New Haven Pharma Gets $2 Mln Loan From Horizon Tech Finance ...

Horizon Technology Finance Corp. has closed a $2 million venture loan to New Haven Pharmaceuticals. Guilford, Conn.-based New Haven is a specialty pharmaceutical company.

PRESS RELEASE

Horizon Technology Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: HRZN) (?Horizon?), a leading specialty finance company that provides secured loans to venture capital and private equity backed development-stage companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and clean-tech industries, today announced it has closed a $2 million venture loan facility with New Haven Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (?NHP?), a developer of prescription pharmaceuticals that utilize currently marketed drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients generally recognized as safe for use in therapeutic applications. The proceeds of the venture loan facility will be used for working capital purposes.
?We are pleased to provide NHP with a venture loan facility which will support its development of proprietary prescription pharmaceuticals,? stated Gerald A. Michaud , President of Horizon. ?NHP continues to achieve important strides in developing products for patients with a higher risk for secondary strokes or acute cardiac events. Based on the company?s impressive product pipeline and experienced, well-respected management team, NHP represents a strong addition to Horizon?s high-quality investment portfolio.?
?Horizon?s $2 million venture loan facility provides NHP with the right capital structure and the timely liquidity to continue to execute our product development and FDA registration plans,? stated Patrick P. Fourteau, NHP?s President & CEO. Harry H. Penner, Jr. , NHP?s Executive Chairman, added, ?The responsiveness and flexibility of the Horizon team resulted in a seamless process from initial contact to funding and a very positive business experience. It?s gratifying to have Horizon, a Connecticut-based company like our own, as a financial partner.?
About Horizon Technology Finance?Horizon Technology Finance Corporation is a business development company that provides secured loans to development-stage companies backed by established venture capital and private equity firms within the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and clean-tech industries. The investment objective of Horizon Technology Finance is to maximize total risk-adjusted returns by generating current income from a portfolio of directly originated secured loans as well as capital appreciation from warrants to purchase the equity of portfolio companies. Headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut, with regional offices in Walnut Creek, California and Reston, Virginia, the Company is externally managed by its investment advisor, Horizon Technology Finance Management LLC. Horizon?s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol, ?HRZN.? In addition, the Company?s 7.375% Senior Notes due 2019 trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ?HTF.? To learn more, please visit www.horizontechnologyfinancecorp.com.
About New Haven Pharmaceuticals?New Haven Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NHP) is a specialty pharmaceutical company developing proprietary prescription drug products based on proprietary controlled-release technologies, as well as intellectual property licensed from Yale University, which will enable optimal dosing, safety, efficacy and patient convenience. For more information on NHP, please visit www.newhavenpharma.com, or contact Harry H. Penner, Jr. , Executive Chairman at (203) 676-3676, or email at [email?protected]
Forward-Looking Statements?Statements included herein may constitute ?forward-looking statements? within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

Source: http://www.pehub.com/198597/new-haven-pharma-gets-2-mln-loan-from-horizon-tech-finance/

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Real Estate Weekly - 4/26/13 | Maryland Daily Record

Parade of Homes to showcase affordable housing in B-W region

The Communications Action Network is hosting the Baltimore-Washington region?s first-ever affordable communities Parade of Homes on May 18, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Communities throughout Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia will open their doors to the public. Designed to illustrate the importance of housing affordability to the health and vitality of the local economy, the event will feature affordable single-family homes, multifamily rental housing and homeownership communities in close proximity to local job centers. For more information on the Parade of Homes, go to www.caninitiative.org.

Century Engineering acquires Frostburg?s Dugan Associates

Century Engineering Inc., of Hunt Valley, acquired Dugan Associates of Frostburg for an undisclosed amount. The firm is engaged in the environmental and operational permitting of open pit mines and other industrial land-use sites in Maryland and West Virginia. Services rendered included site design, sediment control and storm water design, survey of excavated areas, stockpiles and volumes of product, groundwater testing and reporting, design of reclamation areas, re-forestation, and other structural and environmental engineering. Century officials said they would continue and expand these services, drawing on not only Dugan Associates but also Century?s own office in Oakland.

New affordable apartment complex opens in Irvington

The Greens at Irvington Mews, a 100-unit affordable apartment complex developed by Enterprise Homes Inc., held its official grand opening on Monday. The newly constructed, $16 million development, located at 4300 Frederick Ave. in Baltimore, features 82 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom apartments for low- and moderatge-income seniors and adults with disabilities. The four-story building, designed by Hord Coplan Macht and constructed by Harkins Builders, is located in southwest Baltimore on a site that once served as the Irvington Loop for the No. 8 trolley line. The project is built to the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria and meets the standards for both LEED Silver mid-rise and Energy Star multifamily high-rise residential buildings.

Baltimore County to hold meeting on public housing, community development

Baltimore County has invited interested persons to attend a public meeting and express their views on its draft plans for addressing housing needs and other community development matters. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Planning Department hearing room, 105 W. Chesapeake Ave, Towson. The county has released two plans for public review and comment: (1) the Public Housing Agency Plan, which deals with the five-year period 2010-2014; and (2) the Annual Action Plan for 2014. The plans are available online at http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/neighborhoodimprovement/index.html for the Action Plan, and http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/socialservices/housingassistance/ for the Public Housing Agency Plan. They may also be viewed at county libraries, and at the respective agencies (Planning Department for the Action Plan and the Housing Office for the Public Housing plan).

Donated home valued at $475K to be raffled

A couple in Frederick County has donated a house worth $475,000 to the Middletown High School to raffle off in hopes of raising $1 million or more to go toward the renovation of the school?s football field and athletic facilities. The house has four bedrooms, 3? baths and a two-car garage. Middletown is in Frederick County, about 50 miles from Washington. The donors, Mark and Donna Gaver, are graduates and former athletes at Middletown High School, and understand the school?s desire to improve its athletic facilities. The Middletown High School Sports Club hopes to sell 15,000 tickets at $100 apiece with the ?Middletown Dream Home? as the prize. The drawing will be held on June 13 at Hollow Creek Golf Club in Middletown. To purchase raffle coupons, call 301-371-3502 or visit www.middletowndreamhome.com.

Placement of 5-ton cupola tops off new building at McDonogh School

The Edward St. John Learning Center, a 75,000-square-foot building currently under construction at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, was ?topped off? last week when the contractor, the Lutherville-based Mullan Contracting Co., placed a five-ton cupola on the roof of the four-story structure. The Learning Center features flexible spaces to accommodate dining, classes, meetings, lectures, grade-level gatherings and special events. The 30-foot-high, 12-foot-wide octagonal cupola was constructed by the Cheyenne Co., of Bloomfield, Conn. Concurrently, Mullan is also erecting the Naylor Building, a three-story, 56,000-square-foot structure containing primarily science, technology, engineering and math classrooms. McDonogh, a coeducational, private day and boarding school, has a current enrollment of nearly 1,300 students.

Three Anne Arundel companies donate walkway to nonprofit

Providence Center, a nonprofit organization in Glen Burnie that serves adults with developmental disabilities, unveiled a new walkway at its Jean Bradbury Building greenhouses in Arnold. The walkway was donated by Chaney Enterprises of Waldorf, Belgard Hardscapes of Harmans, and Garner Exteriors of Lothian as part of a do-it-yourself demonstration for installing pavers to nearly two dozen homeowners last Saturday. The approximate value of the new walkway is more than $8000, the entire cost of which was donated by the three companies. ?It?s always great to work on projects like this that will benefit an important nonprofit like Providence Center,? said Garner Exteriors? David Jochnowitz. Providence Center operates four facilities in Anne Arundel County to provide nearly 500 developmentally challenged adults with skills such as horticulture, woodshop and pottery.

Workshops to examine redevelopment along 5-mile stretch of Pulaski Highway

Baltimore County is holding a series of workshops to examine potential redevelopment scenarios for 920 acres in Middle River, along a five-mile segment of Pulaski Highway (US 40). Input from community residents, businesses and property owners will help craft a long-term vision that could guide redevelopment over the next 25 years. Decisions about whether or when to redevelop property will be made by property owners. Meetings will be held at Rosedale Baptist Church, 9202 Philadelphia Road, on May 4, May 13, May 16 and May 18. The first and last meetings will be from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., while the second and third meetings will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to Jackie MacMillan at jmacmillan@baltimorecountymd.gov.

AB Realty partners on building acquisition

A joint venture owned by Alex. Brown Realty Inc., of Baltimore, and Fulcrum Asset Advisors LLC, of Chicago, has acquired the U.S. Cellular Building in Madison, Wis. ABR Chesapeake Fund IV, a value-added real estate fund sponsored by ABR, invested $3.1 million in the venture. The four-story, Class A, suburban office building was built in 1996 and contains 101,925 square feet. U.S. Cellular is the main tenant in the building, which is currently 73 percent occupied. A new tenant has signed a lease that will increase occupancy to 80 percent by end of April. More leases are expected to be signed over the next 18-24 months, bringing the building to full occupancy.

Realtor to head Maryland GOP

Diana Waterman, a Queen Anne?s County Realtor, has been elected chairwoman of the Maryland Republican Party. Waterman was elected Saturday at the party?s spring convention in Timonium. She will serve out the term of Alex Mooney, a former state senator who announced in February that he was stepping down from the post. Waterman has been serving as interim chairwoman. She told The Washington Post that she is committed to making the party more competitive. Democrats hold a 2-to-1 advantage in voter registration statewide. The Democrat party also holds the governor?s office and controls both chambers of the state legislature by wide margins.

Students document W.Md. historic sites

Photography students at Allegany College of Maryland are documenting historic buildings in Cumberland with help from the Maryland Historical Trust. The state agency has awarded the city a $7,200 grant to create a photographic record of historic assets. City officials say students in a digital photography class at the college are working this month on the project. They?re photographing buildings in the downtown Canal Place Preservation District and the West Side. Canal Place is a tourism development near the western end of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

ODEC plans electricity plant in Cecil

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, of Glen Allen, Va., a wholesale power supplier, said it is planning to build a state-of-the-art, natural gas-fueled, electric generation facility in Cecil County. The plant would be built five miles west of Rising Sun, adjacent to ODEC?s existing Rock Springs Generation Facility, which became operational in 2003. Plans call for the plant to start operating in 2017. ODEC said it is currently working with Cecil County government on the proposal and will apply in May for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Maryland Public Service Commission. ODEC?s 11 nonprofit electric distribution cooperatives serve 1.2 million people in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

Baltimore County gaining new apartments

Enterprise, a Columbia-based nonprofit affordable housing developer and investor, announced the closing of almost $30 million in federal, state and private financing for two new affordable senior apartments totaling 192 units in Baltimore County. The $15.2 million Greens at Logan Field will offer 102 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the Dundalk neighborhood, and the $14.6 million Greens at English Consul will offer 90 units, also one- and two-bedroom, in the Lansdowne/Baltimore Highlands area. Both developments are aimed at seniors earning 60 percent of the area median income and below. Construction at both projects began on April 1, and will take about a year to complete.

Accokeek building to set high standard

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for an energy-efficient building in Prince George?s County. Prince George?s County Executive Rushern Baker and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown were among officials scheduled to attend the ceremony in Accokeek for the Potomac Watershed Study Center. The building is being touted as one of the most environmentally friendly in the world. When it is finished, supporters say it will take green buildings to a new level by being a net-zero water, net-zero energy and carbon neutral facility. It?s the region?s first Living Building. Now, there are only three certified Living Buildings in the world.

PERSONNEL?

Terry Burns

Terry Burns, a senior associate at the Baltimore landscape architectural firm of Mahan Rykiel Associates, has been named as the inaugural winner of the firm?s first annual Founder?s Travel Fund. The fund was established by Catherine Mahan, the now-retired founder and president of MRA. Mahan said she wanted to give something lasting to the firm when she retired, and thought that landscape architects could benefit from travel and the insights they gained from seeing a broad range of built and natural landscapes in the U.S. and abroad. Burns will spend the next year exploring the Prairie School style of landscape design, which focuses on elements of visual expression through natural materials. He has planned trips to cities in the East and Midwest, as well as visits to projects by well-known landscape architects.

Jones Lang LaSalle, a national real estate services and investment management firm, announced that Mark G. Levy has assumed an additional role as head of the firm?s Baltimore operations. Levy will be responsible for managing and overseeing all company service lines and driving strategic growth in the Baltimore region. Levy joined JLL in October 2012 as a senior vice president, leading the firm?s Mid-Atlantic Industrial Practice Group, which comprises the entire spectrum of industrial services including agency and tenant representation, site selection and investment sales. He will continue in his current role as the Mid-Atlantic Industrial Practice group leader, with a three-tiered focus on industrial investor services, capital markets and corporate representation.

LEASES?

Republic Foods Inc. signed a 10?-year lease for 3,345 square feet of space at The Tower Building in Rockville to house its new corporate headquarters. The deal marks the company?s move from Bethesda to Rockville. The Tower Cos., of Rockville, is the owner of the 10-story, 276,000-square-foot office building, which opened in 2001 and was the D.C. area?s first green building. Republic Foods, established in 1982, is a franchise of Burger King Corp., which owns and operates over 20 restaurants in downtown Washington, D.C., Prince George?s, Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. Steve Hubberman of Serten Advisors represented Republic Foods and Andrea ?Andy? Regan, Kevin McGloon and Peter Rosen of Cushman Wakefield represented the building?s owner.

Merritt Properties LLC reported the following recently signed leases:

* Arett Sales Corp., a company specializing in Christmas tree lighting sales, signed a lease for 10,200 square feet of space (8,000 office, 2,200 warehouse) at Baltimore Commons, 7484 Candlewood Road, in Hanover. Jim Carrona of KLNB represented Arett. Merritt was represented by its in-house leasing team of Jamie Campbell, Liz Tarran-Jones, Vince Bagli and Steve Shaw.

* 180? LLC, a flooring vendor, leased 14,400 square feet of showroom space at Pulaski Business Park, 9601 Pulaski Park Drive, in Middle River. 180? was represented in the lease negotiations by Ketch Secor of CBRE. Merritt Properties? in-house leasing team of Pat Franklin, Whit Levering, Lou Boeri and Ashley Combs represented the landlord.

* All Staffing Inc., a provider of full-line staffing for health care companies in Maryland, leased 4,110 square feet of office space at 10711 Red Run Blvd. in Owings Mills. Negotiations were conducted by Pat Franklin, Whit Levering, Lou Boeri and Ashley Combs of Merritt Properties, representing the landlord of the property.

Source: http://thedailyrecord.com/2013/04/26/real-estate-weekly-42613/

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Mystery clouds deadly clash in western China with 'suspected terrorists'

Some say that Beijing deliberately exaggerates the terrorist threat in order to justify the iron grip it keeps on the Muslim majority province of Xinjiang in?western China.

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / April 24, 2013

A woman looks up as a dust storm hits Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, last week. Xinjiang, once a predominantly Muslim province in China's far west, has seen massive settlement by ethnic Han immigrants in recent decades.

Reuters

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Mystery surrounds official Chinese reports Wednesday of a violent clash between ?suspected terrorists? and the authorities in the restive Muslim province of Xinjiang yesterday that left 21 people dead, including 15 officials.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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According to a statement on the provincial government website, a group ?planning to conduct violent terrorist activities? armed with knives seized three local officials who had surprised them in a house near the city of Kashgar (see map).

They then killed the three hostages and 12 of the policemen and local community workers who came to the rescue, setting fire to the house before armed police regained control of the situation, killing six of the suspects and arresting eight of them, the statement said.

The Chinese authorities have given only sketchy details of the incident, and have not accused any particular group of responsibility. Beijing has previously blamed Islamist separatists for earlier violent attacks on officials.

Xinjiang, once a predominantly Muslim province in China?s far west, has seen massive settlement by ethnic Han immigrants in recent decades. Local people complain that their culture and language are being eroded and that Han now outnumber original inhabitants, who are ethnic Uighurs, with linguistic and cultural ties to central Asian peoples.

Violence flares sporadically, despite a stiflingly heavy handed police and army presence. In 2009 almost 200 people were killed ? mostly ethnic Han ? in deadly rioting in the provincial capital of Urumqi. Last month the government announced that courts in Xinjiang had sentenced 20 men to prison terms as long as life for plotting jihadi attacks.

The men ?had their thoughts poisoned by religious extremism,? according to the Xinjiang provincial website, and had ?spread Muslim religious propaganda.?

Determining the truth behind such allegations, and incidents such as Tuesday?s clash,?is difficult. Chinese media are not allowed to carry reports other than those by the state-run news agency Xinhua and foreign reporters have found themselves restricted and harassed when trying to work in Xinjiang.

A leading Uighur activist, Dilxat Raxit, who lives in Germany, questioned the official account, telling the AP that local residents had reported that the police sparked the incident by shooting a Uighur youth during a house search.

It was not clear how the suspects, armed only with knives, had managed to kill 15 policemen and local officials before they were subdued.

China has often accused a shadowy group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement of being behind violence in Xinjiang, but foreign observers are dubious, with some saying that Beijing deliberately exaggerates the terrorist threat in order to justify the iron grip it keeps on Xinjiang.

The US State Department put the group on its terrorist watch list in 2002, but has since removed it amid doubts about whether the group is a real organization.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/tasBOUfpA_A/Mystery-clouds-deadly-clash-in-western-China-with-suspected-terrorists

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Health impact assessments prove critical public health tool: Best way to gauge impact of gas drilling on communities

Apr. 22, 2013 ? As natural gas development expands nationwide, policymakers, communities and public health experts are increasingly turning to health impact assessments (HIA) as a means of predicting the effects of drilling on local communities, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health.

The report, published this week in the American Journal of Public Health, highlights lessons learned when scientists from the school were hired to assess the possible health impacts of fracking in a small western Colorado town.

"Health impact assessments can be a useful public health tool to determine the possible health effects of natural gas development on the local level," said the study's lead author Roxana Zulauf Witter, MD, MPH, at the Colorado School of Public Health. "In fact, our study is now being looked at as a model nationwide."

In 2009, the Colorado School of Public Health was contracted by Garfield County to conduct a health impact assessment of 200 proposed natural gas wells in the community of Battlement Mesa.

The team found that the natural gas project could contribute to health effects such as headaches, upper respiratory illness, nausea and nosebleeds and a possible small increase in lifetime cancer risks as a result of air emissions.

The project would also increase safety risks and mental health effects due to traffic and community changes associated with the industrial activity.

According to the study, the HIA offers a roadmap for other communities and industry to follow in determining the health impacts of gas drilling. It also develops recommendations to reduce those impacts.

"We believe we accomplished the important objective of elevating public health into many levels of natural gas policy discussion," the study said. "The Battlement Mesa HIA provides substantial and valuable guidance for local decision makers to protect public health."

At the same time, the industry can use HIA findings to identify and eliminate health issues before they become problems.

"The whole goal is to provide recommendations to reduce impacts before you start," Witter said. "The assessment is a means to an end. It's a critical public health tool."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado Denver.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Roxana Z. Witter, Lisa McKenzie, Kaylan E. Stinson, Kenneth Scott, Lee S. Newman, John Adgate. The Use of Health Impact Assessment for a Community Undergoing Natural Gas Development. American Journal of Public Health, 2013; : e1 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.301017

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/bGnElfWZgeY/130422175712.htm

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Exclusive: Mexico bank reform eases legal hurdles to boost credit

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government aims to boost lending by making it easier for banks to collect on guarantees for bad loans and by giving new powers to regulators to punish firms that do not lend enough, according to a draft of a new banking reform.

The proposal, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, is due to be presented next week, and is part of a raft of measures aimed at ramping up growth in Latin America's second biggest economy.

Thrashed out within a pact made between President Enrique Pena Nieto and the leaders of the main opposition parties, the banking reform targets Mexico's conservative banks, which boast high capital levels but lend much less than their foreign peers.

"Granting more loans, under more favorable conditions in terms of interest rates, duration and amounts, is a crucial element to efficiently allocating financial resources to boost national economic growth," the draft says.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-mexico-bank-reform-eases-legal-hurdles-boost-073222713--sector.html

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Google Brings Public Alerts To Google Now, Search And Maps In Canada

Google is bringing its Public Alerts system online in Canada today, after previously launching it in the U.S. and expanding it to Japan last month. The launch couldn't be more timely, as Canada is currently experiencing high waters and flood problems in areas just experiencing the spring thaw, including northern Ontario's popular Muskoka region cottage country.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/f7Upwu95DR8/

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Rat Kidneys Made in Lab Seen as Step to Human Transplants

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers said that while creating functional kidneys for people was a long way off, replacement organs made like the rat kidneys would have benefits over other methods.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/science/rat-kidneys-made-in-lab-seen-as-step-to-human-transplants.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Kool-Aid Man Bursts Into the Future With a CGI Makeover

Nearly 60 years since he first appeared in an advertisement, Kool-Aid man is finally breaking through the digital wall to a new CGI-look. Oooooooh yeah! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EjmCrpepuMM/kool+aid-man-bursts-into-the-future-with-a-cgi-makeover

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Better batteries from waste sulfur

Apr. 14, 2013 ? A new chemical process can transform waste sulfur into a lightweight plastic that may improve batteries for electric cars, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The new plastic has other potential uses, including optical uses.

The team has successfully used the new plastic to make lithium-sulfur batteries.

"We've developed a new, simple and useful chemical process to convert sulfur into a useful plastic," lead researcher Jeffrey Pyun said.

Next-generation lithium-sulfur, or Li-S, batteries will be better for electric and hybrid cars and for military uses because they are more efficient, lighter and cheaper than those currently used, said Pyun, a UA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The new plastic has great promise as something that can be produced easily and inexpensively on an industrial scale, he said.

The team's discovery could provide a new use for the sulfur left over when oil and natural gas are refined into cleaner-burning fuels.

Although there are some industrial uses for sulfur, the amount generated from refining fossil fuels far outstrips the current need for the element. Some oil refineries, such as those in Ft. McMurray in Alberta, are accumulating yellow mountains of waste sulfur.

"There's so much of it we don't know what to do with it," said Pyun. He calls the left-over sulfur "the garbage of transportation."

About one-half pound of sulfur is left over for every 19 gallons of gasoline produced from fossil fuels, calculated co-author Jared Griebel, a UA chemistry and biochemistry doctoral candidate.

The researchers have filed an international patent for their new chemical process and for the new polymeric electrode materials for Li-S batteries.

The international team's research article, "The Use of Elemental Sulfur as an Alternative Feedstock for Polymeric Materials," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Chemistry April 14.

Pyun and Griebel's co-authors are Woo Jin Chung, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass and ?rp?d Somogyi of the UA; Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Jungjin Park, Yung-Eun Sung, and Kookheon Char of Seoul National University in Korea; Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick and Michael E. Mackay of the University of Delaware in Newark; and Patrick Theato of the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Pyun wanted to apply his expertise as a chemist to energy-related research. He knew about the world's glut of elemental sulfur at fossil fuel refineries -- so he focused on how chemistry could use the cheap sulfur to satisfy the need for good Li-S batteries.

He and his colleagues tried something new: transforming liquid sulfur into a useful plastic that eventually could be produced easily on an industrial scale.

Sulfur poses technical challenges. It doesn't easily form the stable long chains of molecules, known as polymers, needed make a moldable plastic, and most materials don't dissolve in sulfur.

Pyun and his colleagues identified the chemicals most likely to polymerize sulfur and girded themselves for the long process of testing those chemicals one by one by one. More than 20 chemicals were on the list.

They got lucky.

"The first one worked -- and nothing else thereafter," Pyun said.

Even though the first experiment worked, the scientists needed to try the other chemicals on their list to see if others worked better and to understand more about working with liquid sulfur.

They've dubbed their process "inverse vulcanization" because it requires mostly sulfur with a small amount of an additive. Vulcanization is the chemical process that makes rubber more durable by adding a small amount of sulfur to rubber.

The new plastic performs better in batteries than elemental sulfur, Pyun said, because batteries with cathodes made of elemental sulfur can be used and recharged only a limited number of times before they fail.

The new plastic has electrochemical properties superior to those of the elemental sulfur now used in Li-S batteries, the researchers report. The team's batteries exhibited high specific capacity (823 mAh/g at 100 cycles) and enhanced capacity retention.

Several companies have expressed interest in the new plastic and the new battery, Pyun said.

The team's next step is comparing properties of the new plastic to existing plastics and exploring other practical applications such as photonics for the new plastic.

The National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the American Chemical Society and the University of Arizona funded the research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Arizona, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Woo Jin Chung, Jared J. Griebel, Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass, Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick, Jungjin Park, ?rp?d Somogyi, Patrick Theato, Michael E. Mackay, Yung-Eun Sung, Kookheon Char, Jeffrey Pyun. The use of elemental sulfur as an alternative feedstock for polymeric materials. Nature Chemistry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1624

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/IpDV9WUxuiY/130414193441.htm

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Galaxy S 4 availability hinted at in Staples document, pegged for April 26th on AT&T

Scrambling to find a launch date for the Samsung Galaxy S 4? Staples may have just dropped a hint. According to a leaked store training sheet, AT&T will be offering the next Galaxy phone on April 26th, followed by T-Mobile on May 1st and Verizon on the 30th. Bold lettering warns these dates are tentative but they are familiar, matching both the UK launch date and T-Mobile's own declarations. Naturally, we try to take these things with a grain of salt, though it's worth noting that the document asks stores to prepare GS 4 reservation signage on 4/15, one day before official pre-orders begin. It isn't an iron-clad case for the phone's launch by any means, but for the eager Galaxy fan, tentative is better than nothing. Skip on past the break for a peek at the full page.

[Thanks, anonymous!]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5c_9U_QXa0A/

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Wearable tech: How three designers weave technology into fashion

Tap your jacket to start the beat; swipe to change it; raise your arm to raise the tempo ?? that?s how music is made on the Machina Midi Controller Jacket. That?s right, it?s making music with your body.

Machina?s (pronounced Ma-chee-na) MJv1.0 is the first product to come out of the Mexico City-based design group. The jacket allows the wearer to control music with their bodies. Fueled by a Kickstarter that raised more than $77,000, Machina has set out to build wearable technology, or what it calls: ?the wearable machine.?

?We?re a brand targeted to hackers and geeks,? says Daniel Fernandez de Cordova, a member of Machina.

Machina was formed roughly 15 months ago. Antonio Machina, the group?s fashion designer and creative director, wanted to make and wear more mechanical clothing. It was this desire for clothing that was more practical, more personal, and more unique that led Machina to their philosophy of the wearable machine.

The MJv1.0 comes with four flexible sensors that allow the jacket to detect finger position, an accelerometer?to detect arm movement, a joystick, and four buttons on the side. The idea behind the MJv1.0 is that all of the sensors ? and really the jacket itself ? can be configured to work for any purpose. This means that the wearer can use the jacket to control a computer, PC programs, or gadgets.

?Most of us are firm believers in free software, and DIY, and care deeply about political issues and (h)ac(k)tivism,? Machina's website says.

True to its style, Machina has a T-shirt that was made with photoluminscent ink. The T-shirt features anonymous heads whose brains glow in the dark, or as Machina put it, ?The brains light up the darkness of ignorance.? They also worked on different jackets at the same time as the MJv1.0. Their Kickstarter gifts included a hoodie made from silver cotton, designed to protect the wearer from electromagnetism.

?We want to be the first massive wearable-tech brand that makes wearable technology that?s modifiable and is conscience about technology,? says Mr. Fernandez de Cordova. Machina prints a series of T-shirts that advocates free information and free software. Some of the T-shirts, for example, call for the end of SOPA and CISPA, two bills that have come under fire from Internet advocates for handing over too much power to copyright holders and the US government.

?We need to fight for freedom of information, source code, and the right-to-privacy,? says Fernandez de Cordova.

People can buy the MJv1.0 jacket at the "early-bird" price of $285 from Shopstarter.org. According to Fernandez de Cordova, the jacket will retail for $400 in stores. Machina makes each jacket by hand, which elevates the price. Despite its many components, the MJv1.0 is washable. You charge the jacket through a USB port.

Machina?s MJv1.0 is set to ship in November.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DF9_gOf8e1M/Wearable-tech-How-three-designers-weave-technology-into-fashion

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Pakistani Taliban target secular party, kill 1

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani Taliban attacked two leaders of an anti-militant political party on Sunday in northwest Pakistan, killing one and wounding another in the latest attack targeting members of secular-leaning parties during their campaigns for next month's parliamentary election.

In the first incident, Mukarram Shah was killed in an explosion as he entered his car in the village of Banjot, said Abdullah Khan, police chief of the nearby city of Mingora. The explosives appeared to have been set off by remote control, he added.

In the other attack, a blast hit the convoy of provincial assembly candidate Masoom Shah as he was returning from a campaign meeting, police officer Zahir Khan said. He said Shah and three of his aides suffered wounds from the roadside bomb.

Both Shahs are from the secular Awami National Party, which supported military operations against militants in the region.

The ANP is among three secular-leaning political parties that the Pakistani Taliban have threatened to attack during campaigns for the May 11 parliamentary elections. The other two parties are the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

The Taliban have warned people in a video message to stay away from rallies held by the three political parties they consider their enemies.

The three dominated Pakistan's last government, which was dissolved in preparation for the elections. The ANP also headed the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the main province of the northwest, a stronghold of the Taliban.

The latest two assaults follow three similar attacks since the Taliban issued their threat several weeks ago. Two ANP candidates have survived bomb attacks in the northwest, and a Taliban shooter killed an MQM candidate in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for both the bomb attacks. "The three parties are on our hit list," he told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Right-leaning and religious parties not being targeted by the Taliban have been holding their election campaign rallies without fear.

Also on Sunday, gunmen attacked a NATO supply convoy in the Khyber tribal region, killing a truck driver and wounding another, said a local government administrator Iqbal Khan. The Khyber Pass is one of the two main routes in Pakistan for NATO supplies headed to neighboring Afghanistan.

___

AP writers Rasool Dawar and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-taliban-target-secular-party-kill-1-132902281.html

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Planning for Breast Augmentation Surgery When You Have Kids ...

Related eBooks

Breast augmentation surgery is a popular procedure among mothers of all ages. If you are considering this option, find out what you should plan for.

Source:Planning for Breast Augmentation Surgery When You Have Kids

Related Reading:

Cosmetic Facial Surgery, 1e

Take your practice to the next level! Cosmetic Facial Surgery provides a highly illustrated, case-based approach to common face and neck procedures. In this full-color reference, internationally renowned surgeon Joe Niamtu III, DMD, covers techniques including brow, face, and neck lifts; nose, eye, and ear surgery; cosmetic surgery practice with discussions of the process of facial aging, diagnosing and consulting with patients, clinical digital facial implants; skin resurfacing; the use of neurotoxins; and the removal of skin lesions. The book also prepares you for photography, and anesthesia considerations. In a companion DVD, video clips feature Dr. Niamtu demonstrating key procedures addressed in the text.

• Comprehensive coverage includes the full range of surgical procedures from the upper face to the lower face/neck area.
• Over 3,000 full-color photos show surgical techniques and before-and-after shots of actual cases done by Dr. Niamtu.
• A DVD includes videos of procedures performed by the author, bringing complicated procedures to life.
• Accessible, easy-to-grasp descriptions, written in an engaging, first-person narrative, explain concepts based on real cases and on Dr. Niamtu's experience.

Tags: cosmetic surgery

Source: http://www.jackiesbazaar.com/womensinterests/cosmetic-surgery/planning-for-breast-augmentation-surgery-when-you-have-kids

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U.S., China agree on N. Korea nuke issue

By Arshad Mohammed

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Japan on Sunday, the last stop on an Asian tour aimed at solidifying support for curbing North Korea's nuclear program and reassuring U.S. allies after weeks of threats of war from Pyongyang.

The North has threatened for weeks to attack the United States and South Korea since new U.N. sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear arms test in February. Speculation has mounted of a new missile launch or nuclear test.

"We must make them (North Korea) recognize that their provocative actions will not benefit them at all," Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as saying during a tour on Sunday of Iwo Jima, the site of a major battle towards the end of World War Two.

Kerry's talks with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, coincide with preparations for the North's biggest holiday of the year on Monday, the Day of the Sun, the birth date of state founder Kim Il-Sung - an occasion for pomp and perhaps a military display.

The North's state media, one of the few ways of glimpsing what is happening in the reclusive country, have so far ignored Kerry's talks in Beijing and Seoul.

On Sunday, state television showed officials and servicemen applauding speeches extolling Kim Il-Sung in a vast hall, a giant portrait of the state founder hanging from a backdrop.

The KCNA news agency reported at length on floral tributes to the leader who launched the 1950-53 Korean War. But it also rejected as a "cunning trick" South Korean President Park Geun-hye's suggestion last week of holding talks with the North.

"If South Korea truly does have a will to have talks, they should rather change their confrontational attitude instead of playing on words," the agency said, quoting the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

North Korea has repeatedly said it has no intention of abandoning its nuclear program.

The South Korean capital, Seoul, displayed the calm it has shown throughout the crisis. Residents strolled in bright sunshine, visiting street bazaars and ancient temples.

On Saturday, Kerry met leaders in China, the North's sole diplomatic and financial benefactor, and said China and the United States were committed to "the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner".

During his first stop in South Korea, where the United States has 28,000 troops stationed, Kerry said North Korea, furious at joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, would be making a "huge mistake" if it were to launch a missile during the current stand-off.

He also said China was in a position to influence the North's policy and had to put "some teeth" into efforts to persuade Pyongyang to alter its policies.

Japan, separated from North Korea by less than 1,000 km (625 miles) of water and a frequent target of its anger, is well within range of North Korea's medium-range missiles.

DESTROYERS, INTERCEPTOR MISSILES

Japanese news reports said Tokyo had sent Aegis-class destroyers capable of missile interception to the Sea of Japan. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles have been deployed at key locations in the capital and surrounding areas.

In Beijing, Kerry said that if North Korea abandoned its nuclear capabilities, the United States would have no reason to maintain recently deployed defensive capabilities - like new or expanded missile defense systems in Alaska and Guam.

Kerry's agenda in Tokyo is also likely to include talks about Japan's territorial disputes with China, and the future of U.S. bases in Japan.

The United States and Japan this month announced an accord for the return to Japan of a U.S. air base there, a step towards resolving an issue that has long troubled relations.

On his way into Tokyo, Kerry paid a brief visit to the city's Zojoji temple, where he lingered in its doorway amid the sound of gongs and the scent of incense. He also played with a friendly toddler, Ryousei Furuta, outside the temple and took a look at a Himalayan cedar tree planted in 1879 by General Ulysses Grant, the 18th president of the United States.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo and Jane Chung in Seoul; Writing by Ronald Popeski; Editing by Nick Macfie and Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-agrees-china-peaceful-north-korea-solution-024443871.html

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Obama asks Newtown victim's mother to deliver weekly address

UPDATED 3:13 pm ET

Instead of delivering his weekly address to the nation, President Barack Obama has asked Francine Wheeler, whose son was killed in the Dec. 14 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., to deliver the remarks, which will air Saturday.

Obama personally tweeted the news after it was first announced by White House press secretary Jay Carney at Friday's briefing:

Family members of the 20 children and six educators killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., this week to pass legislation to reduce gun violence. Their work has been credited with preventing a bill to expand background checks for gun purchases from being blocked by a Senate filibuster.

The president "believes their voices and resolve have been critical to the continued progress we've seen in the Senate," Carney said of the families.

Carney said this was the first time during the Obama administration that someone other than the president or vice president has been asked to deliver the weekly address.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-asks-mother-newtown-victim-deliver-weekly-address-172635121--politics.html

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Simon Cowell: Not Gay! Doesn't Care What You Think!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/simon-cowell-not-gay-doesnt-care-what-you-think/

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White House projecting slow economic gains ahead

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's new federal government budget outline depicts a still-fragile economy continuing its slow but steady recovery from the deep 2007-2009 recession. The White House forecast sees the U.S. unemployment rate not falling to pre-recessionary levels of below 6 percent until after Obama has left office.

One bright spot in the projections: tame levels of inflation at just over 2 percent for all of the next decade.

The White House's economic assumptions and forecasts are slightly more optimistic in some areas such as short-term economic growth. Otherwise, they generally are in line with recent Congressional Budget Office and private-sector Blue Chip projections.

The White House budget projects overall economic growth ? as measured by gross domestic product ?rising 2.3 percent this year, 3.2 percent in 2014 and 3.6 percent in 2016. That's up from the negative -3.1 annual rate for 2009 in the depth of the recession. Last year GDP rose 2.2 percent.

Congressional budget experts see the economy growing at just 1.4 percent this year, 3.4 percent in 2014 and 4.3 percent in 2016. The Blue Chip consensus sees 2.3 percent economic growth this year, 2.8 percent next year, 3.2 percent in 2015 and 2.8 percent in 2016.

All three forecasts see annual GDP growth declining slightly from 2016 through 2023.

"When the president took office in January 2009, the economy was in the midst of an historic economic crisis. The first order of business for the new administration was to arrest the rapid decline in economic activity that threatened to plunge the country into a second Great Depression," the White House document said.

Since then "the unemployment rate has fallen from its October 2009 peak of 10.0 percent to 7.7 percent" as of this past February. Still, the White House went on to add that "even with healthy economic growth, unemployment is expected to be higher than is consistent with full employment for several more years. The administration is projecting unemployment to continue to decline over the next five years, stabilizing at 5.4 percent by 2018."

The nonpartisan CBO sees unemployment averaging 7.8 percent this year and falling to 6.3 percent by 2013. The Blue Chip consensus sees 7.7 percent unemployment for 2013 and 6.3 percent by 2016.

The president's budget projects continuing low inflation rates for the next few years, inching up from just 2.1 percent his year to 2.2 percent in 2014, a level where the administration forecasts it will remain for the next ten years.

Congressional and Blue Chip forecasts also see inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, as hovering at just over 2 percent over the next ten years.

Obama's budget projects that, if Congress adopts the various tax and spending proposals in his fiscal 2014 budget, the federal budget deficit ? the extent to which spending will exceed tax revenues ? would be $744 billion in 2014. That's down from a projected $973 billion this year but, from a historical perspective, still a relatively high 4.4 percent of the gross domestic product.

Obama's proposals ? if they were all adopted, a highly unlikely possibility ? the White House estimates the deficit further be further trimmed to $528 billion by the 2016 election year, or 2.8 percent of the GDP.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-projecting-slow-economic-gains-ahead-190445554--finance.html

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Venezuela's opposition denies it would scrap Chavez welfare aid

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles denied on Wednesday accusations from acting President Nicolas Maduro that he would scrap popular welfare policies if he wins Sunday's election.

Social "missions" in poor areas, from subsidized groceries to Cuban-staffed medical clinics, were a mainstay of the late Hugo Chavez's 14-year socialist rule and kept his popularity high.

His chosen successor, Maduro, 50, says he is the guarantor of their continuation and accuses Capriles of planning to disband the missions and also privatize state oil company PDVSA, whose export revenues fund the projects.

That, said Capriles at a dawn campaign event, was nonsense and scaremongering. The 40-year-old state governor likes to show off his social record in Miranda state and describes himself as a "progressive," but he is depicted by Maduro as a right-wing puppet of Venezuela's wealthy elite and U.S. interests.

Rather than end the missions, Capriles said he would improve, expand and de-politicize them.

"Simply being Venezuelan will give people the right to free education, quality healthcare, social security and housing," he said. "In our plans there will be no blackmailing ... People will not have to be members of a political party to get aid."

Capriles, who has shown plenty of Chavez-style populist traits himself, listed his social policy plans from a 40 percent rise in the minimum wage to subsidized medicines.

"The government elite get annoyed because they want total control over the missions as if they belonged to them. They don't understand they belong to Venezuelans, not those who put the red shirt on," he added, referring to the color of the ruling Socialist Party.

"Don't be deceived, the missions are not going to be ended. The government says that to cheat people and have control."

FRENETIC CAMPAIGN

Accusations and insults have been flying between both camps in the frantic run-up to Sunday's vote for leadership of the South American OPEC nation of 29 million people.

Most polls have shown Maduro comfortably ahead, but a couple of the latest weekly surveys put the gap at below 10 points and Capriles' camp believes the opposition is on a late surge as emotion over Chavez's March 5 death from cancer wanes.

Maduro, a former bus driver who rose to be Chavez's vice-president, has been playing up his working-class roots in contrast to Capriles' wealthy family background. His former boss successfully played Venezuela's class politics for years to guarantee passionate support among the poor.

"The little bourgeois doesn't know what it's like to get up at 4 in the morning, have a coffee and half a piece of bread, then go to work early to keep a family," Maduro told a rally late on Tuesday.

"The only thing he knows is how to count the money gained from exploiting consumers."

Venezuela's election will not only determine the future of "Chavismo" socialism in Venezuela but also who controls the world's largest oil reserves and whether aid to a clutch of left-leaning nations around the region will continue.

Maduro is campaigning on Chavez's legacy, while Capriles wants to implement a Brazilian-style political model.

The winner faces a complicated set of problems, including strained state coffers after last year's heavy election spending, the highest inflation in the Americas, crime rates among the world's highest, and stuttering services.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Additional reporting by Mario Naranjo; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-opposition-denies-scrap-chavez-welfare-aid-154044118.html

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Downstream Solar Player Clean Power Finance Wins $37M Equity ...

A $37 million equity round just completed by Clean Power Finance (CPF) more than doubles funding for an important residential solar finance player. Edison International (NYSE:EI) and two other power sector investors buying into the deal is also big news.

This round brings total investment in the firm to more than $62 million with investment from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Google Ventures, Claremont Creek Ventures, Clean Pacific Ventures and Sand Hill Angels. Hennessey Capital joined in this round, as did Edison and ?two other major power sector companies? which declined to be named but which, CPF told GTM, ?look a lot like Edison.?

The $37 million infusion will allow CPF to grow a business that already ranks among the top four in third-party ownership (TPO) financing of residential solar.

For staid utilities to be dipping their toes into residential solar financing, CPF suggested, shows how substantial the TPO marketplace has become in investors' eyes. It also hints at confirmation of talk in TPO circles that another ?top-ten utility? is about to put up a TPO fund like those of institutional investors like Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), Credit Suisse, PG&E, and Google (GOOG).

?Utility holding companies are increasingly interested in solar, particularly residential solar,? CEO Nat Kreamer noted. ?The power company of the future will own both centralized generation and distributed generation (i.e., residential solar) assets.?

Source: GTM Research?s U.S. Residential Solar PV Financing: The Vendor, Installer and Financier Landscape, 2013-2016

?There are more than ten companies offering residential solar leases/power purchase agreements (PPAs) in thirteen states,? according to GTM Research?s report U.S. Residential Solar PV Financing: The Vendor, Installer and Financier Landscape, 2013-2016. ?In the more mature state markets such as California, Arizona and Colorado, TPO now comprises over 70 percent of all residential solar installations. And in a few states such as Arizona, the number has risen to over 90 percent.?

TPO financing draws capital funds to solar?s low-risk, steady returns, while through leases and PPAs, installers can offer businesses and homeowners solar systems with little or no upfront costs. Fund investors get the 30 percent federal investment tax credit and the federal accelerated depreciation as tax shelters. They also get a portion of the lease or PPA payments as a revenue stream. Installers get the work because businesses and homes get solar electricity at below-utility-bill rates.

CPF ?has quickly risen to become, in many minds, the fourth top-tier TPO vendor along with SolarCity (SCTY), Sunrun and SunPower (SPWR),? according to GTM Research.

Kreamer discounted SunPower?s strength in the market and argued CPF is a better platform than Sunrun and SolarCity to bring power companies into solar finance because, while the other two players draw earnings from retaining an equity interest in each system, CPF?s business model is built on earning a fixed fee of 5 percent to 12 percent of the transaction for marketing and underwriting services from each deal.

SolarCity?s public disclosures show them retaining $14,000 of net value in an average $38,000 deal, Kreamer added.

Sunrun and SolarCity oversee every aspect of system installation, operation and maintenance in-house, while CPF provides a white-label software platform used by a wide range of independent solar installers.

?More than half CPF?s overall revenue, which grew 325 percent in 2012, comes from those fees,? according to Kreamer. The rest comes from licensing the CPF Tools software platform through which its network of installers works, as well as from fees for managing its client investment funds? solar asset portfolios.

That means, Kreamer noted, that CPF?s growth is an indicator of the success of its solar installer customer base.

Source: GTM Research?s U.S. Residential Solar PV Financing: The Vendor, Installer and Financier Landscape, 2013-2016

?The top-level indicator of volume growth is credit applications per day,? Kreamer said. ?We broke the $4 million barrier this year and we are averaging $3 million per day in credit applications.? For 240 business days, he estimated, ?that is $720 million in credit applications per year.?

Though it varies by market and credit ranking, one-third to two-thirds of the applications (in dollars) are converted to installations, Kreamer said.

The enterprise SaaS software and financial services offerings make CPF recognizable to Silicon Valley investors looking for familiar business models, Kreamer noted. ?Investors have solar hardware hangovers, but see that downstream solar is where you can make money,? he added, ?Connecting sellers and buyers of solar financing is capital-light, high-scale, and high-margin.?

In addition to broadly building the CPF business model, the company will use the new capital to develop new financial products, Kreamer said, promising an upcoming announcement. He has long talked about finding a way to bring TPO to homeowners with FICO scores lower than the 700 ratings currently being financed.

Tags: claremont creek, clean pacific ventures, clean power finance, cpf, credit suisse, edison international, goldman sachs, google, gtm research, hennessey capital, kleiner perkins, lease, morgan stanley, pg&e, power purchase agreement

Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Downstream-Solar-Player-Clean-Power-Finance-Wins-37M-Equity-Round

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Senate nears gun debate, background checks pivotal

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress returns Monday from a two-week spring recess with gun control and immigration high on the Senate's agenda.

Senators could start debating Democratic-written gun legislation before week's end. But leaders also might decide to give negotiators more time to seek a deal on expanding background checks for firearms buyers.

Passing the expanded background checks would be viewed as a victory for gun-control advocates after Democratic leaders made it clear that supporters were nowhere close to getting a majority of votes in favor of reinstituting an assault weapons ban.

Both measures have been a priority for President Barack Obama since the Dec. 14 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. On Monday Obama travels to Connecticut to again make the case for gun legislation, with a speech at the University of Hartford.

"He's been working with both sides to try to get the strongest bill we can that has enforceable background checks," White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

The National Rifle Association opposes both the assault weapons ban and the expanded background checks.

Short of unanimous support in their own party, Democratic senators have been unable to strike a deal with Republicans for the votes they would need to push background check legislation through the chamber. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., might delay debate to give bargainers more time, underscoring how crucial the proposal is to the gun control drive.

"If we go to the floor, I'm still hopeful that what I call the sweet spot ? background checks ? can succeed," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday, referring to the start of debate by the full Senate. "We're working hard there."

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called the measure "the most pivotal piece" of Democrats' gun legislation.

Also high on Congress' agenda is immigration, where a decisive moment is approaching.

Bipartisan groups in the House and Senate are expected to present legislation as early as this week aimed at securing the U.S. border, fixing legal immigration and granting legal status to millions who are in the United States without authorization. That will open months of debate on the politically combustible issue, with votes by the Senate Judiciary Committee expected later this month.

The House is looking at a busy, if more low-profile agenda in the coming weeks.

In its first week back, the House will consider a bill that would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from issuing rules until a dispute over administration appointees is resolved.

Among the bills that could see action in later weeks is a measure requiring the Treasury to pay principle and interest on debt held by the public if the nation's borrowing limit is reached but not extended.

Other measures would prioritize pediatric research to assist children with autism and give workers greater flexibility to choose paid time off instead of overtime pay.

Lawmakers will devote much time to the 2014 budget proposal that Obama plans to release on Wednesday. It calls for both new tax increases, which Republicans oppose, and smaller annual increases in Social Security and other government benefit programs, over the objections of many of the president's fellow Democrats.

Even with a background check deal, Senate debate on gun legislation may begin at a slow crawl with some conservatives promising delays and forced procedural votes. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Sunday urged fellow Republicans to allow debate to go forward, even as he declined to express support for a background check bill.

"I don't understand it. The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand," McCain said, appearing alongside Schumer on CBS' "Face the Nation."

There's a strong chance the first votes won't occur until at least mid-April.

Until Democrats come out with the final shape of their background check measure, gun control advocates nervously are tracking the private negotiations, worried their allies might cut a deal that goes too far.

"We want a vote on the issues, we don't want them watered down so they're unrecognizable," said Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "If they can't vote for it, let the American people judge them on that. Don't let a dumbed-down bill be the outcome of this."

The Senate gun legislation would toughen federal laws against illegal firearms sales, including against straw purchasers, or those who buy firearms for criminals or others barred from owning them. The legislation also would provide $40 million a year, a modest increase from current levels of $30 million, for a federal program that helps schools take safety measures such as reinforcing classroom doors.

Omitted from the bill are bans on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines, both factors in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Those bans were approved last month by the Senate Judiciary panel. Reid has said he will allow both to be offered as amendments by their sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., but neither seems likely to survive.

Many experts agree that the proposal with the widest potential reach is a broadening of background checks, now required only for transactions by the roughly 55,000 federally licensed firearms dealers. Proponents want to cover private sales, such as those between individuals at gun shows or online.

One major hang-up has been Democrats' insistence on retaining records of private sales, which they say is the best way to ensure background checks are actually conducted. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a leader of conservatives in the talks, has rejected that as excessive government intrusiveness.

The system is aimed at preventing guns from going to criminals, people with severe mental problems, some drug abusers and others.

The National Rifle Association and other critics say the checks are ignored by criminals, and they fear that expanding the system could be a prelude to the government maintaining files on gun owners. Current law forbids that. The government must destroy records of the checks within a day, though gun dealers must retain information on the transactions for 20 years.

"We remain committed in our opposition to expanding a broken system," said NRA lobbyist Chris W. Cox.

Justice Department figures show that from 1994 when the system began through 2010, 118 million would-be gun buyers were checked and 2.1 million were denied firearms. Defenders say the data proves the checks prevent many dangerous people from getting weapons.

The current background check measure, by Schumer, would expand the system to cover nearly all gun transactions, with narrow exceptions that include sales involving immediate relatives such as parents and children. Even without a bipartisan deal, Schumer is expected to expand the exemptions to more relatives, people with permits to carry concealed weapons and others.

Schumer and Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., have been shopping alternatives in an effort for more GOP support. Democrats are sure to need 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to win, but there are just 53 Democratic senators plus two Democratic-leaning independents.

Democrats have considered requiring background checks for all gun show and online sales, but exempt face-to-face transactions between private individuals who do not run commercial gun enterprises.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-nears-gun-debate-background-checks-pivotal-135943889--politics.html

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Pentagon struggles with high cost of health care

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The loud, insistent calls in Washington to rein in the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare ignore a major and expensive entitlement program ? the military's health care system.

Despite dire warnings from three defense secretaries about the uncontrollable cost, Congress has repeatedly rebuffed Pentagon efforts to establish higher out-of-pocket fees and enrollment costs for military family and retiree health care as an initial step in addressing a harsh fiscal reality. The cost of military health care has almost tripled since 2001, from $19 billion to $53 billion in 2012, and stands at 10 percent of the entire defense budget.

Even more daunting, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that military health care costs could reach $65 billion by 2017 and $95 billion by 2030.

On Wednesday, when President Barack Obama submits his fiscal 2014 budget, the Pentagon blueprint is expected to include several congressionally unpopular proposals ? requests for two rounds of domestic base closings in 2015 and 2017, a pay raise of only 1 percent for military personnel and a revival of last year's plan to increase health care fees and implement new ones, according to several defense analysts.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel insisted this past week that the military has no choice as it faces a $487 billion reduction in projected spending over the next decade and possibly tens of billions more as tea partyers and other fiscal conservatives embrace automatic spending cuts as the best means to reduce the government's trillion-dollar deficit.

The greatest fiscal threat to the military is not declining budgets, Hagel warned, but rather "the growing imbalance in where that money is being spent internally." In other words, money dedicated to health care or benefits is money that's not spent on preparing troops for battle or pilots for missions.

Hagel echoed his predecessors, Leon Panetta, who said personnel costs had put the Pentagon on an "unsustainable course," and former Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who bluntly said in 2009 that "health care is eating the department alive."

In his speech last past week, Hagel quoted retired Adm. Gary Roughead, the former Navy chief, who offered a devastating assessment of the future Pentagon.

Without changes, Roughead said, the department could be transformed from "an agency protecting the nation to an agency administering benefit programs, capable of buying only limited quantities of irrelevant and overpriced equipment."

The military's health care program, known as TRICARE, provides health coverage to nearly 10 million active duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families. Currently, retirees and their dependents outnumber active duty members and their families ? 5.5 million to 3.3 million.

Powerful veterans groups, retired military officer associations and other opponents of shifting more costs to beneficiaries argue that members of the armed forces make extraordinary sacrifices and endure hardships unique to the services, ones even more pronounced after a decade-plus of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Members of the military have faced repeated deployments, had to uproot their families for constant moves and deal with limits on buying a home or a spouse establishing a career because of their transient life. Retirement pay and low health care costs are vital to attracting members of the all-volunteer military.

"If you don't take care of people, they're not going to enlist, they're not going to re-enlist," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Resistance in Congress to health care changes was evident in the recently passed spending bill to keep the government running through Sept. 30. Tucked into the sweeping bill was a single provision stating emphatically that "none of the funds made available by this act may be used by the secretary of defense to implement an enrollment fee for the TRICARE for Life program."

The program provides no-fee supplemental insurance to retirees 65 and older who are eligible for Medicare. The Pentagon repeatedly has pushed for establishment of a fee, only to face congressional opposition.

The provision in the spending bill blocking an enrollment fee had widespread support among Republicans and Democrats, according to congressional aides. The Pentagon, nonetheless, is expected to ask again in the 2014 budget for an enrollment fee.

The department also is likely to seek increases in fees and deductibles for working-age retirees and try again to peg increases in them to rising costs as measured by the national health care expenditure index produced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That index rose 4.2 percent in 2012 and is projected rise by 3.8 percent this year.

In recent years, Congress has agreed to tie any future increases to the typically smaller percentage increase in military retirees' cost-of-living adjustment, which this year is 1.7 percent.

Either way, a military retiree under age 65 and their family members pay a far smaller annual enrollment fee than the average federal worker or civilian ? $230 a year for an individual, $460 for a family. There is no deductible.

Lawmakers' other response was to establish the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission to study the issue of benefits and offer recommendations on how the Pentagon can address the problem. The commission was created in this year's defense authorization bill.

"Nobody wants to touch it because people are confused about who it impacts," said Lawrence Korb, a former assistant defense secretary and now a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress. "It's not going to impact people on active duty. It's not going to impact veterans because they're taken care of by the VA. Basically (it's) working-age retirees."

Korb said he wished Hagel has been more explicit in his warning about the impact of benefit costs.

"He did lay it out that we're going to have to do something or we're going to end up like General Motors and spending everything on people not working for us anymore."

Gordon Adams, a professor at American University who was a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget, said limited savings in the short term from changes in retirement rules or other benefits present a challenge in making the case for change.

"The savings are downstream, but you only get downstream if you get in the boat now," Adams said. "Otherwise you never get downstream, you're just waiting at the dock all the time because you don't think it'll save you money up front."

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Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-08-Military%20Health%20Care/id-41e58ff9d7354154997c7f01e905bebb

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