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Monday, January 9, 2012

US: Iran has not yet decided to build nuclear bomb (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Iran is laying the groundwork for making nuclear weapons someday, but is not yet building a bomb and called for continued diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Tehran not to take that step.

As he has previously, Panetta cautioned against a unilateral strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear facilities, saying the action could trigger Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces in the region.

"We have common cause here" with Israel, he said. "And the better approach is for us to work together."

Panetta's remarks on CBS' Face the Nation, which were taped Friday and aired Sunday, reflect the long-held view of the Obama administration that Iran is not yet committed to building a nuclear arsenal, only to creating the industrial and scientific capacity to allow one if its leaders to decide to take that final step.

The comments suggest the White House's assessment of Iran's nuclear strategy has not changed in recent months, despite warnings from advocates of military action that time is running out to prevent Tehran from becoming a nuclear-armed state.

Iran says its nuclear program is only for energy and medical research, and refuses to halt uranium enrichment

Several Republican candidates have called for a tougher line against Iran, saying they believe it is committed to building the bomb. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon," said Mitt Romney. "And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."

Rick Santorum has said that the U.S. should plan a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities and "say to them that if you do not open up those facilities and close them down, we will close them down for you."

Iran has opened two dozen of its facilities to international inspectors, but has refused in defiance of the U.N. Security Council to suspend its uranium enrichment.

A leading hardline Iranian newspaper reported Sunday that Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes.

Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran's ruling clerics, said scientists have begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.

In a talk at a Brookings Institution forum in December, Panetta said an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would "at best" delay Iran's nuclear program by one or two years. Among the unintended consequences, he said, would be an increase in international support for Iran and the likelihood of Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces and bases in the Mideast.

Panetta did not discuss the issue directly on Sunday's "Face the Nation." But Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, appearing with the defense secretary, said that he wanted the Iranians to believe that a U.S. military strike could wipe out their nuclear program.

"I absolutely want them to believe that's the case," he said.

Panetta did not rule out launching a pre-emptive strike.

"But the responsible thing to do right now is to keep putting diplomatic and economic pressure on them to force them to do the right thing," he said. "And to make sure that they do not make the decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon."

Panetta said if Iran started developing a weapon, the U.S. would act. "I think they need to know that ? that if they take that step ? that they're going to get stopped."

Dempsey also said that Iran has the military power to block the Strait of Hormuz "for a period of time" if it decides to do so, but that the U.S. would take action to reopen waterway. "We can defeat that," he said.

Panetta said closing the strait would draw a U.S. military response. "We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz," he said. "That's another red line for us and ... we will respond to them."

A number of experts say Iran is unlikely to close the strait, through which Gulf oil flows, because the action could hurt Iran as much as the West.

But a second Iranian newspaper, the Khorasan daily, on Sunday quoted a senior commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard force as saying Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the strategic oil route if the country's petroleum exports are blocked.

Iranian politicians have issued similar threats in the past, but this is the strongest statement yet by a top commander in the security establishment.

___

Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120108/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iran_nuclear

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US military probes missing 'sensitive' equipment

TACOMA, Washington?? The U.S. Army says it's investigating the disappearance of "sensitive" equipment at a joint army and air force base in Washington state.

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The New Tribune of Tacoma reports on its website Sunday that a 100-member infantry company has been locked down at Joint Base Lewis McChord while the probe is under way.

Base spokesman Matt Hinkle says the company under investigation is from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

I Corps spokesman Maj. Chris Ophardt says the missing items are weapons accessories and not weapons. Laser sights were cited as an example.

Ophardt says the lockdown started Wednesday and will continue until the probe is over. Meanwhile, the company is restricted to barracks and dining areas but families can visit.

A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the equipment's return.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45917338/ns/us_news-security/

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Under the U.S. Supreme Court: Administration, Texas crack heads in high court

Published: Jan. 8, 2012 at 3:30 AM
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Texas redistricting case hits a climax of sorts Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court hears argument on competing redistricting plans -- at stake, the lions' share of the four new seats in Congress the Lone Star State is due.

If a plan drawn up by the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature wins out, the GOP should take all four of the seats. If an interim plan drawn up by a three-judge court in San Antonio succeeds, and the voting impact of minorities is maximized, Democrats could take three out of the four.

Underneath the bare knuckle politics is the suspicion that one of the truly landmark laws in U.S. history, the Voting Rights Act, also may be facing some jeopardy.

The Obama administration has joined the fight, and filed a friend-of-the-court brief last month partly supporting challengers of the Legislature's plan. Lawyers for Texas and the challengers get a half hour each to make their arguments Monday. The administration has been granted a bare 10 minutes.

But the U.S. Solicitor General's Office already has made much of its case in the brief filed with the high court.

Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibits a "covered jurisdiction" -- jurisdictions such as Texas which have a history of racial discrimination -- from making changes in voting procedures without getting judicial or administrative "pre-clearance."

State and local jurisdictions can seek judicial pre-clearance for a redistricting plan by going to a three-judge district court in Washington. Or they can get pre-clearance from the U.S. attorney general.

But under the federal act, the jurisdiction has the burden of showing the voting change "neither has the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote" that, among other things, "would lead to a retrogression in the position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise."

In submitting its plan to the Washington court, Texas said its "proposed redistricting plans for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas state Senate neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority and otherwise fully comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."

The state asked for a quick ruling that its plan could be implemented for the upcoming elections.

But the three-judge panel in Washington, tied up with related litigation and initially rejecting the Legislature's maps, ordered the three-judge federal panel in San Antonio to review the redistricting plan to test its compliance with Section 5 and come up with an interim plan if necessary, pending a final ruling in Washington.

The Lone Star State gained more than 4 million residents from 2000 to 2010, translating into the additional four seats in Congress. The growth was overwhelmingly because of an increase in the Hispanic population.

Using Section 5, the San Antonio panel rejected the state Legislature's plan 2-1 and substituted an interim plan of its own that tends to favor Hispanics and Democrats. The panel also refused to stay its ruling.

The panel majority implied its hands were tied.

"Had the state chosen the path of administrative pre-clearance through the [U.S.] Department of Justice, we would perhaps be in the remedial phase right now," the majority said. "However, the state chose to file a lawsuit in the United States District Court in the District of Columbia, which is still pending, and we are not in the remedial phase. ... The court [panel in San Antonio] cannot simply adopt an unpre-cleared redistricting plan, in whole or in part, with the signatures of a few judges sitting in Texas."

Texas officials, led by state Attorney General Gregg Abbott, took their case the U.S. Supreme Court.

In fighting for the plan that would give Republicans an advantage, Texas officials are carrying on an old tradition. Generations of state Democratic officials enjoyed a gerrymandered congressional map that favored them until Texas Republicans began flexing their political muscles less than a decade ago.

But the administration's brief to the Supreme Court points out that for once, the arithmetic is on the side of minorities.

The 2010 census showed the state population has increased by nearly 4.3 million since 2000, the brief said. The Latino population accounted for more than 2.79 million of that increase; blacks for more 522,000. Whites accounted for fewer than 465,000.

Despite those numbers, the Legislature's state House plan "dismantled several districts in which Hispanics were able to elect their candidates of choice ... [and the] congressional plan resulted in nearly 500,000 fewer Hispanic voters living in ability-to-elect districts. ... Both plans bore indicia of discriminatory purpose," the administration brief said. "For instance, precincts were carefully split so that districts would include certain voters and exclude others; the only basis for distinguishing at that level ... was race."

The administration has joined in the challenge to the state House and U.S. House redistricting, but not in the challenge to the state Senate redistricting.

The administration argues in its brief that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act "prescribes a bright-line rule: A voting change cannot take effect 'unless and until' it is pre-cleared. [Texas officials] cannot avoid the clear dictates of Section 5 by contending that the unpre-cleared plans should go into effect on an interim basis. There is no basis for allowing any temporary circumvention of the pre-clearance requirement, much less one of the magnitude [Texas officials] seek. Indeed, had the District Court [in San Antonio] attempted to order the use of unpre-cleared plans ... it would have been clearly reversible error under this [Supreme] Court's decisions."

The brief argues at length that the San Antonio panel had no power to act under the Voting Rights Act except in the way it did.

Texas officials seek "to put this [Supreme] Court to a binary choice: The state's maps, or the [San Antonio] District Court's," the administration said. "If the choice is between an unpre-cleared map that actually violates the [Voting Rights Act], and a map drawn by federal judges that may ... be insufficiently sensitive to state redistricting principles, the choice is clear: Section 5 exists precisely to ensure that discriminatory, retrogressive voting changes -- like the Texas House and congressional plans -- are caught before they ever go into effect."

The administration's brief makes a pretty good argument that Texas is violating the Voting Rights Act. But an unspoken motif in the case is whether Section 5 of the act itself might be in peril.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, at least approaches the question in an article last week in the ABA Journal -- "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon Supreme Court."

"In 2006, Congress extended Section 5 for another 25 years," Chemerinsky wrote. "In 2009, in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 vs. Holder, the [Supreme] Court expressed doubts about the continued constitutionality of Section 5, but resolved the case without deciding the constitutional question. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in an 8-1 decision, discussed the significant intrusion of Section 5 on the prerogatives of state and local governments and said that the constitutionality of the law is a 'difficult question.'

"But the court avoided the constitutional question by holding that local governments could 'bail out' of the requirements of Section 5 by showing that they do not have a recent history of race discrimination in voting," he added.

The issue of the constitutionality of Section 5 is not in the current case, "Yet, the constitutional issue is very much the backdrop of what the Supreme Court will be considering.

"The stakes in all of this are potentially high, ..." Chemerinsky said. "Ultimately the [Texas cases] highlight a crucial issue sure to come directly before the court: Was the extension of Section 5 for another 25 years constitutional?"

Source: http://pheed.upi.com/click.phdo?i=fd38f655e7b7df68845e200c55faebff

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Saturday, January 7, 2012

Yearly roundup of world currencies: The yen, the rupee, and everything in between

How 14 of the world's largest currencies fared against the dollar in 2011.

It has become something of an annual tradition at this blog to summarize the yearly movement of a number of important currencies. This year, most currencies didn't change very dramatically against the U.S. dollar for the year as a whole. 5 currencies rose, three of which (the Australian and New Zealand dollars and the U.K. pound) only marginally. Only the yen and the yuan rose significantly, but far from dramatically. The other fell, but it was only the Brazilian real and the Indian rupee that did so in a really significant way.

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Stefan is an economist currently working in Sweden.

Winter a tough time for Fla. tropical fish farmers

Imperial Tropical's breeding manager Kevin Kramer holds a male Swordtail Wednesday Jan. 4, 2012, at the tropical fish farm in Lakeland, Fla. Almost all the nation's domestically-raised tropical and ornamental fish come from Florida, and when cold weather strikes the results can be devastating. It will be days, if not weeks, before farmer Fran Drawdy discovers how the recent cold snap will affect her fish. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

In this Jan. 4, 2012, photo, Imperial Tropical's breeding manager Kevin Kramer, right, nets fish as owner Fran Drawdy looks on at their tropical fish farm in Lakeland, Fla. Almost all the nation's domestically-raised tropical and ornamental fish come from Florida, and when cold weather strikes the results can be devastating. It will be days, if not weeks, before farmer Fran Drawdy discovers how the recent cold snap will affect her fish. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

In this Jan. 4, 2012, photo, Imperial Tropical's breeding manager Kevin Kramer inspects a net full of Black Tetras at the tropical fish farm in Lakeland, Fla. Almost all the nation's domestically-raised tropical and ornamental fish come from Florida, and when cold weather strikes the results can be devastating. It will be days, if not weeks, before farmer Fran Drawdy discovers how the recent cold snap will affect her fish. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) ? It's a tense time at Imperial Tropicals, one of central Florida's largest ornamental fish farms.

It will be days, if not weeks, before farmer Fran Drawdy discovers how the recent cold snap will affect her fish.

Her millions of platies, mollies and guppies in outdoor ponds could die quickly from the drastic temperature change ? it went from 80 degrees on Christmas to 20 degrees two weeks later ? or they could fall sick and linger from stress or a fungus.

Almost all the nation's domestically-raised tropical and ornamental fish come from Florida, and when cold weather strikes the results can be devastating.

"We have tremendous challenges with the cold," said Drawdy, who has owned the central Florida farm with her family for 40 years. "Our prayer was that we wouldn't face that this year. We were just really starting to recover."

Drawdy is referring to 2010, when many Florida ornamental fish farmers lost between 80 and 100 percent of their stock. That year, temperatures stayed below 50 for 11 days straight in January and then another cold snap in December struck the area.

"The last three winters in a row it seems like we have been just clobbered," said David Boozer, executive director of the Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association, a group that counts 231 farmers as members.

The Sunshine State's fish farms are not as well known, or as lucrative, as oranges, strawberries or tomatoes. But the sales figures are still substantial and chances are, if you've bought a guppy at a large chain store, it's from Florida. The state's tropical fish sales were $32.2 million in 2007, the last year statistics were gathered.

Hillsborough and Polk counties in central Florida sold the most fish, although farmers are located in some South Florida counties as well. The industry started in Miami in the 1920s, and farmers migrated north as land there became more expensive. At one time, farmers say, tropical fish were the most shipped cargo from Tampa International Airport; today it's industrial and commercial machinery.

Tropical fish farmers usually keep dozens, if not hundreds, of small outdoor ponds on their property. Some, including Drawdy, also have greenhouses with concrete tanks inside and special breeding areas. Although the greenhouses are covered and farmers place plastic sheeting over the ponds when it gets cold, the fish ? and profits ? suffer if the temperatures drop too low for too long.

During the 2010 freeze, it took Imperial Tropicals nearly a year to replenish its stock because a lot of the company's breeding fish were also wiped out from the cold.

"It takes so long to recover," Drawdy said.

The recent and unusually cold winters are only part of the industry's problem. A bad economy, imports from Asia and the ubiquity of the Internet all play a role in why there are hundreds fewer fish farmers today than 20 years ago.

"Kids a lot of times aren't looking at an aquarium anymore," shrugged Kevin Kramer, the breeding manager at Imperial Tropicals. "They're looking at videogames."

Imported fish from Asia have taken over the consumer market, said Boozer. Labor in countries like Malaysia and Thailand is cheaper and it's also warmer ? Florida farmers' biggest competition is from Southeast Asia, where the temperatures never fall below 80 degrees. There are also more environmental regulations for U.S. farmers; Drawdy said her farm is inspected by the state Department of Agriculture and local water management authorities. Keeping up with the regulations can raise farming cists, she said.

Also, since there are fewer small pet stores of fish hobbyist shops, large chain stores are where most people buy their fish. Those stores carry fewer varieties and can set prices low.

Farmers must currently monitor which varieties are popular and breed accordingly. For Drawdy, selling to distributors quickly is key ? it's not like she can just hang on to the fish until they sell.

"These fish won't sit," she said. "We have to sell them or they get too big or they die."

Although Drawdy watched many of her fellow farmers sell their land during the real estate boom of the early 2000s, she is determined to continue.

"This is what we know," she said. "This has been our family's life."

___

Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-06-Food%20and%20Farm-Tropical%20Fish/id-eb006d9f4eb74dd08ea254d44855e90b

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Friday, January 6, 2012

Exxon to sell most of Japan refining stake: sources (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? U.S. oil group ExxonMobil (XOM.N) is in talks to sell most of its 50 percent stake in Japanese refiner TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK (5012.T), in a deal that could be worth as much as $5 billion, four sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The talks see Exxon belatedly join international oil and gas industry peers in scaling back downstream activities such as crude processing and fuel marketing, to focus on more lucrative activities -- finding and pumping oil and gas.

The move could also spark realignment among Japan's oil refiners, which have been cutting capacity to cope with falling demand caused by a weak economy and a shift to more efficient and environmentally friendly forms of energy.

TonenGeneral, which imports and distributes Exxon oil in Japan, ranks as the country's No. 2 refiner behind JX Holdings (5020.T). Smaller rivals include Idemitsu Kosan Co (5019.T), Cosmo Oil (5007.T) and Showa Shell (5002.T).

"If this report is true, it could open the door for TonenGeneral to realign in alliance with another company. That may or may not include capital ties," said Hidetoshi Shioda, senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.

CAPITAL RELATIONSHIP

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L) and Chevron (CVX.N) have sold, closed or put up for sale many refineries in the past decade.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company by market value, has long been a strong advocate of the integrated oil model, in which companies are active in every stage of the business from well head to forecourt.

The planned sale may be an acknowledgement of a widely held view that in markets with slow-growing or falling fuel demand such as Japan and Europe, refining investments will struggle to offer good returns.

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil major, last year decided to spin off its refining operations into a separate company.

Exxonholds 50.02 percent of TonenGeneral, a stake worth 224 billion yen ($2.9 billion) at Wednesday's close. It also owns a sales network of around 4,000 gas stations across Japan.

Exxon is planning to keep a certain level of ownership in TonenGeneral, seen as key to maintaining the refining partnership, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the talks are still ongoing.

The cost of the deal could climb to as high as 400 billion yen, but may settle at a lower price depending on the size of the stake to be sold, negotiations over the other assets, and TonenGeneral's funding situation, the sources said.

An official announcement could come as early as this month, they said.

TonenGeneral said in a statement that ExxonMobil was considering a change to its capital relationship with TonenGeneral, but nothing had been decided. Exxon stressed it had no plans to withdraw from Japan.

"ExxonMobil has no plans to exit the Japan market. We have been doing business in Japan for over 118 years," the oil giant said in a statement to Reuters.

FUNDING BURDEN

Shares of TonenGeneral fell 5.8 percent to 792 yen, its lowest close in 14 months, reflecting investor worries over the burden the deal would place on its finances. Trading in the shares was the busiest in at least 24 years.

TonenGeneral plans to borrow money from several banks to finance the purchase, the sources said.

"It is hard to see the strategic direction of TonenGeneral after it buys the assets from Exxon. A deal in the order of 400 billion yen would also strain its cash situation and raise the risk of lower dividends," said Yoshihiro Okumura, head of research at Chibagin Asset Management.

Oil demand in Japan, the world's No.3 consumer, has been falling steadily for more than a decade, to about 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) from a record 4.2 million bpd in 1999.

That slide has accelerated following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March, which dented economic activity and prompted some manufacturers to shift factories abroad.

Industry sources had said Exxon might look to scale back in Japan after the country introduced new regulations in 2010, with a 2014 deadline for refiners to boost their ability to process heavy oil by building new cracking units or scrapping capacity.

The directive was seen as particularly burdensome for TonenGeneral due to its relatively low heavy oil processing capacity. The Exxon unit has been a vocal critic of the scheme, calling it unnecessary meddling by the government.

Despite the unfavorable operating environment in Japan, the relationship with TonenGeneral serves an important strategic purpose for Exxon, making it unlikely that it would look at a complete withdrawal, some analysts said.

"If ExxonMobil pulled out, they would lose a good outlet, and they could no longer ask TonenGeneral to import ExxonMobil's equity crudes," independent oil economist Osamu Fujisawa said.

($1 = 76.7500 yen)

(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and James Topham in Tokyo, and Tom Bergin in London; Writing by Nathan Layne; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Will Waterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120104/bs_nm/us_exxon_tonengeneral

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GCA 2011 Grand Award: Columbia Public School District (with Related Video) - American School & University article

Dec 1, 2011 12:00 PM

Grand Award: K-12/School Districts in the 2012 Green Cleaning Awards

Program Information
Number of students: 17,709
Square footage maintained: 2,700,838
Number of full-time custodians: 147
Annual cleaning budget: $478,875
Green cleaning team members: Michael Jones, Assistant Director of Custodial Service; Norris McKinzie, Assistant Director of FCS; Randy Jackson, Environmental Specialist; Dave Thompson, Sales Representative, New System, Janitorial Product Distributor; Dave Thompson, President, Green Clean Institute

Cleaning procedures concentrate on pre-spraying surfaces, dwell time and physical removal of soils. Crucial is cleaning our most touched surfaces nightly, and as often as possible during the daytime, including tables and student desks, doorknobs, push plates, handles, drinking fountains and hand rails. We use Sani-Shield on Mondays to clean surfaces, provide a protective barrier, which?reduces the buildup of dirt, bacteria and germs. Wednesday and Friday, all surfaces are sanitized.

Carpet is presprayed with sanitizer and extracted with cold water. Large restrooms are cleaned with sanitizer. Small restrooms are pre-sprayed with a sanitizer in 1-gallon sprayer including the floor, fixtures are wiped clean, and floor mopped with plain cold water using a double-bucket system and water in both buckets to double rinse. Floor surfaces are mopped with a double-bucket system, and have reduced chemical consumption by 35 percent.

We have eliminated feather-type dusters using microfiber products to dust or vacuuming ledges to improve indoor air quality.

We apply floor finish by pouring a small puddle directly on the surface, running a feeder line to thin, and spread with a flat microfiber finish mop. This allows the application of thinner coats, no floor finish waste, cleanup of mop buckets and wringer, stripper for cleaning, only rinsing our finish pad, and saved?more than?20 percent?in our floor finish consumption.

We received capital assets to purchase stripping machines, which strip floors using plain water. The Edge 32DC will dry strip floor surfaces. Both units will provide significant savings in the consumption of floor stripper, pouring stripper into our drains, and slip and fall hazards.

The superintendent of elementary will incorporate proper handwashing, disposal of paper products, and proper use of paper towels into the district's PBS system.? The district uses a Positive Behavior Approach to fully prepare children for school success. Students learn about the appropriate ways to be respectful, responsible and safe. One way to learn how to be respectful is by learning how to properly wash their hands, properly dispose of paper products, and properly use the correct quantities of paper products. Our PBS team will design lesson plans to teach children about the appropriate way of respecting our school environment.

Education

Head custodians?and night leads attended the Green Clean Institute's ?Certified Green Technician Education? course in the green and healthy use of procedures, products and equipment. This is a continuing step in our commitment toward the education of our employees in understanding green cleaning procedures, techniques and healthy environmental services.

We conduct?four mandatory training sessions to custodial staff members to review cleaning products, green cleaning procedures, waste reduction, budgetary issues, asbestos training and other procedures.

Evaluation

We perform regular inspections of all buildings to ensure cleanliness by visual, smell and ATP meter testing. Since our inception of green products and procedures, the district has maintained and increased attendance rates. We track attendance percentages of all district buildings by month compared withprior years to ensure our cleaning procedures are effective and being followed by staff.

Our environmental specialist conducts ongoing evaluations of our buildings indoor air quality by testing, monitoring and documenting district IAQ. This process has allowed our district to understand the importance of IAQ and contributed in the development of our new EEP policy.

We track consumption of our main products by month, building square footage and total student/certified teaching staff. This helps track proper consumption or waste of product; staff is properly consuming the needed amount of chemicals and providing feedback to buildings. Our average cost of paper towels for elementary schools is $7.28 per combined student and certified teacher. We found buildings consuming 30 percent?more paper than district average and other buildings consuming significantly less. This type of evaluation was presented in our annual safety meeting with district administration, pointing out the buildings over-consuming paper product and buildings significantly using less, resulting in our superintendent of elementary placing proper handwashing and use of paper products into our district PBS system. This same tracking method led us to understand why we had too many trash cans and needed to look into proper fitting of bags and testing of recycled product.

In April 2011, the BOE approved the policy ?Student Allergy Prevention and Response? to create an organized system for preventing and responding to allergic reactions. All district staff will be educated on causes, symptoms and responses to allergic reactions. Staff members shall not use items intended to add fragrance, and are prohibited from using any cleaning materials, disinfectants, pesticides or other except those provided by the district or preapproved. District buildings have until Labor Day 2011 to remove items and take home, and buildings will be inspected by October 15 to ensure compliance. Our department will provide green cleaning product and microfiber rags to all district classrooms at no cost to staff.

In April 2011, an energy and environmental policy was combined to maintain a safer and healthier learning environment and compliant energy conservation program. EEP encompasses all energy devices including lighting, HVAC and water savings; indoor air quality, asbestos and integrated pest management. All stuffed chairs, couches and sofas found to harbor allergens will no longer be allowed in a classroom setting and must be removed, including personal electronic devices including microwaves, hot plates, toaster ovens and refrigerators. Only district-purchased electrical items will be allowed. All classroom storage must be placed in plastic containers, not cardboard.

In August 2011, our department presented to district administrators areas of indoor air quality and shared responsibility of green cleaning. Masking, duct or other adhesive tape is discouraged on carpet due to solvents we no longer provide needed to remove tape adhesive, and will provide Velcro tape at no cost. Staff was asked not to tape nametags or learning devices on student desks and table tops, and establish end-of-the-day procedures for teachers and students to return classrooms back to a reasonable state of when school began to include stacking all chairs, picking up paper debris, pencils, crayons, markers and clearing tables and desks. Shepard Elementary was designated in 2010/11 with a no-tape policy and incorporated students replacing classrooms back into a reasonable state of cleanliness and attendance percentage rates increased almost ? percent.

We have 15 Partners In Education that promote education and activities related specifically to the environment and healthy living and include 12 schools/programs.? The walking school bus program is a group of 5-20 children accompanied by one or more adults on their morning walks to school. 21 buildings are involved in school programs to learn about the environment, climate change, and personal/social responsibilities related to earth-friendly activities.? The district participates in City of Columbia load- shedding program to conserve energy and has reduced energy consumption by 27 percent. K-12 students participate in collecting classroom recycling bins and empty into city?s recycling dumpsters in all school buildings.