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Sunday, April 6, 2014 11:39 AM

Police are trying to trace two burglars who went on a spree across east Suffolk last night.

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Three properties in Hope Crescent, Melton, were targeted, while police are linking these to a similar crime in Snape.

The first house in Melton was broken into at around 7pm, when the burglars forced their way in by smashing the rear patio doors.

Once inside, rooms were searched and a laptop computer was stolen along with other items. Property was later found in a nearby garden.

Between 6.45-9.40pm, two men forced entry into another property by smashing the rear patio doors. They were disturbed by the homeowners and were seen fleeing over a rear fence.

Also, sometime between 7-11.30pm, a shed in the rear garden of a residential property in the same street was broken into, but nothing was taken.

Police are linking these to a further incident in Snape.

At around 10.50pm, the residents of a property in Drury Park were disturbed by a noise in their rear garden.

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Melton/Snape: Two men suspected in burglary spree

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24 Hr Emergency Electrician in Cary NC | Call 919-263-4145 | 27511 27512 27513 27518 27519 - Video

First pitch was a little more than an hour away Saturday night, yet Astros manager Bo Porter and his players quietly and surprisingly filed into the back rows of a conference room at Minute Maid Park to wait patiently for Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman.

Berkman noticed the 2014 Astros and told them they were free to beat it at any time to prepare for their game against the Angels. Porter, the players and the coaches remained in the room, catching a bit of a history lesson from the men who catapulted the franchise to its greatest glory.

Oswalt and Berkman signed one-day personal services contracts to retire as Astros, giving the franchise a chance to honor them with a pregame ceremony.

Over the last decade Roy and Lance have been the Houston Astros, said team president Reid Ryan.

Berkman and Oswalt were presented with personalized rocking chairs that had plaques of their career accomplishments, white felt Stetson hats and framed replicas of their 2005 World Series jerseys. They each will receive one of the Texas flags that flew at the state capitol in Austin.

This is our home, said Oswalt, who was traded in July 2010 to the Phillies. This is our home team.

Berkman was taken in the first round out of Rice in June 1997, and he made his debut in 1999 before establishing himself in the majors for good in 2000. Oswalt was picked in the 23rd round of the 1996 draft. He signed before the next years draft and made his debut with the club in 2001. He eventually finished second all-time in the franchises career victories list with 143.

Although he was overshadowed somewhat by Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, Berkman finished his Astros tenure with the franchises highest career slugging percentage (.549), on-base percentage (.410) and OPS (.959).

Berkman also led the Astros offense during the 2005 playoffs as they reached the World Series for the first time in franchise history when Oswalt won Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Oswalt and Berkman also played leading roles in 2004 when the franchise won a postseason series for the first time and got within a victory of reaching the 2004 World Series before losing the 2004 NLCS in seven games against the Cardinals.

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Astros honor Berkman and Oswalt in pregame ceremony

Lowly job There is a need for better money and incentives KK MUSTAFAH

Given better options, the rural poor are not keen on domestic work. Its for the middle class to be pragmatic and generous

Finding domestic help is very hard. Even harder is retaining such help assuming you do find them, and next to impossible if they are good. One response to this problem has been the mushrooming of agencies offering placement services of maids, cooks or drivers in exchange for a commission, often equivalent to two or more months salary. These contracts, renewable every 11-12 months, are unstable if not uneconomical arrangements.

A number of forces have contributed to the market for domestic workers taking this shape over the last decade or so. The first is liberalisation and economic growth, which have brought about an expansion in job opportunities for both skilled and unskilled workers. In addition, several welfare programmes initiated in the last few years provide wage support either directly through MGNREGA or indirectly in the form of highly subsidised foodgrains, mid-day meals to schoolchildren and other in-kind entitlement benefits.

All these have increased the value of what we call the outside option, that is, the benefits to be derived from choosing the next best alternative job. Unless the benefits from an alternate job are large enough, a worker will not want to switch from the job he/she is already doing.

While working at construction sites in cities may provide an attractive enough outside option, one cannot really say this about the job of domestic workers. The latter have to work long and odd hours, while engaging in every conceivable task from cooking and baby-watching to cleaning, washing and gardening. Why do this when the individual might as well stay in the village and do MGNREGA work and some seasonal farm labour?

Consequently, while rising middle-class incomes in recent times have driven up the demand for domestic workers, their supply corresponding to the outside option has gone down. It has led to an increase in wage rates in this market, but probably not enough.

The shortage of domestic workers we are seeing is, perhaps, only a consequence of their not being offered equilibrium market wages. This has a lot to do with middle-class attitudes that havent kept up with the new growth realities and even their own rising incomes. Wages in the domestic worker sector have simply not grown.Hence our first suggestion if you want to hire domestic help is: Offer equilibrium wages. When negotiating, think of the alternatives before the same workers and also the rate at which your own income has grown.

Efficiency wages

Our second suggestion is that having hired the domestic help that you now wish to retain, go beyond even paying equilibrium market wages. Pay higher than market wages what economists call efficiency wages. Henry Ford tried this first in 1914 and found the companys productivity and profits going up significantly.

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Why you should pay your maid more

After Your Treatment
Here are some tips to help with side effects and a smooth recovery.

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After Your Treatment - Video

What Lawn Treatment Best Suits Your Needs? PRO Member - TruGreen Offers Answers!
Lawn Treatments - so many to select from...PRO Member TruGreen, America #39;s Lawn Care Experts, where Your Lawn Means More - has been the leader in lawn care fo...

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What Lawn Treatment Best Suits Your Needs? PRO Member - TruGreen Offers Answers! - Video

Guest columnist Mark Bennett writes in favor of conventional lawn care methods. He is executive director of the Ohio Lawn Care Association.

The Ohio Lawn Care Association is a collective group of hundreds of professional lawn care operators from across the state. Every day, OLCAs members treat turfgrass in a number of settings including golf courses, parks, commercial and residential lawns. Strong, healthy turfgrass is a critical piece in helping our environment.

The Ohio State University Department of Horticulture and Crop Science has found that turfgrasses play an important role in preventing soil erosion, controlling dust and improving water runoff by holding the soil in place. Healthy turf has the ability to absorb and conserve water, filter water and prevent run-off, which is why turf is often used on slopes, roadsides and around parking lots.

Since turf is a perennial and stable ground cover, it slows storm water runoff reducing soil erosion potential and also improves the likelihood of the water infiltrating down through the soil, which improves groundwater recharge. Run-off and erosion of soil is considered to be one of the primary causes of nutrient contamination in our water systems.

How much extra energy would be used to cool a home if it werent for turfgrass? Again, the OSU Department of Horticulture and Crop Science has found that lawns are, on average, 30 degrees cooler than asphalt and 20 degrees cooler than bare soil in summer. Turfs cooling effects are also easy to feel. The EPA states the annual mean air temperature of a city with more than 1 million people can be 1.8 to 5.4 degrees warmer than its surroundings, and in the evening the difference can be as high as 22 degrees. This phenomenon, also known as the heat island effect, can increase summertime peak energy.

Dr. Marty Petrovic, of the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, has stated that judicious use of pesticides and fertilizers are needed for more than a cosmetic reason to keep a lawn dense and healthy. Products that enhance turfgrass health, including fertilizers and materials that control lawn pests are safe and effective when applied according to the material label directions. The application safety of lawn care materials is further enhanced when applied by lawn care professionals that follow application best practices, including:

Maintaining a 3-foot buffer strip of untreated turfgrass that abuts streams, ponds, or lakes.

Applying the right material, at the right rate, at the right time, for the right purpose.

The primary material applied to residential and commercial lawns is fertilizer, most of which is now phosphorous-free. Newer lawn care materials are becoming more readily available that have extremely low use rates and/or have extremely low toxicity rendering them nearly non-toxic.

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Chemical treatment of lawns is beneficial if used properly: Ohio Lawn Care executive

STILLWATER, Okla. Bennett Hall will be hosting the Bennett Jam at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the front lawn of the residence hall. Catherine Wilson, a freshman resident of Bennett, is co-chair of the sponsors and donations committee.

1 What is the Bennett Jam at Oklahoma State?

Bennett Jam is a benefit concert that Bennett Hall hosts each year. This year, all of the proceeds we raise are going to a little girl named Ainsley Peters who is currently battling leukemia.

2 How will Bennett Jam help the Peters family?

Ainsley is entering the maintenance round of chemotherapy, which means she still has around two years of treatment left. We are raising money to help the Peters family with medical expenses as well as lifestyle changes they have had to make to accommodate Ainsleys treatment.

3 Why was the Peters family chosen this year?

The Peters family lives in Stillwater, andAinsleys father, Chris, works for OrangeTech. Their involvement with OSU made them an easy choice to be this years recipient.

4 What entertainment and activities will there be?

We have fourmusical acts lined up this year: Marrell Jones,Voss, Jake Daniel Murphy and Travis McClearen.We willalso have food and raffle prizes that include a GoPro, a set of headphones donated by OrangeTech, and assorted gift cards from Stillwater stores and restaurants.

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Q5: Bennett Jam set Tuesday at O-State

Question: I saved several poinsettia plants from Christmas and would like to add them to the landscape. How much sun is needed and what other care is best?

Answer: It is hard to discard good-looking poinsettias that can give repeat performances next December. Find them a sunny-to-filtered-sun location. They grow in the sands but seem to do best when these sites are improved with liberal additions of organic matter. After planting, cut the poinsettias back to within 12 to 18 inches of the ground. Then keep them moist and apply a slow-release fertilizer every 3 to 4 months or as instructed on the label.

Allow the plants to make a foot of new growth, then remove the top 4 inches of each shoot. Continue to allow similar growth and repeat the pruning through the end of August. Also, look for mites and caterpillars throughout the growing seasons and control as needed.

Q: I have two dwarf schefflera plants with the variegated foliage. When is the best time to trim these plants?

A: Gardeners are planting lots of these attractive scheffleras with small palmate leaves that form dense shrubs 6 feet tall and wide in the sunny-to-shady spots of home landscapes. Like most tropicals, they continue growth year-round during the warmer weather and there is no special time to do the trimming. You be the judge and trim them as needed.

It's probably best to avoid shearing the plants and instead selectively remove the longer shoots back to branch angles or areas along the stems just above persistent leaves. If you wish, the cuttings can be easily rooted in vermiculite to grow more plants for the landscape.

Q. I pruned my hibiscus hedge last spring and never saw a bloom all year. I have two other leggy hibiscus plants that have been in bloom all year. Should I prune them, and, if so, when will they rebloom?

A. No blooms for a year is certainly a disappointment but not uncommon. Much of the recovery time needed depends on the severity of the pruning and the care afterward. Some gardeners do selective pruning with hibiscus by taking out or shortening the older stems. They leave a portion of the younger shoots that are starting to bloom. This way the plant is always producing some color.

When plantings are given a major pruning, the time to first blooms can be months to over a year. After pruning, give these plantings a light feeding with a blossom-booster product to encourage some growth. Too-heavy or frequent feedings can keep the plants producing only stems and leaves. Another feeding can be applied in June and August. Water during the dry times, but avoid overwatering that could encourage just foliage.

Q. My azaleas had black-and-yellow spots on the leaves fall through winter and the plants are thinning. Two appear to be dying. How can I help the plants?

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Poinsettias can stay in landscape with care

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Simon Rios/The Standard-Times Chuck Smiley, owner and operator of the Captain Haskell's Octagon House on Union Street, says the economy and increased competition have made the business harder than ever.

By SIMN RIOS

April 06, 2014 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD Before the Fairfield Inn arrived, about the only lodging available downtown was a handful of bed and breakfasts.

Now, with the expected construction of a second downtown hotel, the lodging landscape is poised to change once again.

Not everyone is happy about it.

"Prior to the hotel we were getting a chunk of people who were just happening by, looking for a place to stay (in New Bedford)," said Chuck Smiley, owner of Captain Haskell Octagon House, a Union Street B&B.

Now, he said, "I don't think I'm getting those people."

Smiley said the opening of the 106-room Fairfield Inn & Suites in June 2010 cut deep into his occupancy rates, which are about 50 percent of his most successful year. And with a proposed 141-room hotel at the landmark Rodman Candleworks building, Smiley said it could force him to close.

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Lodging landscape changing in New Bedford