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Higher initial cost: Walk-in tubs can cost significantly more than traditional bathtubs, especially if you need to do any pre-installation electrical or plumbing work.
Might require a water heater upgrade: Walk-in tubs can hold anywhere from 40–100 gallons of water, with most averaging 50 gallons. If you have a small water heater, you’ll want to upgrade in order to ensure you have a hot bath every time.
Installation could be complicated: Some homes, especially older ones, will need to update their electrical and plumbing systems before a walk-in tub can be installed. Your walk-in tub company can work with you to determine what needs to be done before installation.
Bottom line: Overall, walk-in tubs provide a safe and comfortable bathing experience. They can be a welcome addition to any bathroom and are especially beneficial for individuals with mobility issues.
Looking for a walk in tub?
Grassi, 67, is a goodhearted man who does not define himself by his sexual orientation, but by his integrity. He laughs, cries, sleeps; he works at his own business, he has friends and relatives.
He received his formal education from Jesuit priests at a school in Santa Fe, Argentina. This is the school where in the early 1960s Jorge Mario Bergoglio was his literature and psychology teacher — the future pope, and the first from Latin America.
“I am fortunate to have known Father Bergoglio, or Carucha, as he was nicknamed by the students,” Grassi told me during a recent telephone conversation.
But how did their friendship evolve? One day Grassi’s mother, Amalia, invited Bergoglio to their home for dinner and asked about his favorite dish: “Gnocchi,” replied the priest. That became the first of many shared memories.
By 1978, Grassi had immigrated to the United States, where hard work, sacrifice, perseverance and a deep drive toward self-improvement propelled him to professional success. He started out as a worker in the catering industry and eventually became director of catering at the National Gallery of Art. A decade ago, he launched his own company.
When he heard that Pope Francis was coming to Washington, D.C., he requested a meeting through the Vatican and waited. To his surprise, he received a telephone call three weeks before the pope’s visit — Francis wanted to give him a hug.
“You're crazy to make the time to see us,” Grassi told his former teacher during their emotional meeting, captured on video. “No, by God! Thank you for coming!” Francis replied.
This episode of tolerance and respect was a reflection of authentic Christian values, the values of the Gospel.
Francis once again made space under his miter for everyone. He affirmed the bonds of friendship, benevolence and mutual trust with a man with whom he has maintained an honest rapport, despite the tension caused by dogmatic issues about gays and the Catholic Church.
The message is simple yet powerful: If your friends are good people, you accept them and love them as they are. This is the example that a loving God has taught us and expects all of us to emulate.
Daniel Shoer Roth, an el Nuevo Herald columnist, writes about spirituality and values.
(Reuters) - China’s CCCC International Holding Ltd will buy Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc (ARE.TO) for C$1.51 billion ($1.18 billion), including debt, in a deal that would require Canadian government approval.
CCCI, the overseas investment and financing arm of engineering and construction company China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC), is paying 42 percent premium to Aecon’s share price on Aug. 24, a day before the Canadian company said it had engaged two financial advisers to explore a potential sale.
CCCC is a publicly traded company in Hong Kong (1800.HK) and in Shanghai (601800.SH) and has more 118,000 employees. In 2015, CCCI acquired Australia engineering firm John Holland.
China’s acquisition of Canadian targets hit an annual record of $21.2 billion in 2012, helped by state-owned oil firm CNOOC’s (0883.HK) purchase of Nexen Energy for $17.9 billion that year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Since then, Chinese acquisition of Canadian companies has slowed after some members of the then-governing Conservative Party had misgivings about the CNOOC-Nexen deal. The government then said the CNOOC-Nexen was the last deal of its kind that it would approve, drawing a line in the sand against state-controlled companies taking any further majority stakes in the oil sands.
While Aecon does not operate in a sensitive sector, the deal needs regulatory approvals under the Investment Canada Act, the Canadian Competition Act and from relevant authorities in China, the companies said.
CCCI has agreed to keep Aecon headquartered in Canada and retention of Aecon’s Canada-based employees.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, which would rank as the ninth biggest Chinese acquisition of a Canadian company, the data showed.
The transaction will help Aecon get access to capital to take up more larger and complex projects in Canada, the company said.
CCCI has developed several large and medium-sized ports and navigation channels along China’s coast and inland rivers and has actively participated in and competed for projects under external assistance and the international contracting projects.
BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities are acting as joint financial advisors to Aecon. Barclays is acting as financial advisor to CCCI.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System on Wednesday approved a 16 to 18 percent increase in health care benefit rates for 2004, a move that may prompt some public agencies to seek health coverage from other insurers.
The decision represents the culmination of months of negotiations for CalPERS, which covers 1.2 million members. Critics say the rate increases, though lower than the 31 percent rate increases the health maintenance organizations originally proposed earlier this year, are still high.
we can see the burden coming our way."
Sidney Abrams, chairman of CalPERS' health committee, said health care costs are a national problem and many of the increases are out of CalPERS' control. "We have become painfully aware that, as big as we are, we do not control the marketplace at this point," he said.
Premiums in 2004 will rise by an average of 16.7 to 18.4 percent. For Blue Shield members, that's a 17 to 18.4 percent increase and for Kaiser patients, the increase ranges from 16 to 18.2 percent. Rates for Western Health Advantage, an HMO available only in the Sacramento area, will go up 32.8 to 34. 5 percent, though it remains the least expensive plan.
Premiums for PERSChoice, a preferred provider organization or PPO, will rise as much as 18.5 percent. Rates for its smaller, more expensive PPO, PERCare, will drop slightly.
The board may make some minor adjustments to what its health benefits committee recommended a day earlier, such as setting emergency room visit fees at $50 instead of $75 and changing some of the drug co-payments. Fees for drugs not preferred by the plans will increase, but that increase may not apply if it's determined no other drug will work.
The rate boosts could set the stage for increased competition next year for public agencies that are disenchanted with CalPERS' rate increases. The cost of insuring members in Northern California is considerably higher than in the southern part of the state because of demographic differences and hospital consolidations, which have stifled competition.
Southern California CalPERS cities, counties and public agencies have been frustrated because they feel they are basically subsidizing the high costs in the north. The board did consider regionalizing rates -- charging higher rates in the north than in the south -- but opted to table that idea for now.
"We've already started looking elsewhere. It's not exclusively the rate increases; it's also (CalPERS') insensitivity to Southern California public contracting agencies," said Gordon Youngs, personnel services director for the Southern California city of Brea, which has 500 city employees and retirees.
Youngs said the bids he's received have been 5 to 20 percent lower than CalPERS rates.
Riverside County dropped CalPERS this year in favor of other offerings after the pension fund dropped PacifiCare and Health Net for 2003.
Private health care insurers see those disgruntled public agencies as potential customers and are getting into the act by designing plans to meet their needs. PacifiCare of California, for example, on Tuesday introduced a new plan designed specifically for public agencies.
"The interest has been huge," said Mike Mallory, vice president of large group sales for PacifiCare. He said that two-thirds of the interest is coming from the south, but that a number of Northern California agencies, especially those with younger, healthier employees, are interested in the option.
Such a plan would allow PacifiCare to pick up some of the members it lost when CalPERS dropped it from its offerings. "It's not about getting even, as it were," said PacifiCare spokesman Tyler Mason. "It's about offering a product in the marketplace that's appropriate for the times."
Public agencies have 60 days from Wednesday to let CalPERS know whether they plan to leave.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw Carol Regier on the news. Her husband, 64-year-old Thomas Hollowell, died last month when a speeding driver struck him on Constitution Avenue NW.
According to police, who made an arrest earlier this month, Hollowell was hit as he rode his bike across 12th Street NW on Sept. 24. The driver was a 20-year-old Suitland, Md., man who ran a red light “at a high rate of speed.” Hollowell was the 27th person to die on D.C.’s streets this year, including three bicyclists and 13 pedestrians, making a mockery of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “Vision Zero” goal of eliminating road deaths and serious traffic injuries by 2024. On Oct. 12, a 70-year-old woman died after being hit by a pickup truck while walking in a crosswalk at 15th and H streets NW.
As I watched Regier plead with drivers to slow down, I felt my anger rise — as it does daily each time I’m nearly hit by cars while walking in this city.
It happens most often when I’m trying to cross the street with the walk sign. Apparently, a lot of drivers are unable to grasp that when they have a green light, pedestrians on their right have the walk signal.
I theorized to Peter Koonce, the signals and street lights division manager in Portland, Ore., that a lot of suburban drivers aren’t used to looking for pedestrians.
I’ve also almost been run over while crossing Louisiana Avenue NW at Constitution Avenue. Approaching the intersection, driver after driver will look down Constitution for a gap in the traffic — the way you do when you’re merging onto a freeway. And if there’s a space, they’ll run the red light without slowing down, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I have the right of way and am crossing right in front of them.
I’ve almost been hit while walking my dog on a marked crosswalk near H Street NE by cars running the clearly visible sign telling them to stop for pedestrians or face a $250 fine.
I’m not alone in thinking something fundamental has to change to make the streets safer and encourage more people to walk or bike, as other cities have already done.
At a hearing three days after Hollowell was killed, one person after another, for five hours, told D.C. City Council members about getting hit by cars.
Alex Baca, an activist with the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said her jaw was broken when she was hit by a car while riding her bike. A third of the people in her office have been hit by cars, she said.
Many vented that the city isn’t putting in bike lanes fast enough or taking other measures to make biking or walking safer.
“Frankly, right now no one believes Vision Zero is a serious undertaking,” City Councilman Charles Allen, D-Ward 6, said at the hearing.
In a series of emails and phone conversations after the hearing, city transportation officials argued that the city is, in fact, taking steps to protect pedestrians.
Sixty-two of the 87 traffic projects the city has undertaken over the past three years were aimed at improving pedestrian safety, said Wasim Raja, associate director of the city’s traffic engineering and signals division. That includes adding 48 Leading Pedestrian Intervals at intersections, so that pedestrians crossing the street get a walk signal a few seconds before cars making a right get a green light. Ideally, this means drivers will be more likely to yield.
The intervals have been added to 200 intersections in the city, and 90 more will be added in November, mainly in Southeast and Southwest. The city has increased the time pedestrians have to cross the street and added more of those buttons you hit to get a walk signal at several locations. Bowser has also proposed raising fines for traffic violations.
Councilwoman Mary M. Cheh, D-Ward 3, floated the idea of separating pedestrians, bicycles and cars from each other, as some cities have done, by creating a bike lane next to the sidewalk, then a lane for parked cars, then the traffic lanes.
And other U.S. cities about D.C.'s size, like Portland, seem to have a different mindset about their streets, one that prioritizes pedestrian safety over speed of traffic.
In D.C., traffic light cycles are generally based on cars going the 25 mph speed limit. In Portland’s downtown, lights are timed for vehicles to hit green lights by going 13 mph.
In a phone call, Koonce said his city did this because it wants to slow cars down and create an environment conducive to walking.
On a corridor used heavily by bicyclists going to and from Portland’s downtown, the lights are set based on an uphill speed of 16 mph and 18 mph downhill, tied not to the speed of cars but to make it more likely bicyclists at a normal pace will hit green lights.
In D.C., traffic lights are set to complete the cycle from green to yellow to red and back to green again in 80 to 120 seconds. To encourage people to walk more — by not making them wait forever in the rain, cold or heat to cross — Portland sets its signals to complete the cycle in 60 seconds.
It’s a different way of thinking that doesn’t seem to be catching on here.
There’s been some signs of progress. But clearly, D.C. doesn’t do enough. Sixteen pedestrians and bicyclists have died this year, and there most likely will be more.
Got a question? Send it to kery.murakami@washpost.com or @theDCrider.
Open strollers are barred from Metro’s buses. That could soon change.
DC Rider’s Answer Line: Forget hot cars. How many cold car complaints does Metro receive?
DC Rider’s Answer Line: Are the escalators at Union Station’s Metro going the wrong way?
With ride-hailing services like Uber actively exploring taxi services backed by self-driving cars, one of Japan’s biggest car manufacturers is now moving into this space as well. Nissan has announced its plans to launch its very own self-driving taxi service in Japan. Nissan is partnering with DeNa for its Easy Ride self-driving taxi service that’s going to be launched on March 5th in its home country.
Since the service is backed by fully autonomous cars, they will be tested in a limited area initially. Riders in the Minato Mirai district of Yokohama in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture will be able to use a new app to call one of these self-driving taxis.
These cars will be geofenced along a 4.5 kilometer route running between Nissan’s global headquarters and the Yokohama World Porters mall. As we’ve seen in other tests of fully autonomous cars, there will always be a safety driver behind the wheel who will take over should anything go wrong. A remote operations center will monitor all of the trips to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
While they’re in the car, riders can use the in-car tablet to browse selections of almost 500 recommended places of interest and events in the vicinity. They will also be able to download about 40 discount coupons for retailers and restaurants in the area on their own smartphones.
Nissan and DeNa says that after the initial public testing is completed, they plan on expanding this self-driving taxi service to a wider market by 2020.
Cristiano Ronaldo recently joine Juventus, which will the opponent in next week’s MLS All-Star game.
Cristiano Ronaldo headlines a group of players who weren’t included on the roster released by Juventus on Sunday for its series of games in the U.S.
The legendary Italian team will play the MLS All-Stars at Atlanta United’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 1.
The team bought Ronaldo, arguably the world’s best player, from Real Madrid earlier this month.
Also not on the roster are Juan Cuadrado, Mario Mandzukic, Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala.
The group that will come to the U.S. includes German standouts Sami Khedira and Emre Can, Brazilian Alex Sandro, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Miralem Pjanic and Italian Giorgio Chiellini.
More than 65,000 tickets have been sold for the MLS All-Star game.
At The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, journalist and author Jonathan Fenby challenges the assumption that China’s continued rise is inevitable, and catalogues the dizzying range of problems facing its next generation of leaders.
China’s rise is a commonplace of our times. The last major state on earth ruled by a Communist party appears set to dominate the planet, surpassing an anaemic west and owning the 21st century. After the temporary economic downturn of 2008, its growth has soared once more to make it the planet’s second biggest economy. Everything about it is huge, starting with its 1.3 billion people. Its Communist party is the planet’s biggest political movement; it contains 55% of the world’s pigs; its people smoke 38% of the cigarettes consumed on earth ….
The reality is that, as it prepares for a wholesale change of leadership starting later this year, the People’s Republic faces fundamental tests which will determine if it is able to continue its upwards trajectory or will be caught by the deep flaws in its system – political, economic and social ….
Despite all these fault lines, China is not going to collapse; it is far too resilient for that. Its growth has made more people materially better off in a shorter space of time than ever before in human history and this breeds loyalty to a system. But two things are clear. It does not provide a model for the rest of the world as its admirers might wish, and the danger now is that, unless Xi Jinping and his colleagues in the new politburo undertake serious reform, China will be stuck in an increasingly outdated groove, out of tune with its needs and aspirations.
It can turn left in the direction of even more party control and state power. That was Bo Xilai’s route, which now seems to be blocked. Or it can veer right by helping private companies which have been squeezed by privileged state enterprises and embarking on a major programme of reform. This is sorely needed. Deng’s revolution remains incomplete and, in many ways, has been scaled back by the expansion of the state since the 1990s ….
The probability is that China will take the middle road, continuing on a course with which its leaders are familiar. There will be change — the new Five-Year Plan provides for rebalancing the economy towards consumption and for a move up the technology chain. But progress will be slow. An official from the Party School remarked to me that the move away from dependence on exports and investment in property and infrastructure would take ten years. Muddling through, albeit at 7 to 8 per cent annual growth, will be the order of the day.
The snag is that China may be running out of time.
No single book could ever describe the full complexity of contemporary China, and Fenby has made tough but judicious decisions about what to leave out. Perhaps the most regrettable omission, though, is the neglect of Chinese culture. Although the pace of life in China can often seem too frenetic to permit anyone to settle down long enough to write, film or paint anything, its flourishing literary, cinema and art scenes offer fragmentary but intensely individual insights into this confounding country – a welcome counterbalance to the big headline stories about industry, GDP, diplomacy and political succession. But as a one-stop guide to political and economic realities in China today, Tiger Head, Snake Tails is fast-moving, informed and illuminating.
Liberal Democrat opposition to an increase in value added tax was political point-scoring, business secretary Vince Cable has claimed.
The coalition government will make it easier for Britain's long-term unemployed to relocate to find work, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
US treasury secretary Tim Geithner's advice to Europe and Japan to keep spending appeared to signal disapproval of Britain's emergency Budget cuts, as violence erupted at the G20 summit in Canada.
The Unite union has postponed its planned ballot of cabin crew staff as members are given the chance to consider an offer by British Airways.
The 'special relationship' has been boosted by alcohol as David Cameron and Barack Obama exchanged bottles of beer, resolving a World Cup bet.
David Cameron was set to defy Argentina's demands for the renewal of talks over the fate of the Falkland Islands as talks on the fringe of the G8 and G20 summits in Canada continued.
Former shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe could be appointed Britain's ambassador to the Vatican, according to a report.
A temporary limit on the number of migrant workers from outside the EU allowed into Britain is expected to be announced tomorrow.
David Cameron used close historic ties with India and the lure of prosperous future trade with China as he advanced the coalition's agenda to rebalance Britain's diplomatic stance towards Asia.
Two polls released today showed the Liberal Democrats slipping back to just 16%, seven points worse than their general election result.

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