text:
A consortium that made a failed A$11 billion (US$9 billion) bid for Australia's Qantas Airways said on Thursday it would not launch a fresh offer for the airline.
The consortium, known as Airline Partners Australia (APA), had previously said it was exploring a number of alternatives, including the possibility of a renewed offer.
"APA has concluded that in the current environment and circumstances a renewed offer on terms acceptable to APA would not be likely to succeed," the consortium said in a statement. "On that basis APA has decided not to proceed with a renewed offer for Qantas at this time."
A source familiar with the bid said the consortium -- which included Macquarie Bank and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group -- had been unwound.
The group believed any fresh bid should have been on the same economic terms as the first A$5.45 a share offer, given the challenges faced by Qantas from new competition, the source said.
However, Qantas indicated last week that it would not back a new takeover offer pitched at the same price.
"If they come back it would have to be better than A$5.45, that's for sure," Qantas Deputy Chief Executive Peter Gregg, who supported the original bid, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The consortium admitted defeat early last week following three days of uncertainty after it failed to get 50 percent of shareholder acceptances for the bid by a Friday deadline.
Qantas senior management had supported the bid, but it was criticized as too low by key shareholders, who forced the bid group to lower the level of acceptances needed for success.
The airline has upgraded its earnings guidance three times in the past year, but faces serious competition from the launch of a rival Australian domestic service by Asian airline Tiger Airways.
The bid group also included Allco Finance Group, Allco Equity Partners and Canadian investment firm Onex.


TULARE HOSPITAL BOARD DISCHARGES ENTIRE MEDICAL STAFF OF 135: UPDATE
Following the publication of the article “Tulare Hospital Board Discharges Entire Medical Staff of 135,” the Valley Voice was contacted by a publicity firm and attorneys representing Tulare Local Health Care District (TLHCD) and Health Care Conglomerate Associates to raise objections to facts presented in our story. This is our response.
Although Dr. “Benny” Benezeevi was contacted repeatedly through the hospital’s press agent beginning on March 8, he did not respond to those requests for an interview. Benzeevi’s representatives allege in their correspondence that the Valley Voice did not attempt to talk with him. This is untrue. Attempts were made over several days beginning March 8.
While the article as published initially stated the hospital staff was fired, this was amended to read “discharged.” The 135-member staff was discharged by the TLHCD Board at a special meeting held February 15 by severing its contract. Immediately, a new staff was contracted to replace it. While the distinction appears to us to be semantic, we apologize for any confusion this may have caused any reader who felt otherwise.
Attorneys for TLHCD also objected to the characterization of a meeting held by its board on January 26 which did not comply with the state’s open meeting act requirements for noticing the public. The board then held a second meeting on February 15 to discharge the medical staff again. The second decision was necessary because the board and Benzeevi failed to meet the transparency standards set forth in the Brown Act, omitting to disclose their intention to unilaterally and abruptly severe the TLHDC’s contract with its longtime medical staff. TLHCD, however, has not admitted wrongdoing in connection with any possible failure on its part to act within the law.
The letter also objected to the characterization of Benzeevi as being “associated” with the doctors elected to the replacement Medical Executive Committee (MEC). Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines “associated” to mean “to join as a partner, friend or companion,” “to keep company,” “to join or connect together,” or “to bring together or into a relationship in any of various intangible ways (as in memory or imagination).” Benzeevi has worked with, and for, at least three of the doctors who make up the newly appointed MEC for several years. We believe this places those relationships well within the realm of “associated” as the word is commonly used, especially considering the length and intimate nature of the relationship between Benzeevi and members of the hospital board and MEC he serves on a daily basis.
Objections were also raised to the characterization in the article of the California Medical Association’s (CMA) involvement in the legal action against TLHCD on behalf of the former staff. The article stated the CMA had joined the medical staff’s action against the District. This is incorrect. CMA filed an amicus curiae brief so it may provide critical information to the court regarding the case, though neither party has requested its assistance. Attorneys for the CMA appeared in court alongside counsel for the former medical staff, making statements supporting the plaintiff’s cause.
TLHCD also objected to the revelation Benzeevi was reviewed by the TRMC Staff for poor performance as an emergency room physician, a position he no longer holds. TLHCD’s attorneys maintain Benzeevi was cleared of the charges, though they did not provide documentation to substantiate their claim. They further claim that the revelation is “a blatant violation of California law and the medical staff bylaws which preserve the confidentiality of peer review proceedings involving physicians” (sic) by council for the plaintiffs and by this newspaper of Benzeevi’s right to privacy. The information regarding the investigation into Benzeevi’s conduct is contained in publicly available documents filed with the court by council for TRMC, the same counsel now voicing these tardy objections.
TLHCD’s attorneys also objected to a direct quote by counsel for the medical staff that points out a report critical of Tulare Regional Medical Center (TRMC) citing several unsafe and unacceptable conditions at the facility. TLHCD’s counsel claims the majority of the report’s negative findings were aimed at the medical staff. They also state that while it is true TRMC had no fire suppression system at the time it was audited and found to be deficient, the system has since been repaired. Counsel did not address the lack of a critical infection-control system, the state of the facility’s substandard kitchen, or the faults in its Quality Assessment Improvement Program. Counsel also failed to give documentation substantiating the claim the fire suppression system is now functional.
Finally, TLHCD’s attorneys claim “neither attorneys for TRMC or Sherrie Bell ever said Dr. (Anil) Patel threatened Ms. Bell’s life.” A lawsuit filed on December 14, 2014 in Tulare County Superior Court by the TLHCD Board against the MEC, Patel and other physicians states: “Specifically, Dr. Patel threatened physical harm and violence to Mrs. Bell, and described dragging her by her hair and smashing her head against the ground.” Filings in that case include a document signed by Bell attesting to the veracity of the claim against Patel. TLHCD’s council said Dr. Patel’s countersuit against Bell was dismissed with prejudice and that Patel and the MEC must pay the District’s court costs. Again, no documentation to substantiate these claims was provided.
Additionally, Dr. Rebecca Zulim, who now serves as chief of surgery for the replacement MEC, states she is not currently being reviewed for unsafe patient care. The article published by this paper did not make that assertion. It did, however, correctly point out that Zulim was previously investigated by the MEC. The outcome of that investigation is not known. The information regarding possible unsafe patient care by Zulim was also revealed in documents filed by TRMC’s attorneys. Information regarding the sanctions against Dr. Parmod Kumar that were to be completed three days after the removal of the medical staff was contained in TRMC’s filings with the court, as well.
Editor’s Note: This is a revised story from the 3/17/16 print edition, meant to further clarify some facts. Any comments made in the 3/17 print edition article are attributed to interviewed sources and are not a representation of the reporter or the Valley Voice. Because information came in after we went to print on 3/15 that corrected some of the statements of the people interviewed, the Valley Voice wanted these corrections integrated into the original article so everyone’s side is heard. Please also find a link to Tulare Regional Medical Center District’s lawyer’s letter and the court order ruling on 3/17 against the hospital staff on our facebook page. If needed, any corrections will be made in the next print edition of the Valley Voice, as well.
Editors’ note: After the publication of this story, the Valley Voice was alerted to errors in this story. The 135 staff members mentioned in the headline were not fired, but work at the hospital under new management. While a restraining order was sought, it was not issued. We will work to correct any other errors in this story in our next print issue as well.
Directors of the Tulare Local Health Care District (TLHCD) discharged the entire medical staff at Tulare Regional Medical Center (TRMC) during an unannounced and illegal meeting, and their attorneys were back in court this week to defend additional actions the California Medical Association and Tulare County Medical Society say violate state and federal law.
“One day, in secret, the elected district board voted to fire the medical staff, all 135 of them, and replaced them with a miraculous new medical staff that included a member of the Board, his wife and someone associated with Dr. (Benny) Benzeevi (CEO of Health Care Conglomerate Associates (HCCA), which operates TRMC),” said John D. Harwell, the attorney representing the Tulare Regional Medical Center Staff (TRMCS). “(The replacement staff) just sprung out of nowhere and announced they were a new medical staff, that they had bylaws and regulations, which is just astonishing, because bylaws and regulations take months to put together, not hours.”
Medical staff at all California hospitals are required by law to be independent bodies contracted by the facilities where they practice to prevent conflict of interest. At an illegally-noticed meeting held January 26 and again at a properly noticed special meeting held on February 15, the TLHCD Board voted to end the District’s contract without notifying the current Medical Executive Committee (MEC), an elected body that governs the Tulare Regional Medical Center Staff (TRMCS). At both meetings, the Board then contracted a replacement staff, this one known as the Tulare Regional Medical Center Professional Staff (TRMCPS). Both bodies include the same 135 people.
Harwell, who has represented medical staffs and physicians at various hospitals for nearly four decades, said the actions of TLHCD’s board are both illegal and completely without precedent.
“I’ve been doing this for 37 years, and not only I have I never seen this, I’ve never heard of it in the United States,” he said. “It’s the same as suggesting we fire them (TLHCD’s elected board).”
Both state and federal regulations require medical staffs maintain an independent status from the hospitals at which they work in order to establish a separation between employees who provide patient care and those responsible for the institutions’ financial well-being. The law also requires those medical staffs be self-governing, electing their own executive boards and holding separate meetings. It gives them sole right to select or remove medical staff officers.
“They make all the decisions for themselves by vote,” Harwell said. “The law is designed to have this separation of powers so you don’t have people who are economically tied to the hospital be the first line of defense in protection of patient care. That’s why self-governance is so important.”
The California Medical Association (CMA), in a letter dated January 29, said the TLHCD Board’s unilateral modification of TRMC’s staff is clearly illegal and violates several of those protective laws. The CMA has joined TRMCS in its lawsuit against the District. Also objecting is the Tulare County Medical Association.
Hospital Board Met Illegally
The alleged extralegal action by the TLHCD’s board took place at a meeting held in late January that was attended by TRMC’s former chief of staff, Dr. Abraham Betre.
“Every month we (TRMCS) have a meeting and decide what I’m going to present to the board,” he said. “On January 26, there was a board meeting. I attended as chief of staff. At that point they told me nothing about the plan to terminate the previous medical staff. The next day, I got emails from staff and Sherrie Bell (chair of the TLHCD Board) telling me we have a new staff.”
The TLHCD has admitted it violated the state’s open meeting act with that action, and it held a second meeting on February 15, repeating the modifications in an attempt to validate its previous action.
Restraining Order Applied For
Attorneys for both parties appeared in court in mid-February, and a temporary restraining order was applied for to prevent any further actions by the Board that might harm TRMC’s former medical staff. Because of late filings by lawyers for the District, a continuance in the case to March 17 was granted by Judge David Mathias, leading District counsel to puzzlingly declare a minor victory to local media.
In its filings, attorneys for the hospital said the board took the unilateral action to remove and replace the medical staff because it feared losing the ability to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients in the wake of a survey by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that found it did not meet several standards. In a statement filed with the court on behalf of the board, Benzeevi said he was told by a CMS surveyor TRMC could be shut down if it did not act “immediately to remedy the former (medical staff’s) many lapses in responsibility.”
Ironically, the work of Benzeevi, who is an emergency room physician, had been investigated by the TRMCS for poor quality of patient care.
Violations Widespread at Hospital
In its objections to Benzeevi’s sworn statements given via affidavit, as well as statements by Board Member Dr. Parmod Kumar, Bell, HCCA CFO/COO Alan Germany and ER physician Ronald Ostrum, attorneys for the medical staff say the hospital is only telling a small part of the story, and that the testimony is riddled with hearsay, inexpert opinions and baseless statements. The CMS report found violations throughout TRMC, some of them years old and affecting the facilities most critical functions.
“The reason they (CMS) were going to close the hospital was because the hospital’s fire and alarm suppression system had not been operational since October 2013,” Harwell said. “That’s not a good thing, and it’s not the doctors’ fault.”
Even more concerning, the CMS found TRMC does not have a functioning infection-control program in place. The person made responsible for that critical task is not qualified to do the job, Harwell said.
“The woman in charge had no idea what she was doing and had no idea how she got that job,” he said.
According to Harwell, the CMS report described TRMC’s kitchen as “filthy,” and its Quality Assessment Improvement Program (QAIP) was practically nonexistent.
“(The QAIP is) the way the medical staff has to look at the quality of medical care. The hospital stopped doing that sometime in 2014, and that’s also not the doctors’ fault,” Harwell said. “What the hospital has been telling the courts and the media isn’t the truth.”
In fact, the board’s actions, Harwell said, have done nothing but worsen the situation.
“There are lots of problems in this hospital we’d like to help fix, but they’ve taken away our ability to do that,” he said. “I don’t get this war. People on my side don’t seem to want this.”
Board Member, Doctors Under Investigation
The timing of the medical staff shake-up is highly suspicious.
Kumar, a gastroenterologist and member of the TLHCD Board, was ordered to take classes in anger management and medical record keeping by the TRMCS in order to maintain his right to practice at the hospital. The training was to be performed by January 29; the shake-up came just three days before Kumar’s deadline to complete that training or lose his hospital privileges. Kumar is now an officer on the replacement medical staff.
He did not respond to a request for an interview.
“This was nothing more than a transparent attempt by the District to protect one of its own from legitimate medical practice privilege review and discipline, and to retaliate against the Medical Staff,” a document filed by plaintiffs in the pending case states. Besides Benzeevi and Kumar, the TRMCS had also investigated the practice of Dr. Rebecca Zulim, who now serves as TRMC’s chief of surgery, for unsafe patient care.
Benzeevi also did not respond to repeated requests for an interview; Chairwoman Bell also failed to respond.
Medical Staff Office in Chaos
Problems with maintaining the medical staff’s training records have been ongoing for years, ousted chief of staff Betre said, and chaos in that office kept the District from retaining qualified individuals it hired to run it.
“Staff came and left. They were very, very qualified people, but as soon as they saw the medical staff director, they didn’t want to tarnish their reputation,” Betre said. “For the last year, they put a person who had no experience running medical staff or medical training in that office. She didn’t know what to do. In open session, I said they were jeopardizing the quality of health care for patients. I was frustrated, and I wanted people to hear what I was saying.”
The board’s choice of medical staff director is lowering TRMC’s ability to provide quality care, Harwell said.
“The person who’s running the medical staff now was recently a teller in a bank,” he said. “She might have been the best bank teller on Earth, but that doesn’t qualify her. It’s a rule-ridden, Byzantine process that takes years of experience.”
Terrorist Threats and Lawsuits
In another bizarre twist, attorneys for the District allege that Dr. Anil Patel, who was TRMC’s chief of staff and chair of the Medical Executive Committee (MEC) at the time, threatened the life of Bell during a meeting in 2014. According to Harwell, no witnesses could be found who were willing to substantiate that claim. The MEC and Patel subsequently sued Bell for defamation, alleging she called the staff terrorists and said they should “all be hanged.”
In a counter suit, Bell and the District said Patel had threatened to drag Bell outside by the hair and beat her head against the ground, and repeatedly claimed he would “kick her ass.” Patel is both vegetarian and pacifist, and Harwell said the allegations do not reflect Patel’s personality.
That is not the only example of TLHCD’s trouble with the law. In 2009, the TLHCD paid a $2.5 million settlement to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and signed a corporate integrity agreement following an investigation into allegedly illegal physician contracts.
Then, in 2013, TLHCD was back under DoJ’s scrutiny when former board member Roger McPhetridge alleged that Kumar was regularly seeing as many as 64 patients during four-hour shifts at the hospital’s Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). FQHC standards only allow a doctor to treat four patients per hour. According to reporting by the Financial Times of London, the DoJ investigation found Kumar may have pocketed $800,000 from 2010 to 2012 while working under an illegal contract.
Kumar and his wife, Dr. Parul Gupta, who was also employed at TLHCD’s FQHC, resigned from those positions during the course of the DoJ’s investigation into their action.
What Betre finds most disturbing about the situation is how the MEC’s right to govern itself was stripped away by fiat. Had staff wanted him gone, they could have easily removed him, he said.
“If you want to do it, you have to do it properly,” he said. “You can’t select a group of people you like and dismiss the ones you don’t. You don’t have self-governance if you do that.”
What TLHCD’s Board is attempting is a coup d’etat, he said.
“If I’m not representing the medical staff the way they want, they can recall me,” Betre said. “It is the same democratic process you use to remove the president, the mayor. You cannot just declare on your own you are the boss of everybody. The patient quality will go down if we do not have the right to say to the board this is how it has to be done.”
Nasty Rumors Not True
Also in the statements filed with the court on behalf of TLHCD are allegations members of the TRMCS were not providing enough patients to the hospital and were referring them to other facilities. This, according to the filings, was intended to harm the hospital.
However, requiring physicians to refer their patients to specific facilities is prohibited under state and federal law to avoid conflict of interest.
“I think people need to know the rumors they’re spreading that certain physicians are harming the hospital by sending (patients) elsewhere, that’s not true,” Betre said. “Also, they need to know it’s illegal for a physician to send a patient to a particular hospital. I cannot say to a patient, for instance, you can only go to Tulare Regional Medical Center. The assertion certain physicians are trying to harm the hospital is ridiculous.”
Harwell said such behavior by his clients would be counterproductive.
“We’re not going to say anything bad about this hospital,” he said. “It’s important to my doctors it be successful. This is the great tragedy of this war.”
42 thoughts on “Tulare Hospital Board Discharges Entire Medical Staff”
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Dr. Benveezy is as dirty as they come and should have never been given a medical degree.
They are dirty sad to say. They dont care about their employees. There’s a lot of things I can say about them as a former employee but I rather not because it would be embarrassing to them. That hospital needs to be shut down. And yes its true they don’t have an active fire alarm . wish I could say more but I won’t ,everything will come to the light.
Dr. Betre is a piece of shit Dr, if we can even call him that. Get all the facts straight and then talk about it. To the reporter writing this what a shame you would do put this in writing. You probably don’t even understand one perfect of the concepts being discussed and that attorney is so low. This shows how low Dr. Betre and the attorney is willing to play. If you are so concerned about Patient Quality anf your patients you should have done something about it while you were in power. He is just upset because he does not have a title anymore.
He is far from a piece of shit. He actually takes time with his patients and goes to the rural clinics where there is a need for more care because he cares! There isn’t money to be made in those rural care clinics. Whenever staffing is low in OB, Dr. Betre comes in to help the nurses, no manager or other OB physician there does the same. That is QUALITY CARE if I have ever seen it. Any time Dr. Betre has stood up for what is right in that hospital, whether it is for patients or staff, he gets shut down by the likes of a corrupt Benzeevi, Kumar, and Gupta. Not to mention Sherrie Bell, what qualifies her to be the president of the board? She’s awful, she talked terribly about that hospital in the community right in front of staff members in their scrubs. Before you attack someone’s character, get your facts straight.
As far as clinic services go, this was listed in the closed session from Dec 23, 2015 board meeting. Item B(1) – A motion was made by Linda Wilbourn not to pursue action against Dr. Chopra in connection
with the rural health clinic audit. Laura Gadke seconded the motion. The motion carried 5-0.
How is Kumar still on staff and where in his medical review is this story? California Doctor Found Liable in Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Posted by Staff Writer
December 18, 2002 12:00 AM
A California jury awarded $4.5 million last week to the family of a Tulare County man who died due to medical malpractice. Judy Staley and her two children filed the lawsuit against Dr. Parmod Kumar in connection with Stan Staley’s death. According to the plaintiffs, on June 13, 2000, Kumar performed an unnecessary endoscope………and there’s word that he’s perforated bowel’s of 2 patients.
He is so busy that he doesn’t make it to rounds until midnight or later. How can a family member be at the hospital to hear what’s going on with their loved one at that time? It’s ridiculous that this is allowed.
Read more: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MD82lux7md8J:news.legalexaminer.com/summaries.aspx%3Ftype%3Dcat%26keyword%3Dmajor%2Bmedical%26Page%3D119+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us#ixzz43Qo48yAE
I was in a similar situation with kaweah delta. As a staff member behind the walls. I spoke up against criminal acts and was only put on leave to be silenced. What I seen, know and the proof in emails and pictures needs to be published just like this to make Changes. Please contact me.
I’ve been a patient in that hospital I can say this some of the doctors are ok people then you have some that treat you like cattle and drug addicts. The there are some good nurse’s and some nurse’s who need a swift kick in the arse.along with the doctors who think their untouchable gods.
Kaweah Delta has same issues with fire panels, and black mold in patient food storage, much of the life saftey equipment that is required to be serviced monthly, 3-6-12 months had not been done in years. It Is my understandIng paperwork has been and Is currently still completed as done and billed to tax payers By some kind of tax find. One of the biggest problems is almost everyone in the Maintenance Department has work related injuries, due to lack of safety. The ventalation system to hospital was so out of date It Is hazardous for patiens. We have reported to EEOC and they have adopted findings. As a person in a position of safety I was blown away by violation after violation covered up. Sexual harasment of male an female staff by management still continues to this day. After Director of Facilities Rob D, Maintenance Manager Steve G, Human Resources personal Raleen V and to past staff from this department, Compliance Director Judy C and staff, alond with Lindsay Mann, can’t forget board of director’s. I personally reported criminal misconduct as was always redirected to move on to next project. Sorry about the bad grammer
Yes, I was forced to resign for reporting sexual harassment. What did they do after I reported the incident? Made up a bunch of bs excuses as to why I had to be fired. I complained to EEOC, but they found nothing. Either KDMC is turning a blind eye to this all or they really don’t give a hoot about the people working there. I enjoyed working there, but they did me dirty.
The facts are the facts , and it’s the best thing that could happen for Betre and Patel to lose the power they had!! The facts were seen on a daily basis! These doctors wanted to have power and yet saw the majority of their patients at other hospitals. Patel refers all his office patients to other facilities for lab work, and refuse to see inpatients. Better sees most of his patients at other hospitals. So why are they so angry if they never helped the hospital but only worked hard at getting the hospital shut down!!!!!
The reason they saw patients at other hospitals is because TRMC has been unstable for years. They initially got privileges at Kaweah when the hospital had 20 something days of cash on hand. If TRMC were to close, what were they supposed to do with their patients? The reason this happened is because Dr. Betre and the former medical staff were hot on the trail of Benzeevi, Kumar, and Gupta in the many ways they do the hospital injustice after injustice and not afraid to call them out. In the last three weeks, Benzeevi has sent two separate emails to hospital employees stating that they have been able to give raises while other hospitals have had to cut jobs….many employees at TRMC still have not seen this promised raise from HCCA. If you want to find your tower money, look in the pockets of the three above mentioned people.
You are 100% correct. The board can’t handle be called out or confronted on there misdoings. They create a smoke screen to draw attention away from their wrong doing.
Get your facts straight. Did you work in their offices? Are you one of their patients and swear under oath to go somewhere else?so then it is hear say. They are both very good physicians.
My dad was a patient of Dr. Patel’s and his labs were always done at TRMC lab, so I don’t know where you are getting your information from. The only reason Dr. Patel didn’t get to see my dad when he was at the hospital was because they had some BS “hospitalist” doctor that saw the patients. However when I called Dr. Patel with concerns regarding them wanting to discharge my dad before I thought he was ready, he got involved and took care of it. In my experience, Dr. Patel has been one of the best doctor I’ve dealt with in Tulare. He always took the time to listen to my concerns regarding my aging father, and went to see him at Twin Oaks to address my concerns there as well.
It appears they have gone one to far. The medical staff being unable to self-govern would be horrible for the public as a whole. But they must be allowed to self-govern without a board member that plays dictator and surrounds himself with yes people to keep things covered up. All the while taking tax payer dollars and using the hospital as his own personal playground.
Doctors don’t dictate where patients go – patients do. I have heard many times take me to Kaweah if anything happens.
Let this case play out and let’s get to the facts. Tulare needs to have comfort in knowing our hospital is governed safely and currently that appears to be sorely lacking.
Theyneed to do this to some of the nurse ve an investigation going on them. Cause I really thought that nurses can’t go through ur medical files
Dr. Kumar is not a gastrointestinal specialist. He is a general practitioner, hence a noncertifiable gastrointestinal physician.
Tulare should be ashamed and embarrassed by this mess!
Please check for yourself at either
American Board of Internal Medicine or
I am NOT being investigated for unsafe practices. I demand an immediate retraction and a public apology for your slanderous statement.
Rebecca Zulim, MD
Dr. Rebecca Zulim is the BEST AND MOST DEDICATED DR I have ever had the privilege to meet. She literally saved my husband’s life last March after his colon was punctured by another physician at the Tulare Hospital during a routine procedure. Please feel free to contact me.
You mention something in your comment that is an argument for self-governance of the physcians. Your husband’s colon was punctured during a routine procedure. Well what is the national average for colon perforations in a routine procedure? How does that compare to the MD that performed your husband’s procedure? Let’s say the MD used for your husband’s procedure was 5 times the national average, 10 times, 20 times. What level becomes unsafe? Who pays for bad outcomes? insurance? or does it get denied and the district pays for it?
True non biased self-governance is what is going to police that. Not an elected board with limited knowledge of healthcare. If we lay people start interfering in that process then how can we really be assured of competency and safety? Bad outcomes happen everywhere and if must be left up to the medical staff to address it within their bylaws.
It appears that now there has been interference into the process and the public is now being exposed to hearing the type of things that should be being discussed behind closed doors with their peers. Part of the process in peer review is determining if something was just a fluke, mistake of some sort or if there is a pattern of negligence or skill. Let medical staffs nationwide continue to self-govern.
Please paper stay the course do not let the bully thugs censore you. Our district has been raped by greed and power grabs, it is time for it to stop.
Well stated, this is the first real article that has been well written. The last person who covered TRMC board meetings and other issues always favored the board members for the Voice
Dr. Rebbeca Zulim is one of the Finest,Dedicated,Respectful and all around wonderful human being I have ever met. She saved my dads life several times after other so called Dr’s at KDH tried their best to kill him. She even came back early from vacations to help him. Taking time away from her family. She is very knowledgeable and KDH lost a great savior when she left them. Her name should never be associated or slandered in any way shape or form of this trash. My family and many others can never thank her enough.
Let’s stay on track! The issue is not and should not be any one MD. Definitely not only Dr. Betre, Dr. Patel or Dr. Zulim but the facility and its function as a whole. I am concerned enough about the standards of care to take my health care needs the Kaweah which as noted above is not without its issues. The healthcare industry definitely needs reform but I don’t have answers as to how. If an MD can vote himself raises and onto an MEC…..definitely that seems to be abuse of power. So hopefully the facts will play out in court and TRMC can begin to rebuild the facility it once was!
AMC…. I agree in regards to the entire medical staff at the hospital, mostly good hard working dedicated people. That said, the problem is and has always been with the Board of Directors…. they all need to be removed. They have become as malignant as cancer and are killing the health of our hospital.
Then those who live in the district should vote them out. It’s a public entity. And if no candidates ever appear on a ballot, those within the district should strive to remedy that.
Easier said than done, unfortunately. Too many Tulareans don’t bother to vote on anything or anyone, so the status quo continues.
Just turn the hospital into a strip club !!! These Drs and board members have more money than brains no common sense no intrigity no morals it’s all about there back pocket and corrupted secret agendas.
Being Vegetarian doesn’t make Dr. Patel cool person.
Here’s a list I found of vegetarians that were serial killers: Pol Pot, the notorious dictator of Cambodia; Charles Manson; and Ghenghis Khan. Additionally, William MacDonald, Australia’s most famous serial killer, was said to be vegetarian.
Internal rivalry between Indian physicians led for this mess. Dr. Kumar doesn’t get along with Dr. Prem Kamboj, Dr. Raman & Pretti Verma are at odds with Dr. Prem Kamboj, Dr. Chopra is an opportunist of this fight, Dr. Patel want things his ways. They all need to be removed to restore normalcy at Tulare hospital.
the only one on the board now is Kumar and he has been since 1994…..
And I’d like to know why they schedule so many ‘special’ meetings. A special meeting is only supposed to be held as an emergency…..not trying to vote on the new medical committee in Feb without 24 hr notice on the President’s Day holiday. Just trying to see what they can get away with. Very sad for our community.
Let start with the Prior MEC Dr Patel Dr Kanboj Dr Keseva Ext ext all need to be gone their main focus was not the patient or the staff it was focused on how to take down TRMC and that does not make for good practice. Yes they all hate each other and we the community and the employees are caught in the cross fire. ADVISE: if you want to hear the whole truth go to the court house and get the minutes then you will see everything the MEC was doing to prevent a safe environment and thank God for the dedicated staff all was well.
You are WRONG they have told the patients to go to other labs and diagnostic places to get work done and I have witnesses it first hand. Also, if Dr Patel want to come to hospital to see a patient he could other doctors do it all the time Dr Chiu Dr Kuo Dr Miyakawa ect So sorry for the person who mentioned he couldn’t come because of the Hospitalist LIE!
Next: read the California State reports about your neighboring hospitals even the Staff at KDDH says they have patient safety issues I know staff that has quit because of it.
Next: If you had Dr Zulim as your doctor you would be very lucky she is honest and just an all around respectful human being and if more Doctors were like here this would be a great world
Furthermore, the MEC Needs to move on I dare each one of you to take a lie detector test with question related the your mission for TRMC my family would be happy to pay for it. I personally know that Dr Patel has made some very serious remark to staff. And was reported for that. It is their responsibility to make sure things are running smooth and with numerous report from staff to MEC about a certain Doctor that needed to be gone and they ignored it. That is not in the best interest of TRMC.
It’s very hard to get rid of an MEC so with that said go get the MINUTES from the court house and read everything they were doing to destroy TRMC. Then if after that those are the type of Doctors you want taking care of you, MORE POWER TO YOU!
The hillman clinic is just as bad as trmc. Doctors come in over an hour late and still see more than 4 patients in an hour, Dr kumar refers his patients to Dr Gupta and Dr chopra, chopra does that same as soodoes Dr gupta, they pass the patient around, 75% there is no need for it.
The staff that’s now running the clinics are also “yes sir” ! Staff, all they hire for office position are people that will never go against the doctors poor patient care.
Anita Paul Rn, Kathleen Campbell and new Rn. Have no idea on how to run a clinic, J CO should come in and test them . They never done floor care so they too become Dr kumars, Dr Gupta and Dr chopras “yes sir” staff.
Samantha Bland is the only person I know that strictly by the books and has no alliance with anyone.


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Vintage Sunset Airlines Sign
Our Sunset Airlines vintage sign features a tropical beauty on an advertisement for island tours. Printed directly to a distressed wood panel that has knots and other imperfections, each sign takes on the appearance of having weathered the elements for years. You can customize the wording on your sign to change the destination or the name of the airline to create a personal piece of decor that brings a bit of vacation to your home or office.
- Measures 15"x26", 20"x32", or 25"x40"
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- Ships in 2-3 weeks

domain: design


text:
Jack Whitaker claims victory in the Winter Grand Prix at Science Supplements Onley Grounds Equestrian Complex Ltd
Wednesday 05 January 2022
Last night saw Science Supplements Onley Grounds Equestrian Complex Ltd host the sixth Winter Grand Prix at their Winter Classic Show and it was Jack Whitaker from Whatton, Nottingham riding Negredo de Muze owned by his father Michael Whitaker who claimed victory.
A starting field of forty-seven combinations came forward to tackle the thirteen fence course designed by David Cole, with thirteen jumping clear to come forward for the jump off. The nine year-old bay gelding was accurately steered round the nine fence jump off track by Jack to take the win stopping the clock in 43.11 seconds.
Close on their heels and taking second place was Nottinghamshire’s Louise Saywell riding Kings Borough Kasper a nine year-old black stallion owned by Ian Dowie crossing the finish line clear in 43.27 seconds. Third place was filled by Joseph Fernyhough and Iejoor clear in a time of 44.46 seconds.
NB: Results pending official grading
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domain: news


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Blue and Gold Polyester Satin Fabric SCM094
Panel fabric in polyester satin very light and semitransparent with an antique rome style print.
In total there are 4 rectangles in a remnant with two different prints.
A fantasy is on bright yellow tones, ocher, electric blue, periwinkle blue and natural white.
The other print instead is predominantly electric blue, periwinkle blue with some touches of yellow and ocher.
This fabric has imperfections in the print.

domain: artistic


text: Alien Isolation has finally launched on the Nintendo Switch and the 2014 original on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One certainly received its fair share of praise from horror fans. Digital Foundry has recently gone hands-on with the newly released Switch version (which is available right now on the eShop) and have come away impressed with what the developers have accomplished. The team actually says that the Nintendo Switch version actually has better image quality than the notoriously jaggy PlayStation 4 version. That’s quite some accomplishment. Have a watch of their verdict in the video right here.


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Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. Investment Losses
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. filed for bankruptcy in October. According to reports, this will have an impact on three business development companies (BDCs) that are invested in the company.
The 3 BDCs that are invested are: Ares Capital (ARCC), Apollo Investment (AINV) and Triangle Capital(TCAP).
According to BDC Credit Reporter the impact of bankruptcy and possible reorganization will be very different for each BDC. TCAP appears to just have a $500,000 equity investment, which is already marked to zero. That will probably become a realized loss.
ARCC has $40mn lent to the Garden Fresh, but all in senior secured form and marked at par as of June 2016. There is a possibility that ARCC will remain as lender or be repaid in full. However, there is always the risk of Chapter 7 liquidation. Then ARCC may face losses.
The remainder of exposure is held by AINV, according to BDC Reporter, both in first lien and second lien loans, as well as equity.
Bad news for Apollo Investment– $62mn has been invested in Garden Fresh and if the restructuring is not successful 90% or more of the exposure will get written off.
Business Development Companies (BDCs)
BDCs typically invest in debt of small and medium sized businesses. When those businesses are profitable, so is the BDC. However, BDCs often invest in businesses that were unable to secure bank loans and debt considered below investment grade.
BDCs are likely to be carrying non-secured debt in companies that have a higher risk of bankruptcy. Most BDCs seek to have their loans protected by receiving a property interest or equity in the companies they invest in. By doing this, the BDCs increase their chances of salvaging some of the investment’s value in the case of a bankruptcy.
In addition, BDCs typically are high commission products that carry significant upfront fees. The resemblance BDCs share with another high commission and illiquid product, Non-traded REITs, has drawn the attention of securities regulators. Brokers that sell BDCs are advised to firmly adhere to suitability requirements when recommending BDCs to clients.
Brokers have a fiduciary duty to perform due diligence on any investment and to insure that investment recommendations are consistent with their client’s age, net worth, risk tolerance, investment experience and objectives, risk tolerance. If a broker overlooks suitability requirements, investors may have an actionable claim to recover their losses in a product in a claim through FINRA dispute resolution.
Recovery of Investment Losses
If you have questions about your investment in a nontraded BDC and would like to speak to a securities attorney about your potential to recover losses through FINRA arbitration, please call The White Law Group at 1-888-637-5510 for a free consultation.
The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Vero Beach, Florida.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at www.WhiteSecuritiesLaw.com.
Tags: Apollo Investment (AINV) BDC, Apollo Investment investigation, Apollo Investment news, Ares Capital (ARCC) BDC, Ares capital default, Ares Capital Losses, Ares Capital news, Ares Capital risks, Ares Capital update, BDC risks Last modified: March 21, 2024

domain: economics


Grove Rough Terrain Cranes
Grove Rough Terrain cranes boast three steering modes, compact & rugged design, boom telescoping even under load, comfortable and ergonomic cab with intuitive and easy controls. These characteristics make Grove rough terrain cranes versatile, easy to use and ready to work for long hours, minimising the fatigue of the operator. At Mi-Jack Canada we carry a full line of New Grove rough terrain cranes. Please contact your Mi-Jack Canada representative for more information on the full line.


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How to Sell Anything to Anybody Paperback – February 7, 2006
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Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-- Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking
"Joe Girard is the Michelangelo and Tiger Woods of sales."
-- Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible
"The world's greatest salesperson offers the world's greatest selling techniques."
-- Chip R. Bell, coauthor of Beep! Beep! Competing in the Age of the Road Runner
"World's Greatest Salesman"
-- The Guinness Book Of World Records
About the Author
More About the AuthorsDiscover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Top Customer Reviews
Reading this little book helped me take on a saleperson's identity in that he seemed to understand hesitations that I had that had prevented me from closing deals as a self-employed person. Also, his "birddog system," where he teaches you to easily receive referrals from others, even if you have not done business with them.
Read this book no matter how many books you have read on this subject. You will become more confident, creative and wealthy.
Despite being written in 1977, many ideas in this book are as true today as they were then. Girard's "Law of 250" explains how the treatment of even one customer can have a significant impact on your future sales. Now that business complaints can be aired through Twitter, Facebook, blogs and message boards, the time has never been better to heed Girard's warnings.
The author appropriately suggests that you're more likely to land a sale if you can connect with the prospect in some way, and this is generally true for people calling the sales line on a website. Girard's ideas about frequent mailouts can also be applied to how efficient subscription based emails and newsletters can be.
The book offers insight on the power of referrals, especially when it involves paying a fee for the favor. In 2011, we know from psychological studies how powerful "social proof" is, and how we're more likely to get a sale when someone vouches for a particular product or business. Girard's "birddogging" ideas certainly fit in with affiliate advertising, and promotion through social networking sites.
Chapter 15, titled "Selling the Smell", suggests that the best way to convert a prospect is to sell them on experiences. Based on what we know about writing benefits-based sales copy on websites, his idea certainly holds true.
Girard's suggestions on cold-calling are no longer as effective thanks to "do not call" lists.Read more ›
He starts off by giving his own personal history, which is interesting reading, but not really what I am here for. He then goes into selling lessons, and for anyone that has built a sales business (and thinks of their selling as running their own business), he really lays out some good stuff. He talks about how to build a referal network, how to brand yourself in the market place, the importance of taking care of your customers and your coworkers, building and maintaing your contact lists, the importance of high activities and many other lessons.
As I sales manager, I would take out some of his chapters and give them to my sales people to read because I thought they were so good. The chapter on "Don't Join the Club" is worth the purchase price of the book if you are an inside sales person or a manager of them.
Easy read, you will knock it out in a couple hours. Highly recommend.
this is the author, and the book..........I first read this book in the early 80"s........when someone I knew reccomended it to me, well after reading it and doing some soul searching, and reading some of Joe's other books, I began to excell in sales, and have done so ever since, and I have used these principles, to stay at the top of my game, all these years later.........truly a excellent read.........
Also, the info, with a few exceptions is vague filler. I would have rather paid a buck for a 20 page book, which was all that was needed.
The funny thing is that the title sold me, so I guess he was doing something right there.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of my friends recommended this to me. It was helpful and entertaining :D I have NOT been compensated or given the product at a cheap price for this review. Read morePublished 5 days ago by Neer NFar
The power of good customer relationship building is what comes through when you read this book. I read it some years ago but the principles are still true today.Published 8 days ago by Bruce Jenkins
Its a classic for a reason. I don't care if you sell 20 million dollar homes or hot dogs. You'll sell more after reading this.Published 1 month ago by Michael Saul
I'd recommend this book to anyone who's trying to figure out what selling is about-the customer. The principles Joe used to achieve what he did can be seen in most successful... Read morePublished 1 month ago by Douw-Steyn Lessing
Joe Girard did not disappoint. Great advice on selling anything to anyone. What a life he has led! Great inspiration.Published 2 months ago by Brad
Great information that you can apply to all areas of selling. I enjoy most self-development books. Joe Girard makes it clear that while there are many "best selling... Read morePublished 2 months ago by Scott A. Wedemeyer, Sr.

domain: literature


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Quavo drops three singles
Quavo dropped three new tunes. The Migos member teased the release on social media Thursday afternoon (Aug. 9), writing: “Droppin new drop tonight, yessirr.” The Canadian hitmaker Murda Beatz quoted the tweet and applied a series of emojis that suggested he was involved.
The singles were released midnight (Aug. 10) and they are called “Lamb Talk,” “Bubblegum,” and “Workin Me.” These tracks follow his DJ Khaled, Chance the Rapper, and Justin Bieber collaboration “No Brainer.”
Earlier this year, Migos shared their latest album Culture II. Quavo recently jumped on Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” remix with Nicki Minaj and teamed up with Drake on 2 Chainz’s “Bigger Than You.”


Culture has always been reflected in our entertainment, one way or another. Comic books are no different. Since Marvel has waded into the Social Justice Warrior camp, it was only a matter of time before a counterbalance was introduced. Queue the latest grassroots funded project in comics, Alt-Hero.
How Did We Get Here?
Over the last few years, it’s been a bit painful to be a fan of comic books. Between writers looking to physically assault and blacklist vocal fans to a leftist ideology being blatantly shoved down our throats. It’s as if major comic book companies have been working tirelessly to alienate their readers. A lot of this has to do with comics being less of a platform to explore current cultural struggles and changes, and more of a platform for a few select wannabe social engineers.
So when Alt-Hero came to my attention, I wasn’t really shocked. Such as it is in the real world. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and Alt-Hero in my honest opinion is that reaction.
For years we’ve been talked down to as fans. We’re sexists, homophobic, and any combination of a preapproved set of keywords. If you don’t like the writing of a superhero, it has nothing to do with the poor product, but the fact you dislike them on a personal level. If you’re upset that instead of creating new characters to reflect the changes in society, many creative teams would rather retcon classic characters, you just hate (Insert Group of The Week Here) and as such you’re a bad person. What is being ignored is that in our geek culture, we’re sticklers for maintaining canon and consistent details. Just ask Star Trek fans about some of Discovery’s issues with retconning.
This is how we got here. The elite within the industry would rather say we’re haters than admit that they’ve made very poor choices in their staff and products over the years.
What is Alt-Hero?
Alt-Hero, in itself, is beyond its own title. It goes right into the genre of alternative history. For example, what if the Japanese didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor? It’s a similar concept to Philip K. Dick’s classic The Man In the High Castle. Here is the description on the Freestartr website.
Alt★Hero is a world not too terribly different than our own. It is a world where the Wehrmacht generals overthrew Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1939, and where the first atomic bomb was dropped on the order of Reichskanzler Jodl on Soviet territory in 1944, leading to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1956. It is a world where Japan attacked Australia instead of Pearl Harbor and China occupies the Korean Peninsula. It is a world of four superpowers, where the European Union rivals the United States of America for wealth and influence, and where China and Russia possess the two most formidable militaries on the planet.
And Alt★Hero is a world of newly discovered superhumans.
Each nation or national groups have approached the new emergence of super-powered humans. Both Russia and China draft them into their respective militaries. While it seems like a run of the mill alternative history story, Alt-Hero is very clear on its own political leanings.
It’s very clear that in the lens of the story, we’re seeing a very Trump-like approach with heroes getting tough on the border and protecting the innocent. The book looks like it will also explore how the United Nations deals with American superheroes. Just based on the initial pitch, it doesn’t look like a lot of superheroes are on board with the United Nations. It’s possible these unregistered superheroes will have some run-ins with the registered ones.
While the comic is in your face with its politics, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. As I stated above, it’s the result of the pendulum of comics swinging back against the narrative built by Social Justice Warriors against the will of the readers.
Who is Behind Alt-Hero?
Theodore Robert Beale, known better as Vox Day, is the writer behind Alt-Hero. He’s a well-known figure in right wing circles. Day is no stranger to writing, he’s been doing it for decades. Day has dipped into many artistic fields such as music and science fiction. He’s worked on a couple of video games including Rebel Moon in 1995 and War in Heaven in the late 90s. Currently, Day works as editor of the publishing company he founded Castalia House which had two novels win Dragon Awards in 2016.
Vox Day will be teaming up with Chuck Dixon, who is known for his work on the Punisher at Marvel as well as Batman, Nightwing, and Robin at DC Comics. He’s also the co-creator of Bane.
Dixon and Day will also be joined by Jon Del Arroz who is known for his space opera novel, Star Realms: Rescue Run.
Culture Wars and You!
With Marvel’s sales still declining, despite a minor respite with the new Legacy initiative, and fewer and fewer fans lining up each just to be spat on, it’s no wonder why this shift hasn’t happened sooner. Since the beginning of Gamergate, the dams have broken and the veil was lifted on those in the background acting as puppet masters attempting to steer popular culture in order to fit their own narratives. Comics and video games aren’t the only battlegrounds in our ever-expanding culture wars.
More and more are we witnessing a less subtle push towards the agenda of the political left in our entertainment. It’s become less about cultural commentary and more of politically motivated propaganda. Just look at the characters in most television shows. Anyone who holds any semblance of basic Christian orthodoxy in their theology is demonized and painted as a hypocrite to be mocked. You believe in traditional marriage, then you’re a closeted homosexual or bigot. Just watch your career go to ruin if they find out. If you don’t believe in income redistribution then you hate the poor.
For years the left has been using entertainment platforms to push their beliefs into households in an effort to shift cultural attitudes in their favor. In some regards, it’s been both successful and a failure.
Its success is in the farther leftward push of our society and political parties on a host of issues from immigration to healthcare, property rights, and taxes. We’re seeing a greater amount of acceptance of a leftist view on these issues, especially among Millennials. But the failure has been the pushback received online and off by people who do not share these values. The left-right diagram no longer is able to explain away the reason why people hold the beliefs they do. Even those who consider themselves on the left on all the issues have decried the tactics and goals of their fellow left-wing peers.
Ignore at your Own Risk
Marvel has even admitted that their push of the Social Justice Warrior agenda has been responsible for their falling sales over the last few years. Imagine that, talking down to your audience is a bad thing. At some point, they will have no choice but to look in the mirror and see they cannot pay the bills by throwing readers under the bus.
That’s the beauty of the free market. It allows us, the readers, to hold sway over the actions of those who wish to sell us a product. Now, is cultural commentary a bad thing? Of course not, and that is where comics in the past have done some of it’s the best work. But there is a major difference between commentary and propaganda. Commenting on a subject can bring an issue to light. But it’s not usually the focus of the story or how the story is marketed. The commentary is nuance to world building and character growth and the relationships between the characters and the world.
Propaganda tends to be an easier subject. This is what we’ve seen over the last few years. The co-opting of characters to force them to fit into a fixed mold. The characters are then warped to preach the creators’ own personal beliefs. It’s lazy and frankly just awful to read. It get’s worse when you combine that lazy behavior with the demonization of your own audience. This is why something like Alt-Hero has come along. It’s a response to poor behavior.
I stated this very early in this article. Alt-Hero is a reaction, and one none of us should be very surprised at. Just like in the real world, comics are meant to reflect the battles of the current times in one way or another. So it’s no real shock to see this come alive. Alt-Hero itself was able to reach its crowdfunding goal in less than four hours. Yeah, you read that right, only four hours.
It’s obvious there is a market for something other than Social Justice Comics. Just take a gander at the comic book sales over the last few months. Year to date comics sales are down 10% and total units are down 6.71%. It paints a pretty bleak picture and shows that many of the current comic stories are being rejected.
Does this mean that comics should be bland, blind entertainment? Of course not! There’s a difference between propaganda and cultural commentary, and for far too long within the comic book world, propaganda took the driver’s seat.
What do you think? Is Alt-Hero the by-product of ignored and forgotten readers? Or is it just another pawn in our raging culture wars?


Model year 2013 Can-Am Commander™ equipped with Dynamic Power Steering (DPS)
What are the defects?
Steering coupling splines may strip on rack and pinion assembly.
What are the hazards?
In some circumstances, this situation may result in a loss of steering control and possibly cause injuries or even death.
What should consumers do?
BRP intends to repair your vehicle free of charge. The parts required to provide the remedy to this condition should start being available at the end of June.
BRP recommends to avoid driving your vehicle until the final repair is performed.
In the meantime, if you must use your vehicle, please contact your BRP Can-Am side-by-side dealer and make an appointment to have your vehicle verified.
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Following the verification, if you still choose to use your vehicle, be aware that you must respect the following:
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From about the 1980s onwards, the increasing application of molecular data (particularly the sequences of ribosomal RNA genes) to bacterial phylogeny meant that what had previously been an intractable mass of diversity began to emerge into some sort of order. One of the major new groups of bacteria to be recognised in this way was the Proteobacteria, a hyperdiverse array that includes many of those bacteria of direct significance to ourselves. Within this bacterial supergroup, the phylogeneticists also resolved five major subgroups that, in the absence of any more obvious markers, they labelled alphabetically: the alpha, beta, gamma, delta and epsilon Proteobacteria. Eventually these convenient labels would become formalised, and it is with the group known as the Alphaproteobacteria that I am concerned today.
Like the other proteobacterial lineages, the Alphaproteobacteria are diverse in features and habits. To the best of my knowledge, no uniting characteristic has yet been identified for members of this group other than their shared ribosomal heritage. Many of the Alphaproteobacteria are associated with anoxic habitats. Many are at least facultatively photosynthetic, obtaining energy from sunlight by means of bacteriochlorophyll a and/or carotenoids; these factors give such bacteria a purple coloration. Other Alphaproteobacteria are intracellular parasites of eukaryotes, including a number that are of medical significance to humans. Earlier posts on this site have covered particular subgroups of the Alphaproteobacteria: the nitrogen fixers and plant pathogens of the Rhizobiales, and the diverse order Rhodospirillales. Another group of Proteobacteria, the Epsilonproteobacteria, was the subject of another post.
A recent study of Alphaproteobacteria ribosomal phylogeny by Ferla et al. (2013) recognised three major lineages within the group which they dubbed the Magnetococcidae, Rickettsidae and Caulobacteridae. The Caulobacteridae include the greater number of the named free-living Alphaproteobacteria: both of the orders covered in earlier posts, for instance, belong to this lineage. Detailed coverage of the various members of Caulobacteridae would fill a book, so I’ll just mention some highlights. The earlier post on Rhodospirillales mentioned the family Acetobacteraceae, but one important detail I neglected to mention was that many members of this family obtain their energy by oxidising ethanol to acetic acid: these are the bacteria responsible for producing ethanol. Also potentially belonging to the Rhodospirillales is Sporospirillum, a candidate genus of enormous bacteria that have been found in the intestines of tadpoles. Individuals of Sporospirillum reach up to one-tenth of a millimetre in length, potentially large enough to be observed with a standard dissecting microscope, though they are only up to 5 µm in width. Because Sporospirillum have never been cultured or studied from a molecular perspective, their relationships remain uncertain: they may alternatively belong to the Spirillaceae, a family of the Betaproteobacteria (Brenner et al. 2005).
Also belonging to the Caulobacteridae are the Caulobacterales. As recognised by Ferla et al. (2013), this order contains two families, the Caulobacteraceae and Hyphomonadaceae. Many (but not all) of the members of these families have a distinctive life cycle, in which a previously motile individual loses its flagellum and grows an elongate stalk. This now-immotile individual then produces a motile offspring by budding at one end. The manner of budding differs between the two families: in the Caulobacteraceae, the stalk functions as an attachment to the substrate and the offspring buds from the unattached end of the cell, but in the Hyphomonadaceae the stalk is not an attachment organ and the offspring buds from the end of the stalk. Similar modes of growth and budding are found in other families of the Caulobacteridae, such as the Hyphomicrobiaceae in the Rhizobiales.
The other subclasses of the Alphaproteobacteria are smaller than the Caulobacteridae in terms of numbers of named species, but this may reflect our low appreciation of bacterial diversity more than environmental reality. The Magnetococcidae are represented by only a single named species, Magnetococcus marinus. This is an aquatic chemolithoautotroph, obtaining energy from sulphur compounds. Cells of Magnetococcus contain a row of magnetic particles that the bacterium uses to orient itself. Though only one species of magnetococcid has been named to date, environmental DNA samples indicate that many more await description (Bazylinski et al. 2013).
The named members of the Rickettsidae are mostly placed in the order Rickettsiales, an assemblage of intracellular parasites of eukaryotes. This order contains two families, the Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae; a third family, the Holosporaceae, that contains intracellular endosymbionts of large protozoans such as Paramecium and Acanthamoeba, was found by Ferla et al. (2013) to be potentially closer to the Caulobacteridae than the Rickettsidae. Members of the Rickettsiales of significance to humans include those causing such diseases as typhus or spotted fever. The Anaplasmataceae also includes the genus Wolbachia which has come under the spotlight in recent years for the significance that its effects on reproductive compatibility may have for the evolution of insects.
The only free-living bacterium associated with the Rickettsidae to date is the marine Pelagibacter ubique but, again, environmental DNA samples suggest that this is merely a representative of a larger undescribed group, commonly referred to as the ‘SAR11’ clade. Indeed, Pelagibacter and its relatives may be the most numerous organisms on the entire planet, making up about a third of the planktonic cells in the surface layers of the world’s oceans (Morris et al. 2002). Even by bacterial standards, Pelagibacter cells are small, and it has one of the smallest known genomes for any free-living organisms.
There is one final important subgroup of the alphaproteobacterial lineage that I haven’t mentioned yet: us. At some point in the distant past, a member of the Alphaproteobacteria developed a close and personal relationship with another micro-organism, either a member of the Archaea or a close relative thereof. Phylogenetic studies indicate that this early alphaproteobacterium was probably a close relative of the Rickettsiales. Over time, this relationship became ever closer, until the one became inseparable from the other. Together, these two microbes were to give rise to the eukaryotes, with the alphaproteobacteria becoming transformed into the mitochondria of a eukaryote cell. From the perspective of descent, then, we are all Alphaproteobacteria.
Bazylinski, D. A., T. J. Williams, C. T. Lefèvre, R. J. Berg, C. L. Zhang, S. S. Bowser, A. J. Dean & T. J. Beveridge. 2013. Magnetococcus marinus gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine, magnetotactic bacterium that represents a novel lineage (Magnetococcaceae fam. nov., Magnetococcales ord. nov.) at the base of the Alphaproteobacteria. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 63: 801–808.
Brenner, D. J., N. R. Krieg & J. T. Staley. 2005. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology 2nd ed. vol. 2 pt C. The Alpha-, Beta-, Delta-, and Epsilonproteobacteria. Springer.
Ferla, M. P., J. C. Thrash, S. J. Giovannoni & W. M. Patrick. 2013. New rRNA gene-based phylogenies of the Alphaproteobacteria provide perspective on major groups, mitochondrial ancestry and phylogenetic instability. PLoS One 8 (12): e83383. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083383.
Morris, R. M., M. S. Rappé, S. A. Connon, K. L. Vergin, W. A. Siebold, C. A. Carlson & S. J. Giovannoni. 2002. SAR11 clade dominates ocean surface bacterioplankton communities. Nature 420: 806–810.

domain: biology


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I don’t know what the real answer is, but I’d imagine that it’s somewhere around
Contending with an overflowing jar of starter, we decided to start a few things, but every recipe that we started called for very little of the starter (~25 grams) except the last one.
The recipes for the waffles (the only completed project thus far) is as follows (via Northwest Sourdough):
A tasty Sourdough Waffle recipe.
Makes approximately 10 – 8 inch round waffles.
Add together in first bowl:
- 2 cups sourdough starter
- 1 cup milk(or instead, use one cup warm water + 1/2 cup dry milk)
- 4 beaten eggs
- 3 Tablespoons sugar or use 2 Tablespoons of malt syrup
- 1 cube butter melted, cooled slightly or 1/2 cup of oil
In second bowl mix together:
- 2 &1/2 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add more water if batter is too thick (waffle batter needs to be on the thin side but not too thin! ). Heat your waffle iron to it’s hottest setting, because sourdough needs really hot temps, cook, enjoy!
We fiddled with this recipe a bit. We mixed the starter, milk, eggs, butter, flour, and salt together, and replaced the malt syrup with brown rice syrup. We let that rise overnight and added the baking soda and powder the next morning. These waffles were very bready and the “oven” spring was remarkable. So much so that the iron started to open! All told, it made 21 square waffles (the recipe says 8-10 round ones). We’ll definitely try it again, perhaps with a bit more salt, 1 less egg, and more butter (did anyone else not know that 1 cube of butter = 1/4 stick?)
Stay tuned for more updates about projects 1-3.

domain: food


This story is no longer being updated. Check here for the latest coverage on Hurricane Ian.
FLORIDA (KXAN) — After it’s initial landfall in Cuba, Hurricane Ian made landfall along the Florida Coast Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane at 3:10 p.m. ET with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph.
After weakening briefly to a tropical storm, Ian regained hurricane strength and made a second U.S. landfall at 2:05 p.m. ET near Georgetown, South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
Ian is now a post-tropical storm. It has lost many of its tropical qualities.
A 1-in-1,000 year rain event is taking place in Central Florida with more than 14 inches of rain in 12 hours from the hurricane. Rare Flash Flood Emergencies were issued Wednesday night.
This was Florida’s first hurricane landfall since Hurricane Michael on Oct. 10, 2018. Michael was a devastating Category 5 storm in the Panhandle with winds up to 161 mph when it made landfall near Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City.


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At least twice every day, there are more than 50 reinforcers in one place, reinforcers that we often forget to use—the dog’s dinner bowl. No trainer should waste an opportunity like that!
Food bowl training is perfect for those behaviors that need a high rate of reinforcement. Here is an exercise that I use to help dogs love being at my side. Success with this behavior helps to get dogs ready for loose-leash walking.
With my dog off-leash at mealtime, I simply walk with my hungry dog and click and treat for the dog being at my side—treating one piece at a time. I shape for closer and closer proximity to me. Make it a fun dinner game for your dog. After just a few sessions, you’ll see that this is a fast and fun exercise that you and your dog will both enjoy.

domain: pet


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Welcome to our coastal store
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My mother's recipe for more than 30 years of making classic, peel and eat or just cooked shrimp. With a little practice it will work every time to deliver an...
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The Wahoo Blue SC Speed and Cadence Sensor transforms your iPhone or Android phone into a powerful cycling computer. Using Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ technology, it tracks cycling speed, cadence, and distance which can be paired with your favorite cycling app including Cyclemeter and Strava. It's weatherproof, small with a low drag profile, and comes with a rubber band and zip tie mounts for easy installation. • Measures instantaneous bike speed and pedaling cadence • Mounts on rear chain stay and uses spoke and crank magnets to track bike speed and pedal rotations per minute • Bluetooth 4.0 (aka Bluetooth Smart) wireless technology • Does not require any extra hardware for use • Long-lasting, replaceable coin cell battery; no need for extra cables or recharging • Water and shock proof: IPX7 Certified • Weight: 39 grams
Designed for performance and navigation ELEMNT BOLT is the first, fully aerodynamic GPS bike computer! Its patent pending design creates an integrated system of computer and mount which results in a CFD (Computational Fluid Design) tested, highly aerodynamic system built to be on the front of your bicycle. Equipped with Bluetooth Smart and ANT+ dual-band technology, ELEMNT BOLT pairs seamlessly with all of your cycling sensors. It works with our free ELEMNT companion app which allows you to set up your data fields, customize profiles, track performance, and share ride data effortlessly - no more confusing menus! Plus, programmable LED QuickLook Indicators provide a quick way to see if you're on pace with important performance metrics like speed, heart rate, and power. Designed for performance and engineered for simplicity - the ELEMNT BOLT GPS bike computer helps make every second count. In The Box: ELEMNT BOLT Unit - Integrated Out-front Mount - Stem Mount - Quick Start Guide
ELEMNT BOLT is purposefully built to provide a simple, intuitive ride experience in a sleek, aerodynamic design. This GPS bike computer features a 2.2 inch, 64 color screen with ambient light sensor to make it easy to see the metrics that matter most, at a glance. Perfect View Zoom, Quicklook LEDs and customizable data pages allow you to personalize your device setup to ensure it's a helpful companion from the beginning to the end of your ride. With 16GB of memory and on-device navigation features, ELEMNT BOLT can store the maps and routes you need to keep you on track and re-route on the fly. BOLT has a battery life of 15 hours and can be charged mid-ride thanks to its USB-C charging. Equipped with Bluetooth Smart, ANT+ and WiFi technology, ELEMNT BOLT pairs seamlessly with all of your cycling sensors and complimentary devices to get the most of your time training. Designed for performance and engineered for simplicity - the ELEMNT BOLT GPS Bike Computer makes every second count. The ELEMNT BOLT is a fully integrated GPS bike computer, with a full list of compatible hardware and smartphone apps. - Unique to Wahoo, the integrated out-front mount creates a cohesive system of the ELEMNT BOLT unit and mount for a sleek look and smooth riding. - The thin, lightweight, and damage-resistant Gorilla Glass helps ELEMNT BOLT can stand up to the toughest conditions. - Automatically adjusts screen brightness and LED lights as lighting conditions change both indoors and outdoors. - Vibrant, crystal clear 64-color 2.2" (55.88mm) display makes seeing your data and routes easier than ever. - A truly wireless bike computer with no plugin required (except to charge it)! There's no need to connect to your laptop to sync ride data, download maps, or update software. All of this can be done via WiFi, Bluetooth, or ANT+. - The free ELEMNT Companion App effortlessly guides you through a step-by-step set-up so that you can create customized user profiles, track performance, update maps and firmware, and share ride data effortlessly. - Integrated GPS with simple, crisp maps so you're ready wherever you are in the world. - Full support and integration with Specialized ANGi crash detection sensors What’s in the Box: -ELEMNT BOLT Unit -Integrated Out-front Mount -Stem Mount -Zip Ties -USB-C charging Cable -Quick Start Guide -Important Product Info Guide ELEMNT BOLT IS A STANDALONE BIKE COMPUTER A smartphone is necessary for setup and to have phone, email, and alert features. ELEMNT COMPANION APP SUPPORTED DEVICES IPHONE/IPAD iOS 11 or newer ANDROID Please visit our support site to check for Android compatibility.
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Apple has released a new Safari 14.1 update for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users after pulling it just a few days ago, due to several reported issues. Apple first started rolling out Safari 14.1 on April 26, to fix browser fixes security vulnerabilities in WebKit, but this reportedly caused several browsing issues in both Safari and other browsers. As a result, Apple then pulled the update on May 1, and has now started the rollout again, still under the version number 14.1.
Apple announced the recommencement of Safari 14.1 rollout with two WebKit fixes for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users. After installing this update, the build number for Safari 14.1 is 156126.96.36.199.7 on macOS Catalina and 146188.8.131.52.7 on macOS Mojave. The two issues that have been fixed include an integer overflow problem that processed maliciously crafted web content that could potentially lead to arbitrary code execution. This issue was addressed with improved input validation. The other was a memory corruption issue that could also lead to arbitrary code execution. This was addressed with improved state management.
According to the support page, the rollout of Safari 14.1 was started again on May 4, for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave. For users on Big Sur, macOS 11.3.1 was released on May 3, and also contains updates that resolve these WebKit vulnerabilities so users should update their OS as soon as possible.
Safari update caused random issues with browsing
When the update first rolled out it caused problems for many users who took to Apple Support Communities complaining of issues cropping up after updating to Safari 14.1 released on April 26. One user reported that the new version breaks functionality on popular websites like eBay. Several other sites were also constantly failing to load pages and were throwing out repeated requests to reload.
We dive into all things Apple — iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV 4K, and AirTag — this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.


“Now scientists have discovered a vital clue to unraveling these riddles. The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as “junk” but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.”
“A groundbreaking paper in Nature reports the results of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, which has detected evidence of function for the “vast majority” of the human genome. Titled “An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome,” the paper finds an “unprecedented number of functional elements,” where “a surprisingly large amount of the human genome” appears functional. Based upon current knowledge, the paper concludes that at least 80% of the human genome is now known to be functional”.


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The Nigerian Institute of Soil Sciences on has trained Ebonyi farmers and agricultural extension agents on the protection and management of soil resources.
Prof. James Nwite, the institute’s Representative in Ebonyi, said during the training in Abakaliki that it was inaugural in the state and was authorised by its zonal and national offices.
Nwite said that the training aimed at having experts train farmers, extension agents and other agricultural production stakeholders, on soil resources protection and management.
“The trainees are expected to utilise the knowledge gained from the training to improve their agricultural production systems for higher productivity.
“This will ultimately ensure food security in the state and country under sustainable environment,”
He noted that there was a nexus between concepts of soil protection and management, good agricultural practices and sustainable soil management.
“The training will highlight the common objective of these thematic areas in increasing productivity, resilience and mitigation of environmental degradation.
“NISS since its inception in 2017, has always fulfilled its mandate of ensuring sustainable management of the country’s soil resources.
“We understand that soil is a natural gift from nature which makes its protection paramount,”.
Prof. Clement Okonkwo, a Resource Person at the training said the participants would be educated on managing soil acidity due to the acidic nature of soils in Ebonyi.
Okonkwo who tutors at the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, said that the participants would know that the amount of hydrogen iron concentration in the soii determines its acidity.
“They should know whether the soil is acidic or alkaline and also the measures to take when confronted with acidic soil situations.
“They can apply lime to mitigate the acidity and organic materials as fertilizers.
“Waste products from welders such as carbides, ash from wood among others can be used as lime”.
Mr Okike Onwuasoanya, the General Manager of the state Agricultural Development Programme commended the institute for the training, noting that it would tremendously benefit farmers and extension agents.
“We would continue collaborating with agencies and organisations who impact modern agricultural techniques into our farmers and extension agents,”.
Miss Oluchi Nwode, a participant at the programme also commended the institute and pledged to utilise the knowledge gained from the training to enhance her farming undertakings.

domain: agronomy