He's my man!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Last modified Wednesday, January 31, 2007 5:26 AM PST
State Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth listens to Larry Saunders of Saunders Ranch in Fallbrook as Saunders talks about his problems collecting on insurance claims related to crop damage.
DAVID CARLSON Staff Photographer
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State senator aims to help growers
By: NICOLE SACK - Staff Writer
TEMECULA -- State Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth introduced legislation Tuesday to "soften the blow" of January's cold snap that hit growers statewide and caused more than $1 billion worth of damage to California crops.
Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, has introduced three bills offering tax breaks for California farmers who suffered crop loss as well as those facing long-term recovery to damaged groves and nurseries.
"The growers in San Diego and Riverside counties that I represent, as well as farmers in more than 20 other counties around the state, have suffered tremendous damage from this freeze," Hollingsworth said in a press conference at the Calavo avocado packing house in Temecula. "Their losses will be in the millions and could last for years."
While the official numbers are yet to be released, representatives from the California Farm Bureau Federation estimate the statewide damage to crops to be $1.1 billion. Steve Pastor, executive director for Riverside County Farm Bureau, said more than $86 million of damage was done to this county's crops alone.
"This disastrous freeze wiped out crops overnight," Pastor said. "These measures are going to be good to help farmers get back on their feet."
The first bill introduced by Hollingsworth, SB 148, would provide a property tax exemption for fruit and nut trees severely damaged by the cold. The exemptions would be available to farmers for the next four years. The trees, although mature, would not be assessed at full value while they recover from the freeze.
Carlos Vasquez, field operations manager for Calavo, said it will take about two years for damaged avocado trees to again produce fruit. But during that time, farmers must maintain the groves.
"These growers will have no income coming in, but will still be incurring costs," Vasquez said. "The effects of this freeze will carry through the year."
The second bill, SB 149, would offer a sales tax exemption for materials farmers used to fight the cold snap, such as natural gas, gasoline and other fuels used to warm groves, orchards and greenhouses.
The successive nights of low temperatures, which dipped into the 20s from Jan. 12 to 16, took a severe toll on citrus fruit. While there have been widespread losses, the California Farm Bureau Federation reported frost-protection measures taken by farmers did succeed to some degree.
To make the tax breaks more timely, Hollingsworth is also pushing a third bill, SB 114, that would allow farmers to deduct losses against their prior year's income, as well as carry operating losses forward for five years.
The trio of bills has been introduced in the state Senate. No further action has been taken as the official language of the bills is being reviewed by the rules committee.
Hollingsworth hopes to fast-track the measures. The property tax relief bill would have to be approved prior to property assessments, which could delay the tax breaks if the Legislature drags its feet. Once approved, the freeze relief would be effective for four years, said Hollingsworth spokeswoman Erica Holloway. The exemptions would be on the 2007 tax rolls, she said.
While Hollingsworth's initiatives were welcomed, area growers asked if more immediate relief could be offered.
Larry Saunders, a Fallbrook avocado grower, said he wants the state to help expedite Federal Crop Insurance reimbursements, which he says generally take one year to be paid out.
"The losses are known; our premiums are paid. I know that the federal government subsidizes our insurance, but my loss is my loss," Saunders said. "It is not in the benefit of the farmer to have to wait a year to get some help."
Avocados have begun to drop from trees as a result of freeze damage to the fruit stems, what growers call "chill drop." Freezing temperatures weaken the stems and cause fruit to drop from the trees prematurely. The freeze could also harm buds for next season's avocado crop, Vasquez said.
The damage is also visible, said Chuck Bandy, avocado division manager for McMillan Farm Management.
"It looks like a flame thrower was taken to these trees," Bandy said. "Soon the trees will look like skeletons. They will regrow, but won't produce for two years. Growers are going to need assistance to make it through the next few years."
-- Contact staff writer Nicole Sack (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/31/business/news/4_03_361_30_07.txt
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
'Little Caesars' Franchised Veterans Program
Pizza chain targets vets
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT - Just in time for Veterans Day, Mike Ilitch, Little Caesars founder, plans to launch a program that would make it easier for American veterans to open their own pizza businesses.
The Little Caesars Veterans Program offers a reduction on the franchise fee, credit on the first equipment order and financing. The offer is even better for disabled veterans, who would have the entire $20,000 franchise fee waived for their first store.
Honorably discharged veterans will receive up to $10,000 in benefits toward starting a new Little Caesars franchise. Service-disabled veterans are eligible for up to $68,000 for starting a franchise. A typical Little Caesars store costs $175,000 to $300,000 to build and equip, said David Scrivano, Little Caesars president.
The Detroit-based Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. plans to announce the program on Saturday, which is Veterans Day. It is the company's way of providing business opportunities for veterans who are making the transition to civilian life.
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT - Just in time for Veterans Day, Mike Ilitch, Little Caesars founder, plans to launch a program that would make it easier for American veterans to open their own pizza businesses.
The Little Caesars Veterans Program offers a reduction on the franchise fee, credit on the first equipment order and financing. The offer is even better for disabled veterans, who would have the entire $20,000 franchise fee waived for their first store.
Honorably discharged veterans will receive up to $10,000 in benefits toward starting a new Little Caesars franchise. Service-disabled veterans are eligible for up to $68,000 for starting a franchise. A typical Little Caesars store costs $175,000 to $300,000 to build and equip, said David Scrivano, Little Caesars president.
The Detroit-based Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. plans to announce the program on Saturday, which is Veterans Day. It is the company's way of providing business opportunities for veterans who are making the transition to civilian life.
Huge settlement unearthed near Stonehenge
Hugh Settlement unearthed near Stonehenge.
Jan. 30, 2007
Courtesy National Geographic
and World Science staff
Excavations near England’s vast Stonehenge rock monument have revealed an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds, archaeologists said Tueday. They say the houses were probably constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge—the legendary, mysterious circle of massive stones on England’s Salisbury Plain.
The Sun shining through the Stonehenge monument. Sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices—the longest and shortest days of the year respectively—were the key times when the Sun would shine through the monument. (Courtesy centennialofflight.gov)
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“The whole valley appears full of houses,” said archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of the U.K.’s Sheffield University. “In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards.”
The houses were dated to 2600-2500 B.C., the same period Stonehenge rose—one reason the researchers concluded the occupants erected Stonehenge. The homes would form the largest Neolithic, or late-Stone Age, village ever found in Britain; a few similar Neolithic houses have been found in the Orkney Islands off Scotland.
Parker Pearson said the discoveries help confirm a theory that Stonehenge didn’t stand alone but was part of a much larger religious complex used for funerary ritual. The settlement was found at Durrington Walls, a part of this complex that is some 1,400 feet across and encloses a series of concentric rings of huge timber posts, he said. Only small areas of Durrington Walls, located less than two miles from better-known Stonehenge, have been investigated by archaeologists.
Parker Pearson argues that Stonehenge and Durrington Walls were intimately connected: Durrington’s purpose was to celebrate life and deposit the dead in the river for transport to the afterlife, while Stonehenge was a memorial and even final resting place for some of the dead.
Stonehenge’s avenue, discovered in the 18th century, is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, while the Durrington avenue lines up with midsummer solstice sunset. Similarly, the Durrington timber circle was aligned with midwinter solstice sunrise, archaeologists said, while Stonehenge’s giant trilithon—a structure of three stones—framed the midwinter solstice sunset.
Eight of the houses’ remains were excavated in September in the Stonehenge Riverside Project, led by Parker Pearson and five other U.K. archaeologists. Six of the floors were found well-preserved. Each house once measured about 16 feet square and had a clay floor and central hearth. The team found 4,600-year-old debris strewn across floors, postholes and slots that once anchored wooden furniture, long since disintegrated.
Durrington, Parker Pearson believes, drew people from all over the region. They came for massive midwinter feasts, where prodigious quantities of food were consumed. Abundant animal bones and pottery, in quantities unparalleled elsewhere in Britain at the time, attest to this idea, he said.
After feasting, Parker Pearson theorizes, the people traveled down the avenue to deposit their dead in the River Avon flowing towards Stonehenge. They then moved along Stonehenge Avenue to the monument, where they would cremate and bury a selected few of their dead. Stonehenge was a place for these people, who worshipped their ancestors, to commune with the spirits of those who had died, the researchers proposed.
Durrington appears “very much a place of the living,” said Parker Pearson. In contrast, no one ever lived at the stone circle at Stonehenge, which was the largest cemetery in Britain of its time: Stonehenge is thought to contain 250 cremations. The findings of the new research, funded by the National Geographic Society, were announced in a teleconference on Tuesday.
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http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070130_durrington.htm
Jan. 30, 2007
Courtesy National Geographic
and World Science staff
Excavations near England’s vast Stonehenge rock monument have revealed an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds, archaeologists said Tueday. They say the houses were probably constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge—the legendary, mysterious circle of massive stones on England’s Salisbury Plain.
The Sun shining through the Stonehenge monument. Sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices—the longest and shortest days of the year respectively—were the key times when the Sun would shine through the monument. (Courtesy centennialofflight.gov)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The whole valley appears full of houses,” said archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of the U.K.’s Sheffield University. “In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards.”
The houses were dated to 2600-2500 B.C., the same period Stonehenge rose—one reason the researchers concluded the occupants erected Stonehenge. The homes would form the largest Neolithic, or late-Stone Age, village ever found in Britain; a few similar Neolithic houses have been found in the Orkney Islands off Scotland.
Parker Pearson said the discoveries help confirm a theory that Stonehenge didn’t stand alone but was part of a much larger religious complex used for funerary ritual. The settlement was found at Durrington Walls, a part of this complex that is some 1,400 feet across and encloses a series of concentric rings of huge timber posts, he said. Only small areas of Durrington Walls, located less than two miles from better-known Stonehenge, have been investigated by archaeologists.
Parker Pearson argues that Stonehenge and Durrington Walls were intimately connected: Durrington’s purpose was to celebrate life and deposit the dead in the river for transport to the afterlife, while Stonehenge was a memorial and even final resting place for some of the dead.
Stonehenge’s avenue, discovered in the 18th century, is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, while the Durrington avenue lines up with midsummer solstice sunset. Similarly, the Durrington timber circle was aligned with midwinter solstice sunrise, archaeologists said, while Stonehenge’s giant trilithon—a structure of three stones—framed the midwinter solstice sunset.
Eight of the houses’ remains were excavated in September in the Stonehenge Riverside Project, led by Parker Pearson and five other U.K. archaeologists. Six of the floors were found well-preserved. Each house once measured about 16 feet square and had a clay floor and central hearth. The team found 4,600-year-old debris strewn across floors, postholes and slots that once anchored wooden furniture, long since disintegrated.
Durrington, Parker Pearson believes, drew people from all over the region. They came for massive midwinter feasts, where prodigious quantities of food were consumed. Abundant animal bones and pottery, in quantities unparalleled elsewhere in Britain at the time, attest to this idea, he said.
After feasting, Parker Pearson theorizes, the people traveled down the avenue to deposit their dead in the River Avon flowing towards Stonehenge. They then moved along Stonehenge Avenue to the monument, where they would cremate and bury a selected few of their dead. Stonehenge was a place for these people, who worshipped their ancestors, to commune with the spirits of those who had died, the researchers proposed.
Durrington appears “very much a place of the living,” said Parker Pearson. In contrast, no one ever lived at the stone circle at Stonehenge, which was the largest cemetery in Britain of its time: Stonehenge is thought to contain 250 cremations. The findings of the new research, funded by the National Geographic Society, were announced in a teleconference on Tuesday.
* * *
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070130_durrington.htm
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