Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/7R6swLbzRpU/
arbor day packers mike adams janoris jenkins john edwards trial brandon weeden felicia day
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
How Apple?s iTravel Patent Could Threaten Android?s NFC Future
There's no end in sight for the smartphone patent wars. Apple was awarded a notable patent in the burgeoning field of NFC, but if wielded against competitors, consumers are the ones who lose out. Today, Apple was granted a patent for travel-related check-ins using near-field communications technology.
Electric rates not falling along with fuel costs
FILE- In this Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003, file photo, the setting sun silhouettes electric transmission lines crossing Berea, Ohio. A sharp decline in the price of natural gas makes it much cheaper for U.S. utilities to produce electricity. It just isn't having any impact on homeowners' monthly bills. Instead of falling, electricity prices aren't budging. They are rising just as families begin cranking up their air conditioners. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)
FILE- In this Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003, file photo, the setting sun silhouettes electric transmission lines crossing Berea, Ohio. A sharp decline in the price of natural gas makes it much cheaper for U.S. utilities to produce electricity. It just isn't having any impact on homeowners' monthly bills. Instead of falling, electricity prices aren't budging. They are rising just as families begin cranking up their air conditioners. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)
FILE- In this Monday June 9, 2008, file photo, Charles Brinkley, left, and John Lerro, with Great American Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., install an air conditioner in Chevy Chase, Md. A sharp decline in the price of natural gas makes it much cheaper for U.S. utilities to produce electricity. It just isn't having any impact on homeowners' monthly bills. Instead of falling, electricity prices aren't budging. They are rising just as families begin cranking up their air conditioners. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A plunge in the price of natural gas has made it cheaper for utilities to produce electricity. But the savings aren't translating to lower rates for customers. Instead, U.S. electricity prices are going up.
Electricity prices are forecast to rise slightly this summer. But any increase is noteworthy because natural gas, which is used to produce nearly a third of the country's power, is 43 percent cheaper than a year ago. A long-term downward trend in power prices could be starting to reverse, analysts say.
"It's caused us to scratch our heads," says Tyler Hodge, an analyst at the Energy Department who studies electricity prices.
The recent heat wave that gripped much of the country increased demand for power as families cranked up their air conditioners. And that may boost some June utility bills. But the nationwide rise in electricity prices is attributable to other factors, analysts say:
? In many states, retail electricity rates are set by regulators every few years. As a result, lower power costs haven't yet made their way to customers.
? Utilities often lock in their costs for natural gas and other fuels years in advance. That helps protect customers when fuel prices spike, but it prevents customers from reaping the benefits of a price drop.
? The cost of actually delivering electricity, which accounts for 40 percent of a customer's bill on average, has been rising fast. That has eaten up any potential savings from the production of electricity.
Utilities are building transmission lines, installing new equipment and fixing up power plants after what analysts say has been years of under-investment.
This may reverse what has been a gradual decline in retail electricity prices. Adjusted for inflation, the average retail electricity price has been drifting mostly lower since 1984, when it was 16.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
"The ratepayer is going to have to foot the bill," says David Wright, vice chairman of the South Carolina Public Service Commission and president of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners.
The average U.S. residential electricity price is expected to be 12.4 cents per kilowatt hour for the June-to-August period, up 2.4 percent from the same time last year. For the full year, electricity prices are expected to rise 2 percent.
In a typical summer month, that would mean an extra $3 on a residential bill, which includes the cost of generating the power and delivering it to a home, plus local taxes and fees.
Electricity pricing is complicated, and it differs from state to state. In states where power providers are allowed to compete, such as Texas, Pennsylvania and New York, customers can shop around for cheaper electricity, although delivery charges are still set by regulators.
Natural gas has plummeted in price because of a dramatic increase in U.S. gas production over the past few years and a warm winter that allowed supplies to build up.
Even though coal accounts for 38 percent of all power produced in the U.S., natural gas plays an outsized role in determining the price of electricity. The price paid for electricity from the last power plant fired up to meet demand at any given moment is what sets the wholesale price for a given region. And since gas-fired power plants are usually the most expensive, they tend to be fired up last.
Cheaper natural gas has led to lower wholesale power prices. Power companies operating in states with competitive markets, such as Exelon Corp. and NRG Energy Inc., have seen profits and stock prices tumble along with wholesale prices. Those operating in more regulated power markets, such as Southern Co. and Dominion Resources Inc., have fared much better because their rates don't fluctuate as much.
The lower wholesale prices have made it through to some customers' bills, and others could see a temporary dip next year. At the very least, analysts say, the drop in natural gas prices is keeping electric rates from rising faster than they otherwise would have.
Customers could still get a break this summer ? if not on their electric rates, then at least from Mother Nature.
This summer has gotten off to a scorching start in much of the country and is expected to be hotter than normal. But it isn't expected to be as hot as the last two summers, according to Matt Rogers at Commodity Weather Group, which provides forecasts for the energy industry.
Don't get too excited, though. The Energy Department's Hodge calculates that if the summer forecast holds true, customers will save an average of $5.95 per month.
___
Follow Jonathan Fahey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey .
Associated Pressbruce weber fired notorious big biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris disco inferno b.i.g
Mitt Romney Didn't Learn His Father's Lessons About Civil Rights, Black Caucus Members Say
WASHINGTON -- Prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus gave MItt Romney points for speaking to the NAACP Wednesday -- but said he clearly didn't learn whatever lessons his father taught him about civil rights and the right to vote.
Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, addressed the venerable civil rights organization in Houston at its annual convention, the day after Attorney General Eric Holder spoke there and slammed the state of Texas for trying to enforce a voter identification law that has been blocked by the Justice Department on grounds that it would deny deserving people the right to vote. The case is being litigated this week in federal court.
Holder said the ID law amounted to a poll tax because it would be too costly for many poorer voters -- including African Americans and Latinos -- to obtain the documents the law requires. Holder said about 25 percent of black people do not posses the required ID, and his office would not let such laws roll back voting rights that have only expanded in America's history.
"We will simply not allow this era to be the beginning of the reversal of that historic progress," Holder said.
But Romney backs laws like the one in Texas, and made no comments about it, even as he invoked his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, as a model Romney looks to because of his support for civil rights in the '60s and '70s.
"Always in both parties there have been men and women of integrity, decency and humility who have called injustice by its name," Romney said. "For every one of us, a particular person comes to mind. Someone who set a standard of conduct and made us better by their example. For me that man is my father," citing the elder Romney's faith in God, his role writing civil rights legislation in Michigan, and his participation in rights marches in Detroit.
But Democrats, themselves veterans of the civil rights movement, said they didn't think Romney had learned well enough from his father's example.
"A lot of children are very selective about what they listen to from their parents, and Romney is very selective about that," said Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) praised Romney for addressing the NAACP, but also said he thought Romney missed a chance to deal with an issue that has personal relevance for many black Americans, including Cleaver, who was born in Texas.
"My grandfather ... lived to be 103 and never voted," Cleaver said. "In Texas, you had to pay a poll tax. Even if the poll tax was $1.50, and if you were born in 1852, whatever it was, that's a lot of money.
"In America, we ought to be encouraging people, and I don't think that that's were Gov. Romney is, unfortunately," Cleaver added. "I think in Texas, it would have been good for him to talk about his strong and unbending support for access to the ballot box by all. But if he had said that, he would have lost support" in the GOP base.
Conservatives have been pushing for voter ID laws across the nation. Their opponents say the movement is an attempt to disenfranchise minorities and poorer voters who tend to vote Democratic.
Some of the laws, like Texas', have been blocked by the Department of Justice, and are being contested in courts.
Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/mitt-romney-naacp-speech_n_1666501.html
ashley judd second degree murders bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged
In Egypt: Will parliament reconvene? (+video)
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court upheld its earlier ruling that one third of the country's parliament was elected illegally. Following that ruling the country's military dismissed the government. Egypt's President?Mohammed Morsi aims to reconvene the lower chamber of parliament in defiance of the court.?
In this image released by the Egyptian President, an Egyptian military officer salutes President Mohammed Morsi, third from right, at a graduation ceremony at a military base east of Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's highest court insisted Monday that its ruling that led to the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament was final and binding, setting up a showdown with the country's newly elected president.
AP Photo/Sheriff Abd El Minoem, Egyptian Presidency
EnlargeA new showdown loomed in?Egypt?on Monday as the country's highest court stood by its ruling that dissolved parliament last month, challenging the new Islamist president's plans to reconvene the lower chamber in defiance of the military.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
If he goes ahead, Mohammed Morsi would be taking a dramatic step away from the outreach that characterized his first days in office. It's a tough fight, though, and the president could lose it along with more of his already diminished powers.
The military, which handed power to Morsi on June 30 after ruling the country for 16 months, delivered a thinly-veiled warning to the president, saying it would continue to support the country's "legitimacy, constitution and law" ? language that means it will not stand by and watch the rulings of the country's top court ignored or breached.
At the same time, the Supreme Constitutional Court sent out a clear signal that it will not bow to Morsi's wish, saying in a statement after an emergency meeting on Monday that its June 14 ruling to invalidate the Islamist-dominated parliament was final and binding.
"Morsi's move sets the stage for a potentially very serious political and constitutional crisis," said Michael W. Hanna, an expert on?Egypt?from the New York-based Century Foundation.
Morsi, through his spokesman Yasser Ali, insisted his decision to reconvene the 508-seat chamber on Tuesday was an "assertion of the popular will."
His presidential decree also calls for new parliamentary elections after a new constitution is adopted, something that is not expected before the end of the year ? in effect according legitimacy to a legislature the country's highest court ruled to be invalid.
In its ruling last month, the supreme court determined that a third of parliament's members were illegally elected under a law that allowed candidates from political parties to compete for seats that had been set aside for independents. Based on that verdict, the then-ruling military disbanded the house, in which Islamists controlled more than 70 percent of the seats.
In the days that followed, the generals pushed through a series of decrees that gave themselves legislative powers, as well as control over the drafting of a new constitution and the national budget. It also stripped Morsi of significant presidential powers.
The high court was to rule Tuesday ? the same day parliament was set to reconvene ? on three cases questioning the legality of the president's order.
The dispute over the fate of parliament has divided the nation just as Egyptians were looking forward to a semblance of stability after the tumult of the 17 months since the ouster of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak.?Egypt?has seen a dramatic surge in crime, deadly street protests, a faltering economy and seemingly non-stop strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_wdVwpJ2r3c/In-Egypt-Will-parliament-reconvene-video
Bellaire Texas Electrician - When You Need to Call an Electrician in ...
Nowadays the improvements at your home or office are very important. You may have the electrical repair need anytime. You can also get the repair done yourself but considering the safety of yourself, your property, wife, kids and family members you need to be sure when to call an electrician. In you reside in Bellaire Texas, you can have several options to find an electrician contractor.
If you are not willing to work with the wiring at your home, you should call an electrician. If you have a switch fixing or need to run conduit under the ground or above it, an electrician can tell you the correct solution. The Bellaire Texas Electrician can also have the right tools to be sued for the task.
Additionally, if you have the entire circuit installed wrongly, you may have several appliances at your home non-functional. The refrigerator or fan can be damaged. If the circuit is overloaded instantly or accidentally, the fuses can be blown. In these cases you need to light a candle or start fire and that can really be annoying. So you need to call an electrician in these cases that can take care of the repairs.
When you are sure about hiring the electrician and you need to be pretty sure if you are getting one who is experienced and specialized in the requirement you have. To learn about the experience they have you must use your contacts such as relatives and friends who can tell you the best electrician they have used in Bellaire Texas Electrician. Since the electrical repair is the need of everyone nowadays and everyone might have used an electrician in the area and so you can have better recommendations. You can also use other resources to find an Bellaire Texas Electrician. The other resources may include the phone directories or the online directories such as yelp or the Google (Internet Search Engine).
Once you have chosen several electricians and sure to choose one out of them, it's the time to have interview. You can ask them questions about your requirement and get the answers compared to the best of your satisfaction. You can also ask for the price quotation and make the decision based on them. The other and important thing to consider is to check the certifications they have. The certification must be valid.
www.bellaireelectricians.com is the electrician contractor company in Bellaire Texas Electrician.We have the certified electricians who are well experienced to get the electric repair done at your home or office. You can call us and have the best solution.
Myself Ryan a content strategist in MisterSparky Electrician. I have expertise in writing contentfordifferent themes and currently devoting my service for Bellaire Texas Electrician
This article has been viewed 9 time(s).
It is a violation of our terms and conditions for writers to submit material which they did not write and claim it as their own.
If this article infringes on your copyrights, you MUST either call us at 706-866-2295 or send proof of infringement
along with the offending article's title, URL, and writer name to
IdeaMarketers.com
Attn: Marnie Pehrson - Copyright Concern
514 Old Hickory Ln
Ringgold GA 30736 USA
If you email us or use our problem submission form, we CANNOT guarantee we'll receive your notice!
Source: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=3383817
chester mcglockton arsenic los angeles weather big ten acc challenge scott disick lipitor lipitor
Barclays' Agius faces lawmakers over rate-rigging scandal
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Miley Cyrus to Nightclub Drag Queen: Happy Birthday!
Miley Cyrus hung out at a Hollywood nightclub over the weekend, but this time there was no bong smoking of any kind involved.
Just dancing and singing.
The 19-year old and some friends - including actor Ryan Rottman - partied down at Beacher's Madhouse at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Saturday night, moving and shaking to songs by Flo Rida and Chris Brown… before Miley herself was invited up on stage to serenade a drag queen named Vicky Vox.
And serenade Vox Cyrus did, belting out a fun version of "Happy Birthday" that included a references to the large woman's large breasts. Watch the video and see what we mean:
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/07/miley-cyrus-to-nightclub-drag-queen-happy-birthday/
rex ryan yule log ham recipes darlene love free kindle books roasted potatoes turkey recipes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)