2012 law could send flood insurance premiums soaring ...

By Jeff Hampton
The Virginian-Pilot
? May 2, 2013

DARE COUNTY, N.C.

Outer Banks real estate agents want changes made to a federal law that could hike home flood insurance premiums by thousands of dollars.

"We see where this is going to be self-defeating," said Willo Kelly, government affairs director for the Outer Banks Association of Realtors. "The unintended consequences will be that hundreds of people will be forced into foreclosure."

Higher insurance premiums could ward off buyers and cause lenders to turn down loans, Kelly said. Even homes built to today's standards could fall under new flood zones and be hit with large rate increases, she said.

Her association plans to meet Friday in Nags Head with national and state officials to see whether the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 can be amended to reduce its financial impact on homeowners, Kelly said.

Congress passed the Biggert-Waters Act to do away with discounted rates on homes that are not primary residences and were built before the flood zone maps of 1974. The goal was to help pay back the U.S. Treasury for losses from Hurricane Katrina and other big storms.

The law could bring about higher rates for all homes in flood zones. Also, more buildings could be included in expanded flood zones when new maps come out in 2014, Kelly said.

The law already is affecting the Outer Banks. Agent Jackie Sample recently sold a home built in 1997 on the Pamlico Sound side of Avon that since has been included in a "V" zone, the most hazardous and most expensive flood zone. At first, the lender was going to require the buyer to get new flood insurance, raising the rate from about $400 a year to $8,500 a year, Sample said.

The original elevation certificate was found, and the lender agreed to grandfather the home in a less expensive "A" zone, she said. Eventually, under Biggert-Waters, property owners will have to get "V" zone insurance, Sample said.

"This is a prime example that the people in Washington do not understand what they have done," Sample said. "When the grandfathering clause was there, you didn't get hit with big surprises."

In some cases, flood insurance rates could reach $30,000 a year for buildings in low-lying areas, Kelly said. Costs also will rise for homes along some riverfronts farther inland, Kelly said. So far, the new law has affected only properties built before 1974, when existing flood insurance rate maps came out, she said.

The flood insurance program offers big discounts for properties built high above what is known as the base flood elevation, determined by the flood zone, said Spencer Rogers, a coastal construction and erosion expert with North Carolina Sea Grant, a coastal research organization.

"Flood design is really simple," he said. "Don't get wet."

Congress set up the National Flood Insurance Program in 1968 following losses from when Hurricane Betsy struck Louisiana three years earlier, according to a 2010 report by Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Kelly provided a copy of the report.

At the time, private insurers generally were not willing to offer risky flood insurance policies. The federal government set up the program offering discounts to existing properties to get more owners to participate, according to the report. It was mandated to be available and affordable. Later, to further increase participation, anyone in a flood zone with a mortgage had to get flood insurance.

The program worked well until 2005, when large storms, including Katrina, made landfall. The NFIP had to borrow more than $18 billion from the Treasury to cover the losses, Michel-Kerjan wrote.

With the Biggert-Waters Act, Congress has attempted to make the program solvent and repay the loan from the Treasury, Kelly said.

The NFIP did not charge full rates based on the risk and did not account for properties repeatedly flooded where owners made multiple claims, Kelly said.

?

The meeting on amending the flood insurance law will be at 9 a.m. Friday in the Outer Banks Association of Realtors' office, 201 W. Eighth St., Nags Head.

Jeff Hampton, 252-338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/05/2012-law-could-send-flood-insurance-premiums-soaring

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TSX drops more than 1 percent as resources weigh

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - For Rafael Nadal to bridge a 7,000-point gap with Novak Djokovic in the ATP rankings looks like a tall order, even for a player of his qualities, yet he could still threaten the Serb's hopes of ending 2013 as world No.1. With the French Open looming large on the horizon, Nadal is back in the claycourt groove as he continues his comeback from a knee injury that sidelined him for seven months. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-slightly-lower-ahead-fed-eye-123929032.html

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Solar-Powered Plane Set to Begin Historic Cross-Country Flight Friday

A solar-powered airplane is poised to depart on a historic coast-to-coast flight across the United States Friday (May 3), in a bold attempt to fly across the country without using a single drop of fuel.

The Swiss-made plane, called Solar Impulse, will depart San Francisco, Calif., Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. EDT (6:00 a.m. PDT) for Phoenix, Ariz., on the first leg of its cross-country journey. The plane is expected to fly at a cruising altitude of 21,000 feet (6,400 meters), and will touch down at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport on Saturday (May 4) at 4:00 a.m. EDT (1:00 a.m. PDT).

While the details of Friday's flight have been planned, local weather conditions may postpone the take-off or alter the plane's route, company officials said.

Solar Impulse founders Bertrand Piccard and Andr? Borschberg will alternate piloting the single-seater plane over the five legs of the journey.

In mid-May, the ultra-lightweight plane will begin the second leg of its trip, taking off in Phoenix and landing in Dallas, Texas. Toward the end of May, Solar Impulse will depart for St. Louis, Mo.; the fourth leg will take the plane from St. Louis to Washington, D.C.; and the fifth and last leg will end in New York City in late June or early July. [Images: Cross-Country Flight in a Solar-Powered Plane]

Each leg of the expedition will be streamed live on Solar Impulse's website. The live feed will feature information on the airplane's position, altitude and speed, as well as camera views from inside the cockpit and Solar Impulse's mission control center.

Solar Impulse, which receives power from solar panels and onboard batteries, is the first aircraft capable of flying day and night without using any fuel, according to company officials. The aircraft weighs about the same as a station wagon, and its solar panel-covered wings stretch about as long as a 747 jetliner. The solar-powered plane generates roughly the same amount of power as a small scooter, company officials have said.

The unprecedented coast-to-coast flight is designed to demonstrate the potential for "clean technologies" as viable and efficient sources of renewable energy.

While commercial flights aboard solar-powered airplanes may still be decades into the future, the Solar Impulse journey may one day serve as a model for sustainable air travel.

The coast-to-coast expedition will also launch an initiative called "Clean Generation," which aims to promote the use of clean technologies around the globe. The program seeks to "encourage governments, businesses and decision-makers to push for the adoption of clean technologies and sustainable energy solutions," Solar Impulse officials said in a statement.

Other supporters of the Clean Generation Initiative include Hollywood director James Cameron, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, environmentalist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson.

These and other supporters of the initiative will be able to add their names to a list that will be carried in the cockpit of the Solar Impulse plane, signifying them as virtual passengers on the journey. In the stopover cities throughout the trip, more names will be added, company officials said.

In 2010, the Solar Impulse plane successfully completed a 26-hour overnight flight, followed by a flight from Switzerland to Morocco in 2012. Solar Impulse's founders eventually plan to circumnavigate the world in the solar-powered plane.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/solar-powered-plane-set-begin-historic-cross-country-230134236.html

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Changing mothers' aid limits juice for kids

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A change to a U.S. program that provides food and medical visits to many infants, children and pregnant women succeeded in reducing the amount of juice bought overall, according to a new study.

Researchers examined the impact of an October 2009 change in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - known as WIC, which cut the monthly allowance of 100 percent juice by more than half.

"Basically the program achieved its goals. Less juice ideally means less sugar consumed by these little kids," said Tatiana Andreyeva, the study's lead author and the director of economic initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

What's more, Andreyeva told Reuters Health that their study showed that WIC recipients didn't end up buying more juice with their own money to compensate.

"We expected a reduction in juice, but we didn't know if we'd see a switch to other beverages," she said.

Pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children up to age five are eligible for WIC as long as they meet certain requirements, including financial need. In 2011, about 9 million people received the benefits every month, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Before the change, WIC recipients were able to buy 288 ounces of juice per month, but that far exceeded the daily recommended amount of 4 ounces for young children. The Institute of Medicine suggested bringing juice and other WIC food in line with recommendations. Now, WIC recipients are allowed to purchase 128 ounces of juice.

The concern, according to Andreyeva, is that too much juice can contribute to weight gain.

"In terms of calories it's not much different from soda," she said.

For the new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, she and her colleagues compared WIC purchases from January through September in 2009 (before the change) to WIC purchases one year later (after the change) at a supermarket chain with more than 60 locations in two New England states.

Before the change, the researchers found WIC recipients were buying about 238 ounces of juice per month. That fell by about 44 percent after the change in October 2009. That was matched by about a 14 percent increase in juice purchases using other non-WIC money.

Overall, the researchers found monthly juice purchases fell by about a quarter, to 182 ounces per month.

NO COST?

Andreyeva noted that the change was cost-neutral.

"It didn't cost taxpayers any extra money. They reduced some food and provided other foods instead," she said, adding that families were allowed to buy more fruits and vegetables.

Shannon Zenk, who has researched the WIC program but was not involved with the new study, said the results are intriguing and support past research that found stores are offering more fruits and vegetables since the change in 2009.

"One thing we already know from the studies that have already come out is the change in the retail environment," said Zenk, from the College of Nursing at University of Illinois at Chicago.

The results of the new study are limited, however. The researchers only looked at one supermarket chain in two New England states and they can't say if the WIC recipients were actually eating better diets.

Still, Andreyeva said the results show policy changes can be effective.

"What it shows here is they have a good outcome and it didn't cost taxpayers anything extra," she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/18l9aZi Pediatrics, online April 29, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/changing-mothers-aid-limits-juice-kids-141932334.html

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Mysterious Hebrew stone displayed in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (AP) ? An ancient limestone tablet covered with a mysterious Hebrew text that features the archangel Gabriel is at the center of a new exhibit in Jerusalem, even as scholars continue to argue about what it means.

The so-called Gabriel Stone, a meter (three-foot)-tall tablet said to have been found 13 years ago on the banks of the Dead Sea, features 87 lines of an unknown prophetic text dated as early as the first century BC, at the time of the Second Jewish Temple.

Scholars see it as a portal into the religious ideas circulating in the Holy Land in the era when was Jesus was born. Its form is also unique ? it is ink written on stone, not carved ? and no other such religious text has been found in the region.

Curators at the Israel Museum, where the first exhibit dedicated to the stone is opening Wednesday, say it is the most important document found in the area since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"The Gabriel Stone is in a way a Dead Sea Scroll written on stone," said James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. The writing dates to the same period, and uses the same tidy calligraphic Hebrew script, as some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of documents that include the earliest known surviving manuscripts of Hebrew Bible texts.

The Gabriel Stone made a splash in 2008 when Israeli Bible scholar Israel Knohl offered a daring theory that the stone's faded writing would revolutionize the understanding of early Christianity, claiming it included a concept of messianic resurrection that predated Jesus. He based his theory on one hazy line, translating it as "in three days you shall live."

His interpretation caused a storm in the world of Bible studies, with scholars convening at an international conference the following year to debate readings of the text, and a National Geographic documentary crew featuring his theory. An American team of experts using high resolution scanning technologies tried ? but failed ? to detect more of the faded writing.

Knohl, a professor of Bible at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, eventually scaled back from his original bombshell theory but the fierce scholarly debate he sparked continued to reverberate across the academic world, bringing international attention to the stone. Over the last few years it went on display alongside other Bible-era antiquities in Rome, Houston and Dallas.

Bible experts are still debating the writing's meaning, largely because much of the ink has eroded in crucial spots in the passage and the tablet has two diagonal cracks the slice the text into three pieces. Museum curators say only 40 percent of the 87 lines are legible, many of those only barely. The interpretation of the text featured in the Israel Museum's exhibit is just one of five readings put forth by scholars.

All agree that the passage describes an apocalyptic vision of an attack on Jerusalem in which God appears with angels on chariots to save the city. The central angelic character is Gabriel, the first angel to appear in the Hebrew Bible. "I am Gabriel," the writing declares.

The stone inscription is one of the oldest passages featuring the archangel, and represents an "explosion of angels in Second Temple Judaism," at a time of great spiritual angst for Jews in Jerusalem looking for divine connection, said Adolfo Roitman, a curator of the exhibit.

The exhibit traces the development of the archangel Gabriel in the three monotheistic religions, displaying a Dead Sea Scroll fragment which mentions the angel's name; the 13th century Damascus Codex, one of the oldest illustrated manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible; a 10th century New Testament manuscript from Brittany, in which Gabriel predicts the birth of John the Baptist and appears to the Virgin Mary; and an Iranian Quran manuscript dated to the 15th or 16th century, in which the angel, called Jibril in Arabic, reveals the word of God to the prophet Mohammad.

"Gabriel is not archaeology. He is still relevant for millions of people on earth who believe that angels are heavenly beings on earth," said Roitman. The Gabriel Stone, he said, is "the starting point of an ongoing tradition that still is relevant today."

The story of how the stone was discovered is just as murky as its meaning. A Bedouin man is said to have found it in Jordan on the eastern banks of the Dead Sea around the year 2000, Knohl said. An Israeli university professor later examined a piece of earth stuck to the stone and found a composition of minerals only found in that region of the Dead Sea.

The stone eventually made it into the hands of Ghassan Rihani, a Jordanian antiquities dealer based in Jordan and London, who in turn sold the stone to Swiss-Israeli collector David Jeselsohn in Zurich for an unspecified amount. Rihani has since died. The Bible scholar traveled to Jordan multiple times to look for more potential stones, but was unable to find the stone's original location.

Israel Museum curators said Jeselsohn lent the stone to the museum for temporary display.

Lenny Wolfe, an antiquities dealer in Jerusalem, said that before the Jordanian dealer bought it, another middleman faxed him an image of the stone and offered it for sale.

"The fax didn't come out clearly. I had no idea what it was," said Wolfe, who passed on the offer. It was "one of my biggest misses," Wolfe said.

What function the stone had, where it was displayed, and why it was written are unknown, said curators of the Israel Museum exhibit.

"There is still so much that is unclear," said Michal Dayagi-Mendels, a curator of the exhibit. Scholars, she said, "will still argue about this for years."

___

Follow Daniel Estrin at www.twitter.com/danielestrin

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-hebrew-stone-displayed-jerusalem-161026521.html

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Protect your mobile device?s display with glass

Remember in the old days when you had to walk barefoot 5 miles to school in the winter and all you had to protect your smartphone’s display was a junky flimsy plastic screen protector with bubbles under it? Those days are gone forever my friends. Today people are moving to glass screen protectors, which are [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/05/02/protect-your-mobile-devices-display-with-glass/

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Israel PM: Conflict over recognition not territory

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's prime minister appears to be giving a cool reception to a new peace proposal from the Arab world.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the conflict with the Palestinians is not about territory. Instead, he says the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland.

It was his first public statement on the matter since the Arab League this week modified a 2002 initiative, offering comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for a complete withdrawal from occupied territories with small land swaps.

He did not address it directly, but his comments took aim at its central plank, exchanging occupied land for peace.

Speaking to Israeli diplomats, he said "the root of the conflict isn't territorial. It began way before 1967," the year Israel captured the territories claimed by the Palestinians.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-pm-conflict-over-recognition-not-territory-115942591.html

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