Peppers can be staked as well. Using similar one-inch square stakes, place them about every fourth plant with twine running from stake to stake. Start the first twine four inches above the ground. As the peppers grow, put another string about every four inches above the first. Start with the first stake and go on one side of the plants. Then go around the next stake and so on. When you get to the last stake, come back down the other side of the plants to box the plants in and keep them from falling over. For tomatoes, some people simply use wire cages to put over the plants. The plants grow and are supported by the cages. Another method is to drive a one-inch square, four-foot stake into the ground by each plant and tie the plant to the stake. By Terry KelleyUniversity of GeorgiaThe seeds have come up, the gnats are out in full force and the garden is growing. It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer. Well, not exactly. It’s time now to trellis some of those veggies you planted. Trellising gets the plant and fruit up off of the ground, making way for better quality fruit and less disease. It also helps to maintain order in the garden and makes harvesting easier. Trellising is one chore that should be done fairly soon after plants are established. Cucumbers also grow better when trellised. You can use four-foot fencing wire and some posts to build a temporary fence beside the cucumber row. Then just train the vines up on the fence as they grow. You’ll find and pick your cukes easier.
Eggplant can also be staked. Tomato stakes or rebar, a common steel bar used to reinforce concrete, can be placed next to each eggplant. Then secure the plant. If you have a long row of tomatoes, you can set a large post at each end of the row and again about every 20 feet within it. Attach a wire across the top of the posts and about four inches above the ground. Use twine to tie each plant to the wires for support. Be careful not to cut into plants as you tie them with twine. But keep the twine tight enough to support the plants. Don’t forget to scout for insects and disease problems, too. Keep your weeds in check and water as needed. A gardener’s work is never quite done. But doing chores when needed will help you relax and enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer a little more.
Veggie support
January 17, 2021
If you’re a credit union, then you’re a cooperative. If you’re a cooperative, then you’re owned by the members who use (or work for) the business. If you’re member-owned, then you are beholden to your members’ best interests. If you’re beholden to your members’ interests, you must return value to your members and their community as a whole. When you look at the value you return to your members and the impact you have on the community where they live, can your credit union say it is giving a solid return on the community’s investment? Or in other words, if you’re asking people in the community to choose you for their financial services needs over anyone else in the area, are you putting enough significant value back into the community to justify their decision to do business with you? Credit unions need to be thinking in terms not only of the ROI they gain from a business bottom-line perspective but also the other side of that equation—the community’s return on investment in your credit union.I get it, you may be thinking, we are a business, not a charity…we may be not-for-profit but we’re not non-profit and if we don’t make money, we won’t be able to stay in business to serve the community at all. I served five years as the president of the board of directors for one of the country’s largest natural food cooperatives and I always had this reality in the back of my mind as we pushed the executive team to stay on target with our financial results and meet projected budgets every month. But I also knew that the only way we could outperform the competition was through serving more people that were not getting their needs met elsewhere, offering more food options and opportunities that didn’t exist elsewhere, and giving more back to the community in ways no one else was. People who cared about any of these things would choose us, and people who didn’t probably wouldn’t choose us anyway.As a credit union, a cooperative, a member-owned and community-focused financial services provider, you, too, have a point of differentiation in serving those who have needs that are not being met elsewhere, offering products and services that don’t exist elsewhere, and affecting a positive economic impact in the community because of your presence in it. Seeking biggest impact for lowest cost and effortHere’s the most amazing part of ensuring your community is getting its return on investment in you—it doesn’t require a huge up-front investment from your credit union. It simply requires knowledge of your community’s specific unmet needs and wiliness and dedication to go into service of that need. At Filene, we are passionate about testing the ideas that emerge from our research which we believe could fill a major unmet community need that credit unions could feasibly and expertly offer as part of a smart business strategy. And we are more than grateful for the bold and wise credit unions that raise their hands to work with us to pilot these ideas with their members. We have quite a few research-backed solutions in testing right now—meaning these credit unions are taking full advantage of brand new ways to give a solid ROI back to their community while being business savvy.More than 40 credit unions across the U.S. and Canada that recognized certain households in their communities were financially fragile (a disproportionate amount of them minority households,) have worked through us to offer five different products developed from our “Reaching Minority Households Incubator” research to meet specific needs of such households. Between these five programs, people who never could before now have opportunities to get personal, home and auto loans; to start businesses; to get out of exploitative debt cycles; to build credit and savings accounts—you know, the things we might all expect from our financial services provider. And in fact, during the 18-month testing period, 18,559 members of communities all over North America received these needed services. You can read much more about the win-win-win results (individual, community and credit union) in the downloadable 112-page report, but this direct quote from a new member of one of these credit unions sums up the night and day impact these offerings had: “Taking out this loan has helped immensely. I would be homeless without it.”And it doesn’t stop there…Depending on what your community needs – and your credit union must be the expert on knowing that – there are a variety of options to test and offer to ensure the community is getting the ROI it deserves from you. There is a product that helps people with assets (and loved ones) to protect, but without a will, to more easily get over that hurdle of creating a will.There is a product that helps graduating high schoolers and their families to more tangibly realize the full impact of college tuition, student loans, interest rates and repayment schedules BEFORE incurring the debt, allowing them to play out different scenarios and land on a more informed decision so there are no unpleasant surprises upon graduation. There is a really cool program that allows credit unions to work with employers to offer affordable, non-exploitative small dollar loans to their employees and similarly, a product to offer small-dollar loan options to members. These are all ways that credit unions with their eyes on the future are ensuring the community sees value in having them stick around in the community, rather than only focusing on shortsighted quarterly returns for the business. Because if you’re not going to offer a return on your community’s investment in you, you might as well step out of the way for Bank of America or Wells Fargo to decide what the community gets in return for their business…which is a scary thought for all of us. 8SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Holly Fearing Holly lives and breathes social media; if you can’t find her IRL, try reaching out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, and you’ll likely get her right away. … Web: www.filene.org Details
Defense Credit Unions have served our military for nearly 100 years. It is a rich history of “serving those who serve our country” as members of our society join the military, undergo intense training for both their job specialties and war, deploy on short-notice orders, potentially get killed or injured during combat, and continuously relocate families all over the globe when they are “home.” It takes a special kind of credit union to serve the military and such service requires demonstrating the “people helping people” motto above and beyond the call of duty. Here are a few ways that a Defense Credit Union’s service is different.First, Defense Credit Unions undertake a variety of roles on the military bases where they operate. The Department of Defense does not have the legal authority, budgetary, or manpower resources to provide financial services to military members. Plus, DoD’s mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars, not serve as financial service providers. Thus, Defense Credit Unions fulfill this role and save taxpayer dollars while preserving critical manpower.Second, Defense Credit Unions provide protection from predatory lenders. If you have ever visited a military installation, you can see all the predatory lenders literally right outside the gate. Plus, DoD does not always police the amount of advertising and sponsorship from these establishments inside the gate. Yet, the consequences of predatory lending schemes detract from the mission, usually at the worst time.As such, Defense Credit Unions are required by DoD Regulation to provide financial readiness education. Fortunately, this type of training is what all credit unions do. However, Defense Credit Union programs are heavily reviewed and must be approved by DoD. This is challenging because DoD is not in the business of regulating financial services and so standards become elusive as personnel changes on the installation.Third, there are two practical reasons why Defense Credit Unions operate on the installation—direct financial support for both the warfighting mission and “in-garrison” operations. During mobilization for war, there is an immediate cash requirement as part of the execution order; usually in $50 to $250K increments. This cash requirement exists since our military typically deploys to remote and austere locations. These places do not accept credit cards much less Apple Pay or Bitcoin. A smartphone/mobile app is useless. Cash is required.Since military units no longer maintain cash in their vaults, Defense Credit Unions are required to keep large amounts of cash on hand which must be “ready to go” on moment’s notice. This cash is used to pay for things such as landing/docking fees, fortifying bare bases, or purchasing supplies on the local economy. Without this cash, the mission will fail as cargo gets impounded or bottled water runs out.In terms of “in-garrison” operations, Defense Credit Unions also manage the government’s daily cash deposits as part of their operating agreement. For instance, defense commissaries, base exchanges, child development centers, dining facilities, and morale, welfare, and recreation centers each collect payments and must deposit receipts at the end of the day. These deposits must be made via an official Treasury General Account (TGA).Since the DoD cannot legally provide financial services, these deposits must be made at an insured financial institution. Thus, DoD requires this service to be provided in its operating agreements. Defense Credit Unions who perform this service do so without charge. Without this agreement, the government would have to procure armored truck services as well as contract with a local financial institution that may or may not understand the installation’s mission. This can be very expensive and requires a separate contracting action.All of the above are basic requirements for Defense Credit Unions in general. However, there is much more required from Defense Credit Unions. This includes operating overseas with “brick and mortar” locations on foreign soil. Imagine the dizzying array of local personnel policies, host nation agreements, and base access/security issues that drive additional compliance requirements in addition to NCUA and state regulatory requirements. This is the purpose of the Defense Credit Union Council which has successfully advocated for each of our members since 1963.Finally, our best example of serving our military is through the Armed Forces Financial Network. In 1985, Defense Credit Unions needed someone to create an ATM/Point of Sale Network since neither of the large ATM/Point of Sale Networks were interested or lacked the capacity to serve our military bases. Military installations are not typically located in large population centers for obvious reasons and extending ATM/Point of Sale service in overseas locations remains extremely challenging. Thus, the Armed Forces Financial Network was created to answer the call on moving military pay to an EFT environment. This was (and remains) a very successful effort.Plus, the Armed Forces Financial Network gives a significant portion of its revenue back to the military community. This is “win-win-win” for the DoD, our military members, and all Defense Credit Unions. If you have a credit union member stationed overseas, I encourage you to consider joining the Armed Forces Financial Network to better serve your members stationed overseas or in different states across the continent.In fact, I believe there is at least one military-connected member in virtually every credit union in the United States. As such, laws like the Military Lending Act and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act apply to every credit union. The Defense Credit Union Council can help advocate your concerns with the Department of Defense directly and will work with each of the credit union trade associations on policy and legislative proposals that affect your credit union.Our main concern is always the servicemember and their unique needs and stresses. The opening paragraph of this article highlighted a few of these stressors. Please give us a call when one of your members is in need, even when the issue is not financially related. We also welcome you to attend our Defense Matters Forum at the GAC and see how we can help. Col. Jason Woodworth, commanding officer of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, commends the employees of the station’s Navy Federal Credit Union for winning the 2015 Distinguished Large Credit Union Award aboard MCAS Miramar, Calif., Sept. 13. The award appropriately reflects the endless hours of service the employees have spent providing excellent service to those in uniform, civilians and their families. Employees and guests attended a small gathering with food and beverages to celebrate receiving the award. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Harley Robinson/Released) 40SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Anthony Hernandez Anthony Hernandez is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC). He joined DCUC as its Chief Operating Officer in August 2016 and was selected … Web: www.dcuc.org Details
ENDICOTT (WBNG) – St. Anthony’s of Padua concluded their 2020 Feast Days with a drive-through on Sunday. “Everything just turned out fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Diles said. “Had we known we were going to do this well, we would have planned for more I supposed just like anyone would.” Drive-through coordinator Nick Diles said the celebration was a success. The church made around 400 meals, and for the second time in two weeks, it was a complete sell-out. 
With Feast Days canceled, the church still wanted to find a way to celebrate. Two weeks ago was a pasta dish, and today was the chicken barbecue. The church is now in the process of planning events for the fall.
Comment Granit Xhaka’s wife goes ‘private’ on Instagram after receiving abuse from Arsenal fans Metro Sport ReporterTuesday 29 Oct 2019 9:59 amShare this article via facebookShare this article via twitterShare this article via messengerShare this with Share this article via emailShare this article via flipboardCopy link1.2kShares Granit Xhaka has reportedly refused to apologise for the incident (Picture: Getty)Granit Xhaka’s wife has been forced to change her privacy settings on Instagram after recieving abuse from Arsenal fans on social media.The Swiss international told supporters to ‘f**k off’ after being booed as he left the field on the hour-mark against Crystal Palace on Sunday at the Emirates.The midfielder could now be stripped of the captaincy after reportedly refusing to issue an apology to supporters.His silence has only served to exacerbate the anger among supporters and their anger has spilled over to social media.ADVERTISEMENTXhaka being subbed off pic.twitter.com/VIQsnhFBoC— Matt (@MGH) October 27, 2019Xhaka’s wife, Leonita Lekaj, has experienced some of the wrath and decided to make her profile private due to the level of abuse.AdvertisementAdvertisementLekaj has a substantial 202,000 followers and previously had a ‘public’ account before the abuse started. Leonita has 202k followers (Picture: Instagram)Emery is expected to address the situation in a press conference today ahead of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup clash against Liverpool at Anfield.The Spaniard suggested Xhaka could be stripped of the captaincy after the game on Sunday and the club have remained tight-lipped over the situation by refusing to issue an official response.
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Read More Comment However, he thinks Rodgers would be an ideal candidate for the Arsenal and Chelsea jobs, should they become available in the near future.‘Liverpool is out of the question and Manchester United is too because he was Liverpool manager,’ Carragher said.More: FootballRio Ferdinand urges Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to drop Manchester United starChelsea defender Fikayo Tomori reveals why he made U-turn over transfer deadline day moveMikel Arteta rates Thomas Partey’s chances of making his Arsenal debut vs Man City‘You look at Arsenal and Chelsea in a few years’ time, whether Frank stays there or not.‘Rodgers has a link to Chelsea, being in the youth set-up and the reserves. They’re the two jobs you’d look at, maybe international wise as well.’Leicester travel to London on Sunday to take on Crystal Palace before hosting fifth-placed Arsenal a week later.Who would be the best fit for Brendan Rodgers?Manchester United0%Chelsea0%Arsenal0%Liverpool0%Share your resultsShare your resultsTweet your resultsMORE: Charlie Nicholas reacts to Granit Xhaka statement and sends warning to Arsenal captainMORE: Paul Ince explains why Manchester United should sign Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead of Mario Mandzukic Read More Metro Sport ReporterThursday 31 Oct 2019 11:35 pmShare this article via facebookShare this article via twitterShare this article via messengerShare this with Share this article via emailShare this article via flipboardCopy link90Shares Top articles Jamie Carragher tells Brendan Rodgers why he won’t manage Manchester United 1/1 Visit Advertiser website GO TO PAGE Jamie Carragher has been impressed with Rodgers (Picture: AMA/Getty Images)Although Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been under pressure at Manchester United, Carragher believes Rodgers’ ties with Liverpool would see him ruled out of that role, while a return to Anfield is also ‘out of the question’.AdvertisementAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT SPONSORED Read More Full Screen PLAY / About Connatix V67539 Skip Coming Next Advertisement Brendan Rodgers is impressing at Leicester (Picture: Getty Images)Jamie Carragher believes Brendan Rodgers is ready to return to one of the biggest clubs in the country, but thinks Arsenal and Chelsea are his most likely destinations.Rodgers has done a fantastic job since taking over at Leicester and his side sit third behind Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League.While he will hope to guide his current side to the Champions League next season, opportunities are expected to present themselves to the former Liverpool and Celtic manager if he continues to shine at the King Power Stadium. Read More 1 min. story by Metro Rio Ferdinand tells Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to drop Read More Skip Ad struggling Manchester United captain Harry… Video Settings Advertisement
The methodology significantly reduces the new index’s debt-to-equity ratio relative to that of the market capitalisation-weighted Merrill Lynch Global Corporate Bond index benchmark, from 0.83 to 0.73.The debt-to-cash flow ratio is reduced from 9.78 to 6.47.Rob Arnott, chief executive at Research Affiliates, said: “Traditional bond indices, which give the largest weights to the biggest debtors, are great tools for benchmarking performance but they are suboptimal as the basis for investment funds. There is a better way to construct bond indices for investment purposes.”The firm’s research suggests that, between 1997 and 2013, issuers with higher leverage did trade with higher average spreads, but the relationship was far from linear.Moreover, volatility of annualised total returns increased with higher leverage but annualised total returns did not, suggesting investors are not compensated for the extra risk.Similar results were returned when the firm looked at levels of debt coverage.Looking at the ratios of working capital, cash flow, sales and leverage to assets – which academic research indicate are predictive of downgrade risk – Research Affiliates found that the 3% of issuers excluded from the index on the basis of these ratios returned 4.1% with 9.4% volatility, versus 6.4% with 6.2% volatility from the rest of the universe.Shane Shepherd, senior vice-president and head of fixed income research for Research Affiliates, said: “Our research reveals that investors’ reach for yield is often not properly compensated.“This new index offers lower credit risk, lower volatility and better risk-adjusted returns over full market cycles than traditional market value-weighted indices.”The Citi RAFI index’s excess risk-adjusted return does not appear to result from exchanging credit risk for duration or currency risk.Currency exposures are almost identical with the market portfolio’s, and the index is only slightly overweight in the 3-10 year part of the curve, and underweight at both the short and the very long end.Most of the active weight in credit rating is located in the AA and single-A part of the spectrum: the RAFI index is about 3 percentage points overweight in AA paper, 1.8 percentage points underweight single-A and 1.5 percentage points underweight BBB.There are some meaningful sector active weights: 9.5 percentage points overweight industrials, 3.2 percentage points underweight utilities and 5.3 percentage points underweight financials.Research Affiliates acknowledges that its methodology of measuring average annual cash flow smoothed over five years does not capture the relative stability of those cash flows, which might affect the relative riskiness of similar levels of balance-sheet debt held by companies in different sectors.The Citi RAFI index has a turnover of 43%, versus that of 26% from the Merrill Lynch index, while the weighted average bid/ask spread is 1 basis point higher than the cap-weighted index’s, at 0.28%.That would result in a 4-5 basis point excess cost, before other fees associated with investable products built on the index.More than $118bn (€86bn) is managed against Research Affiliates’ fundamental indexing equity indices.This new product joins fundamental indices for sovereign developed markets and sovereign emerging markets local currency debt in the Citi RAFI Bonds Index Series.Helge Kostka, a vice-president in European business development for Research Affiliates, said: “In some respects, one might expect that the smart-beta ideas would be best-suited to fixed income, but while there have been some index products launched in sovereign bonds, very little seems to have been done in credit.”Speaking to IPE recently for a forthcoming special supplement on smart beta, the CIO of the UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund, Mark Mansley, noted the lack of product development in fixed income.“The anomalies in bond and credit markets are even greater than in equities,” he said.“We would like to see more products and ideas out there for us to harvest.“Perhaps we are still in the early days of this: the bond market has had things its own way for 20 or 30 years, and, now that the tide is turning, perhaps more innovative thinking will come to the fore.”The Environment Agency’s Active Pension Fund uses Legal & General Investment Management to implement a global equity mandate that passively tracks a FTSE RAFI benchmark. Investment bank Citi and fundamental indexing specialist Research Affiliates have launched a global investment-grade corporate bond index in a pioneering move to extend the smart-beta concept further into the fixed income world.The Citi RAFI World Corporate Investment-Grade Bond index uses two factors in weighting bonds in the portfolio: long-term assets, which represents the portion of assets that long-term bondholders have a claim on, and cash flow, which reflects debt service capacity.In addition, financial ratios are used to reduce exposure to companies that are more susceptible to downgrades.The index values are calculated and published by Citi using this fundamental indexing methodology developed by Research Affiliates.
Italian offshore and onshore oilfield services provider Saipem has leased a space in the Hamriyah Free Zone, UAE, in an effort to expand its services in the region.Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, Director of Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) and Sharjah Airport Free Zone (SAIF Zone) late in July signed an agreement with Andrea Marco Palmieri, branch manager of Saipem.Saipem, employing around 40.000 people worldwide, leased leased 59.338 square meters of land to further expand their services in the Middle East. Saipem is currently one of the global leaders in drilling services, as well as in the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of pipelines and complex projects, onshore and offshore, in the oil & gas market“Having a globally renowned company like Saipem is a culmination of Hamriyah Free Zone Authority’s efforts in attracting foreign investments and highlighting Hamriyah Free Zone’s advantages such as 14-meter deep port and 7-meter deep harbor making it an ideal hub for the manufacture and maintenance of vessels, and trade of oil, gas, iron and steel” says Al Mazrouei. “We will continue to offer world-class facilities and services to our investors to ensure that they can expand their own businesses with us” he added.
MEXICO – A new investigation is underwayinto the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers in Guerrero state in 2014. Parents of 43 missing students continue to search for their missing children – who disappeared on Sept. 26, 2014 after attending a protest. AFP The 43 students from a teacher trainingcollege in the town of Ayotzinapa in Guerrero state disappeared on Sept. 26,2014 after attending a protest in the nearby Iguala town. During the clash, five people – two of themstudents – were shot dead. The body of a third student was found mutilated nearthe scene of the clash the next morning. The case and the subsequent bungledinvestigation caused outrage in the country.(BBC)
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — An Ivy Tech Community College business professor has received distinguished recognition for her years of service advising the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at Ivy Tech Lawrenceburg.Jennifer Morton received a Distinguished Advisor Award at Phi Theta Kappa Catalyst 2017, the honor society’s annual convention.Morton is a Professor of Business Administration and Department Chair for Business, Accounting, and Computing and Informatics.The Distinguished Advisor Award is presented to Phi Theta Kappa chapter advisors with at least four years or more of service.Advisors are recognized for significant contributions to the growth of individual members, service as the chapter’s advocate on campus, and encouraging the chapter to be involved on the local, regional and international level of the organization.Morton has served as the Ivy Tech Lawrenceburg Phi Theta Kappa advisor since 2006.In 2008, she received the Paragon Award for New Advisors from the honor society.