HOMEOWNER FACES DIFFICULTIES, PUTTING A ROOF OVER HEAD !

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By Nancy Keates

Editor's Note:
This is the 25th installment of "Teardown Diary," a feature by Wall Street Journal correspondent Nancy Keates. The column details her decision to demolish the Portland, Ore., home where she lives with her family and build anew. In the months ahead, she will chronicle what led to the decision, the financial costs, hiring an architect, knocking down her house, choosing the features of her new home and the final product.

The Good News: There is a mind-boggling array of new roofing options available.

The Bad News: Good luck getting enough information to pick one.

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In recent years, roofing manufacturers have used new technologies, engineering techniques and designs to come up with solutions to old problems. Love the look of slate but don't want the weight? Want wood shake but don't like the high price? Consumers can now choose between faux slates and shake shingles made from plastic, rubber or metal -- or even real stone and wood that are manufactured to weigh and cost less.

But it isn't so easy deciding which roof to put over your head. Because of the difficulty finding pricing and other details, my husband and I have found this task to be more difficult than other choices we've faced during our teardown project.

We decided early on that a metal roof -- specifically one we'd seen on a house we almost bought -- had the look and function we wanted. It was black and looked like slate; the owners told us leaves slid easily off the roof. Since we live in the woods, we also liked the idea that metal is fireproof.

We found the name of the manufacturer -- Interlock Roofing Ltd., a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia -- and gave it to the architect. When it came time for pricing out our project, the contractor came back with a bid that included a fiberglass asphalt roof with the alternate option of going with the Interlock metal roof we'd specified. The metal would cost us $49,800, he said, while asphalt would be $11,860 -- a difference of $37,940.

The cost included materials and labor, he said. The metal tile roof would have to be installed by the company itself, while he could use one of his long-standing subs to put up the asphalt roof. He looked into other metal roofs and found that they also required special installers and were expensive. Besides, we really didn't want a metal roof. It would be hard to repair because it was slippery when wet, we would hear every drop of rain that fell, and pine needles would get caught in the tiles, he said.

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Our architect suggested going with cheaper asphalt instead, since given the roof's height and the low uphill approach to the house, the visual impact of the roof wasn't critical, he said.

Despite the architect's reassurance, my husband and I remain unconvinced -- the way the roof looks is still important to us. So we asked to see other possibilities.

First up: A product made by TAMKO Building Products, Inc., called Lamarite Slate Composite Shingles, made of composite materials that the company says is fire-resistant, enduring, requires little maintenance and is easy to apply. Our contractor estimated it would cost $42,000 -- too much for something we thought looked too fake.

A few days latter, reading a building magazine, I came across an ad for a recycled rubber and plastic roofing material called EcoStar Majestic Slate that promised "class, elegance and durability" at "half the weight of slate." Since the material is more eco-friendly than asphalt (it is made from recycled materials and can be recycled again) it has the added benefit of making homeowners feel environmentally responsible.

My architect said he'd used the Majestic before and it was a "good product." So I called the company and they emailed me two addresses of local houses roofed with the material. But when my husband saw the roofs, he said they looked "too chunky." The estimated cost for us to put on the Majestic was also $42,000.

Surfing the Internet, my husband came across a company called Davinci Roofscapes. "A synthetic shingle shouldn't look like a 'fake.' It shouldn't just look 'similar' to rough-hewn cedar shake or quarried slate. It should be an authentic replica to all those who view the home," says the Web site.

In my own Internet search, I found a product called TruSlate, "The first slate upgrade in 500,000,000 years" the company says. In old fashioned slate, half of each piece of slate is never seen, tucked under the piece above it. This manufacturer replaces the part you don't see with a material called high-density polyethylene or HDPE -- commonly used for landfill liners and pond liners. By removing half the slate, the product is lighter and costs less. According to the company, TruSlate comes with a 75-year limited transferable warranty and any roofer can install it. The cost for our home: $42,930.

Both the DaVinci and the TruSlate looked beautiful. But since we are scheduled to tear down our house in less than three weeks, we need to decide soon.

Join a reader discussion on the Teardown Diary discussion board.

-- Nancy Keates is a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and lives in Portland, Ore.

Email your comments to teardowndiary@dowjones.com.

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PETTY THEFT ?

Your Rights for Petty Theft Prosecution


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People facing charges for petty theft (aka petty larceny) have special rights under U.S. law.

Petty theft is generally a misdemeanor charge involving the theft of property valued under a certain set price range.

If you are suspected of petty theft, your criminal rights begin the moment you are detained by police and extend right up until a verdict is delivered in your case.

It's very important that you know your rights and use your them to your benefit in the event you are charged and prosecuted for petty theft.


Things You’ll Need:

Computer with Internet access

Criminal lawyer

Step 1:

Know your Miranda rights. They guarantee your right to remain silent, to refuse to answer questions and to consult an attorney before talking with police.
They will be explained to you in the event you are charged for petty theft.
Use them to your advantage.

Step 2:

Hire the services of a qualified, experienced criminal defense attorney.
This should be the first thing you do if you are charged with petty theft.
A lawyer can give you explicit instructions and information on your rights as you face prosecution.

Step 3:

Be aware that the U.S. Constitution guarantees your right to a speedy and fair trial.
The judge should be impartial, and the jury should be equitable, selected at random and know nothing of your case.
Learn more by visiting the American Civil Liberties Union Web site.

Step 4:

Visit your local legal aid clinic to discuss your continuing rights as you face prosecution for petty theft.
Though legal aid services are not considered an acceptable substitution for proper legal representation, they can help you answer questions and direct you to community resources where you can find more information on your rights.

Step 5:

Understand that you have the right to appeal your conviction if your petty theft prosecution resulted in a guilty verdict. This is particularly important if you feel there has been a miscarriage of justice.

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WHY EXPUNGEMENT ?

30 Remarkable Reasons

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Many states allow employers to terminate employment of employees found to have had a prior conviction.

Most states allow employers to deny jobs to people who were arrested but never convicted.

Most states allow employers to deny jobs to anyone with a criminal record, regardless of how long ago or the individual's work history and personal circumstances.

Most states ban some or all people with convictions from being eligible for federally funded public assistance and food stamps.

Most states make criminal history information accessible to the general public through the internet, making it extremely easy for employers and others to discriminate against people on the basis of old or minor convictions to deny employment or housing.

Many public housing authorities deny eligibility for federally assisted housing based on an arrest that never led to a conviction.

All but two states restrict the right to vote in some way for people with a criminal conviction.
Gun ownership is widely restricted with any conviction.

Private landlords can lawfully deny persons with convictions housing.

37 States have laws permitting all employers and occupational licensing agencies to ask about and consider arrests that never led to a conviction in making employment decisions.

Employers in most states can deny jobs to - or fire - anyone with a criminal record, regardless of individual history, circumstance or business necessity.

29 states have no standards governing the relevance of conviction records of applicants for occupational licenses.

36 states have no standards governing public employer's consideration of applicant's criminal record.

45 states have no standards governing private employers.

12 states have lifetime bans on voting for persons convicted of a crime.

Virtually anyone with an internet connection can find information about someone's conviction history online without his or her consent or any guidance on how to interpret or use the information.

28 states allow internet access to criminal records or post records on the internet.

27 housing authorities surveyed make decisions about eligibility for public housing based on arrests that never led to a conviction.

35 states consider the relevance of an applicant's criminal record in making a determination about an applicant's suitability to be an adoptive or foster parent.

15 states bar people with criminal records becoming adoptive or foster parents.

Higher Education Act of 1998 makes students convicted of drug related offenses ineligible for any grant, loan or work assistance.

Most professional certifications require a criminal history check prior to issuance.

Many landlords now demand a criminal history background check prior to leasing or renting.

Almost all youth volunteer positions (i.e.: coaching & teaching) require a clean criminal history.

Insurance and loan rates could be affected by your criminal history in certain cases.

Most people don't realize that if you were arrested and never formally charged or even if your case was dismissed or you were found not guilty, the record of your arrest and court case still exists.
This is your non-judicial and judicial criminal record.
This is a PUBLIC RECORD.
Contrary to popular belief, a criminal record is not automatically sealed or removed over time.
It remains public and permanent until ordered sealed or expunged by a judge.

Expungement keeps the record of your arrest and/or court case out of the public record.

Expungement allows you to LEGALLY deny or fail to acknowledge that you were arrested for the incident which you sealed or expunged.

Protects your privacy and may allow you to take advantage of job, school, and other opportunities once closed because of your arrest being a part of the public record.

Once you have your record expunged it can never be used against you again!

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SUPER TUESDAY: WHAT TO MAKE OF TONIGHT'S RESULTS !

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Super Tuesday: What to make of tonight's results

By Adam NagourneyNew York Times
Article Launched: 02/05/2008 01:30:37 AM PST

Brace yourself.

Forty-three presidential nominating contests in 24 states. Channel upon channel of the commentators talking about exit polls.

The biggest prize of the night - California - being decided after many of the nation's viewers have headed for bed.

A total of 3,156 delegates allocated under arcane rules on what could be the most significant night of the 2008 campaign to date.

This is a guide of things to look for tonight - key states, trends, interesting demographic developments, campaign-ending or -extending developments - starting from when the first polls close (Georgia at 4 p.m. PST) to when the voting is completed in California at 8 p.m.



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The big picture

There are two ways to approach the results. The first is old-fashioned: which candidates rack up the most states. But this is about more than popular vote totals; the point of these contests is to allocate delegates to the national conventions.

Thus, the big question is how much attention to pay to the results map on TV - lighted up with, say, states that have swung to Sen. John McCain's column - and how much attention to pay to the delegate counter.

The answer is pay attention to both, though put somewhat more focus on states for the Republicans and put somewhat more attention on delegates for the Democrats.

The delegate count might matter more officially, but the state results could count more politically - and that will be the centraltension of the night.

Democrats allocate most of their delegates proportionally; candidates are awarded a cut of the delegate pie based on their percentage of the vote.

It is likely that the losing candidate still will get a substantial share of the delegates.

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton will no doubt start claiming state victories as soon they can, with the goal of trying to get on TV and grab the front-runner spotlight - but those results probably will remain largely symbolic.

Assuming the race remains close, what matters going forward is who gets the most pledged delegates.

Delegate selection rules are different for Republicans.

In eight of the 21 Republican contests, the winner gets the delegates - no dividing up the spoils.

What that means is that it is going to be easy for a candidate to build up a big delegate lead tonight and, combined with winning some big states, credibly declare himself the party's presumptive nominee.

That is precisely what McCain is looking to do.

Keep in mind that the winner of the states probably is going to become known well before the delegate counts are finished, and that is going to color the way the results are reported on TV and in newspapers.

The outcome in California, the biggest prize of the night and a major factor in either way of judging the night, is not going to be known until the wee hours.

"Don't be rushed into making an early judgment without California," said Robert Shrum, a Democratic political analyst.

"You have to resist the pre-California spin unless someone is winning, like, 16 of the 22 states."


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The states


For Republicans, two states could end up determining whether the race goes on from here:

California and Massachusetts, and this has nothing to do with delegates.

Mitt Romney headed to California on a last-minute trip Monday, drawn by polls suggesting the race was narrowing, despite McCain's collection of high-profile endorsements, including from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

If Romney pulls out a win in the nation's largest state, no matter what happens anyplace else, he is unlikely to leave the stage soon.

By contrast, McCain - in a poke-in-the-eye moment - campaigned in Massachusetts, Romney's home state.

Should McCain win in Massachusetts and hold on to California, that probably would be the lights-out moment at the Romney headquarters.

No wonder that McCain sneaked a last-minute trip to San Diego onto his schedule for this morning.

For Democrats, watch California, Massachusetts, New York, Missouri, Arizona and New Mexico.

If Obama wins California, that is a real momentum-blocker for Clinton.

There are few states in the country that are more identified with the Clinton presidency than this one.

But Obama has suffered one of those external political problems that often madden campaigns:

A last-minute California poll showed him closing in on Clinton - and in the process, raised expectations that he will win. No wonder Obama's advisers suddenly are talking about the big surge of early voting in California before Obama began to break through.

If Obama wins Massachusetts, that will be testimony to the power of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and a real sting for Clinton, who once thought she had a comfortable lead there.

If Obama comes close in New York, or in neighboring New Jersey, watch for a tough round of questions about Clinton's electability.

Finally, think of Missouri, Arizona and New Mexico as the swing states in this contest - Obama and Clinton are pretty evenly matched there. Missouri is a swing state in the general election, and might be one in this one as well.


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Voting groups

Obama has been trying, with the use of surrogates such as Oprah Winfrey, to cut into the advantage Clinton enjoys among women.

The vote also should offer a test of whether Obama has succeeded in cementing what has appeared to be an exodus of black voters from the Clinton camp to Obama's campaign, as began happening in South Carolina two weeks ago.

Georgia, which has an electorate with a heavy black representation, and New York should offer a good and relatively early measure of that.

The final big question for Democrats:

Will Clinton maintain the edge among Latino voters that she showed in Florida and Nevada?

New York and California should offer an interesting test, as well as a test of whether blacks and Latinos, uneasy political allies in many circumstances, break for different candidates.

The extent to which Republicans are coalescing around McCain will be measured by how well he does in contests open only to members of his party, depriving him of the support of independents, who helped him so much in New Hampshire, where they could vote in party primaries.

Again, California is the place to watch. To judge his potential strength as a general election nominee, watch to see if conservatives put aside their qualms about him and vote for him.

Among McCain's Republican rivals, one key is evangelical voters.

Romney is not going to be very happy should they continue to rally behind the campaign of Mike Huckabee, the former Baptist minister.


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The issues

With the economy having emerged in the past few months as the dominant issue, and with the race moving to a national stage, one issue to watch is whether Republican voters will continue to focus as much on a subject that has divided their party, illegal immigration.

The answer could be of particular importance to McCain, who was unable to compete in Iowa in part because many Republicans there saw him as too soft on the issue.

On the Democratic side, Obama has again started criticizing Clinton for voting to authorize the war in Iraq.

After her apparent success earlier in this campaign in putting the war vote behind her among Democratic voters, it would be problematic for her now to be forced back on the defensive.

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YAHOO, GOOGLE TALKING DEAL ?

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Yahoo, Google talking deal?
MICROSOFT BID SPARKS PARTNERSHIP CHATTER

By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/04/2008 01:30:39 AM PST


Just hours after Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion unfriendly bid for his company, Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang sent a confidential e-mail to employees knocking down rumors that it was a done deal, and said Microsoft's proposal was "one of many options that we're evaluating."

One of those options is reportedly a business arrangement with Google. Wall Street analysts have been calling for Yahoo to outsource its search-advertising business to Google, which makes more money for each ad it sells than Yahoo.

Google publicly weighed in on the bid Sunday. While not commenting on possible business ties with Yahoo, David Drummond, Google's chief lawyer, said Microsoft's offer raises troubling questions, including whether the combined companies would exert the same "inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that (Microsoft) did with the PC."

"This is about more than simply a financial transaction," Drummond wrote on the Official Google Blog. "It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

In his e-mail, Yang noted that the process was in its early stages. "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made - and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process under way. This proposal is just that - a proposal. And it was only made in the last 24 hours," Yang wrote.



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Microsoft quickly responded to Google with a statement from its top lawyer, Brad Smith: "The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising," Smith said.

"The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet."

According to comScore, Google currently handles 58 percent of all Internet searches in the United States, while Microsoft and Yahoo together handle 33 percent. Smith said Google's share is even greater in Europe, where he said it handles 85 percent of searches compared to 10 percent for Microsoft and Yahoo.

"Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation and the protection of privacy on the Internet," Smith said. "We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals."

But in his blog post, Drummond noted that Microsoft and Yahoo together provide the majority of Internet users with e-mail and instant messaging services and urged policy makers to examine whether that would amount to too much influence over the Internet.

Microsoft and Google have increasingly used antitrust law as a competitive weapon against each other, requesting the support of regulators in the United States, Europe and around the world. Last year, Microsoft joined public interest groups in calling for antitrust scrutiny of Google's $3.1 billion bid to acquire DoubleClick.

Meanwhile, in 2006, Google complained to U.S. regulators that the default search settings on Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 browser put Google at a disadvantage.

Antitrust regulators have so far appeared reluctant to crack down on Google. In December the U.S. Federal Trade Commission voted 4-1 to allow the DoubleClick deal to proceed, though two commissioners expressed concerns about its potential effect on privacy and competition. A decision by the European Commission is expected by April 2.

In contrast, both European and U.S. regulators have been much tougher on Microsoft. Most famously the Justice Department waged a long battle with Microsoft over allegations the software maker abused its operating system monopoly to restrict the market for Web browsers; Microsoft settled that case.

More recently Microsoft has faced a series of probes from European regulators, again over antitrust issues.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Elise Ackerman at eackerman@mercurynews.com or (408) 271-3774.

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KNOWING !

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Do not believe what you have heard.

Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations.

Do not believe in any thing that has been spoken of many times.

Do not believe because the written statements come from old sage.

Do not believe in conjecture.

Do not beleive in authority or teachers or elders.

But after careful observation and analysis,when it agrees with reason and will benefit one and

all ,then accept it and live by it.


BHUDDA
(563 B.C.-483 B.C.)

Founder of Bhuddisms, one of the worlds major religions, the Bhudda was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in Northeast India, near the border of Nepal.Seeing the unhappiness,sickness, and death That even the Wealthiest and the most powerful
are subject to in this life,at age twenty-nine he abandoned the life he was living in search of a higher truth.



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