Port Moody wants to find ways to battle the chafer beetle, but they won't renege on pesticide ban.

image credit: TURF TECHNICIAN

They're a tiny little bug that has caused a lot of damage but Port Moody isn't willing to budge on its pesticide ban to curb the spread of the chafer beetle.

At Tuesday's council meeting, Mayor Mike Clay, who said his own lawn has been torn up by the voracious critters and the raccoons and crows that like to feed on them provided a report with a recommendation that staff report back with options for minimizing the chafer beetle infestation, including pesticide bylaw exemptions.

"It concerned me that the pesticide bylaw prevents the use of two pesticides that have been shown to actually work," Clay said, noting it is important to deal with the matter quickly, before the beetle gestation period begins in April.

Clay's report notes that a large number of private and public grassed areas have been ripped up by the chafer beetle, most of which now require a complete sod removal, beetle treatment and replanting or sodding.

"The damage in landscape value in the city has been estimated to be several hundred thousand dollars," it adds.

But several councillors weren't keen on the idea of going back on the pesticide ban.

"This is a huge step backwards," said Coun. Meghan Lahti. "We're not being very progressive if the first step we go to is pesticides."

Coun. Zoe Royer called the chafer beetle an "epidemic in our community" and suggested there should be more information about the option of using nematodes as a natural remedy.

See original here:
Chafer beetle won't meet death by pesticides in Port Moody

Tracey Spicer Jan 18 2015 at 12:15 AM

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There is great joy to be had in staying at resorts designed specifically for children. I know that sounds like Special Subject: The Bleeding Obvious, but often, we drag them along to wherever we want to stay then berate them for behaving like well children!

At the Holiday Inn, you don't have to worry about how loud they are, whether there's anything they'll eat, or if they'll utter the phrase, "This is BORING".

The founder, Kemmons Wilson, created the company back in 1952, after discovering few hotel options for his family; it was the first to use the slogan, "Kids Stay & Eat Free".

Now, Nutrition Australia has created a revamped kids' menu for Holiday Inn hotels and resorts across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, to provide "a wider variety of healthy options for kids much more than just the standard burgers, pastas and chips", says Phil Broad, vice-president of food and beverage for the InterContinental Hotels Group.

We got a taste of this recently (pun intended!) at two of their properties in Phuket, Thailand. The buffet in Patong was one of the best I've ever seen, with a low bench for young children to get their own breakfast, and a cool room full of fresh fruit, veggie sticks, and sushi.

In Mai Khao, kids can tick boxes on the menu to design their own pizza, sandwich, or salad perfect for fussy eaters. We also did a mum-and-kids cooking class, creating tom yum goong, green chicken curry and green papaya salad.

Each property was a water wonderland, with a plethora of pools, fountains and waterslides. Activities ranged from animal balloon making for the littlies, to table tennis comps for tweens, and Thai kickboxing for teens.

Oh wait. Apparently, I forgot the most important point. "They had free Wi-fi!" the kids squealed. Not so they could incessantly play their iPods: so they could face-time dada. With hubby working, I thought these resorts would be handy in proving extra sets of er hands.

Continue reading here:
Where kids stay, play and eat (healthily) free

The current wastewater disposal system within the United States is flawed, costly and outdated. The core notions of a wastewater treatment plant the fact that we, for lack of a more specific word, dispose of our waste in perfectly treated, drinkable water, is absurd. Additionally, the fact that we use water, an extremely limited resource, to transport our waste is flawed. There is an extreme necessity to challenge the current system of wastewater treatment processes and additionally propose alternatives to said flawed system.

One huge problem introduced via modern wastewater treatment plants is the unnecessary loss of fertilizer feedstock which is what manufacturers to use to convert solid human waste to specific plant fertilizer. The fact that the waste is mixed with water, sent to the wastewater treatment plant and then stripped of the very waste that was put into it is crazy. From here, the treated water is again sent back to the toilets. This is unnecessary and wastes large amounts of energy used to clean the water.

Also, the ability to use the waste as potential fertilizer feedstock is lost. Newer, no-flow toilets dont use any water and therefore allow for the isolation of waste. This isolation of waste allows the implementation of certain fertilizer manufacture. So, the introduction of a waterless system allows for a cheap isolation of waste and paves a path for cheap fertilizer manufacture.

Yet another downfall of the wastewater treatment process is that it treats all water for the best possible case, which in our case is drinking. This means that water sent out of any wastewater treatment plant whether it be for drinking, lawn sprinklers, or even waste disposal is cleaned to a standard necessary for human consumption. This raises a gigantic red flag. We are wasting extreme amounts of energy by cleaning our toilet water to drinking water standards.

The problem here is that the wastewater treatment system doesnt differentiate the final location of the treated water. The current system in place cleans all the water to one acceptable standard because the piping system from the treatment plant to recreational use is imperfect. The piping system transfers all the treated, drinkable water to specific locations.

A recommended solution to this problem would be to introduce a treatment plant that treats certain percentages of water for certain uses. Obviously, drinking water and water for waste-disposal have different standards, and its extremely wasteful to treat water not for its intended use.

Treating certain percentages of water for specific uses is admittedly complicated and expensive. However, the initial cost of implementation would eventually save more money and more energy. An implementation of an idea this grand would also take time. What should be done is small-scale tweaks to the current piping and wastewater treatment frameworks.

A good place to start would be to introduce a subset to traditional wastewater treatment plants a treatment option that cleanses water to both drinking and waste-disposal standards. This will save the wastewater treatment plant energy (and ultimately money) as they arent over-treating a certain percentage of their water. From here, the differently treated water would be separately transported to the necessary locations and then distributed to the necessary locations. The water treated for waste disposal would be sent to each house and then subsequently distributed to the toilets. The drinking water, once at the house, would be sent to the sinks, faucets, etc. This implementation is a feasible engineering task, and would introduce a system with substantially reduced energy consumption.

The post-industrial revolution population boom necessitated a smarter and more efficient way of transporting and disposing waste. The solution to this problem was the wastewater treatment plant. One may find it strange, however, that we are still making tweaks to a system that was created almost 200 years ago. Maybe we are looking at the concept of waste negatively, when it should be viewed as a potential feedstock. Maybe we are crazy for using such a very limited resource water to help dispose of our waste. Maybe the entire framework of a wastewater treatment plant is wrong and outdated. Although this may not be true, it is still obvious that there are apparent problems with our current system.

BRENT LUND can be reached at brlund@ucdavis.edu

Excerpt from:
Sustainability in the Built Environment: The Downfalls of Our Current Wastewater Treatment System

DEPICTING CHRONIC PAIN: Chronic pain is the subject of the upcoming movie, Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston.

Chronic pain affects more people than cancer, diabetes, heart attack and stroke combined. It's estimated there are more than 100 million sufferers in the United States, costing the nation as much as $NZ816 billion a year in medical treatment and lost productivity.

Nearly one in five New Zealand adults experience chronic pain, according to the New Zealand Health Survey's 2013/14 findings. The survey found rates of chronic pain increase with age, affecting around a third of adults aged 75 and over.

The condition is even the focus of an upcoming movie, Cake, starring Jennifer Anniston as a woman struggling with chronic pain.

Chronic pain can be devastating, and a challenge to treat. As a mental health counsellor, I have seen it damage productive lives and tear families apart.

Pain sufferers often are misdiagnosed, misunderstood and miserable. Their friends and family can become worn out from listening to complaints. Their identities may be significantly altered because they cannot engage in activities they once enjoyed. Doctors get frustrated by the inability to provide a cure.

I have worked with people who had full, rich lives as corporate leaders, mothers, athletes and professors before their chronic pain. However, by the time I saw them they were isolated, over-medicated and depressed, and they believed their life was devoid of meaning.

Read more: No snake-oil quick fix can cure my pain

A DIFFERENT APPROACH CAN HELP

The good news is that chronic pain is treatable with the right blend of approaches. The traditional healing model take medications, rest, get better doesn't work with this illness. But there are ways to reduce pain and rebuild yourself.

Read the original here:
A different approach to chronic pain

BRADENTON --

A dog named Bear who was rescued from a burning home last weekend by firefighters with the Bradenton Fire Department has been reunited with his owners.

The German shepherd was found unconscious with labored breathing at a fire at 6:55 p.m. Saturday in a home in the 600 block of 32nd Street

Bear is now back with his loved ones, who have been waiting for days for his return from an animal clinic.

On Saturday night, Bradenton firefighters arrived at the 32nd Street home. They discovered flames and smoke coming from the home. Bear was still inside.

Firefighters were able to rescue Bear and give him oxygen on the front lawn. Bear has been at an animal clinic for treatment since the fire.

Owner Robert Fischbach said the dog shakes and is a little out of it but overall, he is doing better.

By the looks of things he seems to be getting better, so we want to remain hopeful. And its awesome just to have him back, he said.

The Fischbachs will be able to move back into their home eventually. However, the fire caused about $15,000 in damage.

So far, Bears vet bills are around $1,200.

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Dog rescued from fire reunited with owners

HOPETON, Va.- The Accomack County Sheriff's Office is looking for a dog that was reportedly stolen off a family's front lawn in the community of Hopeton.

Sheriff Todd Godwin said his office got a call at around 2:15 p.m. Sunday about people in a U-Haul truck taking a dog from a home on Matthews Road.

"I seen a U-Haul truck coming this way, it locked up the brakes, and they ran up in this yard right here, grabbed the dog, ran back to the U-Haul truck, opened the door, threw the dog in there, and got in the truck and left," said eye-witness Travis Shreavers.

Shreavers wasn't alone on Matthews Road Sunday afternoon. Sonny Hall attempted to question the people in the U-Haul truck about what they were doing with the dog.

"She looked right at me, turned it at me and just gunned it and ran right towards me. Which I had to jump to get out of the way, and when they did, they clipped my foot, ran over my foot with the vehicle," Hall said.

Police stopped the U-Haul later Sunday on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Two women are being questioned by police and the sheriff said charges could be coming.

Sunday's incident follows the high -profile case in October when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animalsin Accomack County took a dog of another front porch in Parksley.

Godwin said the women questioned Sunday are not members of PETA and the truck was empty when it was stopped. The sheriff believes the dog may have been transferred to another car before being taken across the bridge. So authorities are continuing to search for the dog. Anyone with information on the dog's whereabouts should call the Accomack County Sheriff's Office at (757) 787-1131.

Originally posted here:
Dog Stolen from Accomack County Family's Yard

By Michael N. Price

Kevin Heron, a 56-year-old Newtown Square resident, allegedly attempted to escape police in his vehicle after a patrol officer allegedly observed him drive away from district court on a suspended license, according to the West Whiteland Police Department. Police said he was leaving the district court after appearing for a hearing on two prior offenses that involved driving on a DUI-related suspended drivers license.

Knowing that Heron did not have a license, the patrol officer followed Heron and attempted to conduct a traffic stop after he left the court, but he allegedly refused to stop and instead sped away from the officer and into the Whiteland Business Park. During the escape attempt Heron allegedly drove over the lawn of a business and damaged one of the tires on his vehicle after driving over a curb, police said.

After the tire was damaged Heron was allegedly attempting to turn his vehicle and head in the opposite direction when he lost control and collided with a stationary police vehicle head on. After the collision other officers who had joined the pursuit were able to subdue Heron, police said.

The police officer who was involved in the collision was transported to Paoli Hospital by ambulance and later released after receiving treatment for a head injury. Police officials said the officer, who was not identified, will remain out of work until a specialist clears him to return for duty.

Police said the collision caused more than $6,000 in damage to the patrol car, a 2012 Dodge Charger.

Heron was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, driving under the influence and related charges and was taken to Chester County Prison after failing to post $300,000 cash bail.

Follow Daily Local News staff writer Michael N. Price on Twitter @MikePriceWrites and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/michaelnprice.

Kevin Heron, a 56-year-old Newtown Square resident, allegedly attempted to escape police in his vehicle after a patrol officer allegedly observed him drive away from district court on a suspended license, according to the West Whiteland Police Department. Police said he was leaving the district court after appearing for a hearing on two prior offenses that involved driving on a DUI-related suspended drivers license.

Knowing that Heron did not have a license, the patrol officer followed Heron and attempted to conduct a traffic stop after he left the court, but he allegedly refused to stop and instead sped away from the officer and into the Whiteland Business Park. During the escape attempt Heron allegedly drove over the lawn of a business and damaged one of the tires on his vehicle after driving over a curb, police said.

Read the rest here:
Fleeing West Whiteland man crashes into patrol car, injures officer

By Simone Sebastian January 9 at 7:51 PM

Simone Sebastianis an assistant editor of Outlook.

Cameron Clarkson was a 16-year-old football player when he suddenly landed in the middle of a sex crime investigation at his St. Paul, Minn., high school. Lawyers grilled him on the details of his sexual history. School officials, in a statement to the press, cited him for not invoking the schools sexual harassment policy and said he bragged to fellow students about what had happened. His car was vandalized with red-dyed tampons and smeared with peanut butter, to which he is fatally allergic, by an unknown assailant. The shape of a penis was burned into his front lawn with bleach.

People kept reminding me that I ruined that poor girls life, Clarkson says.

The poor girl was a teacher at his school. Gail Gagne, a 25-year-old basketball and lacrosse coach, was a full-time substitute teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall High School and a couple of months away from becoming a regular physical education instructor. One day, she offered to give Clarkson a ride home after he left the school gym, leading to what he describes as the first of a series of sexual encounters between them in 2008 in Gagnes car, in their homes, in hotels. He says their relationship ended two months later; another student told school officials about it the next spring.

Gagne was fired and charged with two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct with a student. But in the investigations that followed, Clarkson was treated more like the perpetrator than the victim. Gagne, meanwhile, faced an easier path in some ways. She denied any sexual contact with Clarkson but entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant does not admit guilt but recognizes that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict her. The deal reduced her charges to a fifth-degree gross misdemeanor with a one-year sentence, which was suspended a far lighter punishment than the possible four-year prison sentence for the felony charges she faced. (Gagnes lawyer still says there was no sexual contact.)

For male victims of sexual abuse, this is how it goes. Growing evidence shows that boys who are sexually preyed upon by older female authority figures suffer psychologically in much the same way that girls do when victimized by older men. But in schools, courts and law offices, male victims are treated openly with a double standard, according to interviews with a dozen experts in law, psychology and social work. Some say boys should get the same protective care that girls do; other people who work with these cases argue that male teens are driven by raging hormones and are only too happy to explore their new sexuality with older women. But all of the experts agree that the discrepancy in the treatment of victims of nonviolent sexual abuse by their high school teachers is real. And it shows: Male victims typically receive lower awards in civil cases, the experts say, and female perpetrators get lighter sentences.

There is a clear hierarchy in courtrooms, lawyers say. Cases involving a male teacher and a female student result in the most severe punishments and the highest damages. Los Angeles-based lawyer David Ring, whose firm Taylor & Ring represents plaintiffs in sexual abuse suits, has worked on hundreds of teacher-student cases and says its not unusual for those against male teachers to end with judgments of more than $1 million. In one example, a jury awarded $5.6million to a high school girl in a sexual abuse case involving her 40-year-old teacher. The teacher was convicted of a felony, sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 40 percent of the civil damages to the student, who was 14 at the time of the encounters. (Chino Valley High School was ordered to pay the other 60 percent.)

But jurors and prosecutors dont have nearly the same outrage for abusive female teachers, Ring says: So what? Good for him. Thats how society looks at it. Male students, in his experience, rarely collect damages of more than $200,000. In November, Clarkson settled his case against Cretin-Durham Hall High School for $75,000. The case against Gagne settled for just $1.

Clarksons attorney, Sarah Odegaard, says her team made a strategic choice: They stood to win a larger award from the school, so they agreed to a token gesture from Gagne in lieu of a trial in which she would have denied the sexual relationship. In cases like this with an attractive, young female defendant jury bias doesnt work in favor of the victim, Odegaard says. Its not a bias we want to acknowledge, but we have to, she says. There have been some successes involving female teachers and coaches, but more often, you see lower verdicts.

View post:
He was abused by a female teacher, but he was treated like the perpetrator

Washington Post/Marvin Joseph

There are people who believe that I cannot possibly be a victim of abuse, says Cameron Clarkson, now 22.

Cameron Clarkson was a 16-year-old football player when he suddenly landed in the middle of a sex crime investigation at his Minnesota, US, high school.

Lawyers grilled him on the details of his sexual history. School officials, in a statement to the press, cited him for not invoking the school's sexual harassment policy and said he "bragged to fellow students about what had happened."

His car was vandalised with red-dyed tampons and smeared with peanut butter, to which he is fatally allergic, by an unknown assailant. The shape of a penis was burned into his front lawn with bleach.

"People kept reminding me that I ruined that poor girl's life," Clarkson says.

The "poor girl" was a teacher at his school. Gail Gagne, a 25-year-old basketball and lacrosse coach, was a full-time substitute teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall High School and a couple of months away from becoming a regular physical education instructor. One day, she offered to give Clarkson a ride home after he left the school gym, leading to what he describes as the first of a series of sexual encounters between them in 2008 in Gagne's car, in their homes, in hotels. He says their relationship ended two months later; another student told school officials about it the next spring.

Gagne was fired and charged with two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct with a student. But in the investigations that followed, Clarkson was treated more like the perpetrator than the victim. Gagne, meanwhile, faced an easier path in some ways. She denied any sexual contact with Clarkson but entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant does not admit guilt but recognises that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict her. The deal reduced her charges to a fifth-degree gross misdemeanour with a one-year sentence, which was suspended a far lighter punishment than the possible four-year prison sentence for the felony charges she faced. (Gagne's lawyer still says there was no sexual contact.)

For male victims of sexual abuse, this is how it goes. Growing evidence shows that boys who are sexually preyed upon by older female authority figures suffer psychologically in much the same way that girls do when victimised by older men. But in schools, courts and law offices, male victims are treated openly with a double standard, according to interviews with a dozen experts in law, psychology and social work.

Some say boys should get the same protective care that girls do; other people who work with these cases argue that male teens are driven by raging hormones and are only too happy to explore their new sexuality with older women. But all of the experts agree that the discrepancy in the treatment of victims of nonviolent sexual abuse by their high school teachers is real. And it shows: Male victims typically receive lower awards in civil cases, the experts say, and female perpetrators get lighter sentences.

Continued here:
Abused by female teacher, treated like the perpetrator

BLOWING ROCK, NC (WBTV) -

Bright sunshine did little to change the feel of winter across the mountains and foothills on Thursday.

"At 8:30 this morning is was minus three degrees," said Billie Rogers of the local Chamber of Commerce in Blowing Rock. "It's lovely," she said as she walked down the sidewalk, all bundled up.

Cold temperatures like this are expected from time to time in the mountains, and are even welcome with the Martin Luther King holiday coming up in just over a week.

Area ski resorts are using the cold temperatures to make as much snow as they can to be ready for the expected crowds.

Off the mountain, temperatures were in the single digits overnight. In Morganton, Brian Searcy at CBS Sports, a clothing and sports equipment store, turned a snow gun on on the front lawn of his business.

"We think we can make snow for the next 48 hours," he said Thursday morning. The store will be having a big sale on winter merchandise this weekend, and hopes to have enough snow for customers to try out some snowboards, and as an area for kids to play.

"This is just perfect weather for it," he said.

With another night of extreme cold, authorities are urging any travelers to be extra careful and be sure to have supplies with them in case they are stuck. They are also urged to have a fully-charged, working cell phone.

Rogers says the weather in Blowing Rock could always be worse. "In Minnesota it was minus 57 last night."

Read more:
Below zero in NC mountains, shivering continues