do the harvesting.

Either the robot sales tax should be dropped or it should be generalized into a capital goods sales tax. But imagine the uproar against a tax on all capital goods: Woe betide those who would diminish domestic productivity and competitiveness!

Ever since the emergence of industrial capitalism, we have been terrible at differentiating between property and capital, and thus between wealth, rent and profits. This is why a wealth tax is so difficult to design. The conceptual problem of differentiating between Nexus and the harvester he operates would make it impossible to agree on how a robot tax should work.

But why make life under capitalism more complicated than it already is? There is an alternative to a robot tax that is easy to implement and simple to justify: a universal basic dividend (UBD), financed from the returns on all capital. Imagine that a fixed portion of new equity issues goes into a public trust that, in turn, generates an income stream from which a UBD is paid. Effectively, society becomes a shareholder in every corporation, and the dividends are distributed evenly to all citizens.

To the extent that automation improves productivity and corporate profitability, the whole of society would begin to share the benefits. No new tax, no complications in the tax code, and no effect on the existing funding of the welfare state. Indeed, as higher profits and their automatic redistribution via the UBD boost incomes, more funds would become available for the welfare state. Coupled with stronger labour rights and a decent living wage, the ideal of shared prosperity would receive a new lease on life.

2017/PROJECT SYNDICATE

Yanis Varoufakis is professor of economics at the University of Athens and a former finance minister of Greece.

First Published: Wed, Mar 01 2017. 12 11 AM IST

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How to offset the social costs of automation - Livemint

Salesforce automation connects sales, service data for manufacturer – TechTarget

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Rotobec, based in Saint-Justine, Quebec, manufactures equipment that picks up all manner of weighty objects: giant logs, loads of scrap metal, even bundles of railroad ties. Up to 2015, though, connecting salespeople to service records was too much of a heavy lift.

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Salesforce automation got Rotobec's sales staff off "these precious little notebooks," as director of service Jesse Roy put it, in which they recorded all the data about customer conversations, and facilitated its spread throughout the company in 2009. It wasn't until 2015, however -- when the company added Salesforce Desk case management and help desk integration -- that sales and service data connected.

"Our service efforts were struggling," Roy said "It was time we implemented CRM for service. Like sales, service is incredibly important, but it's just not as visual as the sales department because we don't make money, we spend money."

Roy's customer support staff of 10 agents handles an average of 1,000 cases a week. Through Desk reports that analyze volume and help him set metrics for improvement, he's grown his department by showing need with BI tools that analyze response times and service quality.

Rotobec got its start in 1975 in the logging sector, staking its claim as the first North American manufacturer of a 360-degree, continuously rotating attachment for forestry loaders.

Most people, when they think of construction equipment, imagine an excavator and a scoop, or a bucket. Rotobec improves on that standard design with rotating grapples, or claws, for specialized markets, such as bulk material handling, waste and rail.

Today, the company supports manufacturing facilities in three countries, and sells through a dealer network extending to 35 countries.

Rotobec implemented Salesforce automation in 2009, choosing Salesforce because its mobile sales staff could upload data to the system more quickly and, unlike other CRM systems at the time, it didn't require a virtual private network connection and the company-supported IT infrastructure.

Roy said the general idea behind adopting CRM automation was not only to share information about sales with a wider audience within the company, but also for production planning. Because Rotobec spans several different industries, it wasn't always obvious which one needed attention next.

"We work on lean flow manufacturing," Roy said, referring to the model of just-in-time inventory and minimizing parts and labor waste, a strategy many factories have adopted over the past few decades. "Not knowing what [sales] opportunities are there, it's really hard to plan your next fiscal year when you have no idea what's in the pipeline."

Before implementing Salesforce automation, Rotobec did quarterly analyses for upcoming production, and sort of ballparked estimates from sales staff feedback. Now, Roy said, they can create much more accurate in-quarter reports and adjust production as sales updates its pipeline in their various industries.

As Salesforce added features and the manufacturing company grew over the years, Rotobec added business intelligence and quoting modules (separate ones for domestic and international quoting) with the help of third-party contractors.

Desk integration has ported some of those 1,000 weekly service cases to self-service, but more importantly, the Desk integration has connected help desk data to sales, which has created new workflow efficiencies to assist field salespeople.

When Rotobec initially chose Salesforce in 2009, Roy led an evaluation team that considered several different data systems for his service group. Having been a longtime Salesforce user, Desk was the likely choice, but the team did a competitive analysis, looking at Mize, GE Digital's ServiceMax and Maximizer's service side system.

In fact, Rotobec considered Salesforce Service Cloud, as well, but decided Desk was more appropriately scaled for its operations. Desk won out because of its ease of use and minimal IT support, as well as because of the integration between Desk and the sales systems, which push updates in real time to each other.

Connecting sales and service -- which cost about $20,000 to switch on, including third-party assistance and about $10,000 per year for Salesforce Desk subscription fees -- gave salespeople up-to-date information about service issues a dealer's customers might be experiencing. Rotobec sales staffers can update their dealers on ongoing service activity among the dealers' customers who are using Rotobec equipment.

"Our sales [people] were no longer walking into a death trap, so to speak," Roy said. "They weren't getting ambushed by [dealer] salespeople saying, 'Where is this case we're dealing with, this situation, what's going on with it?' Now, before they go into a call, they can look for cases, and if there [are] any, they can read all the notes we've input through Desk, and they can be on top of it."

Speaking knowledgeably about open service cases can defuse potentially uncomfortable conversations, and make the salesperson more proactive in managing the relationship. Rotobec eventually added Desk services to manage product registration, warranty management and equipment rebuild program applications.

Jamie Domenici, Salesforce vice president of product and small and medium-sized business (SMB) marketing, said that businesses typically start small with integrations, but, as Rotobec did, find new uses for sales and service data across the enterprise, and add capabilities to the platform as they go along.

"With one platform, you can bring all of your customer interactions into one place," she said.

Taken together, digitizing those processes has led to insights about Rotobec's products they couldn't see before, such as aggregate views tracking warranty issues that were previously marooned on paper. Patterns in service might indicate a design flaw in a particular model, or other opportunities for more proactive product improvement through failure analysis of service data.

Reporting capabilities in third-party app DataHero, which is connected to Desk, has also led to Rotobec's deeper measurement and analysis of its services, giving Roy a means to identify opportunities to improve his team's response times and quality of service -- and, by extension, improve customer experience to drive business.

"We've turned a service department of three into a service department of ten, with call volumes exceeding anything we've seen before," Roy said, describing the growth of the company and the value of the data his service department generates for the organization. "And we can track and build on that if we need to because we have the hard data to back that up."

Desk 360 promotes multichannel customer service

SMBs benefit from Salesforce Desk upgrade

Salesforce Assistly customer service acquisition integrated as Desk

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Automation at top level – ETMM Online

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Hungary - Most metal processing enterprises feel the need for automation on their own skin, but yet many are reluctant to give in to substitute the human factor with automated procedures, despite the workforce shortage.

The field of sheet metal machining is getting more ready to automate certain procedures, such as loading and unloading sheet metal and finished products or other warehousing procedures, says Tamas Major, CEO of Trumpf Hungary ltd, in an interview with MM Mszaki Magazin.

MM Mszaki Magazin: Where do you mainly recommend automation in sheet metal machining?

Tamas Major: We feel an increasing interest in automated systems in Hungary since 2014 and by now, we have arrived at the point that both the biggest companies and SMEs are dealing more and more seriously with the rationalisation of sheet metal processing procedures. Trumpf's old and new systems have a spectacular role mainly in warehousing and ghost shifts (several hours of manufacturing or even full shift without machine operators). The question of automation versus workforce is always being debated. The need for automation arises mainly where complex systems are in question. If a manufacturer has a good stock of orders and consequently the utilisation of, for example, laser cutting machines is high, after a time, they will develop flexible manufacturing capacity instead of increasing its technological capacity.

MM Mszaki Magazin: What levels of automation are there?

Tamas Major: Trumpf has many solutions for automating sheet metal processing machine tools, beginning with sheet loading units, palette changers equipped with palette magazines, up to warehousing systems listed without the need for completion.

Beyond a certain level, efficiency cannot be increased solely by expanding manufacturing capacity and automation is indispensable.

MM Mszaki Magazin: You have recently moved to a new domicile.

Tamas Major: Yes, Trumpf has been doing all domestic activities of its two major lines of business, machining tools and laser technology, in a single firm since 2014. We began work in 2015 in Vecss, in the vicinity of the Liszt Ferenc International Airport. The sales and training centre of the 48-man strong company has also moved here. Good infrastructure was important: the airport, highways, hotels are near and we are part of the international blood circulation. More than half of our colleagues work in the field of technological customer care but we put a great emphasis on after-sales support and training.

http://www.hu.trumpf.com

This interview appeared http://www.maschinenmarkt.international.

01/25/2017 - Is globalisation a blessing or a curse? During the last year, everything pointed towards the latter. The influence of politics on the European economy has been particularly strong in 2016. The future impact on European tool and mould makers is uncertain. read...

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Automation at top level - ETMM Online

Dawn Debuts Total Planter Automation System – Agriculture.com

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Dawn Debuts Total Planter Automation System
Agriculture.com
Dawn Equipment Company came to the 2017 National Farm Machinery Show with a whole new automated planting system made up of three components active down pressure (ADP), active depth control (ADC), and an active closing system (ACS) that ...

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Dawn Debuts Total Planter Automation System - Agriculture.com

Column: Farmworkers, immigration and local food – GazetteNET

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As the national debate about refugees and immigration roils, we at Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) have been reflecting on the history and the modern condition of farm labor in this country, and on our role as advocates for a vibrant and equitable local food system.

We work closely with farm owners here in the Valley, and we know that many of them share our deep dissatisfaction with our farm labor system and the dialogue that surrounds it.

Most of the food in the United States is grown under physically demanding, high risk, unstable, low-paying conditions by immigrants and migrant workers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 72 percentof all farmworkers are foreign-born, and 46 percentare undocumented. Sixty-four percent do not have health insurance, and agricultural work consistently ranks among the most dangerous in the country. The median income is under $17,500.

Our history has led us here. From indentured servitude to slavery to the sharecropping system, the 200 years following European settlement of this land were characterized by bondage, exploitation, and abuse in agricultural work. When World War I led to a labor shortage that threatened our food supply, the first guest-worker program brought 70,000 workers from Mexico.

Fifteen years later, as unemployment skyrocketed during the Great Depression, the Mexican Repatriation Program deported an estimated two million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans over a seven year period. An estimated 1.2 million of those deported were citizens of the United States.

Another labor shortage during World War II led to the creation of the Bracero Program in 1942, which brought an average of 200,000 workers per year from Mexico until it was discontinued in 1964.

This legacy of reversals bringing workers into the country when their labor was needed to feed our citizens, and then forcibly removing them when it was not has led directly to the current demographics of and political discourse around farmworkers and immigration. Our nation has depended on immigrant farmworkers to fill our tables for generations, while those same workers have been ignored, their contributions belittled, and their presence both reviled and denied.

Modern labor standards, including a federal minimum wage and overtime laws, were first institutionalized through the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act which entirely exempted farmworkers.

Farmworker activism in the 1950s and 1960s led to many basic protections for agricultural workers, but they are still ineligible for overtime pay and exempted from federal laws protecting workers right to unionize.

At CISA, we talk often about the externalized costs of our current international food system. The cost of food to consumers is at an all-time low, and that sounds like great news in a nation where 15 percentof people dont have enough to eat and many more are struggling. But the reality is that these low food prices are possible because of costs that are borne elsewhere, most visible in environmentally damaging growing practices and in the exploitation of a largely immigrant, largely non-English-speaking, disempowered agricultural labor force.

Here in Massachusetts, theres not much data on the makeup of the states agricultural workforce or on their working conditions, although we do know that much of our food is grown by immigrant workers. Farms here are smaller and more diversified than the national norm, which can mean more variation in tasks and more personal relationships between owners and workers, but that doesnt mean that Massachusetts farms function completely outside the larger system.

Massachusetts labor laws are more favorable than federal law to farmworkers, including limited rights to unionize, although our state agricultural minimum wage still lags behind the state minimum wage by $3 an hour. We know that many farm owners here are acutely aware of the tension between wanting to pay a fair wage to their employees, and needing to compete on price in a system that values low food prices at the expense of the workers in the field.

We do not support this system, which depends on the labor of people who are underpaid, overworked, disenfranchised and vilified. We also do not support policies that threaten to undermine this deeply flawed system by cracking down on undocumented workers, which would separate families, destroy the lives of hard-working people, destabilize farm businesses, and threaten our nations food supply.

Instead, we envision and continue to fight for a system where farm viability isnt at odds with equitable pay and good working conditions.

These complex, deeply entrenched issues will not be resolved with simplistic solutions, and we are committed to working with farm owners, farmworkers and the organizations that represent them, and residents of our region to increase equity, fairness, and respect for all members of our community.

Claire Morenon is the communications managerand Philip Korman is the executive director of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture in South Deerfield.

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Column: Farmworkers, immigration and local food - GazetteNET

Coveney says he will not legislate for water charges abolition as it would be illegal – thejournal.ie

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Simon Coveney speaking to reporters at Leinster House this evening.

Simon Coveney speaking to reporters at Leinster House this evening.

HOUSING MINISTER SIMON Coveney hassaid he will not legislate for the water committees agreement if it doesnt include a charge for excessive usage.

The majority of those on the Oireachtas joint committee on the future funding of water services have indicated that they are in favour of abolishing domestic charges and are opposed to charging for the excessive use of water.

In a private meeting, TDs discussed the committees draft report with Fianna Fil, Sinn Fin and AAA-PBP agreeing that there should be no re-introduction of charges.

I will not introduce legislation that potentially exposes the country to very severe penalties and fines from the European Commission I wont do that, Coveney told reporters tonight.

EU law

Last year, the European Commission said Ireland will be in breach of European law should it remove the charges completely.

Wehave clear advice from Attorney Generals Office, I have legal advice from my own department and the expert commissions advice that was very clear and we have a European Commission that has shown flexibility and willingness to work with Ireland, but are also clear that there has to be some consequences for households wasting large amounts of water, he said.

Coveney said Fine Gael is willing to compromise, but added that other parties have to be prepared to follow suit.

We have compromised on the Fine Gael view very significantly, and were asking other parties seeking a working solution to do the same.

If that compromise involves exposing the State to legal action, I dont think as an office holder I can facilitate that, said the minister.

Fianna Fils position

He said Fianna Fil had hardened its position on the issue, and accused the party of altering its stance on charges in recent days.

What Fianna Fil seem to be saying today is that it is okay by them for the general taxpayer to waste water that wasnt the Fianna Fil position until a few days ago.

Coveney insisted tonight that the work of the committee isnt finished, adding that he still wants consensus.

When asked what the outcome would be if the committees final recommendation was for the total abolition of all water charges, he said:

I would be very surprised if Fianna Fil asked a government minister to introduce something that was against the AGs [Attorney General's] advice.

We cannot ignore independent legal advice it is hugely irresponsible to ask us to do that.

Breaching confidence and supply agreement

Coveney said Fine Gael were not breaching the confidence and supply agreement (the deal between Fianna Fil and Fine Gael which essentially keeps the government in power).

The agreement was never intended to instruct a minister to act contrary to the advice of the Attorney General, he said.

We will continue to abide by it and I hope Fianna Fil will too.

The agreement states that the government will facilitate the passage of legislation for the implementation of the recommendations in relation to domestic water charging (whether it be abolition, a reformed charging regime or other options).

This line was put to the minister this evening and he was asked what would happen if the Oireachtas approved and voted in favour of the abolition of the water charges regime.

Facilitating is not the same as introducing, he clarified.

What I am saying is I cannot introduce legislation that I regard as effectively illegal.

Bullying the committee

Sinn Fin spokesperson on water Eoin Broin has accused the minister of trying to bully the Oireachtas Water Committee.

Tonights intervention by Minister Coveney prior to the Committee concluding our business is wholly inappropriate. He is trying to bully the Committee with exaggerated claims on the supposed illegality of complete abolition of water charges.

While a final decision is expected tomorrow or next week it is clear that the Government is losing the argument.

The minister should stop interfering in the work of the Committee. He should adhere to the process he set up and respect the outcome of the Committee.

He said the minister will have plenty of time to respond to the committees final report when it is debated by the Dil and Seanad later this month.

OBroin said Coveneys attempts to influence the outcome of the committees deliberations is wrong and smacks of desperation.

The committee of 20 TDs is expected to finalise its report either tomorrow or next week ahead of a Dil vote which is due to take place by the end of March.

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Coveney says he will not legislate for water charges abolition as it would be illegal - thejournal.ie

Molly J. McGrath: Fight ID laws one voter at a time – Herald & Review

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I first met Cinderria, an 18-year-old woman of color, in a library in downtown Madison, Wis. She approached the table marked Voter ID Assistance and explained that with the 2016 presidential primary only a few months away, and despite several trips to the DMV, she still didnt have a valid ID as mandated by Wisconsins strict new laws. It turned out she needed a Social Security card but wasnt sure how to obtain one.

Proponents of voter ID laws dont want to acknowledge that Cinderrias case is far from unusual. Experts project that in Wisconsin alone, 300,000 eligible voters lack the ID necessary to cast a ballot. Across the country, 32 states have some form of voter ID law, creating a crisis of disenfranchisement not seen since the civil rights era. These ID laws dont touch all groups equally: Voters of color, like Cinderria, are hit hardest. The elderly, students and low-income voters also are disproportionately affected. (A new study published in the Journal of Politics, for instance, found that strict ID laws lower African-American, Latino, Asian-American and multiracial American turnout.)

States that have implemented voter ID laws have shown little to no interest in helping their citizens comply. And the advocacy organizations that oppose these laws have few resources for direct voter assistance. Instead, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have focused on challenging voter ID mandates in court. Thats essential, but its not enough. As court battles proceed, we must acknowledge our collective obligation to voters like Cinderria by investing in on-the-ground, in-person support.

Before the 2016 election, a group of us in Madison recognized the problem and got to work, partnering with local organizations like the League of Women Voters and NAACP. As one coalition, we collaborated with social service agencies, churches, food pantries, employers, schools and election administrators. Outreach continued through the November election and is ongoing for spring elections. But theres tons of work left to do in Madison, to say nothing of the state or nation as a whole.

The right to vote is not denied only in large volume. Our democracy deteriorates every single time an older voter cant find transportation to a distant DMV, and every single time a working mother cant afford the fees associated with redundant paperwork to prove her citizenship.

Having worked one-on-one with would-be voters, a nefarious truth about these laws has become clear to me. Not only do the requirements hamper individuals in the short term, they also can send a long-term signal to historically disenfranchised communities that theyre not invited into their countrys democratic process a feeling all too familiar to those who were born before the abolition of Jim Crow.

We cannot return to the era of literacy tests and poll taxes. Its crucial that all voters are offered help because they must not lose the belief that their vote is precious and their participation essential to our democracy. These voters are our neighbors, our co-workers and, at the most basic level, our fellow citizens. Their rights are as valuable as those of any big-spending campaign donor.

Despite repeated assurances from voter ID proponents that these laws arent discriminatory and are easy to comply with, lived experience proves the opposite.

Cinderria was finally able to obtain an ID, but only weeks after we first met; I traveled with her to the DMV to make sure nothing went wrong. Claudelle, a voter in his 60s whose mother mistakenly spelled his name Clardelle on his birth certificate, was refused an ID with his correct name twice. On a trip to the DMV with a 34-year-old named Zack, we were given inaccurate information on how to receive a free ID to vote. A recording of that interaction prompted a federal judge to order retraining of DMV workers across Wisconsin.

The voters affected by these laws who, again, are more likely to be low-income, transient and elderly often are unreachable through social media campaigns or other online communication. That makes in-person outreach indispensable. A young Madison woman named Treasure, for instance, was unable to obtain an ID until neighborhood canvassers knocked on her door and gave her accurate information and assistance.

Such work is not an admission that voter ID laws arent worth fighting; they are. It represents, rather, a commitment to fight suppression at every level. We have no choice but to organize, lace up our shoes and meet would-be voters where they live and work.

Molly J. McGrath is an attorney, voting rights advocate and organizer. She can be found @votermolly or votermolly.com. She wrote this for Tribune News Service.

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Molly J. McGrath: Fight ID laws one voter at a time - Herald & Review

Dutch Elections: ‘Anti-Racist’ Party Will Ban ‘Black Pete’ Traditional Children’s Character – Breitbart News

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Twenty-eight parties a post-World War II record are vying for the 150 seats in the centuries-old parliament when The Netherlands goes to the polls on March 15.

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The countrys newest party, Artikel 1, founded late last year by former TV host Sylvana Simons to fight racism, has floated perhaps one of the most controversial ideas.

It entails banning a traditional Christmas-time character called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) from public spaces.

The beloved jolly character accompanies Dutch Saint Nicolas in early December to hand out sweets to kids.

But foreigners are often shocked to see dozens of blackface men and women in gaudy costumes with red lips and afro wigs parading city streets.

Artikel 1 would ban Black Pete figures from public spaces, and proclaim July 1 as a national holiday to mark the abolition of slavery.

Meanwhile, should they get their say, the techno-savvy StemNL Party (VoteNL) proposes that all citizens should weigh in on draft legislation before the Dutch lower house via a mobile phone app.

After receiving an alert that MPs are about to cast ballots, the issue would be put up for a citizens vote via the app.

Party for non-voters

StemNLs lawmakers will then rely on the outcome of the citizens poll to decide which way to vote.

In the 21st century we dont need a new government, we need a new system to give The Netherlands the kind of democracy it deserves, the party said on its website.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Non-Voter Party (NietStemmers) has no political programme and plans not to vote for anything in the lower house.

Political parties pretend that non-voters dont exist, the party says.

We are going to end that. We are going to make the voice of non-voters heard. From now on, non-voters will also get seats in parliament, the party said, hoping to cash in on disillusionment among some 12.9 eligible Dutch voters.

The Netherlands has a plethora of Christian-based parties from the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal to the deeply conservative Reformed Political Party (SGP).

There is also the evangelical JezusLeeft (Jesus Lives), which on its home page says it is a party which does not add water to its wine.

Currently with three seats in the lower house, the SGP wants to ban all Sunday shopping so citizens can go to church.

The party, which has never had a woman in parliament since its founding in 1918, also advocates a no work Sunday, unless the work is an act of charity or an essential service.

It also vows to close all 600 so-called coffee shops in The Netherlands which sell cannabis, and to ban all advertisements featuring alcoholic drinks.

The Libertarian Party on the other hand, which strives for maximum freedom and little or no government interference, wants to legalise the production, trade and possession of all drugs.

Founded in 1993, it also wants The Netherlands out of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations, which exist solely to help politicians further their careers.

Toilets on all trains

The 50Plus party, set up to defend the rights of the over 50s, already has one seat in parliament.

Apart from serious proposals on pensions and retirement age, it also has a more pressing matter that toilets should be added to all trains.

Initially 81 parties enrolled with the Dutch Election Council in mid-December to field candidates on March 15, but only 28 finally met the criteria to participate.

Parties which did not make it included the Kleptocrat Party which wants to scrap anti-tobacco and anti-smoking laws and the HHH Party which in Dutch translates to the Ha Ha Ha Party, as well as the Politically Correct Party.

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Dutch Elections: 'Anti-Racist' Party Will Ban 'Black Pete' Traditional Children's Character - Breitbart News

New technology offers fast peptide synthesis – Science Daily

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New technology offers fast peptide synthesis
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This technology could help researchers rapidly generate new peptide drugs to test on a variety of diseases, and it also raises the possibility of easily producing customized cancer vaccines for individual patients. Pentelute is the senior author of a ...

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New technology offers fast peptide synthesis - Science Daily