text:
There are the obvious legacies associated with Walter O’Malley, the businessman, lawyer, baseball executive and family man. But throughout O’Malley’s life, the innovating spirit that envisioned the construction of Dodger Stadium conjured other grand ideas about his country’s “national pastime” from Southern California to all parts of the globe. If the sports world was O’Malley’s oyster, baseball served as his pearl.
The Dodgers joined the National League in 1890 and the 60 years preceding O’Malley’s arrival as team president featured occasional international interludes. The first Cuban big league pitching star, Adolfo Luque, made a brief stop with Brooklyn in the 1930 and 1931 seasons. The Dodgers operated a Triple-A affiliate in Montreal and they held spring training in Cuba (1947) and the Dominican Republic (1948) before settling in their current Dodgertown headquarters in Vero Beach, FL.
The Dodgers, already a popular franchise in America when O’Malley became its leader thanks to on-field success and memorable personalities, would become recognized throughout the world as one of the major league’s most stable and progressive franchises.
During the next two decades, the Dodgers used their regular-season ballparks — Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and later Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles — as destinations for their growing list of foreign dignitaries.
The team’s goodwill tours of Japan following the pennant-winning seasons in 1956 and 1966 led to spring training visits to Dodgertown by the Yomiuri Giants in 1961, 1967, 1971 and 1975.
In his first year as Dodger President in 1951, O’Malley invited representatives of the Venezuelan League’s Cerveceria Caracas club, along with 400 Venezuelan cadets, to be guests of the Dodgers while the party was in New York to celebrate Simon Bolivar Day on April 19. It would be the first of many O’Malley invitations for international visitors to Ebbets Field. When 75 Israeli sailors visited Ebbets Field in June 1951, O’Malley sent them home with a batch of baseball equipment.
By 1952, O’Malley proposed a world tour with the American League’s Cleveland Indians. Commissioner Ford C. Frick announced on the eve of the All-Star Game in Philadelphia that major league owners had granted authorization and the State Department was enthusiastic about the plan. The owners also relaxed a rule that usually prohibited barnstorming tours.
The tour didn’t materialize, but the plans fueled discussions for other ways to promote the sport among other nations. By the time the Dodgers clinched their first championship following a thrilling seven-game victory over the rival New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, O’Malley’s mailbox was stuffed with many international postmarks.
On Dec. 2, 1955, O’Malley sent the following letter to His Majesty King Faisal II at the Royal Palace in Baghdad, Iraq.
Sotaro Suzuki, a Japanese sportswriter who worked closely with Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper publisher Matsutaro Shoriki, the father of Japanese professional baseball, spent time with the Dodger organization beginning with the early negotiations and discussions regarding the 1956 goodwill tour of Japan. Suzuki visited Dodgertown and Ebbets Field. When Dodger Stadium opened in April 1962, Suzuki was a special guest of O’Malley and the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Suzuki marked the occasion by commissioning a stone lantern, which was sent from Japan to Dodger Stadium in 1966.
Following the 1956 Japan tour, the Dodgers invited Shigeru Mizuhara, manager of the Yomuiri Giants, along with pitcher Sho Horiuchi and catcher Shigeru Fujio to train in Vero Beach with the Dodgers. In 1961, the Dodgers invited the entire Yomiuri Giants team to train at Vero Beach.
Suzuki served as an interpreter on the Vero Beach trip in 1957 and later penned an essay about the Giants’ reaction to the American training camp. One of the players asked if every major league team had the same spring training format as the Dodgers.
“I responded with a grin and explained that Dodgertown was exceptional,” Suzuki wrote. “Only the Dodgers had such a unique setup whereby they were able to train their 11 minor league clubs right along with their parent club, and the Tokyo Giants, too. Their system of training is very different from other baseball organizations and much more expensive. But this routine proved very successful with the development of such stars as Craig, Drysdale, Koufax, Podres and Williams in the pitching department ... Camilli as a catcher ... Gilliam, Hodges, Larker, Neal and Wills for the infield ... and Snider, Demeter, Davis and Howard in the outfield.
In 1962, Japanese baseball coach Kaoru Betto traveled the entire season with the Dodgers, studying the American method of training and play. The Dodgers also extended a spring training invitation in 1962 to Bowdewijn Maat, an outstanding amateur player from Holland who wanted to observe the Dodger organization. Dodger minor league manager Pete Reiser visited Japan in the fall of 1963 to coach the Tokyo (Toei) Flyers.
In 1965, the Dodgers sent two of their leading scouts, Kenny Myers and Tom Lasorda, to Japan to coach the Yomiuri Giants during two weeks of their spring training.
When the Mexico City Tigers wanted to groom one of its leading players, Ricardo Garza, to become a manager, they dispatched him to Vero Beach in the spring of 1965 to study the Dodger methods of training and managerial strategy.
Other international visitors to Dodgertown in the 1960s included Mexican League executive and former Cleveland Indians’ infielder Bobby Avila; the Cuban Winter League’s Bobby Maduro was a frequent Dodgertown visitor, along with representatives of the Alemendares Club.
In January 1966, O’Malley predicted the major leagues would one day expand into Canada. The Dodgers operated their minor league affiliate in Montreal until 1960.
“I think we’ll see somebody bring a franchise into Toronto or Montreal,” he said. “The Canadian market is wide open. If international politics stabilize, we could see a team some place in Central America. And with the advances being made in transportation, maybe in Japan, too. You can already fly from the United States to Tokyo in less time than it used to take the Dodgers to go from Brooklyn to St. Louis by train.
O’Malley outlined his ideas on major league expansion in a March 1968 interview with Los Angeles Times sports editor Paul Zimmerman. Within a year, major league baseball would switch to divisional format and introduce a League Championship Series, which doubled the postseason participants from two to four teams. The N.L. would welcome the expansion Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres in 1969.
But the focus in spring training 1968 centered on whether the N.L. would expand from 10 to 12 teams like its American League counterparts. The candidates included Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego, Buffalo, Montreal and Milwaukee. Those discussions indicated the success and increasing popularity of the sport following the Dodgers’ and Giants’ historic move to California. In 1957, there were no major league teams on the West Coast. An expansion team for San Diego in 1969 would give California five major league teams — the Dodgers, Angels, Athletics, Giants and Padres.
“Would you have Major League Baseball on the coast without the airplane? The answer is no,” O’Malley said.
O’Malley speculated there were at least two cities in Japan ready to support a major league franchise using the following criteria — stadium, player talent, economic backing, public enthusiasm and great support from the press.
“Japan has an abundance of talent, an area in which we in the United States are short,” he said. “They can field one or two teams right now that can beat at least half our teams.

industry_corpus2: Sports


text:
Crypto Governance - It is a matter of survival.
Every Wednesday, the Blockchain Centre hosts Talk & Trade, a facilitated group discussion about current affairs in the blockchain and crypto world. Discussions range from trading and technical analysis to technological advances, development updates and news to the philosophies of cryptocurrencies. Often, special guests present and panel discussions take place in the first 15 minutes, followed by a 45 minute facilitated discussion. Afterwards, feel free to stick around and network with your fellow crypto enthusiasts. This event is sometimes sponsored and when it is, you can enjoy networking over a drink and some nibbles. *Please Note* Absolute newcomers to Blockchain & Cryptocurrency are advised to attend the monthly Bitcoin 101 and/or Ethereum 101 workshops before attending the Talk & Trade, as the discussion gets pretty deep! We look forward to seeing you soon! Venue sponsored by Stone and Chalk.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to work in Blockchain or how to move your career into the Blockchain industry, this panel of experts will help to answer your questions. Before the panel there will be a brief introduction to Blockchain and how the future of work may be affected by Karen Cohen, Co-organiser of women in blockchain Melbourne. Moderated by our very own Kaia Myers-Stewart Co-organiser of Women in Blockchain Melbourne and Product Manager at PegaSys and Protocol Engineering at ConsenSys, the panel will also consist of: Rita Arrigo, Chief Digital Advisor at Microsoft. With a passion for emerging technology to re-imagine the possible with AI, Mixed Reality, IOT and Blockchain, she designs programs of change, envisions with Design Thinking & Inclusive Design, hacks, prototypes and delivers. Her passion for digital spans over 20 years working at Telstra through to Digital Agencies, consulting. She believes in making our lives more human, with inclusive design, artificial intelligence, mixed reality, modern workplaces and smarter cities. She co-founded the radio show Byte Into It on 3RRR aiming to reducing techno fear and bring the benefits of technology to a larger audience. Now she is empowering the next evolution that will make our lives more human, with inclusive design, artificial intelligence, mixed reality, modern workplaces and smarter cities. Priyanka Priyanka Ashraf ,works for ConsenSys, the Ethereum infrastructure and venture production studio, as the Community Lead Australia. She acts as the connective tissue between the various audiences interfacing with ethereum. Her goal is to catalyse the growth of the broader ecosystem towards shared value for all audiences, including enterprise, developers and the public. Before transitioning into technology (previously PwC & various startups), Priyanka worked as a litigator. In her free time, she co-leads She Loves Data, a voluntarily run data analytics training program by women, for women Karen Cohen, Secretary to the Board Blockchain Australia and Founder BlockConsulting Group and Co-organiser of Women in Blockchain Melbourne as well as Victorian President of ADCA. Ana Pochesneva , RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, Ana is a law graduate and crypto academic. She researches law and blockchain at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub and is a member of the Standards Australia Blockchain Technical Committee Smart Contracts Working Group. All women and men welcome, special thanks to Microsoft for hosting and sponsoring the function.

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


text:
Across the nation, fire departments are adopting the 48/96 work schedule, in which firefighters work 48 consecutive hours with the following 96 hours off. Our study objective was to explain and quantify the impact of switching from the Kelly schedule to the 48/96 schedule by measuring changes in sleep, feelings of daytime function, as well as perceptions of professional and personal well-being for American firefighters. Sleep diaries and self-reported surveys were administered to firefighters at an urban fire department. Sleep diaries measuring the number of hours slept and feelings of refreshment were compared one month before and four months after implementation of the 48/96 schedule. The self-reported surveys measured sleepiness levels via the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Secondary study objectives included changes in professional and personal well-being time for personal schedules, satisfaction, and health habits before and after the 48/96 schedule was implemented. The 59 firefighters included in the study reported an increase in sleep on-shift after the new schedule implementation (5.8 to 6.6 hours/night, p < 0.001). Participants also reported increased feelings of refreshment on days off (p < 0.001) and decreased daytime sleepiness (p < 0.001). We also found a general trend of improved perceptions of satisfaction, less shift interference with personal schedules and decreased feelings of burnout. American firefighters appeared to benefit from a 48/96 schedule, with short-term improvements in sleep patterns, feelings of burnout, and time for personal schedules.
The 48/96 schedule, a six-day rotation in which firefighters work 48 consecutive hours followed by 96 hours off, has been widely adopted by American fire departments over the past decade, increasingly supplanting the previously widespread Kelly schedule. The trend toward the 48/96 schedule has resulted in an increased occurrence of four consecutive days off, providing positive externalities such as allowing more full weekends at home, reducing commute days, providing fewer transitions between shifts, and simplifying the scheduling process. On the other hand, the 48 hour on-shift requires firefighters to work a double shift, potentially necessitating 48 consecutive hours of work without sleep, as well as requiring firefighters to be away from families and personal responsibilities for 48 hours.
The impact of work schedules on sleep quality or well-being has rarely been studied in this population. One study reported increases in discipline measures, use of sick leave, traffic and collisions, as well as a slower turn out time, for firefighters on the 48/96 schedule compared with the Kelly schedule. (6) There were more injuries, however, for those working on the Kelly schedule. (6) A review of work schedules noted that of 65 fire departments across the United States that trialed the 48/96 schedule for one year, no departments reverted to previous schedules during or after the year trial period, (7) suggesting that the 48/96 schedule may positively impact firefighters’ personal and professional well being.
Our study aims to explain and quantify the impact of switching from the Kelly schedule to the 48/96 schedule by measuring sleep quality and daytime function, measured by hours of sleep obtained, number of sleep interruptions, time to fall asleep, and feelings of refreshment and daytime sleepiness, reported by firefighters employed by a large, urban fire department. Secondary outcomes of interest included changes in professional and personal well-being, measured as feelings of burnout, time for personal schedules, job satisfaction and health habits. The study was conducted to provide evidence to support a partner fire department’s decision to continue the 48/96 schedule, as well as to add to the limited body of knowledge on this topic.
This pre-post study utilized sleep diaries and self-reported surveys to measure firefighters’ sleep quality, daytime function and personal and professional well-being before the adoption of the 48/96 schedule, December 2005, and after the schedule change, April 2006. The study was conducted in partnership with an American College of Surgeons verified Level I Trauma Center, and a large urban fire department that also provides Emergency Medical Services. The hospital’s Institutional Review Board provided ethical approval of the project. After a brief assembly about the study in December 2005, all personnel (269 members) of the fire department were subsequently sent surveys, sleep diaries, and consent forms in the mail. Responses were submitted on paper and returned to the study coordinator through mail. Consent forms were provided with all surveys, although participants were also invited to complete the form anonymously without signing a consent form. Surveys and consent forms were returned to the Trauma Research Director via prepaid, return envelopes. Data were maintained in a password-protected database.
Sleep diaries were completed after waking each morning for one week before and after implementation of the 48/96 schedule. The printed form contained five questions and was estimated to take less than five minutes to complete per day. In the diaries, participants estimated the amount of time it took to fall asleep, the hours of sleep obtained, the number of sleep interruptions (awakenings) experienced, feelings of refreshment reported on a three-point scale ranging from “fatigued” to “very refreshed,” and whether participants were on or off shift the previous night. All sleep diary questions were developed by our research team.
Perceptions of burnout were measured by questions taken from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), a tool developed in 2005 to gauge the general degree of respondents’ physical and emotional exhaustion; the tool has been validated among a variety of population. (10-13) Our study applied the six-question client burnout construct, which measured the degree of fatigue and exhaustion that participants perceive is due to working with clients. Each question was measured on a five-point scale, in which four indicated the highest degree of burnout. (11) In accordance to the scale, responses were then converted to points on a 0 to 100 scale, in which a response of zero (“To a very low degree”) was scored as zero, and four (“To a very high degree”) was scored as 100.
Questions gauging available time for personal schedules, satisfaction and health habits were designed by the research team and measured by a five-point likert scale, a seven-point likert scale and open-ended questions, respectively.
Our primary outcome of interest was change in sleep quality, measured by hours of sleep obtained, number of sleep interruptions, the time required to fall asleep, and perceptions of daytime function, as measured by a scale of refreshment and scores on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, pre and post implementation of the 48/96 schedule. Secondary objectives included changes in professional and personal well-being, measured as changes in perceived interruptions in personal schedules due to work schedules, satisfaction, feelings of burnout, and health habits.
Only matched responses to sleep diaries and self-reported surveys were incorporated in the study. Hours of sleep, number of interruptions, and the ESS scores were analyzed using paired sample t-tests to compare change in sleep quality before and after the shift implementation. The results of nominal scales, including the refreshment scale and secondary variables of interest, were described pre and post schedule implementation. There were few missing values; we did not substitute any missing values, thus, the total number of responses varies per question. Analyses were performed using SPSS software (version 21, Chicago, Illinois, USA).
Of 269 firefighters sent sleep diaries and surveys, a total of 109 and 98 returned sleep diaries (41% and 36% response rate) and 160 and 106 returned surveys (60% and 41% response rate) in December and April, respectively. Of the sleep diaries, 94% and 76% of the total participants signed a consent form in December and April, respectively; 76% and 74% of total participants chose to sign the consent for the self-reported surveys in December and April, respectively. Fifty-nine participants (22.8%) completed all surveys and sleep diaries and signed a consent form, and were thereby included in the analysis. There was no significant difference between respondents in the final analysis and all respondents (included those with incomplete datasets); demographic characteristics of participants and the total population are presented in table 1.
There was a significant increase in mean hours of on-shift nightly sleep, from 5.8 v. 6.6 hours, after the schedule change (p<0.001). The average number of hours slept per night during off-shift days was similar before and after the new shift was implemented (7.2 v. 7.3 hours, p=0.12). After stratifying the sleep diary results between the first and second 24 hours on-shift, participants slept 26 minutes less during the second 24 hours (p=0.06) (table 2).
There was a significant decrease in mean scores of daytime sleepiness, as measured by the ESS, from 8.9 to 8.0 (p < 0.001). Ten participants’ (16.9%) scores reflected a change from abnormal (≥11) to normal (≤10) levels of sleepiness on the ESS scale; seven participants (11.9%) switched from normal to abnormal levels of sleepiness during the same period. Over half of participants (33 participants, 55.9%) consistently scored within the normal range of sleepiness on the ESS scale, and nine (15.2%) consistently scored within the abnormal range of sleepiness.
For both periods of being on and off shift, there was a considerable improvement in feelings of being refreshed after the 48/96 schedule implementation. During on days, there was a significant improvement in feelings of being refreshed after the 48/96 schedule implementation (p<0.05). Participants felt more fatigued, however, the second half of the 48-hour shift than the first 24 hours of the shift (p<0.05). Participants reported a significant improvement in feeling more refreshed on their off days post implementation (p<0.001).
There were no changes in the number of sleep interruptions before and after implementation of the 48/96 schedule (table 2).
We did not observe any significant changes in the average amount of time to fall asleep pre and post implementation. There was also no appreciable change in time to sleep between the first and second half of the on-shift during the 48/96 shift (table 2).
There was a general trend towards reduced burnout after implementation of the new schedule. Specifically, participants were less likely to rate the following perceptions “To a very high degree” or “To a high degree” after implementation: Feeling they gave more than they were getting back when working with patients (19% v. 9%, respectively); Feeling tired working with patients (5% v. 3%); Feeling frustration when working with patients (2% v. 0%); Feeling energy drain when working with patients (5% v. 3%). There was no change in reports of participants wondering how long they could continue working with patients (7% for both).
After implementation, we observed a decrease in the proportion of participants that felt the shift interfered with responsibilities. Specifically, there was a decrease in perceptions that the work schedule interfered with performing household activities such as grocery shopping or looking after children (19% v. 5%, respectively), participating in leisure activities such as sports or hobbies (16% v. 3%), or performing non household activities such as going to doctor or bank (7% v. 2%).
There was an increase in participants that felt the advantages of the current work schedule outweighed the disadvantages after implementation of the 48/96 schedule (78% v. 88%, respectively). We did not observe a large shift in questions measuring job satisfaction, including questions regarding satisfaction with the respondents’ job, line of work, or perceptions of colleagues’ satisfaction with their job or line of work. Additionally, there was not a large shift in responses regarding the frequency of thinking about quitting or the perceived difficulty working with patients. The majority of respondents (84.7%) indicated a question gauging spousal support with their work schedule was not applicable.
We found no significant changes in health habits before versus after implementation of the 48/96 schedule. The number of cigarettes smoked per week was unchanged; only one participant reported smoking cigarettes throughout the study. The consumption of alcoholic beverages per week remained unchanged (3.6 both pre and post implementation). The consumption of caffeinated beverages per day also remained constant (2.5 v. 2.2 drinks per day).
American firefighters provide around-the-clock emergency services, necessitating long, uninterrupted work shifts. We found the switch from the Kelly schedule to the 48/96 schedule, led to favorable improvements in sleep, including an increase of hours slept, a small but statistically significant reduction in daytime sleepiness, and an increase in feelings of refreshment. We also observed improved scores for secondary objectives of interest, such as feelings of burnout, time for personal schedules and perceptions of satisfaction with the work schedule. The use of alcohol, caffeinated beverages, the number of cigarettes and perceptions of general job satisfaction did not change after the new schedule was implemented.
Our secondary objective of professional and personal well being perceptions demonstrated an overall trend towards improvement, specifically time for personal schedules and reduced feelings of burnout. These results are in conflict with studies that found long, sporadic work shifts led to difficulty in personal relationships among firefighters, (19) although notably there has not been a similar study examining the effect of the 48/96 schedule, specifically, on personal relationships.
Of note, health habits did not change after implementation of the new schedule. The prevalence of smoking tobacco was lower than other studies of firefighters (only one firefighter in our study reported to smoke cigarettes), although prevalence of smokeless tobacco, which has been found to more common among firefighters than the general population, (20) was not collected. On average, 3.6 alcoholic drinks were consumed per week in our study; this was also lower than other recent epidemiological studies assessing the use of alcohol among American firefighters. (20,21) Lastly, there was a marginal reduction of caffeinated beverage consumption, from 2.5 to 2.2. The numbers remained moderate, demonstrating a continued healthy level of caffeinated beverages through the study.
There are several limitations. First, we had a small sample size, restricting our ability to generalize our findings. As the study allowed participants to either sign a consent form or remain anonymous, we could not match all of the surveys pre and post implementation. We had a lower rate of firefighters choosing to sign consent forms in the surveys gauging personal opinions, which may reflect some apprehension about sharing opinions about the shift or their positions. Our results, however, were similar to an unpublished grey paper which included analysis of all respondents in our study population. (22) In our study, we did not include reasons for waking during the night, thus we could not attribute the cause of an awakening as due to a sleep disturbance or due to answering an emergency call. Notably, the fire department received a similar number of calls in December and July (2,997 and 2,898, respectively), and did not expect a large fluctuation in April, but it is not possible to tell the timing of the calls. In any self-reported study, responder bias must be listed as a limitation that may restrict the accuracy of a response. Further, the study period was only one week long, thus we were not able to capture to firefighters’ experience throughout the 9 day Kelly shift.
Obesity and heart disease is greatly prevalent within American firefighters, and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of duty-related death for firefighters. (23) Future studies should examine how shift schedules impact rates of exercise and food choices. Additionally, future studies may wish to utilize a web-based survey application to improve response rates and reduce the time spent sending surveys and diaries in the mail. We would also recommend future studies examine perceptions of safety, including the perception of driving while on shift as well as commuting home after the shift has ended, and include reasons for awakenings. These topics may further contribute to the limited body of knowledge about the impact of work schedules on sleep and satisfaction for firefighters.
There are few studies that measure the impact of work schedules for firefighters in the United States, and few, if any, publications comparing quality and perceptions of daytime function before and after new shift implementation. Our study provides evidence that participants improved sleep quality and daytime function after switching to the 48/96 schedule from the Kelly schedule. It also improves professional and personal well-being may improve after implementation of the new work schedule. It is our expectation that these findings can be used to guide fire departments across the country in policy debates over work schedules.
Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants versus total population.
Table 2. Sleep measurements for the Kelly Schedule and the 48/69 Schedule.
Harvey B. Firefighter Sleep Deprivation in the Raleigh (NC) Fire Department: An Objective Test. Fire Eng 2013 Feb 1.
Kim KH, Kim JW, Kim SH. Influences of Job Stressors on Psychosocial Well-being, Fatigue and Sleep Sufficiency among Firefighters. Korean J Occup Environ Med 2006 Sep 1;18(3):232–45.
Domrachev AA, Savchenkov YI, Mikhailova LA. Some Personality Characteristics of Fire Service Specialists under Conditions of Prolonged Intense Workloads. Hum Physiol 2004 Sep 1;30(5):581–4.
Murphy SA, Beaton RD, Cain K, Pike K. Gender Differences in Fire Fighter Job Stressors and Symptoms of Stress. Women Health 1995;22(2):55–69.
James Clack. The management effects of firefighters working a consecutive 48-hour shift. An applied research project submitted to the National Fire Academy as part of the Executive Fire Office Program. 2003 Feb.
Dillman DA. Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method. New York: Wiley; 1978.
Johns M, Hocking B. Excessive daytime sleepiness: daytime sleepiness and sleep habits of Australian workers. Sleep 1997;20(10):844–9.
Kristensen TS, Borritz M, Villadsen E, Christensen KB. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work Stress 2005;19(3):192–207.
Yeh WY, Cheng Y, Chen CJ, Hu PY, Kristensen TS. Psychometric properties of the chinese version of copenhagen burnout inventory among employees in two companies in Taiwan. Int J Behav Med 2007 Sep 1;14(3):126–33.
Milfont TL, Denny S, Ameratunga S, Robinson E, Merry S. Burnout and Wellbeing: Testing the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory in New Zealand Teachers. Soc Indic Res 2008 Oct 1;89(1):169–77.
Dinges DF, Pack F, Williams K, Gillen KA, Powell JW, Ott GE, et al. Cumulative sleepiness, mood disturbance, and psychomotor vigilance performance decrements during a week of sleep restricted to 4-5 hours per night. Sleep 1997 Apr;20(4):267–77.
Williamson AM, Feyer AM. Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication. Occup Environ Med 2000 Oct;57(10):649–55.
Drummond SPA, Paulus MP, Tapert SF. Effects of two nights sleep deprivation and two nights recovery sleep on response inhibition. J Sleep Res 2006 Sep;15(3):261–5.
Takeyama H, Itani T, Tachi N, Sakamura O, Murata K, Inoue T, et al. Effects of shift schedules on fatigue and physiological functions among firefighters during night duty. Ergonomics 2005;48(1):1–11.
Takeyama H, Kubo T, Itani T. The Nighttime Nap Strategies for Improving Night Shift Work in Workplace. Ind Health 2005;43(1):24–9.
Shakespeare-Finch J, Smith S, Obst P. Trauma, coping resources, and family functioning in emergency services personnel: A comparative study. Work Stress 2002;16(3):275–82.
Poston WS, Haddock CK, Jahnke SA, Jitnarin N, Day RS. An examination of the benefits of health promotion programs for the national fire service. BMC Public Health 2013 Sep 5;13(1):805.
Haddock CK, Jahnke SA, Poston WSC, Jitnarin N, Kaipust CM, Tuley B, et al. Alcohol use among firefighters in the Central United States. Occup Med Oxf Engl 2012 Dec;62(8):661–4.
Hawkes A. Evaluation of the 48-96 Schedule for West Metro Fire Rescue. 2006.
Fahy RF. US firefighter fatalities due to sudden cardiac death, 1995-2004. National Fire Protection Association; 2005.

industry_corpus2: Safety Management


text:
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - PERSONS ENTITLED TO RAISE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS. One attacking the validity of an act must show that its enforcement operates as an infringement on the complaining party's constitutional rights; and without such a showing, the validity of an act cannot be questioned.
 COURTS - JURISDICTION - CONSENT OF PARTIES. The supreme court is not bound by the apparent consent of the parties to the exercise of jurisdiction by the court in an action brought under the declaratory judgment act to test the validity of an act of the legislature.
 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - PERSONS ENTITLED TO RAISE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS. The fact that a statute directs a county to pay an increased salary to a justice of the peace affords no basis for an attack by the county on the constitutionality of the statute.
 SAME. A county, as such, may not maintain an action to test the validity of a statute providing for an increase in salaries of justices of the peace.
 DECLARATORY JUDGMENTS - NATURE AND GROUNDS - JUSTICIABLE CONTROVERSY. In order to invoke the jurisdiction of the court under the declaratory judgment act, there must be an actual, justiciable controversy between parties having opposing interests, which must be direct and substantial and involve an actual, as distinguished from a possible, potential, or contingent dispute.
 SAME - ADVISORY OPINIONS. The supreme court will not render a purely advisory opinion in a declaratory judgment action.
Certiorari to review a judgment of the superior court for Kitsap county, No. 34148, Sutton, J., entered December 27, 1954, upon findings in favor of the defendants, in an action under the declaratory judgment act to test the validity of a statute. Reversed.
«1» Reported in 281 P. (2d) 841.
 See 87 A. L. R. 1213; 16 Am. Jur. 282.
John C. Merkel, Ronald Moore, Jerome Walstead, and Willard H. Walker, for plaintiff and relator.
Ronald E. Danielson and Roberta Osborn, for defendants.
Kitsap county (hereinafter referred to as relator) commenced this action under the declaratory judgment act to test the validity of chapter 74, Laws of 1951, p. 210, and certain sections of chapter 156, Laws of 1951, p. 430. The complaint joined as defendants the city of Bremerton (hereinafter referred to as Bremerton) and two attorneys (hereinafter referred to as defendants), who had been elected in the 1954 general election to serve as justices of the peace in Bremerton for a period of four years commencing January 10, 1955. Bremerton is a first-class city with a population in excess of twenty thousand and is located within the above-mentioned county.
"That a justiciable controversy has arisen between the parties to this action regarding their rights and duties under said laws hereinbefore referred to; the plaintiff contending that said laws are unconstitutional and void as hereinbefore alleged, and that the rights and duties of the parties are fixed and determined by the laws in effect prior thereto and that justices of the peace need not be lawyers and that they need not devote their full time to their office. On the other hand, the defendants, Ronald E. Danielson and Roberta Osborn, contend that said laws are constitutional and that the rights and duties of the parties are fixed and determined thereby. That the contention of the defendant city is not known but it is joined as a party defendant because it is required by Chapter 156, Laws of 1951 Section 4, (RCW 3.16.004) to fix the salary of the justice of the peace whom it appoints its police or municipal judge.
great public interest, affecting ten counties, ten first-class cities and over twenty justices of the peace. That many justices who are lawyers and who are taking office in 1955 are uncertain as to whether they must retire from private practice and are put to considerable financial loss if they guess wrong.
"1. That in the exercise of its jurisdiction under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act the court make a declaration and determination of the rights, liabilities, duties, responsibilities and legal relations of the parties, and that the judgment or decree herein contain a determination or declaration of the invalidity of the Laws of the State of Washington mentioned hereinbefore, and that it be declared and determined that justices of the peace need not be attorneys, and need not devote their full time to their office; and that their rights and duties are fixed by the laws in force but for the enactment of Chapter 74, Laws of 1951, and Chapter 156, Laws of 1951, . . ."
To this complaint Bremerton and defendants separately answered and cross-complained, the latter denying that the acts referred to in the complaint were unconstitutional except certain sections thereof which are not involved in this case. After a trial on an agreed statement of facts, the court concluded that certain portions of chapter 156, Laws of 1951, had been held unconstitutional by this court in Manus v. Snohomish County Justice Court Dist. Committee, 44 Wn. (2d) 893, 271 P. (2d) 707, and State ex rel. Kurtz v. Pratt, 45 Wn. (2d) 151, 273 P. (2d) 516, and that chapter 74 and the remaining sections of chapter 156, Laws of 1951, were constitutional and valid. Judgment was entered accordingly.
All three parties, by written stipulation, requested this court to issue a writ of certiorari to review the declaratory judgment entered by the trial court. This was done. Bremerton has not appeared or participated otherwise in the proceedings in this court. Relator and defendants filed their briefs in this court and orally argued the cause.
per annum to fifty-four hundred dollars per annum (and authorizes the county commissioners in cities of the first class to further increase such salary to any sum not exceeding sixty-five hundred dollars), that such increases represent added expense to the county, and that, therefore, Kitsap county can challenge the validity of that section. Then, claiming that § 4 and § 2 (which require justices of the peace to be attorneys at law), are not severable, relator asserts its right to attack the validity of § 2. Practically all of relator's brief is devoted to argument attacking the validity of § 2 and of chapter 74, Laws of 1951.
For reasons stated below, we are convinced (a) that Kitsap county has no standing to question the validity of § 4, chapter 156, Laws of 1951, and (b) that there is no justiciable controversy between the parties. It necessarily follows then that relator may not attack § 2, chapter 156, Laws of 1951, or chapter 74, Laws of 1951.
"In all cities having a population of five thousand or more, the justices of the peace shall be attorneys at law, duly admitted to practice in the supreme court of the state."
"Justices of the peace in such cities [having a population of 5,000 or more] shall be attorneys at law duly admitted to practice in this state."
"In cities having a population of more than 20,000, the justices of the peace shall devote their full time to the duties of the office and receive a salary of five thousand four hundred dollars per annum: Provided, That in cities of the first class the county commissioners shall have the power to raise the salaries of justices of the peace to an amount not to exceed six thousand five hundred dollars per annum: Provided further, That where justices of the peace in cities over the population of 20,000 are also acting as police judges their salaries shall be fixed by the legislative body of the city, three thousand dollars of which shall be charged against the counties and the remainder shall be paid by the municipality."
". . . In incorporated cities or towns having more than five thousand inhabitants, the justices of the peace shall receive such salary as may be provided by law, . . ."
We now consider the right of relator to attack § 4, chapter 156, Laws of 1951, on the theory that the increase in salaries of the defendants as justices of the peace in Bremerton "will result in large and unnecessary expenses" to relator.
[1, 2] Nowhere in the entire record do we find any challenge to the relator's right to maintain this action. It is elementary that one attacking the validity of an act must show that its enforcement operates as an infringement on the complaining party's constitutional rights. Acme Finance Co. v. Huse, 192 Wash. 96, 73 P. (2d) 341, 114 A. L. R. 1345. Without such a showing, the validity of an act cannot be questioned. This court is not bound by the apparent consent of the parties (or the failure of the defendants to object)to the exercise of jurisdiction by the court in an action brought under the declaratory judgment act to test the validity of an act of the legislature. Adams v. Walla Walla, 196 Wash. 268, 82 P. (2d) 584.
 We are unable to conceive of any situation wherein the enforcement of the above-quoted section operates as an infringement upon any constitutional right of relator. The fact that the legislature has directed the county to pay an increased salary to a justice of the peace affords no basis for an attack on the constitutionality of chapter 156. None of the provisions of the state constitution mentioned in the complaint forbid such action by the legislature.
"`"88. Where the class which includes the party complaining is in no wise prejudiced, the general rule is that it is immaterial whether a law discriminates against other classes, or denies to other persons equal protection of the laws."
question of statutory classification which is presented to us in the briefs.'"
"In discussing these different constitutional objections, we shall not attempt to segregate them, but, inasmuch as the questions submitted call for a general treatment of the constitutional phases of state and county government and the powers and duties that the state may impose upon a county, we shall treat them together, endeavoring in the discussion as a whole to cover every phase of the question. To do this, it will be helpful to start out with a clear understanding of the nature of county government and the relation of the county government to the state.
"Our constitution makes no special reference to county organizations as such other than to recognize them as legal subdivisions of the state, recognizing those counties existing at the time of the adoption of the constitution and providing for the organization of new counties by the legislature under certain restrictions. As local subdivisions of the state, counties are created by the sovereign power of the state of its own sovereign will without any necessary particular solicitation, consent or concurrent action by the people who inhabit them. They are created by the state under its sovereign and paramount authority with a view to the policy of the state at large, for political organization, and the administration of governmental affairs. With scarcely an exception, all the powers and functions of county organizations have a direct and exclusive reference to the general policy of the state and are, in fact, but a branch of the general administration of that policy. Commissioners of Hamilton County v. Mighels, 7 Ohio St. 109; People ex rel. Deneen v. Martin, 178 Ill. 611, 53 N. E. 309; County Com'rs Talbot County v. County Com'rs Queen Anne's County, 50 Md. 245; 1 Dillon, Municipal Corporations (5th ed.), § 34. This being so, it would seem to follow as a natural sequence that legislative authority over counties is unlimited except as that limitation is found in the state constitution."
See, also, In re Salary of Superior Court Judges, 82 Wash. 623, 144 Pac. 929; Wheeler School Dist. v. Hawley, 18 Wn. (2d) 37, 137 P. (2d) 1010.
Since we have concluded that enforcement of § 4, chapter 156, Laws of 1951, does not result in the infringement of relator's constitutional rights (assuming that it has any such rights), it follows that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the cause on the ground that the two acts of 1951 involved in this case were alleged to be unconstitutional.
Next we will consider whether there exists in this case a justiciable controversy between the parties sufficient to give the court jurisdiction either under the declaratory judgment act or otherwise.
 Despite the allegations contained in Paragraph VIII of the complaint, quoted above, we do not agree that there exists a justiciable controversy between the parties.
"This court has many times held that, in order to invoke the jurisdiction of the court under the declaratory judgment act, there must be an actual, existing justiciable controversy between parties having opposing interests, which interests must be direct and substantial and involve an actual, as distinguished from a possible, potential, or contingent dispute. [Citing cases.]" Kahin v. Lewis, 42 Wn. (2d) 897, 259 P. (2d) 420.
As stated above, most of the argument made in the briefs relates to the validity of § 2, chapter 156, Laws of 1951. It is quite apparent that the principal object of both parties in instituting and conducting this suit was to obtain an adjudication as to the validity of that section. This same question was submitted to a Department of this court in State ex rel. Bullock v. Stone, 45 Wn. (2d) 891, 273 P. (2d) 892, but could not then be decided because the judges who heard the case were not unanimous in their views. Before that case could be heard En Banc, the issues involved had become moot because of the result of the primary election held on September 14, 1954. Thereafter, the writ of certiorari was quashed.
Laws of 1951, although we recognize that, as pointed out by the parties, this question is of great public interest.
 To decide these questions on the record before us would result in rendering a purely advisory opinion, which we will not do in a declamatory judgment action. Seattle-First Nat. Bank v. Crosby, 42 Wn. (2d) 234, 254 P. (2d) 732.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the superior court with directions to enter a judgment dismissing the action.

industry_corpus2: Law & Justice


text:
A great number of people in Somaliland and particularly in Daami district of the capital are despised, segregated, exploited and abused because of their ethnicity .
Somaliland government is aware of the issue and has entertained the matter since secession in 1991 .
People of Daami are mainly of descendants from skilled minority who helped Somalis in making equipments such as machetes , spears , arrows and also shoes . These are skilled people who earn a living through their expertise and not through clan favouritism or support.
Unless equality is maintained in Somaliland , no sustained development will ever be achieved .

industry_corpus2: Politics & Administration


text:
Bovada Betting Limits - One of the best betting limits in the industry!
Bovada Betting Limits – One of the best betting limits in the industry!
Bovada offers one of the best betting limits in the industry. The betting limits ensure that the games are well regulated and no one is given an unfair advantage. If you enjoy online betting, you need to use a reliable and convenient sportsbook that caters to all your betting needs. Bovada Sportsbook has the highest rating in the industry with its payouts being the most timely and reliable. Bovada’s betting limits are also quite reasonable and allow you to enjoy your online betting experience.
Bovada has different betting limits depending on the sport and the wager type. The betting limits mainly range from $500 to $2.000. The wager types at Bovada include; single bet, if bet, buying points, multi-single bet, Parlay, teaser, round robin, sweetheart teaser, cross-sport teaser and reverse. The money odds are quoted using a positive or negative sign. A negative signed number indicates the favorite while the positive one indicates the underdogs. The odds in this case represent how much you are willing to risk in order to win.
The NFL betting limits range from spreads of $2.000, money lines at $1.000, totals at $1.000, Parlays and Teasers at $1.000, Player Props and Futures at $500, Team Props at $1.000 and finally quarter lines at $500. NCAA Football spreads between $1.000 and $2.000 with betting limits on Totals, Parlays and Teasers at $1.000. The betting limits on money lines, Player Props, Team props, Futures and quarter lines are all at $500.
The NBA spreads limit is $1.000 with limits on Moneylines, Totals, Parlays, Teasers, Player Props, Futures and Quarter lines being $500. The team Props limits are however $1.000. NCAA basketball on the other hand has the betting limits on each category at $500. The categories include; Moneylines, Totals, Parleys, Teasers, Player Props, Team Props, Futures, 1H/2H Spreads and 1H/2H Totals.
The MLB betting limits are: Spreads at $500, Moneylines at $1.000, Totals at $500, Parley at $500, Player Props at $200, Team Props at $300, Futures at $600, 1H/2H Spreads at $500 and 1H/2H Totals at $500. The NHL limits on the other hand are: Moneylines at $1.000 Totals at $500, Parleys at $500, Player Props at $200, Team Props at $200 and Futures at $600. CFL & AFL limits are $500 on Spreads, Totals, Parlays, Teasers and finally futures at $300. Lastly, WNBA betting limits are more or less similar to those of CFL with a $500 limit on Spreads, Totals, Parleys, Teasers and $300 on Futures.
The betting limits for football are: Moneylines at $500, Totals at $300, Props at $300 and Futures at $500. The mixed martial art (UFC-MMA) has betting limits of $2.000 on Moneylines and $500 on both Total Rounds and Props. Lastly, the boxing limits are $1.000 on Moneylines and Total rounds wagers and $500 on Props.
Tennis and Golf are lowest ranked in terms of betting limits with Head-to-head and Futures wagers at $500 while Props limits are $300. The Golf wager limits are similar to those of tennis. The maximum win for horse racing is $50,000. The betting limits on head-to-head wagers are $250, $100 on Props and $250 on Futures. The betting limits may however vary depending on the sport season. As such, pre-season and post-season limits will be different for different sports.
Placing bets on the Bovada sportsbook is easy giving you an online betting experience like no other. The payout methods used by Bovada are also quite straightforward and allow quick access to your money whenever you need it. The assurance that your money is being handled safely and is readily available upon request is what sets Bovada apart from other online sportsbooks.
Grab Your Bonus!More Bovada Bonus Info!


text: The US Division of Vitality (DOE) will present $30 million (DE-FOA-0002082) for brand spanking new analysis initiatives utilizing trendy information science approaches to speed up discovery in chemistry and supplies sciences. Knowledge science combines pc science, utilized arithmetic, and statistics with area science to find new information from typically complicated (akin to unstructured) information units generated from experimental and/or computational research. As a part of information science, machine studying and synthetic intelligence strategies are quickly evolving and resulting in extra correct predictions and reliable selections and actions. Whereas scientific analysis has benefited enormously in lots of areas such because the chemical and supplies sciences in addition to bioinformatics, medication, drug discovery, methods management, astronomy and particle physics, many alternatives stay for information science to speed up the speed of elementary discovery for complicated chemical processes and supplies, the DOE mentioned. Synergistically complementing idea, experimentation, and simulation, information science has already demonstrated some success in accelerating molecular and supplies discovery. The subsequent purpose for this technique is to generate new elementary understanding of bodily and chemical conduct, resulting in profitable predictions properly exterior the vary of the unique information, and presumably forcing modifications to the theoretical approaches. One particular space of curiosity to BES-supported analysis is that of complicated chemical and supplies processes, outlined as these whose macroscopic properties, response mechanisms and dynamic conduct can't be predicted from a recognized mixture of the properties of the person elements, therefore are exterior the scope of current theoretical approaches. Advanced methods contain large combinatorial areas and nonlinear processes, that are being slowly tackled with massive experimental, theoretical and computational efforts. Knowledge science approaches, together with commonplace experimental and theoretical strategies, are anticipated to speed up the invention of basically new chemical mechanisms and materials methods with distinctive properties and dynamic conduct, in addition to new bodily rules or legal guidelines. —DE-FOA-0002082 The initiative seeks proposals that target revolutionary functions of contemporary information science approaches to know processes and mechanisms in complicated energy-relevant chemical and supplies methods. Nationwide laboratories, universities, nonprofits, and firms shall be eligible to use for the three-year awards, which shall be chosen on the idea of peer evaluate. The Fundamental Vitality Sciences program within the Division’s Workplace of Science, which is funding the hassle, envisions awards for single investigators and small teams. Pre-applications are due on eight March 2019; the deadline for closing functions shall be 15 Might 2019. Deliberate funding for Fiscal 12 months 2019 shall be $10 million, with outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.

industry_corpus2: Technology & Research


text:
Chronicle is a series of monthly posts chronicling the Museum of Urban Design’s development from inception in October 2009, through to October 2010 when the MUD blog begins and it runs parallel to the current MUD blog. Each month Chronicle posts will show what MUD used to look like and document the challenges and rewards the project has had.
To read Chronicle entries look for the word Chronicle before the title of a blog post on the Home Page.

industry_corpus2: Real Estate & Construction


text:
THE EXPECTATIONS FOR CHANGE in U.S. policy toward Latin America when Barack Obama was elected president seemed as high among most governments and citizens of Latin America as the expectations of the voters in the United States who cast their ballots for him. Many analysts believed that the relationship between the region and the United States had reached a new low point during the two terms of Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush. While the most popular explanation for that outcome emphasized the "neglect" of or the "forgotten relationship" with Latin America, that neglect explanation understates the importance of both the Bush administration’s activities in Latin America and the actions of Latin American people and governments in creating the situation that confronted the newly elected President Obama. Bush administration officials did seek to influence political and economic developments in ways that would maintain regional hegemony for the United States, but they were unable to do so as easily as the U.S. government had in the past.
When Barack Obama took office in January 2009, he confronted a much different situation in Latin America from what his predecessor had faced eight years earlier. In 2001, a fading Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Hugo Chavez, whose position in Venezuela was somewhat tenuous, were the only Latin American presidents who might be described as challenging U.S. influence from the left. Eight years later, Chavez was far more secure, a Castro-headed government was enjoying a resurgent relevance in the region, and they had been joined in office by enough kindred spirits to constitute what many described as a "red tide." Russia, China, and Iran were wandering around the region, and, for the most part, the leaders of all three of those countries were more welcome in Latin American capitals at the end of 2008 than the outgoing U.S. president. The United States was also being challenged by new regional organizations and meetings, from which the colossus of the north was deliberately excluded.
As I noted above, the most popular explanation for those developments was that the United States was understandably preoccupied with developments elsewhere in the world. At war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and concerned with potential security threats in Iran and North Korea, it would not be surprising that the focus on the Middle East and Asia would take attention away from Latin America. While there was a diversion of energy and resources toward the Middle East and Asia, Latin Americans did continue to experience the heavy hand of the empire to the north. The Bush administration responded to the rise of the Latin American left with threats (in Bolivia, the Ambassador’s words clearly backfired and helped to garner support for Evo Morales during his presidential runs), by working with opposition groups (in Venezuela, the support by US officials for those implementing the 2002 coup was clear, even if any actual US role in the coup is more difficult to determine), and by attempting to separate the "good left" from the "bad left" in a divide and conquer sort of strategy (Lula in Brazil was the good, pragmatic left, while Chavez was the classic bad, populist left). The Bush administration also continued to advocate economic neoliberalism, deregulation, and free trade orthodoxy as the one size fits all solution for the region’s economies. Finally, there was a security or even terrorism framing put on contentious issues such as drug trafficking and immigration. The combined militarizing of our relations with the region, political interventions, and efforts to impose its preferred version of free market capitalism throughout the region add up to what Greg Grandin described at one point as "new imperialism" in Latin America. The concept of imperialism has made a comeback of sorts over the last decade. What is particularly interesting is that the idea of empire is openly engaged by both the advocates of a robust U.S. military presence around the world and the critics of the same activities.
As the title of this article suggests, I believe that the Obama administration has continued with the imperial policies of the Bush administration, although they have accompanied those policies with a much different tone and far more conciliatory rhetoric. In effect, we are now the sort of "good neighbors" who shake hands and exchange pleasantries even with those we don’t like very much, but we clearly remain committed to asserting economic and political power in the area. The actual period of the good neighbor policy in United States relations with Latin America is sometimes seen as a break from the overall U.S. strategic interests in exerting control over the region. But in practice, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region in the early 1930s coincided with support for dictators and oligarchies in many of the same countries that we had previously occupied. As long as those governments supported U.S. geopolitical and economic interests, we would keep our troops at home. Underneath the change in appearance and discourse, an implicit imperialism continued to characterize U.S. policy.
In the rest of the article, I will first make the argument about continuity from Bush to Obama, starting with Cuba, a country toward which there seems to have been some policy change. The case of Honduras provides a particularly instructive example to test how the Obama administration responded to an extra-constitutional removal of an elected leader, who had become allied with the "bad left" in Latin America. On the other side, relations with Colombia seem to suggest at least continuity with the aggressive policy of military support to the most consistent U.S. ally in South America. Next, the approach to "intermestic" issues such as immigration and drug trafficking by the two administrations will be assessed. Finally, relationships with Brazil and Venezuela will be discussed. In the concluding section of the article, I will offer a few possible explanations for the continuity between the two administrations.
WHILE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, Barack Obama did not give a lot of attention to the region of Latin America. The most important speech he gave was on May 23 before the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, Florida. Unfortunately titled, "Renewing U.S. Leadership in the Americas," the speech directly criticized the Bush administration record in the region and offered some general ideas about what his administration would do differently. Obama describes the Bush approach: "…its policy in the Americas has been negligent toward our friends, ineffective with our adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in peoples’ lives, and incapable of advancing our interests in the region." The basic problem then was that negligence and disinterest did not allow us to "lead the hemisphere into the 21st century," but when Obama becomes president, "We will choose to lead." "It’s time to turn the page on the arrogance in Washington and the anti-Americanism across the region that stands it the way of progress." If "we leave the bluster behind," then "we can renew our leadership in the hemisphere."
As some analysts have suggested about the Obama campaign more generally, it was easy to read into the message of "change" whatever sort of shifts from the Bush years that one could imagine wanting. In terms of foreign policy, when Obama said that he would meet with people such as Ahmadinejad, Castro, and Chavez without preconditions, it wasn’t a reach to assume that he would surely want to lift the embargo with Cuba too. Or as a person of color with recent family immigration experiences, surely he would move quickly on the immigration reform issue. And when he told those of us in places such as Ohio and Pennsylvania that he wanted to renegotiate NAFTA, we could imagine that he was ready to move beyond free trade orthodoxy in Latin America. A careful reading of his limited legislative record as a senator and his campaign speeches would have given pause to those expecting dramatic changes in U.S.-L.A. relations. In that Miami speech, he directly said that he would keep the embargo with Cuba in place. On immigration, while he had co-sponsored the DREAM Act (to provide a path to citizenship for those who had come to the US as children), he had also voted for the Secure Fence Act, which authorized building several hundred more miles of wall between the United States and Mexico. And the renegotiation of NAFTA was not because he recognized the harm being done to Mexican peasants or workers, due to both the agreement and unfair US trade practices, but rather to somehow bring manufacturing jobs back to the rust belt.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S INITIAL APPOINTMENTS to key foreign policy posts suggested the possibility of continuity with the Bush and Clinton administrations. Secretary of Defense Gates was asked to continue on from his work for President Bush, and Secretary of State Clinton showed Obama’s likely comfort level with the foreign policy approach of the last Democratic president. President Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs, Tom Shannon, continued in that position until he was nominated by Obama to be the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil. Arturo Valenzuela, who became the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was one of the authors of Plan Colombia when he worked in President Clinton’s administration. Jeffrey Davidow, who came out of retirement to serve as White House Advisor to the Summit of the Americas, had a Chilean embassy position at the time of the Allende overthrow, and he served the Clinton administration as Ambassador to Venezuela and Mexico, as well as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. The former Ambassador’s known positions on trade, the drug war, and Cuba did not suggest that his pre-summit counsel would be in the direction of significant policy change toward Latin America.
Before leaving for his first summit with Latin American leaders in Trinidad and Tobago, only a few months after taking office, President Obama announced that he would end the Bush administration-imposed policies of limiting remittances and travel by Cuban Americans to the island. The announcement of the change for Cuban Americans was clearly timed to preempt the universal criticism that the United States would be getting for the embargo at the Trinidad and Tobago summit. That embargo lacks any global support as indicated by the yearly UN resolution that condemns the policy. The 2010 vote was 187-2, with only Israel joining the United States. Israel casts a vote with the US, but it maintains trade and investment with the Cubans. For a president who promised that multilateralism would replace his predecessor’s unilateralism, it would be hard to rationalize being on the losing end of a 187-2 vote as part of a commitment to cooperate rather than go it alone. Latin American media previews of the meetings consistently mentioned that the one thing Obama could do to indicate real change in U.S.-L.A. relations would be to lift the embargo.
A year after the summit, President Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was asked about the embargo, and she gave an interesting answer: "It is my personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn’t happened in Cuba in the last fifty years." So, the country’s top diplomat seems to understand that the United States currently has the policy preferred by the government that we are trying to weaken, and yet the Obama administration is unwilling to change the policy. Instead of change, we have seen the Cuban government listed as a "state sponsor of terrorism"; and the United States continues to provide funds for Cuban dissidents by way of quasi-governmental organizations. That last practice led to the arrest of Alan Gross who after entering Cuba on a tourist visa, was apparently working for Development Alternatives, Inc., a subcontractor of the State Department, with the assignment of providing satellite communications equipment to Cuban dissidents when he was arrested in December 2009. Adding to the costs for the U.S. government of such a policy, the Cuban government is able to discredit its civil society opponents who receive such financial assistance as U.S. government "mercenaries." For good measure, the Obama administration designated Cuba (along with Iran, Sudan, and Syria) as a state sponsor of terrorism, subjecting anyone from Cuba or traveling through the country to enhanced security checks. In January 2011, Obama took another step toward loosening the travel ban along the margins, but most U.S. citizens will still not be able to travel to the island, and the embargo remains as firmly in place as ever.
At the April 2009 summit, President Obama’s interactions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received the most U.S. media attention. After first shaking the hand Chavez offered him, President Obama then accepted a book by Eduardo Galeano that the Venezuela leader gave him the following day. It is likely true that President Bush would not have let himself get in that situation, but it is hard to imagine that President Obama had any other option than to accept the offered hand and book. In general, the rhetoric between Caracas and Washington has been toned down since the Bush years, but no substantial change in policy is apparent. With Bolivia, another country on the "bad left," Obama has also continued with Bush era policies. At the end of June 2009, the United States permanently eliminated Bolivia’s trade preferences, which had been temporarily suspended by President Bush. President Evo Morales responded by accusing Obama of having "lied" in Trinidad and Tobago. The expectations had been quite high at the beginning of the summit that the Obama presidency would bring about reduced tensions among the United States and the Latin American left, but certainly policy toward Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia did not change markedly over the first several months of the new president’s term.
The next major test for the Obama administration came only a couple of months after the summit, when President Zelaya was removed from his office by the Honduran military early in the morning and flown out of the country (with a stop at a U.S. base in the country for refueling). The initial response by the Obama administration was to describe the removal as illegal and to call for the suspension of the country from the OAS, suggesting that they might have learned from the Bush administration’s acceptance of the 2002 military coup that temporarily removed Chavez from power. Still, almost all of the U.S. aid to Honduras continued to flow, members of the Honduran military continued to train at the renamed School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the U.S. Ambassador stayed in Honduras. Over time, the U.S. rhetoric clearly changed, and U.S. statements and actions pushed the Obama administration away from the widespread Latin American resistance of the post-coup government’s legitimacy. A little more than a week before the November 29 elections, the United States signaled that it would accept the outcome of the election. Although Panama took a similar stand at the time, that position had not been publicly taken by any other government in the Americas before the United States did so. Others, such as Colombia and Costa Rica, recognized the new Lobo government in Honduras soon after the election was held, but the United States was not part of the region’s mainstream. There was considerable domestic pressure on Obama to move in that direction – whether from paid Honduran lobbyist and former Clinton administration official, Lanny Davis, or from Bush administration official, Roger Noriega, or perhaps most effectively, South Carolina Senator Jim Demint who put a hold on the confirmation of Obama’s Latin American team until it was clear that the United States would recognize the new government. In the analysis of one Argentine diplomat: "Obama has decided that Latin America isn’t worth it. He gave it to the right." That likely overstates somewhat the Obama administration’s actual differences with the position of the Republican right on Honduras. But still, in what was arguably the most important Obama administration decision about U.S. policy toward Latin America to that point, the choice is either to believe that he caved in the face of pressure from a South Carolina Senator or that he was more than willing to move on as if a military coup in Honduras had never happened.
Secretary of State Clinton’s rhetoric suggested that she was generally comfortable herself putting pressure on Latin American governments who challenged the United States. At the end of 2009, she offered a not very veiled threat to Latin American countries who were developing relations with Iran: "I think if people want to flirt with Iran, they should take a look at what the consequences might well be for them. And we hope that they will think twice." The Obama administration went on record as telling countries in the region – not just Venezuela, Bolivia, or Cuba had diplomatic ties with the Iranians, but the Brazilians did as well – that they should expect significant costs if they did not follow the U.S. foreign policy line in that case.
At the end of 2009, the Obama administration showed quite clearly that their approach to Colombia would be more of the same as well. In this case, that meant that President Obama signed an agreement in October 2009 giving the US access to seven bases in the South American country to replace the access in Ecuador that ceased when the ten-year lease at Manta was not renewed by the Correa government. From the perspective of regional leaders such as Chavez and Lula, there were a number of problems with that decision. First, there was no evidence of consultation by the U.S. government with Colombia’s neighbors, including Brazil. The secretive bilateral agreement with Colombia did not seem consistent with the words of a U.S. president committed to a new era of cooperation with his neighbors. Complicating things even more, the Venezuelans were able to report that a U.S. Air Force document said that the use of the base in Palanquero, Colombia, "…provides a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotic-funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters." In this case, not only does the Obama administration seem to be fully supportive of the military solution to drug trafficking, but the wording here suggests that the empire believes in military solutions to both poverty and anti-U.S. sentiment. The language was eventually removed from the document, but the damage was done.
Besides Colombia, the most consistently pro-U.S. government in the region has been Mexico. The issues of contention between the United States and the bordering country have included immigration, drug trafficking, and trade. President Fox, who was in office from 2000-2006, was particularly disappointed in President Bush’s unwillingness to use political capital on a comprehensive immigration reform, even though the former Texas governor had consistently offered rhetorical support for the policy. When President Calderon succeeded Fox, he initiated a more aggressive and militarized challenge to drug traffickers in Mexico. The U.S. government passed the Merida Initiative, which was occasionally described as a "Plan Mexico," given its similarity to the Colombian drug policy. In the area of trade, the Mexican government has long argued that Mexican truckers should be allowed to transport goods to U.S. destinations, and had sought the elimination of some barriers to the sale of Mexican foodstuffs in the United States.
In the case of the "drug war" in Latin America, the Clinton to Bush to Obama continuity is very clear. New words from the current U.S. president were initially well received south of the border. In a joint press conference in Mexico with President Calderon, President Obama said that, "A demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business. The war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States." While he acknowledged the shared responsibility, President Obama did not alter the U.S. policy in any significant way. Through the Merida Initiative, we continue to arm the militaries of Mexican and Central American governments, ensuring that from Colombia to the U.S.-Mexico border, the primary U.S. role is to provide additional arms to militaries with dismal human rights records. At the same time, the logical policies that would flow from the Obama rhetoric – renewal of the assault weapons ban or redirection of resources to the demand side – have not been enacted. It is much easier politically to provide the Mexican military with Blackhawk helicopters than it is to take on the gun lobby or implement effective drug rehabilitation services in U.S. prisons. In response to the criticism from the gun lobby, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) even stopped releasing statistics on the percentage of weapons seized in Mexico that had been purchased in the United States.
President Obama suggested during the campaign that he would support comprehensive immigration reform, as had his predecessor. As president, Obama has appointed dozens of Latinos to important positions in his administration, and the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court was an important statement. But in the two years that he has been in office, the substantive policy changes from the Bush years have actually been in the direction of more troops and agents on the border, and an increase in deportations during each of the two years. Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano announced in October 2010 that in addition to the record number of deportations, the Obama administration had audited more employers suspected of hiring illegal labor in their first 20 months than the Bush administration had during its entire time in office. On the other hand, the Obama administration did voice its displeasure with the SB 1070 legislation passed in Arizona, and the Attorney General has pursued a legal challenge to the state’s rights to implement that sort of immigration policy. But overall, a president who voted for the Secure Fence Act when he was in the U.S. Senate has generally not deviated from the Bush administration approach. The nicer words for our neighbor cannot mask the ongoing policy of coercion – walls, deportations, and the creation of a hostile enough environment that will lead undocumented people to choose to leave on their own.
One of the most popular presidents in the world, much less the Americas, was Lula da Silva in Brazil. President Bush maintained friendly enough relations with Lula, but it was clear that during the years both were in office, the Brazilian president was increasing his influence, while the U.S. president’s influence was receding. Lula played a role in the development of regional organizations, effectively dealt with Chavez in Venezuela, renewed a friendship with the Castros in Cuba, worked together with "emerging powers" China, Russia, India, and South Africa, and forcefully challenged the US on issues of fair trade. While President Obama seems to have developed a friendship with the outgoing Brazilian President, his administration does not seem to have figured out a strategy for dealing with the country. Lula exchanged visits in 2009-2010 with President Ahmadinejad in Iran, he rebuffed Secretary of State Clinton’s request for support in the UN for sanctioning Iran, and in May, 2010 he and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan negotiated a commitment from the Iranians on their nuclear programs that is said to have made the Obama administration "furious." In December, 2010, the Brazilians and the Argentines recognized the state of Palestine, in what was both a response to the Obama administration’s officially ending the attempt to negotiate a temporary settlement freeze in the West Bank and another statement about the willingness of important countries in Latin America to take stances on international issues that are unwelcome in Washington.
The worst relationship the Bush administration had with a Latin American leader was certainly with Venezuelan Hugo Chavez. In an interview on a Spanish-language television station during the week before Obama was inaugurated, the incoming U.S. president noted that Venezuela was "exporting terrorist activities" and generally "hindering progress in the region." It is curious that Obama would unnecessarily start to make arguments about Chavez that sound a lot like those of Bush and his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. It is hard not to conclude that the Obama administration has the same goal as the previous administration of isolating the "bad left" in Latin America. According to Eva Golinger, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) provided almost $2 million to opposition groups in Venezuela during 2009, more than double the amount from the last year of Bush’s presidency. Both the Bush and Obama administrations tried to discourage the sale of arms to Venezuela with the argument that they could end up in the hands of Colombian rebels, but neither US president had much success on that front. Rather than any direct U.S. policy, it appears that the biggest challenge faced by Chavez is due to the lingering economic problems in the country. While Chavez and the Obama administration have generally steered clear of the name-calling on both sides that characterized the Bush years, there are signs that the Venezuelan president’s patience might be wearing thin. In December 2010, Chavez confirmed that he would not accept the appointment of Larry Palmer as the Obama administration’s Ambassador to his country. Palmer had made "disrespectful" comments about Venezuela in email responses to questions from Senator Richard Lugar as part of the confirmation process, and those replies were then posted on the Indiana Republican’s website. The Venezuelan President said that Palmer would be detained at the airport and sent home should he try to enter the country.
THE OVERALL POLICY CONTINUITY would be understandable if U.S.-L.A. relations were at a good place when President Obama took office. But given the nearly universal sentiment that relations were at a low point, the failure to shift course begs for an explanation. We are left first with the possibility that in the case of Latin America, Barack Obama’s worldview is similar to his most recent predecessors’. Their "leadership" in the Americas includes aid and encouragement to those who oppose governments on the left; an economic embargo and prohibition of travel to Cuba by nearly all U.S. citizens; a militarization of drug policy and a security-first approach to immigration; and attempts to provide open access for U.S. investors and goods in Latin America. President Obama may simply share a set of beliefs about Latin America held by at least the post-Cold War US presidents. As a supplement to that idea, we might return to the idea of regional neglect. In that scenario, President Obama has been distracted by an ongoing economic crisis and more pressing foreign policy concerns in other parts of the world. So, without the time and energy for transforming Latin American policy, the default is continuity. But just as with the Bush years, there were certainly policy decisions being made – the Honduran coup, bases in Colombia, Bolivian trade preferences, and increases in deportations – that suggest it’s not neglect, but rather how the Obama administration engages the region that is the problem.
A second set of explanations would focus on the impact of U.S. domestic politics on foreign policy toward Latin America. With many of the contentious issues having both international and domestic political implications, significant Latino ethnic interest group activism present in the United States, and the lack of real military or hard security threat in the region, policy toward the rest of the Americas seems particularly open to domestic political calculations. In that case both Bush and Obama may be affected by similar political pressures; therefore, we get similar outcomes. Presidents from both parties after all want the support of U.S. agro-industry, which continues to be both heavily subsidized and then protected on the rare occasion when the Brazilians or another Latin American producer is still too competitive. Presidents from neither party seem willing to risk the potential loss of Electoral College votes that might result from challenging an anachronistic embargo that is still supported by many Cuban Americans in South Florida. Defense contractors have the same interest in securitizing drugs and immigration, and corporations want the government to protect private property in Latin America when nationalizations and expropriations are put on the agenda, regardless of who is in the White House.
In the end, we may really be left here with yet more evidence that the US policy toward Latin America is embedded in larger structural forces that mean partisan differences in policy are usually more symbolic than real. The Caribbean is supposed to be "America’s lake," Latin America’s resources should be available for U.S. investors, and this is a region in which we are meant to lead. Regardless of who holds the presidency, the United States has expectations for the region – sign free trade agreements or eradicate coca crops – and it tries to cajole or coerce Latin American governments to fall into line. Control over Latin America was among the earliest U.S. foreign policy goals, and it has really never changed. The current U.S. president is still more popular in the region than his predecessor, and his administration’s language is somewhat more measured when he deals with anti-American sentiment, but in the end, he’s still the leader of the "Colossus of the North." The change is really in the South, where resistance from Bolivian social movements and Brazilian or Venezuelan presidents is making it clear that the United States is no longer able to dictate policies in the region. Compounding the problem for the U.S. president is that the economic and ideological resources at his disposal are shrinking, and the competition from China and others outside the region is increasing.
While Obama faces a situation in the region made more difficult as a result of the Bush policies, we continue to see evidence of a similar overall approach to the region. The training of Latin American military personnel in the United States continues – at the renamed School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), much of the focus post-Cold War is on preparing those troops to fight against drug trafficking. The Central American corridor linking Mexico to Colombia is increasingly well stocked with U.S. military resources and U.S.-trained troops. The proposed access to seven bases in Colombia and the increasing militarization of the US-Mexico border add to the security effect. Finally, free trade agreements with Mexico (NAFTA) and Central America (CAFTA-DR), as well as those awaiting ratification with Colombia and Panama, effectively marry U.S. military power to economic interests in a way that would be familiar to past critics of U.S. imperialism in the Americas. President Obama has not aggressively pushed ratification of the trade agreements with Panama and Colombia to this point, but with the Republican pickup of seats in the 2010 election, he will have a new opportunity to extend the economic component of that security corridor further into the region.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs slammed the "professional left" in an August 2010 briefing for their criticism of President Obama: "I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested." He went on to suggest that the left wouldn’t be satisfied until "we’ve eliminated the Pentagon." While it is tempting to respond with a sarcastic comment about how easy access to those drugs is guaranteed as long as the U.S. government bases its drug policies in the Pentagon, the argument here is that when it comes to Latin America, the "professional left" should feel free to argue that Obama is much more "like George Bush" than not. While he is still somewhat more welcome in Latin American capitals than his predecessor, that’s largely because he is a more soft-spoken neighbor, not because he holds different views about the neighborhood itself. Given how big the opening left him by President Bush, Obama’s failure to reshape the U.S. approach to Latin America is all the more shameful.
1. Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism, (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006).
3. During a July 2008 trip to Cuba, for example, I visited a large Israeli citrus farm just outside Havana that was a joint venture with the Cuban government.
5. Of the 14 countries on the full list to get enhanced screening (the other ten were described as "countries of interest"), Cuba is both the only country in the Western Hemisphere and the only one without a significant Muslim population.
6. Greg Grandin, "Muscling Latin America," The Nation, February 8, 2010.


text:
In order to choose the right chemical protective glove, it is necessary to first understand the chemical hazard. This can be achieved by studying the information (MSDS) supplied by the chemical manufacturer for contents and concentrations.
Be aware that "hand protection" could mean a glove produced by one of several methods and constructed of one of many natural or synthetic materials. "Rubber gloves" can vary greatly in their appropriateness for use in any particular situation.
Determine the workers needs; the hazards they are exposed to and the task they perform. Involve the worker in the selection process.
Consult with safety equipment suppliers and/or manufacturers for availability of a glove providing the protection you need. Compare permeation test results provided by manufacturers.
Choose the most comfortable glove suitable for the situation. Be sure to have the correct sizes available. The worker is less likely to wear an uncomfortable glove.
Consider multiple hazards; chemical exposure, abrasive surfaces, heat, extreme cold. A combination of gloves may be necessary for complete protection.
Choosing the correct hand protection is critical. One drop of a chemical on an improperly chosen glove can be fatal. Contact Us with any questions you may have!

industry_corpus2: Petrochemicals


text:
Another win for the Yellow Claws?
Summer is nearly upon us and we thought it was high time for another Mayhem summer favourite – Sports Day! So dust off your trainers, dig out your sweatbands and relive those school days with egg and spoon, sack races, rounders and even a spot of cricket.
It’s only £5 to join in an array of classic (and some not so classic!) sports day games, so pack a picnic and head over to Clapham Common on Sunday 8 July for a day of Mayhem in the sunshine ... and don't forget your competitive streak!


text:
Maybe you heard a friend or loved one refer to “freebase cocaine” and you’re worried about their drug use. Or maybe you found the leftover remnants of a freebase cocaine laboratory in your loved one’s home. These things could be all be signs of freebase cocaine abuse, which is extremely risky and dangerous.
In this blog, we’ll provide more information about what freebase cocaine is, why it’s so risky, and how to address and treat freebase cocaine addiction.
The term “freebase cocaine” refers to cocaine that has been processed with ammonia to extract the base of the drug. The flammable substance, Diethyl, is then used to dissolve the cocaine and remove it. The process of creating freebase cocaine is an extremely dangerous one because Diethyl is very flammable.1,2 As a result, someone who is unfamiliar with this process, or even a person who has done it before, could easily risk harming themselves or others.
Freebase cocaine is almost 100 percent pure. In this form, cocaine is not water soluble and it is not easy to inject or melt it either, so it is typically smoked. If you’re wondering how to freebase coke, most often, people who abuse this form of cocaine use a small glass pipe to inhale the vapors that are produced when the freebase cocaine is heated. There are also other methods of freebasing cocaine, but the use of a small pipe is the most common.
Freebase cocaine is especially addictive, so many people who abuse this form of the drug often develop a tolerance and become addicted very quickly. Once they are addicted, they will experience withdrawal symptoms when the effects of the drug wear off.
Burns: People who smoke freebase cocaine have a higher risk of burning themselves on glass pipes or with matches and lighters. These burns often injure the person’s face or hands.
Lab explosions: As we mentioned earlier, the process of creating freebase cocaine is very dangerous and often results in fires or explosions. These violent eruptions can seriously injure or even kill someone.
Increased risk of injury: While under the influence of freebase cocaine, some people become aggressive and over-confident, which can lead them to do dangerous or risky things. This type of careless behavior can lead to physical injury or even death.
Increased risk of overdose: If a person is smoking freebase cocaine, the risk of overdose is much higher, especially with binging behaviors. A cocaine overdose can increase body temperature, cause seizures, or even result in heart failure and death. The risk of overdose is even higher if the person is abusing cocaine with alcohol or other drugs.
Although any and all cocaine use is dangerous, freebase cocaine addiction is especially risky and should be addressed right away. Many people may be hesitant to quit using freebase cocaine out of fear of the withdrawal experience, and understandably so.
Cocaine withdrawal is scary, extremely uncomfortable, and can even deadly, so it’s absolutely necessary that you or a loved one completes detox under the medical supervision of a doctor. A medical professional will be able to recognize and treat cocaine withdrawal symptoms will also ensuring your safety and comfort.
A medical detox program for freebase cocaine addiction can provide essential medical supervision while also addressing the psychological issues that are often associated with cocaine withdrawal, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
If you or a loved one is suffering from freebase cocaine addiction, there’s no reason to wait before seeking help. Briarwood Detox Center can provide immediate detox help for freebase cocaine addiction and polysubstance abuse. Call today for more information or to speak with an admissions representative.

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


text:
We pride ourselves on exceeding expectations, so while this list gives a high-level overview of what we’ll take care of, you can rest assured, we’ll go above and beyond to ensure your wedding day goes off without a hitch!
Assist DJ/Band with timing and Grand Entrance, and assist members of bridal party in assembling for intros, dances, etc.
Coordinate the newlywed’s getaway and ensure your guests get safely on their way to the after party!

industry_corpus2: Hospitality & Catering


text: Motor Vehicle Record: This report is a check with the State Department of Motor Vehicles where the candidate hold’s his or her license. It normally provides a 3-5 year history check and will include vehicle related crimes, accident history and criminal charges where available. Some states require written authorization by the candidate.

industry_corpus2: Automobiles