**Coldstreamernews**: 8/1/13

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Readers Write - Mark your calendars!

*******************************************************

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Coldstream Winter Farmers Market

Coldstream Farmers Market

Every Wednesday

2:30 pm – 5:30 pm

September 2013 – April 2014

@ The Vernon and District Riding Club

8408 Aberdeen Rd. Coldstream, BC

**********************************************************************

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Photo Gallery - Release of 4 Great Horned Owlettes from the Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary. The birds were hand reared by SOORC. - Debbie

*******************************************************************

Current Duteau Creek reservoir level.

**************************************************************

Coldstream CAO retires.

**********************************************************************

Friday, August 23, 2013

Coldstream Council Meeting - August 26, 2013

**********************************************************************

SPrKL News - Come celebrate!

Come Celebrate One of Our Regional Gems!

The Society for the Protection of Kalamalka Lake invites everyone interested to join us on

Labour Day Monday, September 2, 2013
for
SPrKL’s Second Annual Kalamalka Lake Spirit Paddle

Please meet us at Kal Beach

(side closest to the Kal Lake Store)
at
10 am.

Bring a non-motorized craft of some sort and a picnic lunch.

Don’t forget life jackets, towels, sunscreen, hats and other weather appropriate clothing!

We plan to enjoy a peaceful, scenic voyage together to Jade Bay where we will eat lunch and socialize before heading back around 2pm.

Please Note:
If those times don’t work for you - join us when and where you can.

Also…

SPrKL welcomes Kal Park hikers to pack a lunch and join the fun at Jade Bay!

*****************************************************

Kalamalka Lake nominated one of the "Best Places in Canada"

VOTE!

*********************************************************

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Florida Insurers Are Now Free to Screw Consumers and Must, By Law, Blame Obamacare

Posted: 08/20/2013 10:49 am

First do no harm. That's a tenet of medical ethics that future doctors worldwide are taught in medical school.

If only the people we elect to represent us were required to take such an oath when they're sworn into office.

Because they aren't, folks in Florida are facing having to pay far more for health insurance over the next two years than necessary. And health insurance executives will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Florida state lawmakers, in their ongoing efforts to block the implementation of Obamacare in the Sunshine State, recently passed a law that will allow health insurance companies to gouge Floridians more than any corporate boss dreamed was possible.

And if that weren't bad enough, insurers will actually be required by law to mislead their Florida customers about why they're hiking their premiums.

Republicans, who control the governor's office as well as both houses of the Florida legislature, were confident the U.S. Supreme Court would declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Not only did they vote to prohibit the state from spending money to implement a law they just knew would be overturned by the high court, they refused to accept money from the federal government that would have enabled the state's department of insurance to do a better job of regulating health insurers and enforcing new consumer protections in the law.

When the Supreme Court shocked Obamacare opponents last year by upholding the law, Florida lawmakers were in a pickle.

Their response? They passed a bill that prohibits the state's Office of Insurance Regulation from protecting consumers from unreasonable rate increases for two years.

I learned about what is essentially a "first, do as much harm as possible" bill in a letter the nine Democrats in the Florida congressional delegation sent to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius earlier this month pleading with her to step in to protect Floridians by taking an active role in regulating rate increases in the state.

The lawmakers said intervention by HHS was urgently needed because of a law signed in May by Gov. Rick Scott that specifically prohibits Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty from doing his job of reviewing rate increases and rejecting those he and his staff determine are unjustifiably high.

Until the passage of SB 1842, McCarty had the power to do that. Florida state lawmakers who voted for the bill, including a few Democrats who seemed to think HHS has more authority than it does, took the position that since the federal government was requiring insurance companies to be more consumer friendly, the federal government should assume the responsibility of enforcing the new consumer protections in Obamacare. The problem is that Congress gave the federal government no such additional powers. As a consequence, HHS really can't take over what is still a state responsibility. And since Florida turned down the federal money that McCarty would have used to do his job, Floridians appear to be out of luck.

Last month, McCarty's office said insurance premiums for individuals in Florida would be significantly higher than they are now. In their letter to Sebelius, the state's congressional Democrats wrote that those increases are "not a coincidence, but rather the product of a cynical and intentional effort by Gov. Scott and the Florida legislature to undermine the Affordable Care Act and make health insurance premiums on the Florida Health Insurance Marketplace more expensive by refusing to allow the insurance commissioner to negotiate lower rates with companies or refuse rates that are too high."

As PolitiFact noted in a recent analysis of the charges made by the Democrats in their letter (which PolitiFact ruled are true), the states that have authority to approve or disapprove rates were "able to extract significant reductions." PolitiFact cited a Palm Beach Post story which noted that Maryland's insurance department had used its regulatory powers "to push rates for next year's premiums down by as much as a third."

As Florida CHAIN, a state advocacy group, pointed out when Scott signed SB 1842, the law not only blocks McCarty's office from protecting consumers, a provision in the law actually requires insurers to send deceptive and misleading notices about rate increases to consumers -- and to blame Obamacare for them.

"The only 'public education' of any sort authorized by the Legislature related to the ACA (Affordable Care Act) is a requirement ... that insurers send extremely biased and incomplete notices this fall about the ACA and its effect on policyholders' rates," Florida CHAIN said in a statement.

"The sole purpose of the requirement is to create 'sticker shock' that can be blamed on the ACA. There will be no mention of the many uncertainties or any other relevant factors, such as past rate increases or how actual rates will be reduced for many by the availability of premium tax credits (to low and middle income earners.)"

So not only will many Floridians be harmed by SB 1842, they will, by law, be misled about who caused the harm.

Maybe it's time to rethink the oath of office for people we vote to represent us.

***********************************************************

RDNO Board of Directors Meeting - August 21, 2013.

********************************************************************

Landfill reopens - Media release, RDNO

***************************************************************

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Landfill fire update.

Note the scares left behind by the fire and the close proximity to Clerke Road residents. It seems the fire is under control.

*************************************************************

Media Release; Fire closes Landfill and Recycling Facilities.

************************************************************************

Update on landfill fire

Landfill fire appears to be still active at 4:30 AM!

******************************************

Monday, August 19, 2013

Update on the landfill fire

With the brisk wind the fire seems to be getting frisky again. Hoping for the best!

***************************************

Photo gallery -Landfill fire spreading over the commonage and how well the choppers and bomber performed at a very dangerous job! - Debbie

*********************************************************************

Homes near landfill fire on evacuation alert

By Charlotte Helston

Flames rise after a wood grinder malfunctioned at the Vernon landfill and sparked a large fire which has spread to nearby grass.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON /InfoTel Multimedia)

August 19, 2013 - 9:28 PM

UPDATE: 9 p.m. August 19
Firefighters remain on scene battling a large blaze at the Vernon landfill off Birnie Road.
"There's still a lot of open flame on the north side of the landfill, and a few spot fires," deputy fire chief Jack Blair says. "We're hitting it hard, and we're making headway."
Blair says large flames from a burning pile of wood are covering about half a hectare, while sparks are flying out over a space of ten hectares. Ground crews are focussing on three main hot spots right now. Helicopters were called off at nightfall.
Residents on nearby Clerke Road have been notified by police to be ready to leave if they are put on evacuation notice.
"Anything could happen. I'd be prepared to evacuate if need be," Blair says.
Crews will remain on scene overnight, and residents will be alerted by police if they need to evacuate.
The Greater Vernon Landfill will be closed to customers until further notice.

VERNON - Smoke and flames continue to rise as firefighters battle a blaze at the Vernon landfill.
Deputy fire chief Jack Blair says the fire started around 4:30 p.m. when a wood grinder malfunctioned, caught fire, and sent a spew of fiery materials onto nearby wood piles, and then onto the dry grasslands around the landfill. The operator of the machine escaped from the fire, and Blair says no one else was harmed.
"It expanded quite quickly in the windy conditions," Blair says of the 0.5 ha fire.
There are currently 50 firefighters on the ground, including some from the Wildfire Management Branch. Five fire engines are also on scene. Blair hopes to get a few water bombers in shortly as well.
"There's another fire east of Osoyoos," Blair says. "Our resources here have been stretched thin."
There are no homes or structures in the immediate vicinity, but the fire department is contemplating an evacuation of homes on Clerk Road if the fire progresses.
"We are very concerned about it spreading," Blair says.
Between the piles of wood and the dry organic material in the area, Blair says there's lots of fuel for the fire.
Firefighters are working hard to contain the fire and prevent sparks, Blair says.
This is the second fire at the landfill in recent months, with the first devastating the recycling facility in March.
Blair says it's a challenging location to fight a fire because it has very limited access to water.
"We need more manpower here, and more water available," he says.
At 7 p.m. large flames continued to bloom from the origin of the fire, and fire could be seen moving north up the hillside toward the City of Vernon.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca or call 250-309-5230.

*************************************************************

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Morning Star Newsclips - In case you missed them.

*****************************************************

Warning - New technique in breaking into cars!

I locked my car. As I walked away I heard my car door unlock. I went back and locked my car again three times. Each time, as soon as I started to walk away, I ...would hear it unlock again!! Naturally alarmed, I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire lane next to the store. They were obviously watching me intently, and there was no doubt they were somehow involved in this very weird situation . I quickly chucked the errand I was on, jumped in my car and sped away. I went straight to the police station, told them what had happened, and found out I was part of a new, and very successful, scheme being used to gain entry into cars. Two weeks later, my friend's son had a similar happening....

While traveling, my friend's son stopped at a roadside rest to use the bathroom. When he came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later, someone had gotten into his car and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator, briefcase.....you name it. He called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into, the police told him he had been a victim of the latest robbery tactic -- there is a device that robbers are using now to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain locking device..

They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. They know you are going inside of the store, restaurant, or bathroom and that they now have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said to manually lock your car door-by hitting the lock button inside the car -- that way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim, it will not be you.

When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting, it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain, it sends the code through the airwaves where it can be instantly stolen

Be wisely aware of what you just read and please pass this note on. Look how many times we all lock our doors with our remote just to be sure we remembered to lock them -- and bingo, someone has our code...and whatever was in our car.

Snops Approved --Please share with everyone you know!

--------------------------------------------------------------

The above story was recently verified in our neighbourhood by the College. Debbie was the unwitting victim of the thieves. She put her purse in the trunk, locked the car with her remote and went for a walk. She did notice a car with a couple of guys in it nearby but did not pay any attention to them. Upon her return home she took her purse out of the trunk and searched for her wallet. It was gone! No money in it but all her ID's and credit cards went with the wallet. Having called the credit card company she was informed that someone already tried three times to collect $500 cash in automatic tellers in Winfield. She now is a believer!

***********************************************************