Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315636356?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Just what to search for in choosing a web design business
The World wide web is growing increasingly popular as many companies managers and business owners yearn to develop a passive flow of earnings on the net. Establishing a world wide web presence is fast coming to be the cornerstone of essentially every business imaginable from one sector to the following. And the more desirable your web design business is, the even more trustworthiness you?ll obtain from targeted individuals searching for exactly what you have to provide and from search engines ranking you greater in search outcomes.
Portfolio Samples
Look for a stable business that has been in business for longer than two years. A knowledgeable business must have a few endorsements for you to check, or a listing of reviews to develop trustworthiness. A good world wide web developer or design business will have an online presence. Ask to see the designer?s profile and links to some of their present web design. Beware of designers that are supplying web design or visual design services with no on the internet presence. Take the time to browse the designer?s website and a couple of their customer?s internet sites to get a feel for their skills and additionally to ensure all links, navigational features, etc. operation correctly. Typically unskilled world wide web developer?s internet sites will have dead links, misspelled words and additional problems.
Request referrals. The moment you understand what you want in your internet site, ask around for recommendations. Coworkers, company clients and partners, also competitors-if you?re on friendly terms with them-can offer you recommendations. Contact companies you?re interested in, and request links to sample web pages. If feasible, ask for links to websites in your market or a similar business. Consider these sites with an eye for the basic usefulness of the internet site. In addition, when judging web developers, look for a range of styles and an understanding of the target market?s choices. If a graphic design firm only has one distinct style, chances are they will not be flexible in identifying the one-of-a-kind stylistic requirements you may have.
Expense
A flat rate to design, implement and market your website. Do not be convinced into hourly agreements. If a company can easily not provide a firm expense on establishing your website it is since they either do not understand their business well enough or they are farming out the work to some other professionals. By paying an hourly rate you are paying for a companies problem shooting time and any online delays that may be incurred publishing your website. In basic terms, it?s just excellent business to understand exactly just what you are spending.
SEO
It is very extremely substantial you to find locate web net firm that produces creates only just designs but however knows recognizes engine optimization issues and techniques. Make sure that the business you have actually found has the capacity to develop seo friendly site for you and not just web pages with few meta tags which are actually of no big package. True understanding of sites optimization will definitely be a weighty disagreement that will definitely influence your decision whether to collaborate with this or that business or not, and will certainly appear the really unique function that separates one firm from rest.
You can easily execute a straightforward examination which can show whither the firm has the capacity to perform search engine optimization. Merely take the websites from business profile and examination them by learning just what are their positions in search results according to targeted key phrases.
Consumer service
Mind that apart from qualified design and inexpensive rates the web design company you will certainly pick need to supply useful clients support. It implies that you need to receive prompt responses to your questions and get the necessary support in solving problems that might arise during the process of work.
Finding the right web design firm is a very responsible job as it predetermines your project further success ? either you get a professional site which delivers you profit or one which is destined failure made by the wrong business.
Source: http://naughtmuch.com/just-what-to-search-for-in-choosing-a-web-design-business/
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Target cuts ties with Deen; drugmaker distances
In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)
In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Paula Deen's multimillion-dollar merchandise and media empire continues to unravel following revelations that she used racial slurs in the past.
Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk on Thursday became the latest companies to distance themselves from the Southern celebrity chef.
Home Depot, which sold Paula Deen-branded cookware and kitchen products only online, said it pulled the merchandise off its website on Wednesday. And Target said that it will phase out its Paula Deen-branded cookware and other items in stores and on its website.
"Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory," said Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk said it and Deen have "mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now." Deen, who specializes in Southern comfort food, had been promoting the company's drug Victoza since last year when she announced she had Type 1 diabetes.
These are the latest blows dealt to Deen since comments she made in a court deposition became public. Last week, the Food Network said that it would not renew her contract. On Monday, pork producer Smithfield Foods dropped her as a spokeswoman. Then, on Wednesday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said it too was cutting ties with Deen following a tearful "Today" show interview in which she said she's not a racist.
On the same day, Caesars Entertainment announced that Paula Deen's name is being stripped from four buffet restaurants owned by the company. Caesars said that its decision to rebrand its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind., was a mutual one with Deen.
The stakes are high for Deen, who Forbes magazine ranked as the fourth highest-earning celebrity chef last year, bringing in $17 million. She's behind Gordon Ramsay, Rachel Ray and Wolfgang Puck, according to Forbes.
Deen's empire, which spans from TV shows to furniture and cookware, generates total annual revenue of nearly $100 million, estimates Burt Flickinger III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.
But Flickinger says that the controversy has cost her as much as half of that business. He also estimates that she could lose up to 80 percent by next year as suppliers extricate themselves from their agreements.
"The accelerating domino effect is commercially disastrous for Paula Deen's empire," he said.
It's a dramatic fall from a woman who overcame her humble Southern roots and personal hardships to build a merchandising and media empire.
Deen, who grew up in Albany, Georgia, was grappling with a failed marriage, the death of her parents and a prolonged battle with agoraphobia when she started her home-based catering business called The Bag Lady in June 1989, according to her company website.
Then a mother of two teenage boys, Jamie and Bobby, and on the verge of homelessness, she used her last $200 to start the catering business. She describes the business as delivering "lunch-and-love-in-a-bag." Five years later, she opened her first restaurant called The Lady and Sons in Savannah, Georgia. Her first cookbook, "The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook," came out in 1998.
Soon after, she had her first TV appearance on QVC. But it was when "Paula's Home Cooking," began airing on the Food Network in 2002 that she started to hit stardom, according to her site. Deen now has two shows airing on the Food Network: In addition to "Paula's Home Cooking," there's "Paula's Best Dishes," which made its debut in 2008.
Deen's empire has continued to grow over the years as her brand has blossomed.
In addition to her The Lady and Sons restaurant, Deen owns with her brother, Bubba, a seafood restaurant in Savannah called Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. Deen is the author of 14 cookbooks that have sold more than 8 million copies and her bimonthly magazine "Cooking with Paula Deen" has a circulation of nearly 1 million, according to her website. And Deen's product lines span from a full line of cookware to assorted food items to furniture.
Not every company Deen does business with has severed ties with the celebrity chef. Among other stores that sell her products, Kohl's Corp. declined to comment, while Macy's Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. said they're evaluating the situation. QVC, meanwhile, said it's reviewing its deal with Deen.
And book-buyers are so far standing by Deen. As of Thursday morning, "Paula Deen's New Testament: 250 Recipes, All Lightened Up," ranked No. 1 on Amazon.com. The book is scheduled for October. Another Deen book, "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible," was at No. 13. Several other Deen books were out of stock.
___
AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report from New York.
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Fresh Flipboard, Facebook and NFL Fantasy Football apps coming to Windows 8
Windows 8.1 preview was the first big announcement to come out of Build 2013, but Ballmer's not done with the software goodies. Turns out, Facebook, Flipboard and NFL Fantasy Football apps are coming to Windows 8. Naturally, we haven't seen what these (presumably) Metro-styled apps will look like, but it's good to know they're coming, right?
Filed under: Microsoft
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Cameron calls for probe into new claims on racist murder
LONDON (Reuters) - David Cameron called on Monday for an investigation into claims that police spied on the family of a black teenager whose murder 20 years ago exposed what an inquiry called "institutional racism" in London's police force.
In one of Britain's highest-profile racial killings, Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death at a bus stop in southeast London in 1993. An inquest ruled it had been an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths.
Not until last year was anyone convicted for the murder.
Now a former undercover police office has said he was asked to infiltrate the Lawrence family's campaign for justice in the years following the murder.
Cameron's spokesman said in a statement: "The Prime Minister is deeply concerned by reports that the police wanted to smear Stephen Lawrence's family and would like the Metropolitan police to investigate immediately."
In the Guardian newspaper, former undercover officer Peter Francis said he spent four years posing as an anti-racist campaigner after his superiors tasked him with trying to uncover information that could be used against the 18-year old student's parents.
Francis said senior officers were afraid that anger at the failure to launch a more thorough investigation into the murder would spiral into disorder on the streets.
He monitored several campaigns, involving relatives of mostly black men who had died in suspicious circumstances in police custody.
He never met the Lawrence family but said he passed back "heresay" about them to his superiors.
He also said senior officers witheld his undercover role from Sir William Macpherson, who headed a public inquiry to examine the police investigation into the death.
Macpherson said in a damning 1999 report that that investigation had been "marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers."
The case still weighs on London's police, despite an overhaul of policies and an attempt to recruit more officers from ethnic minorities.
Francis' claims follow a joint investigation between the Guardian and Channel 4's Dispatches programme. A related programme is scheduled to be broadcast in Britain on Monday evening.
London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement that an investigation into its past use of undercover police was already under way.
"At some point it will fall upon this generation of police leaders to account for the activities of our predecessors, but for the moment we must focus on getting to the truth," it added.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-calls-probe-claims-racist-murder-093418727.html
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Dwindling Great Lakes squeeze shipping industry
In December, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron hit record lows, followed by Lake Superior which is the largest freshwater lake in the world. They all remain below their historical averages. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
By Amber Payne, Producer, NBC News
TOLEDO, Ohio -- It?s the 14th straight year of low water levels for the $34 billion shipping industry that relies on the Great Lakes.
And for ships like the Mesabi Miner, that comes at a great cost.
On a recent Saturday the vessel drifted through the Detroit River and docked in Toledo, where the crew began the eight-hour process of unloading 66,000 tons of iron ore, the rounded clay-colored pellets that eventually take shape as steel in cars and refrigerators.
But the Mesabi Miner wasn't carrying a full load because water levels in the Great Lakes are just too low.? On her journey from Duluth, Minn., to Lake Erie, she left 8,000 tons of iron ore behind.?
That amounts to a day's work for an iron ore mine. It?s enough to make 8,000 automobiles, and keep a big auto plant going for two weeks.
"Steel is what drives our economy," said Glen Nekvasil, Vice President of the Lake Carriers' Association.? "And most of the steel in the country is still made in the Great Lakes basin."?
This is an industry where the difference between success and failure is measured in inches.?
"One inch of reduced draft can cost 270 tons of cargo," said Nekvasil.? "And this ship lost about 2.5 feet of draft today."
About 85 percent of the Great Lakes shipping trade is iron ore, coal, and limestone for construction.? The rest is primarily salt, cement, grain, and oil.? And according to the LCA, the Great Lakes shipping system saves customers $3.6 billion annually compared to the other modes of transportation.?
Despite the savings on fuel, lighter loads and fewer trips ultimately mean these costs will filter down to the consumer.
Mark Barker and his family have run the Interlake Steamship Company for 25 years and he is concerned about the domino effect.?
"Less tons but we still have the same operating cost. So if you carry less tons, we have less revenue, equal cost.? Our bottom line gets squeezed," said Barker.
Barker plans to carry fewer tons but take more trips to make up for the loss.
In January, Lake Michigan and Huron hit record lows, followed by Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. Now all three lakes remain well below their historical averages.? Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, however, are both right around their long-term average right now.
Evaporation outpaces precipitation
Interlake's Captain Paul Franks says the toughest part of navigating a massive vessel is the bottle neck in the St. Mary?s River, which connects Lake Superior to both Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.?
"On a good day I've probably got about 2.5 to 3 feet underneath me," he explained.? "On a not-so-good day, sometimes as low as 9 inches and it's a real slow methodical process to not run aground and to safely just keep transiting."
NOAA hydrologist Drew Gronewold said there has not been enough rain and snow over the lakes in the winter coupled with an increase in evaporation fueled by warmer water temperatures.
"We're in a period where it's a stand-off between precipitation and evaporation," said Gronewold.? "And evaporation is having a much more significant impact on the system, and particularly the changes, than it used to."
NOAA is also studying whether this could impact fish habitats and coastal wetlands that may be sensitive to long term changes in the water levels.?
Hydrologist Andrew Gronewald explains the changing dynamics of the Great Lakes and what that can mean for surrounding ecosystems.
Hoping for higher water
In St. Joseph, Mich.,?Russ Clark is in his 27th year running Sea Hawk fishing charters.? When he put his boat in the water at his normal location earlier this season, the bow was touching the bottom. Recently the water level has been better due to rain, but Clark fears this is temporary.
"This is how narrow the channel is," he said pointing west.? "Twenty-five feet over and you're gonna be aground."
There are places he just can't take his clients anymore and Clark says that many of the bigger boats are unable to enter the water this season for fear of getting stuck.
"I think we're all just hoping and confident that the water levels come back," he said.
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Friday, June 14, 2013
Could French flicks derail a US-EU free trade pact?
The US and Europe hold deeply differing attitudes on things such as data privacy or genetically modified foods that have long caused trade disagreement. But the two are attempting to put those aside to forge the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would be the largest free trade deal in the world.
Nonetheless, one obstacle to the trade deal might turn out to be insurmountable: the French fight to preserve their cultural identity.
Both US President Barack Obama, scheduled to travel to Europe next week for the G8 in Northern Ireland, and the European Commission have voiced strong support for an all-inclusive trade deal that they say will boost growth and create jobs at a time when they are desperately needed. But the French want to invoke the ?exception culturelle,? or cultural exception, to keep movies and digital media off the negotiating table as a way to safeguard their own film production from the hegemony of Hollywood.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Europe? Take our geography quiz.
For formal talks to begin ? which could be announced as early as next week ? both sides must to agree to the terms first. Trade ministers of the EU are in Strasbourg today trying to unify their position, but the French have said they won?t agree if audiovisual and media are not excluded. That could set the opening of talks back and generate a series of demands for exceptions from the US ? which could ultimately water down the accord by limiting the most politically sensitive issues that can be ?traded? to reach compromise.
?In the beginning, what is important is to have as much as possible on the table. Otherwise it limits the ability to have the [inevitable] horse trades,? says Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. ?That immediately limits the scope of this deal quite dramatically.?
A 'GAME-CHANGING' PACT
The TTIP, which had been under discussion for over a year, was announced by President Obama in February during his state of the union address and embraced by EU officials. "A future deal between the world's two most important economic powers will be a game-changer, giving a strong boost to our economies on both sides of the Atlantic," said EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in February.
Tariffs between the US and EU are already relatively low, but because of the sheer size of trade between the two ? representing half of global economic output ? advocates say it would be a major booster of growth and jobs, especially in debt-stricken Europe that has seen record high unemployment at 12.2 percent.
The two already invest nearly $4 trillion in each other?s economies, according to US statistics, which translates into 7 million jobs.
Polls have shown that Americans and Europeans both support increased trade between the two. But the French, with smaller countries joining their position, are digging in their heels on the question of culture, fearing an invasion of Hollywood that already dominates the world market.
Current EU rules allow specific governments to promote their own culture by setting subsidies and putting quotas on non-national and non-European output. France, for examples, mandates that TV airs at least 40 percent of content produced at home. Another 20 percent comes from the EU. Then American hits can be considered.
This idea is ?that certain categories can?t be simply be commodified because they are part of culture,? says Philip Golub, a professor of international and comparative politics at the American University of Paris. ?Culture is something broader and higher than the rest of the market. That argument, whether one agrees with it or not, ? that?s a point of contention between the US and some of Europeans as far as this transatlantic trade agreement goes. The main sticking point is mass media and culture.?
'A RED LINE'
Ahead of Friday?s talks, Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti has been explaining France?s position, telling Reuters TV that France will ?defend the cultural exception to the end ? that's a red line.?
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told France?s parliament: "France will go as far as using its political veto. This is about our identity, it's our struggle."
Michel Hazanavicius, who won the Academy Award for best director in 2012 for "The Artist," wrote in the Financial Times that ?Europe needs an 'exception culturelle'."
?This is an important deal but I fear this could mark the moment when Europe enters a new era ? one in which politics surrender to the market and sacrifice one of our continent?s most precious assets: its culture,? he wrote.
Trying to draw France to the table, officials have reportedly agreed to allow member states a say in the negotiations when it comes to audiovisual. ?I think the commission?s stance on this, trying to convince France, is a clear message to the US that the EU really wants this to happen,? says Guillaume Xavier-Bender of German Marshall Fund of the US in Brussels.
It?s a compromise also drawn in fear that if exclusions are placed at the outset, the US will place its own demands, limiting what can ultimately be agreed.
Both sides have an incentive to put aside differences and move forward, and not just because of jobs, but the political awards and the potential to set global standards for everything from cars to data privacy to chemicals.
?You can certainly see it as a way to cement the relationship in an era in which the NATO relationship has become less relevant,? says Mr. Kirkegaard. ?Secondly it?s an agreement much less about tariffs ? because barriers are relatively small. It has much more to do with industrial standards?. [The standards] become de facto because of the size of the combined market.?
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Europe? Take our geography quiz.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/could-french-flicks-derail-us-eu-free-trade-130140081.html
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Eddy Cue: Apple's star witness in the e-book antitrust trial/Cue was at the center of what the DOJ calls an illegal scheme to fix the price of e-books.
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| THURSDAY BLOWOUT: Every NEW or RENEWING paid subscriber receives 2 YEARS FREE. Agree/Disagree: WWDC keynote finally defined Apple post-Steve Jobs. Vote for the results in the left column below or go straight to the results here. Today's MU PROMO offers 50% savings on MacTuneUp 7.0. "MacTuneUp is a one-stop shop for improving your Mac?s speed and reliability. Clear caches, remove log files, exterminate duplicates, and more. Manager your disk, manage your performance -- that?s MacTuneUp." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Finnish carrier DNA confirms it will be the first to launch Jolla phones running Sailfish
Jolla recently revealed its first phone, and now Finland-based carrier DNA has confirmed it will be the first operator in the world to offer the self-titled handset. Running the Sailfish operating system, these devices continue on a path blazed by Meego while also promising Android app compatibility out of the box. The Jolla phone features 4.5-inch "HD" display, dual-core CPU, 16GB storage with microSD expansion slot, LTE and an 8MP rear camera. Our hands-on demo should reveal a bit more about what it's bringing to the table (including an interesting split design that could allow future hardware augmentation), interested local residents can hit the source link to pre-order one now.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: DNA
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IdHN7Q4RKTk/
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Black locust tree shows promise for biomass potential
June 13, 2013 ? Researchers from the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois, evaluating the biomass potential of woody crops, are taking a closer look at the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), which showed a higher yield and a faster harvest time than other woody plant species that they evaluated, said U of I associate professor of crop sciences Gary Kling.
"For now the only thing you can do with it is use it for direct combustion," Kling said. "But if it becomes a major crop other researchers could start working on the process of how to break it down," he said. "The EBI is working on how to get the sugars out of plants and how to turn those to alcohols. It is a very tough thing to do. It's typically been tough to break down the biomass in woody plants to make it useful for alcohol production. Our plan is to be able to take anything we grow and convert it into a drop-in fuel."
Kling said he and his team's role in the EBI's feedstock production/agronomy program, is to improve the production aspects of bioenergy crops. While other researchers in the program have evaluated miscanthus, switchgrass, and prairie cord grass, Kling is examining which short-rotation woody crops grow best in the Midwest.
"Robinia pseudoacacia is showing great potential as a biomass crop for Midwestern energy production, out-yielding the next closest species by nearly three-fold," Kling said. "We picked the best crops and moved those forward. Other crops may catch up, but black locust was the fastest out of the gate. We will pursue other crops as well for a number of years, but we want to move to the next step which is on to improved selections."
As part of the initial study, two-year old seedlings were planted in the spring of 2010, grown over the summers of 2010 and 2011, and were then coppiced in the winter of 2011-2012. By coppicing the plants after a period of growth, or cutting the plants back from a single stem just a few inches from the ground, Kling explained that this process allows the plant to grow back with multiple stems coming from the base and shoots coming up from underground root systems.
"Black locust is effective at colonizing an area, because it freely branches like that," Kling said. "It's a good candidate for this kind of treatment, but not all plants will tolerate this process. It forces the plants to essentially grow up as shrubs, with more frequent harvests. By planting much closer together and causing them to branch like that, you are able to fill up available space, intercept light more quickly, and use the field resources more efficiently."
Researchers assumed they would harvest 3 to 5 years after coppicing, which is comparable to woody crops such as the willow. "After that first coppicing in February 2012, and then after last year's very early spring, the black locust was growing quite rapidly. It was already a foot tall when we had that freeze in the middle of April, which froze them back to the ground. They began to regrow and put out new shoots in May. By the end of last season, the plants were nearly equivalent to the first two years' growth," he said.
This spring, a preliminary check on the black locust crops, which included harvesting 3 plants from the edge of the field, produced a yield of 12 to 13 mega grams per hectare (Mg ha-1), which exceeded what was produced over the first two years' growth, Kling said.
This rapid growth is what distinguished the black locust from other woody plants in the study.
"We are now looking at harvesting every 2 years rather than every 3 to 5 years as we first assumed," Kling explained. "This would allow producers to get some payback a lot quicker from their investment."
Based on these encouraging findings, Kling said two new experiments were started this spring, through the EBI, both looking at different germplasm for black locust crops. In the first, Kling said seedlings were ordered from 10 different commercial sources across 8 states.
"We wanted to sample as much commercial germplasm as we could to see if some are faster growing," he said. "For example, in Hungary, with appropriate selection, researchers were able to improve yield by approximately 25 percent compared to unimproved black locust. We're certainly in our infancy yet in terms of trying to improve and select for improved yield, but you've got to start somewhere and looking at different germplasm sources is one way to do that."
The second experiment involved obtaining seed sources internationally through the USDA, including seeds from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. Seeds were also taken from the site of a remediated quarry area in Vermillion County where they found native black locust growing.
The seeds and seedlings for the two new evaluations were treated in greenhouses over the winter, and then planted in EBI fields this spring. Kling said he and the other researchers will evaluate whether to coppice the plants at the end of 1 or 2 years.
"Illinois has a lot of land that is subpar for corn and soybeans, such as the southern part of state and northern parts of the state along rivers. Black locust could be cultivated along some of that area in large acreage. This would be well-suited to smaller producers who want to generate some of their own fuel," he said. "We do have some producers out there who are looking at alternatives, and there are a lot of farmers who have riparian areas that could potentially grow black locust as a minor crop, in central Illinois we're not going to see 100-acre lots of black locust growing, though."
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