Did You Know the President is Taking Over All TV and Radio Broadcasts on Nov. 9?

If you have ever wondered about the government’s ability to control the civilian airwaves, you will have your answer on November 9th. On that day, federal authorities are going to shut off all television and radio communications simultaneously at 2:00PM EST to complete the first ever test of the national Emergency Alert System (EAS).

This isn’t a wild conspiracy theory. The upcoming test is posted on the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau website. Only the President has the authority to activate EAS at the national level, and he has delegated that authority to the Director of FEMA. The test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).

In essence, the authority to seize control of all television and civilian communication has been asserted by the executive branch and handed to a government agency. The EAS has been around since 1994. Its precursor, the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), started back in 1963. Television and radio broadcasters, satellite radio and satellite television providers, cable television and wireline video providers are all involved in the system. So this begs the question: is the first ever national EAS test really a big deal? Probably not. At least, not yet.
But there are some troubling factors all coming together right now that could conceivably trigger a real usage of the EAS system in the not too distant future. A European financial collapse could bring down U.S. markets. What is now the “Occupy” movement could lead to widespread civil unrest. And there are ominous signs that radical groups such as Anonymous will attempt something major on November 5th- Guy Fawke’s day.

Now we know in the event of a major crisis, the American people will be told with one voice, at the same time, about an emergency.

All thats left to determine is who will have control of the EAS when that day comes, and what their message will be.

This is not good

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/emergency-alert-system-nationwide-test

Lakeside hosts Iditarod veteran

Lakeside hosts Iditarod veteran


By: Anastasia Scarborough
Published: October 17, 2011

Bill Borden is pictured with his dog team and his son, Jordan, during the Iditarod opening ceremonies. Borden and his 16 dogs competed in the 2002 Iditarod Race.

Imagine traveling from Orlando, Fla. to New York City in 20 below temperatures. All you have is a sled and 16 dogs. No one can touch your dogs and no one can help you.

That was the scenario Bill Borden described to Lakeside students last week. Borden, the first and only Georgian to complete Alaska’s famous Iditarod Sled Dog Race, visited the Lakeside School to show students the sled that took him over the 1,151 miles of the Iditarod trail from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. He also shared with them his incredible story of endurance, trust and faith.

Borden, a resident of Kennesaw, Ga. and a Kentucky native, competed in the Iditarod in 2002, becoming the 540th person to complete the trek. He told Lakeside students that the annual competition, which started in 1967, marks the United States’ 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia. The race takes competitors and their dogs over frozen tundra, lakes and rivers.

Borden’s 16 Alaskan huskies, led by lead dog Fisher King, were his sole companions during the trek and he told students that he literally trusted the dogs with his life.

“I pick my dogs in the way people should pick their friends,” he said. “The AKC (American Kennel Club) judges a dog based on its outward appearance. Mushers judge their dogs based on what’s inside.”

Loyalty and endurance were traits Borden considered when choosing his 16 teammates. He showed students his steel sled brake, bent by the power of his dogs.

“These dogs love to run. They aren’t working – they’re just having a good time. We simply harness their energy.”

The dogs proved to be as smart and loyal as they were strong on the journey, said Borden, describing how one of his wheel dogs, Lookout, stopped the team from toppling over a cliff near Mt. McKinley. And when Borden fell in freezing water near Ruby, Alaska, his dogs pulled him out.

Despite his stalwart dog team, Borden suffered a wrenched out back, a broken rib and a chipped kneecap during the race. He also endured little sleep, moose attacks and freezing temperatures, but finished the race in 14 days, 4 hours, 10 minutes and 14 seconds. He told students that finishing the race took more than resolve and a brave dog team – Borden says there were times that he knew God kept him and his team safe.

“There were times when I was alone, hurt, in the middle of nowhere. I was frustrated and I wanted to give up, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other,” he said.

Following Borden’s finish, he and his wife, Brenda, adopted out many of their dogs and returned to Georgia. Only two dogs that ran the race remain – Sidney, who lives in Alaska, and Tonto, 14, who lives with the Bordens.

To learn more about Borden and his story, visit www.cooldreams.net.

Bill Awards the 2010 VBA Busness of the Year

http://brightsidecobb.com/sv0111.pdf

Snow Allows Mushers To Use Sleds - News Story - WCYB Tri Cities

Snow Allows Mushers To Use Sleds - News Story - WCYB Tri Cities

4 X 4 Mackey Wins the 2010 Iditarod

Lance Wins

Thank You KTUU-TV for Iditarod 2010 Race Coverage

Dog race barks through the Boro

BY
SCOTT BRODEN
February 14, 2010


You don't have to shiver in Alaska to enjoy Iditarod sled dog racing.

A few dozen folks and their four-legged friends braved chilly but not freezing weather in Murfreesboro Saturday to experience the Music City Dryland Sled Dog Challenge.

To make the event work without snow, the dog teams were harnessed to various chariot-like carts on wheels. Local couple Rodney and Vicki Whaley organized the event at the city's Gateway Trail off College Street near Medical Center Parkway. "This is our first Music City Dryland race," said Vicki, who along with her husband resides in the Rockvale community southwest of Murfreesboro. "We plan for it to be an annual event."

Sled dog teams traveled to Murfreesboro from other Southern states. "We have three teams from Louisiana," Rodney said. "We have a musher from North Carolina. One from Bristol, Va. One from Chattanooga. One from Brentwood. Two from Mayfield, Ky." Rodney is a committed sled dog racer himself, having competed in the Iditarod in 2008. He and Vicki have four dogs: sisters, Chelan and Chinook; and rescued males Muktuk and Koyuk. The team visit local schools, including Cedar Grove Elementary in west Smyrna last Wednesday. The dogs and Rodney also showed off their talents during Saturday's event.

Fellow sled dog racer Bill Borden traveled here with his wife, Brenda, from the Atlanta area and is impressed with how Rodney has promoted the sport .

"You are looking at the infancy of a sport in this area," Bill said. "The snow mushers are thrilled the dryland mushers are pushing the sport. It's fantastic." He noted how dryland racing is a bit more dangerous than competing on snow. "I'd rather fall on snow than on pavement," said Bill, who wore a coat that boasts about finishing the Iditarod in 2002. He's one of 672 to complete the 1,151-mile Alaskan course that takes 14-plus days to reach. Bill hopes many sled dog fans will travel to Kennesaw, Ga., March 27 to see another dryland mushing event and the dedication of the Fisherking Iditarod Lead Dog Memorial Trail. Fisherking lived to be 18 and led Bill's Iditarod team. "Over 5,000 people are expected," Bill said.

Folks new to the sport also came to the Murfreesboro event. Luke and Molly Nemeth came with 6-year-old daughter, Lillian, and 4-year-old son, Lucas, as well as their mixed-breed shepherd, Matuka. "We've been trying to teach (Matuka) to pull," said Luke, who lives in the Barfield Road area of Murfreesboro. "He's not ready yet." The Nemeths, who own Dream Homes, Inc., got to know Rodney and Vicki Whaley and the couple's dogs by building them a log home. The family appreciates how Rodney will soon bring his sled dog team to MTSU's Child Development Center where Lucas attends preschool. The dog sled history amazes the Nemeth family. W never knew someone in Tennessee ran the Iditarod," said Luke, noting how they realized what a commitment it takes to train, compete and promote the sled-dog sport.

To learn more about sled dog racing in Tennessee visit the Web site: http://www.tnsleddogs.com/

Dog run on the Creeper Trail attracts Iditarod mushers and lots of fans | TriCities

By Debra McCown Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier

Published: January 16, 2010

DAMASCUS, Va. – The snow might be gone after Saturday’s spring-like thaw, but that didn’t keep the dogsleds off the trail. Pulling wheeled carts, teams of sled dogs on the Virginia Creeper Trail re-enacted the 1925 serum run that brought badly needed diphtheria antitoxin 674 miles from Nenana to Nome, Alaska. “The dogs are actually putting on a show to help other dogs,” said Marcia Horne, president of the Siberian Husky Assist rescue in Bristol, Va., which organized the re-enactment as part of its fourth-annual Winterfest, a fundraiser in Damascus. “In 1925 the dogs ran to save human lives,” Horne said, “and today they ran to save other dogs’ lives.”

The event, which began in Abingdon and relayed at three points along the trail before the dogs arrived in Damascus, attracted a lot of local folks interested in the dogs and the festivities but also sled dog enthusiasts from several states. “It’s not quite Alaska, but it’s the closest I can get right here,” Rodney Whaley said as he prepared for his leg of the run from the halfway point at the Old Alvarado Station. “There’s not many places where there are Southern dog mushers that get together.” Whaley, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was one of a few in attendance who had run in Alaska’s legendary Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race. Though his dogs got sick on the trail and he didn’t finish, he said he’s the only Tennessean who has attempted “the world’s toughest race.”

Bill Borden, of Kennesaw, Ga., is one of the 672 mushers who’ve finished the Iditarod in its 37 years of existence. “It’s 90 percent mental,” said Borden, who uprooted his family for three years to compete in the race after an unlikely series of events that began in 1997 when he saw a city-limit sign in Wasilla, Alaska, that read, “Home of the Iditarod.” “I was in Georgia, with a mortgage office, a real estate office and a law office, and everybody said, ‘You’re going to do WHAT?’ ” he said. Now a motivational speaker who brings his message of perseverance, goal-setting and faith to the public school system, he said God was the one who inspired him to run the race. Lisa Akers, a fourth-grade teacher at Rhea Valley Elementary School, also uses sled dogs to capture the imagination of her students. Akers’s students study dogsledding and the mushers who drive the sleds. Then, they build sleds out of wood, cardboard, metal and PVC pipe and race them around the track at the school. She said she began the program after a trip to Alaska close to a decade ago, “to teach them more about what’s out there in the world, different opportunities.” “I’ve had several of the students tell me they’re going to be mushers when they grow up,” she said. “I don’t know if they will or not.” One of her former students, Katie Gilbert, 14, said she’d like to try it – and she finally talked her dad into getting a husky. Her next plan: Get a three-wheeled cart for the dog, Smokey, to pull. “I always wanted to go somewhere very cold,” she said. “I’ve lived around here and Abingdon all my life, and I’d just like to go somewhere different.” Jordan Blewett, 12, of Mayfield, Ky., helps her father with his dogsled team. She’s done it since she was born. She’s never done it on real snow, she said, “but I’m hoping to in the future.” “We are actually the fastest dogsled team in Kentucky,” said her father, Jeff Blewett, “but we’re the only dogsled team in Kentucky.” Blewett said his team gets most of its practice on gravel and logging roads in a nearby recreation area – and dogsleds on wheels are becoming more common. “I love snow, don’t get me wrong, but this sport is growing in its own right because a lot of places in America just don’t get that much snow anymore,” he said, adding that of a dozen or so dry-land dogsled races in the country, the ones here and in Nashville are the farthest south. Some people in attendance Saturday said they’re planning to get started with mushing because of the festival. “I thought it was cool that one dog could pull a bike with a man in it,” said 12-year-old James Gray. “I think we’re going to try that,” said his father, David Gray. “We’re getting a scooter within the month,” said Justin Keiper, who came from Boone for the festival with girlfriend Karen Niven and huskies Akira and Kodi. Randy Camper, of Abingdon, said he would’ve loved to see the sleds run on snow – and if the event had been a weekend earlier, it could have happened. Horne said people from the rescue tried it – but the snow wasn’t thick enough. But the dogs, she said, are a high-energy breed and love pulling – whether it’s a sled or a cart. Damascus Mayor Creed Jones said he was glad to see a crowd in town in the middle of January – and he’d like to see more events like this to help boost the town’s otherwise seasonal tourism economy. “This is good, but we still need something else in the winter,” he said, announcing that the door is open to anyone who can come up with a good idea to help grow the town’s winter tourism potential. “This is a great event and the most fun I’ve had on the Creeper Trail in a long time,” said Abingdon Mayor Ed Morgan, who began the re-enactment by handing off a package to be run to Damascus.

Borden, the musher from Georgia, also had a suggestion. “Running sponsor ads on race cars, they go so fast nobody can see them,” he said. “If they really want their logos to be seen, they should put them on a dogsled ... it’s slow enough so people can see them.”

There are more photos of the event at: http://www.duesouth.com/

Sled Dogs on the Creeper Trail

Alaska Serum Run Re-enactment
Virgina, USA
January 14


I will be the featured speaker at the Winterfest Serum Run Re-enactment in Damascus, VA on Saturday January 16. The Serum Run starts at 10:00AM on the Virginia Creeper Trail and

will feature Siberian Huskies and all types of carts, bikes, sleds on wheels, etc as the group transports the “serum” package down the trail. The “serum” is handed from the steam locomotive to the first relay musher at 10:00AM and it is relayed to Watauga parking lot; that musher will relay to Alvarado Station and then on to the Iron Horse Campground… All mushers will then parade the 2.2 miles to the park in Damascus, ETA 12:15.
At the park in Damascus, there will be Alaska Lumberjack competition hosted by Virginia Tech Forestry Club. Also, Intermont Search and Rescue will do a presentation about searching for lost people. There will be a bonfire to keep warm provided at the park by the Town of Damascus. At 5:00 there is a Meet the Mushers event where I will auction mushing related items to benefit the Siberian Husky Assist Rescue Group and then there will be a buffet dinner at Quincy’s Restaurant about a block from the park.

Here is the link for more information - http://www.siberianhuskyassist.com/info/display?PageID=3443

The New Mortgage Good Faith Estimate Form

Who's Form Is It?
by Bill Borden

Happy New Year, everyone!

As usual, we’re ringing in the New Year with a lot of resolutions, new expectations and new goals. While we ponder what the government is going to do to “fix” health care and stabilize our economy, we can look at on change that DID happen and is now in effect: a new Good Faith Estimate form and a new HUD-1 Settlement Statement.
While change may be good, it is hard to find people in the real estate or mortgage business who are happy with the changes. This is a response to an article in REALTOR® Magazine that I found online:

“Unfortunately, the new GFE does not address two points of major importance: 1) How much to close and 2) How much is the monthly payment? In fact, the new GFE addresses closing costs in such a way as to confuse the borrower immensely, because it addresses the costs as ‘Total Settlement Charges” and does not include some important offsets, yet makes us include items that are historically paid by the seller. On page 1, it addresses the monthly payment in two sections–one concerning only principle, interest, and mortgage insurance and the other addressing only payment of escrows for taxes and property insurance. This is more confusing to the consumer! Everyone in this business understands that taxes, insurance, and HOA fees can add hundreds to the monthly payment, yet they’re not addressed clearly in the GFE. The fact that a three-page document has 42 pages of explanatory handouts and 51 pages of FAQs (four per page) tells me that this is the most ill-designed form I have ever seen!”

It seems that the new and improved forms raise as many questions as answers. Yes, the language is basically more clear, but it seems like HUD would’ve gotten some more input from focus groups made up of “average” consumers and from real estate practitioners (agents, brokers, closing attorneys, etc.) before they gave the forms the thumbs up and introduced them into use.

After sitting through several webinars, reading numerous “explanations” and such, I am still confused as to how this might be more helpful to you, the consumer. If you have questions, give Checkpoint Mortgage a call and bring in your GFE’s and we will work through it together.

Bill Borden, Vinings Business Association's President presents Frank Smith of Soho Atlanta restaurant the 2009 Vinings Business of the Year award

The Neighborhood Newspaper covers the event.

CLICK HERE to read the article