When Taste of the Nation Toledo debuts at its new location at Levis Commons, Elias Hajjar and his father Labib will be there to lend their support.

The father and son are actively involved in Taste of the Nation Toledo, which will be held Sunday, April 26, from 5 to 11 p.m. at Fat Fish Blue. Elias is the owner of Poco Piatti while Labib owns the Beirut. Both will be participating restaurants at the event, which raises money to feed needy children in the area.

Labib, in particular, has been a longtime supporter of Taste of the Nation Toledo, Elias said. As a founding chairman, he helped to bring the national event to Toledo. He continues to serve on the steering committee and is responsible for bringing national chefs to Toledo to participate in the event.

“What’s great is that every dollar raised stays in the area,” Elias said, “and that’s what is so appealing to us.”

In addition to Taste of the Nation Toledo, Elias and Labib participate in the annual Oscar Night sponsored by the Greater Toledo Chapter of the American Red Cross as well as the Toledo Zoo’s ZootoDo.

“My father has always been very active in promoting local charities and events,” Elias said. “He believes in supporting the community, because all of the support that you give will come back tenfold. Ultimately, it’s about knowing your work, or your livelihood, can help to benefit so many people.”

Elias said his father instilled in him early on a sense of responsibility to give back to the community and help those less fortunate. He strives to pass along those same lessons to his own children.

“We are blessed to be comfortable in a certain sense, and it’s our duty and our responsibility to help out the less fortunate than us,” Elias said. “My father really believes that, and he instilled that in me as well.”

Six months ago, 58-year-old Marty Vick quit his job at an auto parts plant and took a position as a machine builder for local solar startup company Xunlight Corp.
After 40 years making vinyl for vehicles at Textile Leather in North Toledo, leaving the only job he’d ever known was a tough decision. But with the auto industry in tatters, Vick saw the writing on the wall.
Last month, Textile Leather closed its doors for good, laying off 60 remaining employees.
“I knew it was coming,” Vick said, as he stood next to shelves of photovoltaic solar panels in Xunlight’s squeaky-clean plant on Nebraska Avenue. “I was lucky. The only one that’s working now is me. Everyone else in unemployed.”

Marty Vick

Vick’s seamless career transition may be an exception to the rule, but his story is by no means unique. At Xunlight, about half of the firm’s 90 full-time employees previously worked in other industries, such as auto production and glass manufacturing, said CEO Xunming Deng. Their skills can be transferred to making solar panels and the machines that produce them.
“Toledo is an industrial town and there are a lot of people familiar with building equipment,” Deng said. “Now, these people are working side by side with solar experts.”
Indeed, while mass layoffs and high unemployment dominate news headlines, Toledo’s burgeoning alternative energy industry has become a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy.
Xunlight, which began pilot production of its thin-film solar products nine months ago, has tripled its work force in the last year, said Liwei Xu, Xunlight’s co-founder and Deng’s wife. Another 15 positions have yet to be filled.
In Perrysburg, two other solar firms are also hiring.
First Solar, which is based in Arizona, but manufactures all of its U.S. panels here, is expanding production at its Perrysburg plant, creating at least 134 new jobs to add to the current workforce of 700.
Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC, a new company set up by veterans from other local alternative energy firms, has announced plans to begin mass commercial production of solar panels in the coming months. The operation is expected to employ 400 people by the end of the year, with wages averaging $21 an hour.
Already, 6,000 people in the Toledo area are employed at firms contributing to solar cell development and manufacturing, according to the Regional Growth Partnership, a nonprofit economic development group.
While this number pales in comparison to the thousands of lost manufacturing jobs, area officials are optimistic that the expansion of Toledo’s solar industry is a sign of greener things to come.
Kenneth Fallows, who leads the Environmental Council for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, said the success of the existing solar firms here is helping to bring other companies to the area. UT’s photovoltaic research facilities are another big attraction, he said.
“I think that Toledo really is on the threshold of being a leader in solar technology and solar manufacturing,” Fallows said. “It’s only one element, but it’s one element that could attract other elements and parallel industries and manufacturers to support it.”

Liwei Xu, Ph.D., Vice President Finance and Administration and her CEO husband, Xunming Deng.

Ryan Reiter, assistant for economic development to Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said solar panel makers are not the only alternative industries to show promise. Toledo’s manufacturing expertise and advantages as a distribution hub are attracting “green” entrepreneurs of all types from around the country, he said.
“Over the last two or three years, it’s really started to pick up,” Reiter said. “A lot of these guys are coming from the East and West Coast. These guys are known for their innovation, but they don’t have skilled labor out there.”
Among the startups that Reiter is working with is a firm interested in producing cellulosic ethanol, and another that makes lightweight materials for cars to improve their energy efficiency.
“I think this spring and summer is going to be very interesting,” Reiter said. “We’re close to brokering some good deals with some alternative energy companies.”
Challenges to the development of full-fledged green jobs market remain, however. For new alternative energy companies to prosper, money is needed to get them off the ground, according to Dan Slifko, business development manager for the Regional Growth Partnership.
“A lot of this requires a tremendous amount of research and development, which means you have to come up with a tremendous amount of money on the front end of this,” Slifko said.
Finding the money is particularly difficult at a time when access to credit has all but dried up. Nevertheless, companies, such as Xunlight have been able to take advantage of government grants and loans for alternative energy development. Willard & Kelsey is also seeking $100 million from the federal stimulus package to fund its expansion.
Ultimately, a real takeoff in the solar power market will depend on the consumer. Currently, virtually all of the solar panels produced in Northwest Ohio are shipped overseas or to other parts of the country. Solar power makes up only a tiny percentage of energy usage in the United States.
“That’s where education comes in,” Slifko said. “Our job is to get the information out: the technology’s there, the research and development is there. We might not be ready to slap up a solar panel on every single house in this country, but clearly at some point in time, every person’s going to have to play a part in this.”
To Vick working at the Xunlight plant, the future for the solar industry, and his job, looks bright.
“This is going to be big,” he said, confidently. “I’ll retire from here, there’s no doubt.”

Nestled in an ordinary brick office building at Secor Road and West Central Avenue, eight employees sit behind their desks, sifting through photographs of celebrities and plotting the latest gossip.
“I know more than most 13-year-old girls. I can tell you what Zach Efron is doing; I don’t want to be able to, but I can,” said Brad Mandell, chief executive officer of GossipGirls.com.
GossipGirls.com began in 2003 by a network of girls in Los Angeles and Indianapolis, Mandell said. They followed entertainment news as a hobby. Brand Technologies Inc., a company started by Mandell, his brother Zach and father Steve, purchased GossipGirls.com in 2006 and officially took over the site Jan. 7, 2007. Mandell said they made the purchase after researching and deciding entertainment news was the “hottest place to be.”

Brad Mandell

GossipGirls.com operates out of Toledo, with only salespeople in Los Angeles, and receives 1.5 million views a day, up from the 15,000 daily visits it received before the site was swallowed by Brand Technologies.
“We enjoy Toledo, and it’s a great place, surprisingly, to run this sort of business,” said Craig Ryerson, business development director of GossipGirls.com.
The company employs five St. John’s Jesuit High School grads and the Mandell family is from Toledo.
According to Alexa.com, a Web information company, GossipGirls.com is the 9,630-most-trafficked site on the Internet. Celebrity-gossip.net, the original URL of GossipGirls.com that serves as a blog, is ranked 3,800 — up from 415,000 since Brand Technologies took it over.
Ryerson said GossipGirls.com is updated with 30 articles each day, all produced at the Toledo office. The frequent updating entices visitors to revisit the site, or bookmark it, and comment. All comments are previewed by staff members before going online.
Mandell said they work with 12 of the 13 biggest photography agencies in the country and do not use photos with nudity.
“We try to keep a PG-13 environment on the site,” Mandell said. “We want the parents to think it’s OK to have their kids visit the site.”
Brand Technologies is working on content syndication —working to create a brand for GossipGirls.com and more than a Web site. To reach that point, Mandell said the company is exploring working at the beta level with programs and exploring the best way to get their content out. Users of Amazon.com’s Kindle, a wireless reading device, can receive GossipGirls.com’s news on their Kindles.
The Toledo office also has a green screen for producing video and TV clips. Mandell said they will be launching a new Web site devoted to celebrity news video clips. It is all part of Brand Technologies’ syndicating GossipGirls.com’s content, he said.
“Even though we are in celebrity gossip, our history is Internet and technology,” he said.

At the ripe young age of 7, I discovered there was no such thing as the Easter Bunny.
Even though it seems silly, I remember how let down I felt when I saw my Easter basket in the trunk of my father’s car. I didn’t say anything at the time, but the gig was up; there was no Easter Bunny, Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. As truth flooded my 7-year-old mind, skepticism was born.
Our customers have every reason to have this same skepticism as they evaluate our fancy guarantees, promises and unbelievable offers. By definition, an unbelievable offer is, well, unbelievable.
Unbelievable offers do not attract more customers because they lack an essential ingredient – believability.
Recently, retail sales numbers came out and showed a drop instead of the expected gain. The same is true for other business sectors across the world.
As these businesses sit down at their conference tables and brainstorm new ideas to increase sales, many of them will agree that they need to increase the offers that they are advertising or presenting to customers. But these offers will fail if they do not incorporate truth telling.
Why do businesses increase their offers, trump up their guarantees or make aggressive promises? Simple: They are trying to break through the clutter in an aggressive marketplace. The fastest ways to grab a bigger piece of the pie and cut through the clutter like a hot knife through butter are truth telling, transparency and thoroughness.
If you understand that unbelievable offers are born out of the need to grab attention, then you can logically agree that the real way to grab attention is to do what others are not doing: telling the truth.
Reframe your sales and marketing conversations in a way that spills your guts; let your thoughts be as transparent as a clear panel of glass, and you’ll find your sales grow with shocking speed.
People spend money with your business when they believe in you, your product and your company. Belief is created with proof – strong, unquestionable, utterly believable proof. Most businesses try to lure customers in with unbelievable offers and only add proof as a subordinate element while trying to close the deal. If you’re looking for a way to give your business or career a real shot in the arm, start the process with the proof.
Prove what you are saying by being completely transparent; prove you are an expert by demonstrating your thorough approach to solving the person’s problem with your product or service.
Proof is established when an individual absolutely understands what you are saying to them, and understanding is created when you paint a vivid picture of what success looks like for your customer.
You can create an honest picture of what success looks like by being radically honest as you describe your approach. Go through each step, admit your faults and explain the process you will use if you win the person’s business.
If you are selling machines, explain to them exactly why you are recommending a specific model. Imagine that you are literally allowing them to see your entire thought process. If your intentions are pure, if your passion is real and if your stewardship is strong, your customers will open up, allowing you to have an honest discussion – a discussion that talks about the real issues, the real problems and the real solutions.
Discovering the truth about the Easter Bunny made Santa Claus guilty by mere association. Truth is contagious as well. As you embrace truth telling, its purity permeates everything you say. Embrace truth and you’ll find that your words begin to have the Midas touch; you’ll not only make a ton of sales – you’ll make a ton of friends.

For specific examples of how to work proof elements into your business, go to www.boltfromtheblue.com and enter TRUTH into the Blue Print box.

Tom Richard is a Toledo-based sales trainer, gives seminars, runs sales meetings and provides coaching for salespeople. For more information, visit www.TomRichard.com, call (419) 441-1005 or e-mail  him at tom@tomrichard.com.

For all the talk about going green, chances are most people are more worried about losing their jobs or retirement savings than about saving the planet.
But in an economic climate where penny pinching has become a means of survival, cutting back on consumption of fossil fuels makes increasingly good monetary sense.
Of course, buying a hybrid car or installing solar panels on your house can lead to huge energy savings, as well as a significant boost to your green credentials. But there are much simpler — and cheaper — ways to reduce energy bills and help the environment in the process.
Michelle O-Dell, who runs educational courses on green living at the Green by Design showroom in Bowling Green, says you can shave dollars from your electric and water bills by just changing your habits.
“Turning off lights when you leave a room; shutting down the computer every night; unplugging appliances when they’re not in use; not leaving your cell phone charging overnight … these are small things, but they can add up over time,” O-Dell said.
Homeowners who are willing to invest a little money can make a more significant dent in their monthly energy bills.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a $2,500 investment in home retrofitting can lead to a 30 percent reduction in energy usage. For the average household, that could mean as much as $900 a year in savings.
Measures can include changing old light bulbs to more energy-efficient ones; adding insulation to the attic; installing a programmable thermostat; and sealing off drafty doors and windows with easy-to-find weather-stripping materials. To save water, residents can also install low-flow shower fixtures or aerators on their faucets.
The impact these kinds of home improvements could have on local family budgets is not lost on Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak. Two months ago, she initiated a pilot project to retrofit 11 homes in the area and monitor their savings over the course of two years. The idea, Wozniak said, is to demonstrate to the public how easy and cost-effective greening a home can be.
“Most people I think are intimidated by green makeovers, but we thought this project would encourage people to see that it could be done,” Wozniak said. “We felt that if a person saves money on their energy costs, that in and of itself would be a stimulus to the economy.”
Katrese Sutton said she is delighted so far with the results of the retrofit to her family’s 122-year-old home in Toledo’s South End. She and her husband, Nate, were selected to participate in the program based on a recommendation from the Cherry Street Mission Ministries. Now they have eco-friendly insulation in their attic and compact-fluorescent light bulbs throughout the house. Local firms donated the materials.
“A month after they came, our first gas bill was between $60 and 80 lower,” Sutton said. “This month it’s $100 lower.”
While a portion of those savings can be attributed to the warmer weather, Sutton said the drop in their bills is much larger than expected.
To add to their savings, the family will soon be receiving a programmable thermostat, enabling them to cut down on heating costs when they are out of the house. This one measure can save the average family $180 a year.
“It was education to me,” said Sutton, who’s now thinking about getting energy efficient windows installed. “Our country is moving in this direction and to a lot of people it scares them to think about all the things that need to be done. But this made me realize, it’s a lot more practical than it looks.”
Of course, even small changes to a home require some upfront investment.
To help homeowners with these costs, the recent federal stimulus package provides a 30 percent tax credit on many energy efficient upgrades and appliance purchases. These include energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs and heating and/or cooling equipment

Learn more and save

For more information visit http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits
The bill also provides $300 million for rebates to consumers who replace their appliances with Energy Star products. To find where these incentives are available locally, visit  http://www.energystar.gov and click on ‘”Rebate Finder.”
Some local businesses have pitched in with their own rebates. Columbia Gas is offering a $25 rebate toward programmable thermostats and $10 for low-flow showerheads. The rebates can be found at http://columbiagasohio.com/en/your-home/YourEnergySolutions/SimpleEnergySolutions.aspx.

For homeowners who want to go seriously green, the Ohio Department of Development provides grants of up to 50 percent of the cost toward residential wind and solar installations. Go to http://www.odod.state.oh.us/cdd/oee/elfgrant.htm#NOFA_09-02 for more information.

It was a daunting task for any sportswriter April 9 to not find oneself deep in thought about the tragic death of Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart.
The news came across everyone’s desk in the morning, and as fact after depressing fact came to light, those in the press box realized the stuff they wrote about later that day actually mattered.
Two of Adenhart’s friends, Courtney Stewart and Henry Pearson, died almost instantly at the scene of the accident. Adenhart died at the hospital a few hours later. Another passenger, Jon Wilhite, survived and continues to improve.
The driver who hit the car was 22-year-old Andrew Gallo. He was previously convicted of driving drunk, resulting in a suspended license. And it was believed that he was also under the influence at that time he killed those three young people.
A story like this always reminds me of Michael Gagnon.  I wish it didn’t.
Gagnon, if you remember, is serving a 43-year sentence for five counts of vehicular homicide. On December 31, 2007, the Adrian, Mich., native drove drunk and turned the wrong way on Interstate 280, colliding head-on with a family of seven.
Here’s what always gets me about this story. Gagnon had a designated driver that night — his pregnant sister. They had three rooms reserved at a nearby hotel. But for some reason, Gagnon just left. He even went to a Taco Bell drive-thru, where one of the employees suspected he was drunk and called 911, but stall tactics failed and Gagnon drove  onto I-280.
That was the truly eye-opening part. He had a network of friends, family and good Samaritans in place to try to prevent this from occurring. But it happened regardless.
Hopefully, we can find out what happened to Gallo that night. Who was he with? Does he have friends and family who still support him? Was anyone able to approach him with his alcohol problem or did his loved ones give up on him?
The focus was on Adenhart because the gripping part of this story was that he was the Angels most promising pitcher. He was out with his friends celebrating the game he just pitched, throwing six shutout innings.
But focusing on Gallo’s situation seems to be more practical. Figuring out how to prevent and punish such offenders will be the key to stopping these random and senseless deaths.
I did think of one other recent situation that reminded me of Adenhart: the death of Mario Reyes. Most people don’t know whom this gentleman was, unless they know why Browns receiver Donte Stallworth is in big trouble. Well, “trouble” by athletes’ standards, is probably downplaying the situation.
Stallworth struck and killed Reyes in his car last month in Miami, and reports indicated he had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. He was charged with DUI manslaughter, which is an almost identical crime to the one to which Gagnon pleaded no contest. It’s probably what Gallo will be facing, too.
These are just three examples in which nine people died. There are thousands more. There will probably be another similar fatality tomorrow. But as Los Angeles Dodgers legendary broadcaster Vin Scully said of the Adenhart tragedy, before jumping back to the play-by-play, “There is one thing I’ve learned in all my years — and I haven’t learned much — but the one thing I’ve learned: Don’t even waste your time trying to figure out life.”

To paraphrase Fats Waller, Ruben Studdard has got that right-tickin’ rhythm, man, and it’s on!
The 2003 “American Idol” winner is starring in the 30th anniversary tour of “Ain’t Misbehavin.’ “ He has a new disc due out in May. And he’ll celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary in June.
The 30-year-old said he’s having fun sitting behind the piano and winking at the girls in the musical that pays tribute to that great stride pianist known for his quips and key play.
“I just love [Waller’s] flirtatious side, and I love his ability to just be everything to all people. He can be serious at a particular point, and strong and loving at some points, and sad at others,” he said. “It’s a really good play. The music is really wonderful, and I really enjoy doing it every day.”

Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis.

Studdard was familiar with Waller, but had no idea what a cool cat he was before the show.
“I only heard a few of his songs, of course, ‘This Joint Is Jumpin,’ ‘ ‘Ain’t Misbehavin,’ ‘ ‘Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,’ but not to the extent of knowing all of them for the play,” he said during a phone interview en route to a performance in Kentucky. “I was a fan of the songs that I knew prior to signing on to this production.”
Studdard, along with former “American Idol” contestant Frenchie Davis, will take the stage of the Valentine Theatre when “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” comes to Toledo for a 7 p.m. show April 26. Tickets are $59, $49 and $39.
As the tour winds down, the star is gearing up for the release of his fourth disc, “Love Is,” which he worked on with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
“Every day I went to the studio, I felt like I was living this out of a dream,” Studdard said of collaborating with Jam and Lewis. “I remember growing up watching them on the Grammys and saying one day I was going to work with guys like that, and then just to be in their presence was just amazing. And they’re so down to earth, friendly and welcoming.”
Jam and Lewis helped Studdard pick out a few songs to cover; he sings Extreme’s “More Than Words” and Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It.” The collection of love songs also features originals.
“I wrote a song with Terry called ‘A Song for Her,’ which is a song I wrote for my wife, talking about how I feel in the relationship and how excited I am about being in love, being married,” the singer gushed. “It’s a wonderful song.”
Studdard said the story about how he met his wife, Surata, is true. He was signing autographs at a store in Atlanta in 2006, and she came in to wait in line for her best friend who had to work.
When it was her turn, she explained that to the singer; he asked what she thought of him and she said, “You’re alright.”
Last June, the two married.
“I got a chance to see my wife yesterday and it’s always great to come home and know that there’s somebody there that loves you for you,” he said. “I’m blessed.”
“A Song for Her” and the new single, “Together,” can be heard at the Web page www.myspace.com/rubenstuddard.

Next Resins recently opened its new corporate headquarters and expanded facilities in Sylvania Township.
Rajiv Naik, owner and president of Next Resins, was looking for a location to establish a headquarters office and expand his plastic recycling business, which operates in Addison and Tecumseh, Mich., and in Fayette and Columbus. Addison was the former headquarters.

Rajiv Naik, president of next resins, explains how the recycled plastic is tested for tensile strength and other elements to Brian Bilger of LCIC and Jerry Malek of CB Richard Ellis.

As a resident of Sylvania Township, Naik passed the former Reichert Stamping facility on West Central Avenue at Centennial Road on his way to Michigan. The building was vacant since Reichert Stamping closed in 2004.  One day, he decided to check out the property as a possible site for his business.
He connected with Jerry Malek, vice president of CB Richard Ellis|Reichle Klein, about the property.
“It took one year to negotiate and complete the purchase of the property from Reichert Stamping,” said Malek, who served as the commercial broker representing the buyer.
“The project was made possible through the proactive efforts of CB Richard Ellis, an RGP investor, who contacted the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP). We simply brought the necessary partners together to help make the project a reality,” said Dean Monske, vice president of RGP.
Those partners included the Lucas County Improvement Corporation (LCIC), Lucas County Commissioners, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, Sylvania Township, the Ohio Department of Development and RGP.
The LCIC took the lead role in facilitating the financing options at the local and state levels, providing $150,000 in funds through its Link Deposit program and Signature Bank. That funding allowed the state to provide job creation tax credits.
“We just orchestrated the incentives with the county commissioners that helped them obtain additional incentives from the state,” said Brian Bilger, who coordinated it for LCIC.
The port authority helped obtain low-interest financing for $166,000 in new machinery and equipment. Toledo Edison provided rate incentives and technical assistance related.
“The benefit to our company was that I went to RGP and they brought all these other resources to the table to make the project happen,” Naik said, who also considered locations in Southeast Michigan. “I received good incentives to locate in Ohio.”
Naik relocated his company’s headquarters, a full-scale research laboratory, final production process and distribution center that occupy 175,000 of the 225,000 square-foot building. The company hopes to lease the remaining space to compatible tenants. The project involved a capital investment of $3.5 million and brought 25 new jobs to the area.
“Our company is fully integrated, going from scrap to finished product,” Naik said. “We now have the pieces in place to make the operation complete.”
Next Resins takes post-industrial plastic material purchased from large processors like Delphi, Lear and Visteon. It grinds the plastic, analyzes and reprocesses it to create engineer-grade resin compositions sold to injection-molding companies that serve the automotive, electrical, furniture and other industries.
“We’re still in a positive growth mode and expect to see more growth when the economy turns around,” Naik said. “We look to serve local plastic injection molding companies.”
Naik established the business in 1996 in Addison and added facilities in Tecumseh, Fayette and Columbus.
A new business occupying a prime building with significant space offers great potential for expansion opportunities and serves as a perfect example why the business network is so critical to economic development, according to RGP officials.

Aries (March 21-April 19)
NASCAR driver. Follow through with plans and solidify mutual goals, as you’re positioned to accrue lasting gains this week. Partnerships (of any sort) are an ongoing source of learning and development. After Wednesday you’ll ride the tiger of your ambition.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Hissing kitty. A harvest of past efforts leads to a natural progression; you get exactly what you’ve earned. Wants and needs may be identical now, and the new moon intensifies determination to pursue fulfillment. Take a fateful step on Friday – see where it leads.
Gemini (May 21-June 21)
Smiles and tears. Past choices about love, career and lifestyle intersect this week. Wednesday is critical, as external judges make rulings for glory or a penalty box. Some missing information arrives on Friday and helps resolve puzzling questions about others.
Cancer (June 22-July 22)
Impetuous turns. You’ll benefit by being firmly in-step and on the same page with others this week. Keep communications flowing midweek to avoid delays or getting sidetracked on a tangent. You reach new levels of emotional intimacy over the weekend.
Leo (July 23-August 22)
Hopes and regrets. There’s fresh ground under your feet and new challenges ahead, but a few backward glances are unavoidable. Future options start to solidify after Wednesday. As the weekend arrives, confidence is a magnet that attracts who and what you need.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Fountain of life. Past patience is rewarded, and you can work with partners for a secure and stable future. Midweek events sweep you along. Keep your agenda clear so you don’t stray from goals, or allow others to complicate a perfect plan.
Libra (September 23-October 22)
Sleepless in Toledo. Your energy levels are high this week, perhaps too high. An overloaded task list or excessive ambitions can undermine your intentions. Respect physical and financial limits, and ask for help if you need it.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
Garbage in, garbage out. The next two months are focused on processes of healing and working through issues; for better or worse, you chose your partner last week. Commitment on both sides is tested midweek through a blitz of swift events. This is not a rehearsal!
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Dreaming dolphin. The ideas, inventions, and inspirations that spark this week may be a source of long-term prosperity or of a deepening relationship. A new cycle of relating to others starts on Friday. You benefit from dumping preconceived notions at the door.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
Swan song. You may need to say goodbye as the week begins. Career progress, a vacation, or other distinctive movements grab hold midweek and transport you to fresh vistas. Friday is a golden day for interpersonal harmony.
Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
Eagle or dove. Take extra care in preparations; the tools and items you take along are all you’ll have at hand to work with when the pace increases midweek. Good timing and a strong sense of self identity are invaluable assets over the weekend.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Budding ambitions. Other peoples’ personal and professional choices set the tone for your future dealings with them. After Wednesday you’re busy following your own bliss, as fast as humanly possible. Discussions on Friday center on future celebrations and travels.

The Owens Corning building sits as a silent sentinel as the Maumee River flows through Downtown. But what goes on inside the building, with its 950 employees, has been making global headlines all year. The company’s work with oilman T. Boone Pickens, and production of energy-conserving products, is causing a green splash in Washington and the world of fiberglass and building insulation.
Working with T. Boone Pickens
Pickens said he recognizes the importance of the work Owens Corning is doing to improve energy efficiency in buildings. His plan to improve energy efficiency, the Pickens Plan, incorporates Owens Corning’s ideas.
The plan, announced in July, aims to reduce America’s dependency on foreign fuel by encouraging energy efficiency.
Owens Corning has publicly contributed to the plan since the end of March by showing the need for insulation in homes — its specialty — which would decrease the need for heating energy.
“It’s very straightforward: We want to get off foreign oil. All of us working together, we’re going to accomplish that,” Pickens said in an April 14 telephone interview.
Pickens said he met with Owens Corning executives in Dallas last year and after several long meetings, he visited the Owens Corning world headquarters in Toledo in December.

T. Boone Pickens

Frank O’Brien-Bernini, Owens Corning vice president and chief sustainability officer, said Owens Corning is excited to work with Pickens as there is a need in the United States to improve energy efficiency.
“There’s 126 million residences, homes, in the United States. Of those, there’s about 80 million homes that are underinsulated according to what the department of energy says buildings in those areas ought to be insulated to,” O’Brien-Bernini said. “Depending on the building, increasing insulation could give a 20 percent gas bill relief.”
Politically involved
Owens Corning CEO Mike Thaman said it was a hard decision to become politically active and use the company to back the Pickens Plan.
“It’s difficult to measure how much impact you will really have, and you can draw attention to your company in a way that maybe creates more risk than there is benefit,” Thaman said.
However, he saw the need to take a stand and work to improve efficiency in buildings.
“Somebody, some entity, some organization needed to be more aggressive and more out front in trying to create a comprehensive energy policy for the United States,” Thaman said.
After contacting Pickens, Thaman said Owens Corning became involved with the Pickens Plan, adding input on energy conservation. Pickens said Owens Corning’s financial support, and also the support they received through Thaman’s leadership and employees, is “invaluable.”
“They are the key to conservation for us,” Pickens said. “They’ve given us the input we need; they understand the question; they have the materials and all to help with conservation. They were the experts on that question.”
Thaman said Owens Corning reviewed the Pickens Plan and saw the one piece of policy it was missing: energy efficiency in both residential and commercial buildings which consume 40 percent of the energy in America.
“When Boone Pickens came forward with the Pickens Plan, you know, we felt like he had really advanced the ball on a number of fronts,” Thaman said.
“He was very committed to wind energy which we think is far and away the most cost-effective renewable out there today, hopefully down the road, there will be many more renewables as cost-effective.”
Pickens said it is necessary to put an energy-efficiency plan into action.
“We’ve gone 40 years without an energy plan for this country,” Pickens said. “If you go forward 10 years with no plan, you’re going to be paying $300 a barrel and then importing 75 percent of your oil. You know, we’re crazy the way we’re doing it; 85 million barrels of oil are produced every day and we’re using 21 million barrels a day. So, we’re using 25 percent of all the oil produced in the world every day and we have only 4 percent of the population. Something’s out of whack.”
Jay Rosser, spokesman for the Pickens Plan, said an important part of the plan involves renewable energy.
“A key development of his plan is development of renewable energy — what [Pickens] describes as a ‘wind corridor’ from Texas up to Canada, a little bit east of the Rockies,” Rosser said. “You’re going to see massive wind farms develop in that corridor.”
Rosser said the wind corridor will lead to production and manufacturing opportunities for Owens Corning, making Owen Corning’s involvement critical and their relationship deeper.
Time for improvement
“The wonderful thing about one of the big problems being buildings is that a lot of people own one,” O’Brien-Bernini said. “They own their home or live in their apartment or have some ability to impact either through their own decisions about how they consume energy in their home and increase energy efficiency in their home. We like to talk about insulating attics; that’s one of the most cost-effective things you can do to save energy.”
O’Brien-Bernini said home and building owners have two options if they are underinsulated. Low-income owners or occupants can call their state and get connected to the weatherization program. He said the Ohio weatherization program has $394 million to be spent in the next couple years. Owners who are not low-income have the opportunity to purchase insulation for their attics and receive a 30 percent tax credit. All buildings need a 30 to 50 percent insulation increase, depending on when they were built, O’Brien-Bernini said.
“Then you can offset 28 percent of the foreign fuel that we import today,” O’Brien-Bernini said. “That’s the opportunity in this. That all directly translates to greenhouse gas. We talk about 40 percent of the energy in the states; it’s about 43 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from operating buildings — that’s more than transportation, more than industry.”
From T-Town to global
Owens Corning began in Toledo in 1938. It invented several products, such as fiberglass insulation, reinforcements and shingles, Thaman said.
Half of its revenue comes from the United States where its most significant businesses are insulation, roofing and composites, Thaman said. The rest of its revenue comes from outside of the United States; specifically, China, Mexico and Canada, where its composites business reaches “the four corners of the globe.”
“Owens Corning has been around for 70 years, and I think we’re very proud of our history,” he said. “In that history, we’ve been a part of the Fortune 500 since the Fortune 500 was established. We’ve been through world wars and a whole lot of ups and downs in the economy.”
Today, its inventive spirit is geared toward new, efficient products and green ways to manufacture. It also produces a fiberglass material that is used in the blades of wind mills, said Scott Deitz, vice president, corporate media and investor relations.
“If the idea of green existed in 1938, we probably would have had something on the order of ‘we’re green’ in 1938 because it’s now one of our premier products lines, and we’ve been making tremendous improvements,” O’Brien-Bernini said.
“This isn’t a topic just for today, just for 2008 or 2009,” Deitz said. “We often say, ‘A generation from today, our children, our grandchildren might be talking about the fact that the decisions we made today around energy efficiency were really the decisions of our lifetime.’”