All posts by Staff

According to a June 3 KSPR News report, these thieves don’t snatch air conditioning units to stay cool — they’re more concerned with what’s inside the units, namely the valuable copper wires and other scrap metals that keep air conditioners running.

Within minutes, thieves can strip valuable scrap metal from an air conditioner, leaving homeowners with a major financial loss — and without a way to stay cool.

“Generally, they can break one of these units down in about a minute,” Det. Stephanie Bellamah with Cincinnati Police, District Two, told Cincinnati.com. “Most of these crimes are driven by people trying to get money for drugs.”

The U.S. heating and cooling industry — a $71 billion economic force — places yards and yards of copper wire within each air conditioning unit. In fact, all this copper is often worth more than the actual worth of the air conditioner itself.

To safeguard your own air conditioning system from a theft this summer, you can purchase an air conditioning cage which will literally bar thieves from getting their hands on your air conditioner. While these cages range from $600 to $800, they’re much cheaper than the cost of replacing an entire air conditioner, which can set you back thousands of dollars.

There are a number of other ways to prevent air conditioning theft, such as purchasing an air conditioner alarm or even landscaping to conceal the air conditioner itself. While these thefts may be on an upward trajectory, it’s easier than ever to make sure your investment stays safe and keeps you and your family cool throughout the summer.

WCHS-TV8 in Charleston reports that the DEP is reminding AST owners across the state to register their tanks by the end of the month or else be subject to enforcement action by the state. Any modifications to ASTs already registered must be completed by the end of the month as well.

The state is also requiring AST owners to inform the state if their tanks are actually considered AST units under state law. West Virginia recently passed an amendment to the Above Ground Storage Tank and Public Water Supply Protection acts that altered the definition of an AST. Tank owners who registered tanks that no longer qualify as an AST must deregister them or else face a registration involve of $40 per tank.

For tank owners unsure of the status of their tanks, the DEP runs a survey on its website for assessment. Entitled “Do I Need to Modify My Existing Registration?”, the survey enables tank owners to determine the status of their tanks and provides links to modify an existing registration.

Tanks that remain unregistered by July 1st will be deemed out of compliance with state law and subject to violations, fines, and other censures. The original deadline for registration was October 1st of last year in order to give tank owners time to research and potentially modify their tanks. All AST units that remain unregistered by July 1st are not allowed to store liquids.

The DEP offers another online survey, called “Do I Need to Register My AST?”, that helps tank owners determine whether they need registration or deregistration and offers links for those ends. Paper registration forms are also accepted in addition to online ones.

The DEP will propose recommendations for the current AST program at the 2016 legislative session.

ASTs are already subject to strict regulations by the American Petroleum Institute (API). One API code, for example, mandates that AST units must be build inside a secondary containment area capable of holding the entirety of the tank’s contents.

When Montanile sued the drunk driver who struck him, he had no way of predicting it would lead to a legal battle that would reach the highest court in the land. Montanile was insured by The National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan, which paid $120,000 of his medical costs after his accident.

When his personal injury claim resulted in a $500,000 settlement, the insurance company argued that under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, they were entitled to first reimbursement from his successful personal injury claim. After nearly a year of fighting his own insurance company, he was sued himself.

Montanile’s legal supporters say his insurance company is unfairly using the Act to receive a “free ride” from the good work of his personal injury attorneys, even though the Act was clearly designed to protect employees, not employers and insurance companies. For example, this June, a U.S. District Judge ruled that General Electric could not suddenly change its benefit plans for retired employees, a clear violation of the Act’s original intent.

Montanile says he needs the money from his settlement to care for his 12-year-old daughter and pay his mounting legal costs. Now, the case will be called Robert Montanile v. Board of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan and will be heard by the Supreme Court in October of this year.

The new creative director for luxury fashion powerhouse Gucci made a bold statement in his American debut in the New York Arts District. Alessandro Michele has been working with the Italian design house for more than a decade, when he worked under the legendary Tom Ford. Now that Michele is in charge, the designer is going his own way. The clothes and stick-thin models may have taken center stage during the June show, but the designer also turned heads with a unique artistic choice — the models flaunted new fashions on a runway lined with antique Persian carpets and Oriental Rugs.

Before mentioning any of the styles or celebrity spectators (“50 Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson was in the front row), Vogue commented on the strange choice Michele made in setting the stage with such a non-traditional runway.

“It’s clear that the Roman-born designer is intent on steering the brand in a completely new direction. With crumbling brickwork and antique Persian rugs piled on the floor end to end, the show space in Chelsea today looked like something out of a Wes Anderson movie, and was a million miles away from a Milanese milieu.”

Obviously, you don’t ascend to the role of Creative Director at Gucci without a discerning eye. The “knife-pleated lace skirts,” “faded pastel shades,” and “long-sleeved evening dresses that tumbled to the floor” looked absolutely stunning on the classic patterned rugs. Although fashion houses are often known for eschewing the old for the new, the choice of decor belied a stylistic throwback to another time. The earliest Persian carpets date all the way back to 641 CE, setting a classic tone for the thoroughly modern event.

Refinery29 quipped that Michele “Borrows From Weirdo Women Of Yore,” while also admitting that it’s his very “willingness to throw a wart into the mix that makes this collection feel braver than any fit-and-flare that’s come down the runway, and far more interesting at that.”

When exposed to direct sunlight, asphalt surfaces are capable of reaching temperatures up to 172 degrees Fahrenheit. Roads and rooftops everywhere bake during the hottest time of the year, creating a “heat island effect.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, heat islands are “built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas. The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F (12°C). Heat islands can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality.”

Luckily, a new technology might provide a solution. Researchers at the University of Technology in Sydney have developed a new material that can keep roofs cooler than the air above them — even in direct sunlight — thus reducing the effect of heat islands.

“We demonstrate for the first time how to make a roof colder than the air temperature around it, even under the most intense summer conditions,” said study co-author and Emeritus Professor Geoff Smith in a press release.

The super cool material is made of specialized plastics stacked on top of a layer of silver, and reflects 97% of the sunlight that hits it. In other words, it reflects sunlight so well that it doesn’t even warm up.

Compared to the energy efficient roofing materials currently available, the new material stays a whopping 50 degrees cooler.

“Cool roofing reduces the severity of the urban heat island problem in towns and cities and helps eliminate peak power demand problems from the operation of many air conditioners,” said Smith.

Although the material is not yet available to the market, it hopefully will be soon. With a warming planet and massive populations already suffering, the new material may be the key to staying cool in the face of a global inferno.

As the Duluth News Tribune describes it, “The research shows Minnesota is the best state for women, having made progress in key areas since 2004.”

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research is a nonprofit organization, Newsmax states, and researchers collected female-focused data on employment, pay rates, political participation, poverty, educational and professional opportunities, family responsibilities, and health.

Minnesota was ranked in the top 10 for the majority of these issues, and it even took the highest score for women’s health and well-being, primarily because of the state’s low rates of heart disease fatalities and diabetes among women.

The state dropped to 16th place concerning reproductive rights, however, which reflects poorly on the state but which is common for states across the country. In many cases, women have neither the resources nor the money to seek out procedures and preventative measures regarding sexual health, largely because reproductive rights are seen as controversial political topics rather than health issues.

For example, under 40% of sexually-active young women in the U.S. are tested for STIs and STDs like chlamydia, and many schools still abide by “Abstinence Only” education plans for sex ed classes.

Nevertheless, these concerns seem to be insignificant considering how well Minnesota scored in other areas of the recent report: 33% of state legislature positions are held by women, 34% of Minnesotan women have a bachelor’s degree or higher (an 8% improvement from 2000), and the average income of women in the state is about two cents higher than the national income for women.

Although Minnesota may still have many improvements to make before the state truly provides a welcoming environment for women, the most important trend that this data uncovered was that the state continually improved each year in multiple areas.

The Altoona Mirror reports that GACTC is one of the few schools in the country that offers an “Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary” (EFDA) program. The program teaches dental assistants the traditional skills of dental work as well as more sophisticated procedures. Though EFDAs are not permitted to drill teeth, they can place fillings, install temporary crowns and bridges, and perform other dental work that conventional dental assistants cannot.

According to Tom Zajac, the EFDA program coordinator, the purpose of EFDA training is to provide more services to the public previously reserved for dentists. The more EFDAs who graduate from dental schools, the more bridge work and fillings can be performed — without the long waits and appointment dates in dentist offices across the country.

“The thought behind physicians assistants was so that doctors could see more patients every day,” Zajac said. “An EFDA is like a physicians assistant for a dentist.”

The program can be fulfilled in one of two ways: a full-time 10-month program or a part-time 12-weekend program. Though the two options vary in span, they both require the same amount of class and clinical time.

“It’s a very rigorous process because it puts the academic and hands-on (work) together,” Zajac said.

Students interested in the program must complete at least 200 hours of schooling and pass the State Board of Dentistry Exam before acceptance.

One of those students, 19 year-old Ashlee Fagans, said the program puts a heavy emphasis on clinical work.

“I’m more of a hands-on person,” Fagans said. She admitted her favorite part of the program is “definitely working with the patients.”

“I kind of just fell in love with it,” she said.

Dental work, both cosmetic and non-cosmetic, is increasing in popularity in the United States. Three million Americans, for example, have dental implants — with half a million new patients getting them every year.

After the devastating bomb blast in Afghanistan that left Army Staff Sgt. Alex Dillmann paralyzed from the abdomen down, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was there to help with his long recovery. They paid to retrofit Dillman’s Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck so he could drive it, and even bought him a handcycle that would allow him to continue exercising.

While the former squad leader and his wife, Holly, were grateful for the assistance and support, they were also disappointed that the VA wouldn’t help pay for what they wanted the most: a family of their own.

The agency designed to care for former soldiers covers part or all of the cost of treatment for many ailments and conditions veterans may suffer from, but infertility isn’t one of them. The VA does not provide any financial assistance for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which fertility specialists agree offers those with traumatic genital and spinal cord injuries the best chance of having a biological child.

In fact, the VA is legally prohibited from covering IVF costs, under a 23-year-old law. Congress adopted the ban following growing conservative opposition over the ethics surrounding assisted reproductive technology (ART), due to concerns that unused fertilized embryos may be discarded.

Now, however, a bipartisan effort from both veterans and lawmakers is seeking to overturn the ban, which many feel is outdated considering the global acceptance and popularity of IVF. The law predates both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where widespread use of deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. forces has resulted in far more reproductive injuries than previous conflicts.

The Dillmans are now just one of thousands of young post-combat couples who struggle to start a family after blast injuries left them unable to conceive via natural methods.

IVF treatments can cost tens of thousands of dollars and often require multiple attempts before a viable pregnancy is produced. The combination of the emotional toll and the financial burden can be utterly overwhelming for many combat-wounded veterans and their significant others, especially if they are learning to live without a limb or adapting to life in a wheelchair.

Some combat-wounded veterans and their families have taken on debt to cover the cost of IVF treatments, while others have put off an education provided to them under the GI Bill so they jump back into the job market and start earning a salary right away. Others have rethought their plans to start a family altogether.

“At the end of the day, I’m so lucky to be alive. Part of that is this dream to be a parent,” said Dillmann, whose dirty-blond hair is still kept neatly cut high and tight. “But this is a big pill to swallow for all veterans facing combat injuries, which have hurt their chances to have children.”

After two failed rounds of IVF, the Dillmanns are ready for their upcoming round, which will cost $25,000 and wipe out years of careful saving. Regardless, they remain dedicated in pursuing their goal.

Congressional efforts to overturn the ban that prohibits the VA from covering IVF costs for combat-wounded veterans were met with resistance last year over how to pay for it. Though a new push is underway, it would only provide wounded military members with a small window of time between when their injury was sustained and the time of their discharge from the military. Yet many veterans are concerned that small time frame will only make matters even more difficult.

“The timing was just all wrong. It’s the time when you are trying to learn to shower and get your mind around the fact that you will never walk again. I wasn’t in the position to think about starting a family at that moment,” Alex explained.