Articles

TASA ID: 3877

ANALYZE THE AMOUNT DUE ON THE MORTGAGE or DEED OF TRUST.  Math Sleuths.  The loan amount is $750,000.  The probable rate of interest is 5.25%.  The term is 30 years, the date of the mortgage is August 1, 2017. The monthly payments are $4,142.00.  The unpaid balance is $738,518.   Assuming a loan to value ratio of 75%/Value, the purchase was $1,000,000 and down payment $250,000.00.  Assuming that the monthly payment must equal one quarterly monthly payment, the gross income of the defendant is about $16,000 a month or makes $192,000.00 a year.

TASA ID: 2156

So the operative question here is: “when media exposure of a negative event or activity harms the image or reputation of a person or entity, is it actionable in terms of a lawsuit?”  The answer is, “yes and no.”  I’ve served as an expert witness in numerous cases relating to media reports that caused damage, representing both the plaintiff’s (those claiming harm) and the defendant’s (those that took the actions that resulted in the media reports).  Let’s be clear about one thing first, the media is not the culprit and cannot be the targets of lawsuits if their reports were accurate as to the facts and there was no judgements made in the reports as to guilt or innocence.  One might quibble about the extent of the coverage provided or whether it was fair or balanced but the media has a right to report the news as long as it is fair and accurate.

TASA ID: 12689

This article was originally published in The Texas Investigator, www.tali.org

The Dilemma

In this new millennium forward-thinking security executives know that it’s virtually impossible to purchase security technologies on the cheap. This is especially true since terrorism hit our shores in early September 2001 – when virtually every American began buying security-related technologies by the bushel and the prices began to skyrocket.How does a security administrator proceed? One possible approach to solving this dilemma might lie in learning to think outside of the proverbial box and seek to implement less costly security strategies that can do the job effectively. In today’s budget-conscious atmosphere, stretching the security dollar is both an art and a science. The art lies in the company’s ability to solve protection related deficiencies using existing resources, whilst the science lies in architecting protection strategies that meet and/or exceed industry benchmarks. Obviously, if security enhancement dollars are readily available then all is well. But in most cases such dollars are scarce and the secret to achieving success in this endeavor may lie in finding low cost initiatives that can further strengthen and deepen protection availability without blowing up the budget.  

TASA ID: 11934

This article was originally published in Transmission & Distribution World, www.tdworld.com, September 2016.

Typically, utilities have leaks that occur inside conduits, along cracks and at pipe penetrations. The conduit problem, for example, occurs where the conduit penetrates inside a structure such as a building foundation, a manhole or a vault. Water infiltration occurs inside the structures at the annular space between the cables and the conduit. This leakage can fill an underground vault with water, depending on the water table elevation. 

TASA ID: 13340

This article originally appeared in The Rheumatologist, 2008 - https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/perils-of-pain-meds/ and has been granted permission to be republished on The TASA Group website.

Over the last decade, an expansion in the use of opioids has been advocated by certain pain specialists as well as pharmaceutical companies. In my opinion, this has occurred in the absence of valid data that support the claims that opioids can effectively and safely be extended beyond cancer to most patients with chronic non-cancer pain with a low risk of addiction. Such claims have subsequently been found to be inaccurate, and the original
statement about the low rate of addiction to a common oxycodone sustained-release formulation has been shown to be false (as recently admitted by pharmaceutical company executives as a result of a Federal indictment).