Third storm in less than week drenches NorCal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Residents of Northern California hunkered down Sunday as a powerful storm drenched the area with yet another round of pounding rain and strong winds.

The latest storm system ? the third to hit the area in less than a week ? moved across the region late Saturday and early Sunday dropping as much as an inch of rain per hour in some areas, toppling trees and knocking out electrical service to tens of thousands of people, officials said.

With rivers across Northern California swelling from the deluge, the National Weather Service warned that several rivers were in danger of topping their banks Sunday afternoon or early Monday.

Flood warnings were in effect for the Napa and Russian rivers, two rivers north of San Francisco with a history of flooding, as well as the Truckee River, near Lake Tahoe.

"We've been in preparation mode since Thursday," said Barry Martin, a spokesman for the city of Napa.

In bracing for the storm, city officials had handed out more than 8,000 sandbags and about 150 tons of sand, Martin said.

The Napa River was expected to surpass flood stage Sunday afternoon, though most of the flooding was expected to be in agricultural areas outside of the city of Napa, officials said.

In Sonoma County, the Russian River was expected to top its banks Monday morning, forecasters said.

Elsewhere, officials were preparing for flooding near Truckee, Calif. a small town of about 16,000, as the Truckee River neared the top of its banks.

But weather officials were heartened by the speed in which the system moved through the area, meaning rainfall amounts could be less than predicted. And with colder temperatures than expected in the mountains, more snow and less rain was falling.

"I'm not sure by how much it could lower the flood threat yet," said Gary Barbato, a NWS hydrologist said early Sunday. "Maybe dramatically but we'll have to see," he said.

In far Northern California, flood warnings remained in effect Sunday for the Eel, Navarro and Mad rivers.

Meanwhile, around 94,000 people from Santa Cruz to Eureka, including about 21,000 people in the San Francisco Bay area, were without electricity Sunday as the powerful winds from the storm knocked down trees and sent broken tree limbs and branches across power lines, said Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Joe Molica.

"It really did broadside California," Molica said of the storm.

About 2,000 PG&E crews were working Sunday to try to restore power, Molica said.

Wind gusts, recorded as high as 60 miles per hour in parts of the Bay area, were blamed for knocking over a big rig truck as it drove over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge at around 5 a.m. Sunday.

Tow crews had to wait for the winds to subside later in the morning before they could remove the truck, officials said.

Also train service on the Bay Area Rapid Transit was disrupted for about an hour Sunday morning because of an electrical outage blamed on the weather.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/third-storm-less-week-drenches-norcal-202343739.html

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Advice On Do It Yourself Home Improvement | Pest Control Experts

Consider a charlotte exterminators home improvement project if you have a growing family, or you want to have a larger living space. The things you can do to improve your home are literally limitless. Read on for ways to revolutionize the way you view your home.

A contractor can be a great resource when you want to choose a pest control greenville home improvement project that will make your home worth more. They are generally aware of which projects will best enhance the value of your home and can provide useful suggestions regarding what you should tackle.

You can start a long-term home improvement plan by prioritizing the different rooms you want to work on. Remember, you don?t have to improve your whole house at once; you can just do a room at a time to manage your time and funds. Once you have a plan, look around for sales on the supplies that you will need. Planning ahead is a smart way for you to save money when you are improving your home.

Save money when it comes to kitchen remodeling through refinishing the cabinets that you have, as opposed to replacing them. Paint all of the bases and replace the doors and hardware to get a new look. That will allow you to modernize the kitchen without paying too much.

Natural wood cabinets are a great idea if you are considering changing things in the kitchen. In addition to be being durable, they are able to survive pretty much anything. Some of the more common woods for cabinetry include maple, oak and cherry. Feel free to paint your cabinets or stain them if you want a more original color.

Many older homes were constructed with only one bathroom. Have you though about how that would fit in your lifestyle? The amount of bathrooms in a home can determine its worth. Adding a new bathroom can really boost the financial value of your house.

Don?t overlook landscaping when looking to home improvements projects. The lawn in the front of the home is the very first thing that people will see; if it looks good, the entire house seems impressive. Trim the grass and design landscaping that features both flowering plants and shrubs to create the best looking lawn in town.

Switching to CFL bulbs saves both money and energy, but knowing how to properly clean up a broken bulb is essential. You need to evacuate the area for a while, to allow the mercury to air out. Use duct tape to clean up the small pieces of glass. Place the broken light bulb in two bags, vacuum completely and empty the canister right away.

Instead of using a table lamp, choose a floor lamp; this will free up much-needed space on your nightstand. Floor lamps can be moved to your desired location, while a table lamp uses table space. Pick a lamp that has a good design that you could appreciate.

Now that you are armed with a few solid tips to guide you, making a sound decision regarding home improvement should seem less daunting. Remember, quality home improvements to your home will not only allow you to have a more desirable space but will also improve the overall value of your home.

Source: http://pestcontrolexperts.edublogs.org/2012/12/02/advice-on-do-it-yourself-home-improvement/

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Source: http://komenalager.blogspot.com/2012/12/advice-on-do-it-yourself-home.html

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Bed bugs found in two NH nursing homes ? Health ? Bangor Daily ...

KEENE, N.H. ? A second Cheshire County nursing home is battling bed bugs.

Representatives with Westwood Care and Rehabilitation Center and officials with the city of Keene confirmed Wednesday the Main Street nursing home facility has bed bugs. A Winchester facility owned by the same company has also been identified as having the bugs.

?We do have bed bugs, and we?re working to eliminate them,? Westwood Administrator Michael Johnson said Thursday.

Meanwhile, a N.H. House subcommittee is examining ways to deal with bed bugs in the state.

The bed bugs in Keene were first discovered Nov. 19, and an exterminator was immediately contacted to address the issue, Johnson said.

?We have had three sightings all isolated to one unit,? he said. A unit consists of multiple rooms.

Johnson said he doesn?t know how the bed bugs got into Westwood, but doesn?t believe their arrival is linked to another nursing center.

Earlier this fall, bed bugs were found at Applewood Care and Rehabilitation Center in Winchester.

Applewood and Westwood are owned by SunBridge Healthcare, which is part of the Sun Healthcare Group Inc.

Westwood is licensed to have 85 residents.

Johnson said educational information about bed bugs has been provided to Westwood residents, families and staff. Families of residents whose rooms were affected were notified, he said.

The educational information included a presentation to explain Westwood?s plan of action to eradicate the bed bugs and data from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, he said.

In addition, Westwood staff have been informed of precautions and procedures regarding bed bugs, he said.

Going forward, Westwood ?will continue to follow the guidance of our service provider, and as a precautionary measure, have them perform ongoing checks? for bed bugs, Johnson said.

John Rogers, code and inspections manager for the city of Keene, said his office recorded a complaint about bed bugs at Westwood on Nov. 20, and did an inspection of the facility Nov. 21.

?They already had conducted an inspection of the facility, and found evidence of bed bugs in three or four rooms. They had also contacted a professional company to do inspections and treat for bed bugs,? he said

New Hampshire doesn?t have any regulations pertaining to addressing a bed bug infestation, and because bed bugs don?t carry diseases, an infestation doesn?t have to be reported to local or state health departments.

Rogers said that if his department receives a complaint about a bed bug infestation, it approaches the situation by means of a city ordinance in which infestations aren?t allowed in housing.

?At that point in time, we require the property owner to take care of the situation, and we recommend they use a professional service,? he said.

A property owner would also be required to have a plan to prevent future bed bug infestations, he said.

?We receive about six to 10 complaints about bed bugs a year. We assume this is just the tip of the iceberg,? he said.

Philip J. Alexakos, chief of environmental health and emergency preparedness for Manchester and a representative on the state Legislature?s Bed Bug Subcommittee, said dealing with bed bugs is a complex problem, and one that isn?t easily solved.

?It?s not as simple as putting out a trap or spraying chemicals to get rid of them. It?s an ongoing process,? he said.

Bed bugs were eradicated from the United States after World War II with the use of DDT and other pesticides, he said.

With the use of those chemicals now more controlled, bed bugs developing a resistance to them, and with the increased frequency of people traveling, bed bugs have made a comeback, he said.

The Bed Bug Subcommittee, which is under the N.H. House?s Health and Human Services Oversight Committee, hopes to present a report within the first few months of the new legislative session, he said.

The subcommittee?s work has included collecting state bed bug data and looking at bed bug policies in other states, including New York and Maine, he said.

?Bed bugs are non-discriminating. They just want a blood meal,? he said.

The subcommittee, which grew out of the Bed Bug Action Committee in Manchester, knows that educating people about bed bugs is important to addressing the problem, and informing them of the best practices for dealing with them is key, he said. The state also needs to find a better way to track the problem, he said.

Bedbugs are small, oval insects that feed on the blood of mammals and birds. They often hide in cracks and crevices, and can live in furniture, cushions, mattresses and walls.

Bed bugs can be prevented by inspecting clothing and luggage before it enters a home after a trip, and by checking used clothing and furniture for bugs.

Heat treatments and chemicals applied by an exterminator are the most effective ways to get rid of bed bugs.

?This problem isn?t going away anytime soon,? Alexakos said.

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Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/01/health/bed-bugs-found-in-two-nh-nursing-homes/

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Web Design Helps in Improving your Search Engine Rankings ...

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There is not even an iota of doubt in stating that web design plays a pivotal role in enhancing the appeal of a website among the vast number of online audience. It is the sheer layout of a website that helps in drawing the attention of the online visitors. And it also plays a decisive role in transforming an online visitor to a potential customer. All companies in today?s world focus on this aspect of business as it helps them to maintain the reputation and goodwill of their business.

Especially small business ventures that face a tough competition from various other small concerns need to focus on the design of the website. A good web design helps a website to be more user-friendly and easy to access. Below mentioned are some great benefits that pone will be able to get with the help of a proper web design.

• Efficient promotion of business ? A good design definitely helps in booting the presence of a website on the vast online platform. With the advent of internet, marketing a product has become quite easy. You can easily reach to a worldwide audience simultaneously and let them know about the products and services you are dealing with. However, there lies the actual challenge. The website that is more enticing in your niche will definitely draw more traffic attention.
• Reduced costs ? A web design service can help in reducing your expense. A well designed website can itself advertise its products and simultaneously deal with it too. That way you will not have to implement other modes of advertisements to gain online recognition for your company.
• Helps in enhancing user experience ? Effective web design helps in enhancing the surfing experience of the online visitors. They will be able to locate the required things quite easily. A good web designer will always ensure a proper display of company and product information, thereby helping the visitors in surfing.

These are some of the ways in which a good web design can help in improving your website?s online presence. A good web design will also help in enhancing the visual experience of a website, which will further help in drawing more traffic to it. Eventually you will find your website climbing up the ladder of success with a good rank on the leading search engines.

Author?s bio ? James is a freelance writer who is most often blogging about web design, web development, and gadgets. James is normally writing about how to utilize a?Web site Builder?to create a site, how to grow your site through social media, and how to blog to the best of your ability. James has been writing online for 3 years now.?

This entry was posted on 30 November 2012 at 14:59 and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Source: http://www.ourbusinessnews.com/web-design-helps-in-improving-your-search-engine-rankings

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ANALYSIS: Mexico president seeks new start with US

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto prior to their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012.

Maria Camila Bernal, Telemundo

News analysis

Mexico's new president Enrique Pe?a Nieto is surely hoping his inauguration on Saturday will help his country turn a new page in the relationship with its huge northern neighbor.

After all, Mexico is dogged by a six-year drug war that has claimed about 60,000 lives, pervasive corruption and an image problem around the world. So Pe?a Nieto will want to emphasize what the violence and the negative headlines obscure: Mexico's growing economy, swelling middle class and deepening economic and social ties with the U.S.

A recent editorial by Pe?a Nieto, who is returning to power the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional),?the authoritarian party that ruled Mexico for more than 70 years, shed light on the new president's pivot.

"It is a mistake to limit our bilateral relationship to drugs and security concerns,"?he wrote in The Washington Post ahead of Tuesday's meeting with President Barack Obama. "Our mutual interests are too vast and complex to be restricted in this short-sighted way."

Pe?a Nieto hopes to reframe US-Mexico relations in meeting with Obama

Indeed, the fact that Pe?a Nieto was the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Obama's reelection highlights the importance both countries place on their ties.

"This is a longstanding tradition where ? we meet early with the president-elect of Mexico because it symbolizes the extraordinary relationship between the two countries," Obama told reporters at a joint press conference.

De-emphasize drug war?
Pe?a Nieto's predecessor Felipe Calderon made the war on drugs his most important domestic issue, former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Casta?eda told NBC Latino.

"What I think Pe?a Nieto wants to do is emphasize reducing violence and violent crime in Mexico -- kidnapping, extortion, homicide, holdups -- and not so much the drug trade," he said.

Latin America expert: US-Mexico relations to focus on trade, not drug war

While Mexico's new president has promised to expand the federal police by at least 35,000 in order to deal with crime, Pe?a Nieto and the PRI will have a brief period to show the United States and the world that they are truly tackling lawlessness and corruption.

"The honeymoon will end when the United States realizes that he will continue to allow corruption," Mexican economist Rogelio Ramirez de la O, who advised left-wing challenger in the presidential race, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

But there is no denying that significant ties bind the two countries. Already, Mexico and the United States are part of NAFTA, the world's biggest trading bloc, with Canada.

Mexico's president wants to change country's name to the one 'we sing'

"Perhaps the most important issue is finding new ways to bolster our economic and trade relationship to attain common prosperity in our nations," Pe?a Nieto wrote in the Washington Post article.

Mexico markets itself as a manufacturing base for foreign companies, and already Coca-Cola, GM, DuPont and Nissan, among others, have operations in the country. Pe?a Nieto has also promised to open the country's?sizable?energy sector to private investment, although he has said that energy resources and the country's state-run oil company PEMEX will not be privatized.

The country's economy is also expected to continue growing faster than the United States. Mexico's GPD is projected to have grown by 3.9 percent in 2012, compared to 2.1 percent in the United States during the same period, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion.

Immigration reform
Both presidents acknowledged another major issue facing both countries during Tuesday's meeting: immigration.

Despite constant bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race

"I know (Pe?a Nieto is) interested in what we do as well on issues like comprehensive immigration reform," Obama said.

At an estimated 12 million, Mexicans are by far the largest immigrant group in the United States. And around 7 million, or 59 percent of undocumented immigrants, are thought to have come from Mexico.

While Obama decreed earlier this year that hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants who went to the United States illegally as young children would be entitled to remain, the promise he made in 2008 to reform immigration has not been fulfilled. On the flip side of the migration coin are the estimated 1 million Americans living in Mexico, and the estimated 10 million who visit every year.

Read more on NBCLatino.com

Barbara Franco, director of The American Benevolent Society, a 140-year-old aid organization for Americans living in Mexico, acknowledged the many issues facing the new president, and said solutions did not lie only with Pe?a Nieto or the PRI alone.

"There is an economic concern, the need of transparency and the overall legal system in the application of law starting form traffic violation to everything else," said Franco. "But the problems are so huge that it's not about political party or a specific person, it's about a general attitude in solving these problems."

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15564555-mexico-seeks-to-pivot-relationship-with-us-as-new-president-takes-office?lite

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Bill OK'd requiring search warrant for email

1 day

Richard Lardner , Associated Press

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved legislation that would require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge, and not just a subpoena from a prosecutor,?before accessing the content of all emails and other private information from Google, Yahoo and other Internet providers. Under the current law, the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a warrant is needed only for emails less than 6 months old.

The full Senate is expected to vote on the legislation next year.

"This is an important gain for privacy," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement. "We are very happy that the committee voted that all electronic content like emails, photos and other communications held by companies like Google and Facebook should be protected with a search warrant.?We believe law enforcement should use the same standard to search your inbox that they do to search your home."

Still, the bill won't keep federal agents from combing through your inbox if they believe a crime has been committed, legal experts say. Federal and state authorities still will have a robust set of tools to track down lawbreakers even as these officials oppose changes supported by a broad coalition of technology companies and public interest groups.

Supporters of the bill, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., say the changes are necessary to overhaul a law that is outdated in an era of cloud computing, cheaper electronic storage, social networking and wireless phones. Such advances in technology have dramatically increased the amount of stored communications in ways no one anticipated a quarter of a century ago.

The approval is "a major step forward in efforts to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act The current law must be updated to address the tremendous technological advances that have taken place in the last 25 years. Congress must ensure that information Americans store in the cloud receives the same level of protection as the information stored in their homes," said?David LeDuc, senior director of public policy for the Software & Information Industry Association trade group.

The Justice Department has resisted the changes. The associate deputy attorney general, James Baker, urged the committee last year to consider the adverse impact on criminal and national security investigations if a warrant were the only means for law enforcement officials to obtain emails and other digital files.

But setting the bar higher doesn't prevent law enforcement agencies from doing their jobs, according to current and former prosecutors, judges and attorneys who specialize in privacy issues. Federal law enforcement authorities in four Midwestern and Southern states have been working with the more demanding warrant requirement since 2010 after an appeals court ruled warrantless access to emails was unconstitutional. To get a warrant, a judge must have proof of probable cause that a crime is being committed.

"I don't see anything (in the Senate bill) that's going to seriously concern law enforcement in terms of our ability to request warrants and to get the contents of the material that we need," said Joseph Cassilly, the state's attorney in Harford County, Md., and a former president of the National District Attorneys Association. "Since you've already got to get warrants for the stuff that's less than 180 days, it's obviously not an insurmountable standard."

Nor does the legislation weaken other methods used by law enforcement for collecting electronic information. A subpoena signed by a federal prosecutor ? not a judge ? will continue to be sufficient for obtaining routing data from third-party Internet providers that can identify the sender of an email and the location where the message was sent.

Police also can use what is known as a "D order" to get the "to" and "from" addresses of an email, but not the contents. These orders must be issued by a judge, but the agency seeking one need only show there is reasonable suspicion of a crime ? a lower legal standard than probable cause.

In a Nov. 21 letter to Leahy, 30 former federal and state prosecutors and judges said the bill would provide "a much needed judicial check on when the government can access our private digital information." Concerns that the bill would keep law enforcement from acting quickly during emergencies are unfounded, they added, because the Senate bill does not change a provision in the existing law that compels third-party providers to give the government information in situations where lives are at risk or children are being exploited or abused.

Digital Due Process, a wide-ranging coalition that includes Google, Microsoft and Twitter, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, has mounted a public relations campaign supporting the Senate bill. The coalition says updating the law will clear the "murky legal landscape" for companies and consumers alike and provide the proper safeguards for the vast amounts of information stored in server farms.

There's money at stake, too. The global market for cloud computing via the Internet is estimated to be $240 billion by 2020. But the Business Software Alliance, a coalition member that represents Apple, Intel and Microsoft, said U.S. cloud providers are at a disadvantage unless online privacy and security laws are changed. If consumers aren't sure their information is being properly protected on the remote, networked computer servers that make up the cloud, they'll take their business elsewhere.

Use of the law has been interpreted inconsistently by the courts, further fuel for those pushing for an overhaul. In a 2010 decision, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that an Ohio businessman's constitutional rights were violated when federal investigators obtained thousands of his emails without warrants. Now investigators in states covered by the 6th Circuit ? Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee ? must obtain warrants for all emails. But that's not the law in other federal circuits.

In the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, Washington, Oregon and six other Western states, judges ruled that a search warrant was required for both opened and unopened email, but only if left on a server for less than 180 days. The Justice Department has argued that a search warrant is required for unopened email left on a server for less than 180 days, but not for opened email less than 180 days old.

The decisions mean different rules apply depending where an investigation begins. How should emails be treated if a case starts in Pennsylvania and the messages are stored on a server in California, the hub for Google, Yahoo and other major Internet businesses?

"It's very confusing," said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "Law enforcement will never admit this, but a uniform search warrant standard is easier for them."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NBC?News also contributed to this report.

This?story was updated at?1:36 pm ET.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/senate-committee-oks-bill-requiring-warrant-email-cloud-search-1C7316741

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VSGi Video Conferencing & Telepresence Blog ? Frost & Sullivan ...

VSGi is proud to be a Cisco Premier Partner and Cisco Master ATP (Authorized Telepresence Partner), and it comes as no surprise that market analysis leaders Frost & Sullivan have recognized Cisco with the 2012 Market Share Leadership Award for Videoconferencing and Telepresence Infrastructure.

As the enterprise Video Conferencing and Telepresence market continues to grow, Cisco has been able to evolve and not only maintain their trajectory, but actually increase their market share over the past 12 months (increasing from 48.5 percent in 2010 to 50.8 percent in 2011, in terms of total revenues).

Cisco has seized the opportunity to grow the enterprise?s entire network infrastructure from the inside out. From route / switch to security, servers, endpoints, and through integrating Video and Telepresence with the Unified Communications Manager platform providing an integrated end-to-end collaboration solution from instant messaging (IM) to Immersive Telepresence.

About VSGi

VSGi is a nationwide leader in Video Conferencing, Telepresence, AV Integration, and Hosted (Cloud) Video Services. VSGi leverages a cross-functional team of sales, engineering, project management and 24/7/365 technical support personnel to deliver the highest quality solutions to customers. VSGi?s unmatched experience in communications solutions provides its customers a fully integrated turnkey solution including design, configuration, project management and implementation, installation, testing, training and ongoing support.

For more information on VSGi, visit www.vsgi.com

Source: http://vsgi.com/blog/?p=207

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