Early reports from U.S. retailers show modest revenue gains in July. Hot weather and deep discounts drove Americans into malls for summer bargains, but shoppers remained choosy.
The sluggish spending raises worries about the health of the back-to-school season as Americans step up saving amid a stalling economic recovery.
As stores report their results Thursday, several chains …
President
Permen Mortgage Corp.
Wilkes-Barre
Education: Hanover Area High School; AM banking finance certificate; various mortgage banking courses and certificates
Job responsibility: originating, managing and closing loans; customer service
Company description: mortgage broker
Most influential role model: Edna Thompson, my mother, who was strong in her values and faith and always gave the very best advice
Definition of a leader: …
Ford Motor Co. said Saturday it is recalling about 225,000 vehicles that were already repaired as part of an earlier recall to address concerns about a cruise control deactivation switch.
Ford says the affected vehicles represent a small portion of the about 10 million vehicles that have been recalled since 1999 related to the cruise control switch problem.
Ford spokesman Wesley Sherwood said the automaker plans to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration next week about the latest recall, which was reported Saturday by The Detroit News.
Ford dealt with cruise control switch problem by installing new wiring harnesses in the …
According to the Learning and Skills Council West of England thereare four main reasons why young people and adults are put offlearning new skills.
Firstly, they often don't know how to find the right course, andsecondly, they don't want to commit to something they may not enjoy,or which may not be the right course for them.
The other two reasons are that they either don't have enough time,or they can't afford the fees.
This prompted the LSC to come up with the idea for Bite Size,which attempts to make learning and training opportunities asaccessible as possible to all people aged 16 and over in Bristol andsurrounding areas.
Bite Size offers hundreds …
Ten years ago, Chicago lawyer Stephen Durchslag began a uniquecollection of Passover prayer books. Today, his collection of 3,500Haggadoth - including one dating back to 1506 - is the largestprivate grouping of its kind in the nation.
"Why Is This Night Different? Passover Haggadot from theCollection of Stephen P. Durchslag" is on display now incommemoration of Passover (which starts Sunday) at the NorthwesternUniversity Library in Evanston.
The free public exhibit highlights 60 of Durchslag's mostremarkable books, including one Haggadah from Chicago that dates backmore than a century and depicts the pressures on Jews to assimilateAmerican values and behaviors …
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's military, which preaches equal opportunities for women, says four female combat soldiers might have to leave their artillery battalion to make way for religious male soldiers who object to the mixing of the sexes.
The military maintains no final decision has been made, …
At least four Indonesian villages were obliterated by earthquake-triggered landslides that buried as many as 644 people including a wedding party under mountains of mud and debris, officials said Saturday.
The full extent of Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake was becoming apparent three days later as aid workers and government officials reached remote villages in the hills along Sumatra island's western coast.
If all 644 are confirmed dead _ as is likely _ the death toll in the disaster would jump to more than 1,300. The government's death toll currently is 715, with most casualties reported from the region's biggest city, Padang, where aid efforts are …
When the train ground to a halt at Auschwitz concentration camp51 years ago, Helen Herskovich remembers hearing Dr. Josef Mengeleholler: "Twins, step out."
Helen and her identical twin, Pearl, stepped forward from thecattle car and were led in one direction while their father, sister,brother-in-law and their three children were led another - to thecrematory.
"We never saw our family again," said the 74-year-old survivor.
A few hours later, the sisters learned that it was theirfamily's ashes, and the ashes of other Jews, falling from the smokestacks.
"We were just shocked, we didn't believe it. How could you?"
Helen told this story to …
GENEVA (AP) — Three days after Lance Armstrong claimed victory in his long-running doping battle, another Tour de France champion was on the losing end of a high-profile drug scandal that has tainted cycling's image.
About 18 months after Alberto Contador failed a doping test while winning the 2010 Tour de France, the Spanish rider was stripped of his title Monday and banned for two years after sport's highest court rejected his claim that contaminated meat caused his positive test.
The 29-year-old Contador, who also won the Tour in 2007 and '09, tested positive for clenbuterol during a Tour rest day in July 2010. Contador's ban was backdated to Jan. 25, 2011 — making him …
The Obama administration has proposed a trust fund of more than $800 million to pay for the cleanup of nearly 90 closed General Motors sites in 14 states. Here is a partial list of some of the former General Motors facilities included in the plan.
_ Wilmington Assembly, Wilmington, Del.
_ Fairfax I plant and parking lot, Kansas City, Kan.
_ Shreveport Assembly and Stamping, Shreveport, La.
_ Pontiac Assembly and Stamping, North Campus, Pontiac, Mich.
_ Flint North Powertrain and Buick City, Flint, Mich.
_ Lansing Plant 2, 3 and Fisher …
DAILY MAIL BUSINESS EDITOR
High-speed Internet use in West Virginia is growing at ablistering rate, according to a new study by Marshall University. Thenumber of subscribers to high-speed or broadband service in the stateincreased by more than 50 percent between December 2003 and December2004, to a level of 155,000, according to the study. Marshalls Centerfor Business and Economic Research conducted the study for the WestVirginia Development Office and Vision Shared, the states economicdevelopment strategy. The study was released Monday at a meeting ofthe Council for Community and Economic Development. The number ofhouseholds with broadband is expected to continue …
Fears that the global economic recovery has stalled pushed the Dow Jones industrial average below 12,000 for the first time since March and drove the stock market lower for the sixth straight week.
Friday's drop extended the longest weekly losing streak for stocks since the fall of 2002.
Weak economic news has dampened hopes for a steady recovery, sending stocks down. Traders worry that weaker hiring, sluggish industrial output, and a moribund housing market are reversing a bull market that has lifted the Dow 20 percent over the past year.
If the indexes continue their slide for another week, it would be the first time in 10 years that the market suffered a seven-week …
High, fast water and debris in the Kanawha River brought an earlyend to Sunday's Jet Ski races.
After overnight rains swelled the Kanawha by at least 5 feet,officials were forced to cancel the day's events at Magic Island,which were part of a national Jet Ski racing series.
Troy Snyder, a racer from Bradenton, Fla., was able to scoop abasketball and softball out of the river for his son.
He also saw a refrigerator float down the river along with a tree- branches, leaves and all.
"It makes you not want to litter after seeing this," said Snyder,who was expected to take third place in the Pro Am Stock Runaboutbased on his performance on Saturday,
Snyder and other competitors in the Toyota Governors Cup Pro JetSki Racing series wondered why all the debris was in the river tobegin with and if it would have been possible to hold it back orscoop it up.
"I think they should have come down and scouted the site beforethey did it here," Snyder said.
Still, Snyder, a former motocross racer who has raced personalwatercraft for 15 years, said it was the best event he had been toall year.
"The town, the people, the hospitality, all that stuff - it wassecond to none. It was just the water," Snyder said. "They had tocall it before someone got hurt."
A lot of racers had spent a lot of money to come to thecompetition, which was called before they had completed more than athird of their expected races.
Besides the debris atop the water, submerged logs can pop upunexpectedly - a bit like a surfacing whale - to impale riders ordamage the high-end, race-ready personal watercraft, which costthousands of dollars.
"They're almost alive," said Brandon Cummings, marine sciencetechnician third class with the U.S. Coast Guard, of the logs.
"It's not uncommon for people to underestimate the power of theriver," he said.
Coast guard technician 1st class Patrick Wolford said the Kanawhaappeared to be moving twice as fast as usual, at about 4 knots tothe normal 2. A knot is roughly equal to 1.2 miles per hour.
Up the river, the Marmet Locks and Dam holds and releases waterto regulate conditions upriver from Charleston.
"They are trying to hold back what they could," Wolford said."But you can't stop a log once it's rolling."
In the Elk River, which dumps into the Kanawha a stone's throwfrom Magic Island, swirls of sticks, leaves and what looked likesome oil, along with a pink volleyball spinning in circles, headedunder the Lee Street bridge straight toward the area where racershad been planning to compete.
The rain didn't ruin everyone's Charleston weekend, though.
In the finals of the EVP Rocks the River Pro Beach Volleyballtour's stop at Magic Island this weekend, the team of Erin Grey andRenee Bizzier took the women's crown while Wayne Scott and BenShamrock took home the men's title.
Just blocks away, the Suddenlink Ribfest was going on as planned.
Bill Picozzi, who founded the festival 11 years ago, said rain onThursday put a damper on things, but good weather on Friday andduring the day on Saturday and Sunday made the turnout appear aboutnormal.
He said he appreciated the events on Magic Island, which wereorganized separately.
"I think it was a surprise to a lot of them that a major Ribfestfood festival was going on," Picozzi said.
The festival features "world-class, awarding-winning barbeque ribvendors" from across the country.
"The bottom line is it's all good for the city of Charleston,"Picozzi said.
TOM HINDMAN/DAILY MAIL People try to retrieve buoys that weredragged down the Kanawha River as rising water cut short the ToyotaGovernors Cup Pro Jet Ski Racing series at Magic Island on Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The euro fell against the dollar Friday after Fitch ratings agency said the deal reached by European leaders to cut Greece's debt load would constitute a default for the country.
The plan asks Greece's private creditors to take losses of 50 percent on their holdings of the country's bonds, which is meant to lower Greece's debt burden.
Fitch said that despite the deal, Greece would still have a large amount of outstanding debt and that the country's growth prospects remain weak. The ratings agency said the deal would constitute a default for Greece.
In afternoon trading Friday, the euro fell to $1.4158 from $1.4216. On Thursday, the euro hit a seven-week high of $1.4246 after European leaders announced that they had reached a deal to contain the region's debt crisis.
"After yesterday's stunning rally, the holes in the Eurozone debt rescue deal are starting to attract attention," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at FOREX.com. Investors are starting to realize that it will take a lot more work for European leaders to pass the latest debt deal.
In other trading, the British pound rose to $1.6130 from $1.6121. The dollar fell to 75.72 Japanese yen from 75.94 yen, hovering near the all the time low of 75.63 yen it hit yesterday. But the dollar rose to 0.8624 Swiss franc from 0.8593 Swiss franc and to 99.34 Canadian cents from 99.07 Canadian cents.
One of Bristol's oldest breweries, Smiles, has gone intoadministration days after announcing a merger plan.
The company is said to be struggling with mounting debts and islooking for another brewer to bail it out.
Two days ago Ron Kirk, the managing director of the Portbury-based company, told the Evening Post that Smiles Brewery had been intalks with regional and national breweries to seek a merger deal thatwould strengthen it.
But problems have been deeper than expected.
Smiles was taken over a year ago by investment vehicle City CentreBreweries in a GBP1.1 million deal.
Mr Kirk said the company had been through a troubled period beforeit was taken over.
He said: "What we found is that although it has great potential,it is going to take somewhat longer to develop regionally andnationally than we had thought.
"We were not prepared to take on the financial risks that werebeginning to arise. So, in view of our ongoing discussions with anumber of interested parties, we decided to put the business intoadministration.
An administrator has now been appointed to find a brewery or pubchain to take over or merge with Smiles.
Mr Kirk said: "Smiles is continuing to trade and we do hope tokeep the brand name going. But we're looking at other interestedparties to see if we can merge.
"We've had to put Smiles into administration but we're not goingout of business.
"Our position has always been to look at the recovery of SmilesBrewery. One of the options we're looking at is selling the businesson or a merger."
He said that a deal would be known within a week.
Mr Kirk said that the brewing and pub trade was "pretty rigid" andalthough the firm could see progress down the line, it was not goingto happen fast enough.
Smiles owns the well-known pubs the Brewery Tap, in Upper MaudlinStreet, and the Cornubia, in Temple Street, and employs 20 staff.
Mr Kirk said that the two pubs would remain within the company'sportfolio.
The Cornubia has been a prize-winning pub for its real ales foryears. It was Bristol and District Camra's Real Ale pub of the yearin 2001 and 2002.
Smiles' beers have been highly rated by Camra, the Campaign forReal Ale.
Peter Bridle, of Camra Bristol, said: "We hope that Smiles willsurvive as an independent brewery. We're all about consumers' choice.
"There is a demand for good, locally produced, real ales. Sincethe 1970s, there have been more than 350 breweries set up all overthe country.
"The people of Bristol would be sorry to see Smiles close as theyhave very fond memories of when Smiles was first founded.
"It has always been regarded as making fine beers. We hope it cansurvive but it also needs to be restructured."
There is no indication yet whether a merger or take over wouldmean job losses or job creation.
B. Oct. 26, 1934 in Vancouver, B.C. S. of Wilbur MacLaren and Anne Graham. Ed. at Univ. of B.C.; Cambridge Univ. and Univ. of Toronto. M. Jun. 25, 1959 to Alethea Mitchell dau. of Col. A. Mitchell (Tuscumbia, AL, U.S.A.). Three children: Ian, Vanessa and Malcolm. A publisher and company director. Political Career: First elected to the H. of C. g.e. 1979. Re-elected g.e. 1980. Cand. g.e. 1984 and def. Re-elected g.e. 1988 and 1993. Sworn to the Privy Council Aug. 17, 1983 (Rt. Hon. P.E. Trudeau). Min. of State (Finance), Aug. 17, 1983 and Min. of Nat'l Revenue, 1984. Min. for Int'l Trade, Nov. 4, 1993 to Jan. 24, 1996. Special advisor to the Prime Minister on Int'l Trade, Feb. 1996. High Commissioner for Canada to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1996-2000. Private Career: Foreign Service: Hanoi; Prague; Geneva and New York City, 1957-69. Pres: Ogilvy & Mather and Canadian Business Media Ltd. Mem: Royal Cdn Yacht Club; Rideau Club; Toronto Club; White's; Pratt's and the Athenaeum (London). Party: Lib. Relig.: Ang. Address: Home: 425 Russell Hill Rd., Toronto, Ont., M5P 2S4.
MACLAREN, HON. ROY, C.P., B.A., M.A., M.Div. N� le 26 oct. 1934 � Vancouver, C.-B. Fils de Wilbur MacLaren and Anne Graham. Fit ses �tudes � l'Univ. de la C.-B.; Cambridge Univ. et � l'Univ. de Toronto. M. le 25 juin 1959 � Alethea Mitchell fille de Col. A. Mitchell (Tuscumbia, AL, �.-U.). Trois enfants: Ian, Vanessa et Malcolm. �diteur et directeur g�n�ral. Carri�re politique: �lu pour la premi�re fois � la C. des c. �.g. 1979. R��lu �.g. 1980. Cand. �.g. 1984 et d�f. R��lu �.g. 1988 et 1993. Asserment� au conseil priv� le 17 ao�t 1983 (le Tr�s hon. P.E. Trudeau). Min. d'�tat (Finances) le 17 ao�t 1983 et min. du Revenu nat. en 1984. Min. du Commerce int. du 4 nov. 1993 au 24 janv. 1996. Conseiller sp�cial aupr�s du Premier ministre sur le Commerce int. en f�v. 1996. Haut-commissaire du Canada au Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord, 1996-2000. Carri�re priv�e: Repr�sentant � l'�tranger: Hanoi; Prague; Gen�ve et New York City, 1957-69. Pr�s: Ogilvy & Mather et Canadian Business Media Ltd. Mem: Cercle nautique royal can.; Club Rideau; Toronto Club; White's; Pratt's et Athenaeum (London). Parti pol.: Lib. Relig.: ang. Adresse: R�sidence: 425, chemin Russell Hill, Toronto, Ont., M5P 2S4.
A Busy road is being resurfaced - just months after it wasrepaired.
The surface of the crawler lane on the A96 Aberdeen to Invernessroad started breaking up, leaving loose rubble.
The road near Bainshole Farm, Huntly, was supposed to have beenfixed last September.
Drivers had reported "loose stones".
The work will last for two weeks, weather permitting.
Two lanes of traffic will be maintained in each direction butduring certain operations two-way temporary traffic lights will bein operation.
A spokesman for Bear Scotland, which looks after trunk roads forTransport Scotland, said: "The cost of these remedial works is beingmet by the contractor.
"It will not come out of the public purse."
NEW YORK - If "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is having second thoughts about surrendering his job as planned, NBC doesn't share them - at least not publicly.
"Conan O'Brien will take over `The Tonight Show' in 2009," NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker said Monday in New York at an event arranged by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Zucker said he'd like Leno to remain with the company and that "we are in those conversations now."
"I'm hopeful that Jay will be with us," the executive told the question-and-answer session.
A deal for Leno's exit was finalized three years ago as part of NBC Universal's effort to keep "Late Night" host O'Brien from bolting to a competing network. Leno marked his 15th year as host of "Tonight" last May.
Leno has said he's comfortable with his planned departure but, according to a report earlier this month in the Los Angeles Times, the comedian has grown reluctant to retire as host of the fabled, top-rated late-night program.
Leno declined comment on the Times report when it was published. He had no comment Monday on Zucker's remarks, an NBC spokeswoman said.
NBC is owned by General Electric Co.
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On the Net:
KUNSTHALLE NURNBERG
Among those who pioneered the artwork's dematerialization, few were as committed in their efforts as Robert Barry. After abandoning painting in 1967, he moved from site-specific installations composed of wire and nylon thread to art that exceeded the realm of the visible entirely: projects employing electromagnetic waves, radiation, and various types of inert gas. Barry's concession to vision took the austere form of words-written on sheets of paper, imprinted directly on gallery walls, or projected as slides. Barry's seminal role in Conceptual art's formation should become better acknowledged with the unveiling of this exhibition, curated by Nurnberg director Ellen Seifermann, of his rarely seen (in some cases, literally unseeable) work from 1963-75. Sept. 18-Nov. 16; Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, Switzerland, May 2004-Aug. 2004. -MS
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton faced some of the harshest criticism yet from Barack Obama, her rival for the party's presidential nomination, who accused her of having no restraint and using tactics typical of Republicans.
The New York senator, who trails Obama by 10 percentage points nationally in the latest Gallup Poll tracking survey, meanwhile sought to cement working-class votes in the looming Pennsylvania primary by saying Monday that her husband was wrong to push through a free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. She vowed to change or walk away from the pact that many Americans hold responsible for a loss of U.S. jobs.
Obama made his comments at an Associated Press annual meeting following a question about whether the long nomination battle was hurting the Democratic party's chances at the White House.
"I have tried to figure out how to show restraint and make sure that, during this primary contest, we were not damaging each other," he said.
Clinton "may not feel that she can afford to be so constrained," he said, adding at one point that she has "been deploying most of the arguments that the Republicans will be using against me in November."
Obama has sustained a weekend of criticism stemming from his comment that some small-town voters are bitter over their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result.
Earlier, he also questioned Clinton's truthfulness about opposing free trade agreements in a speech before the Alliance for American Manufacturing in Pittsburgh, once one of America's steel-making hubs. Both candidates made separate appearances at the gathering in the western Pennsylvania city.
They are angling for the endorsement of the influential United Steelworkers union, which backed Democrat John Edwards before he dropped out of the race. Steelworkers president Leo Gerard introduced Obama to the crowd, saying, "We're tired, we're frustrated, we're angry and we need somebody who's going to stand up for fair trade."
When challenged from the audience about Bill Clinton's support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, candidate Clinton responded: "Well, you know, as smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes."
Meanwhile on Monday, a Clinton supporter reintroduced the issue of race into the campaign by claiming that Obama would not be a leading presidential candidate if he were white.
Bob Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, made the comment while commenting on similar remarks previously made by Geraldine Ferraro, another Clinton supporter, The Charlotte Observer reported on its Web site.
"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called 'Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not."
Ferraro, a Democratic candidate for vice president in 1984, stepped down last month as an adviser to Clinton amid controversy over comments she made to a newspaper in California.
Obama campaign spokesman Dan Leistikow called Johnson's remarks "just one in a long line of absurd comments by Bob Johnson and other Clinton supporters who will say or do anything to get the nomination."
The Democratic hopefuls are in the midst of their most bitter state primary campaign, bashing each other with just a week left before the April 22 vote in the largest state still to decide which candidate should face Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
In the afternoon session of the AP meeting, Obama again said he regretted that his statements were misunderstood, but refused to "walk away from the larger point I was trying to make" about the distress felt by workers who have lost their jobs and way of life to free trade and globalization.
"I may have made a mistake last week in the word that I chose, but the other party has made a much more damaging mistake in the failed policies they've chosen and the bankrupt philosophy they've embraced for the last three decades ..." Obama said.
"This philosophy isn't just out of touch, it's put our economy out of whack."
He did not mention Clinton but took on McCain, saying he could understand the Republican's desire "to talk about something else" rather than "carry the banner for eight years" of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
"He's had a front-row seat to the last eight years of disastrous policies that have widened the income gap and challenged our children with debt," Obama said. "And now he's promising four more years of the very same thing."
Obama spoke at the meeting a few hours after McCain made a less combative appearance of his own.
The Arizona senator announced support for legislation to protect the confidentiality of news sources, although he also challenged the news media to acknowledge its errors "beyond the small print on a corrections page."
McCain repeatedly declined to label Obama an elitist for the comments that have roiled the race for the White House in recent days, but he joined Clinton in criticizing Obama.
"I would like to respond briefly to the comments one of my opponents made the other day about the psychology and political mind-set of Americans living in small towns and other areas that have experienced the loss of industrial jobs."
The Arizona senator looked back to members of the 1930s Depression-era generation in the United States and said: "Their (religious) faith had given generations of their families purpose and meaning, as it does today. And their appreciation of traditions like hunting was based in nothing other than their contribution to the enjoyment of life."
According to the latest AP tally, Obama leads Clinton in the convention delegate count 1,639-1,503, including superdelegates _ party elders and elected officials who can vote for whichever candidate they chose, regardless of the popular vote in state primaries and caucuses.
Neither candidate will be able to clinch the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination without the approval of superdelegates.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Beth Fouhy and Kimberly Hefling contributed to this report.
Abstract: This study is attempted to gain knowledge about consumer attitude towards organic food products. With sample of 136 respondents consist of lecturers from Universiti Teknologi MARA (Northern Zone), the data obtained from the survey were analyzed with reliability test, correlation and regression analysis. Result from this study indicated that academician do aware of what is happening to surroundings with regards to environmental problems or ecological concern. The findings indicated that health consciousness factor have more impact on customer purchase intention of organic food products rather than the environmental concern. Environmental concern was found to have less impact because academician perceive that although they have knowledge towards environmental and ecological factors that can contribute to sustainable environment, however their current consumption pattern will not change their perception towards organic food product however good it is. Hence, this study is expected to provide understanding on the reasons of buying and would probably help marketers of organic food products to establish a proper communication message to different category of buyers who exhibit their interest towards organic food products. The limitation of this study is that the sample was restricted to a single geographic area in Malaysia. Future research should focus on extended scope to all states in Malaysia and further investigate the details of how consumer perceived the organic food products as a way for building sustainable consumption pattern.
Keywords: Organic food products; Health consciousness; Environmental concern; Academician
R�sum�: Cette �tude tente d'acqu�rir des connaissances sur l'attitude des consommateurs envers les produits alimentaires biologiques. L'�chantillon se compose de 136 professeurs de l'Universiti Teknologi MARA (dans la zone du nord), et les donn�es provenant de l'enqu�te ont �t� analys�es par le test de fiabilit� et l'analyse de corr�lation et de r�gression. Le r�sultat de cette �tude ont indiqu� que les universitaires sont conscients de ce qui se passe dans l'entourage en ce qui concerne les probl�mes environnementaux ou des pr�occupations �cologiques. Les r�sultats indiquent que le facteur de la conscience de la sant� a plus d'impact sur l'intention d'achat des consommateurs de produits alimentaires biologiques que celui de l'environnement. La pr�occupation environnementale a �t� trouv�e d'avoir moins d'impact parce que les universitaires per�oivent que m�me s'ils ont des connaissances concernant les facteurs environnementaux et �cologiques qui contribuent au d�veloppement durable, leur mod�le de consommation actuel ne changera pas leur perception des produits alimentaire biologiques. Ainsi, cette �tude devrait permettre aux marchands de produits alimentaires biologiques de comprendre les raisons de l'achat et probablement les aider � �tablir un message de communication propre aux diff�rentes cat�gories d'acheteurs qui manifestent leur int�r�t pour les produits alimentaires biologiques. La limitation de cette �tude est que l'�chantillon a �t� limit� � une seule zone g�ographique en Malaisie. Les recherches futures devraient mettre l'accent sur la port�e �tendue � tous les �tats de la Malaisie et d'�tudier plus en d�tail comment les consommateurs per�oivent les produits alimentaires biologiques en tant qu'un moyen du renforcement du mod�le de consommation durable.
Mots-cl�s: produits alimentaires biologiques; conscience de la sant�; pr�occupation environnementale; universitaires
1. INTRODUCTION
According to Wier and Calverley (2002), consumer interest in organic food products has grown tremendously in many industrialized countries during the past ten years. It is observed that the organic food products is also one of the fastest growing areas of the food market in Europe, Northern America, Australia and Japan with sales being in excess of $114.5 billion in 1999 (Makatouni, 2002). Today, organic consumption is closely associated not only with health concerns, but also with social, economic and ecological sustainability. Agricultural and food industry experts agree that the peak of the organic food products trend has not yet been reached and there is still plenty of international growth potential in the organic market (Ebrahimi, 2007).
In Malaysia, interest in organic food products and consumer consumptions are growing. Recent statistics shows that organic food products market is currently the second most important in South East Asian region with organic consumption growth average approximately 20% per year and organic industry is also valued at US$25 million (Ramli, 2005; Organic Monitor, 2006). On the other hand, Chen (2007) reported that the awareness on organic food products are generally not promoted and the public is not well informed, despite the launching of the organic certification scheme SOM (Skim Organik Malaysia) in 2004 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry. However, according to Selvarani, John and Sim (2007), it is observed that Malaysians has switch from conventionally grown produce to organic due to the increasing awareness on the benefits of organic food products. About one per cent of the country's farm land is used to cultivate organic food products. The Ministry hopes to increase the area of organic farms from the present 2,367ha to some 20,000ha by 2010 (New Straits Times, November 19, 2007, pg.29) . Furthermore the organic industry in Malaysia is expected to be worth RM800 million by 2010 (New Straits Times, November 18, 2007, pg.30).
The organic farming was formally introduced in Malaysia in 2001 (New Straits Times, April 25, 2007, pg.13). Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his speech at the one-day National Organic Farming Seminar 2007 said; "Malaysia has the potential to develop and tap into massive global market for organic produce." (New Straits Times, April 25, 2007, pg.13).
A variety of factors have contributed to the increasing popularity of organic food products. Among the reasons are claims that organic food products tastes better than conventional produced foods, concerns about health and nutrition, environmental concerns, concerns over the use of chemicals and pesticides in conventional farming, the erosion of confidence in factory and concerns over animal welfare (Squires, Juric and Cornwell, 2001). A survey by The Nielson Company in 2005 showed that more than 60 per cent of Singaporean claimed to consume organic food products and the majority cited personal health as their main motivation (The Straits Times (Singapore), November 21, 2007).
In order to promote organic food products, marketers need to examine consumers buying behavior and their relationship with demographics and psychographic factors. Such information is very important in planning the marketing strategies. Marketing strategies should be targeted to consumers who have more positive attitudes towards organic food products and exhibit an increased willingness to pay higher price for these products.
Many studies have been conducted on profiling the organic food products consumer. According to Schlegelmilch, Bohlen and Diamantopoulos (1996), socio-demographics have been the most widely used variable for profiling purposes due to the relative ease where it can be measured and applied. This is supported by Bagozzi, et al. (1998) where he agreed that demographic variables; age, gender, household income and family size are commonly used by marketers to segment market. Furthermore, they are standard and readily available and marketers believe that consumer behaviors are highly related to these variables (as cited in Greenwell, Fink and Pastone, 2002, p.233).
An analysis of literature suggests that, among psychographic variables, concern about health, food safety, impact on the environment and animal welfare as the key reasons why consumers purchase organic food products (e.g. Mintel, 1999; Soil Association, 2000, as cited in Harper and Makatouni, 2000, p.287). This is in line with Wier and Calverley (2002) where they also found that most studies point out to health benefits as the main motives for buying organic food products. Similarly, in a study made by MR Shaharudin (2010), discovered that Malaysian consumers placed relatively high level of importance on health consciousness and perceived value whereas low level of importance on food safety concern and religious factor in their intention to purchase organic food product.
1.1 Research objective
Consumer interest in organic food products has grown enormously during the past ten years in many industrialized countries. The organic food products market in Malaysia is gaining its popularity whereas the awareness level of organic food products among customers has started to rise. Despite the growth trend of organic food products industry and continued government support, there is little research on the demand of organic food products in Malaysia.
This study attempted to gain knowledge about consumer attitude towards organic food products consumption and to see whether there is any potential for consumer to change their behaviour. This is because before any behaviour can be changes, it is necessary to evaluate the current state of consumer awareness and knowledge. The link between attitude, intention and behaviour has been explained by Ajzen (1985, 1988), Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). This theory is based on assumptions that a person's intentions are a function of a certain beliefs. Some of these beliefs influence the person's attitude toward the behavior. Specifically, his attitude towards performing a given behavior is related to his beliefs that performing the behavior will lead to a certain outcomes. Thus, customers who have more positive beliefs about purchasing organic food products will have more positive attitudes towards their organic purchase. Moreover, Sparks and Shepherd (1992) found the theory of planned behavior models have been proven useful in explaining and predicting purchase behavior for organic products.
Consumers are among those who have made their purchases along with organic food products, consumer who never purchase any organic product and those who just got an intention to buy organic food products. It is necessary to analyse the consumption behaviour or consumer which are related to increased consumer demand for organic food products. Particularly, there are some potential social-demographic differences among consumer in the belief and consumption behaviour towards organic food products (Lockie et al., 2002; Lea and Worsley, 2005) Previous researchers have emphasized the relevance education on the consumption of health products. It is generally accepted that individuals with higher education are more likely to eat healthier food since they are more knowledgeable and greater awareness of their sustainability (Loureiro and Hine, 2002; Cranfield and Magnusson, 2003; Rodriguez at al., 2006) However, Malone (1990), Misra et al. (1991) and Govindasamy and Italia (1999) documented inverse relationship between education and willingness to pay for chemical free product. Given this conflicting results, this study aims to fill the research gap by conducting an exploratory study, using the data from lecture of UITM (Northern Zone) to examine purchase decisions as well as amount of expenditures spend on organic food products among academician. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate how psychographics independent variables affect the consumer purchasing intention on organic food products in the Northern area in Malaysia. The research questions are addressed as does psychographic variables (environmental concerns and health consciousness) affects consumer purchase intention on organic food products?
The ultimate goal of this study is generally to provide significant theoretical and practical contributions in the area of consumer purchase intention on organic food products. From the theoretical point of view, this study hopes to contribute to an understanding of the factors that influence consumer purchase intention on organic food products. Specifically, the findings from this study intents to provide additional knowledge into the existing body of knowledge on consumer purchase intentions on organic food products by examines the psychographic variables (environmental concern and health consciousness) based on the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).
From the practical perspective, this research is important as it brings some significance to the relevant parties: (l)The information gathered may serve as useful input to the producers, processors and retailers of organic food products in coming out with a better marketing strategies to promote the products, and (2) To act as a guidelines to those involve with food and agricultural policy in enhancing and promoting organic food products market.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Purchase Intention of Organic Food Products
According to Essoussi and Zahaf (2008), the term "organic" is rooted in "bio" from Greek "bios" meaning life or way of living. Jones, Hill, Shears and Hilier (2001) cited that the term "organic food products" have been first coined in the 1940s and is refer to food raised , grown and store and/or processed without the use of synthetically produced chemicals or fertilizers , herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, growth hormones and regulators or generic modification. Roddy, Cowan and Hutchinson (1994) view organic food products as a product of organic farming.
A widely accepted definition of organic farming is that given by the United States Department of Agriculture[4]:
...a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives. To the maximum extent feasible, organic farming systems rely on crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant nutrients and control insects, weeds and other pests (as cited in Roddy, Cowan and Hutchinson, 1994). Similarly, Green Earth Organics defined organic food products as "organic food productss are minimally processed to maintain the integrity of the food without artificial ingrethents, preservatives or irradiation" (Essoussi and Zahaf , 2008).
The term "organic" have been associated with fresh fruit and vegetables and tended not to mention other products (meat, diary, etc.) by the focus group participants in the study conducted by Padel and Foster (2005). However, the types of organic produce most frequently consumed were fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, cereals and cereal products, milk and dairy products and meat (Chinnici, D'Amico and Pecorino, 2002).
According to Magistris and Gracia (2008), the study of food choice is a complex phenomenon that represents one of the most important parts of human behavior, where several cognitive and behavioral factors can vary sharply between individuals. The authors cited that whether consumer intent or decide to purchase organic food products is difficult task because it depends on many factors that cannot be directly control. Magistris and Gracia (2008) stated that some of the studies on organic food products have analyzed the intention to purchase organic food products because as Ajzen (1991) in the theory of planned behavior, stated intention is the best predictor of behavior. Tarkianen and Sundqvist (2005) study have approached the organic food products consumption in Finland with the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Similarly, Kalafatis, Pollard , East and Tsogas (1999) have examines the determinants that influence consumers' intention to buy environmentally friendly by using the Ajzen' s theory of planned behavior (TPB).
2.2. Attitudes towards organic food products and environmental attitudes
An analysis of literature suggests that, among psychographic variables, concern about health, food safety, impact on the environment and animal welfare as the key reasons why consumers purchase organic food productss (e.g. Mintel, 1999; Soil Association, 2000, as cited in Harper and Makatouni, 2000, p.287). This is in line with Wier and Calverley (2002) where they also found that most studies point out to health benefits as the main motives for buying organic food products, while concern for environment are mentioned next. The study by Davies, Titterington, and Cochrane, (1995) reveal that health and environmental concerns are the two major reasons for purchase of organic produce. The similar finding is reported in O'Donavan and McCarty (2002). The authors found that respondents who purchased or had "intention" to purchase organic meat placed higher level of important on health compare to those who did not purchase or had "no intention" to purchase organic meat. Tsakiridou, Boutsouki, Zotos and Mat�as (2008) also found that environmental and health concerns are strong motives for consumers and seem to affect organic food products consumption.
Research undertaken by Fotopoulos and Krystallis (2002), title "Purchasing motives and profile of the Greek organic consumer: a countrywide survey" is examined in order to have more insights of organic food products consumers. The purpose of the study was to examine the organic products as "eco-products", suitable for "green consumer", who are ecologically/environmentally ecology-aware and who are concerned with health and quality of life issues. Their main objective is to analyze further the organic buyers in terms of their quality, health and environmental consciousness, their price sensitivity, and their exploratory buying behavior.
Another study which provides valuable information on the purchasing behavior on organic food products is the study conducted by Onyango, Hallman and Bellows (2007) in the US food system. The aims of the study were to identify and estimate the importance of the various factors driving consumer perception and acceptance of organic food products and profile likely consumers of organic food products. The factors to be considered critical in determining the regularity of organic food products purchase was related to food naturalness aspect (no artificial flavors or coloring), vegetarian-vegar (persons who do not eat meat or animal products) and production location. The study also reveals that food familiarity aspect (whether the respondents has consumed a food previously or prefer a familiar brand) was negatively associated with organic food products purchase. It is interesting to note that this study has contributes to the emerging literature by broadening the list of drivers of organic food products purchase beyond socio-economies factors to include public opinions regarding characteristics of food that are important in consuming decisions.
A study among Swedish consumers was conducted by Magnusson, Arvola, Aberg and Sjoden (2001) in order to examine Swedish consumers' attitudes toward organic food products (milk, meat, potatoes, bread) purchase frequently, purchase criteria, perceived availability and beliefs about organic food products The study found that the most important purchase criteria for the target foods were good taste, healthiness, and quality. The criterion of being organically was found to be the least important. The findings suggest that the most important purchase criteria and the most common beliefs about organic food products do not match very well. This may be contributed to the low regular purchasers. In order to increase the regular organic food products purchasers, the authors have suggested that the quality of organic food products should be increased and a smaller price differences between conventional and organic food products should be established.
Study by Makatouni (2002) indicates that for the British consumers, certain types of consequences of organic food products have self-relevance. Makatoumi has conducted a research to obtain an in-depth understanding of consumer purchasing behavior with regard to organic food products in UK. More specifically, the aim is to explore the beliefs and attitudes of both organic and non-organic food products buyers and to detect their impact on purchase behavior. Makatouni (2002) reported that respondents perceive organic food products as a mean of achieving individual and social values, of which the most important is centered around the health factor for either themselves or their family. Hence, health factor is the main motivation for the purchase of organic food products. Values centered on the environment and animal welfare are also considered to be important motivation for choosing organic food products. Radman, M (2005) conducted a study to gain knowledge about consumer attitudes towards organic products in Croatia. The study showed that Croatian consumers consider organically-grown products are very healthy, of good quality and tasty. The finding on Sicilian consumers showed that the main factor arousing interest in organic produce was that they are considered "healthier" (54.5 per cent of consumer interviewed), "curiosity" (23.1 per cent), the desire "to help the environment" (1 1.0 per cent), they are more "nutritious" (4.9 per cent) , "tastier" (4.5 per cent) and "other" (1.9 per cent) (Chinnici, D'Amico and Pecorino, 2002).
It is also interesting to examine the cross-cultural studies done between two countries. Squire, Juric and Comwell (2001) have carried out a survey on a cross-cultural study of Danish and New Zealand consumers. Denmark has one of the most developed organic food products industries in the world, while New Zealand's is in infancy. The study was to investigate the relationships between health and diet concern, environmental concern, confidence in the conventional food industry, demographic characteristics, and intensity of organic food products consumption of consumers from Denmark and New Zealand. The results confirm that health concern, environmental concerns about the conventional food industry are important in influencing the intensity of organic food products consumption. The consumers of organic produce in New Zealand are significantly influenced by health together with environmental concern, whereas, in contrast, the consumers in Denmark are significantly influence by the environment. However, food safety was the most important consideration when making organic food products purchase decisions among UK consumers (Rimai, Moon and Balasubramanian, 2005).
In conclusion, consumer attitudes towards different organic food products attribute (health, safety, etc.) and towards the environments are the most important factors that explain consumers' intention to purchase organic food products. Magistris and Gracia (2008) demonstrated that those consumers who are more concerned on the environmental damage and more involved on environment practices will be more willingly to buy organic food products.
2.3 Underlying Theory
The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988; 1991) is the underlying theory that provides an insight into the determinants of purchase intention of organic food products. The TPB model seek to explain behaviors, goals and outcomes that are not entirely under the control of the person (Magnusson, Arvola, Hursti, Aberg and Sjoden, 2001). The TPB model assumes three conceptual independent determinants of the intention to perform a certain behavior; the attitudes towards a behavior; subjective norm and perceived behavioral control (perceived ease/difficulty in performing the behavior) (Kalafatis, Pollard, East and Tsogas, 1999). Sparks and Shepherd (1992) claimed that TPB has generated a good deal of research that purports to substantiate its claim for an identifiable link between attitudes and behavior.
2.4 Research Model
A model illustrating the relationship between psychographic variables ( environmental concerns and health consciousness) and purchase intention of organic food products is presented in the figure below. The figure presents the model to be tested in this study.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The following hypotheses are developed based on the theoretical framework described from the literature review discussed. Hence, this research hypothesizes:
H^sub 1^: Psychographic variables (environmental concern and health consciousness) will be positively related with purchase intention on organic foods.
H^sub 2^: Environmental concern will be positively related with purchase intention on organic food products
H^sub 3^: Health consciousness will be positively related with purchase intention on organic food products.
To verify the hypotheses proposed, academic staff from Universiti Teknologi Mara in Northern region of Malaysia (Kedah, Pulau Pinang and Perlis campuses) was approached. A quantitative research design was chosen in order to validate the theoretical framework and the hypotheses of this study. University lecturers have been identified as the interest group to be investigated because they are presumed to have extensive knowledge on organic food products. Furthermore, there are used as a sample due to convenience-related factors. The samples selected represent the higher social class and the better education received. Probability sampling designs being used because elements in the population have a known chance of being chosen as subjects in the sample. Since the purpose of study is mainly for collecting information in a localized area, area sampling is used. Due to the easily accessible, the whole population was identified as a sample of study. With given population size of 863, the response of 265 is justified to have a reliable and valid sample (referring to table provided by Krejcie and Morg�n (1970).The data is process and analyze by using the software package SPSS 12 version 16.0. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using reliability test, correlation and regression analysis to examine possible results that brings to the understanding of consumer knowledge, belief and intention to purchase organic food products.
4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Demographic Analysis
One hundred and thirty six respondents participated in the survey. Majority were female (61%) and their ages ranged between 25 to 55 years and above. The sample was predominantly Malays (93.4) and most respondents (66.2%) were married. Table 1 demonstrates the summary of sample demographics.
4.2 Factor Analysis
Factor analysis was performed on independent variables (environmental concern and health consciousness). The varimax method was used to determine any underlying components for each variable.
Factor analysis was run on 13 items measuring the 2 independent variables. It was observed that the Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant and that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy is far greater than .6 with a value of .798 for health consciousness and .682 for environment concern. The KMO measure indicated sufficient intercorrelations. Therefore, the research proceeded with the factor analysis.
4.3 Reliability Analysis
Reliability, using Cronbach's apha was conducted to ensure the consistency or stability of items. Reliability of less than .6 are generally considered as poor, those in a range of .7 are acceptable and those over .8 are good (Sekaran, 2002). The results for reliability analysis for this study showed that the Cronbach alpha for health consciousness is .848 and environmental concern is .711. Health consciousness variable indicated a good reliability scoring a Cronbach alpha of more than .8. However, environmental concern variable are considered acceptable.
4.4 Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive analysis will describe series of observation in a more meaningful way. Mean and standard deviations were obtained for the interval-scaled independent and dependent variables. The results are presented in the Table 2 below. Health consciousness, environmental concern and purchase intention were formatted into a seven-point Likert scale format. The mean of all variables ranged from 4.2519 to 5.22. Meanwhile the standard deviation for the below variables ranges from .1.3503 to .8047. The variable with the highest means is health consciousness, while the variable with the lowest mean is purchase intention.
4.5 Correlation Analysis
The Pearson Correlation coefficient values (r) is positive for health consciousness (r = 0.480) and environmental concern (r = 0.314) , which indicates the positive direction with purchase intention. However, according to Lukas, Hair, Bush and Ortinan (2004), the value (r) of health consciousness indicate a moderate relationship with the purchase intention while the value (r) of environmental concern indicates a weak relationship with purchase intention.
4.6 Regression Analysis
Two hypotheses were presented for this research. This calls for the use of regression with purchase intention as the dependent variables and psychographic variables (environmental concern and health consciousness) as the independent variable. The results of an examination of the R square and F value indicate that environmental concern and health consciousness contribute to the prediction of purchase intention on organic foods. Both independent variables together explain 23 per cent of the variance (R square) in purchase intention, which is significant as indicated by the F-value of 20.681. Thus, health consciousness (beta = 0.606) and environmental concern (beta = 0.175) contribute to the purchase intention.
CONCLUSION
Results indicated that health consciousness depict the strongest relationship with academician intention in buying organic food products as compared to environmental concern factors. It seems that perception towards organic food and believe that organic food is environmental friendly are nor strong from each other. It can be argue that consumer who are increasingly concern and realized the essentials of environmental issues does not show in their decision when they considering in making a purchase.
When consumer decided whether to buy organic food products or not, it clearly involved a complex set of factors that cannot easily be interpreted. In Malaysia, the organic food is considered at the introductory stage where not many people are aware about it. Knowledge on organic food, however has not reach the satisfactory level in encouraging sustainable consumption with organic food. For instance, although consumers have the knowledge on factors that contributes to sustainable environment, due to convenience feeling of their current consumption pattern, it will not change their perception towards organic food products however well it is. Many studies indicated that the one major factors that considered to be the barrier to organic food consumptions is the price; however there are others possible factors that influences organic food consumptions among Malaysian. The limitation of this study is that the sample was restricted to a single geographic area in Northern Malaysia. Further, the numbers of respondents may not portray the population of academician from Malaysia with regard to organic food consumption. Therefore additional studies will be necessary to better discriminate between consumer group to determine which segments of consumer are most appropriate to market and to promote organic food as a way of building sustainable consumption pattern.
[Reference]
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NST (2007, November 18). Green lights to green leaves. New Straits Times, p.30.
NST (2007, September 8). A growing industry. Nes Straits Times, p.8.
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Tsakiridou, E., Boutsouki, C, Zotos, Y. and Mat�as, K. (2008). Attitudes and behavior towards organic products: an exploratory study. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36(2), 158-175.
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[Author Affiliation]
Musdiana Mohamad Salleh1
Siti Meriam Ali2
Etty Harniza Harun3
Mu�a Abdul Jalil4
Mohd Rizaimy Shaharudin5
[Author Affiliation]
1 Faculty of Business Management , Universiti Teknologi MARA P.O Box 187, 08400 Merbok Kedah, Malaysia musdianasalleh@gmail.com.
2 Faculty of Business Management , Universiti Teknologi MARA P.O Box 187, 08400 Merbok Kedah, Malaysia nurnafeesa@yahoo .com.
3 Faculty of Business Management , Universiti Teknologi MARA P.O Box 187, 08400 Merbok Kedah, Malaysia ettyz76@yahoo.com.
4 Faculty of Business Management , Universiti Teknologi MARA P.O Box 187, 08400 Merbok Kedah, Malaysia muna72@yahoo.com.
5 Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, P.O Box 187, 08400 Merbok, Kedah, Malaysia E-mail: rizaimy@kedah.uitm.edu.my.
* Received 4 July 2010; accepted 19 September 2010
Results Sunday from the Edinburgh Sevens at Murrayfield, the last stop in the IRB sevens rugby world series:
Cup
Quarterfinals
South Africa 17, Australia 7
Scotland 14, Samoa 12
Wales 19, Kenya 7
Fiji 26, New Zealand 19
Semifinals
South Africa 26, Scotland 21, ET
Fiji 28, Wales 14
Final
Fiji 20, South Africa 19
Plate
Semifinals
Australia 26, Samoa 14
New Zealand 26, Kenya 21
Final
New Zealand 34, Australia 12
Bowl
Quarterfinals
France 28, Spain 12
Argentina 14, Canada 7
England 31, Georgia 7
Portugal 26, United States 5
Semifinals
France 19, Argentina 12
England 31, Portugal 7
Final
England 26, France 15
Shield
Semifinals
Canada 21, Spain 19
United States 27, Georgia 0
Final
United States 12, Canada 10
___
Final Standings
1. South Africa, 132 points
2. Fiji, 102
3. England, 98
4. New Zealand, 88
5. Argentina, 68
6. Kenya, 64
7. Samoa, 40
8. Australia, 30
9. Scotland, 24
10. Wales, 24
11. United States, 20
12. Portugal, 15
STATE
Th e state Senate this summer confi rmed Pamela A. Witmer as the newest member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, a regulatory agency in the midst of change.
Witmer, a resident of Dauphin County, previously led the energy and environment practice of Bravo Group, a Harrisburg-based governmental and public relations fi rm.
She also was on Gov. Tom Corbett's transition team and has held several positions in state government, including research analyst with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Witmer came on board during agency reorganization, including moves intended to better align functions for more effi cient - yet thorough - oversight of rate increase requests and other matters within its jurisdiction.
Q: please tell me a little bit about your background and how you got to your position with the pUC.
a: I have been in government relations and in state government for a long time, since the late '80s. And when I fi rst came to the House of Representatives, I was on the (former) mines and energy management committee ... so I had some energy and environmental background starting there.
I worked in the legislature and then came out into private practice as a contract lobbyist ... concentrating, unintentionally at first, on clients who had environmental and energy issues. Then I came back in (state government) and was the legislative liaison at the Department of Environmental Resources - at the time - under Gov. (Tom) Ridge, and then we split the agency creating the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and what is now (the Department of Environmental Protection).
And that was an exciting time to be there: creating two new agencies, and having a hand in creating (at DEP) what became the national model for redeveloping brownfield sites - industrial sites that had some level of contamination - (and) being able to bring them back into active, productive use.
So I've been in government relations and/or state government, just concentrating progressively more and more on energy and environment work, and this spot became open. Gov. Corbett, I'm thankful for him thinking of me. He and I have worked together in various capacities over the years and he knew of my experience, and the nomination came.
Can you give me a little background on restructuring at the PUC?
I think any agency - even households - have to every once in awhile look around and say: What are we doing and how are we functioning? Is what we are doing right now meeting our core mission, and are we doing it efficiently and effectively for the clientele, so to speak, that we have?
And as you know in your world watching and monitoring the energy and electricity arena, (the landscape) has changed dramatically from the vertically integrated monopoly companies that owned the wires and the poles and generated the electricity, and had all the customers in one big kind of silo. And of course, there was deregulation, and in essence it had been 15 years since that (legislation) passed and about 27 years since we had gone through reorganization.
And having been on the outside prior and looking at the plan now, and watching it unfold, I really think that it makes a lot of sense with what we are doing, trying to align the functionalities to meet our mission.
What are some examples of the reorganizations and restructuring to meet those challenges?
The Technical Utility Services are more formulated as teams almost - of economists, of attorneys and more technical kinds of people - to look at cases that come before them rather than (previously) being more siloed.
Before, you know, we would have our separate bureaus. You'd have the law bureau, which we still have; but what we've done then is (taken) some of the attorneys out of law bureau and said: OK, you're now going to be more closely working with the technical people, and some of the economists and some of the auditors ... so that the different backgrounds and experiences of those people who would have had to touch the case at some point along the way (before) are (now) looking at it more up front and at every point along the process.
How is the process becoming more user-friendly?
I think the team approach (does that), making sure that each one of the parts (of the bureau) that would have had to touch a case, a rate case or a request that is coming before us - just the fact that all the different parts are getting to see it and talk about it earlier will bring to light any questions or concerns, or requests for any new information, that we may need sooner (in the process).
That's one of our goals, to be more efficient and to be able to respond more quickly and still act thoroughly. As you know, time is money in our world and in the business world, certainly. The hope is that we will create these efficiencies along the way and be able to work more quickly and more efficiently.
What have you learned since coming into this job and what is your takeaway in the first few months?
I've never been inside the PUC before, professionally. I had interacted (with the agency) on a policy level in different roles I had, but had never advocated on behalf of a client before the Public Utility Commission.
So for the staff in the different areas of the commission, I didn't have the appreciation I do today of their capabilities. They are very dedicated, very hard-working, very bright folks in the commission. All the way from the law bureau folks to the enforcement officers who go out and do truck inspections. And certainly what we have seen with the recent natural disasters, the inspection people ... have gone out in some very difficult circumstances to make sure the infrastructure is safe, and (they have been) verifying information we are getting in from the utilities. So I am very impressed ... with the caliber of people who are here at the commission.
And then I think the second thing ... has been the breadth of processes and procedures. Because we are a quasi-judicial entity, it's very rulebound and very procedural. We are very careful with information and not talking about cases that are contested.
What is the role of the PUC in the changing industries you regulate?
Certainly, our first role is to ensure safe, reliable service to our customers, whether they are residential customers, small commercial customers or large industrial customers. That is our first priority. And then very closely coupled with that is ensuring that we have healthy companies ... who can bring that energy to those customers.
And something that I think the commission hasn't done as much of since deregulation - since we no longer regulate generation of electricity or natural gas - is watching the impact of (federal Environmental Protection Agency) regulations or DEP regulations have on a generation company. Because some of the regulations that are being contemplated now on a federal level by EPA could very well result in the shutdown of some generation capacity in Pennsylvania. And that is a reliability concern.
What role could the PUC play in coping with that or mitigating the effects?
I think it is a two-pronged question. Certainly it is our responsibly to inform EPA or DEP or whatever agency that it might be of the impact if a facility shuts down, what that means from a generation/production perspective and then the impact to consumers.
The other thing we have to look at is the big picture (and say that) if that is in fact the direction EPA is going to go, what can we do, if anything, to help facilitate other forms of energy production, whether that is renewables or natural gas or nuclear? And I think nuclear and natural gas are going to have to - from a base load generation perspective - step into the gap.
[Author Affiliation]
By Brent Burkey
brentb@journalpub.com
Talks between British Airways and the union representing its cabin crew have collapsed.
Unite union joint leader Tony Woodley said Friday that he was "extremely disappointed" that there was no further meetings scheduled with the airline's management before the strike is set to begin on Saturday.
Woodley charged that management did not "want to negotiate. This company wants to go to war."
BA chief executive Willie Walsh said it was "deeply regrettable" that an offer they had offered the airline had not been accepted "and it will be formally withdrawn once industrial action commences."
ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE. The annual meeting of the Economic History Association, to be held in Evanston, Illinois, on September 24-26, 2010, will focus on the theme "Thinking Comparatively: Economic and Historical Perspectives on Places, Periods, and Institutions."
Graduate students are encouraged to attend the meeting. The Association offers subsidies for travel, hotel, registration, and meals, including a special dinner for graduate students. A poster session welcomes work from dissertations in progress. Applications for the poster session are due no later than May 21, 2010, and should be sent to timothy. guinnane@yale.edu. The dissertation session convened by Eric Hilt (Wellesley College) and Nathan Sussman (Hebrew University) will honor six dissertations completed during the 2009-10 academic year. The submission deadline is June 11, 2010. The Alexander Gerschenkron and Allan Nevins prizes will be awarded for the best dissertations on nonNorth American and North American topics, respectively.
For further information, check http://eh.net/eha/meetings/2010meeting, which includes information on travel options to Evanston; or contact Meetings Coordinator Jari Eloranta at elorantaj@appstate.edu.
CENTRE FOR THE HISTORY OF RETAILING AND DISTRIBUTION (CHORD) CONFERENCE. The Pasold Research Fund and the Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution (CHORD) invite proposals for a conference, "Distribution Networks for Textiles and Dress, c.17001945," exploring the retailing and marketing of textiles and dress between c. 1700 and 1945, to be held at the University of Wolverhampton, U.K., on September 8 and 9, 2010.
For further information, e-mail Laura Ugolini: L.Ugolini@wlv.ac.uk. Conference Web pages: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/2010conf.html.
CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. "From Automation to Computerized Design: Industrial Engineering, Machine Tools, and Digital Frontiers, 1930S-1980S," Paris, September 15-17, 2010.
To honor the centenary of Pierre B�zier, the eminent French engineering designer (forty years at Renault after starting at a small design company), the University of Evry and its partners are convening a conference on post-1930 developments in areas to which B�zier made major contributions: machinery and industrial automation, controls and computation (B�zier curves), the creation of computer visualization for design, and the diffusion of mechanical and technical knowledge. (B�zier worked extensively with machine tools before moving on to computer innovations, virtual imagery, and technical education.)
If you are interested in attending, please contact Dr. Alain Michel, Alain.MICHEL@cite-sciences.fr.
EUROPEAN HISTORICAL ECONOMICS SOCIETY MEETING. The European Review of Economic History (EREH) announces the second Fast Track workshop, to be held in Lisbon on December 10 and 11, 2010. It will be held with the support of the European Historical Economics Society, the Instituto de Ciencias Sociais of Lisbon University, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and the EREH.
The idea of the workshop is to provide feedback and coaching to junior scholars working in economic history and to give them a chance to see their articles appear in print quickly. Our goal is to offer authors a fast and firm response to their submissions within four months.
Junior scholars (those no more than five years from completion of their PhD) will receive priority, but submissions from more experienced scholars will also be accepted. Those interested should submit their papers to EREH, via the Editorial Express e-submission system, or to Joachim Voth (jvoth@crei.cat), no later than July 31. If submitting through Editorial Express, please mention in the cover letter that you would like the paper to be considered for Fast Track. EREH commits to returning referee reports to the authors within six weeks.
The Fast Track workshop itself will take place on December 10 and 11, 2010. The best submissions will be chosen for inclusion. Authors will be requested to revise their papers based on the comments they receive and to present their revised article at the workshop. Revised papers should be re-submitted by no later than November 10, 2010. Senior scholars (EREH editors and other members of the European Historical Economics Society) will act as discussants. The editors plan to make a final decision shortly after the workshop ends, based on the feedback from the referees, the general discussion, and their own views of the papers. The process will require a high level of commitment from authors, referees, and discussants.
Funding for travel and accommodation will be available.
CHEMICAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION TRAVEL GRANTS. Travel grants to CHF in Philadelphia are available for shorter research projects on the history of chemistry, broadly construed. There is no deadline for travel grant applications. Travel grant applications can be submitted at any time and are assessed by an internal CHF review committee.
A travel grant application must contain:
* A research proposal that also details how the applicant will make use of CHF's collections (1 page)
* A curriculum vitae (up to 3 pages)
* One reference letter (applicants are responsible for references submitting letters directly to CHF via the e-mail address below)
Travel grant applications must be submitted electronically, as Word or PDF files, to: travelgrants@chemheritage.org.
HAGLEY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY FELLOWSHIPS. The Henry Belin du Pont Memorial Fund supports access to and use of Hagley's research collections. These fellowships are intended to support serious scholarly work. They enable scholars to pursue advanced research and study in the library, archival, and artifact collections of the Hagley Museum and Library. Applicants must be from out of state and preference will be given to those whose travel costs to Hagley will be higher.
Short-term grants-in-aid support visits to Hagley for scholarly research in the imprint, manuscript, pictorial, and artifact collections. They are designed to assist researchers with travel and living expenses while using the research collections. Scholars receive a stipend, make use of the research holdings, and participate in the programs of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. These grants are to support serious scholarly work. They are available to both degree candidates and senior scholars and writers working independently as well as college and university teachers, librarians, archivists, museum curators, and scholars from fields other than humanities.
Scholars and fellows are expected to participate in seminars that meet periodically, as well as attend noontime colloquia, lectures, and other public programs offered during their tenure.
Please see the Hagley Web site for further information on applying: http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/library/center/grants.html.
JOURNAL OF CENTRUM CATHEDRA CALL FOR PAPERS. The Journal of CENTRUM Cathedra� (JCC) is calling for papers in the areas of management, business, finance, economics, and related fields. CENTRUM is the Business School of the Pontificia Universidad Cat�lica del Per�. JCC is a blind-peer-reviewed journal, emphasizing theoretical and empirical articles. It is indexed by Gale, EconLit, and the SSRN networks. The Journal of CENTRUM Cathedra is published twice a year, in March and September.
Articles must be submitted in English. Requirements for preparation and submission of articles can be found at the Web site of CENTRUM: http://www.centrum.pucp.edu.pe. Articles accepted for publication will be eligible for an honorary award of up to US$2,500 per paper.
For further information contact JCC@pucp.edu.pe.
